Anton Bruckner: The Man and the Work. Translated by Ernest Bernhardt-Kabisch PDF
Preview Anton Bruckner: The Man and the Work. Translated by Ernest Bernhardt-Kabisch
Anton Bruckner CONsTANTiN FLOROs Anton Bruckner The Man and the Work Translated by Ernest Bernhardt-Kabisch PETER LANG Frankfurt am Main · Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Wien Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Cover Design: Olaf Gloeckler, Atelier Platen, Friedberg Cover illustration: Anton Bruckner at age 39. Courtesy of Direktion der Museen of the City of Vienna Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Floros, Constantin. [Anton Bruckner. English] Anton Bruckner : the man and the work / Constantin Floros ; translated by Ernest Bernhardt-Kabisch. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-631-61439-6 1. Bruckner, Anton, 1824-1896--Psychology. 2. Bruckner, Anton, 1824-1896--Criticism and interpretation. I. Bernhardt- Kabisch, Ernest, 1934- trl II. Title. ML410.B88F613 2011 780.92--dc22 [B] 2010047343 ISBN 978-3-631-61439-6 © for the English edition: Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2011 © for all other languages: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg All rights reserved. All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. www.peterlang.de TableofContents Preface...........................................................................................................1 PARTONE ACharacterPortrait...................................................................................3 WhoWasBruckner?.....................................................................................5 AuthoritarianismandSelf-Assurance.........................................................11 TheWorldas“BadLot”..............................................................................14 Neurosis.......................................................................................................17 Libido..........................................................................................................20 Emotionality................................................................................................22 The“PassionateUrgetoCompose”............................................................25 SecuringanIncome.....................................................................................28 PersecutionMania.......................................................................................30 WorriesabouttheSuccessoftheWork......................................................38 InterestintheExceptional...........................................................................42 “SympathywithDeath”..............................................................................44 Religiosity...................................................................................................48 Plates...........................................................................................................51 PARTTWO SacredMusic..............................................................................................59 PersonalityandOeuvre...............................................................................61 MusicasReligiousConfession...................................................................62 ANew,DramaticConceptionoftheMass.................................................65 TheCredoSettings......................................................................................68 ReligiousToneSymbolism.........................................................................75 JubilantandDevotionalMusic....................................................................82 “LetMeNotBeConfoundedinEternity”–TheTeDeum........................84 MusicasSongofPraise..............................................................................91 V PARTTHREE TheSymphonies.........................................................................................95 TheFictionof“AbsoluteMusic”................................................................97 OriginalityandModernity...........................................................................98 MattersofStyle.........................................................................................101 HowBrucknerCametotheSymphony....................................................104 AutobiographicElementsintheSecondandThirdSymphony................110 TheAllegiancetoRichardWagner...........................................................116 TheTriadoftheMiddleSymphonies.......................................................122 TheSeventh–aSecond“WagnerSymphony”........................................127 SecularandReligious................................................................................132 Imaginations–Bruckner’sAssociationsintheEighth.............................143 TheNinth–Bruckner’s“FarewelltoLife”..............................................147 ReflectionsontheBrucknerInterpretation–GünterWand, EugenJochumandSergiuCelibidache.....................................................159 TheProgressive.........................................................................................166 Afterword..................................................................................................175 APPENDIX...............................................................................................179 Notes..........................................................................................................181 BiographicalDates....................................................................................213 Abbreviations............................................................................................217 WorksbyAntonBruckner........................................................................220 SelectiveBibliography..............................................................................224 Author’sPapers.........................................................................................227 PhotoCredits.............................................................................................229 IndexofNames.........................................................................................230 VI Preface Largely unrecognized and controversial during his lifetime, Anton Bruck- ner is regarded today as the greatest symphonic composer after Beethoven and Mahler. The originality, daring and monumentality of his music are universallyacknowledged on all sides, and his impact, initiallyconfined to theGerman-speakingworld,hasforsomedecadesnowbeguntobeglobal: today, Bruckner is recognized as a composer of symphonic as well as of sacred music in both the Anglo-Saxon and the Romance countries, even in Japan. I have loved Bruckner’s music ever since my youth: because of its modernity and sublimity, its intense expressiveness and the new “tone” it brought into the world, because of its “unspoiled forest darkness,” as Adorno called it, because of its many contrasts and spacious effects, its in- tensifications and grandiose climaxes, but also because of its abysses and seemingruptures.When,in1951,IattendedHansSwarowsky’sclassatthe VienneseMusicAcademyforthefirst time,hewasintheprocessofgoing through the Romantic symphony. He pointed out the harmonic, metric and dynamic subtleties of the score and thought that Bruckner’s real strength layless in his art than in the “vis symphonica.” I could not understand that atthetime,andIstilldon’t.Forme,Brucknerwaseventhenamagnificent symphoniccomposer,whohaddaredtoadvancetotheverybordersofato- nality. Already as a young instructor in the ‘sixties in Hamburg, I gave lec- tures about his music, seeking to scrutinize it intensively in all its dimen- sions. In 1980, Breitkopf and Härtel published my book on Brahms and Bruckner,which wasthefirsttoshakethethenstillprevailingthesesabout these two composers. As a comrade in arms of Linz’s Bruckner Institute, I have since then taken part in many symposia and given numerous talks aboutBrucknerinAustria,Germany,GreatBritainandJapan. This book, too, would hardly have been possible without the kind- nessofanumberofinstitutionsandindividuals.HofratDr.GünterBrosche andHofratDr.ThomasLeibnitz(MusicCollectionoftheAustrianNational Library, Vienna), as well as Prof. Dr. Otto Biba (Society of the Friends of Music, Vienna) and the Director’s Office of the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Cracow allowed me to look at Bruckner autographs. In the rooms of the CommissionforMusicHistoryoftheAustrianAcademyofSciencesinVi- enna I could study microfiches of important sketches. During my frequent research stays in Vienna, I was ableto discuss keyresearch issues with the 1 staff members of the Anton Bruckner Institute, Linz: Dr. Elisabeth Maier, Dr. Andrea Harrandt, Mrs. Renate Grasberger, Dr. Uwe Harten and Dr. Erich Partsch. On a number of psychiatric and theological questions I had theadviceofProf.Dr.Wolfgang Berner(Hamburg),Prof.Dr.Eugen Biser (Munich) and Prof. Dr. Tim Schramm (Hamburg). My son Marc-Aurel set the musical examples in computer print. Prof. Dr. Ernest Bernhardt- Kabisch (Indiana University) supplied the precise and sensitive translation into English; I also owe him a number of helpful comments and sugges- tions. Michael Bock, finally, provided crucial help in preparing the present textforprinting. Mycordialthanksgotoalloftheseindividuals. C.F.,Hamburg,Summer2010 2 PARTONE ACharacterPortrait
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