Leopold Nowak (17 August 1904 – 27 May 1991) was an Austrian

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

chiefly known for editing the works of

Anton Bruckner Joseph Anton Bruckner (; ; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer and organist best known for his Symphonies by Anton Bruckner, symphonies and sacred music, which includes List of masses by Anton Bruckner, Masses, Te Deum (Br ...

for the International Bruckner Society.Bruckner Problems, in Perpetuity, Margaret Notley ''19th-Century Music'', Vol. 30, No. 1 (Summer, 2006), pp. 81–93 He reconstructed the original form of some of those works, most of which had been revised and edited many times. Nowak was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria. He studied piano and organ at the Imperial Academy of Music in Vienna. He studied musicology with

Guido Adler Guido Adler (1 November 1855 – 15 February 1941) was a Moravian-Austrian musicologist and writer. Early life Adler was born at Eibenschütz in Moravia in 1855 of Jewish parentage. He moved with his family to Vienna nine years later. His ...

and Robert Lach at the

Vienna University The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, where he later taught from 1932 to 1973. He succeeded Robert Haas as music director of the music collection of the

Austrian National Library The Austrian National Library (, ) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Hofburg#Neue Burg, Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in Innere Stadt, center of Vienna. Sin ...

in 1946, and is credited with helping preserve documents about Bruckner. Nowak's approach to editing Bruckner's music was much more scientific than Haas's. Whereas Haas, for instance, combined passages from the 1887 and 1890 versions of Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor to make his edition of the work, Nowak produced two separate editions for the two versions. Nowak also wrote essays examining theoretical aspects of music by Bruckner and other composers, such as his essay on metrical and rhythmical elements in the symphonies of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

and Bruckner. Nowak worked on a new edition of

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

's famously incomplete ''

Requiem A Requiem (Latin: ''rest'') or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead () or Mass of the dead (), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is ...

'', and was able through detailed scrutiny to distinguish Mozart's own handwriting from that of Süßmayr and Eybler to an extent no one had been able to do before. In recognition, Nowak was awarded the Goldene Mozart Medaille in 1985. Nowak also studied

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...

and the music of

Heinrich Isaac Heinrich Isaac (ca. 1450 – 26 March 1517) was a Netherlandish composer of south Netherlandish origin during the Renaissance era. He wrote masses, motets, songs (in French, German and Italian), and instrumental music. A significant contemporar ...

Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( ; ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

, Austrian church and folk music, and various Austrian composers from the 1480s onwards. His work on Bruckner's music, particularly the Finale of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, was continued by William Carragan.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nowak, Leopold 1904 births 1991 deaths Austrian music theorists Writers from Vienna 20th-century Austrian musicologists