Musicians - Anton Bruckner

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	Musicians - Anton Bruckner

Anton Bruckner (4 September 1824 – 11 October 1896) was an Austrian composer of the Romantic era. Many of his works were savagely criticized in his lifetime. They are unique in the symphonic repertoire in that they exist in several versions. The study of Bruckner today remains prominent among orchestrators and composers to address some of the problems Bruckner encountered in an age when the symphony orchestra itself was expanding in size. Bruckner's works are known for the overpowering use of augmented brass.

Biography

Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden to a schoolmaster and organist father with whom he first studied music. He worked for a few years as a teacher's assistant, fiddling at village dances at night to supplement his income. He studied at the Augustinian monastery in St. Florian, becoming an organist there in 1851. He continued his studies to the age of 40, under Simon Sechter and Otto Kitzler, the latter introducing him to the music of Richard Wagner, which Bruckner studied extensively from 1863 onwards. Bruckner's genius, unlike that of the child prodigy Mozart and so many others, did not appear until well into the fourth decade of his life. Furthermore, broad fame and acceptance of him did not come until he was into his 60s. A devout Catholic who loved to drink beer, Bruckner was out of step with his contemporaries. He had already in 1861 made acquaintance with Liszt who, like Bruckner, was religious and who first and foremost was a harmonic innovator, initiating the new German school together with Wagner. Soon after Bruckner had ended his studies under Sechter and Kitzler, he wrote his first mature work, the Mass in D Minor.

In 1868 he accepted a post as a teacher of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, during which time he concentrated most of his energies on writing symphonies. These symphonies, however, were poorly received, at times considered "wild" and "nonsensical". He later accepted a post at the Vienna University in 1875, where he tried to make music theory a part of the curriculum. Overall, he was unhappy in Vienna, which was musically dominated by the critic Eduard Hanslick. At that time there was a feud between those who liked Wagner's music and those who liked Brahms's music. By aligning himself with Wagner, Bruckner made an unintentional enemy out of Hanslick. He did have supporters; famous conductors such as Arthur Nikisch and Franz Schalk constantly tried to bring his music to the public, and for this purpose proposed many 'improvements' for making Bruckner's music more acceptable to the public. While Bruckner allowed these changes, he also made sure in his will to bequeath his original scores to the Vienna National Library, confident of their musical validity. Another proof of Bruckner's confidence in his artistic ability is that he often started work on a new symphony just a few days after finishing another.

In addition to his symphonies, Bruckner wrote Masses, motets, and other sacred choral works. Unlike his romantic symphonies, Bruckner's choral works are often conservative and contrapuntal in style.

Bruckner was a very simple man, and numerous anecdotes abound as to his dogged pursuit of his chosen craft and his humble acceptance of the fame that eventually came his way. Once, after a performance of his Fifth Symphony, an enthusiastic young person approached him and said his work was the greatest creation since Beethoven. Bruckner, overcome with emotion, and not knowing how to respond, reached in his pocket and gave the young man a silver piece and told him he had waited his whole life just to hear someone say that.

Bruckner was a renowned organist in his time, impressing audiences in France in 1869, and England in 1871, giving six recitals on a new Henry Willis organ at Royal Albert Hall in London and five more at the Crystal Palace. But he wrote no major works for the organ. His improvisation sessions sometimes yielded ideas for the Symphonies. He also taught organ performance at the Conservatory. One of his students was Hans Rott, whose music influenced Gustav Mahler.

Bruckner died in Vienna, and his Ninth Symphony premiered in the same city on February 11, 1903. He never married, though he proposed to a large list of astonished teenage girls. He had a morbid interest in dead bodies, at one point cradling the head of Beethoven in his hands when Beethoven was exhumed. He left extensive instructions that he was to be embalmed.

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