Dessau was a close friend of playwright Bertold Brecht. They both emigrated to the United States during the Nazi years in Germany and worked together on various theatrical works, a collaboration that continued after Brecht¹s precipitous return to East Germany the day after he broke with the rest of the "Hollywood Ten" and denied under oath that he was a Communist. Indeed, Brecht¹s stature helped protect Dessau¹s East German career, for the composer¹s modernism was at odds with the cultural authorities of the Communist government.

This is a fourteen-minute piece in three movements, a briefer opening and closing section flanking a more extended one, which treats the theme of "Mother Courage¹s Drinking Song" from Brecht and Dessau¹s "Mother Courage." (This had been written in America in 1946 and was the first Brecht play staged in Germany after the War.) The theme is a used as a cantus firmus, which is gradually submerged in a contrapuntal texture. Thus, the work is not only a memorial to the composer¹s friend, but a reflection on their partnership. The composition is dominated by a descending minor second (frequently used by composers to express grief and similar emotions). It ends with a lonely unison string figure and then a questioning woodwind chord, as if asking "How do I carry on alone?"

© Joseph Stevenson, Rovi