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OJ 14/23, [23] - Handwritten picture postcard from Seligmann to Schenker, undated [February 28, 1931]
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⇧ Postkarte [photograph of village and river, captioned: Steyr – Oberösterreich] ⇧ Hw Herrn Dr H. Schenker Wien III Keilgasse 8 [postmark:] || 1 WIEN 1 | 12–13 | [illeg] | [illeg] || ⇧ Lieber freund! 1 Schönsten Dank f. Karte u. Brief[.] Ich bin schon sehr neugierig, etwas über den Onkel von Rameau’s Neffe 2 zu hören! Das Zitat aus dem Brief {verso} von Dr Weisse 3 hat mich höchlichst interessiert u. gefreut. Mit dem was Sie über unser das Ministerium sagen, haben Sie nun teilweise recht. Man kennt Sie dort sehr wohl – aber weiß nichts mit Ihnen anzufangen, was je im Grunde auf dasselbe hinauskommt! Aber können Sie denken, daß man es wagen würde, einen solchen Hecht in den Karpfenteich 4 – etwa die Musikakademie – Pardon! Hochschule 5 – zu setzen?? © Transcription William Drabkin, 2022 |
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⇧ Postcard [photograph of village and river, captioned: Steyr – Upper Austria] ⇧ Dr. H. Schenker, Esq. Vienna III Keilgasse 8 [postmark:] || 1 VIENNA 1 | 12–13 | [illeg] | [illeg] || ⇧ Dear friend, 1 Most grateful thanks for your postcard and letter. I am already very curious to hear something about the uncle of Rameau’s nephew! 2 The quotation from Dr. Weisse’s letter 3 {verso} greatly interested and delighted me. In what you say about our Ministry, you are only partly correct. You are very well known there – but they don’t know how to begin to deal with you, which basically amounts to the same thing! But can you imagine that one would dare to put such a pike in a pond of carp 4 such as the Academy of Music (sorry: College!)?? 5 © Translation William Drabkin, 2022 |
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⇧ Postkarte [photograph of village and river, captioned: Steyr – Oberösterreich] ⇧ Hw Herrn Dr H. Schenker Wien III Keilgasse 8 [postmark:] || 1 WIEN 1 | 12–13 | [illeg] | [illeg] || ⇧ Lieber freund! 1 Schönsten Dank f. Karte u. Brief[.] Ich bin schon sehr neugierig, etwas über den Onkel von Rameau’s Neffe 2 zu hören! Das Zitat aus dem Brief {verso} von Dr Weisse 3 hat mich höchlichst interessiert u. gefreut. Mit dem was Sie über unser das Ministerium sagen, haben Sie nun teilweise recht. Man kennt Sie dort sehr wohl – aber weiß nichts mit Ihnen anzufangen, was je im Grunde auf dasselbe hinauskommt! Aber können Sie denken, daß man es wagen würde, einen solchen Hecht in den Karpfenteich 4 – etwa die Musikakademie – Pardon! Hochschule 5 – zu setzen?? © Transcription William Drabkin, 2022 |
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⇧ Postcard [photograph of village and river, captioned: Steyr – Upper Austria] ⇧ Dr. H. Schenker, Esq. Vienna III Keilgasse 8 [postmark:] || 1 VIENNA 1 | 12–13 | [illeg] | [illeg] || ⇧ Dear friend, 1 Most grateful thanks for your postcard and letter. I am already very curious to hear something about the uncle of Rameau’s nephew! 2 The quotation from Dr. Weisse’s letter 3 {verso} greatly interested and delighted me. In what you say about our Ministry, you are only partly correct. You are very well known there – but they don’t know how to begin to deal with you, which basically amounts to the same thing! But can you imagine that one would dare to put such a pike in a pond of carp 4 such as the Academy of Music (sorry: College!)?? 5 © Translation William Drabkin, 2022 |
Footnotes1 Receipt of this postcard is recorded in Schenker’s diary for February 28, 1931: “Von Seligmann (K.): Dank! „Im Ministerium weiß man sehr wohl von Ihnen, weiß aber mit Ihnen nichts anzufangen!“” (“From Seligmann (postcard): thanks! ‘In the Ministry, one knows a great deal about you, but doesn’t know where to begin to deal with you!’”). 2 An allusion to Diderot’s satirical philosophical novel, Le neveu de Rameau. Seligmann is responding here to a letter of February 26, 1931 (WSLB-Hds 94479), in which Schenker says that the essay "Rameau or Beethoven?," Das Meisterwerk in der Musik III, (1930) may be of interest to him, and alleges that nobody at the Ministry of Education knows him. 3 An excerpt of a letter from Leo Kestenberg to Hans Weisse quoted in Schenker’s letter of February 26, 1931 (WSLB-Hds 94479). 4 That is, to stir up trouble (“to set a cat among the pigeons”). 5 The “Akademie” was redesignated a “Hochschule” in 1925, then split internally into two parallel institutions, Akademie and Hochschule. This period ended in the early 1930s with the resumption of the single designation “Akademie.” |
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Commentary
Digital version created: 2022-11-30 |