Josef Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) was an Austrian
composer and organist best known for his symphonies and
sacred music, which includes Masses, Te Deum and
motets. The symphonies are considered emblematic of the
final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of
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.
(+)
Josef Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) was an Austrian
composer and organist best known for his symphonies and
sacred music, which includes Masses, Te Deum and
motets. The symphonies are considered emblematic of the
final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of
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.
Unlike other musical radicals such as Richard Wagner
and Hugo Wolf, Bruckner showed respect, even humility,
before other famous musicians, Wagner in particular.
This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and
Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his
life in a way that gives a straightforward context for
his music. Hans von Bülow described him as "half
genius, half simpleton". Bruckner was critical of his
own work and often reworked his compositions. There are
several versions of many of his works.
His works, the symphonies in particular, had
detractors, most notably the influential Austrian
critic Eduard Hanslick and other supporters of Johannes
Brahms, who pointed to their large size and use of
repetition, as well as to Bruckner's propensity for
revising many of his works, often with the assistance
of colleagues, and his apparent indecision about which
versions he preferred. On the other hand, Bruckner was
greatly admired by subsequent composers, including his
friend Gustav Mahler.
The Kitzler Study Book (Kitzler-Studienbuch) is an
autograph workbook of Anton Bruckner which he wrote
taking tuition with the conductor and cellist Otto
Kitzler in Linz. Bruckner tried to complete his
knowledge in musical form and instrumentation with
Kitzler after the end of his studies with Simon
Sechter. The workbook is composed of 163 pages of
different sizes in landscape format (326 numbered
pages) in chronological order, some of them dated, from
Heilige Nacht anno 1861 (Holy Night, 1861) on p. 30, to
10 July 1863 on p. 325. The workbook contains autograph
sketches, comments, complete and partial compositions,
which are displaying a rigorous tuition in musical
formatting and instrumentation.
The first entries (pp. 1-18) are exercises in musical
form: cadences and periods. They are followed (pp.
18-57) by lieder in two and three parts, and (pp.
58-218) by pieces for piano and string quartet: waltz,
polka, mazurka, études, theme and variations, rondos,
sonata form, etc., and the String Quartet in C minor
and its additional Rondo.
The Kitzler Study Book is fascinating because of its
insight on the history of the musical apprenticeship in
the nineteenth century, as well as the historical and
theoretical significance of the terminology and the
extent of the conserved exercises. Last but not least,
this manuscript is essential for the research on
Bruckner's mode of operation.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzler_Study_Book).
Although originally created for Solo Piano, I created
this Interpretation of the Waltz for Piano in E-Flat
Major (WAB 224 No. 1 Pg. 25) for Flute & Strings (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC