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Music / Anton Bruckner

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Josef Anton Bruckner (4 September 1824 – 11 October 1896) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist best known for his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets; his symphonies are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism due to their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and considerable length. His compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies.

His works, particularly the symphonies, have detractors, who point to their large size and use of repetition. Bruckner's propensity for revising many of his works, often with the assistance of colleagues, and apparent indecision about which versions he preferred has only helped to further complicate matters.note  On the other hand, Bruckner was greatly admired by subsequent composers, including his friends Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler.

His music is now widely beloved even in Vienna, where it now has an important place in the tradition and musical repertoire of the Vienna Philharmonic; his music was much maligned there in his lifetime.



  • Bigger Is Better: Almost every symphony that he composed (specifically Symphony No. 8 in C minor) is larger in size and longer in duration than those of most composers (and even most of his Romantic Era contemporaries, except for Mahler).
  • Book-Ends: The first and last movements of Symphony No. 5 in B♭ major are in that key; the second and third movements are in D minor. The first and last movements share one string figure, the middle movements share another. Also, the opening theme from the first movement is also presented in the coda of the final movement; the first-movement material closes the symphony as a whole.
  • Call-Back: A part of the Kyrie from Mass No. 3 in F minor is played by an oboe in the third movement Adagio of Symphony No. 9 in D minor.
  • Creator Thumbprint: The Bruckner rhythm, a rhythmic pattern of two equal-length notes followed by a triplet of that note, and vice versa, i.e. 2 + 3 or 3 + 2, is common in many of his works. The most prevalent example is Symphony No. 6 in A major, where it is used in the first movement to a much greater extent than anything he composed before.
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  • Ditzy Genius: Hans von Bülow described him as "half genius, half simpleton".
  • Dramatic Timpani: At the end of the first movement of Symphony No. 7 in E major, a pedal point on E is sustained on the timpani and double basses.
  • Early Installment Weirdness: Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 2, both in C minor, aren't performed nearly as much as Symphonies No. 3–9 are, most likely for this reason.
  • No Social Skills: While still a good-natured person, Bruckner wasn't exactly the greatest in terms of social graces.
  • Real Men Love Jesus: Bruckner was a deeply devout Catholic; he would pray daily while working on Symphony No. 9 in D minor in the hopes that he would be able to finish it.


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