Anton Bruckner

Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer and organist, most famous for his symphonies and sacred music, including Masses, a Te Deum, and motets. His symphonies are seen as a key example of late Austro-German Romanticism, marked by rich harmonies, strong polyphonic textures, and great length. Through his use of dissonances, sudden modulations, and shifting harmonies, his music helped define a radical edge in the music of his time.

Unlike other musical radicals like Richard Wagner and Hugo Wolf, Bruckner was humble and respectful toward other famous musicians, especially Wagner. This contrast between Bruckner’s modest personality and his bold music makes it hard to describe his life in a simple way that directly explains his work. The German conductor Hans von Bülow called him “half genius, half simpleton.” Bruckner was very critical of his own work and often revised it, so many of his pieces exist in multiple versions.

His works, especially the symphonies, had critics—most notably the Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick and supporters of Johannes Brahms. They objected to the symphonies’ large size, repetition, Bruckner’s habit of revising with help from colleagues, and his apparent uncertainty about which version he preferred. On the other hand, later composers greatly admired him, including his friend Gustav Mahler.

Bruckner was born on 4 September 1824 in Ansfelden, then a village near Linz. His family had been farmers and craftsmen since the 16th century, living near a bridge south of Sindelburg, which gave them the name “Bruckhner an der Bruckhen.” His grandfather became schoolmaster in Ansfelden in 1776, and his father, Anton Bruckner Sr., inherited the post in 1823. The job was poorly paid but respected. Bruckner Sr. married Theresia Helm, and they had eleven children; five survived, with Anton being the eldest.

Music was part of the school curriculum, and Bruckner’s father gave him his first lessons. He learned the organ as a child and was very dedicated, often practicing twelve hours a day. He started school at six, worked hard, and was moved up early. While studying, he also helped his father teach other children. After his confirmation in 1833, his father sent him to a school in Hörsching, where the schoolmaster, Johann Baptist Weiß, was a music lover and respected organist. There Bruckner finished his schooling and improved his organ skills. Around 1835 he wrote his first composition, a *Pange lingua*, which he later revised near the end of his life. When his father fell ill, Bruckner returned to Ansfelden to help.

His father died in 1837, when Bruckner was thirteen. The teaching position and house went to someone else, and Bruckner was sent to the Augustinian monastery at Sankt Florian as a choirboy. Besides choir, he studied violin and organ. He was awed by the monastery’s great organ, built in the late baroque and rebuilt in 1837, and sometimes played it during services. From October 1840 to July 1841, he trained at a teacher-training school in Linz, where his harmony and choral singing teacher was August Durrnberger, a friend who later encouraged him to become a cathedral organist.

After finishing with excellent grades, Bruckner became an assistant teacher in Windhaag. The pay and living conditions were terrible, and his superior, teacher Franz Fuchs, constantly humiliated him. Bruckner never complained or rebelled; a sense of inferiority stayed with him his whole life. He stayed in Windhaag from age seventeen to nineteen, teaching general subjects. Prelate Michael Arneth noticed his bad situation and gave him an assistant teacher post near Sankt Florian, sending him to Kronstorf an der Enns for two years, where he could be more involved in music. This was a much happier time. Between 1843 and 1845, he studied with Leopold von Zenetti in Enns. The works he wrote in Kronstorf show much better artistic skill and the beginnings of what would become the Bruckner style. One piece, *Asperges me*, he signed as “Anton Bruckner m.p.ria. Comp[onist],” a rare early sign of his artistic ambition. Otherwise, little is known of his plans at that time.

After Kronstorf, Bruckner returned to Sankt Florian in 1845, where for the next ten years he worked as a teacher and organist. In May 1845, he passed an exam to work as an assistant teacher in a village school there. He continued his education, passing another exam that allowed him to teach at higher education institutes.