Nowak, Leopold
Nowak, Leopold
Nowak, Leopold, eminent Austrian musicologist; b. Vienna, Aug. 17, 1904; d. there, May 27, 1991. He studied piano and organ with Louis Dité and counterpoint with Franz Schmidt at the Vienna Academy of Music, then took courses in musicology with Guido Adler and Robert Lach at the Univ. of Vienna; received his Ph.D. there in 1927 with the diss. Das deutsche Gesellschaftslied bei Heinrich Finck, Paul Hofhaymer und Heinrich Isaac; publ. in an aug. version as “Das deutsche Gesellschaftslied in Österreich von 1480 bis 1550,” Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, XVII, 1930. He completed his Habilitation in 1932 with his Grundzüge einer Geschichte des Basso ostinato (publ. in Vienna, 1932). He lectured at the Univ. of Vienna from 1932 until 1973; in 1945 he became ed. of the critical edition of Bruckner’s works, a position he held until 1990; from 1946 to 1969 he was director of the music division of the Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, where he compiled valuable catalogues for special exhibitions on Bruckner, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, and others. His exhaustive studies on the life and music of Bruckner are of prime value.
Writings
Franz Liszt (Innsbruck, 1936); Te Deum laudamus: Gedanken zur Musik Anton Bruckners (Vienna, 1947); Joseph Haydn (Vienna, 1951; 3rd ed., 1965); with F. von Rezniček, the composer’s daughter, Gegen den Strom: Leben und Werk von Emil Nikolaus von Rezniček (Vienna, 1960); Anton Bruckner: Musik und Leben (a brief study; Vienna, 1964); Reden und Ansprachen (Vienna, 1964); Anton Bruckner: Musik und Leben (a voluminous pictorial biography; Linz, 1973); Das Geburtshaus Anton Bruckners [Ansfelden]: Führer (Linz, 1975).
Bibliography
F. Grasberger, ed., Bruckner-Studien: L. N. zum 60. Geburtstag (Vienna, 1964).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire