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Ötz, 18. Aug. 1906

Sehr geehrter Herr! 1

Ich übersende mit Heutigem die Superrevision der Bg. 17 u. 18; 2 Bitte aber mir den Bogen 20 einsenden zu wollen, den ich zuvor einsehen muß, bevor ich Bog. 19 druckfertig mache, da die Anmerkung auf S. 299 es so nötig macht. 3


Mit ausgez. Hochachtung
[signed:] H Schenker

© Transcription Ian Bent, 2005, 2017


Ötz, August 18, 1906

Dear Sir, 1

I am sending you the final proof of gatherings 17 and 18 by today's post. 2 But please kindly send me gathering 20, which I must look at before I can have gathering 19 ready for the press, because the commentary section on p. 299 needs my attention. 2


With kind regards,
[signed:] H. Schenker

© Translation Ian Bent, 2005, 2017


Ötz, 18. Aug. 1906

Sehr geehrter Herr! 1

Ich übersende mit Heutigem die Superrevision der Bg. 17 u. 18; 2 Bitte aber mir den Bogen 20 einsenden zu wollen, den ich zuvor einsehen muß, bevor ich Bog. 19 druckfertig mache, da die Anmerkung auf S. 299 es so nötig macht. 3


Mit ausgez. Hochachtung
[signed:] H Schenker

© Transcription Ian Bent, 2005, 2017


Ötz, August 18, 1906

Dear Sir, 1

I am sending you the final proof of gatherings 17 and 18 by today's post. 2 But please kindly send me gathering 20, which I must look at before I can have gathering 19 ready for the press, because the commentary section on p. 299 needs my attention. 2


With kind regards,
[signed:] H. Schenker

© Translation Ian Bent, 2005, 2017

Footnotes

1 Writing of this letter is not recorded in Schenker's diary.

2 Gathering 17 = pp. 257–72; gathering 18 = pp. 273–88.

3 Gathering 19 = pp. 289–304; gathering 20 = pp. 305–320.
The commentary section on pp. 299–300 (omitted from the published English translation) criticizes bars 4–12 of Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, the music of which is given in score as a footnote on pp. 300–304, comparing it adversely with a passage from Schubert's posthumous A major piano sonata, which he has just quoted and discussed:

"By contrast, the antecedent construction of measures 4‒12 of Don Quixote, Op. 35 by Richard Strauss appears to me unnatural, and accordingly inadmissable. — At least I feel clearly here that the composer wanted to circumvent the normal development to the dominant (A major) merely because it is normal.
It is, however, not a "modern" matter to respect Nature and naturalness; at least where they simply should be the case. Perhaps the composer really believes that Nature will, following the birth of his opus, adopt another first upper-fifth to its fundamentals (in this case, Aę instead of A to the fundamental D) and habituate to it. Do not misunderstand me: I raise no objection to the antecedent setting off in Aę, but I do object to this setting-off being not artistically skilfully composed ‒ as for example [it is in] the above-mentioned passage in Schubert ‒ but merely, as if in disdain for Nature, simply appearing there without motivation, exhibiting the mentality of someone who doesn't know what he wants or what is fitting."

Commentary

Rights Holder
Heirs of Henrich Schenker, deemed to be in the public domain.
License
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 [at] mus (dot) cam (dot) ac (dot) uk.
Format
1p letter, holograph salutation, message, valediction, and signature
Provenance
J.G. Cotta’sche Nachfolger/Stuttgarter Zeitung (document date-c.1954); Cotta-Archiv (Stiftung der Stuttgarter Zeitung), Schiller-Nationalmuseum, Marbach am Neckar, Germany (c.1954-)

Digital version created: 2017-06-27
Last updated: 2012-11-02