Handwritten letter from Cube to Schenker, dated March 26, 1929 Duisburg am 26.III.29. [left: pen drawing, captioned: Dr. EDUARD KREUZHAGE.] Eigenartig ist, dass im Augenblick, da ich zu schreiben beginne, aus meines Vaters grossem Empfänger Händel’s “Judas” laut und rein ertönt, als sässe ich selber im grossen Musikvereinssaal in Wien. Ich {2} kann mir also einbilden, dass ich mit meinen Gedanken nicht weiter, als von der Lothringerstrasse, den Rennweg hinunter bis zu Ihnen reisen müsste.1 Dabei sitze ich in Duisburg, und die Welle zaubert mir Wien, den Musikvereinssaal und den Maccabäei direkt ins Haus. Die Technik hat doch enorme Fortschritte gemacht; die Wiedergabe mit unserem Gerät ist so vollkommen, dass es beinahe etwas unheimliches hat. – Die beiden Karikaturen auf der ersten Seite stellen meine Komponierkollgen vor, mit denen ich letzten Freitag einen äusserst gut gelungenen Abend veranstaltet habe. Die einliegenden beiden Rezensionen (Kommentar überflussig) bedeuten einen Höhepunkt an interessierter Ausführlichkeit wie ihn sich die hiesigen Kritiker noch selten geleistet haben. Wir haben einiges Aufsehen verursacht, {3} und die Duisburger Kunstkreise mit neuem Gesprächsstoff versorgt. – Im Mai beginnt meine zweite Vortragsserie an der Hochschule in Köln.2 Ich danke Ihnen sehr für die, mir vom “Kunstwart” übersandte Ausgabenabhandlung;3 da einer der Vorträge in Köln von diesen Dingen handeln wird, kam das Heft zu guter Zeit. Bis jetzt habe ich sechs Stimmführungsbilder erläutert. Darunter selbstgefertigte. Nun kommt als nächstes die Fuge aus Jahrbuch II. an die Reihe,4 später dann Konfrontationen “neuester” und alter Meister, wobei die Urlinie-Taubheit der Hindemiths, Jarnachs, Bartòks[sic] etc. erwiesen werden soll.5 Die erste Vortragsreihe hat ziemlich eingeschlagen. Alle, die den Mut hatten mitzuarbeiten, – es waren {4} kaum dreissig von hundert am Anfang – waren überzeugt und begeistert. Ein sehr gemütlicher Discussionsabend behob noch versteckte Zweifel.. Braunfels6 steht der Sache fördernd gegenüber. Eine Reihe Professoren hingegen opponiert und erschwert mir die Sache. Wieweit ein engerer Anschluss an Köln in Frage kommen könnte, weiss ich noch nicht. – Darf ich mir die Kritiken gelegentlich zurückerbitten, ich habe nur noch diese beiden. Sobald ich in Köln wieder angefangen habe, schreibe ich wieder. Für heute die besten Grüsse Ihnen und Ihrer Frau Gemahlin, sowie Hoboken, [7] von [in bottom left corner:] © Heirs of the Felix-Eberhard von Cube, published with kind permission. |
Handwritten letter from Cube to Schenker, dated March 26, 1929 Duisburg, March 26, 1929 [left: pen drawing, captioned: Dr. EDUARD KREUZHAGE.] Most honoured master, How strange it is that, at the moment I begin to write this letter, Handel’s Judas Maccabeus can be heard so loudly and clearly from my father’s big receiver that it is as if I were myself sitting in the great hall of the Vienna Musikverein. I {2} can thus imagine that, for me and my thoughts to reach you, I only have to travel from Lothringerstrasse down the Rennweg.1 At present I am sitting in Duisburg, and the radio waves magically bring Vienna, the hall of the Musikverein, and the Maccabeans right into the house. The technology has indeed made enormous progress; the quality of the sound of our apparatus is so perfect that there is almost something uncanny about it. The two caricatures on the first represent my composer colleagues, with whom I organized an extremely successful evening last Friday. The enclosed reviews (commentary is unnecessary) signify a high point in the explicit expression of interest, as the local critics have only seldom achieved. We have created a bit of stir {3} and provided the artistic circles in Duisburg with something to talk about. My second series of lectures at the conservatory in Cologne2 begins in May. Thank you for the article on editions in Der Kunstwart,3 which you arranged to have sent to me; since one of my lectures in Cologne is on the subject of these things, the volume arrived at an opportune time. Up to now, I have elucidated six voice-leading graphs, including some that I prepared myself. Next it will be the turn of the Fugue from Das Meisterwerk in der Musik, vol. 2;4 later I will compare the latest masters with the old ones, by which I hope to show that the Hindemiths, Jarnachs and Bartóks are deaf to the Urlinie.5 The first series of lectures turned out rather well. All those who had the initiative to take part [in working on the pieces I set] – these comprised {4} barely thirty out of one hundred at the beginning – were convinced and inspired. A very agreeable evening of discussion dispelled further doubts. Braunfels6 is very supportive of the matter. A series of professors, however, are opposed to it, and make things difficult for me. How far a closer liaison with Cologne might materialize is something I do not yet know. May I ask you to return the reviews, when you have the opportunity? These two are the only ones I have. As soon as I start again in Cologne, I will write to you again. For today, best greetings to you and your wife, and also to Hoboken,7 from [in bottom left corner:] © Translated by William Drabkin |
COMMENTARY: FOOTNOTES: 1 Cube is tracing the steps he would have taken to get from his lodgings to his lesson with Schenker; Schenker’s flat was in the Keilgasse, a small street parallel to Fasangasse, which ran south off the Rennweg. 2 Cube’s first series of lectures at the Cologne Conservatory began on November 28, 1928; these are referred to in several letters from fall of 1928. fn.3 The nearest article, chronologically, referred to in the Schenker scrapbook (OC 2) is by Alexander Berrsche, “Ein Gespräch zum Schubert-Gedenktag,” which was published in the November 1928 issue of Der Kunstwart and mentions Schenker’s writings. (There is no mention of an article specifically about editions, but Schenker’s essays on Schubert include a text-critical study of one of the early songs.) 4 The C minor fugue from Book 1 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. The analysis forms the major part of the essay “Das Organische der Fuge” in Das Meisterwerk in der Musik, vol. 2. 5 Cube expended a considerable amount of effort in demonstrating the supposed poverty of modern music, and did so against Schenker’s explicit advice. The composer Philipp Jarnach (1892–1982) was an early victim of one such demonstration; later, as director of the Hamburg Conservatory, Jarnach prevented Cube from obtaining a teaching post there. 6 Walter Braunfels (1882–1954) [create biogfile], German composer and pianist. In 1925, he established the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, and remained its director until forced out of office in 1933. 7 Click on Anthony van Hoboken. 8 Gerhard Albersheim [create biogfile and link] was a pupil of Schenker’s in the late 1920s. See vC 20, October 8, 1928, and vC 21, November 20, 1928. 9 When Schenker heard that Cube was to lecture in Cologne, he asked him to get in touch with his former pupil Felix Hupka [create biogfile and link], then the musical director of the Cologne Opera, and the parents of one of his current pupils, See vC 20, October 8, 1928, and vC 21, November 20, 1928. SUMMARY: © Commentary, Footnotes, Summary William Drabkin 2006
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