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Frederick E. Auslander

born New York, June 30, 1910; died Liberty, NY, November, 1981

Documents associated with this person:

American music teacher, whose parents, Joseph and Jeanette Auslander, were born in Hungary. He enlisted for war service on November 27, 1942.

Auslander and Schenker

Auslander was a student of Hans Weisse, studying Schenkerian theory at the David Mannes Music School in New York. In January 1933, aged 22, he approached Schenker for permission to translate into English one or other of Schenker's works in conjunction with Weisse, and three months later with a more modest proposal for a part-translation. Weisse at the time expressed doubts as to Auslander's theoretical and linguistic abilities; and Ernst Oster, who visited him, described him much later as having been quite unsuited to the task. The plan came to nothing.

Correspondence with Schenker

Two letters from Auslander to Schenker survive (OC 18/29 and OC 18/30, both of 1933); in addition to the two different addresses in Brooklyn given by his two letters, OC 18/31 gives, apparently in his own hand, a third address: 2716 Marion Avenue, Bronx, CYpress‒5715; also, probably referring to Auslander, though not by name, is OC 18/32-33, November 28, 1932, Weisse to Schenker. Replies by Schenker (one dated January 28, 1933) are not known to survive.

Sources

  • Berry, David Carson, "Hans Weisse and the Dawn of American Schenkerism," Journal of Musicology 20/1 (Winter, 2003): 104-56; see p. 152
  • Wason, Robert W., "From 'Harmonielehre' to 'Harmony': Schenker's Theory of Harmony and its Americanization," in Essays from the Fourth International Schenker Symposium, vol. I, ed. A. Cadwallader (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2008), pp. 213-58, esp. pp. 236, 241, 254-57.
  • Personal communication from Robert Kosovsky

Contributor:

  • Robert W. Wason

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Correspondence

  • OC 18/32-33 Handwritten letter from Weisse to Schenker, dated November 28, 1932

    Weisse is uneasy about disparity among translations of Schenker's writings into English, and suggests that he work with potential translators to arrive at an agreed set of technical terms. He has renewed contact with Vrieslander, who has sent him a copy of his recently published songs and Ländler. His work in New York is going well and his family is thriving, but he sees and hears about a great deal of suffering, on account of the economic collapse in America.

  • OC 18/29 Typewritten letter from Frederick E. Auslander to Schenker, dated January 5, 1933

    Auslander seeks permission from Schenker and his publishers to translate some of his works.

  • OJ 15/16, [89] Handwritten letter from Weisse to Schenker, dated February 15, 1933

    Weisse has received a copy of Otto Vrieslander's recently published songs and has written Vrieslander a long, critical letter. — He reports on initiatives to have some of Schenker's writings translated into English, and on the success of his analysis of the Bach C major Prelude. Their having purchased copies of the Five Analyses in Sketchform/Fünf Urlinie-Tafeln, published by the David Mannes School, is further testimony of Schenker's success on American soil.

Diaries