Chapter 14 - Vienna—At Home Abroad

Summary

Ever since I entered college teaching in Texas, I tried to get a Guggenheim Fel¬lowship in order to have some extended time to compose. In 1973-74, I had so many commissions that I was hoping that my ninth attempt at procuring such a fellowship would pay off. It did! And I decided to ask for a semester's leave beginning after the fall semester of 1974.

The planning for the leave could not begin right away because of a won¬derful family event that was to occur in September. Debbie was to have her BatMitzvah in the middle of that month. At that time we had a cantor at Temple B'rith Kodesh by the name of Richard Allen, who took great pains to teach the Bar and Bat Mitzvah children how to interpret the “trop” (biblical cantillation) from the actual musical signs found in the Hebrew text of the Bible. This gave them the knowledge of being able to chant any passage from the Torah or the Prophets at sight. (Luckily, Richard was still the cantor when Naomi was Bat Mitzvah age, and she also learned this great skill for the chanting of her portion.)The whole family, including my mother, came to Rochester to be present and we had a memorable time celebrating Debbie's big day and her wonderful rendering of the ritual and the portion assigned for that particular Sabbath. After our great festivities, we prepared for the leave.

Since the Guggenheim Fellowship is given so that you remove yourself from your usual duties, we decided to go to Europe to get away from it all. One of the main reasons for choosing Vienna over other locations was the cultural atmosphere, and the fact that H. C. Robbins Landon, my good friend, lived there. He had always wanted me to spend some time in Vienna with him. When I wrote to him to ask his help with housing, schooling for the girls, and other matters, he immediately answered that he would do all he can to prepare our stay, but that he would be taking off the entire first part of 1975 to teach in the United States and in England. I was very disappointed, but was happy that he was willing to help us getting situated.