Schenker Correspondence Project

Handwritten letter from Maximilian Harden to Schenker, undated

[Printed header:]
DIE ZUKUNFT
HERAUSGEBER: MAXIMILIAN HARDEN.

[decorative rule]

Sehr geehrter Herr,

Minnas Zofe sagt daß man am liebsten von den Eigenschaften spricht, die man nicht hat.¹ Warum also soll Herr Bahr,² dieses routinirte Nichts, nicht von „Empfindung“ und „Leidenschaft“ schwärmen und die Routine verdammen? Dabei ist nichts zu verwundern. Franziska,³ noch besser Dortchen Lakenreißer⁴ hat ihn charakterisirt. („Weil Ihr einer armen Hure u.s.w.“)⁵

Ich fürchte, ich werde Ihrem Artikel⁶ nicht leicht Raum schaffen können. Wenn Sie aber die Güte haben, ihn zu senden, will ich Ihnen gleich meine Ansicht sagen.

Mit besten Grüßen aus qualvoller Hitze
[ sign’d: ] Harden

© Permission applied for.
© Transcription William Pastille 2006.

Handwritten letter from Maximilian Harden to Schenker, undated

[Printed header:]
DIE ZUKUNFT
PUBLISHER: MAXIMILIAN HARDEN.

[decorative rule]

Dear Sir,

Minna’s chambermaid says that people most enjoy talking about qualities they don’t possess.¹ So why shouldn’t Herr Bahr,² that proficient non-entity, extol “sensibility” and “passion” and condemn proficiency? There is nothing remarkable in it. Franziska,³ or even better, Doll Tearsheet⁴ sketched his character well. (“For [...] a poor whore’s etc.”)⁵

I’m afraid I won’t easily be able to make space for your article.⁶ If you would be so kind as to send it, however, I will give you my opinion straight away.

With best regards from the depths of distraction,
[ sign’d: ] Harden

© Translation William Pastille 2006.

COMMENTARY:
Format: 1p letter, half-sheet, printed header, holograph message and signature
Sender address: --
Recipient address: --

FOOTNOTES:

¹ Minna is the title character in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s 1767 comedy Minna von Barnhelm. The passage Harden has in mind occurs in Act II, Scene 1, where the maid says to her mistress, “Man spricht selten von der Tugend, die man hat; aber desto öftrer von der, die uns fehlt.” (“We seldom talk about virtue we possess, but more often about the virtue we lack.”)

² Hermann Bahr (1863-1934), a prolific music and theater critic who wrote for many leading magazines, and was an editor of the Viennese magazine Die Zeit, held an extremely progressive aesthetic of continual artistic revolution against existing styles, for which view Harden dubbed him the “Man of The-Day-After-Tomorrow” (“der Mann von Übermorgen”). [create biogfile and link]

³ Franziska is the name of Minna’s maid in Lessing’s Minna von Barnhelm.

⁴ Dortchen Lakenreißer is the German equivalent of Doll Tearsheet in the translation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part II by August Wilhelm Schlegel (1867-1845).

⁵ The passage indicated by Harden, from Henry IV, Part II, Act II, Scene 4, lines 1398-1406, is Doll Tearsheet’s response to Mistress Quickly’s use of the title “captain” in reference to the scoundrel Pistol:

Doll Tearsheet. Captain! thou abominable damned cheater, art thou not ashamed
to be called captain? An captains were of my mind, they would
truncheon you out, for taking their names upon you before you
have earned them. You a captain! you slave, for what? for tearing
a poor whore’s ruff in a bawdy-house? He a captain! hang him,
rogue! he lives upon mouldy stewed prunes and dried cakes. A
captain! God’s light, these villains will make the word as odious
as the word “occupy;” which was an excellent good word before it
was ill sorted: therefore captains had need look to’t.

⁶ The article in question is uncertain.

SUMMARY:
Harden casts aspersions on Hermann Bahr. — Advises that he probably won’t have room to publish one of Schenker’s articles, but requests that Schenker send it for his review.

© Commentary, Footnotes, Summary William Pastille, 2006

Pastille, William
Harden, Maxilimian
DE
Cambridge University Faculty of Music-Ian Bent
Harden, Maximilian; Schenker, Heinrich; Minna von Barnhelm; Lessing; Bahr, Hermann; Shakespeare; Henry IV, Part II; article; publication
Handwritten letter from Harden to Schenker, undated
OJ 11/42, [A]
undated
2006-12-07
Harden
Permission to publish on this website applied for
Schenker, Heinrich (189?-1935)--Schenker, Jeanette (1935-c.1942)--Ratz, Erwin (c.1942-c.1955)--Jonas, Oswald (c.1955-1978)--University of California, Riverside (1978--)
IPR: under investigation; Image: University of California, Riverside; Transcription, Translation, Footnotes, Commentary: William Pastille.
Berlin
189?