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42, Murrayfield Avenue,
Edinburgh.
den 30. Dezember, 1930


Verehrtester Herr Doktor! 1

Für den grossartigen dritten Band Ihres Buches, 2 den Sie mir zu übersenden so gütig waren, spreche ich Ihnen meinen allerherzlichsten Dank aus. Zugleich möchte ich Ihnen aber auch für die Belehrung, die Sie mir in Ihrem wertvollen Briefen von Zeit zu Zeit haben angedeihen lassen, aufs herzlichste danken. Ich bedauere unendlich, dass unsere Wohnorte so weit auseinander liegen, gibt es doch so manche pädagogische Frage, worüber ich, statt mit auf beschwerlichem schriftlichem Wege, mit der lebendigen Stimme Rat und Aufschluss {2} holen möchte. Hoffentlich lässt sich das eines schönen Tages ermöglichen.

Ihre “Gedanken” 3 sind mir aus der Seele geschrieben. Ich beneide Sie um Ihre eindringliche Beredsamkeit, Ihren Sarkasmus und Faustischen Humor! Gott sei Dank, dass Sie dem Jazz, dem eiternden Geschwür woran das heutige Musikleben kränkt, auf den Leib rücken. Der Americaner, der dieses und ähnliche Dinge erfunden hat, müsste dazu verurteilt werden, auf glühenden Kohlen Jazz zu tanzen, bis er tot umfiele! 4

Ich werde mich nächstens in Ihre Analyse der Eroica-Symphonie vertiefen. Einstweilen verbleibe ich, mit den herzlichsten Neujahrsgrüssen, auch von meiner Frau an Ihre Frau Gemahlin,




Ihr ergebenster
[signed:] John Petrie Dunn. 5

[note in margin] enclosure: printed piano recital program, dated Saturday February 16, [1929], by John and Aline Petrie Dunn and nineteen of Dunn’s pupils (4pp), inscribed by Dunn "With most cordial greetings!”

© Transcription William Drabkin, 2007


42, Murrayfield Avenue
Edinburgh
December 30, 1930


Most esteemed Dr. [Schenker], 1

For the magnificent third volume of your book, 2 which you were so kind to send me, I express my most heartfelt thanks. At the same time, however, I should like to thank you most cordially for the instruction that you have provided me from time to time in your valuable letters. I am forever regretting the fact that our home towns lie so far apart; there are so many pedagogical questions for which I would like to hear your advice and thoughts in live conversation, rather than via an arduous, written path. {2} Perhaps, one fine day, that will be possible.

Your “Thoughts” 3 have been written from my soul. I envy you your sharp eloquence, your sarcasm and Faustian humour! Thank God that you have put jazz in its place, that festering sore which is responsible for the sickness in today’s musical life. The American who invented this and similar things ought to be condemned to having to jazz-dance on hot coals until he drops dead! 4

I shall get deeply into your analysis of the “Eroica” Symphony as soon as possible. For the time being, with most cordial greetings for the new year, also from my wife to your wife, I remain




Your most devoted
[signed:] John Petrie Dunn 5

[note in margin] enclosure: printed piano recital program, dated Saturday February 16, [1929], by John and Aline Petrie Dunn and nineteen of Dunn’s pupils (4pp), inscribed by Dunn "With most cordial greetings!”

© Translation William Drabkin, 2007


42, Murrayfield Avenue,
Edinburgh.
den 30. Dezember, 1930


Verehrtester Herr Doktor! 1

Für den grossartigen dritten Band Ihres Buches, 2 den Sie mir zu übersenden so gütig waren, spreche ich Ihnen meinen allerherzlichsten Dank aus. Zugleich möchte ich Ihnen aber auch für die Belehrung, die Sie mir in Ihrem wertvollen Briefen von Zeit zu Zeit haben angedeihen lassen, aufs herzlichste danken. Ich bedauere unendlich, dass unsere Wohnorte so weit auseinander liegen, gibt es doch so manche pädagogische Frage, worüber ich, statt mit auf beschwerlichem schriftlichem Wege, mit der lebendigen Stimme Rat und Aufschluss {2} holen möchte. Hoffentlich lässt sich das eines schönen Tages ermöglichen.

Ihre “Gedanken” 3 sind mir aus der Seele geschrieben. Ich beneide Sie um Ihre eindringliche Beredsamkeit, Ihren Sarkasmus und Faustischen Humor! Gott sei Dank, dass Sie dem Jazz, dem eiternden Geschwür woran das heutige Musikleben kränkt, auf den Leib rücken. Der Americaner, der dieses und ähnliche Dinge erfunden hat, müsste dazu verurteilt werden, auf glühenden Kohlen Jazz zu tanzen, bis er tot umfiele! 4

Ich werde mich nächstens in Ihre Analyse der Eroica-Symphonie vertiefen. Einstweilen verbleibe ich, mit den herzlichsten Neujahrsgrüssen, auch von meiner Frau an Ihre Frau Gemahlin,




Ihr ergebenster
[signed:] John Petrie Dunn. 5

[note in margin] enclosure: printed piano recital program, dated Saturday February 16, [1929], by John and Aline Petrie Dunn and nineteen of Dunn’s pupils (4pp), inscribed by Dunn "With most cordial greetings!”

© Transcription William Drabkin, 2007


42, Murrayfield Avenue
Edinburgh
December 30, 1930


Most esteemed Dr. [Schenker], 1

For the magnificent third volume of your book, 2 which you were so kind to send me, I express my most heartfelt thanks. At the same time, however, I should like to thank you most cordially for the instruction that you have provided me from time to time in your valuable letters. I am forever regretting the fact that our home towns lie so far apart; there are so many pedagogical questions for which I would like to hear your advice and thoughts in live conversation, rather than via an arduous, written path. {2} Perhaps, one fine day, that will be possible.

Your “Thoughts” 3 have been written from my soul. I envy you your sharp eloquence, your sarcasm and Faustian humour! Thank God that you have put jazz in its place, that festering sore which is responsible for the sickness in today’s musical life. The American who invented this and similar things ought to be condemned to having to jazz-dance on hot coals until he drops dead! 4

I shall get deeply into your analysis of the “Eroica” Symphony as soon as possible. For the time being, with most cordial greetings for the new year, also from my wife to your wife, I remain




Your most devoted
[signed:] John Petrie Dunn 5

[note in margin] enclosure: printed piano recital program, dated Saturday February 16, [1929], by John and Aline Petrie Dunn and nineteen of Dunn’s pupils (4pp), inscribed by Dunn "With most cordial greetings!”

© Translation William Drabkin, 2007

Footnotes

1 Receipt of this letter is recorded in Schenker’s diary for January 2, 1931: “Von Dunn (Br.): dankt für das Jhrb. III, auch für die in den Briefen jeweils eingestreute Belehrung. Bedauert die Entfernung die ... – wie er meint – Austausch pädagogischer Gedanken verhindere. Bewundert meinen Sarkasmus u. Humor.” (“From Dunn (letter): thanks [me] for Yearbook III, and also for the instructive remarks strewn throughout my letters each time. He regrets the distance, which – as he thinks – prevents exchange of pedagogical ideas. He admires my sarcasm and humor.”). — This letter was published in English in Heinrich Schenker: Selected Correspondence, ed. Ian Bent, David Bretherton, and William Drabkin (Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press, 2014), p. 451.

2 Das Meisterwerk in der Musik, vol. III (Munich: Drei Masken Verlag, 1930). The volume was released in December 1930 (OC 54/254, December 16, 1930). The publisher acknowledged receipt of Schenker’s (non-extant) complimentary copy list on December 13 (OC 54/253); Dunn’s name may have been on that list.

3 i.e., the “Vermischtes” (“Miscellanea”) section of Meisterwerk 3, subtitled "Thoughts [Gedanken] on Art and Its Relation to the General Scheme of Things."

4 Schenker’s disparagement of jazz and Negro music in Meisterwerk 3 appears in entries on pp. 118–19 (Eng. transl., pp. 77–78).

5 Dunn’s book A Student's Guide to Orchestration (London: Novello, 1930), discussed in Dunn’s letter OJ 10/13, [7], June 16, 1928, had by this time been published, and Hans Weisse in New York wrote in OJ 15/16, [65], November 27, 1930: “Wenn Sie den Dunn sofort brauchen, schicke ich Ihn [sic] durch Herrn Willfort, der in Ihrer unmittelbarsten Nähe wohnt. Sonst bringe ich ihn.” (“If you need Dunn's book straightaway, I shall send it to you by way of Mr. Willfort, who lives very near you. Otherwise I shall bring it personally.”).

Commentary

Format
2-p letter, printed sender address, holograph salutation, message, valediction, and signature + 4-p printed recital program
Provenance
Schenker, Heinrich (document date-1935)--Schenker, Jeanette (1935-c.1942)--Ratz, Erwin (c.1942-c.1955)--Jonas, Oswald (c.1955-1978)--University of California, Riverside (1978-)
Provenance
Heirs and representatives of John Petrie Dunn; deemed to be in the public domain.
License
All reasonable efforts have been made to identify the heirs of John Petrie Dunn; this document is assumed to be in the public domain. 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.

Digital version created: 2024-02-01
Last updated: 2010-04-23