« Heyer Musikhistorisches Museum, Cologne | Main | Roth, Herman »

Dahms, Walter

Dahms, Walter (1887-1973). German writer on music. He was music critic of the Kleines Journal (1912) and the Neue Preussische Kreuz-Zeitung, and wrote for, among other publications, the Ostdeutsche Rundschau, the Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung, the Münchner neueste Nachrichtungen, and the Musikus-Almanach, at least between 1913 and 1928. He published biographies Schubert (1912), Schumann (1916), Mendelssohn (1919), and other books include Die Offenbarung der Musik: Eine Apotheose Friedrich Nietzsches (1922), and Musik des Südens (1923).

Dahms became one of Schenker's strongest supporters and advocates. He first came to Schenker's attention in May 1913. His review of Schenker's Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue edition (July 15, 1913) pleased the latter, several other reviews at that time drew attention to Schenker's ideas, and his review of LfS ... 109 "Beethoven redivius", December 31, 1913, and the cordial response from Schenker that it evoked, encouraged him in April 1914 to express the desire (reported in WSLB 202) to move from Berlin to Vienna in order to become a pupil of Schenker. He did study briefly with Schenker's pupil Otto Vrieslander (who was based in Munich) c.1919, but decided to discontinue this and sought Schenker's advice on further study. Schenker regularly arranged for him to receive complimentary copies of his publications, from LfS ... 109 to Meisterwerk III. In 1918, he was involved with Vrieslander, Halm and Hermann Roth in an attempt to launch a Festschrift for Schenker's fiftieth birthday, through UE.

Dahms was conservative in outlook, and applauded Schenker's uncompromising pronouncements on contemporary music and shared his German nationalist and anti-democratic political views (though he disagreed with him hotly over Germany's militarism).

Over 100 letters survive from Dahms to Schenker in OJ 10/1 (1913 to 1931). There are also many references to him in Schenker's diary.

Letters in which he is mentioned (not all of these documents may yet be available on the website):

WSLB 160, June 7, 1913 (Schenker to Hertzka)

WSLB 178, September 5, 1913 (Schenker to Hertzka: complimentary copy)

WSLB 181, September 24, 1913 (Schenker to Hertzka)

WSLB 197, January 4, 1914 (Schenker to Hertzka)

WSLB 198, January 6, 1914 (Schenker to Hertzka)

WSLB 202, April 1, 1914 (Schenker to Hertzka)

OC 52/142, April 2, 1914 (Hertzka to Schenker)

WSLB 227, September 24, 1914 (Schenker to Hertzka: complimentary copy)

OC 52/159, September 25, 1914 (Hertzka to Schenker)

OJ 12/6, [1], February 1, 1928 (Schenker to Jonas)

vC 21, November 20, 1928 (Schenker to Cube)

See also Dahms "Beethoven Redivivus," December 31, 1913

[Baker's (1971); Federhofer, Nach Tagebüchern, communication from John Rothgeb, and other sources]

Dahms, Walter (1887-1973). German writer on music. He was music critic of the Kleines Journal (1912) and the Neue Preussische Kreuz-Zeitung, and wrote for, among other publications, the Ostdeutsche Rundschau, the Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung, the Münchner neueste Nachrichtungen, and the Musikus-Almanach,...

About

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on December 16, 2005 2:41 PM.

The previous post in this blog was Heyer Musikhistorisches Museum, Cologne.

The next post in this blog is Roth, Herman.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

Powered by
Movable Type 3.34