Schenker Correspondence Project

John Petrie Dunn (1878–1931). Scottish pianist, theorist, and writer on music, who studied with Friedrich Niecks at Edinburgh University and later with Samuel de Lange (theory) and Max Pauer (piano) at the Stuttgart Conservatory. In 1909 he was appointed acting director of the Kiel Conservatory but returned to Britain in 1914, serving and being wounded in World War I. After the war, he settled in Edinburgh (Scotland), where he worked as piano teacher and concert artist, later teaching music theory at Edinburgh University 1920–31. His books include Ornamentation in the Works of Chopin (London, 1921).

Though never a pupil of Schenker’s, Dunn became a disciple of his on the basis of his study of Schenker’s writings, and Schenker took pride in the fact that his theory was being taught in Edinburgh. Dunn prepared an abbreviated English translation of Schenker’s Kontrapunkt that remained unpublished.

There survive a copy of one letter from Schenker to Dunn dated July 8, 1928 (OC 30/122–124), eight letters from Dunn to Schenker, 1926–30, and two from Dunn’s widow dated 1931 together with a clipping and typed German translation of D. F. Tovey’s obituary for Dunn in The Scotsman, February 6, 1931 (OJ 10/12 and 10/13). Schenker owned two inscribed portraits, one of John Petrie, one of John Petrie and Aline (OJ 72/4), and a copy of Dunn’s A Student’s Guide to Orchestration [London, 1928] (OC 2/p. 80).

Additionally, Dunn is referred to in letters and diary entries:

OJ 3/5, p. ????, April 22, 1926 (Schenker diary)

OJ 3/5, p. ????, June 20, 1926 (Schenker diary)

vC 9, February 15, 1927 (Schenker to Cube)

OJ 11/54(?), September 18, 1927 (Hoboken to Schenker)

OJ 12/6, [2], February 9, 1928 (Jonas to Schenker)

OJ 4/1, p. 3177, February 10, 1928 (Schenker diary)

vC 15, May 28, 1928 (Schenker to Cube)

OJ 9/34, [13]. July 6, 1928 (Cube to Schenker)/a>