[1] Born in Ehrhorn [de], Harten grew up in Hamburg, where he was a boy soprano at the Staatsoper.
In Hamburg he also began his studies of musicology and art history, which he continued in Vienna with Erich Schenk.
He gained his doctorate with his study of the Viennese Schumann admirer Carl Debrois van Bruyck.
Since 1972 he has been a member of the Kommission für Musikforschung [de] at the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
In addition Harten worked as an assistant at the Anton Bruckner Institut Linz [de] since its foundation in 1978.