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Hello All,

Given all of the discussion and interest concerning Affektenlehre …

A book, quite informative and readable, about Baroque music
Harnoncourt, Nikolaus (1988), Reinhard G. Pauly, ed., Baroque Music Today: Music As Speech, translated by Mary O’Neill, Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, ISBN 978-0-931340-91-8

OBITUARIES: Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Anonymous. The American Organist; New York Vol. 50, Iss. 7, (Jul 2016): 22.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, 86 years old, March 5 at St. Georgen im Attergau, Austria. He was born in Berlin, Germany, December 6, 1929, as Johann Nikolaus Graf de la Fontaine und d’Harnoncourt-Unverzagt, a descendant of Holy Roman Emperors and other European royalty. He was raised in Graz, Austria, when the family moved there on account of his father’s job. He studied cello at the Vienna Music Academy with Paul Griimmer and Emanuel Brabed, and also learned viola da gamba. Against his will, Harnoncourt was forced to participate in the Hitler Youth organization. Later, he was a cellist, first with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, then in the Vienna Symphony (1952-69). He founded the period-instrument ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien in 1953, becoming quite prominent and recording for the Telefunken label (later Teldec) with works by Monteverdi, Bach, and Rameau. Harnoncourt made his conducting debut in 1970 at La Scala, Milan, with Monteverdi’s II ritomo d’Ulisse. In 1971, he began a project with Gustav Leonhardt to record all the Bach cantatas using an all-male choir and soloists. He also made the first historically informed recordings of the Bach Mass in B Minor and the St. Matthew Passion, a work he recorded three times in his career, one of which won a Grammy Award. He also expanded his repertoire to include music by Mozart, Beethoven, and Bruckner, sometimes working with modern-instrument orchestras but always treating tempos and dynamics in historical style. His conducting style was characterized by assertiveness, with marked phrasings and accentuations, sometimes almost militaristic. Harnoncourt became a champion of the Viennese operetta and conducted the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day concerts in 2001 and 2003. He also conducted that orchestra’s weekend of concerts in 2003 at Carnegie Hall. He recorded Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in 2009 at Graz. He retired a day before his 86th birthday. Harnoncourt is survived by his wife, Alice, a daughter, two sons, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. A third son died in 1990 in a car accident.