"Lärmmusik"

the first comprehensive book on the music of Hermann Nitsch

November 27, 2026

David Rimsky-Korsakov’s book “Lärmmusik – Klang, Körper und Komposition in Hermann Nitschs orgien mysterien theater” is the first comprehensive publication on the music of Hermann Nitsch. The book will be available from 27 November 2026!

How do Hermann Nitsch’s multi-day performances function in an auditory context? David Rimsky-Korsakov understands sound not as an accompanying phenomenon, but as a constitutive element, and demonstrates how music, noise, screams, and singing create an overdrive that exists dialectically alongside the silence following the action. He shows how both levels form an acoustic dramaturgy that directly addresses perception, body, and affect. Exemplary field reports, delving into individual situations, about the work of various Nitsch actors during the execution of the second edition of the ‘6-day play’ (2022-2025) of the ‘orgies mysteries theater’, which also address sensory impressions, complement the analysis and form an analytically lived instrumentarium for ephemeral phenomena of hearing and the physical.

The book is published by transcript – independent acadamic publishing in german only.