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Diary entry by Schenker November 1, 1898

[The five short essays below are undated as to day or month (only as to year), and are not datable by internal evidence. They have been assigned the above arbitrary date so as to preserve their position within the diary.]

Ser. A, {7}b

⇧ 1898
⇧ „Die Unmusikalischen“

Man hat in der Verurteilung der Musik keinesfalls das Recht, weiter zu gehen, als das schöne Wort Horaz’ens reicht, der von der Poesie meinte: „levis haec insania“ Ep. II., I, v. 118. 1 [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 4]

*

Zu [recte In] 2 Maeterlink’s Werken machen Symbole gleichsam ihre eigene Musik, während das wirkliche Leben nur wenige abgerissene Worte dazwischenruft. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 5]

*

[in left margin:] cit. die II1 Vorrede 3 [main:]Es verbieten im Leben wie in der Kunst die Gesetze mehr, als sie gewähren, weil, was gestattet sein mag, zu man[n]igfaltig ist um in wenigen undifferenzierten Worten eingefangen werden zu können. Leider empfangen aber daran unreife Köpfe den Eindruck, als ob die Regeln der Kunst nur wirklich mehr in Ver- als Geboten bestünden! Und doch ist das Umgekehrte wahr: mehr ist gestattet, als verboten. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 5]

*

Der Inhalt der meisten Menschen reicht nur für die Dauer von 10‒12 Jahren, u. nun sollen sie ⇧ gar ⇧ 70‒80 Jahre leben! Kann dieses ohne Unglück abgehen? 4 [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 6]

*

Mozart ‒ „arm“ „unglücklich“? Wer wie er schon in frühester Jugend das Handwerk seiner Kunst zu beherrschen gelernt, u. hernach nur mehr die Wonnen des Schaffens schlürfen durfte, mag in der gemeinen u. gemeinsten Sorge des Lebens weit weniger ein wirkliches Hindernis des Lebens, als vielmehr nur die Witze einer bitteren Ironie empfinden. Um wieviel bedauernswerter doch derjenige, der auch an der Kunst, wie am Leben, also doppelt zu leiden hat. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 6]

*

© Transcription Ian Bent, 2017
[The five short essays below are undated as to day or month (only as to year), and are not datable by internal evidence. They have been assigned the above arbitrary date so as to preserve their position within the diary.]

Ser. A, {7}b

⇧ 1898
⇧ "The Unmusical Ones"

In judging music, one has no right whatsoever to go further than Horace's elegant phrase when speaking of poetry: "levis haec insania" ["this light madness"], Epistles, Book II, section I, verse 118. 1 [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 4]

*

In 1 Maeterlinck's work, symbols create, so to speak, their own music, while real life merely calls out from between the few, fragmentary words. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 5]

*

[in left margin:] [for] quot[ation in?] II/1, Preface 3 [main:]In life as in art, laws forbid more than they allow, because what may be permitted is too diverse to be encapsulated in a few undifferentiated words. Sadly, however, immature minds get the impression from it that the rules of art really consist more of prohibitions than of precepts. In reality, the converse is true: more is permitted than forbidden. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 5]

*

The content of most people lasts only for a duration of ten to twelve years, and now they should live ⇧ even ⇧ for 70 to 80 years! Can this continue without disaster? 4 [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 6]

*

Mozart — "impoverished," "unfortunate"? Anyone who, like him, has already in his earliest youth mastered the craft of his art, and is thereafter consigned to savoring only the delights of creation, may, when faced with the most common troubles of life, feel only the quips of a bitter irony rather than any real obstacle to living. How much more pitiable is someone who has to suffer in art as well as in life, thus twice over. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 6]

*

© Translation Ian Bent, 2017
[The five short essays below are undated as to day or month (only as to year), and are not datable by internal evidence. They have been assigned the above arbitrary date so as to preserve their position within the diary.]

Ser. A, {7}b

⇧ 1898
⇧ „Die Unmusikalischen“

Man hat in der Verurteilung der Musik keinesfalls das Recht, weiter zu gehen, als das schöne Wort Horaz’ens reicht, der von der Poesie meinte: „levis haec insania“ Ep. II., I, v. 118. 1 [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 4]

*

Zu [recte In] 2 Maeterlink’s Werken machen Symbole gleichsam ihre eigene Musik, während das wirkliche Leben nur wenige abgerissene Worte dazwischenruft. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 5]

*

[in left margin:] cit. die II1 Vorrede 3 [main:]Es verbieten im Leben wie in der Kunst die Gesetze mehr, als sie gewähren, weil, was gestattet sein mag, zu man[n]igfaltig ist um in wenigen undifferenzierten Worten eingefangen werden zu können. Leider empfangen aber daran unreife Köpfe den Eindruck, als ob die Regeln der Kunst nur wirklich mehr in Ver- als Geboten bestünden! Und doch ist das Umgekehrte wahr: mehr ist gestattet, als verboten. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 5]

*

Der Inhalt der meisten Menschen reicht nur für die Dauer von 10‒12 Jahren, u. nun sollen sie ⇧ gar ⇧ 70‒80 Jahre leben! Kann dieses ohne Unglück abgehen? 4 [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 6]

*

Mozart ‒ „arm“ „unglücklich“? Wer wie er schon in frühester Jugend das Handwerk seiner Kunst zu beherrschen gelernt, u. hernach nur mehr die Wonnen des Schaffens schlürfen durfte, mag in der gemeinen u. gemeinsten Sorge des Lebens weit weniger ein wirkliches Hindernis des Lebens, als vielmehr nur die Witze einer bitteren Ironie empfinden. Um wieviel bedauernswerter doch derjenige, der auch an der Kunst, wie am Leben, also doppelt zu leiden hat. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 6]

*

© Transcription Ian Bent, 2017
[The five short essays below are undated as to day or month (only as to year), and are not datable by internal evidence. They have been assigned the above arbitrary date so as to preserve their position within the diary.]

Ser. A, {7}b

⇧ 1898
⇧ "The Unmusical Ones"

In judging music, one has no right whatsoever to go further than Horace's elegant phrase when speaking of poetry: "levis haec insania" ["this light madness"], Epistles, Book II, section I, verse 118. 1 [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 4]

*

In 1 Maeterlinck's work, symbols create, so to speak, their own music, while real life merely calls out from between the few, fragmentary words. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 5]

*

[in left margin:] [for] quot[ation in?] II/1, Preface 3 [main:]In life as in art, laws forbid more than they allow, because what may be permitted is too diverse to be encapsulated in a few undifferentiated words. Sadly, however, immature minds get the impression from it that the rules of art really consist more of prohibitions than of precepts. In reality, the converse is true: more is permitted than forbidden. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 5]

*

The content of most people lasts only for a duration of ten to twelve years, and now they should live ⇧ even ⇧ for 70 to 80 years! Can this continue without disaster? 4 [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 6]

*

Mozart — "impoverished," "unfortunate"? Anyone who, like him, has already in his earliest youth mastered the craft of his art, and is thereafter consigned to savoring only the delights of creation, may, when faced with the most common troubles of life, feel only the quips of a bitter irony rather than any real obstacle to living. How much more pitiable is someone who has to suffer in art as well as in life, thus twice over. [draft in Heinrich's hand in Ser. B, p. 6]

*

© Translation Ian Bent, 2017

Footnotes

1 Schenker previously used this phrase, abbreviated to "levis insania," in a review of the granting of the Rubinstein Prize: Die Zeit 4 (1895), p. 157, untitled: Hellmut Federhofer, ed., Heinrich Schenker als Essayist und Kritiker ... (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1900), p. 280.

2 Jeanette has mistranscribed the "In" in Schenker's draft as "Zu."

3 From c.1910, the abbreviation "II1" designated Schenker's Kontrapunkt I (i.e. the first half of volume II ( Kontrapunkt ) of his series Neue musikalische Theorien und Phantasien ). Since it was only in mid-1909 that agreement was reached to split Kontrapunkt, and furthermore since the first volume of the series ( Harmonielehre ) was not conceived until c.1905, it is impossible for Schenker to have been anticipating his 1910 work in 1898. However, there is no doubt that the text of this entry was written at the same time as its surrounding 1898 material, because the draft text in Ser. B., p. 5 is uniformly in Schenker's hand. The marginalia to that draft, "cit. II1, Vorrede," is however written in pencil by Schenker, so could very well have been added any time after October 1908, when Schenker first proposed the split. The implication of this would be that Schenker combed through his early diaries for material that could be repurposed.
This situation may cast light on the broader question of when and why Jeanette made fair copies of passages from the early diaries as Series A. The two seem not to have met until around 1903 (personal communication from Hellmut Federhofer), so there is at least a five-year gap between Schenker's drafts and Jeanette's fair copies. If she added the marginalia at the time of making the fair copy, then she could not have done this before the summer of 1909; and may not have done so before she joined Schenker in Vienna in August 1910, possibly not before she took over the writing of Schenker's diaries in August 1911. Whichever chronology is true, this is an indication of the continuing value that Schenker placed on his earliest diary writings.

4 Schenker's draft initially read: "Die meisten Menschen reichen inhaltlich für die Dauer von 10‒12 Jahren, u. sollen nun 70‒80 leben! Kann so was ohne Unglück abgehen?" ("Most people last as regards content for a duration of ten to twelve years, and should now live for 70 or 80? Can such a situation continue without disaster?"). He subsequently edited it in pencil to read as Jeanette's fair copy.