Schenker Correspondence Project

Handwritten letter from Schenker to Cotta, dated April 24, 1908

[ not in Schenker’s hand: ] Schenker

[ in Schenker’s hand: ]
Wien, 24. 4. 08

Sehr geehrter Herr !

Wollen Sie die Freundlichkeit haben, ein Exemplar meiner “Th. u. Ph.“ auf meine Rechnung an das „Archiv der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde“ in Wien zu senden, dessen Archivar, H. Dr. Mandyczewsky mich darum ersucht hat.¹ – Wenn ich bis jetzt das Manuscript des „Contrapunktes“ noch nicht eingesandt habe, so hat dies [ corr ] darin seinen Grund, daß ich plötzlich alle meine Zeit u. Kraft einer II. Auflage eines in der hiesigen „Universal-Edition“ vor nicht langer Zeit erschienenen Werkchens ( „Beitrag zur Ornamentik“ ) zur Verfügung stellen mußte, u. die Veranstaltung eben der II. Auflage durchaus keine Verzögerung erleiden durfte.² In wenigen Tagen kehre ich zum „Cp.“ zurück, wo nur die letzten Bogen zu revidieren sind.

Nur nun eine Bitte um Ihren Rath. H. Dr. Th. v. Frimmel bat mich mehrmals dringend um xxx ^einem ersten eröffnenden Aufsatz des II. Jahrganges seines „Beethoven-Jahrbuches“ (Verlag, G. Müller, München). Für eben diesen Jahrgang {2} bereitet Dr. Frimmel selbst sehr umfassende Auszüge aus meinem 1. Band.³ Ich schlug dem genannten Herausgeber, der
als Beethoven-Forscher vielleicht auch Ihnen bekannt sein dürfte, einen Aufsatz über den Anfang der V. Symphonie von Beethoven ^vor, der im 2. Band meiner „Th. u. Ph.“ im Rahmen eines contrapunktischen Problems seinen bestimmten Platz bereits seit langem inne hat. Nun, kann dieses dem 2. Bande irgend schaden? Oder ist es am Ende von Vorteil, wenn ein Abschnitt aus einem demnächst erscheinenden größeren Werke in einem so regardierten Jahrbuch, wie es das frimmel’sche ist wiedergegeben wird?

Besten Dank im Vorhinein⁴ für alle Mühewaltung.
Mit ausgezeichneter Hochachtung
Ir ergb.
[ sign’d: ] H Schenker

© Heirs of Heinrich Schenker, with the permission of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach, Cotta-Archiv (Stiftung der Stuttgarter Zeitung), Marbach am Neckar.
© Transcription Ian D. Bent 2005

Handwritten letter from Schenker to Cotta, dated April 24, 1908

[ not in Schenker’s hand: ] Schenker

[ in Schenker’s hand: ]
Vienna, April 24, 1908

Dear Sir,

Would you be so kind as to send a copy of my Theories and Fantasies, to be charged to my account, to the Archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. The Keeper of that Archive, Dr. Mandyczewski, has asked me for one.¹ —The reason why I have not yet submitted the manuscript of my Counterpoint is that I was obliged suddenly to put all my time and energy into a second edition of a booklet ( A Contribution to the Study of Ornamentation ) that appeared not long ago from Universal Edition here, and the preparation of this second edition brooked absolutely no delay.² I shall get back to Counterpoint again in a few days’ time; all that is left is to revise the final gatherings.

Now just to ask your advice. Dr. Theodor von Frimmel has several times insistently asked me for a first, opening essay for the second annual volume of his Beethoven-Jahrbuch (published by G. Müller of Munich). For this volume, {2} Dr. Frimmel himself is preparing a very wide-ranging selection of excerpts from my vol. I.³ I proposed to the editor, Dr. Frimmel, who may perhaps be familiar to you as a Beethoven scholar, an essay on the opening of the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven that has long had its designated place in vol. II of my Theories and Fantasies in the context of a contrapuntal problem. Could this in any way damage the chances of vol. II? Or is it ultimately an advantage if a selection from a soon-to-appear larger work is presented in an annual periodical as highly regarded as that of Frimmel?

With many thanks in anticipation⁴ for any trouble this may put you to.
With kind regards,
Yours truly,
[ sign’d: ] H. Schenker

© Translation Ian D. Bent 2005.

COMMENTARY:
Format: holograph letter and signature, 2pp
Sender address: --
Recipient address: --

FOOTNOTES:

¹ S made precisely the same request to UE on August 19, 1908, for a copy of A Contribution to the Study of Ornamentation: WSLB 14. Eusebius Mandyczewski (1857–1929), Romanian musicologist working in Vienna, studied at Vienna University taking courses with Hanslick and Nottebohm, became a friend of Brahms, and was appointed archivist of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. He also taught history of music and organology at the Vienna Conservatory, and was on the administration there. His name is particularly associated with the Schubert collected edition, to which he contributed the ten volumes of Lieder; he was also joint editor of the Brahms collected edition, and contributed three volumes to the Haydn collected edition. ( NGDM ) Some correspondence between S and him exists of a purely businesslike nature.

² This statement accords entirely with the facts. The first edition of Ornamentik was published on July 24, 1903, the second edition on August 24, 1908. The demand for revisions to the work came from Hertzka out of the blue and on a tight schedule on March 24, 1908 (OC 52/383), S agreed on the following day (WSLB 1), and diary entries (OJ 1/5, p.89) report gruelling work during the first week of April; the work went to press on April 8 (Verlagsdruckbuch UE 812.), at which point S reports a nervous condition resulting from the work; after that, S was occupied with proof correcting from mid-April to June 23 (WSLB 9).

³ See CA 75, February 8, for the first reference to this project.

⁴ im Vorhinein: an Austrian expression.

SUMMARY:
[ NMTP I = Harmonielehre:] Complimentary copy to Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Mandyczewski); —[ NMTP II = Kontrapunkt:] Work has been delayed by production of 2nd edn of Beitrag zur Ornamentik, and will resume in a few days; would excerpts appearing in Beethoven-Jahrbuch damage vol. II's chances?

© Commentary, Footnotes, Summary Ian D. Bent 2005.

Bent, Ian
Schenker, Heinrich
[ NMTP I = Harmonielehre:] Complimentary copy to Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Mandyczewski); —[ NMTP II = Kontrapunkt:] Work has been delayed by production of 2nd edn of Beitrag zur Ornamentik, and will resume in a few days; would excerpts appearing in Beethoven-Jahrbuch damage vol. II's chances?
DE
Cambridge University Faculty of Music-Ian Bent
IPR: Heirs of Heinrich Schenker; reproduced here by kind permission of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Cotta-Archiv (Stiftung der Stuttgarter Zeitung), Marbach am Neckar; Transcription, Translation, Commentary, Footnotes, and Summary: Ian D. Bent 2005.
Schenker, Heinrich; Cotta, J. G.; NMTP; vol. I; Harmonielehre; Harmony; Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde; Mandyczewski, Eusebius; vol. II; Kontrapunkt; Counterpoint; Frimmel, Theodor; Beethoven-Jahrbuch; Müller, G; Munich; excerpts; essay; Beethoven; Fifth Symphony; UE; Beitrag zur Ornamentik; Ornamentation; 2nd edn; revision; proofs
Handwritten letter from Schenker to Cotta, dated April 24, 1908
letter
academic; musicology; music theory
CA 76
1908-04-24
2005-08-20
Cotta
All reasonable steps have been taken to locate the heirs of Heinrich Schenker. Any claim to intellectual rights on this document should be addressed to the Schenker Correspondence Project, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge, at schenkercorrespondence@mus.cam.ac.uk.
letter; holograph message and signature
J.G. Cotta’sche Nachfolger/Stuttgarter Zeitung (1908-c.1954); Cotta-Archiv, Schiller-Nationalmuseum, Marbach a. N., Germany (c.1954-)
IPR: Heirs of Heinrich Schenker; reproduced here by kind permission of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Cotta-Archiv (Stiftung der Stuttgarter Zeitung), Marbach am Neckar; Transcription, Translation, Commentary, Footnotes, and Summary: Ian D. Bent.
Vienna
Stuttgart
1908