Felix Salzer was born in Vienna into the Wittgenstein family (his mother, Helene Salzer, was the sister of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the pianist Paul Wittgenstein). By the time he became Schenker’s pupil in the fall of 1931 he had already, in 1926, completed his doctorate in musicology at the University of Vienna with Guido Adler and had published two articles, the first based on his dissertation, “Sonata Form in Franz Schubert.”

The present selection of the correspondence begins in 1930 with a letter concerning Salzer’s second published article, an essay on the meaning of the ornaments in C. P. E. Bach’s keyboard works that clearly was influenced by Schenker’s A Contribution to the Study of Ornamentation. Salzer had become familiar with Schenker’s approach while still in his teens, when he began studying theory and analysis with Schenker’s pupil Hans Weisse. The selection offers insight also into the private seminar of which Salzer was a member, initially convened by Weisse but taken over by Schenker when Weisse left for New York in the fall of 1931. When the seminar was dissolved in 1934, Salzer began private study with Schenker. The Five Analyses in Sketchform, which the seminar helped to prepare, also figures in the correspondence, as does Schenker’s progress on Free Composition and Salzer’s work on his first book, The Meaning and Essence of Western Polyphony. He went on to produce influential publications, including two books, and to co-edit a major periodical and spearhead the spread of Schenkerian thought in the United States and beyond.

Salzer was one of the first theorists to extend the scope of Schenkerian analysis back to music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance and forward to twentiethcentury works. His interest in such repertory dates back to his student years; letters show that Schenker supported his independent work in the field of early music, and even ventured into modern times by recommending a Bartók recording. The correspondence gives proof of the personal interest Schenker took in Salzer’s career and traces the warm and mutually respectful friendship that developed between teacher and pupil.

Hedi Siegel

Sinn und Wesen der abendländischen Mehrstimmigkeit (Vienna: Saturn Verlag, 1935).