OC 3/2-3: Oct 1913-Jun 1914 - Sofie Deutsch: lesson: Thursday October 9, 1913
© Transcription Robert Kosovsky, 2007, 2020 |
October 9, [1913] Deutsch † : 1 Brahms: Piano Quartet in C minor; analysis read out, corrections made to it; 2 new: analysis of the Scherzo. (See Kleine Bibliothek ). © Translation Ian Bent, 2020 |
© Transcription Robert Kosovsky, 2007, 2020 |
October 9, [1913] Deutsch † : 1 Brahms: Piano Quartet in C minor; analysis read out, corrections made to it; 2 new: analysis of the Scherzo. (See Kleine Bibliothek ). © Translation Ian Bent, 2020 |
Footnotes1 Schenker's diary for October 9 records: “Mrs. Deutsch, in search of the worth of the classics, made the glorious discovery that these are of infinite value because they always give much, and continue to give, without taking! Yes, that's it, what it amounts to in the world: taking and not giving. And as brutal and coarse the definition of a classic work sounds, when uttered by the mouth of the woman in question it is in a certain sense more to the point than a scientific definition: the classic author is the one who takes nothing, receives nothing, and gives much! How true! According to this definition I have been a classic for a very long time. May, however, fate help me to become a bit more romantic! – Oh, and what a collision when a woman like Mrs. Deutsch and a man like Mr. Pollak bump into one another! Only a fool could expect pure agreement in this – quite the contrary! People of this sort, time and again, need only ‘classics’ that give and do not take; and since they themselves are not classics, they would rather avoid each other than stand by each other. But what is thoroughly disgusting is the scene that Pollak depicts of when he came to Mrs. Deutsch by invitation. As her invitation also included playing the piano four-hands, she went to it straightaway, hardly had Pollak arrived, so that Pollak was thoroughly appalled by her blatant behavior and has since (not without justification) hesitated to visit her again. That is the world in which one becomes bored – and takes!” 2 The practice of a textual analysis, set in advance, being read out aloud to Schenker by the pupil, goes back in Deutsch’s case at least (she had been a pupil since 1902) to February 24, 1913, and can be seen continuing to at least June 1914. This is a clear example in which Schenker interacts with the pupil to make corrections. A similar procedure operated on a smaller scale with Hans Weisse. |
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Format† Double underlined |