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WSLB 135 - Handwritten letter from Schenker to Hertzka (UE), dated September 7, 1912
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Es naht unser „lange“ Tag. Machen Sie ihn, bitte, nicht noch „länger“ dadurch, daß ich auf das Kleingeld von der „ U.E.“ 2 warten muß. Im Ernst: Ordnungshalber u. lediglich ordnungshalber – über die erste „Angriffnahme“ 3 war ich ja bald hinaus, nachdem ich Ihr Honoraranbot acceptirt hatte, also Ende Juni! – erbitte ich die kleine Summe. Was sagen Sie doch zu der Wiener Usance, den Namen anzukundigen, bevor noch irgend eine wesentliche Vertragseinigung zu Stande gekommen? Ich meine, die Ges. d. Musikfr. 4 „bei die Usance . . .“, 5 wie der Jude sagte, na! © Transcription Ian Bent, 2007, 2023 |
Our "long" day approaches. Please do not make it even "longer" by causing me to wait for my pittance from UE. 2 Seriously, now: for the sake of form, and merely for the sake of form ‒ I was well beyond initially "embarking upon the work" 3 soon after I accepted your honorarium offer, thus at the end of June! ‒ please let me have the small sum. So what do you think of the Viennese commercial practice of announcing the names before ever any sort of basic contractual agreement has materialized? I am referring to the Society of the Friends of Music. 4 "In commercial practices . . .", 5 as the Jew said. ‒ Honestly, I ask you! © Translation Ian Bent, 2007, 2023 |
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Es naht unser „lange“ Tag. Machen Sie ihn, bitte, nicht noch „länger“ dadurch, daß ich auf das Kleingeld von der „ U.E.“ 2 warten muß. Im Ernst: Ordnungshalber u. lediglich ordnungshalber – über die erste „Angriffnahme“ 3 war ich ja bald hinaus, nachdem ich Ihr Honoraranbot acceptirt hatte, also Ende Juni! – erbitte ich die kleine Summe. Was sagen Sie doch zu der Wiener Usance, den Namen anzukundigen, bevor noch irgend eine wesentliche Vertragseinigung zu Stande gekommen? Ich meine, die Ges. d. Musikfr. 4 „bei die Usance . . .“, 5 wie der Jude sagte, na! © Transcription Ian Bent, 2007, 2023 |
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Our "long" day approaches. Please do not make it even "longer" by causing me to wait for my pittance from UE. 2 Seriously, now: for the sake of form, and merely for the sake of form ‒ I was well beyond initially "embarking upon the work" 3 soon after I accepted your honorarium offer, thus at the end of June! ‒ please let me have the small sum. So what do you think of the Viennese commercial practice of announcing the names before ever any sort of basic contractual agreement has materialized? I am referring to the Society of the Friends of Music. 4 "In commercial practices . . .", 5 as the Jew said. ‒ Honestly, I ask you! © Translation Ian Bent, 2007, 2023 |
Footnotes1 Thanks are due to William Drabkin for help with aspects of this letter. 2 Reference is to the first half of the 1,200-Kronen honorarium for Die letzten fünf Sonaten von Beethoven ... Op. 109 , payable to him on his embarking upon work on the edition. (See also footnote 3.) 3 A direct allusion to Hertzka's letter, OC 52/493, June 8, 1912: "… einen Betrag von K 1200.– also zusammen K 6000.– Dieser Betrag soll in der Weise zahlbar sein, dass Sie die Hälfte stets bei Inangriffnahme und die zweite Hälfte bei Ablieferung einer Sonate erhalten." ("… a sum of 1,200 Kronen, thus altogether 6,000 Kronen. This amount will be payable such that you will receive half when you embark upon a sonata and the other half upon delivery thereof."), and also to the wording of the contract (OC 52/494, August 25, 1912). It is not easy to determine when Schenker actually accepted this offer, but his letter of WSLB 120, June 9, 1912 appears to do so. 4 Reference is to the announcement placed in several newspapers on September 15: OJ 11/22, [4], on account of which a bitter exchange of letters occurred between Schenker and the Society's officers. 5 Schenker underlines "die" presumably to draw attention to the grammatical error and thereby cast aspersions on the author: "bei" takes the dative case, hence the phrase should read "bei den Usancen"; the distinction cannot be rendered in English. The allusion is unclear, since the phrase is not used in the Gesellschaft's press announcement, nor is it used in Lafite's letter of September 18 (OJ 12/29, [6]), or any other known letter from the Gesellschaft's officers. |
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Commentary
Digital version created: 2023-03-08 |