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OJ 10/3, [144] - Handwritten picture postcard from Deutsch to Schenker, dated March 13, 1931

{recto}
[printed:] ⇧ Postkarte
[picture: cityscape with monument, captioned: “Innsbruck, Tirol”]

[An:] ⇧ Herrn Dr. Heinrich Schenker
Wien III.
Keilgasse 8
{verso}
⇧ 13. III. 31

Lieber Verehrter! 1

Wenn ich, reiner Tor, 2 recht verstehe, ist der Sachverhalt so:

K – d meint, Sp – t schreibt, wie B – n komponiert, wie Sch – r hört. 3


Bald mehr!
Ihr ganz ergebener
[signed:] O E Deutsch

© Transcription William Drabkin, 2023
{recto}
[printed:] ⇧ Postcard
[picture: cityscape with monument, captioned: “Innsbruck, Tyrol”]

[To:] ⇧ Dr. Heinrich Schenker
Keilgasse 8
Vienna III
{verso}
⇧ March 13, 1931

Dear revered friend, 1

If I, the poor fool, 2 understand the matter rightly, it is thus:

K[orngol]d thinks that Sp[ech]t writes the way B[eethove]n composes, as Sch[enke]r hears. 3


More soon!
Your wholly devoted
[signed:] . E. Deutsch

© Translation William Drabkin, 2023
{recto}
[printed:] ⇧ Postkarte
[picture: cityscape with monument, captioned: “Innsbruck, Tirol”]

[An:] ⇧ Herrn Dr. Heinrich Schenker
Wien III.
Keilgasse 8
{verso}
⇧ 13. III. 31

Lieber Verehrter! 1

Wenn ich, reiner Tor, 2 recht verstehe, ist der Sachverhalt so:

K – d meint, Sp – t schreibt, wie B – n komponiert, wie Sch – r hört. 3


Bald mehr!
Ihr ganz ergebener
[signed:] O E Deutsch

© Transcription William Drabkin, 2023
{recto}
[printed:] ⇧ Postcard
[picture: cityscape with monument, captioned: “Innsbruck, Tyrol”]

[To:] ⇧ Dr. Heinrich Schenker
Keilgasse 8
Vienna III
{verso}
⇧ March 13, 1931

Dear revered friend, 1

If I, the poor fool, 2 understand the matter rightly, it is thus:

K[orngol]d thinks that Sp[ech]t writes the way B[eethove]n composes, as Sch[enke]r hears. 3


More soon!
Your wholly devoted
[signed:] . E. Deutsch

© Translation William Drabkin, 2023

Footnotes

1 Receipt of this postcard is recorded in Schenker’s diary for March 14, 1931: “Von Deutsch (K.): ein Witz zu Specht – J. K.” (“from Deutsch (postcard): a joke about Specht and Julius Korngold”).

2 “reiner Tor”: a phrase used to characterize Parsifal in the libretto of Wagner’s eponymous opera.

3 Julius Korngold’s review of Richard Specht’s Bildnis Beethovens (1931) appeared in the Neue Freie Presse on March 11 (p. 10). The review is noted in Schenker’s diary of that day, and a copy of it was pasted into Schenker’s scrapbook (OC 2, page 81).

Commentary

Format
printed picture postcard: printed picture, holograph recipient address, postmark and postage stamp, recto; holograph salutation, message, valediction, and signature, verso (portrait format)
Provenance
Schenker, Heinrich (document date-1935)--Schenker, Jeanette (1935-c.1942)--Ratz, Erwin (c.1942-c.1956)--Jonas, Oswald (c.1956-1978)--University of California, Riverside (1978--)
Rights Holder
Heirs of Otto Erich and Hanna Deutsch, published by kind permission
License
Permission to publish granted by the heirs of Otto Erich and Hanna Deutsch on February 12, 2008. Any claim to intellectual rights should be addressed to the Schenker Correspondence Project, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge, at schenkercorrespondence[at]mus(dot)cam(dot)ac(dot)uk

Digital version created: 2023-07-25
Last updated: 2015-09-19