Handwritten letter from Halm to Schenker, undated, probably Nov/Dec 1916] Stuttgart, Lehenstr. 21 Sehr geehrter Herr Professor! Nach einem kurzen Einblick in Ihre Beethoven-Ausgabe [der ich bald genaueres Studium u. eine Besprechung in der Freien Schulgemeinde [in lower margin: (ein Exemplar geht Ihnen vom Verlag Univ-Edition aus zu)] widmen will]1 möchte ich Ihnen meine Freude u. Dankbarkeit ausdrücken. Die Möglichkeit ist mir wohl bewußt, daß Sie dieses u. jenes von mir gelesen haben, was Sie abweisen; auch fühle ich mich dem Grad nach mit Ihrer Bewertung Beethovens nicht eins. Doch meine ich, angesichts unseres, wie ich glaube, gemeinsamen Kunstwillens dürften Urteilsdifferenzen einstweilen zurückstehen hinter der Tatsache, daß wir dieselben Feinde haben, Mit vorzüglicher Hochachtung Durch meinen Verlag lasse ich Ihnen demnächst ein Heft Klavierkompositionen zusenden. © In the public domain; published with the permission of the heirs of August Halm, March 2006. |
Handwritten letter from Halm to Schenker, undated, probably Nov/Dec 1916 Stuttgart, Lehenstrasse 21 Dear Professor, After a brief glance at your Beethoven edition (to which I want to devote more careful study and a review in the Freie Schulgemeinde [in lower margin: (a copy will go out to you from Universal Edition)]), I would like to express to you my delight and gratitude. I am fully aware of the possibility that you have read this and that of mine which you reject. And I do not altogether concur with with your assessment of Beethoven. But with respect to our, as I believe, common artistic volition, I think differences in judgment may for now recede behind the fact that we have the same enemies, are nevertheless strongly in {2} the majority and in respect, and thus have power. Allow me the question whether you would be inclined and might find the time in the near future to take a look at an essay of mine about a new type of piano instruction? I am planning a “piano method” for beginners,2 am looking for a publisher for it, and would request a recommendation for Universal Edition based on your findings. Yours respectfully, I will soon have a volume of piano compositions sent to you by my publisher. © Translation Lee Rothfarb, 2006. |
COMMENTARY: FOOTNOTES: 1 The outer pair of square brackets here are in the original. 2 Halm’s Klavierübung ultimately comprised three volumes: vol. 1, Stuttgart, Zumsteeg, 1918; vol. 2, ed. Willi Apel (a former Wickersdorf student of Halm), 1932; vol. 3 (unpublished). SUMMARY: © Commentary, Footnotes, Summary Lee Rothfarb, 2006
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