Heinrich Schenker’s Diaries 1915–1919: An Annotated Edition

Heinrich Schenker (18681935) is regarded as one of the most influential music theoreticians of the 20th century. Many of his Jewish students emigrated to the United States, where they successfully planted Schenkers ideas on the structure of tonal music into the academic world. This contrasts with Schenkers own position in Vienna where, as a freelance author and private teacher, he never attained an academic post. His diaries, written between 1896 and his death, afford us insight not only into his private circumstances but also into the development of his theories, the network of his ramified professional contacts, and Viennese cultural life in which he participated vigorously. Based on three previous projects, which edited the diaries from the periods 19121914 and 19181935 and have made them accessible on the website Schenker Documents Online, the applicant of the present project will compile an annotated edition of the diaries from 19151917 along with Schenkers political post-war diary 1918/19. Together with their English translation, the texts will be continuously published online. The years during the First World War and the first post-war year are significant in various respects. In 1916 Schenker published the Erläuterungsausgabe (Elucidatory Edition) of Beethovens piano sonata in C minor, Op. 111 (Universal Edition). The diaries promise to offer insight in the genesis of this edition. Further, they contain Schenkers comments on cultural and political events of those years and thus offer the chance to describe the development of Schenkers view of the world. After the War, Schenker was pre-disposed to air his political thoughts in print. With this he was obviously reacting to the political re-orientation of Austria after the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy, to the controversial effects of the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain, and to an increase in anti-Semitism resulting from the mass immigration of Jewish refugees from the East. The project has relevance not only for musicology but also for other historical disciplines. Schenkers diaries provide material for, and points of intersection with, the social and modern history of World War I and the first post-war year, and facilitate a cultural and social analysis of the Viennese artistic network of which Schenker was an integral part. They illuminate interesting facets of Jewish identity during the First World War and provide a wealth of information for Jewish studies, cultural studies, as well as histories of thought and identity. The overarching project Schenker Documents Online, encompassing the diaries, correspondence, lesson books and unpulished works, promises to be exemplary in its relevance and impact. Through their dense interconnectivity, the sources complement one another, illustrating the same issues from different perspectives.

No additional funding sources recorded.