Schenker Correspondence Project

Diary entry by Schenker, in Jeanette’s hand, dated January 25, 1909

25. I. 1909 Ich treffe Heuberger, der mir unter anderem auch von der besonderen Schätzung seitens Direktor Bopps erzählt. Er spricht den Wunsch aus, gelegentlich mit mir am Abend irgendwo zusammenzutreffen, um über allerlei theoretisches zu plaudern. Wir geraten inzwischen vor dem Hotel Imperial in einige Themen wobei ich bemerke, daß mir Heuberger, selbstverständlich mit der Pretention eigener Entdekung meine[ r ] Theorien über Mischung, KirchenTonarten u.s.f. ins Gesicht geradeaus erzählt! Mir was indessen seit langem bekannt, daß H. das Exemplar Bopps leihweise über ein halbes Jahre besaß. Doch habe ich dieser Kenntnis durchaus nicht bedurft. Bei dem notorischen Ehrgeiz H., von dem ebenso witzig als boshaft Brahms einmal meinte, “daß er sich bald um jede Stelle ausgenommen die Portierstelle am Conservatorium bewerben habe,“ — war es höchst einfach zu deduzieren, daß er wohl selbst mit den Theorien herausgerückt wäre, wenn sie ihm vor der Lektüre meines Buches nur irgendwie bekanntgewesen waren.

Um nun Humor¹ in die Situation zu bringen, habe ich jedesmal blos in Ruhe {97[a]} erklärt, daß auch ich selbst das in meinem Werke geschrieben hätte. H. verstand die Anspielung u. meinte: „ja, ja, ich habe wohl darin geblättert.“

Signum unserer Zeit: Falsche Scham die Quelle anzugeben, aus der man ir Wissenswertes geschöpft hat; offenbar ist es wieder nur das Genie allein, (z.B. Goethe, Schiller), das mit Dank lernt u. den Anreger beim Namen nennt.

© Heirs of Heinrich Schenker.
© Transcription Ian D. Bent 2005.

Diary entry by Schenker, in Jeanette’s hand, dated January 25, 1909

I run into Heuberger, who wants to tell me, among other things, about the specially high estimation in which Director Bopp [holds me]. He expresses a wish to get together with me somewhere from time to time in the evening, to have a chinwag about all things theoretical. Meanwhile, we fall to chatting about various topics in front of the Imperial Hotel, in the course of which I notice that Heuberger, while naturally affecting to have discovered for himself my theories of mixture, church modes, etc., is talking right into my face!

I had, as it happened, long known that Heuberger had had Bopp’s copy [of my Harmonielehre ] on loan for more than six months. But this information I didn’t actually need. It was as easy as pie to work out, given Heuberger’s notorious ambitiousness of which Brahms once remarked wittily and at the same time maliciously, “that he put in for every job bar that of front porter at the Conservatory,” that he would easily have been able to spout my theories himself since they were known to him merely from reading my book.

So as to bring a lighter note¹ to the situation, I merely quietly {97[a]} told him that I myself, too, had written that in my book. Heuberger understood the innuendo, and said: “Yes, yes, I have indeed glanced through it.”

A sign of our time: False shame in divulging the source from which one has created something “worth knowing.” Yet again, it is clear that genius alone (e.g. Goethe, Schiller) that learns with gratitude and gives its sources by name.

COMMENTARY:
Format: diary entry

FOOTNOTES:

¹ Humor ... zu bringen: Humor does not always mean “humour”: perhaps Schenker meant “So as to bring a note of reality ...”, or perhaps “So as to indicate my anger ...”.

SUMMARY:
Meets Heuberger, who conveys Bopp's respect for him, and spouts S's theories as if they were his own.

© Commentary, Footnotes, Summary Ian D. Bent 2005.

Bent, Ian
Schenker, Heinrich
Meets Heuberger, who conveys Bopp's respect for him, and spouts S's theories as if they were his own.
DE
Cambridge University Faculty of Music-Ian Bent
IPR: Heirs of Heinrich Schenker; Transcription, Translation, Commentary, Footnotes, and Summary: Ian D. Bent 2005.
Schenker, Heinrich; Heuberger, Richard; Bopp, Wilhelm; NMTP I; Harmonielehre; Harmony; Mixture; Church modes; theories
Diary entry by Schenker, dated January 25, 1909
diary entry
academic; musicology; music theory
OJ 1/5, pp.96-97[a]
1909-01-25
2005-10-12
Schenker diary
Cotta
All reasonable steps have been taken to locate the heirs of Heinrich Schenker. Any claim to intellectual rights on this document should be addressed to the Schenker Correspondence Project, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge, at schenkercorrespondence@mus.cam.ac.uk.
holograph diary entry
Schenker, Heinrich (1909-1935)--Schenker, Jeanette (1935-c.1942)--Ratz, Erwin (c.1942-c.1955)--Jonas, Oswald (c.1955-1978)--University of California, Riverside (1978--)
IPR: Heirs of Heinrich Schenker; Image: University of California, Riverside; Transcription, Translation, Commentary, Footnotes, and Summary: Ian D. Bent.
Vienna
1909