Footnotes

¹ The top copy of this letter is not known to survive; this is a carbon copy in Schenker's copy book (Copierbuch), OC 1A. Writing of this letter is not recorded in Schenker's diary.

² In 1911, Max Graf was the music critic of the Neues Wiener Journal, in which the following note was published anonymously on June 14, 1911 (p. 8): „Der Musikgelehrte Dr. Heinrich Schenker wird im nächsten Herbst eine Serie von sechs bis acht Vorlesungen beginnen, die ,Der Niedergang der musikalischen Kunst‘ betitelt sein werden. An diese Ausführungen wird sich nebst Reformvorschlägen eine Kritik des derzeit mangelhaften Unterrichtsbetriebes schließen.“ ("The music theorist Dr. Heinrich Schenker is to begin a series of six to eight lectures next autumn, which are to bear the title 'The Decline of Music'. These expositions will be followed by proposals for reform as well as a critique of current, faulty teaching.") This announcement appeared also in the Neue Freie Presse, Saturday June 3, 1911, and was recorded in Schenker's diary at OJ 1/10, pp. 131[r]–[a], dated "beginning June 1911," where it is explained as a ruse to stir Wilhelm Bopp, Director of the Vienna Conservatory, into action over planned Bach and Beethoven editions.

³ Ludwig Karpath wrote for the Neues Wiener Tagblatt, where the following anonymous announcement was published on June 7, 1911 under the heading "Theatre, Art, and Literature" (p. 14): „Wie man uns mitteilt, wird Dr. Heinrich Schenker im nächsten Herbst mit einer Serie von sechs bis acht Vorlesungen beginnen, die unter dem Gesamttitel: ,Niedergang der musikalischen Kunst‘ an den Werken moderner Autoren (R. Strauß, Reger, Debussy und andern) die schlechte Beschaffenheit des Satzes und der Form, die ,Kakophonie‘ und dergleichen demonstrieren werden. Daran schließt sich nebst Reformvorschlägen eine Kritik des derzeit mangelhaften Unterrichtsbetriebes.“ ("We are advised that Dr. Heinrich Schenker is to begin a series of six to eight lectures next autumn, which, under the general title 'Decline of Music,' will demonstrate the defective character of composition and form in the works of modern composers (R. Strauss, Reger, Debussy and others), 'cacophony,' and so forth. These will be followed by proposals for reform, as well as a critique of current, faulty teaching.")

⁴ Schenker records in his diary for May 20, 1911 (OJ 1/10, p. 126): "Beginn des Nachfeilens am II² Bd!" (Beginning of the polishing for II/2!").

⁵ Schenker's intention at the time was to publish his Über den Niedergang der Kompositionskunst (c. 1906-09) as the third volume of his Musikalische Theorien und Phantasien. It remained unpublished: see Drabkin, William, ed., transcr. and transl., "The Decline of the Art of Composition: A Technical-Critical Study," Music Analysis xxiv/1–2 (March–July 2005), 131–231 (Ger.), 33–129 (Engl.).

⁶ This probably refers to one of Gustav Nottebohm's books on Beethoven's sketches: Ein Skizzenbuch von Beethoven (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1865), Beethoveniana (Leipzig and Winterthur: Rieter-Biedermann, 1872), Ein Skizzenbuch von Beethoven aus dem Jahr 1803 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1880), or Zweite Beethoveniana (Leipzig and Winterthur: Rieter-Biedermann, 1887). The third and fourth of these volumes were in Schenker's private library at his death (Musik und Theater, enthaltend die Bibliothek des Herrn Dr. Heinrich Schenker, Wien (Antiquariat Heinrich Hinterberger, n.d.), items 48, 52.)

Commentary

Format

1p letter, carbon copy (part of Schenker's Kopierbuch), holograph message and signature

License

This document is deemed to be in the public domain as of January 1, 2006. Any claim to intellectual rights should be addressed to the Schenker Correspondence Project, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge, at schenkercorrespondence [at] mus (dot) cam (dot) ac (dot) uk.

Rights Holder

Heirs of Heinrich Schenker; deemed to be in the public domain

Provenance

Schenker, Heinrich (document date-1935)--Schenker, Jeanette (1935-1938)--Oster, Ernst (1938-1977)—New York Public Library (c.1977-)

Digital version created: 2012-02-27