January–February
Muzyka (Nos. 1–2) prints Koffler’s paper titled Avant-garde Music: A Bird’s-Eye View, in which the author reports on the meetings of the ISCM jury and sums up the current state of new music. He praises composers from Czechoslovakia and Italy, the talent of the Yugoslav Osterc and the Argentinian Paz. He assesses the Polish scores as rather ‘one-sided’ since
our composers shun musical problems and polyphonic complexity; sound colour is more important to them than the musical contour; they are more after artistry than after art.
He describes the works submitted by the Soviet section as ‘a disappointment’.
ISCM Polish section headquarters intend to hold a Festival of Slav Music in Warsaw. In a letter to Hába (of 7 February) Koffler confirms that the agreement (Protokoll) they both signed has officially been approved of by the Polish section, but he himself ‘has not been authorised to take further steps’.
Koffler starts an exchange of letters with Slavko Osterc. They plan radio broadcasts of Polish compositions on Radio Belgrade in Yugoslavia. They exchange scores.
Der Wiener Tag reports on the fourth concert in the "Österreichisches Studio" series organized in Vienna by Ernst Křenek. The evening featured folk songs in modern arrangements. For this occasion, Koffler prepared several pieces selected from his collection Forty Polish Folk Songs for voice and piano. These were performed by Lola Urbach with Ernst Křenek at the piano.
Koffler responds to Tęcza weekly’s survey on ‘New Polish Music’ (No. 4, p. 39), claiming that ‘high artistic standards are invariably an asocial phenomenon’. In the questionnaire, he informs that he has completed Prelude and Fugue for orchestra as a gift to Arnold Schönberg for his sixtieth birthday and that he is working on a piano sonata.
Koffler writes a letter to Osterc from ‘Excelsior’ sanatorium in Iwonicz Zdrój, a spa town whose health properties were discovered and described as early as 1578 byWojciech Oczko, court physician to King Stefan Batory. He admits he has been ill for a long time and that his attendance at the ISCM festival is uncertain.
Koffler comes to the ISCM festival after all. It is a private trip at his own expense. He previously asked Hába in a letter to book cheap accommodation for him and ensure free entry to all the festival events.
At the same time, representatives of the Polish section of the Society were also in Prague, led by Zbigniew Drzewiecki and Roman Palester.
The Jewish Lwów daily Chwila prints a note titled ‘Professor’s Flat Cleaned Out. Lwów’s Burglars Attack’, which reports on a burglary at Koffler’s flat (29 Mochnackiego St.):
Having broken the top windowpane and bent the upper section of the bars, the burglars entered the flat between 7 and 8 pm, taking away the silver place setting, jewellery, one silver cigarette case, men’s clothing and underwear, to the total value of 2,500 zlotys.
Implementation of the agreement signed by Hába and Koffler calls for changes in the statute of the ISCM as a whole. Koffler therefore prepares his own draft of the new statute. He writes to Hába on 9 November:
I know the previous ISCM statute, which is the most awkward and amorphous document of this type I have ever seen. It makes no sense to repair shoes if they are completely broken [!] and unusable. One makes new shoes instead. I hope you have overestimated the threat of opposition within the sections. But if you are right, I am confident you have enough energy, strength and fighting spirit to bring this project to a victorious end. Please therefore read (my draft of) the statute carefully and write me what you would like to change [in it].
He also comments on revisions suggested by Hanns Eisler, and concludes: ‘Dear Friend, it is now up to you whether we should completely transform the organisation and turn it into a wonderful tool for the promotion of new art.’
In another letter to Hába (of 14 December), Koffler argues:
Dear Friend, in normal circumstances I would also be in favour of the ‘comparative method’, but on this occasion we must abandon such a path. To begin with, the old statute is no statute at all […]. Secondly, we are in a psychologically propitious moment now because new and young people crop up everywhere in the sections, and they always favour ‘the new thing’. Thirdly, it is a good tactic to demand more so as to obtain the maximum of changes in the old statute in case of possible resistance. […] Let me note that all the work in Barcelona will be on your hands since I will have neither the passport nor the money to undertake the trip. But I am sure it will succeed!
BBC broadcasts Koffler’s 15 Variations, dedicated to Schönberg (perf. the Boyd Neel Orchestra, cond. Boyd Neel).
The reviewer for The Musical Times (1936, no. 1115) is far from enthusiastic, stating:
It is a sprightly essay, but these desiccated exercises warm neither heart nor nerves.