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Biography
Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden on September 4, 1824. His father, a schoolmaster[1] and organist, was his first music teacher. He died when Anton was 13 years old.[2] Bruckner 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. In 1855, he took up a counterpoint course with Simon Sechter. He later studied with Otto Kitzler, who introduced him to the music of Richard Wagner, which Bruckner studied extensively from 1863 onwards. Bruckner continued his studies to the age of 40. Bruckner's genius, unlike that of a child prodigy (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for example), did not appear until well into the fourth decade of his life. Furthermore, broad fame and acceptance did not come until he was over 60. 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, had a strong religious faith 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, after Sechter had died, Bruckner hesitantly accepted Sechter's post as a teacher of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, during which time he concentrated most of his energy 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,[3] 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 the time there was a feud between advocates of the music of Wagner and Brahms; by aligning himself with Wagner, however, Bruckner made an unintentional enemy out of Hanslick. However, he was not without supporters; Deutsche Zeitung's music critic Theodor Helm, and famous conductors such as Arthur Nikisch and Franz Schalk constantly tried to bring his music to the public, and for this purpose proposed '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, and a few chamber works, including a string quintet. Unlike his romantic symphonies, Bruckner's choral works are often conservative and contrapuntal in style.
Biographers generally characterize Bruckner as a very simple man,[4] 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 rehearsal of his Fourth Symphony, the well-meaning Bruckner tipped the conductor Hans Richter: "When the symphony was over," Richter related, "Bruckner came to me, his face beaming with enthusiasm and joy. I felt him press a coin into my hand. 'Take this' he said, 'and drink a glass of beer to my health.'" Richter, of course, accepted the coin, a Maria Theresa thaler, and wore it on his watch-chain ever after.
Bruckner was a renowned organist in his day, 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. Though he wrote no major works for the organ,[5] his improvisation sessions sometimes yielded ideas for the Symphonies. He taught organ performance at the Conservatory; among his students were Hans Rott and Franz Schmidt. Gustav Mahler, who called Bruckner his "forerunner", attended the conservatory at this time (Walter n.d.).
In July 1886, the emperor decorated him with the Order of Franz-Josef.[6]
Bruckner died in Vienna in 1896, of natural causes. He is buried in the crypt of St. Florian monastery church, right below his favorite organ.[7]
Anton Bruckner Private University for Music, Drama, and Dance, an institution of higher education in Linz, close to his native Ansfelden, was named after him in 1932 ("Bruckner Conservatory Linz" until 2004). The Bruckner Orchester Linz was also named in his honor.
References
* Bruckner, Anton. Symphony No. 8/2, c minor, 1890 version. Edited by Leopold Nowak. New York: Eulenberg, 1994.
* Gilliam, Bryan, The annexation of Anton Bruckner: Nazi revisionism and the politics of appropriation, in Bruckner Studies edited by Timothy Jackson and Paul Hawkshaw.
* Korstvedt, Benjamin M. Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 19.
* Walter, Bruno (November 1940). "Bruckner and Mahler". Chord and Dischord II (2): 2–12. Bruckner Society of America. Retrieved on 2006-07-29.
1. ^ Hans-Hubert Schōnzeler, Bruckner. New York: Grossman Publishers (1970): 8. "Josef Bruckner had twelve children, and one of them, Anton, born in 1791, became a teacher like his father. ... In 1823 he married Therese Helm from Streyr, a marriage which was to be blessed with eleven children, ... Their eldest was Josef Anton, born on 4 September 1824 and named after his grandfather."
2. ^ Derek Watson, Bruckner. New York: Schuster & Macmillan (1997): 3
3. ^ Schōnzeler (1970): 70. "In July 1875 Bruckner ... proposed yet a third time to the university of Vienna that a lectureship in harmony and counterpoint be created, and at long last, despite Hanslick's opposition, his application was successful. Bruckner was appointed to the post, and on 25 November 1875 he gave his opening oration.
4. ^ Peter Gammond, Bluff Your Way in Music. London: Ravette Books (1985):: 33. "it is generally said that Bruckner was a very simple man ... If, after listening to one of his symphonies, you still feel that he was simple, then you are not the kind of person who should be reading this book."
5. ^ Derek Watson, Bruckner. New York: Schuster & Macmillan (1997): 73. "Unlike Franck or Reger, however, he [Bruckner] has not left a single composition of any value for his instrument."
6. ^ Derek Watson, Bruckner. New York: Schuster & Macmillan (1997): 39
7. ^ Schōnzeler (1970): 108. "Bruckner's ... body was taken to St. Florian. ... There, in a splendid sarcophagus, lie the earthly remains of Anton Bruckner, but from above the crypt, from the great 'Bruckner Organ', his living spirit still bursts forth."
8. ^ Schōnzeler (1970): 67. "No. 1 he always called 'das kecke Beserl' (impossible to translate into English—perhaps 'the cheeky brat')."
9. ^ Derek Watson, Bruckner. New York: Schuster & Macmillan (1997): 80. "That Symphony No. 2 is in C minor has actually been cited as a proof of Bruckner's naïvety as a composer."
10. ^ Robert Simpson, The Essence of Bruckner: An essay towards the understanding of his music. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd (1977): 64. "At this time Bruckner was more obsessed with Wagner's music than at any other time in his life, and the symphony contained a number of deliberate quotations from, mainly, Tristan und Isolde, Die Walküre and Die Meistersinger. This was the version Wagner saw and of which he accepted the dedication; Bruckner sent him a fair copy of the 1874 score."
11. ^ Derek Watson, Bruckner. New York: Schuster & Macmillan (1997): 101. The Fifth was "the only one of his numbered and completed symphonies of which he was never to hear a note played."
12. ^ Simpson (1977): 123. "The Sixth is the shortest of the fully mature symphonies. It has always been neglected, and I have never been able to understand why, for it has consistently struck me ... as among his most beautiful and original works; his own high opinion of it seems thoroughly justified."
13. ^ Derek Watson, Bruckner. New York: Schuster & Macmillan (1997): 113. The Eighth "which he regarded as his finest work, caused him the greatest emotional strain of his whole career."
14. ^ Simpson (1977): 181 - 182. "When Bruckner knew that he might not finish the Ninth he suggested that the Te Deum could be used as a finale, and the presence in the sketches of a motive ... led to the supposition that he was composing some kind of link between the two works. There is no evidence to suggest that Bruckner, even in the poor state of health and mind the last few months of his life, considered the use of the C major Te Deum as finale to a D minor symphony to be more than a makeshift solution."
15. ^ Derek Watson, Bruckner. New York: Schuster & Macmillan (1997): 72. "They are of little concern to the non-German listener and do not represent important stages in Bruckner's creative unfolding."
16. ^ Derek Watson, Bruckner. New York: Schuster & Macmillan (1997): 19. "Studying Tristan Bruckner used a piano score without text — a sign of how unconcerned he was with opera as drama."
17. ^ Derek Watson, Bruckner (1997) New York: Schuster & Macmillan, p.s 45 - 46
18. ^ Keith William Kinder, The Wind and Wind-chorus Music of Anton Bruckner. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group (2000): 51, note 14
19. ^ Bruckner in the Movies, TV and Radio
20. ^ Peter Gammond, Bluff Your Way in Music. London: Ravette Books (1985):: 33. "Another misrepresentation of Bruckner is to bracket him with Mahler."
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