Homepage / Notes are Superior Words
Coverabbildung von "Notes are Superior Words"

Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Notes are Superior Words

Talks about romantic music

Live and read music! Our musical heritage needs more than maintenance, it demands a dialogue with our past, our future and ourselves. A passionate manifesto.

Beethoven and Schubert, Verdi and Johann Strauß, Schumann and Dvořak, Brahms and Bruckner – these are only some of the protagonists of this book in which Nicolaus Harnoncourt deals with the most important works of "the century of romanticism“. The conductor also describes his life-long search for the key to imparting music of this era to the audiences of today, a task that is often being hindered by traditions or changing fashions in performing. In his unrivalled style, with passion and a strong conviction, Nicolaus Harnoncourt outlines how we must never refrain from reading our musical heritage from scratch. Moreover, he shares gloomy memories of his youth under the Nazi regime and fascinating insights into the musical life of the Vienna of his era. All of his statements, be they on music, their cultural significance or his own identity as an interpreter of music, reflect his approach to life itself: that music is not to be regarded as a mere heritage of the past, but also, and particularly, as a living reminder of our right to a humane future.

Book details

Ed. by Johanna Fürstauer
424 pages
format:125 x 205
ISBN: 9783701730551
Release date: 20.09.2007

License rights

  • France
  • Spain
License requests

Sie können dieses Buch vormerken:

Authors
Nikolaus Harnoncourt

born in Berlin in 1929, died in 2016, founded his early music ensemble, the Concentus Musicus, in 1953. He received numerous international awards as a conductor, including the Polar Music Prize and the Erasmus Prize.

Press
Mit Überzeugung zeigt Harnoncourt, dass unser musikalisches Erbe immer wieder neu gelesen werden muss.
KURIER

Die zu einem materialdichten Band gebündelten Gespräche mit Nikolaus Harnoncourt über die Musik der Romantik kultivieren das, was der österreichische Dirigent bei seiner Arbeit stets in den Mittelpunkt stellt - den Dialog... Seine lesenswerten Ausführungen regen zur Auseinandersetzung an, verlieren aber niemals den Blick für das Wesentliche der Musik. Denn schliesslich, so Harnoncourt, ist die Kunst «die Nabelschnur, die uns mit dem Göttlichen verbindet».
NZZ, Martina Wohlthat

Was im Kopf dieses Fallenstellers vorgeht, das verrät er zumindest in Ansätzen in seinen Feuilletons und Büchern. Was dort an Fragen bleibt, erschließt sich zum Teil aus den hier gesammelten Gesprächen.
DIE PRESSE

Eine derart kompakte, jedem verständliche Darstellung über das, was wir in Kunst und Musik als "Romantik" verstehen, auf wenigen Seiten ist selten zu lesen. Kompliment auch dafür.
OÖNachrichten

Portier der allerersten Wahl. Harnoncourts "Töne sind höhere Worte" ist eine spannende Gedankensammlung. Ansprechend und kurzweilig zugleich...
VORARLBERGER NACHRICHTEN

Goldene Worte Harnoncourts.
SANDAMMEER, Werner Fletcher






More Books

Coverabbildung von 'Unmöglichkeiten sind die schönsten Möglichkeiten'

Nikolaus Harnoncourt Sabine M. Gruber - IMPOSSIBILITIES ARE THE GREATEST POSSIBILITIES

Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s world of word-pictures

One of the keys to Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s artistry was his ingenious talent for conveying musical content in verbal images. Author and choral singer Sabine M. Gruber – both a participant and an observer – kept a record of Harnoncourt’s rehearsal instructions in her notes for 30 years. Combining original quotes with essays, she sheds light on the personality of the man and artist, while exploring the essence of his musical and artistic process. A book full of humour, musical truth and essential wisdom.

Coverabbildung von ''

Nikolaus Harnoncourt Alice Harnoncourt (Edited by) - On Music

Mozart and the monkey's tools

The unique rationale behind Nikolaus Harnoncourt's practice of music brought him fame across the entire musical world. With his ensemble Concentus Musicus he broke established traditions and opened up new approaches to interpreting old music. This was in part the result of his intensive research into the sound produced by original period instruments, but more significantly came about as a consequence of questioning conventional hearing habits. What exactly is music? What effect does it have? And what were the intentions of its creators? Harnoncourt's writing on performance practices, baroque music and instruments such as the harpsichord reads like eloquent music making. A wondrous journey through the history of music.

Coverabbildung von 'My family'

Nikolaus Harnoncourt Alice Harnoncourt (Edited by) - My family

Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s childhood and youth was shaped by hardship and the after-effects of World War II, the parenting codex of the aristocracy to which his family belonged and the love for music. The world was in upheaval, it was a time of great political and societal change. To give his children and grandchildren a greater understanding of this era Harnoncourt wrote down his memories and reflections in a “family book”. How did his family deal with the economic and political shifts? What was life like when everything was no longer what it had been? And what traditions shaped the Harnoncourt family? Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s personal account is a fascinating record of the past.

Coverabbildung von 'Wir sind eine Entdeckergemeinschaft'

Alice Harnoncourt (Edited by) Nikolaus Harnoncourt - We are a fellowship of explorers

Notes on the inception of the Concentus Musicus

Nikolaus Harnoncourt devoted himself to the study of early music, the way it is played and the sound of period instruments from an early age. In 1953 he founded the famous Concentus Musicus with his wife Alice and other musicians. This was to provide a forum for his work on period instruments and the historic performance practice of renaissance and baroque music. It was not until four years later that the Concentus Musicus first performed in public. Alice Harnoncourt has brought together the unpublished diary entries and notes of her husband, which recount his explorations on the trail of early musical sounds. It is a fascinating and entertaining journey, during which Harnoncourt had to accomplish much to listen his way towards the original period sound.

Coverabbildung von '“...it was always about the music”'

Nikolaus Harnoncourt Johanna Fürstauer (Edited by) - “...it was always about the music”

A Retrospective through Interviews

Music brings pleasure: Nikolaus Harnoncourt reflects persuasively and passionately on his metier. His texts, speeches and interviews reveal the vision of a great artist, looking back on his own influence and far beyond into musical history. He addresses subjects such as the urgency of art, Haydn, and “a crocodile called Mozart”, and considers romantic insight and baroque reminiscence. He gazes into the depths of an immoral world and shares anecdotes from the Vienna Music Society. He explains why artists cannot lie, why The Magic Flute remains an eternal mystery, and why great art ultimately arises from doubt.

Coverabbildung von 'Musik als Klangrede'

Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Music as Speech – Ways to a New Understanding of Music

Wege zu einem neuen Musikverständnis

In these essays, Nikolaus Harnoncourt summarizes his views arising from years devoted to the performance of early music. The problem of interpreting historical music is particularly critical in our age, when modern music has little aPaperbackeal for the listening public. For performers and audiences to understand music of earlier times, they must learn to comprehend the languages and messages of the past.

Coverabbildung von 'Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Opera, Sensual'

Nikolaus Harnoncourt Anna Mika Johanna Fürstauer - Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Opera, Sensual

The art form of opera is more than 400 years old, but it has maged to stay young and fresh thanks to artists such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his unfailing endeavor to continuously renew this art form and our understanding of it. His 80th birthday serves as the perfect opportunity to revisit his life in the colorful world of opera. Numerous examples, from Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo“ and Mozart’s “Figaro“ to Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress“ illustrate how vivid and lively opera can be. Opera is a theater for all senses, not a dusty relic from the past, a hallow traditon or elitist vanity fair. Text, music, drama and an image of the world portrayed on stage all come together in the unique cosmos of opera, with the purpose of reflecting our human nature. And thus opera is a necessity, like all forms of art. This is what Nikolaus Harnoncourt demonstrates once more with great passion, intelligence and conviction in this enthralling book.

You might also be interested in

Coverabbildung von 'Franz Liszt'

Jan Jiracek von Arnim - Franz Liszt

Visionary and Virtuoso. A biography

Born in the year of the “Great Comet”, the path of this child prodigy from Raidling, Burgenland first led to Vienna and later Paris, the Mecca of the musical world at the time. There, Franz Liszt became highly successful as a piano virtuoso and led the life of a sought-after bohemian. Always searching for success as a composer, Liszt’s torn inner state marked his artistic development as much as his love affairs. After concert tours through all of Europe, he was appointed director of Weimar’s court orchestra, where he helped Richard Wagner’s opus achieve a breakthrough. Jan Jiracek von Arnim embarks on a fascinating journey exploring the composer’s life. He follows Liszt’s years on the road as a virtuoso, visionary, musical pioneer, superstar and soul-searcher as he takes a closer look at the person and musician. The result is this magnificent portrait of an exceptional artist.

Coverabbildung von 'Mein Beethoven'

Rudolf Buchbinder - My Beethoven

Living with the Master

Beethoven’s music has been part of Rudolf Buchbinder’s life since his childhood. He has played nearly fifty cyclical concerts of all thirty-two piano sonatas, and performed the piano concertos with all major orchestras and conductors, as well as conducting himself. This wealth of experience has found its way into his book, in which Beethoven’s piano works are used as stations on a journey through the composer’s life and oeuvre. Describing his own life in music, Buchbinder the performer brings Beethoven’s world to life, reflected in his personal experiences and revelations – Beethoven’s era, his emotions, passions, triumphs and defeats.