While Schenker first witnessed Julius Röntgen perform five years before he wrote his first extant letter to him, we do not know when the two men first met or communicated with each other. In his letter of March 15, 1901 to the Leipzig-born composer, pianist, and accompanist, Schenker invited Röntgen to join him in preparing practical editions of keyboard works from the classical canon, a commission from Josef Weinberger, co-founder of the publishing firm of Universal Edition. Röntgen accepted and completed no fewer than eight volumes of music by J. S. Bach the following year. Schenker’s correspondence with Röntgen ranged far beyond matters related to the commission, however. With his letter of April 13, 1901, Schenker sent Röntgen copies of two of his recently published scores: Six Songs, Op. 3, and Two-voice Inventions, Op. 5. Röntgen replied on April 22, expressing thanks and sharing his candidly ambivalent impressions of Schenker’s compositions.

Outwardly, their friendship was unaffected by this exchange. When their correspondence resumed in 1908, their mutual respect seemed as genuine as ever. Schenker offered advice about publishing in Vienna, Röntgen expressed regret about not seeing Schenker on a trip to Austria, and the two traded thoughts about performance practice, inspired by Schenker’s gift of a copy of the second edition of A Contribution to the Study of Ornamentation (1908). But in a diary entry of January 13, 1907, Schenker recorded impressions of Röntgen’s musicianship that belied—or at least complicated—the respect conveyed in his letters. Speaking of Röntgen in the same breath as the composer and keyboardist Max Reger, Schenker described Röntgen’s playing as warm and passionate, but “without artistic understanding or any creative breath whatsoever.” Röntgen’s last surviving note to Schenker, a lettercard of February 10, 1915, looks back fondly and with evident nostalgia at their earliest encounters, sometime prior to 1900.

Kevin c. Karnes

Schenker to Röntgen (letter), March 15, 1901

NMI C 176-02 (= OJ 5/18, [A])

Revered, dear Professor,

Do not be frightened by a matter of business alone! Austria has recently been preparing to emancipate itself from Germany— specifically, from the two largest discount houses, Breitkopf & Härtel and Peters. A committee is making preparations for a new edition, to include all works in the musical literature!! The project, in spite of the enormous number of collaborators, is naturally projected to take several years, and I personally know from an authoritative financier that the undertaking rests soundly upon a foundation of millions. The edition should delight not only the eastern hinterlands (the Balkan provinces, etc.), but will also touch upon Germany, England, France—in short, it will radiate outward in all directions.