Commentary by Hans Burkhardt Schlichting, 20th of September 1999

[deutsch]

Dear colleagues,

first of all I would like to express my sincerest congratulations for SCHWITTRADIO: a grand net performance in honour of the first great material networker !!! Regarding the audio files being constructed in the course of the day I have one criticism to make with regard to: SCHWITTERS/E.../ursonate1.htm.

The old recording of the “Sonate in Urlauten” presented there and distributed on the record market by WERGO with the (hopefully unconscious) erroneous referral of it being an original recording of Kurt Schwitters, in fact features the voice of Ernst Schwitters, the son, who at the time was still rather young, and not that of Kurt whose voice was much better trained and clearer. The difference is easily discernible when compared to the Kurt Schwitters recording by the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (Broadcasting Society of the Reich) of 1932. Ernst Schwitters who heard his father during many recitals of his works started soon to make his own attempts at reciting the Ursonate. One result was a limited record edition of 100 copies in 1958 in London (Philip Granville, Lords Gallery) featuring both the father (with the known recordings) as well as the son (with the Ursonate). One copy of this recording is kept at the Schwitters archive of the municipal library Hannover. One only needs to listen to Ernst Schwitters’ recital of the Ursonate in this recording in order to determine the voice’s identity. In addition, there are many recordings of Ernst Schwitters at an older age – interviews mostly – supporting my claim. The (hopefully unsuspecting and unintended) “label fraud” undertaken in 1993 with a seemingly sensational discovery of a complete recording of the URSONATE with the voice of the author himself should come to an end once and for all. Radio broadcasting has an obligation to correct this malidentification with regard to the son’s sound document – which is nonetheless worth listening to – who in this case is acting as his father’s faithful repetiteur.

On your web site it says “performed by Schwitters” – suggesting that it could only be the fa-ther’s voice. My suggestion: change it to “performed by his son Ernst Schwitters” and do so further below. Then, at least, it wouldn’t be an incorrect information.

Best regards and my best wishes for your web activity’s future success!

Hans Burkhard Schlichting, German SÜDWESTRUNDFUNK, Radio Play Production