Career Summary

After law studies in Heidelberg, Munich and Freiburg, Heinsheimer joined the editorial staff of Universal Edition in Vienna in 1923, As head of its opera department from 1924 to 1938, he supported and published the works of such composers as Alban Berg, Leoš Janácek, Ernst Křenek and Kurt Weill, and contributed many articles to the in-house journal Musikblätter des Anbruch (later Anbruch). After the death of the firm's director Emil Hertzka, he directed the company jointly with Hugo Winter and Alfred Kalmus from 1932 until he emigrated to the USA in 1938. With Paul Stefan he edited the first memorial volume on UE's history: 25 Jahre Neue Musik: Jahrbuch 1926 der Universal-Edition (Vienna: UE, 1926).

He joined the staff of Boosey & Hawkes in New York, supporting the music of, among other composers, Béla Bartók, Aaron Copland and Igor Stravinsky. He moved to G. Schirmer in 1947, becoming its director of publications in 1957, then vice-president in 1972, particularly involved with the works of Menotti, Bernstein and Barber. He retired in 1977.

While in the USA, Heinsheimer wrote a book about his life in publishing, Menagerie in F sharp (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1947), later reworked as Best Regards to Aida: the Defeats and Victories of a Music Man on Two Continents (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968). He also wrote Fanfare for Two Pigeons (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1952). After retirement, he contributed many articles to the encyclopedia Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.

Heinsheimer and Schenker

Schenker and Heinsheimer corresponded on practicalities, mostly concerning the marketing of Der Tonwille in 1923‒24. Five items of correspondence in all survive: three from Heinsheimer to Schenker: OC 52/360 (October 5, 1923), OC 52/364 (November 7, 1923), OC 52/591 (April 30, 1924); and two from Schenker to Heinsheimer WSLB 324 (April 29, 1924), WSLB 329 (June 6, 1924). The diary records other correspondence and occasional meetings, but contact between the two men ceased once Schenker became embroiled in his 1924‒25 legal dispute with Universal Edition.

Jeanette Schenker's contacts with Universal Edition in looking after his affairs post-1935 seem to have been with Alfred Kalmus (OJ 12/8, [1]‒[4], July 1935 to January 1936). However, Schenker's pupil Oswald Jonas, who maintained contact with her, was evidently in touch with other officials at Universal Edition: Hugo Winter, Herman Roth and Hans Heinsheimer. Significantly, a postcard to Jeanette dated February 17, 1938 (OJ 12/6, [48]) states: "Dr. Heinsheimer leaves next week for America and will inquire about the market conditions for a possible English edition." This was apparently a routine business trip (his first to the USA); but while there the Anschluss occurred (March 12), consequently he made New York his home. (In Menagerie, pp. 8‒9, he describes his arrival in New York, but gives no date.)