Dahms, Walter (born Berlin, June 9, 1887; died Lisbon, Oct 5, 1973). German music critic and writer on music. Dahms was music critic of the Kleines Journal (1912) and the Neue Preussische Kreuz-Zeitung, and wrote for, among other publications, the Ostdeutsche Rundschau, the Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung, the Münchner neueste Nachrichtungen, and the Musikus-Almanach, at least between 1913 and 1928. The books that Dahms published during Schenker's lifetime, all of which were in Schenker's private library at his death, are: Schubert (Berlin & Leipzig: Schuster & Loeffler, 1912) Dahms moved to Lisbon in 1935, and continued to publish books there. Dahms and Schenker Dahms became one of Schenker's strongest supporters and advocates. He first came to Schenker's attention in May 1913. His review of Schenker's Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue edition (July 15, 1913) pleased the latter, several other reviews at that time drew attention to Schenker's ideas, and his review of Die letzten fünf Sonaten ... op. 109 "Beethoven redivivus", December 31, 1913, and the cordial response from Schenker that it evoked, encouraged him in April 1914 to express the desire (reported in WSLB 202) to move from Berlin to Vienna in order to become a pupil of Schenker. He did study briefly with Schenker's pupil Otto Vrieslander (who was based in Munich) c.1919, but decided to discontinue this and sought Schenker's advice on further study. Schenker regularly arranged for him to receive complimentary copies of his publications, from Die letzten fünf Sonaten ... op. 109 to Das Meisterwerk in der Musik, vol. III (1930). In 1918, he was involved with Vrieslander, Halm and Herman Roth in an attempt to launch a Festschrift for Schenker's fiftieth birthday, through Universal Edition. Dahms was conservative in outlook, and applauded Schenker's uncompromising pronouncements on contemporary music and shared his German nationalist and anti-democratic political views (though he disagreed with him hotly over Germany's militarism). Correspondence 105 items of correspondence survive from Dahms to Schenker in OJ 10/1 (1913 to 1931), and one letter from UE to Dahms with annotations by Schenker (OC 52/617, undated). No correspondence from Schenker to Dahms is known to survive. There are also many references to Dahms in Schenker's diary. In addition, clippings of eight reviews by Dahms of Schenker's publications are preserved in Schenker's scrapbook (OC 2/pp. 38, 41-42, 49, 54, 61, 67, 72, 75). Of these, two more general articles about Schenker are: "Heinrich Schenker: zu seinem 50. Geburtstag am 19. Juni 1918," Konservative Monatsschrift, June 1918, 647-49 Source: Baker's1971 |
|
|
|