Donnerstag, 22. Dec. 49.

Mein lieber, lieber Freund!

Es liegt Gottes Segen auf Ihrer gütigen Bemühung um mich! Gestern traf ich Mr. Sessions. 1 Wir waren 2½ Stunden in Gesprächen verwickelt. Ich bekam einen hervorragenden Eindruck vom Charakter dieses Mannes. Abends nach hause kommend, fand ich eine telefonische Nachricht, welche mich für Sonntag 2 zum Dinner aufforderte.

Ich sprach soeben über das Telephon mit ihm, u. er sagte mir daß außer mir nur 3 seiner Schüler anwesend sein werden u. er wünscht daß sie meine Bekanntschaft machen. Das Alles klingt nicht nur gut, sondern sieht auch gut aus.

Ich hoffe Sie werden mit Ihrer l. Familie freudige Feiertage verbringen! Möchte gerne über Ihr u. der Ihren Befinden hören.


Haben Sie tausend Dank!
Ihr
dankbar getreuer
[signed:] M Violin

© Transcription Ian Bent, 2020


Thursday, December 22, 1949

My dear, dear Friend,

God's blessing rests on the pains you kindly take on my behalf! Yesterday I met Mr. Sessions. 1 We were engrossed in conversation for two-and-a-half hours. I gained an outstanding impression of the character of this man. Arriving home in the evening, I found a telephone message that invited me to dinner on Sunday. 2

I just spoke with him on the telephone, and he told me that other than myself only three of his students will be present, and he wants them to make my acquaintance. That all not only sounds good but looks good, too.

I hope you and your dear family will have joy over the holidays! I should very much like to hear how you and your dear ones are keeping.


I send you a thousand thanks!
Your
gratefully loyal
[signed:] M. Violin

© Translation Ian Bent, 2020


Donnerstag, 22. Dec. 49.

Mein lieber, lieber Freund!

Es liegt Gottes Segen auf Ihrer gütigen Bemühung um mich! Gestern traf ich Mr. Sessions. 1 Wir waren 2½ Stunden in Gesprächen verwickelt. Ich bekam einen hervorragenden Eindruck vom Charakter dieses Mannes. Abends nach hause kommend, fand ich eine telefonische Nachricht, welche mich für Sonntag 2 zum Dinner aufforderte.

Ich sprach soeben über das Telephon mit ihm, u. er sagte mir daß außer mir nur 3 seiner Schüler anwesend sein werden u. er wünscht daß sie meine Bekanntschaft machen. Das Alles klingt nicht nur gut, sondern sieht auch gut aus.

Ich hoffe Sie werden mit Ihrer l. Familie freudige Feiertage verbringen! Möchte gerne über Ihr u. der Ihren Befinden hören.


Haben Sie tausend Dank!
Ihr
dankbar getreuer
[signed:] M Violin

© Transcription Ian Bent, 2020


Thursday, December 22, 1949

My dear, dear Friend,

God's blessing rests on the pains you kindly take on my behalf! Yesterday I met Mr. Sessions. 1 We were engrossed in conversation for two-and-a-half hours. I gained an outstanding impression of the character of this man. Arriving home in the evening, I found a telephone message that invited me to dinner on Sunday. 2

I just spoke with him on the telephone, and he told me that other than myself only three of his students will be present, and he wants them to make my acquaintance. That all not only sounds good but looks good, too.

I hope you and your dear family will have joy over the holidays! I should very much like to hear how you and your dear ones are keeping.


I send you a thousand thanks!
Your
gratefully loyal
[signed:] M. Violin

© Translation Ian Bent, 2020

Footnotes

1 This is the direct result of a letter that Violin received from Sessions dated December 14, 1949, OJ 70/37, [1], inviting Violin to meet with him before December 26. Sessions's letter was written at the instigation of Schoenberg, and this accounts for Violin's opening sentence. A carbon copy of Schoenberg's letter to Sessions dated November 7, 1949, is preserved in the Arnold Schoenberg Collection of the Library of Congress Two replies from Sessions to Schoenberg exist, 23 December and 29 December, also preserved in the Library of Congress. In the latter, Sessions, while declaring a reservation over the poor quality of Violin's English, says:

"What I have decided to do, and in fact have already begun to do, is try to form a class for him among my best pupils, whom I am convinced would not only be fascinated by him and by what he can show them, but would be immensely benefited by the mere contact with a man of such background. If I can succeed in getting such a class started, and it has the success which I am sure it will have, I have great hopes of persuading the people in charge of such things here at the University to offer him something more steady. Because of his age it would have to be at the University Extension—how stupid that all is!"

These three letters are printed in Sabine Feisst, Schoenberg's Correspondence with American Composers: A Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 667‒72.

2 i. e. Christmas Day.