Footnotes

¹ Receipt of this postcard and Schenker's response are recorded in his diary at OJ 4/4, p. 3578, February 14, 1931: "Von Weisse (K.): dankt für das Mozart-Zitat; urteilt richtig über die Mängel im Vortrag von Preetorius. Schlage ihm vor, sich den Plan von Cube anzueignen, also einen Mäzen zu suchen, der die Berliner Stelle dotirt. Schlage ihm außerdem als Trumpf meiner Lehre, um sie für den Betrieb geeignet zu machen, vor, das Hörenlehren u. -lernen auszuspielen. Wird an allen Schulen darauf gesehen, warum sollte meine Lehre vom L Hören fehlen? Damit will ich meine Lehre von der uneigentlichen Aufgabe, das Komponieren zu lehren, entlasten."
("From Weisse (postcard): thanks for the Mozart quotation; he correctly judges the shortcomings in Preetorius’s lecture. I suggest that he adopt Cube's plan for himself, i.e. to seek a benefactor who will finance the Berlin post. I also suggest that he play the trump card of my theory – the teaching and learning of listening – to make it suitable for the [education] business. Since this subject is covered in all schools, why should my theory of listening be omitted? In so doing, I will relieve my theory of the task to which it is unsuited: the teaching of composition.").

² This may be from a purported letter to Baron Gottfried van Swieten in which Mozart writes that he hears the whole of a composition as if it took place in a single moment; Schenker reproduced the letter and wrote a commentary on it in Der Kunstwart , vol. 44, No. 10, July 1931, pp. 660–66; this is preserved at OC 50/12. But the letter is probably a forgery; see Elsa Bienenfeld's letter to Schenker of July 15, 1931 (OC 50/14).

³ Weisse was intending to use the quotation in a lecture to be given to the Viennese Society for Music Pedagogy on February 18, 1931.

⁴ Schenker's diary for February 8, 1931 records: "Kaufen im Oesterreichischen Museum Karten zum Vortrag Preetorius." ("At the Austrian Museum, we buy tickets for Preetorius's lecture."); and for February 9: "8–¾10^h Vortrag Preetorius; entgegen meiner Erwartung, der Vortrag werde den Weg des Aufsatzes gehen, hat sich Pr. nur auf die bildende Kunst beschränkt u. der Musik gar nicht gedacht. Nach dem Vortrag spreche ich ihn an u. sage ihm das Jhrb. III zu, in dem ich die in seinem Aufsatz gestellte Frage beantworte."
("From 8 to 9:45, Preetorius's lecture; contrary to my expectation that the lecture would follow the path of his article, Preetorius restricts himself only to the visual arts, and does not consider music at all. After the lecture, I approach him and refer him to Yearbook III, in which I answer the question posed in his article."). Schenker subsequently has a copy of Meisterwerk III sent to Preetorius, and writes him a letter on February 12/13.

⁵ Hans and Hertha Weisse had two daughters: Susanna (born 1928) and Monika (born 1930). It is unclear which is referred to here.

Commentary

Format

printed picture postcard: holograph recipient address, message-continuation, valediction, signature, and postscript, recto; holograph salutation and message-beginning verso

Provenance

Schenker, Heinrich (document date-1935)--Schenker, Jeanette (1935-c.1942)--Ratz, Erwin (c.1942-c.1945)--Jonas, Oswald (c.1945-1978)--University of California, Riverside (1978--)

Rights Holder

Heirs of Hans Weisse, reproduced with kind permission

License

Permission to publish granted on March 10, 2008 by the heirs of Hans Weisse. Any claim to intellectual rights on this document should be addressed to the Schenker Documents Online, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge, at schenkercorrespondence[at]mus(dot)cam(dot)ac(dot)uk

Digital version created: 2018-09-26
Last updated: 2013-09-12