September 4 - Anton Bruckner (The Musical Birthday Series)

Previous posts for September 4th are here: Anton Bruckner (2019), Darius Milhaud (2020), and Anton Bruckner (2021)

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Anton Bruckner (4 September 1824 – 11 October 1896) was one of the great late nineteenth century symphonists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This/That

Ironically, it's exactly the things Bruckner's fiercest critics hate that his devotees admire so much: the scale, the uniqueness of his harmony, the new kind of symphonic form he developed, the spiritual journeys he creates.  – Tom Service, “Listen without prejudice,” The Guardian (6 Oct 2011)

When Bruckner is played the reaction

Is decided according to faction, –

For some it’s a time

That approaches sublime,

For others, like being in traction.

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Thank God. I'm a Country Boy

Bruckner was a pious, plain-spoken composer and organist from an upper Austrian village who specialized in writing massive symphonies. Both the man and his music were misunderstood and maligned, both in his day and beyond his death in 1896. He was mocked for his backwoods dialect and simple clothing. – Tom Huizenga, “Why Bruckner Matters,” NPR.org, (19 Jan 2017)

Herr Bruckner was a simple soul,

  Who humbly served his God,

But there are tales, and they are droll,

  It seems that he was odd.

And though, of course, it wasn’t fair,

   His peasant-like rusticity

Exposed him to the hostile glare

   Of critical publicity.