Letter from H. W. Henze to W. H. Auden/C. Kallman, July 19, 1960

Writing styles

• 1.

  Typescript.
• 2.

  Handwriting, Henze, Hans Werner, pencil.

Text Constitution

• 1.

  "u""U" replaced with "u"
• 2.

  " Naughty"crossed out, handwritten, pencil, supposedly by Henze, Hans Werner
• 3.

  "girl"crossed out, handwritten, pencil, supposedly by Henze, Hans Werner
• 4.

  "o""a" replaced with "o"
• 5.

  "d""l" replaced with "d"
• 6.

  "e""o" replaced with "e"
• 7.

  "v""k" replaced with "v"
• 8.

  "Wie"sic
• 9.

  "fòr"sic
• 10.

  "a n"sic
• 11.

  "y""t" replaced with "y"

Commentary

• 1.

  "… Wystan Naughty Chester girl :"It is very likely that Henze deleted these words himself, either for a possible publication of the correspondence or for archiving and public access at the Paul Sacher Foundation.
• 2.

  "… I told you he mentioned."Here, Henze alludes to the changes he requested from the librettists in his letter on 7 July 1960. According to Henze’s letter, Rennert – the opera’s producer and festival director – had proposed changes regarding the setting of the opera (point 1 of his letter on 7 July 1960), at what point to put the long 75-minute interval, and the proposal to include a purely instrumental divertimento (point 14 of his letter of 7 July 1960).
• 3.

  "Iquite"recte "I quite".
• 4.

  "… intention to soften Hinty ,"Here, Henze refers to his request in point 17 of the letter on July 7 1960.
• 5.

  "… Wie duftet doch der Flieder""Was duftet doch der Flieder" (How it smells of elder) (and not "Wie" as quoted here) is the first line of the monologue of the cobbler and mastersinger Hans Sachs in Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
• 6.

  "… , some more Stockhausen feierlichkeit"Henze used this expression to try to indicate a Stockhausen-like solemnity. In his Autobiography, p. 161, Henze talks about listening to Stockhausen’s Kontakte and there too he uses the adjective solemn, writing as follows: "Stockhausen’s Kontakte on 11 June [1960] left a deep impression on me. I think it must have been the first of his pieces that I heard. Here were some genuinely novel ideas, new sounds and a total rejection of the patterns that had been customary until that time. The close link between instrumental music (piano and percussion) and electronics (which must have had something to do with delayed tapes) seemed to me both plausible and convincing. I watched as the room, which, at a solemn sign from the composer at his sound mixer, was plunged into operatic darkness at the start of the piece, slowly fell under the spell of this organistic hypnosis, producing a mood of almost religious devotion to which listeners were famously obliged to submit and which they could understand fully only if they suspended all rational thought processes."
• 7.

  "… Just finished Hulda's big vision"Hilda’s 'big vision' scene is in Act I, Scene IV: Appearences and Visions.
• 8.

  "… on Toni's cherry tree aria"Here, Henze is referring to Toni’s aria in Act I, Scene X (A Visionary Interlude), which begins as follows: "O far and unforgotten May! / My mother, dying, would each day / Await a dear delight / With me – / We saw one blackbird sing the white / Blooms from our cherry-tree."
• 9.

  "scetches"recte "sketches".
• 10.

  "… for You must listen ."This means that Henze was composing Act I, Scene IX: To-day’s Weather.
• 11.

  "K"abbreviation of "Kirchstetten".
• 12.

  capolavoro

  • masterpiece
• 13.

  "… forward to seeing you both."Henze would visit Auden and Kallman in Kirchstetten from August 4-6, 1960, as evidenced by Henze’s entry in the two poets’ guest book, which is kept at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas. See "W. H. Auden (Biography)" in: Auden Musulin Papers , entry to 4-6 August 1960.
• 14.

  "noy"recte "not".
• 15.

  "rehearsel"recte "rehearsal".
• 16.

  "… enough rehearsel time, the dear."Karajan performed Antifone two years later with the Berliner Philharmoniker.
• 17.

  "overhere"recte "over here".
• 18.

  "… get the rug overhere ."At Kallman’s request, Henze had contacted Alessandro to have a rug sent to Ischia for Mitty, perhaps because Kallman had damaged hers. See Kallman’s letter of 6 July 1960.
• 19.

  Cari abbracci

  • dear hugs