If I had the opportunity to travel back in time, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment: I would choose the age of the Roaring Twenties. This time is marked by a rapid technological process, socioeconomic upheavals, feminist movements, and much artistic experimentation and innovation. However, what fascinates me the most are the artists who lived and were involved in cultural changes during this era.

Possibly, the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno shared my opinion, as he mentioned in an interview the importance of several artists:

“[…] the Golden Twenties, as the Americans say. For us, the association with Berlin almost always comes up immediately. […] The twenties, that is America’s famous lost generation. This is Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein, this is the young Faulkner and the young Hemmingway […]. But this is also Brecht, Döblin, the first strong impact of Kafka. This is Kurt Weill, this is Virginia Woolf and Aldous Huxley.”

Frisé, Adolf [Moderator]: Adorno/Lenya: Die Zwanziger Jahre. Legende und Ärgernis, Hessischer Rundfunk, 1960 (orig. German, translation by myself). Find the whole interview on: UbuWeb Sound – Theodor Adorno.

As I found out, this conversation was part of an interview series for the radio in Germany where Adorno discussed sociological issues during the interwar and postwar period. In this part, Adorno and his interlocutors talked about the era of the Golden Twenties, including several movements in cultural life and the music scene as well as changes in the interactions of composers and performers.

When I found this source on YouTube, I got very excited for many reasons. It’s always a great feeling for me to engage with old documents, particularly with recordings, because through somebody’s voice and their (personal) report, I can get a different insight into (their) history. Furthermore, it has been of huge interest insofar as I attended a master’s seminar within my musicological studies where we dealt with Berlin’s cultural scene in the 1920s. Within this course, I had the pleasure to introduce an artist hardly anyone knew, but I did because I was practicing some songs for a concert, that this artist once sang. However, I was excited because not only Adorno was involved in the abovementioned discussion, but also the artist I was researching: Lotte Lenya (1898–1981).

Lotte Lenya never had any singing lessons but was enormously successful with her voice. Many songs of the well-known duo Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht became famous all over the world thanks to her extraordinary interpretations. Thus, I invite you to go on a time travel with me through the upcoming posts to present you this legendary singer.

Stay tuned! (see Part 2: “From Vienna to Berlin”)

---

---

---