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NYnscl MP.0008.01/1/1, 4 - Handwritten letter from Jeanette Schenker to Arthur Waldeck and Nathan Broder, dated March 9, 1936
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nehmen Sie meinen verbindlichsten Dank für die Uebersendung Ihres Artikels, vor allem aber für den umfänglichen Artikel selbst, 2 der eben bei einem Uebersetzer ist, weil mein Englisch noch nicht auf der erforderlichen Stufe ist. Jedenfalls ist es so, wie Sie im letzten Absatz es zusammengefaßt haben: Weiteste Musikerkreise müssen für die Ideen Schenkers, für den Begriff Schenker gewonnen werden 3 u. ich wünsche Ihnen, daß Ihr Aufsatz kräftigstes Echo finde! Es dürfte Sie interessiren zu erfahren , daß das Wiener Schenker-Institut sich {2} ganz schön einführt u. die Schülerzahl, wenn man die kunstfeindlichen Verhältnisse bedenkt, ziemlich befriedigend ist. Ich danke Ihnen auch herzlich für Ihre guten Wünsche – ich trauere wie am ersten Tag nach dem Ableben um den gütigen, großen Menschen u. Künstler, dem Gattin, Freundin u. Gehilfin zu sein mir ein gütiges Geschick vergönnt hatte. © Transcription Robert Wason, 2007 |
Please accept my most sincere thanks for sending your article, and above all, for the extensive article itself, 2 which is presently with a translator, since my English is not yet at the necessary level. In any case, it is just as you have summarized the matter in the last paragraph: musical circles far and wide must be won over to Schenker's ideas, and to the very idea of Schenker['s work]. 3 I hope that your article finds strong response. It may interest you to know that the Vienna Schenker Institute {2} has started up smoothly, and the number of students ‒ when one considers the anti-artistic situation ‒ is reasonably satisfactory. I also thank you cordially for your good wishes. I mourn just as on the first day after the passing of that good and great man and artist; a gracious destiny has permitted me to be wife, friend and helper to him. © Translation Robert Wason, 2007 |
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nehmen Sie meinen verbindlichsten Dank für die Uebersendung Ihres Artikels, vor allem aber für den umfänglichen Artikel selbst, 2 der eben bei einem Uebersetzer ist, weil mein Englisch noch nicht auf der erforderlichen Stufe ist. Jedenfalls ist es so, wie Sie im letzten Absatz es zusammengefaßt haben: Weiteste Musikerkreise müssen für die Ideen Schenkers, für den Begriff Schenker gewonnen werden 3 u. ich wünsche Ihnen, daß Ihr Aufsatz kräftigstes Echo finde! Es dürfte Sie interessiren zu erfahren , daß das Wiener Schenker-Institut sich {2} ganz schön einführt u. die Schülerzahl, wenn man die kunstfeindlichen Verhältnisse bedenkt, ziemlich befriedigend ist. Ich danke Ihnen auch herzlich für Ihre guten Wünsche – ich trauere wie am ersten Tag nach dem Ableben um den gütigen, großen Menschen u. Künstler, dem Gattin, Freundin u. Gehilfin zu sein mir ein gütiges Geschick vergönnt hatte. © Transcription Robert Wason, 2007 |
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Please accept my most sincere thanks for sending your article, and above all, for the extensive article itself, 2 which is presently with a translator, since my English is not yet at the necessary level. In any case, it is just as you have summarized the matter in the last paragraph: musical circles far and wide must be won over to Schenker's ideas, and to the very idea of Schenker['s work]. 3 I hope that your article finds strong response. It may interest you to know that the Vienna Schenker Institute {2} has started up smoothly, and the number of students ‒ when one considers the anti-artistic situation ‒ is reasonably satisfactory. I also thank you cordially for your good wishes. I mourn just as on the first day after the passing of that good and great man and artist; a gracious destiny has permitted me to be wife, friend and helper to him. © Translation Robert Wason, 2007 |
Footnotes1 The addressees are Arthur Waldeck and Nathan Broder. 2 Arthur Waldeck & Nathan Broder, "Musical Synthesis as Expounded by Heinrich Schenker," Musical Mercury 2/4 (1935): 56–64: a copy, along with a two-page typescript summary in German, both catalogued among Jonas's personal teaching materials, survives as OJ 58/22. The cataloguing appears to be correct, since the article is a negative photocopy, not a "presentation copy" from the mid-1930s. Most likely, the presentation copy is lost. In any case, there can be no doubt of the identity of the article to which Mrs. Schenker refers: Waldeck and Broder start their work by citing the only three articles in English that they know of (agreeing with modern bibliographers), and all others are by single authors. Furthermore, the authors write that Schenker himself has recommended to them (OJ 5/44 [4]) Oswald Jonas, Das Wesen des musikalischen Kunstwerks: Eine Einführung in die Lehre Heinrich Schenkers (Vienna and Leipzig: Saturn Verlag, 1934). 3 Mrs. Schenker likely refers to the last two paragraphs of the article, which read: "Even if Schenker had stopped short of the basic line, his works would be of incalculable value to the musician. For even the earliest books are full of flashes of the keenest insight into the nature of the music in hand. And while it is difficult to trace the course of the basic line, few difficulties are offered by the smaller spans; and it is these, as has been said, that constitute the most important means for gaining inner coherence. Der freie Satz presents a systematic exposition of Schenker's technique. We have not attempted to summarize all of that technique. We have not even exhausted the subject of the span. We have tried only to give the reader an indication of the nature of Schenker's work. If the reader's interest and curiosity have been aroused, our goal has been attained." ("Musical Synthesis ...," p. 64). |
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Digital version created: 2019-01-11 |