Dessau, Paul (1894–1979)

German composer. His work includes incidental music to Bertolt Brecht's theatre pieces; an opera, Der Verurteilung des Lukullus/The Trial of Lucullus (1949), also to a libretto by Brecht; and numerous choral works and songs.

From 1910 he studied at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin and later in Hamburg, where in 1913 he became a coach at the opera. In 1933 he went to Paris, France, where he studied Schoenberg's serial method with René Leibowitz. He conducted all over Germany, but was forced to leave and in 1939 went to New York, USA. He collaborated with Brecht from 1942, when they met as political exiles in the USA, returning with him to East Berlin in 1948.

Works Opera Das Verhör des Lukullus (1949; produced 1951), Puntila (1959; produced 1966), Lanzelot (1969), Einstein (1973), Leonce und Lena (1979); children's operas Das Eisenbahnspiel, Tadel der Unzuverlässigkeit.

Other concertino for solo flute, clarinet, horn, and violin; a piano sonata; much vocal and orchestral music, film and incidental music.