Egon Wellesz in Selbstzeugnissen

Egon Wellesz (1885–1974) was and is often still described as composer, musicologist, Byzantinist, contemporary, emigrant or teacher. But who was Wellesz really? The present book tries to answer this question with the help of Wellesz’s correspondence, which is preserved in the Department of Music at the Austrian National Library. Nowhere else will we encounter the man Egon Wellesz as immediately as in his approx. 9000 letters, where he speaks to the readers this very instant and not retrospectively. This collection of letters is an especially revealing and extensive legacy, which has hitherto not been scientifically researched. With the help of Egon Wellesz’s personal testimonies the book shows in great detail his research activities in Vienna and Oxford, his compositional works, his relations to Austria, as well as his exchange of ideas with the intellectual elite of the 20th century. The letters not only show us the life and works of one of the most versatile composers and musicologists of the past century, but also the musical und university-life of Vienna and – because many correspondents lived outside Austria – also from abroad. The analysis of Wellesz’s correspondence therefore provides us with numerous new insights, which will contribute substantially to further research in the history of music. In the annex of the book selected letters by Egon Wellesz are reproduced. Printed with the support of the Fund for the Promotion of Academic Research.