Contribution to Publishing Costs D 3255 Ludwig Wittgenstein and Rudolf Koder: Correspondence Martin ALBER
26.6.2000
The book is divided into two parts which are interlaced into one another such that they produce a unified whole.
The correspondence between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Rudolf Koder is a document of exclusively private interest.
The friendship between them was founded primarily by their common interest in music when they both were
teachers in Puchberg. When Wittgenstein was in England Koder continued to play music with Wittgenstein`s
sisters.
Stimulated by the correspondence the editor has documented the musical taste of Wittgenstein`s family as well as
its role in Wittgenstein`s life and his philosophy. That explains for the interrelation between the two documentary
essays. and the correspondence. The first essay is dedicated to Josef Labor, the favourite composer of the
Wittgenstein family. His biography brings the reader back into the 19th century, to Joseph Joachim and Johannes
Brahms, to the musical salons of the aristocracy in Vienna and to the importance of music in the Wittgenstein
family. Paul Wittgenstein, like Hermine and Ludwig Wittgenstein, held Labor in high esteem and comissioned
works from him.
The second more extensive essay documents musical aspects of Wittgenstein`s philosophy and the recorded
conversations and memories of various contemporaries and friends. Wittgenstein`s romantic conception of music
and his musical preferences are documented from Wittgenstein`s correspondence as well as from his philosophical
writings (especially in Culture and Value und Zettel). The essay also deals with similiarities between music and
language which Wittgenstein discusses. Alber tries to show parallels between musical ideas and the idea
"Sprachspiel" in the later Wittgenstein.
This documentary material can be understood as a "Flächenkommentar", in contrast to the
"Einzelstellenkommentar" to the individual letters. That means that they are a broader form of commentary rather
than essays. Although the correspondence between Wittgenstein and Koder provides the occasion for this
documentation it forms a background to the correspondence and the recurrent theme of music in it. Besides these
essays are the first comprehensive study of the role of music in Wittgenstein`s life and work.