Kurt Weill
A previously unknown composition by Kurt Weill was recently discovered in a Berlin archive. The three-page manuscript in the composer’s hand bears the peculiar title ‘Lied vom weißen Käse’ (‘Song of the White Cheese’, lyric by Günther Weisenborn). Weill composed it for his wife, the singer-actress Lotte Lenya, for performance in a political revue produced to benefit unemployed actors of the Berlin Volksbühne in November 1931.
In the 1960s, Lenya made an attempt to find the song, which she remembered under the title ‘Song of the blind maiden’. When her search yielded no results, she lamented the loss of the music: « Nowhere to be found. Probably buried in some basement. » According to Foundation President Kim Kowalke, this vintage, politically engaged song dating from the apex of Weill’s career in Germany, will soon be published and recorded.
