Schenker Correspondence Project

Handwritten letter from Halm to Schenker, dated March 18, 1917

Stuttgart, 18.III.17.
Lehenstr. 21

Sehr geehrter Herr Professor!¹

Ich glaube, was uns hauptsächlich unterscheidet, ist Ihr Glaube an das Genie u. seine Vollkommenheit.² So oft ich Ihnen recht gebe, wenn Sie einen windigen Angriff zurechtweisen, so habe ich doch den Eindruck, daß Sie den Angriff an sich schon zu tadeln versucht sind.—Wenn Sie schreiben daß gewisse Züge in Bruckners Symphonien Sie abhalten, diesen den höchsten Rang zuzuweisen, so bin ich zwar aufrichtig begierig darauf, näher zu erfahren, was Sie meinen (was Sie ja auch in Aussicht stellen), aber nicht weiter erstaunt. Nur könnte ich in Beehovens Symphonien vielleicht noch mehr finden als Sie in Bruckner, von Brahms zu {2} schweigen, dessen wirkliche Meisterschaft mir sehr zweifelhaft—nur kann ich darüber nicht öffentlich sprechen, da ich ihn hiefür nicht genügend kenne, u. nur, um über ihn sprechen zu können, will ich auch nicht studieren. Er zieht mich nur in ^ganz vereinzelten Werken an.

Im ganzen glaube ich, daß er ein Opfer der Sonatenform u. ihrer Herrschaft war.³

Aber Sie haben mich schon in Ihrer Beethovenausgabe auf so manches aufmerksam gemacht, was mir entgangen war, daß ich Ihren Ausführungen jedenfalls mit Freude u. Spannung entgegensehe, auch bei anderer innerer Richtung.—Die Universal-Edition will jetzt nichts von mir u. gibt mir anheim, nach dem Krieg wieder anzufragen.

{3} Ihren Gruß an Dr. Grunsky kann ich nicht bestellen; wir sind persönlich schon seit einigen Jahren auseinandergekommen, durch sein Parteiergreifen u. die Art seines Kämpfens in einem Konflikt innerhalb Wickersdorfs, ^wo an dem ich damals unterrichtete.⁴

Mit vorzüglicher Hochachtung
begrüße ich Sie. [ sign’d: ] August Halm

© In the public domain.
© Transcription Lee Rothfarb, 2006.

Handwritten letter from Halm to Schenker, dated March 18, 1917

Stuttgart, March 18, 1917
Lehenstraße 21

Dear Professor,¹

I believe what differentiates us primarily is your belief in the genius and its perfection.² As often as I grant that you are right when you rebuke a windy attack, I do have the impression that you are tempted actually to censure the attack in itself. —When you write that certain characteristics in Bruckner’s symphonies hold you back from granting them the highest rank, I am genuinely eager to find out more precisely what you mean (which you also allude to), but am not further surprised. Only in Beethoven’s symphonies could I perhaps find even more than you in Bruckner, {2} let alone Brahms, whose genuine mastery is for me very doubtful—only I cannot speak about it publicly because for that I do not know his music sufficiently, and I do not want to study just to be able to speak about him. He attracts me only in very occasional works. On the whole, I believe he was a victim of sonata form and its sovereignty.³

But in your Beethoven edition you have brought to my attention various things that had escaped me, so that in any case I look forward to your comments with joy and excitement, even though with a different orientation.—Universal Edition does not want anything from me now, and suggests that I inquire again after the war.

{3} I cannot convey your greeting to Dr. Grunsky; some years ago we went our separate ways owing to his taking sides and the manner of his fighting in an internal conflict at Wickersdorf, ^where at which I taught at the time.⁴

With kind regards
and greetings, [ sign’d: ] August Halm

© Translation Lee Rothfarb, 2006.

COMMENTARY:
Format: 3-p letter, holograph message and signature
Sender address: Stuttgart, Lehenstraße 21
Recipient address: --

FOOTNOTES:

¹ Hellmut Federhofer transcribes this entire letter in Heinrich Schenker: Nach Tagebüchern und Briefen ... (Hildesheim: Olms, 1985), 135–136. He transcribes it a second time in “Anton Bruckner im Briefwechsel von August Halm–Heinrich Schenker,” Anton Bruckner: Studien zu Werk und Wirkung, ed. Christoph Hellmut Mahling (Tutzing: Schneider, 1988), 34–35. He had originally cited and transcribed a short, concluding passage from it in the article “Heinrich Schenkers Bruckner Verständnis,” Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 39/3 (1982), 209. The passage he transcribed there is the one in which Halm explains to Schenker that he cannot convey a greeting to Grunsky because they drifted apart several years earlier.

² H mentions this difference in his essay “Heinrich Schenker,” Die Freie Schulgemeinde 8 (1917–18), 14, reprinted in Von Form und Sinn der Musik, 273. I cite this statement in my essay “August Halm on Body and Spirit in Music,” 19th Century Music 29/2 (Fall 2005), 121–41.

³ H makes a similar remark about Brahms as victim of sonata form in some handwritten notes, possible for his book Bruckner: “Brahms als Opfer der Sonatenform, Bruckner als Meister der Symphonie” (Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Halm estate papers, protocol 69.446, folder 3). In Die Symphonie Anton Bruckners (Munich: Müller, 1914), 81, H calls the composer the “greatest artist of form in general,” the “synthesizer par excellence among composers of sonata form.” Near the end of the book (p. 203), he calls Bruckner a “master of form.” He writes the same of Beethoven in Die Symphonie Anton Bruckners, 22, and in Von zwei Kulturen der Musik, 156.

⁴ H was one of the founders in 1906 of a boarding school at Wickersdorf, near Saalfeld, the so-called Freie Schulgemeinde Wickersdorf (FSG), and taught there up until 1910, and then again from 1920 up until his death in 1929.

SUMMARY:
Discusses their differences of opinion over genius, and the music of Bruckner, Beethoven, and Brahms. Gives credit to S's "Beethoven edition." Cannot convey S's greeting to Grunsky.

© Commentary, Footnotes, Summary Lee A. Rothfarb 2006

Rothfarb, Lee
Halm, August
Discusses their differences of opinion over genius, and the music of Bruckner, Beethoven, and Brahms. Gives credit to S's "Beethoven edition." Cannot convey S's greeting to Grunsky.
DE
Cambridge University Faculty of Music-Ian Bent
IPR: In the public domain; Transcription, Translation, Commentary, Footnotes, and Summary: Lee Rothfarb 2006.
Halm, August; Schenker, Heinrich; genius; Bruckner; Beethoven; symphonies; sonata form; Brahms; LfS; Die letzten fünf Sonaten Beethovens; Beethoven's Five Late Sonatas; UE; Grunsky, Carl; Wickersdorf; conflict
Handwritten letter from Halm to Schenker, dated March 18, 1917
letter
academic; musicology; music theory
OJ 11/35, 4
1917-03-18
2006-03-06
Halm
This document is deemed to be in the public domain as of January 1, 2000, and is published with the agreement of the heirs of August Halm 2006.
holograph message and signature
Schenker, Heinrich (1917-1935)--Schenker, Jeanette (1935-c.1942)--Ratz, Erwin (c.1942-c.1955)--Jonas, Oswald (c.1955-1978)--University of California, Riverside (1978--)
IPR: In the public domain; Image: University of California, Riverside; Transcription, Translation, Commentary, Footnotes, and Summary: Lee Rothfarb.
Stuttgart
1917