Ernő Dohnányi's Library and Music Collection1
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Ernő Dohnányi’s Library and Music Collection1 Anna LASKAI Institute for Musicology Research Center for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Táncsics Mihály utca 7, Budapest H-1014, Hungary E-mail: [email protected] (Received: November 2017; accepted: January 2018) Abstract: It is not an easy task to reconstruct the library and music collection of a composer, whose homes – from Hungary through some European cities and South America to the United States – cannot be counted on the fingers of both hands. This paper investigates the story of Ernő Dohnányi’s music collection and music library: summarizes the stages of Dohnányi’s life, where he stayed for a longer period of time, therefore makes it possible to round up a considerable library and also discusses the lists, which give account of the items of the composer’s books and scores. These lists preserved about the content of Dohnányi’s previous Hungarian books and music col- lections of the Széher út villa, the music collection on Városmajor utca (the house of Dohnányi’s sister), and about the library and music collection of the Dohnányis’ Tal- lahassee home. The author of this paper could use the items of Dohnányi’s books and scores, which the composer possessed in the final decade of his lifetime, too. At pres- ent, these documents, Dohnányi’s American Estate is in the care of the Archives for 20th–21st Century Hungarian Music of the Institute for Musicology, Research Centre for Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. Beside the lists, the correspondence between Dohnányi and his sister, Mici, also contains information about the story of Dohnányi’s libraries and music collections. This overview follows Dohnányi’s collection even during the American years when he wanted to receive volumes of his former library, and understandably wanted to establish as rich a library as he had in his previous homes. Keywords: Dohnányi, residences, library, musical collection 1. This study is an edited part of my MA thesis at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Veronika Kusz. Studia Musicologica 59/1–2, 2018, pp. 99–208 DOI: 10.1556/6.2018.59.1–2.8 1788-6244 © 2018 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 100 Anna Laskai It is no easy task to reconstruct the library and music collection of a composer, whose homes – from Hungary through European cities and South America to the United States – cannot be counted on the fingers of both hands. So an under- standing of where Dohnányi could have held collections, calls for investigation of all the places where he stayed for a longer period of time.2 The question of how Dohnányi’s library looked was first raised by Éva Kelemen, who studied a section of Dohnányi’s library and sheet music collection held in the Dohnányi Collection of the National Széchényi Library’s Music Department.3 This overview by Kelemen not only covers the published pieces, for it is the first to pick out the places where Dohnányi could to have a library at all. Kelemen herself mentions that she made primary use of recollections and per- sonal statements in describing the environment surrounding the composer. The author of this paper was the first who could examine the books and scores that Dohnányi possessed in the final decade of his life.4 These documents, constituting Dohnányi’s American Estate, are now in Budapest, in the care of the Archives for 20th–21st Century Hungarian Music, at the Institute for Musicology of the Re- search Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Although this paper relies strongly on Kelemen’s study, it seeks also to explore some other primary sources. It relies, alongside the 255 books and 213 scores in the American Dohnányi Collection, on some documents recounting the content of Dohnányi’s earlier book and music collections – lists that point to the structure of collections he held at his Széher út villa, in the music collection on Városmajor utca, where Dohnányi’s sister Mici (Mária Dohnányi, Mrs Ferenc Kováts) lived, and in the library and music collection at the composer’s Tallahassee home. The first two lists were initiated by Dohnányi’s sister (the compiler of the second being mostly Béla Csuka), who sent them to the Dohnányis. As documents, the compos- er and erstwhile Dohnányi student Edward Kilényi Jr. found them of great import 2. On his homes, see György Horváth and László Gombos, “A Dohnányi család története” [History of the Dohnányi family], in Dohnányi Évkönyv 2002 [Dohnányi Yearbook 2002], ed. Márta Sz. Farkas (Budapest: MTA Zenetudományi Intézet, 2002), 94. 3. Éva Kelemen, “Dohnányi Ernőnek dedikált kották az Országos Széchényi Könyvtárban” [Sheet music dedicated to Dohnányi in the Music Collection of the National Széchényi Library], in Dohnányi Évkönyv 2005 [Dohnányi Yearbook 2005], eds László Gombos and Márta Sz. Farkas (Budapest: MTA Zenetudományi Intézet, 2006), 33–62. 4. On the American Dohnányi Collection, see Veronika Kusz, Dohnányi Ernő amerikai hagyatéka a Zenetudományi Intézetben [Dohnányi’s American Estate in the Institute for Musicology] http://www.zti.hu/ mza-dohnanyi/docs/DE_amerikai_hagyateka_a_ZTI-ben.pdf (accessed 4 September 2017). The Hungarian state bought the American estate from Dohnányi’s heir, Dr Seàn Ernst McGlynn. It can now be found in the Dohnányi Collection at the Archives for 20th–21st Century Hungarian Music of the Institute for Musicology of the Research Centre for Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest [hereafter: Dohnányi Collection IfM RCH HAS]. The illustrations published in this article originate from there and appear by per- mission of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Studia Musicologica 59, 2018 Dohnányi’s Library and Music Collection 101 and removed them from the Tallahassee house after Dohnányi’s death. Kilényi’s heirs later passed them on to Florida State University.5 Further information on Dohnányi’s libraries and music collections emerges in the correspondence between Dohnányi and his sister Mici. It is revealing to know what books and scores he asked his sister to send him from Hungary. By the end of the 1950s, the lists, at least of the books, were completed, for in 1958 and 1959 Dohnányi probably based on them references to actual volumes he wanted to have sent to him. Their correspondence suggests such shipments only became possible in the second half of the 1950s, as his sister reported to him several times earlier that books could not be sent.6 It also emerges from their correspondence that the Dohnányi’s American li- brary in 1959 contained about 1,200 books.7 This paper summarizes the stages in Dohnányi’s life, where he stayed for a longer period, and was able to gather a considerable library. Then come the hith- erto unknown sources and the list of what can be found in Dohnányi’s American estate and that of Kilényi, with some significant information about the Hungarian and American collections.8 * * * The profession of Dohnányi’s father meant that he grew up among many books and scores, although there is no clear information on these. Frigyes Dohnányi taught mathematics, physics, and music at the Royal Catholic Gymnasium in Chief in Pozsony [today: Bratislava, Slovakia], and also played the cello and com- posed music. He is mainly remembered for his work on the principals of a new shorthand system known as panstenographia.9 In addition, he was the first to set up an X-ray laboratory in Pozsony, in the Gymnasium’s physics depository.10 Dohnányi lived as a student in four different Budapest apartments, according to letters he wrote to his sister Mária (Mici) and to his father, which provide ac- 5. See the original manuscript in the Kilényi–Dohnányi Collection of Florida State University, “Miscel- laneous Documents 1897–1950, 16.” 6. See Mária Dohnányi’s letter to Dohnányi, 31 July 1956. Dohnányi Collection IfM RCH HAS: MZA-DE-Ta-Script 81.178. 7. Kelemen Éva, ed., Dohnányi Ernő családi levelei [Family letters of Ernő Dohnányi], (Budapest: Országos Széchényi Könyvtár – Gondolat Kiadó – MTA Zenetudományi Intézet, 2011), 264. 8. See the lists in the appendix of this article for Dohnányi’s American Music Collection (1), the Music Collections of Széher út (2) and Városmajor utca (3), and Dohnányi’s Library (4). 9. Frigyes Dohnányi, Panstenographia. Egyetemes, minden nyelvre való gyorsírás. Különös tekintettel a magyar és német, valamint a szláv és latin nyelvre, iskolák és magánhasználatra [Panstenographia. Short- hand suited to all languages. With special regard to Hungarian and German, the Slavic and Latin languages, to school and private use], (Pozsony, 1887). For further publications by him, see Emil Kumlik, Dohnányi Frigyes 1843–1909. Egy magyar gyorsíró élete és munkássága [Frigyes Dohnányi 1843–1909: The life and work of a Hungarian stenographer], (Budapest, 1937), 85. 10. Ibid., 9. Studia Musicologica 59, 2018 102 Anna Laskai counts of them. However, there is no clue to the number of volumes he owned at the time. From September 1894, Dohnányi lived at No. 88, Andrássy út, and then on the third floor of No. 10, Hunyadi tér.11 In Dohnányi’s letter to his sister on 21 September 1894, the young composer sent a detailed drawing of his Andrássy út apartment, marking where his bookcase stood.12 Up to the end of his studies in 1897, he lived in two further apartments: one on Király utca, by the Academy of Music, and the other on Rudolf [now Széchényi] Quay, with a Danube view.13 He again sent his sister a detailed drawing of this, but without marking his bookcase.14 By 1901, Dohnányi was in Vienna. Then followed a one-year stay in Budapest, after which he settled in Vienna with his family in 1903–1905 (District XIX, No.