Bruno Walter once said that Anton Bruckner had the good fortune to begin by finding God. Sometimes referred to as ‘God’s musician’, Tonerl, as his family called him, was born in Upper Austria near Linz, on September 4, 1824. He grew up a short, nervous man with country ways, was unsuccessful with women and sometimes irritated other people. Inhibited by a natural hesitancy and anxiety, he applied his creative energies to music, countering his sense of inadequacy by endless studying, in order to arm himself with as many qualifications as possible.
By Rex Burgess
He had a fine soprano voice, and on his father’s death he became a choirboy at the nearby St Florian monastery. This then became both his spiritual and physical home, living there initially from 1837 to 1840, later holidaying or retreating there, according to his biographer, Hans-Hubert Schöenzeler: “when the burden which fate had placed upon his shoulders seemed too heavy to bear.” After completing his schooling, and a further year’s study in Linz, from mid-1841 he spent two unhappy years as assistant teacher at Windhaag, a small village near the Bohemian border. Constantly exploited, as at other times in his life he found solace in music, culminating in him writing the first of his seven Masses.
Then in 1845 he was able to return to St Florian as organist, staying until 1855 and progressively honing his composing skills. It was not until 1864, though, when he was already forty, and only after considerable encouragement from his friends, that he ventured to reveal his true musical capabilities by conducting his D minor Mass in Linz cathedral, where he had been organist for the past nine years. It was well received, prompting a critic to ask why it had taken him so long to achieve such a bold personal style? He replied: “I didn’t dare before.” Seemingly it was his recent introduction to Wagner’s music which finally led to him unveiling his own individuality. As one writer observed: “Probably no great master ever set out on his path more doubtingly or more timidly than did Bruckner.”
He continued at Linz until 1868, before eventually accepting a professorship in Vienna, where he spent the rest of his life teaching and composing, before dying there in 1896. The Bruckner oeuvre includes around fifty sacred vocal works, the main ones written mostly by 1868, when seemingly he decided his future was as a symphonist. The exception is his Te Deum, completed in 1884, about which he once remarked: “When God finally calls me and asks, ‘What have you done with the talent I gave you, my lad?’ I will present to him the score of my Te Deum, and I hope He will judge me mercifully.”
His own high regard for this work was shared by his devoted pupil, Mahler, who suggested the citation ‘for soprano, alto, tenor, bass, choir and orchestra’ instead should read ‘for angelic voices, for God-seekers, for tormented hearts, and for souls purified in flames.’ Occasionally described as ‘armchair’ works, Bruckner wrote eleven symphonies in all, some having several versions, and each laid out on a large scale, described by one writer as ‘grand designs from archetypal motives.’
With an intended dedication ‘To the dear Lord,’ he started on his final symphony late in 1887, although he made little headway until early in 1891. Even then, progress was painfully slow, with the third movement completed only in October 1894. At this point he reportedly said to a caller: “I have done my duty on earth. I have accomplished what I could, and my only wish is to be allowed to complete my Ninth Symphony … I trust Death will not deprive me of my pen.”
Although he lived for a further two years, his deteriorating health made it impossible to flesh out his sketches for the finale, with Death, in the words of Lawrence Gilman, “proving indifferent to his hopes.”
It has been said that Brahms was the natural symphonic successor to Beethoven. Brucknerites have made the same claim, since he had already written four and was well advanced with his fifth by the time Brahms completed his first symphony, in 1876. That debate now seems academic.
What is beyond dispute, though, is that Bruckner’s outlook was far more future oriented.
For while Brahms stands right at the end of the classical tradition, Bruckner was a cornerstone for an emerging wave of innovators, his ideas passing through Mahler to the new generation of composers represented by Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth, 2MBS will be presenting every Thursday from 1 August to 10 October (1pm-3pm), a series of programs of his music, including all the symphonies and major choral works.