The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent

[2] Brecht's programme note described the work as unfinished and as the "product of various theories of a musical, dramatic and political nature aiming at the collective practice of the arts".

[3] The 50-minute piece was conceived as a multi-media performance, including scenes of physical knockabout clowning, choral sections and a short film by Carl Koch, Dance of Death, featuring Valeska Gert.

Brecht approached Schott directly and it was from the publisher that Hindemith learned of the demanded changes in the text, which he was not interested in setting to new music.

[13] In two letters to his wife,[14] Hindemith observed that the scene was better spoken than played [acted] and, later, that with neither clowns nor film "the piece is beautiful and has the effect of an old classic."

Brecht for his part objected to Hindemith's conception of Gebrauchsmusik which leaned toward Gemeinschaftsmusik or Hausmusik,[15] that is, communal music written for the use of the players, in the case of Lehrstück an orchestra of amateurs who were advised to freely make cuts according to circumstances.