«Wenn wir so Zuhause wären in dieser Musik, wie die es damals waren…»: Was wir von der historisch informierten Musizierpraxis für musikpädagogische Bemühungen lernen können

Abstract

What music offers us when we play or listen to it, and whether and how we can understand it, depends on our knowledge of its context of origin and of the listening habits of its age. Relying on transcripts of Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s lectures at the Mozarteum Salzburg from the years 1977- 1984, this contribution highlights the relationship between music and the linguistic sphere in the course of music history before and after 1800. On the basis of introductory information on notation and performance, as well as on the formal principles of musical rhetoric, which Harnoncourt referred to as a fundamental vocabulary, the author introduces a set of initial teaching and learning approaches that are of lasting importance for the understanding of early music. In summary, the article addresses the issue of the extent to which these insights can be applied to music education, and opens up a whole horizon of potential didactic approaches.