Handwritten letter from Elias to Jeanette Schenker dated August 1, 1935 {envelope recto} [bottom-left corner, diagonally:] Land Salzburg [postmark:] || VENT | 2.VIII. [35] | * a * || {envelope verso} {letter} Vent, 1/VIII-35. Liebe Frau Professor! Herzlichen Dank für Ihren lieben Brief.1 Da ich schon lange keine Nachrichten von Ihnen hatte, freute es mich umsomehr, wieder einmal von Ihnen zu hören. Inzwischen hat auch Marianne Kahn2 mir den Brief in welchem Sie ihr die Lösung {2} der Wohnungsfrage mitteilten eingesandt. Da werden Sie ja leider gleich nach Ihrer Rückkehr aus Gastein3 viel Arbeit haben. Recht weh tut es mir zu denken, daß wir die schönen Räume in denen Schenker lebte und schuf nicht mehr sehen werden4 – aber ich begreife Ihren Standpunkt – und in {3} der Erinnerung bleibt ja doch alles unauslöschlich wie es war. Kurz vor meiner Abreise war ich nochmals beim Grabe, da sah ich Ihre schönen Alpenblumen. Bezüglich der Harmonielehre teile ich selbstverständlich Ihre Absicht! Da Kalmus5 sich meldete, muß die Nachfrage nach wie {4} vor groß sein, so[corr] wird er sich hoffentlich entschließen[corr], das Werk unverändert nachzudrucken.6 Verpflichtet ist er ja dazu! Ich denke Willfort7 durfte ihm durch Kabasta8 empfohlen worden sein. Der Plan eines Schenker-Institutes9 hat auch mich sehr überrascht. Daß Sie erst über Leipzig davon erfuhren ist wohl merkwürdig. {5} Vermutlich wurde bisher nur unverbindlich darüber gesprochen, nur so kann ich mir erklären, daß man Sie nicht davon verständigte. Ich bin jedenfalls sehr gespannt, mehr darüber zu hören. Sehr bedauere ich, daß Ungar10 die Aphorismen nicht druckt. Eigentlich hatte er es ja schon {6} angedeutet, aber etwas weniger „verlegermäßig“ hätte er die Rücksendung einer solchen Manuskriptes doch gestalten können. Irolung[?] und Tal11 sind größere Verleger, vielleicht auch weitblickendere! Violin12 hätte ich gerne noch in Wien gesehen. Wir hatten, als ich nach der Besprechung über das Beispiel aus der „Appassionata“ {7} mit ihm nach Hause ging, verabredet, wieder einmal zusammenzukommen. Dazwischen lag nun mein Umzug und der seine. Als ich seine neue Adresse durch Sie erfahren, hatte ich ihm geschrieben. Leider kam meine Einladung zu spät, seiner Abreise wegen sagte er mir ab. Hoffentlich geht es ihm und den seinen in Payerbach13 gut, sie brauchten ja {8} die Erholung dringend. In Vent14 sind die Berge immer gleich schön. Wie traurig, daß sich sonst so viel verändert hat! Ich lese hier eifrig im „Freien Satz“ und fühle mich hiebei in die vergangenen schönen Zeiten zurückversetzt. Es würde mich freuen, bald wieder von Ihnen zu hören. Alles herzliche von © In the public domain. |
Handwritten letter from Elias to Jeanette Schenker dated August 1, 1935 {envelope recto} [bottom-left corner, diagonally:] Salzburg Region [postmark:] || VENT | 2.VIII. [35] | * a * || {envelope verso} {letter} Dear Frau Professor, Sincere thanks for your kind letter.1 Because I have not had any news from you in a long time, it pleased me all the more to hear once again from you. In the meantime Marianne Kahn2 has also sent me the letter in which you informed her of the solution {2} to the dwelling problem. So you will unfortunately have a lot of work right after your return from Gastein.3 It really hurts me to think that we will never again see the beautiful rooms in which Schenker lived and created4—but I understand your point of view—and of course in {3} the memory everything stays as indelible as it was. Shortly before my departure I went once again to the grave, and there I saw your beautiful Alpine flowers. Regarding the Theory of Harmony, I naturally share your view! As Kalmus5 reported, the demand must be great now, {4} as before, so let us hope he will decide to reprint the work unchanged.6 He is obligated to that! I suppose Willfort7 must to have been recommended to him by Kabasta.8 The plan of a Schenker Institute9 has surprised me, too, very much. That you first found out about it by way of Leipzig is really strange. {5} Up until now, it probably had only been spoken about noncommitally; this is the only way I can understand that people did not inform you about it. I am anxious to hear more about that. I am very sorry that Ungar10 will not be printing the Aphorisms. Actually he had already {6} hinted at it, but he certainly might have arranged for such a manuscript to be returned in less of a routine publisher's way. Irolung[?] and Tal11 are larger publishers, perhaps also more far-seeing! I would have liked to see Violin12 in Vienna. We had arranged to get together once again when I {7} went to his house with him after the discussion about the example from the Appassionata. In between then was my move and his own. When I learned of his new address through you, I had written him. Unfortunately my invitation arrived too late: he turned me down on account of his departure. I hope everything is going well with him and his family in Payerbach;13 they needed {8} the rest badly. In Vent,14 the mountains are beautiful, as always. How sad that otherwise so much has changed! Here, I am enthusiastically reading Free Composition and I feel myself taken back to past lovely times. I would love to hear from you again soon. All sincere greetings from © Translation Michaela Rejack 2006. |
COMMENTARY: FOOTNOTES: 1 The letter is not known to have survived. 2 Click on Marianne Kahn. 3 In OJ 10/18, [12], June 28, and OJ 12/6, [45] & [12], June 27, 1935, Jeanette Schenker was at a spa house in Hof Gastein. 4 The Schenkers’ apartment at Vienna III, Keilgasse 8. 5 Alfred Kalmus [create biogfile and link]. 6 According to Robert Wason, the reissuing of Harmonielehre had been under discussion with UE latterly since 1929, with Otto Vrieslander attempting to produce a “student edition” for use by Josef Marx at the Vienna Conservatory. Subsequently, Hans Weisse on October 22, 1935 advocated to Jeanette the production of a “shortened edition,” at a time when (Wason reports) she had declared herself against making any cuts to the work; thus the present letter must represent that latter stage in her thinking. (Wason, “Harmonielehre: The Publication History,” paper delivered at the Fourth International Schenker Symposium, March 17–19, 2006) 7 Manfred Willfort [create biogfile and link], a student of Schenker’s, part of the “seminar” involved in the creation of the Fünf Urlinie-Tafeln (New York: David Mannes Music School, 1932). 8 Possibly either Oswald Kabasta (1896–1946), Austrian conductor, or Hans Kabasta, who was involved with the Radio Verkehrs AG (RAVAG) in 1930. 9 Schenker Institute: identify (not to be confused with the Hamburg Schenker-Institut, which had been closed in 1934); “by way of Leipzig” presumably means from Reinhard Oppel, who was teaching there at the time. 10 Dr. Fritz Ungar, Director of the Saturn Verlag, Vienna, which published Jonas’s Das Wesen des musikalischen Kunstwerks: Einführung in die Lehre Heinrich Schenkers in 1934. He was involved in an earlier proposal for a monthly periodical centered on S’s theory, proposed in December 1927 and rejected by S. Evidently, Jeanette had tried to interest him in publishing some of Schenker’s aphorisms. 11 Irolung und Tal : identify. 12 Click on Moriz Violin. Violin left Hamburg around May 1931, and at some stage left the country. The Appassionata conversation mentioned here is not referred to elsewhere in the Elias correspondence. 13 Payerbach: mountain resort and spa near Semmering, situated between Graz and Melk. 14 Vent is a ski village in the foothills of the Wildspitze mountain, near to Obergurgl and Sölden, in the Ötztal region. SUMMARY: © Commentary, Footnotes, Summary Michaela Rejack 2006
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