One of the less familiar corners of Schenker’s world, this correspondence affords a glimpse into Viennese philanthropy and institutional politics. It centers around a bequest, made in a will of 1915, for two stipends a year to be awarded to “impecunious skilled composers”—stipends that were placed in the lifetime gift of Schenker. No sooner had the bequest been made than attorneys contested it. Matters were complicated by the fact that the annual yield for these stipends was part of the interest on a large bequest to the Association for the Feeding and Clothing of Hungry Schoolchildren in Vienna:

Fifty percent shall, yearly upon my death date, be distributed in two equal parts to two impecunious skilled composers or similarly qualified composition pupils. Dr. Heinrich Schenker, [Vienna] III, Reisnerstrasse 38, is to adjudicate on these stipends for his lifetime. The stipends can also be awarded to the same applicants in more than one year.

When in 1924 the Association was wound up, the stipendiary part of the bequest was in an anomalous position, and a court ruling was required. This ruling only made matters worse for Schenker, for it placed the stipends in the hands of the Vienna Academy for Music and Performing Arts—the former Vienna Conservatory, and long-term focus of Schenker’s professional and personal animosity. Schenker was himself a Doctor of Law of Vienna University, so was equipped to fight his corner; he appealed the terms of the ruling, and in 1927 a verdict in his favor was handed down.

Thus the correspondence is a tale of legalistic infighting, which we view largely from Schenker’s vantage point. It also offers some insight into Schenker’s complex psychology: a man who never held an official position, who accepted no public honor, an outsider with a distrust of the Viennese professional world and many personal enmities, but who was suddenly given (in addition to a pension) the power of exclusive patronage. His reactions to being placed in this position are fascinating to trace through the exchange of letters and diary entries.