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OJ 6/4, [] : 9-18-06

Handwritten letter from Schenker to Moriz Violin, dated September 15 or 18,1 1906

15/18. 9. 06

Florizello! Nach dem Sprichwort dürfte „Gottes Hilfe“ irgendwo am nächsten sein : jetzt muß sie es schon sogar. Denn :

am 19ten. [:] 10 fl der Bediener[i]n

für 19. (jüdische Feiertage)2 [:] der Mama ein paar Gulden, Tempelsitze, etc.

[am] 16te. [:] 10 fl Unfallversich.

und ich habe keinen Groschen bei mir. Meinetwegen versprich 8–10o3, aber mir ist alles lieber, als zu H.4 zu gehen, der immer tut, als müßte er zuvor alle Tanten seiner u. Redlich’s Familie5 anhaltiren, bevor er das paar Gulden herleiht.

Und für die Katastrophe – Stritzko-Dobl. kann ich auch nichts. Niemals wäre es mir auch nur möglich geschienen, daß xxx ^xxx^ 55[ corr ] Exemplare verkauft sein [müßten], u. Dob. daran 25 fl (u. Stritzt. etwas weniger) zuvor verdient haben müsse, bevor6 ich 10 fl verdiene,7 also so viel, als ein Copist für diese minutiöse8 Arbeit sicher verlangt hätte. Jedenfalls hast du, wie[ corr ] du denken kannst, die erste Hypothek|9 auf das Geld, das kommt. Ich bin ganz am Rande —10

dein Untercopist.11

© Heirs of Heinrich Schenker.
© Transcription Ian D. Bent, with the assistance of John Rothgeb, 2005.

Handwritten letter from Schenker to Moriz Violin, dated September 15 or 18,1 1906

September 15/18, 1906

Florizello! As the old saying goes, „God’s help“ may be near: now it really must be. For:

on the 19th : 10 Florins for the cleaning lady

for the 19th (Jewish holidays)2 : a few pennies for Mama, seats in the synagogue etc.

on the 16th : 10 Florins for accident insurance.

...and I'm left without a penny. As far as I am concerned, promise 8–10o3, but anything is better than going to H.4, who always behaves as if he must first offer financial support to all the aunts in his and Redlich’s family5 before he will cough up the few pennies.

Nor is there anything I can do about the catastrophe—Stritzko–Doblinger. I had never for a moment dreamt that 55 copies would have to be sold and Doblinger would have to earn 25 Florins on the deal (and Stritzko a little less) before ever6 I might earn 10 Florins,7 i.e. as much as a copyist would surely have demanded for work as precise and detailed8 as this. At any rate, you can take it that you have first claim9 on the money that comes. I’m on the brink—10
Your assistant copyist.11

© Translation Ian D. Bent, with the assistance of John Rothgeb, 2005.

COMMENTARY:
Format: holograph letter, single page reto
Sender address: --
Recipient address: Wien, XIV., Sechshauserstraße 128

FOOTNOTES:

1 "5" and "8" are superimposed, so this could have been written on the 8th and then changed to the 15th by overwriting "5" upon "8" and inserting a "1" before, or more likely (since the previous letter is dated the 12th and the following letter the 22nd) the "8" has been overwritten upon "5" changing the 15th to the 18th.

2 The holy days in question would presumably have been Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

3 versprich 8–10o : the meaning of this phrase cannot be determined from this message.

4 It is probably too early for this to be Emil Hertzka, who is not mentioned in any of the related diary entries of this time, but who just possibly might have been working at Doblinger a this point. He came to Universal Edition (which not yet in the picture regarding the Instrumentations-Tabelle ) in 1907.

5 Probably Friedrich (Fritz) Redlich (1868-1921), leading Austrian industrialist (owner of a sugar refinery and other businesses in the region of Göding), politician, and patron of the arts; father of Hans Ferdinand Redlich (1903-68), Austrian musicologist. Fritz is known to have been a friend of Gustav Mahler and his family.

6 „zuvor ..., bevor”:„zu-„ and „vor“ added in right and left margins over line-break.

7 For details of the proposed royalty deal, see OJ 1/5, p.19, September 13, 1906. For the complete known sequence of references to this deal, select “Stritzko & Co” under "Documents" in the user-interface and browse. The Instrumentations-Tabelle was eventually published by UE by October 29, 1908 (OC 52/398). This first small-scale trial edition, sent out only to highschools and conservatories, is not listed in UE’s Verlagsdruckbuch: the first edition recorded there came off the press on January 12, 1909 in 2,000 copies (UE 1999). —It must be significant that the author-name over which it was published, “Niloff,” is a sonic anagram of “Violin.”

8 = minuziöse, i.e. minute, precise, exact.

9 literally “mortgage.”

10 i.e. of disaster, penury, etc. Alternatively, he could mean “I’m on the sidelines” or “It’s out of my hands.”

11 This is presumably not meant literally, but as a humorous way of saying “Your obedient servant,” perhaps referring back to the allegation in the penultimate sentence that he would earn less than a professional copyist for the same work.

SUMMARY:
[Niloff: Instrumentations-Tabelle:] The financial arrangement with Stritzko and Doblinger is a catastrophe. S has no money.

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

Bent, Ian
Schenker, Heinrich
[Niloff: Instrumentations-Tabelle:] The financial arrangement with Stritzko and Doblinger is a catastrophe. S has no money.

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; Violin, Moriz; Floriz; Florizello; Niloff; Instrumentations-Tabelle; Instrumentation Table; Redlich; Schenker, Julia; money; Stritzko; Doblinger; contract
Handwritten letter from Schenker to Violin, dated September 15 or 18, 1906
letter
academic; musicology; music theory
OJ 6/4, []
1906-09-18
2005-08-04
Violin
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
Violin, Moriz (1906-1935)--Schenker, Jeanette (1935-c.1942)--Ratz, Erwin (c.1942-c.1955)--Jonas, Oswald (c.1955-1978)--University of California, Riverside (1978--)
IPR: Heirs of Heinrich Schenker; Transcription, Translation, Commentary, Footnotes, and Summary: Ian D. Bent.
Vienna
1906

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