Schenker’s correspondence with Otto Erich Deutsch is among his largest. The earliest known letter from Deutsch dates from June 25, 1913; but prior to this, in late 1912, both were apparently speakers at a public lecture series at the Society of the Friends of Music, and in addition Schenker’s diary entry for February 24, 1913, reports an evening spent with Deutsch following a lecture by Schenker’s pupil Sofie Deutsch. The correspondence reached its peak in the late 1920s and early 1930s and mostly concerns Schenker’s publications; it also includes numerous social invitations, which attest to an increasingly close relationship between the Schenkers and the Deutsches. After Heinrich’s death, the Deutsches remained close to Jeanette, and Otto Erich’s last known letter to Jeanette, in which he mentions his plans to visit London and New York, is dated May 3, 1939. In the event, Deutsch’s Jewish ancestry compelled him to flee Austria, and he lived in England from 1939 to 1951 (initially interned as an “enemy alien”) before returning to Vienna.

The selection of correspondence presented here dates from the early 1920s— happier times for both couples. The Schenkers had finally been able to marry in November, 1919, and Otto Erich and Hanna were to have their son Franz Peter in the following July. These years also saw the first significant scholarly collaboration between Schenker and Deutsch: the publication in 1921 of a manuscript facsimile of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata as the first volume in the series Musical Rarities: Viennese Connoisseur Prints, of which Deutsch was general editor.

By this time Schenker had already published his elucidatory editions of Beethoven’s Opp. 109, 110, and 111, and that of Op. 101 and the complete edition of Beethoven’s piano sonatas were to appear over the next few years. These editions were rooted in Schenker’s study of original manuscripts and first editions, and the elucidatory editions in particular included transcriptions of manuscript sketches and descriptions of autographs, so Schenker was clearly convinced that there was both a need and a demand for this kind of publication. The facsimile edition of the “Moonlight” Sonata can be seen as a continuation of his interest in demonstrating the value of composers’ autograph manuscripts for the interpretation of their works, as well as being part of an emerging fashion for facsimile editions of composer autographs.