Heinrich Schenker: Selected Correspondence

Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935) ranks as the leading twentieth-century theorist and analyst of tonal music. His ideas have shaped higher education in music in the United States profoundly, and influenced music theorists there, in Europe, and throughout the world. Living and working in Vienna, Schenker maintained a vigorous correspondence with a wide circle of professional musicians, writers, music critics, institutions, administrators, patrons, friends and pupils. A large part of his...
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Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935) ranks as the leading twentieth-century theorist and analyst of tonal music. His ideas have shaped higher education in music in the United States profoundly, and influenced music theorists there, in Europe, and throughout the world. Living and working in Vienna, Schenker maintained a vigorous correspondence with a wide circle of professional musicians, writers, music critics, institutions, administrators, patrons, friends and pupils. A large part of his correspondence was preserved after his death: some 7,000 letters, postcards, telegrams, etc., to and from 400 correspondents, spanning 1889-1935. In addition, his diaries, kept over the last forty years of his life in notebooks comprising 4,000 pages, not only record the fabric of his personal life and the running of his business as private music teacher; they also provide a detailed commentary on historical and political events. In short, these documents yield information about technical-musical matters and the musical life of Vienna, and also about the society, culture, and politics of his time. Heinrich Schenker: Selected Correspondence offers the full text of some 450 letters in English translation, organized into sections devoted to various aspects of his professional life. Each section is prefaced by an introduction, and all the letters are fully annotated. Extracts from the diaries are included to provide a summary of important parts of the correspondence that do not survive. IAN BENT is Professor Emeritus, after retiring from Full Professor of Music, at Columbia University and Honorary Professor in the History of Music Theory at the University of Cambridge. WILLIAM DRABKIN is Professor of Music at the University of Southampton. DAVID BRETHERTON is Senior Tutor in Music at the University of Southampton.