The idea of a monograph on the Ninth Symphony came about in part fortuitously. On October 16, 1909, Schenker reported to Emil Hertzka that Wilhelm Bopp, Director of the Vienna Academy, wished to arrange a “historical” concert for January or February 1910, the program comprising:

• 1) Concerto for keyboard and orchestra by C. P. E. Bach

• 2) Concerto for two keyboards and string orchestra by C. P. E. Bach

• 3) Cantata by J. S. Bach.

And there might in addition, at my suggestion, be as a fourth work a concerto by Handel for harp and orchestra.

Preparations for this event continued, for in February Schenker visited Hertzka with Moriz Violin to deliver the latter’s “modest little manuscript […] intended to serve as a prelude to, but also as the program booklet for the historical concert” (letter to Hertzka, February 15, 1910). Four months later came a howl of rage:

In early July Schenker traveled to the Karer Pass, in the Dolomites, for a summer vacation during which he evidently hatched a new project, provisionally dubbed “Pocket Library.” From his hotel he wrote to J. G. Cotta, publisher of his New Musical Theories and Fantasies, describing his plan and explaining its relationship to that series. Included in the plan from the start was Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and within a month a monograph of this work had taken pride of place in his plans.

Was it Bopp’s change of heart from the Bach family to Beethoven’s Ninth that diverted Schenker into writing his monograph?