Lindbergh Cantata

Young Germany sees the U. S. singing. Composer Ernst Krenek chose a U. S. Negro jazzer for his Jonny Spielt Auf. Another modernist, Kurt Weill, has found inspiration for a new cantata in the Lindbergh flight. Written for the July Festival in Baden-Baden, a drowsy watering place in the Black Forest which has found itself the seat of radical musical experiment, the composer also intends The Lindbergh Flight for radio consumption. The cantata was publicly described last week for the first time.

Childishly simple in conception, couched in free verse, the libretto wallows in German sentimental-realism. Fog, snow, the hum of the motor, the ships at sea are all personified. The hero sings:

"My name is Charles Lindbergh

"I am 25 years old

"My grandfather was a Swede

"My machine have I myself looked after

"It flies 210 kilometers an hour

"Its name is 'Spirit of St. Louis.'"

As the verse proceeds, Lindbergh describes all of his equipment, and his goal. The City of New York asks ships at sea to watch for him. The Empress of Scotland answers that she has sighted him. The fog cries out: "I am the fog, turn about." Lindbergh retorts: "That will I not." The snow storm speaks, says it has tried to destroy him, to bury him in the waters of the Atlantic. A typical passage:

Sleep: "Sleep, Charlie "The strenuous night "Is past, the storm "Is over, sleep only, Charlie, "The wind will carry you through "The wind will carry you through."

Lindbergh: "I shan't sleep, I am not tired."

Sleep: "Only for a minute nod your head "Close your eyes to the steering lever only for a little "Your hand will remain awake."

Composer Weill and Librettist Bertolt Brecht are both 30--three years older than Hero Lindbergh. Weill, a pupil of Busoni, a follower of Debussy, Schoenberg and Hindemith, is a prolific young man. In 1926 his Royal Palace was a sensation at the Berlin Opera. The Protagonist and The Czar Allows Himself to Be Photographed are recent one-act operas based on books by Georg Kaiser. Brecht, called "the German Kipling," is best known for his Die Hauspostille, a book of realistic ballads. The Lindbergh Flight will be broadcast when performed. Friends of the flyer say he will certainly not "listen in.''