Helene Raff’s "Leaves from Life’s Tree"

[febnyc]

My order is in!

[Mark Thomas]

So I've seen. Thanks!

[febnyc]

Well, I look forward to reading Frau Raff's story - particularly since I was so taken with her lovely verses to "Die Sterne" - evoking the beauty of the stars and the heavens.  Just wonderful!

[Mark Thomas]

Fraulein, I'm afraid...

[Alan Howe]

Technically, yes, Mark. But women, whether married or unmarried, are often referred to as "Frau", so as not to disclose their marital status...

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Hum! Not going to quarrel with a Germanist whose translation is currently giving me so much pleasure. But I would have thought the Helene I'm reading would prefer the 'Fraulein'?

And, heavens, the people she either knew or encountered!! Just about everyone from Hans von Bulow to a notorious man who won't be named but who had a dog called 'Wolf' (although, of course, he pops up later in her life and outside the chronology of the book). Truly fascinating stuff, unputdownable, and I haven't been so caught up in a non-fictional work for some years. Characters and events leap vividly off the page.

The footnotes (which I guess are Mark's work?) are clear, precise and enormously helpful - and what a relief they didn't appear as endnotes. My only 'quibble' (and hardly a complaint) is that there is no Index. Many many hours of hugely tiresome work I know, but it would have been especially useful.

Peter

[Alan Howe]

The point about the lack of index is well made, Peter. The problem was simply the huge extra amount of work that would have meant.

The footnotes were essentially a joint effort, although Mark is the Raff expert, of course.

[Mark Thomas]

Of course I'm very happy to bow to Alan on the question of "Frau." As for an index, Peter, like the footnotes and photos there was none in the original book and we recognise now that one would have been helpful, although a lot more work. It's something we'll bear in mind for future projects, you may be sure.

[febnyc]

Technically, yes, Mark. But women, whether married or unmarried, are often referred to as "Frau", so as not to disclose their marital status...

Yup - 'tis true, especially in the last 15 years or so.  I ran a NYC company the sole shareholder of which was a large corporation based in Munich.  Spent a lot of time in Germany - and was careful, particularly in later days, to use "Frau" when I was unsure of the lady's status.  Very careful, I might add!   

[Pengelli]

Learn something new every day,eh,Alan/Mark!
Peter.'a notorious man who won't be named,who owns a dog called Wolf'?!!! You keep letting nuggets like that out,and I'll have to order the book too (to find out!).
My parents had a German couple stay with them years ago. I think everyone called them Mr and Mrs!

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Come on, Pengelli - not like you to fail to jump at clues.

I tantalise you with yet more clues: my 'notorious' man was especially attached to his mother, but feared his father who often beat him. When a child he became interested in battles and military history, largely as a result of looking at picture books of the Franco-Prussian war. Having been born in the same year, 1889, as Ludwig Wittgenstein he at one time attended the same school as the great future philosopher and may indeed have played conkers with him (or the German equivalent!) in the school playground.  However he got himself expelled from school in Steyr following a drunken escapade. He served on the Western Front in WW1, and was twice decorated, but never promoted. After the war he lived in extreme poverty, struggling to make an income from painting. Later in life he claimed in his account of his life that Frederick the Great, Martin Luther and Richard Wagner were pretty much on a par, all being courageous warriors, great statesman and social reformers. Oh, and he had a rather curious relationship with his niece who died, apparently in suicide, whilst holding his gun, but the precise facts will now never be known. And if, as you certainly should, buy Helene Raff's book very ably translated by Alan and scrupulously edited by Mark, you'll read in the Postscript that Helene attended a dinner party in 1923 where she met my notorious man whose name I resolved not to mention on this site.

Got it? And I shall be chased off this site by Alan for offering a post that not only is 'off-thread' but has nothing at all to do with Raff or music itself. But fun it is teasing you!

Peter

[JimL]

You left out the part about his having been gassed while on the front, and having some rather ominous...er..."epiphanies" while recuperating.

And I doubt you'll even merit a stern warning from Alan, or anybody else here.  Provided, that is, that Pengelli orders the book!

[Alan Howe]

Yeah, order the book! Go on, you know you want to...

[febnyc]

Mark - book well and promptly received.  Many thanks.  I now look forward to enjoying the history.

[Jamie]

Are there any plans to translate and publish Helene Raff's biography of her father, "Joachim Raff: ein Lebensbild"? I certainly hope so as I'm greatly enjoying Leaves From Life's Tree and would love to learn about heretofore unknown details about Raff's life.