Anton Bruckner

Getting acquainted with a world famous stranger

Anton Bruckner

There is the work, and there is its creator. The closer and from the further away one listens to and looks at both, the more fascinating they both become. And the more questionable seem the stereotypical attributions that have been given to the man and composer along with his oeuvre over the course of decades. If one takes the oeuvre, it consists of more than the nine symphonies, three masses, the Te Deum, the handful of motets and the one string quintet. Not to mention the pieces for piano, the choruses and cantatas.

For Bruckner was also one of the leading, if not the best organist and improviser of his time. As an organist, he played himself intoxicatingly free not only on his regular organs in the St. Florian Basilika, in the Alter Dom (Old Cathedral) in Linz and later in the Wiener Hofburgkapelle (Vienna Imperial Court Chapel), but also on his many summer-fresh walks and trips in Upper Austria. He undertook excursions to visit relatives, colleagues, friends and patrons. Bruckner played the organ in Bad Ischl and Bad Goisern, in Wels and Vöcklabruck, in Wilhering and Kremsmünster, in Steyrling and Steyr, in Sankt Marienkirchen an der Polsenz and who knows where else. What he created in the process, no one has recorded and must be considered lost. This also applies to his performances in Paris, Nancy and London, celebrated by thousands, where he caused a furorie at the Crystal Palace and the Royal Albert Hall like a rock star of his era.

In the history of music, Bruckner stands for a turning point: trained at the highest level in classical compositional techniques and firmly anchored in the musical tradition, the passionate fan of Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz and Wagner himself developed a musical language that was so new that it irritated many of his contemporaries and even disturbed some. Its grammar included new inventions such as fading and editing. As well as tricks that had previously been taboo. Like the repetition, which today would perhaps rather be called a 'loop', and the general pause in the middle of a sentence as a musical anticipation of the later black fade in the film.

The music of the - supposed or incarnate - 'Musician of God' is perhaps most likely Catholic in its tendency towards the overwhelmingly sublime. This contrasts with Bruckner's musical imprint as a country violinist who played for dancing all night long and was passionate about quadrille dancing. The same goes for the fact that the professional musician was not above conducting an amateur ensemble with the Liedertafel Frohsinn, attending the rehearsals of local men's choral societies while on vacation, and writing and dedicating small pieces of music to them. This shows that the professional Bruckner never rose above the level of his musical contemporaries.

Of course, Bruckner's trousers at half-mast, overly loose clothing, intemperate eating and drinking at a high alcoholic level is peculiar to him. As well as his bizarre relationship with women, whom he spied on with regard to their potential dowries. Ditto his neurotic compulsion to count, his urge for titles, certificates and other authentications of his skills, as well as his morbid fascination for graves and corpses. Yet, Anton is known for considerable fitness as a foot traveller, the fact that he was an excellent swimmer and for his gentleness towards children, which made him a popular teacher. Plus his inquisitiveness, which led him to the foot of Mont Blanc and - of his own free will - to the dungeons of Burg Altpernstein.

In many cases, the image of Bruckner as a clumsy and barely self-supporting eccentric has become entrenched, but this belies his impressive career: as a teacher, university lecturer, imperial and royal court organist and honorary doctorate holder, the Upper Austrian belonged to the upper ten thousand and thus to the educated social elite not only at home but also in the cosmopolitan city of Vienna.

As a composer of new music he was also unsuccessful, but during Bruckner's lifetime there were celebrated performances of his works in Munich, Leipzig and Berlin, among other places, as well as in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago. The first biography of Bruckner was also published before his death in the Kustodenstöckl of the Belvedere in Vienna, which he was allowed to occupy rent-free with the blessing of Emperor Franz Josef. Thanks to his income as a university teacher, several scholarships and grants, Bruckner died a wealthy and prosperous man.

128 years later, the 200th anniversary of the birth of this man and artist, who was extraordinary in almost every respect, offers an opportunity to approach him and his work in an unbiased way and to rediscover both - for oneself as well as for all of Upper Austria.

 

In the course of the Bruckner-Year, will give him and ourselves his complete works, so that we can finally get to know the whole of Bruckner and let the music speak for the human being.

Signet Anton Bruckner

Numbers for a different look at Bruckner

is the year Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden.
string quintet was written by Bruckner.
years old is Bruckner when he completes his teacher training and becomes an assistant schoolteacher in Windhaag bei Freistadt.
people listen to Bruckner in August 1871 at his organ concert at the Crystal Palace in London.
other siblings, only four of whom reach adulthood, were born into Bruckner's family.
symphonies, which exist in at least 19 versions, were written by Bruckner.
liters of beer are usually drunk by Bruckner when he visits an inn.
minutes is the difference between the fastest and the slowest recording of Symphony No. 8 in C minor in the 1890 version.
years old is Bruckner when he makes the last of his numerous marriage proposals.

The Bruckner Region

Anton Bruckner Map

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