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WSLB 24 : 10-31-08

Handwritten letter from Schenker to Emil Hertzka (UE), dated October 31, 1908

Sehr geehrter Herr Direktor!

Besten, herzlichsten Dank für die Überraschungen.1 Wie froh bin ich, daß die kaufmännische Art endlich gesiegt hat:2 denken Sie den Abstand von 3 fl[orin] 50(!) bis 60 Kr[onen]3 für dasselbe Stück! Wo man schon Wagner-Part. so billig kauft! Vielleicht giebt mir irgend ein Stundenausfall4 die Möglichkeit, Sie bald zu sehen. Bis dahin: schenken Sie den Schulen (auch Volksschulen) solche Exemplare. Auch mir haben Sie die Güte, noch weitere 3 [Exemplare] zu schenken.5 Haben Sie schon welche in die Handlungen verschicken lassen?

Für die Mitteilung, daß unsere Ornamentik6 ins Englische übertragen werden soll, hatte ich freilich die schönste Freude bereit. Daß Sie Veranlassung dazu bieten, dafür danke ich ganz besonders. Womit ich, außer mit Worten, Ihnen danken kann, ist auch dieses, daß ich Sie stets hinlenken möchte, die U.E. aus dem lokalen Unternehmen, { verso } in ein großzügiges Weltunternehmen hinüberzuführen.7 Die U.E. müßte Dinge haben, die nur eben bei ihr zu kaufen wären, u. den Wettbewerb mit Br. & H, Peters8 aufnemen. Niemand weiß, wie ich, wie Geld zu allen diesen Dingen notwendig sind ist, andererseits aber bin ich überzeugt, daß auch Publikationen von Ehre (ohne Rentabilität) indirekt gleichwoh[l] die Rentabilität des sonst auf gangbarere Artikel gegründeten Unternehmens steigern.9

Soeben sind die ersten Korrekturen meines II. Kontrapunktbandes10 von Cotta eingelaufen, – ich habe genau 3 Monate Verspätung erlitten, in der Zeit, die die Ornamentik in Anspruch genommen hat, mir dabei hat endlich fehlen müssen–, bis auch diese große Arbeit hinter mir ist, will ich wieder einige besondere Vorschläge machen.

Bis dahin, vielleicht auch bald hofft Sie zu sehen u. zu sprechen

Ir ergebener
[ signed: ] H Schenker
31. 10. 08

© Universal Edition A.G., Wien.
© Transcription Ian D. Bent 2005.

Handwritten letter from Schenker to Emil Hertzka (UE), dated October 31, 1908

Dear Director,

Best, most heartfelt thanks for the surprises.1 How happy I am that the art of commerce has finally prevailed:2 just think of the difference between 3 Florins 50(!) and 60 Kroner3 for the same item! Where can one buy Wagner scores as cheaply as that! Perhaps a lesson cancellation4 at some stage will make it possible for me to see you soon. Until then: send copies to the schools (and the elementary schools, as well). Also, please be so kind as to send me another three copies5. Have you dispatched any to the stores yet?

I must admit, the news that our Ornamentik6 is to be translated into English gave me enormous pleasure. Thank you most especially for taking the initiative on this. The way in which I can best express my thanks—other than in words—is this: I should like to guide UE steadily through the transition from local undertaking { verso } to large-scale, global enterprise.7 UE needs to have things that can be purchased uniquely from it, and [so] take up the competition with Breitkopf & Härtel [and] Peters.8 No one knows as do I just how necessary money are is to all these things, but on the other hand I am convinced that even prestigious publications (while not being profitable) nevertheless indirectly increase the profitability of a venture otherwise based on more viable commodities.9

The first proofs of my second volume, Kontrapunkt,10 have just started coming in from Cotta—I have suffered three whole months' delay while occupied with Ornamentik, time that I ultimately forfeited—. Once this big job, too, is behind me, I again want to put some particular proposals to you.

Until then, and perhaps also in the hope of seeing and talking with you soon.

Yours truly
[ signed: ] H. Schenker
Oct 31, 1908

© Translation Ian D. Bent 2005.

COMMENTARY:
Format: 2-p letter, single sheet recto and verso, holograph message and signature
Sender address:
Recipient address:

FOOTNOTES:

1 See OC 52/398, November 29, 1908.

2 Schenker was ideologically opposed to commerce and business.

3 <note on 1908 exchange rate between Florin and Kroner, and approximate modern value>

4 Schenker made his living by giving piano lessons: see WSLB 23, October 14, 1908, for his current teaching schedule.

5 This sentence underlined in crayon, possibly by a UE employee.

6 Ein Beitrag zur Ornamentik, 1st edition 1903, 2nd edition 1908 (a companion volume to Schenker’s edition of keyboard works by C. P. E. Bach, published 1902), English translation by Hedi Siegel, “A Contribution to the Study of Ornamentation,” The Music Forum 4 (1976), 1–135.

7 It is ironic that Schenker should later be so critical of UE and Hertzka precisely for being a cosmopolitan enterprise rather than a German one, while he here paints himself as having the global vision and guiding UE toward that. It is also ironic that he should praise “business methods,” given his deep antagonism toward commerce.

8 The two largest German music publishing houses of the time, both based in Leipzig.

9 Schenker’s financial prospects were always uncertain. UE balanced high-art products with popular items. By “profitable” ventures, he was referring to the popular end of UE’s market, but would increasingly come to mean works by progressive composers such as Mahler, Richard Strauss, and by modernists such as Schoenberg and Berg of whom he was resentful, seeing himself as a producer of prestige products.

10 i.e. vol. II of his series Neue Musikalische Theorien und Phantasien, Kontrapunkt. Schenker had submitted the manuscript of what appears to have been Parts 1 and 2 (i.e. the whole) of what eventually became the first half-volume (published in 1910) on September 26, expecting to submit the manuscript of Part 3 in due course; and the galley-proofs began coming in around November 1 (Cotta complains on December 30 that he has now received galleys 1–89 and has returned none of them: OJ 9/31, [21].) Cotta agreed to the split the volume only on June 1, 1909 (OJ 9/31, [23]).

SUMMARY:
[Niloff: Instrumentations-Tabelle:] Acks [OC 52/398]: he is happy at the release of the Tabelle, and its low price; urges that it be distributed to Volksschulen; ask for three more copies. —[Beitrag zur Ornamentik:] Expresses pleasure at the possibility of English translation: he will help UE become a global enterprise. — [Kontrapunkt I:] first proofs coming in; book delayed three months by Ornamentik. — Has some proposals for H.

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

Bent, Ian
Schenker, Heinrich
[Niloff: Instrumentations-Tabelle:] Acks [OC 52/398]: he is happy at the release of the Tabelle, and its low price; urges that it be distributed to Volksschulen; ask for three more copies. —[Beitrag zur Ornamentik:] Expresses pleasure at the possibility of English translation: he will help UE become a global enterprise. — [Kontrapunkt I:] first proofs coming in; book delayed three months by Ornamentik. — Has some proposals for H.
DE
Cambridge University Faculty of Music-Ian Bent
IPR: Heirs of Heinrich Schenker; Transcription, Translation, Commentary, Footnotes, and Summary: Ian D. Bent 2005.
Schenker, Heinrich; Hertzka, Emil; UE; Niloff; Instrumentations-Tabelle; price; Volksschulen; schools; Ornamentik; English translation; Kontrapunkt; proofs; Breitkopf & Härtel; Peters; Cotta
Handwritten letter from Schenker to Emil Hertzka (UE), dated October 31, 1908
letter
Hertzka, Emil
WSLB 24
1908-10-31
2005-03-10
UE
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
Universal Edition Archive (1908-1976)—on permanent loan to the Stadt- und Landesbibliothek Wien (1976-)
IPR: Heirs of Heinrich Schenker; Image: Universal Edition, A.G.; Transcription, Translation, Commentary, Footnotes, and Summary: Ian D. Bent.
Vienna
1908

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