Heinrich Schenker - Early Years and Education

Early Years and Education

There is little biographical information about Heinrich Schenker available from external sources. Fortunately, he not only preserved kept many of his personal papers (including many thousands of letters), but also maintained a nearly 4000-page diary which includes many recollections from his early years. Most of the biographical information we have about Schenker stems from this work. Thus far, Hellmut Federhofer's Heinrich Schenker (1985; see the Bibliography) is the only book to attempt a general biography. Much of the information in this article stems from that work.

Schenker was born in Wisniowczyki, Ukraine in 1868 to Johann Schenker and his wife, Julia (born Mosler), both Jews. Schenker's father was a doctor who had been allowed to settle in Wisniowczyk, a village of only 1,759 inhabitants (according to the 1869 census). There is very little information about Schenker's parents; Moritz Violin, Schenker's life-long friend recalled Schenker describing "the seriousness of the father and the hot temper of the mother."

Schenker was the fith of six siblings: Markus (died 1880 in Lemberg), Rebeka (died 1889 in Gradiska), Wilhelm, a doctor, Schifre, and Moriz (Moses), born August 31, 1874. There is very little documentation concerning Schenker's childhood years. Schenker himself said nothing about his secondary school education. His musical instincts must have been discovered at an early age, for he went to Lemberg and studied with Carl Mikuli, but then continued his studies in Berezhany.

Schenker received a scholarship to move to Vienna where his family followed. Documents at the University of Vienna show him on the roster the beginning with the 1884/1885 season where he pursued a law degree. In addition to his studies at the University of Vienna, he was also enrolled at the Konservatorium of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (today University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna) from 1887 through 1890. His entrance examination results indicated that he initially studied composition with Franz Krenn and piano with Ernst Ludwig. Schenker and his father asked that he be exempted from the first year's fees. Other documents indicate that in his first year Schenker majored in harmony under Anton Bruckner. Schenker's father died in 1887, leaving the family destitute.

Carl Flesch, also in attendance at the Konservatorium, left a description of Schenker as a student "who seemed half-starved, and who towered far above the rest of us...It was Heinrich Schenker, who later came to enjoy high esteem for his original musical theories and his all-embracing practical and theoretical musicality."

Schenker's negative feelings toward Bruckner are revealed in a quote in his Harmony (1906, written nearly twenty years after instruction). When while teaching Bruckner encountered instances where practice departed from rules, he would say in Austrian dialect: "Look, gentlemen, this is the rule. Of course, I don't compose that way." Schenker had better memories of Ernst Ludwig. Ludwig accepted Schenker on the basis of his initial scholarship. Upon seeing some of Schenker's musical compositions, Ludwig recommended them to the pianist Julius Epstein. Later Ludwig sent students to study with Schenker. Schenker remembered Ludwig fondly and thought his teacher would have appreciated Schenker's work.

In the 1888-89 season, Schenker studied counterpoint under Bruckner and continued piano study under Ludwig, always receiving the highest grades. The following season Schenker joined the composition class of Johann Nepomuk Fuchs. He graduated n November 20, 1889 and was charged only half the fee for the school year (the fee paid by Ludwig Bösendorfer).