Joseph Anton Bruckner ( / ˈ b r ʊ k n ər / ; German: [ˈantoːn ˈbʁʊknɐ] ; 4 September 1824 – 11 October 1896) was an Austrian composer and organist best known for his symphonies and sacred music, which includes Masses, Te Deum, and motets. His symphonies are considered representative of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their complex harmonic language, intricate melodies, and long length. Bruckner's compositions influenced modern musical styles due to their use of clashing sounds, unexpected changes in musical keys, and shifting harmonies.

Unlike other musicians who challenged traditional styles, such as Richard Wagner and Hugo Wolf, Bruckner showed respect and humility toward famous musicians, especially Wagner. This contrast between Bruckner’s personal character and his bold musical style makes it difficult to explain his life and work clearly. The German conductor Hans von Bülow once said Bruckner was "half genius, half simpleton." Bruckner often criticized his own work and revised his compositions frequently. Many of his works exist in multiple versions.

Bruckner’s music, especially his symphonies, faced criticism from some people, including the influential Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick and supporters of the composer Johannes Brahms. They disliked the size of his works, their use of repetition, and Bruckner’s habit of revising his music with help from others, which made it hard to decide which versions were best. However, later composers, such as his friend Gustav Mahler, admired Bruckner’s work greatly.

Life and career

Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden, which was a village at the time but is now close to the city of Linz, on September 4, 1824. His family had a long history of being farmers and craftsmen, dating back to the 16th century. They lived near a bridge south of Sindelburg, which is why they were called "Bruckhner an der Bruckhen" (bridgers on the bridge). Bruckner's grandfather became a schoolmaster in Ansfelden in 1776, and this job was passed down to Bruckner's father, Anton Bruckner Sr., in 1823. The position was not well paid, but it was respected in the rural area. Bruckner Sr. married Theresia Helm, and they had eleven children, with Anton Bruckner being the oldest.

Music was taught in school, and Bruckner's father was his first music teacher. As a child, Bruckner learned to play the organ. He was very dedicated to the instrument, just as he would be later in life when composing music, often practicing for 12 hours a day. He started school at age six, worked hard, and was promoted to a higher class early. While studying, he also helped his father teach other children. After receiving his confirmation in 1833, Bruckner's father sent him to a school in Hörsching. The schoolmaster there, Johann Baptist Weiß, loved music and was a respected organist. At this school, Bruckner finished his education and improved his skills as an organist. Around 1835, Bruckner wrote his first composition, a piece called Pange lingua, which he later revised near the end of his life. When his father became sick, Anton returned to Ansfelden to help him.

Bruckner's father died in 1837, when Anton was 13 years old. The school position and house were given to someone else, and Bruckner was sent to the Augustinian monastery in Sankt Florian to become a choirboy. In addition to choir practice, he studied violin and organ. He admired the large organ in the monastery, which was built during the late Baroque era and rebuilt in 1837. He sometimes played it during church services. From October 1840 to July 1841, Bruckner received further training at a teacher-training school in Linz. His teacher for harmony and choral singing was August Durrnberger, who became a friend and later encouraged Bruckner to become a cathedral organist.

After finishing the training with high marks, Bruckner was sent to work as an assistant teacher at a school in Windhaag. The living conditions and pay were poor, and he was often treated unfairly by his superior, Franz Fuchs. Despite the difficult situation, Bruckner never complained or rebelled; he believed he was less important than others, a feeling that stayed with him throughout his life. He taught general subjects there from age 17 to 19.

Prelate Michael Arneth noticed Bruckner's difficult situation in Windhaag and gave him an assistant teacher position near the monastery town of Sankt Florian, sending him to Kronstorf an der Enns for two years. This allowed him to take part in more musical activities. His time in Kronstorf was happier for Bruckner. Between 1843 and 1845, he studied with Leopold von Zenetti in Enns. Compared to the few works he wrote in Windhaag, the compositions from Kronstorf showed much better artistic skill and marked the beginning of what could be called "the Bruckner style." One of these works was a vocal piece called Asperges me (WAB 4), which Bruckner signed with "Anton Bruckner m.p.ria. Comp[onist]" despite his position. This has been seen as an early sign of Bruckner's desire to be recognized as a composer. Little is known about Bruckner's other plans or goals at this time.

After leaving Kronstorf in 1845, Bruckner returned to Sankt Florian, where he worked as a teacher and organist for the next 10 years. In May 1845, he passed an exam that allowed him to teach in village schools in Sankt Florian. He continued improving his education, passed another exam that let him teach in higher education institutions, and received "very good" grades in all subjects. In 1848, Bruckner was appointed an organist in Sankt Florian, and in 1851, this became a regular position. Most of the music played there was by composers such as Michael Haydn, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, and Franz Joseph Aumann. During his time in Sankt Florian, Bruckner continued working with Zenetti.

In 1855, Bruckner wanted to study with the famous Vienna music theorist Simon Sechter. He showed Sechter his Missa solemnis (WAB 29), written a year earlier, and was accepted as a student. His education, which included learning music theory and counterpoint, mostly happened through letters, but also included in-person lessons in Vienna. Sechter's teaching had a strong influence on Bruckner. Later, when Bruckner taught music himself, he based his lessons on Sechter's book Die Grundsätze der musikalischen Komposition (Leipzig 1853/54).

Bruckner was mostly self-taught as a composer and did not start composing seriously until he was 37, in 1861. He studied further with Otto Kitzler, who was nine years younger and introduced him to the music of Richard Wagner, which Bruckner studied extensively from 1863 onward. Bruckner considered his earliest orchestral works, such as the "study" Symphony in F minor, the three orchestral pieces, the March in D minor, and the Overture in G minor (composed between 1862 and 1863), as simple exercises done under Kitzler's guidance. He continued his studies until he was 40. Bruckner did not gain widespread fame until after

Compositions

Bruckner's works are sometimes labeled with WAB numbers, which come from the Werkverzeichnis Anton Bruckner, a list of his compositions created by Renate Grasberger.

The issue of revisions has caused debate. One reason for the many versions of Bruckner's music is that he often changed his work based on strong, but not always correct, feedback from his colleagues. Musicologist Deryck Cooke explained that Bruckner felt insecure about his non-musical side and often followed the advice of his friends, who were considered experts. This idea was widely accepted by Bruckner scholar Robert Haas, who led the first critical editions of Bruckner's works published by the International Bruckner Society. However, Haas's work was supported by the Nazis, and after World War II, it fell out of favor during denazification efforts. His rival, Leopold Nowak, was later chosen to create a new critical edition. Nowak and others, such as Benjamin Korstvedt and conductor Leon Botstein, argued that Haas's explanation was not reliable and possibly used to justify his own editing choices. It has also been noted that Bruckner often began working on a new symphony shortly after finishing the previous one. As Cooke wrote, "Despite criticism and advice from friends, Bruckner focused on his next symphony without hesitation."

Bruckner expanded the idea of symphonic form in ways that have not been seen before or since. His symphonies contain some of the most complex musical writing ever created. Scholars continue to study his scores and admire the complexity of his creative ideas.

Bruckner composed eleven symphonies. The first, the Study Symphony in F minor, was written in 1863. The last, the unfinished Symphony No. 9 in D minor, was begun between 1887 and 1896. Except for Symphony No. 4 (called "Romantic"), none of Bruckner's symphonies originally had subtitles. The nicknames or subtitles used today were not chosen by Bruckner himself.

Bruckner's symphonies are written for a standard orchestra with pairs of woodwinds, four horns, two or three trumpets, three trombones, a tuba (added in the second version of Symphony No. 4), timpani, and strings. Later symphonies include more instruments, but not by much. Wagner tubas appear in his last three symphonies. Only the Eighth Symphony includes a harp, and all versions have percussion beyond timpani. In some versions of Symphony No. 7, a single cymbal crash is played alongside a triangle roll during the climax of the second movement. Bruckner's orchestration style was criticized by his contemporaries in Vienna, such as Eduard Hanslick. However, by the mid-20th century, musicologists recognized that Bruckner's orchestration was inspired by the sound of his main instrument, the pipe organ, which alternates between two groups of instruments, like changing between manuals on an organ.

The structure of Bruckner's symphonies builds on the style of Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies. Each of Bruckner's symphonies has four movements:

• The first movement, usually in 4 or 2 time, is an allegro in modified sonata form with three thematic groups. The first group is often played softly on the strings and repeated loudly. The second group is a melody with a specific structure. The third group is rhythmic and sometimes similar to the first. The development section is long, followed by a shortened reprise and a powerful ending.
• The second movement, mostly in 4 time, is an adagio in ABA′B′A″ form. The first group is developed in later sections. The second group is a lyrical melody. In some symphonies, the adagio appears in the third position.
• The scherzo, usually in 4 time and a minor key, is often intense. The trio is more melodic and sometimes in Ländler style. The da capo reprise ends with a short, powerful ending in early symphonies. In the revised version of Symphony No. 4, the scherzo, called the "Hunt scherzo," has outer sections in 4 time and a major key.
• The finale, in 4 or 2 time, is an allegro in modified sonata form with three thematic groups. The first group often acts as an introduction, followed by a lyrical and contrapuntal group and a rhythmic group. The development is dramatic, followed by a less formal reprise and a coda that repeats the first theme from the first movement. In Symphony No. 8, the coda includes themes from all four movements.

Nicholas Temperley wrote in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980) about Bruckner's work. Deryck Cooke also contributed to the same dictionary. In a concert review, Bernard Holland described parts of the first movements of Bruckner's Sixth and Seventh symphonies as having slow, broad introductions and drawn-out climaxes that build and recede.

In the 2001 second edition of The New Grove, Mark Evan Bonds called Bruckner's symphonies "monumental in scope and design," combining lyricism with complex musical structures. He noted that Bruckner's approach to large-scale form relied on combining themes and harmonies on a grand scale. Over time, Bruckner showed increasing interest in connecting themes across movements, culminating in his masterpiece, the Symphony No. 8 in C minor, which integrates themes from all four movements in its final page.

In 1990, artist Jack Ox presented a paper titled "The Systematic Translation of Anton Bruckner's Eighth Symphony into a series of Thirteen Paintings" at a Bruckner Symposium in Linz, Austria. She analyzed the themes of the Eighth Symphony and created twelve large paintings based on the musical structure. The conference report was published in 1993.

"The Bruckner Problem" refers to the challenges caused by the many different versions and editions of his symphonies. The term became widely used after an article titled "The Bruckner Problem Simplified" by Deryck Cooke was published in 1969.

The first versions of Bruckner's symphonies included complex instrumental, contrapuntal, and rhythmic elements, such as the "Brucknerian rhythm" (2 + 3) and the use of quintuplets. These features were not fully understood by musicians at the time and were considered difficult to perform. To make the symphonies easier to play, most of them (except Symphonies No. 5, No. 6, and No. 7) were revised multiple times.

Reception in the 20th century

Because of the long length and large size of his music, Bruckner's popularity has grown a lot since the invention of long-playing records and better recording technology.

Many years after Bruckner died, the Nazi Party and Nazi Germany strongly supported his music. They believed it reflected the spirit of the German people. Adolf Hitler even honored Bruckner by dedicating a statue of him in a ceremony at Walhalla in Regensburg in 1937. Bruckner's music was very popular in Nazi Germany.

Near the end of World War II, Hitler became very interested in Bruckner's music. He planned to turn St. Florian Monastery in Linz—where Bruckner had played the organ and was buried—into a place to store Bruckner's musical writings. Hitler ordered the monks to leave the monastery and paid for the organ's restoration and the creation of a Bruckner study center there. He also funded the publication of the Haas collection of Bruckner's works and bought materials for a planned library. Hitler also helped start the Bruckner Symphony Orchestra, which began performing concerts in late 1943. His plan to have a bell tower in Linz play a theme from Bruckner's Fourth Symphony was never completed. The Adagio from Bruckner's Seventh Symphony was played on German radio (Deutscher Reichsrundfunk) when it announced Hitler's death on May 1, 1945.

Today, the Brucknerhaus in Linz, which opened in 1974, is named after him.

The support of Hitler and the Nazis for Bruckner's music did not harm his reputation after the war. Since the 1950s, films and television shows in Europe and the United States have used parts of his music, just as they did in the 1930s. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra has never banned Bruckner's music, unlike Wagner's, and has even recorded his Eighth Symphony with conductor Zubin Mehta.

Bruckner's symphonies, which were often criticized in Vienna during his lifetime, are now an important part of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's performances.

Bruckner's life was shown in Jan Schmidt-Garre's 1995 film Bruckner's Decision, which focuses on his time recovering at an Austrian spa. Ken Russell's television film The Strange Affliction of Anton Bruckner, starring Peter Mackriel, fictionalizes Bruckner's real-life stay at a sanatorium due to obsessive-compulsive disorder (called "numeromania" at the time).

Luchino Visconti used Bruckner's music in his 1954 film Senso, which is about Italy's war against Austria in 1866. The score for the restored version of the 1925 film Ben-Hur by Carl Davis draws inspiration from Bruckner to create a sense of reverence in scenes showing biblical events.