1962
7 10 january 1962 Dear Istvan, [ … ] The week in N[ew] Y[ork] took its toll. I’m battling a cold but will survive I’m sure. The performance was poor but the recording session went very well so things tended to achieve a balance.1 You are perfectly right in pointing out the lack of insight into the true nature of the work. But what should we expect in a thoughtless, jaded world where enthusiasm & the ability to marvel are rarities? Paul is improving week by week. He is reading more & starting to think of school. While it won’t be possible for him to attend school on a regular basis we are thinking of a tutor arrangement or part-time attendance , whichever turns out to be more practical. I’m sorry your paper goes slowly but I’m certain once inside it you will succeed very well.2 Needless to say I’m eagerly looking forward to it— to compare “notes.” My own effort is done after much sweat & rewriting .3 But it still may not escape your “composer’s dilettantism.” I know your feelings & groan inwardly every time I strike on the hard rocks of philosophy or psychology. Still I don’t think we must proceed by means of “scientific method” since we are dealing with art & art is not susceptible to a methodological ideology which derives from totally foreign fields & subject matter. In N[ew] Y[ork] I had dinner with a mathematician who pointed out—“music to my ears”—that there is no such thing as an abstract scientific method—that it is a false theology even for the scientist; that there are methodologies which are valid only in relation to the fields they attempt to organize—hence there are as many methods as 1962| 11 there are definably different areas of scientific investigation. Here I stop since I cannot take this much further & especially because I do not want to throw you any curves. When I can I will begin to work at a revision of Time-Span—it is hard work to revise but I feel the need to take the work one step further before leaving it alone forever. [ … ] George 8 16 february 1962 Dear George I was sorry to read that you and your family have to prolong the time of uncertainty and anxiety … We very much feel with you and wait anxiously for news about Paul! Have patience … (a thing easier to write about than to master). [ … ] During this period of anxiety I did work on the preparation of the concert , the programme of which I include here. (We only put up such [a] concert if there is worthwhile material for it. That does not happen every year.) This was the second time that the local union helped us in this manner. This of course removes the handicap: student composers’ works played by student players. I told my students: go ahead write for professionals . Of the four student composers one is a well above average talent , Alan Heard.4 His present leading lights include Varèse and Berg. He is twenty, intelligent, tough (meaning that he is willing to fight out a solution ) and possesses a composer’s imagination. [ … ] BMI Canada showed recently an interest in publishing the score of my symphony as a study-score. They plan to reprint it from the original transparencies, but in case this wouldn’t work they seem to be willing to have the work recopied. That would be my first publication.5 Perhaps it’s time … Another good news: I found the title for my March 5th lecture : “Music: Mode of Human Communication.”6 As you well guess I did not start writing the damn thing, as yet. I kept on reading and reading, but now I am ready to call it a halt and start writing during this weekend . I am afraid that I may have only a rough copy for the lecture and so won’t be able to send you a copy on or about the 5th of March, but it won’t be delayed much. (I am much too curious to find out what you think about it. This prompts me to ask: how did your lecture go?7 Please send me a copy of it, but don’t mail it before the 4th of March. I don’t want to start discussion with you before my lecture is over.) Part I: A New Friendship (1961–1964) 12 | [3.137.171.121...
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