In June the correspondence with Heinrich Krzyzanowski
breaks off. Rott must have worked quickly now, for he
notes down in his diary on June 7: "Draft for the symphony.
to be finished."8
One day later again: "Symphony." On June 10 the achievement,
the crucial word underlined twice: "Symphony finished."
9
The competition took place on July 2, 1878. During the
three preceding weeks Rott had his hands full with writing
the parts. Besides he seems to have been busy with the
work itself (see below).
At the competition "outsiders [sc.: not members of
the Conservatoire's teaching staff] had to take a decision
on the students' performance after one single listening
to."10
Not exactly favourable conditions for the judgement
of a work which already beforehand had given raise to
the critical voice of an academic teacher because of
its too great ambition. And Rott had indeed suffered
a fiasco in the examination. An anecdote which has come
down to us in the Bruckner biographies11
tells us what happened:
"As Bruckner related, Rott wrote a symphony movement
for the graduation. This, however, seemed too "Wagnerian"
to the narrow-minded brotherhood sitting at the examiners'
table and to whom R. Wagner was still the Marat of
music! At the end a scornful laughter was heard from
the "Merker" chair - sorry the examiners' table. Thereupon
the otherwise so timid Bruckner rose and cried the
flaming words to the "Merkers" down there: "Do not
laugh, gentlemen, of this man you will hear great
things yet!"12
It speaks for the degree of truth of this anecdote
that its narrator could not foresee the posthumous fame
of Bruckner's charge at the time it was published (1901).
Therefore it cannot be one of those anecdotes which
in retrospect claim the gift of prophecy for their protagonist.
Be it as it may, of seven presented works, only Rott's
symphony movement did not gain a prize, despite Bruckner's
committed defence.13
Rott's reaction was typical: In his correspondence with
Heinrich Krzyzanowski which is taken up again in July,
he remains silent about this unpleasant occurrence.
Just some cryptic hints in the presumably earliest of
these letters suggest how offended he must have been
by the rejection of his work:
"At last I have sufficient time to write some lines
to you, which I wanted to do for some time already,
not because I have something interesting to tell you
but just to write a letter to you at all. I will not
refer to the reasons why I have not written to you
for such a long time, you know them and their simple
but alas important nature."14
His failure, however, seems to have left no lasting
impression on him, one reason may be the fact that,
following some quarrels15
with the "Governor" in charge of the payment he received
his "grant" of 500 fl. as he noted down in his diary16.
He obviously uses a one month's stay with his friends
Rudolf and Heinrich Krzyzanowski in Eger from August
2217
to September 21 or 22, 187818
to begin with the concept for the second movement in
the piano score: A draft of the second movement19
which comprises almost the whole movement is dated on
the third page: "Vienna, the 30th of September, 1878"20
- in it the bars 65 - 107 are drafted and the form comes
very close to the final version. That proves that Rott,
not yet two months after his defeat at the "Concurs",
had already two thirds of the second movement drafted.
Afterwards he seems to have slowed down the tempo of
the composition. Another draft page from the same pile
is dated "25. 5[?]. 79." or just "1879";21
on it is drafted the choral at the end of the movement
(later to become bars 120 - 123, bars 129 - 145, as
well as again the monophonic bars 1221 - 124). Although
the final part of the drafts for the second movement
cannot be exactly dated, the draft pages for the scherzo
and the finale, mostly rendering the course of the autograph
score already, convey more particulars: The scherzo
had been drafted during the summer stay 1879 in Neustift
am Walde between July 3 and September 13 (piano score)22.
The drafts for the finale were begun on August 21, 1879.
The next dated page, paginated by Rott as page 7, shows
bar 205 - 223 of the definite finale as well as the
deleted early version of the first two bars of the resumption
of the choral (bar 224 - 225) and is dated October 25,
1879. Rott had written several dates on the title page
of the drafts for the finale: the conclusion of the
drafts is marked with "Neustift am Walde 30 [no month]
drafted 1879"23.
As Rott used to stay in Neustift only during the summer
and it can be assumed that he had returned to Vienna
in November 1879 and the scherzo had been concluded
on September 13 whereas the finale was still being worked
on, it may be cautiously presumed that the piano score
of the whole symphony had been finished by the end of
October 1879. Rott's circle of friends know the work
anyway: Heinrich Krzyzanowski relates in his recollections
of those days, which he calls "floating between 79 and
80",24
written in 1925 for the planned Rott biography by Maja
Loehr:
"Much more important than all that, however, was
the fact that R. had composed his great symphony at
that time, great because of firstly its scope and
secondly its importance, if one listened to his friends,
to whom also belonged colleagues, only that the latters'
judgement was more of the colleague-side, i.e. somewhat
less enthusiastic than that of the others. For them
there was no doubt about its unique greatness and
their judgement was slowly transferred onto Rott [...].
An atmosphere of devotion floated around the symphony
and its creator, his symphony became "the symphony"
per se [...]."25
The stay in the country during the summer of 1880 -
since June 3 Rott is staying in Ober-Salmannsdorf 26
and from July 24 on with his friend and patron Joseph
Seemüller in Glashütte27
- he uses to orchestrate and work on the score. Like
in July 1878 he is in a hurry and working with feverish
haste as we gather from a letter to his friend Friedrich
Löwi/Löhr28
dated July 26, 1880 in which he also informs about the
state of his work:
"Upon receipt immediately take the scherzo (as far
as I get it finished until the evenings [sic]) to
Geier. Is the finale already finished? How about the
1st movement? The copyist must have everything ready
until Friday afternoon latest. Saphir shall
take the quartet score to you. Let have the Singer
and the Pied Piper of Hamelin Ballad copied again,
the latter, however, is not that necessary, if only
the symphony will be delivered clean and in time.
The Adagio score along with the songs and the petition
I will bring along. John shall have the diploma
of the Conservatoire (composition) ready [...]."29
We learn that the first movement and the finale are
at the copyist Geyer at that time and quite obviously
for some time yet, otherwise Rott would not enquire
about the state of the copying. Add to this there is
a note on the title page of the final drafts saying
"Instrumented On June 26, 1880. Ober Salmannsdorf"30.
Rott plans to take to Vienna himself the "Adagio Score"
- as matters stand, this can only refer to the fair
copy of the second movement of the symphony. That means
that it was not yet finished when the first movement
and the finale had been handed over to the copyist and
presumably had been finished shortly before this letter
was written. Finally, the score of the scherzo is still
being worked on and is passed on in instalments to the
copyist. The completion, however, is imminent. At the
same time a "petition" is mentioned for which the addressee's
brother, John Leo Löwi, is asked to have Rott's graduation
diploma ready. We know from the work index compiled
by Rott himself between June and August 1880, written
down on the reverse side of a draft for the finale of
the symphony31,
that Rott is planning to submit the symphony "in score"
for a "state scholarship" and "in score and parts"
for the "Beethoven Concurs"32.
According to Rott the deadline for the submittal for
the annual Beethoven prize of the Viennese Conservatoire
is September 3033
which means that this cannot be the reason for Rott's
hurry. Thus the application for the "state scholarship"
remains, a competition organized by the Austrian Ministry
of Education; Maja Loehr reports that Rott had submitted
in August 1880 also the score of the First Symphony
besides his Pastoral Prelude.34
That Friday on which Rott wanted to have it finished
is July 30, 1880. It can be assumed that Rott planned
to personally hand in the work at the ministry during
the first week of August for in his letter to Friedrich
Löwi/Löhr Rott announces his arrival in Vienna for exactly
that Friday.35
He believes that up to then the fair copy and copy of
the score could be finished. Thus the date for the completion
of the whole symphony can be assumed to be the end of
July 1880. Later Rott, however, made changes in the
instrumentation; on September he writes to Joseph Seemüller:
"Cancelled the great horn passage in the finale;
would impede the tempo; the choral emerges more clearly
and the strings do the roaring sufficiently. Dropped
also some sordini. Pichler pointed it out to me and
I admitted that he was right; he came to Vienna yesterday
to see me. We have been alone together at my place;
upon his request I played to him the Symphony, he
simultaneously read the score; he was very pleased
and praised above all the form [...]."36
One day later, his friend Friedrich Löwi/Löhr receives
almost the same information:
"Well, on Wednesday I went to the Southern Railroad
and waited for Pichler, he was very pleased [...]
then we went to my place; I had to play the whole
symphony to him and he simultaneously read the score;
he said so many beautiful things to me about it, that
I was pleased, for I know that he is not false and
he is good at heart; some hints with regard to the
instrumentation turned out to be very useful after
some consideration."37
In the autographic score, however, there are no subsequent
corrections of the instrumentation. Rott either changed
his mind or he had another, now lost, copy of the score
into which he entered the corrections.
Part 3
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