Page - 213 - in Guido Adlers Erbe - Restitution und Erinnerung an der Universität Wien

© 2017, V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847107217 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737007214 developed the notion of a comprehensivemusicology, but didn’t really follow it at the University of Vienna verymuch, but it became known elsewhere, includingtheUnitedStates,andthus itwas introduced.Then, all the European immigrants came, and they never really followed the Adler approach. You can’t claim that Dragan Plamenac was trying to develop a comprehensive musicology, although he might have really claimed that hewouldhave liked to, he just hadn’t got around to it yet. PVB: That’s certainly correct. I don’t think there was ever an attempt in the early years afterWorldWar II at the University of Chicago to develop anything thatwascomprehensive.Therewasapointatwhich fiveoutof sixmusicologistswereearly-music scholars.Thatwasunderstood tobe highly specializedanddeservingof thename,musicology. BN: Ofcourse,ChicagoforalongtimedidhaveLeonardMeyer33(1918–2007), who tookabroadviewof thewhole thing. PVB: That’s certainly an interesting observation about Chicago. Of course, Meyer, as a theorist, had just abroaderhorizon inacertain sense. OntheAdlerGenealogy PVB: Tothisquestionofgenealogy,we’ve talkedaboutGlenHaydon,Carleton SpragueSmith,DraganPlamenac,KarlGeiringer. BN: Iwas trying to find other people.My fatherwas not a Ph.D. student of Adler, butheworkedwithAdler as akindofpostdoc. PVB: AsanAssistent? BN: Iguessso.NotasanAssistentattheinstitute. In1927,Adlerwasrunning thiscentennialconferenceonBeethoven.ThiswasaverybigdealtoAdler, andgenerally.Apparently, the local arrangementswere in a stateofdis- aster,andheaskedmyfather tocomeandstraightenthingsout. Ihaveto confessthatInever thoughtofmyfatherasanyonewhocouldstraighten out any organizationalmatters. Anyway, theywere fairly close. It is in- terestingthat,whenAdlerlistedagroupofpeoplewhomhefoundhelpful – there’s a listof fouror five scholars–andthenat theendhesays, “bei demmirpersönlichnahestehendenPragerPaulNettl.”34So, he felt par- ticularly close. PVB: Could thatbePragueconnections? BN: Maybe so. If you realize that, when Adler wrote the famous article in 1885,35myfatherwasnotyetborn.HehadcertainlyleftforPraguebefore 33 LeonardB.MeyerwasanAmericanmusictheoristandphilosopherwhoseinfluentialwriting rangedwidely acrossmany areas ofmusic scholarship. He studied at Columbia and the UniversityofChicago.He later taught atChicagoandtheUniversityofPennsylvania. 34 Adler:WollenundWirken(Anm.8),S. 119. 35 Adler:Umfang,MethodeundZiel (Anm.18). Adler inAmerica–AConversation 213 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0