David Drew (1930-2009) began studying the life and music of Kurt Weill in the mid-1950s, when he sent the outline of a proposed biography to Weill’s widow, Lotte Lenya. For the next twenty years, Drew and Lenya worked together on a mission to revive Weill’s works and reputation; Drew devoted countless hours to encouraging performances and scholarly attention to Weill’s oeuvre. After Lenya’s death in 1981, he renewed his association with the Kurt Weill Foundation, which he served in several capacities over the years, including director and European representative (1962-1977), member of the Editorial Board of the Kurt Weill Edition (1991-2009), and honorary trustee (2005-2009). He was granted the Foundation’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 1996.

Between 1958 and the end of his life, Drew produced a stream of books, articles, essays, program and liner notes, conference papers and lectures, all designed to demonstrate that Weill was a major twentieth-century composer and to provide rigorously researched and elegantly written studies of his work. Drew offered his own account of his engagement with Weill in the Introduction to Kurt Weill: A Handbook (Faber & Faber, 1987); a full chronicle of his varied career may be found on his website.

Truly the wellspring of Weill scholarship today, Drew’s writings remain essential for anyone with more than a casual interest in the composer’s career. The Kurt Weill Foundation is pleased to present a complete on-line bibliography of his published Weill-related texts. The bibliography has been organized in three different ways: a chronological list (latest writings first), a list organized by genre (books, articles, program notes, etc.) and a list organized by subject (primarily titles of Weill’s works).

In addition to the bibliographies, we plan to present the full text of each item, except for reprints where no revisions were made. Each item will be presented in facsimile (PDF), where possible, and links to the facsimiles will be provided from each bibliography. Drew’s writings remain under copyright, and permission to reproduce them in any form must be obtained from the Estate of David Drew. To point out missing or incorrect information, or a missing entry, please write to wlrc@kwf.org.