Leopold Richtera

born Vienna, September 23, 1887; died Vienna, April 30, 1930

Documents associated with this person:

Austrian radio engineer, pioneer in Austrian broadcasting.

Career Summary

Leopold Richtera studied physics at the University of Vienna 1907–12, receiving his PhD in 1912, after which he became an assistant at the Physics Institute of the University. From 1920 to 1925 he taught the theory of colors (Farbenlehre) at the Graphic Teaching and Research Institute in Vienna, his interest in this field culminating in publication of his Die Farbe als wissenschaftliches and künstlerisches Problem (Halle: Wilhelm Knapp, 1924). From 1923 to 1927 he taught low voltage technique at two technical colleges in Vienna.

His interest in the problems of radio engineering led to his co-authoring with H. Pfeuffer a three-part study of the radio receiver (Der Radio-Empfangsapparat) between 1924 and 1928, and also to his becoming co-founder of and scientific adviser to the public radio company Radioverkehrs AG (RAVAG), which began broadcasting on October 1, 1924. In 1927 he was appointed director of science programming (in parallel with Max Ast, who was director of music programming).

Richtera and Schenker

No contact between the two men is known before 1927. The installation of the Schenkers’ first radio set had occurred on October 19, 1924, after which a regular stream of entries in Heinrich’s diaries appeared noting the music and talks to which they listened. Then on February 14, 1927 Leopold Richtera demonstrated – presumably more advanced – radio equipment to the couple, and this was duly delivered on February 25 with a payment of 139.07 shillings, a loudspeaker being added in late October.

In the December, Schenker wrote asking Richtera to request RAVAG’s permission for Otto Erich Deutsch to read out on air an appeal (OJ 9/10, [2]) for donations to establish an Archive of Photographic Images (Photogrammarchiv). In response to this, Richtera invited Deutsch to give a “proper lecture with pictures for the RAVAG magazine,” Radio Wien . A lecture entitled "Das Archiv für Photogramme musikalischer Handschriften" was broadcast by Dr. Robert Haas on February 4, 1928, and appeared with illustrations in the magazine, outlining ambitions for the archive (clipping preserved in Schenker’s scrapbook, OC 2/p. 74).

There is also an indirect family connection concerning Schenker’s younger brother the banker Moriz. During the summer of 1929 Moriz’s wife, Lisl, left him for Richtera, who had at one time lived in their house. Schenker’s reaction is illuminating: Even in this relationship, she will have to do without all conversation day and night; in spite of this, she will be able to take part just as little in the mathematics and physics of Richtera as in the bank dealings of Mozio, and without doubt she will come away empty-handed, even erotically – thus there remains only a futile ruination for this woman, in every respect a futile one.

Richtera died seven months later, on April 30, 1930. Moriz Schenker commited suicide in 1936.

Sources

  • Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950
  • Hewlett, Kirstie, "Heinrich Schenker and the Radio," Music Analysis, Special Issue on Schenker Documents, 34/2 (July 2015), 244‒64
  • Hewlett, Kirstie, Heinrich Schenker and the Radio (PhD diss., University of Southampton, 2015)

Contributors

  • Marko Deisinger, William Drabkin, Ian Bent

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Correspondence

  • OJ 89/1, [2] Handwritten letter from Schenker to van Hoboken, dated August 12, 1927

    Schenker acknowledges van Hoboken's letter, OJ 11/54, 14, dated August 7, 1927; encloses seven articles; responds regarding Haydn, Furtwängler, the "Appeal" for the Photogrammarchiv, an exhibition in Frankfurt, John Petrie Dunn, Reinhard Oppel, Das Meisterwerk in der Musik, vol. II, Otto Erich Deutsch, and an honorarium; and sends best wishes for the Hobokens' trip to Switzerland, reporting on von Cube.

  • OJ 10/3, [74] Typewritten postcard from Deutsch to Schenker, dated November 22, 1927

    Deutsch suspects that with the typesetters' "messing up" of Schenker’s revised copy of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony the material has been made illegible. — He has been in contact with people regarding a possible radio talk by Schenker, and one by himself on the redesigning of the Mozarteum. — He reports that the pianist Heinz Jolles would like Schenker to prepare an edition of one of Beethoven’s variation sets (WoO 80 or the “Diabelli”), and that Josef Braunstein is gratified to hear of Schenker’s interest in his recent book on the "Leonore" overtures.

  • OJ 89/1, [8] Handwritten letter from Schenker to van Hoboken, dated December 17, 1927

    Reply from Dr. Richtera has arrived, and Schenker encloses it; Otto Erich Deutsch is invited to give a lecture about the damages. — Hoboken has had a letter from Alban Berg that may be intentionally ironic; Schenker reflects on the spirit of the Photogrammarchiv.

  • OJ 10/3, [76] Typewritten picture postcard from Deutsch to Schenker, dated January 27, 1928

    Deutsch has spoken to Alfred Kalmus about the revisions that Schenker (with Deutsch’s assistance) has proposed for a reprinting of the score of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony. Kalmus said that time was pressing and he was unable to show the two men the changes before the work went to press.

  • OJ 10/3, [80] Typewritten postcard from Deutsch to Schenker, dated March 19, 1928

    Deutsch reports that Eusebius Mandyczewski, the Archivist at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, would like to prepare a revised edition of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony, and asks Schenker if he would be prepared to make his textual notes on the symphony available to him.

  • OJ 10/3, [81] Typewritten postcard from Deutsch to Schenker, dated March 25, 1928

    Deutsch’s plans to give a pre-concert talk on the radio have been messed up by Max Ast at Austrian Radio. -- He asks Schenker to tell him about the authentic copies of Beethoven’s works made for Archduke Rudolph. -- He has been on the track of a German mass for the dead by Schubert (the Deutsche Trauermesse) and would like to show Schenker his work on it.

  • OJ 10/3, [83] Typewritten picture postcard from Deutsch to Schenker, dated April 16, 1928

    Deutsch has had sharp words with Max Ast at Austrian Radio. He wants to give a talk on Schubert’s lost “Gastein” (or “Gmunden”) Symphony and hopes that publicity from the broadcasting company will eventually lead to the rediscovery of the manuscript. Eusebius Mandyczewski is preparing a new edition of the “Unfinished” Symphony for Breitkopf & Härtel; the Philharmonia pocket score, with Schenker’s and Deutsch’s revisions, is now in print. Deutsch has discovered that the first edition of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 90 exists in two versions.

  • OJ 10/3, [96] Typewritten letter from Deutsch to Schenker, dated December 11, 1928

    Deutsch outlines plans for the publication of catalogues of music manuscripts worldwide and, in particular, new thematic catalogues of the music of Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven. With the intervention of Leopold Richtera, he has been assured of a good working relationship with the director of music at Radio Wien (RAVAG).

  • OJ 10/3, [101] Typewritten letter from Deutsch to Schenker, dated May 8, 1929

    Deutsch reports that his series of radio concerts with professors from the Vienna Academy is in jeopardy, because of Max Ast’s lack of enthusiasm for them, and that Leopold Richtera has also let him down.

  • OJ 10/3, [104] Typewritten letter from Deutsch to Schenker, dated July 28, 1929

    In a long letter, Deutsch thanks Schenker for encouraging him to apply for the post of Head Archivist at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde following the death of the previous postholder, Eusebius Mandyczewski, on July 13. He comments on the present state of play at the Archive, above all on its insecure position. — He also expresses his regret that Austrian Radio is no longer interested in his “Chamber Ensemble” broadcasts with professors from the Vienna Academy, and that some of the players are no longer enthusiastic about them; he hopes to start a new initiative of that sort in the autumn. — He is in good standing with Hoboken, but the work on his private library is not bringing him rewards. — He enjoyed his recent trip to Italy, and thinks that he might have become an art historian had he gotten to know the country earlier.

  • OJ 6/7, [43] Handwritten letter from Schenker to Moriz Violin, dated November 13, 1929

    Urging his friend to write only when he feels up to it, Schenker gives Violin some news of his own: that the Eroica Symphony monograph is finished but a publisher who is capable of dealing with the numerous music examples must be found; that Schenker will work unceasingly on Der freie Satz once the Eroica is out of the way; that the Photogram Archive has grown in size in two years, and that so many requests for information have been received that a yearbook is planned, with critical reports, new editions, and the like; that Hoboken and Vrieslander have fallen out (over money matters); that Schenker's brother Mozio (Moses) has separated from his wife after 25 years of marriage and that he his has been giving music lessons to Mozio’s son, a cellist in the Baden city orchestra.

  • OJ 10/3, [126] Handwritten letter from Deutsch to Schenker, dated May 11, 1930

    Deutsch asks for Schenker’s advice on the programming of an evening “Serenade” of orchestral and choral music, to be conducted by Robert Heger.

Diaries