The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. In the 29-volume second edition. Grove Music Online /General Editor – Stanley Sadie. Oxford University Press. 2001

Bruckner, (Joseph) Anton

(b Ansfelden, nr Linz, 4 Sept 1824; d Vienna, 11 Oct 1896). Austrian composer. One of the most innovatory figures of the second half of the 19th century, Bruckner is remembered primarily for his symphonies and sacred compositions. His music is rooted in the formal traditions of Beethoven and Schubert and inflected with Wagnerian harmony and orchestration. Until late in his career his reputation rested mainly on his improvisatory skills at the organ. As a teacher he communicated the contrapuntal system of Simon Sechter to a generation of Viennese students that included Felix Mottl, Heinrich Schenker, Franz and Josef Schalk and Ferdinand Löwe.

1. Early years: up to 1845.

2. St Florian, 1845–55.

3. Linz, 1856–68.

4. Vienna, 1868–96.

5. Personality.

6. Publication and reception history.

7. Versions of the symphonies.

8. Metrical and part-writing theories, composition and revision processes.

9. Form, large-scale harmony and the revisions.

10. Vocal music.

11. Narrative and intertextuality.

12. Research issues.

WORKS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PAUL HAWKSHAW (1–6, 12, work-list, bibliography), TIMOTHY L. JACKSON (6–12)

Bruckner, Anton

1. Early years: up to 1845.

Bruckner's birthplace, the tiny village of Ansfelden, is situated on a fertile strip of land between the Danube and the foothills of Upper Austria. Although it has been almost absorbed by the 20th-century suburban expansion of Linz, in 1824 it was a farming community relatively isolated from the social and cultural activities of the provincial capital. Bruckner was the eldest of 11 children, of whom only five survived early childhood. His father, Anton (1791–1837), was the local schoolmaster, a position which included the responsibilities of organist and director of music for the village church; he supplemented the family income by playing dance music on the violin at local taverns. Bruckner began participating in the musical activities at an early age: late in life, reminiscing for his biographer August Göllerich, he recalled that, at the age of four, he had often been invited to perform on a miniature violin for the parish priest.

Bruckner must have shown talent because, in 1835, his parents sent him to study with his cousin Johann Baptist Weiss (1813–50), a schoolmaster's assistant and organist in the nearby village of Hörsching, which offered a somewhat more sophisticated musical establishment than Ansfelden. Little is known about Bruckner's studies with Weiss, although almost certainly they included thoroughbass. A first edition (1799) of Haydn's piano variations in F minor (hXVII:6) survives with both Weiss's and the young Bruckner's signatures, indicating that piano instruction included music by Haydn. Göllerich and Max Auer (E1922–37) reported that Weiss also introduced Bruckner to the scores of The Creation and The Seasons. The Pange lingua in C (wab31), believed to be Bruckner's earliest surviving composition, may date from his time in Hörsching.

Studies with Weiss were brought to a premature close by the illness of Bruckner's father in autumn 1836, when Bruckner had to return to Ansfelden to help in the church, school and tavern. On 7 June 1837 his father died of what was referred to locally as ‘schoolteachers’ disease', described on the death certificate as ‘lung fever and exhaustion’ (euphemisms for alcoholism and overwork). Rather than allow her eldest son to bear the burden of supporting the family, Bruckner's mother persuaded Michael Arneth (1771–1854), prior of the Augustinian monastery of St Florian nearby, to admit him as a chorister. Many of the churches and schools in the vicinity, including those of Ansfelden, fell under the jurisdiction of St Florian, so it is not surprising that a widow with five children and no means of support would seek help there. Accepting the boy, whatever talent he may have been able to demonstrate, required some kindness on the part of the monastery: at the age of 13 Bruckner's voice was about to change.

Bruckner's first sojourn in St Florian lasted three years. If his Roman Catholicism had already been firmly established during his boyhood in Ansfelden, it was certainly reinforced here. The Baroque halls of the monastery were to be a source of spiritual strength and inspiration for the rest of his life. The church music repertory, compared with the amateur establishments of his early childhood, was vast and featured Austrian classical and pre-classical composers including Michael Haydn, the St Florian composer Franz Seraph Aumann (1728–97, whose music Bruckner admired), Albrechtsberger, Joseph Haydn and Mozart. Contrary to views expressed in much of the Bruckner literature, very little Renaissance and Baroque music (with the exception of that of Antonio Caldara) was performed at the monastery in those years. Bruckner's lifelong devotion to the music of Schubert can be traced directly to St Florian. Schubert's secular music had already been performed often at the monastery while he was still alive and continued to be actively cultivated during both of Bruckner's periods of residence there.

The choristers attended the local school, where records indicate that Bruckner was an excellent student, finishing highest in his class in 1839. He studied the violin with Franz Gruber, who had been a pupil of Beethoven's friend Schuppanzigh, and singing with another local teacher, Michael Bogner. It was his violin playing that earned him an extra year at St Florian after his voice had begun to change in 1839, but most important for his future career were lessons with the monastery organist Anton Kattinger (1798–1852), who was sufficiently impressed to allow him to serve as assistant at Sunday masses.

By autumn 1840 it was time to choose a career. Perhaps because he or his mentors lacked sufficient confidence in his musical abilities to trust his future to them entirely, it was decided that Bruckner should follow his father's profession. He spent the academic year 1840–41 taking teacher-training courses in Linz, where he also continued to study the organ, singing and the piano. His theory teacher was Johann August Dürrnberger (1800–80), whose Elementar-Lehrbuch der Harmonie- und Generalbass-Lehre was used as text; Bruckner's annotated copy survives. Other experiences included his first contact with important orchestral repertory; he is known to have attended, for example, a concert conducted by the Domkapellmeister Karl Zappe (1812–71) which included Weber's overtures to Der Freischütz and Euryanthe and Beethoven's Fourth Symphony.

In autumn 1841 Bruckner set out for his first teaching position. A ride on the horse-drawn train as far as Freistadt followed by a three-hour walk took him to the remote village of Windhaag in the Mühlviertal, where he remained as assistant schoolteacher for 16 months. The conditions of his employment were hardly more attractive than those of the journey to get there, although the severity of his circumstances was probably exaggerated by early biographers. Duties included teaching, assisting with the church music and helping out in the fields. Like his father, Bruckner supplemented his income by playing the violin at community festivities. The musical resources of the church were even more meagre than those at Ansfelden; the organ and a few amateur singers and instrumentalists were all he had to work with. An amelioration was the support of a local weaver, Johann Sücka, who placed the family clavichord at his disposal. Although his employer, Franz Fuchs, has often been pictured as unsympathetic, partly as a result of friction with Bruckner over farm work, he nevertheless provided a glowing reference when it was time for the young man to move on.

Bruckner remained in Windhaag until January 1843, when the intervention of Michael Arneth secured him a new position in the smaller, though more congenial, village of Kronstorf. He spent two relatively happy years there: he was closer to his beloved St Florian and within a few kilometres of the larger municipalities, Enns and Steyr. There were no onerous farm chores, and the schoolmaster Franz Seraph Lehofer indulged him in his musical endeavours. He allowed Bruckner to keep a clavichord in the schoolhouse (the living quarters were too small) where, according to anecdotes, he often practised until the early hours of the morning. From Kronstorf, Bruckner walked three times a week to Enns to study theory with the organist and choirmaster Leopold von Zenetti (1805–92), who was well versed in the music of Michael and Joseph Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Zenetti introduced Bruckner to Türk's Kurze Anweisung zum Generalbassspielen and Von den wichtigsten Pflichten eines Organisten as well as to Bach's chorales. A little further in the opposite direction from Enns was a fine organ by Franz Xaver Chrismann (who had also built the magnificent instrument at St Florian) in the Stadtpfarrkirche in Steyr. The composer valued his connection with Steyr throughout the rest of his life, and requested in his will that he be laid to rest there if arrangements could not be made at St Florian.

Whether or not the few compositions that survive from Bruckner's early years accurately reflect the quantity and quality of his output is not certain. Given the time-consuming nature of his employment and studies, it is doubtful that compositional activity could have been very extensive. An accurate assessment is complicated by questions of chronology, because many compositions that predate Bruckner's move to Linz in 1856 exist only in undated autograph parts. The only surviving composition from the Windhaag period is a Mass in C (wab25) for alto solo, horns and organ. In Kronstorf he wrote at least two masses (wab9 and 146), some small sacred pieces for mixed chorus and the secular cantata Vergissmeinnicht (wab93). Bruckner's earliest surviving work for male chorus, An dem Feste (wab59), was composed for the birthday of the pastor at Enns, Josef von Pessler, and first performed in his church on 19 September 1843. Although these early pieces contain occasional striking harmonic progressions, there is little in them to suggest that Bruckner was destined for a musical career any more distinguished than those of his Upper Austrian teachers Weiss and Zenetti.

Bruckner, Anton