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Bruckner remembered / Stephen Johnson.

By: Johnson, Stephen, 1955- [author.].
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: London ; Boston : Faber and Faber Limited, 1998Copyright date: ©1998Description: xxxvii, 186 pages : illustrations, portraits, music ; 22 cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 0571170951 (paperback).Subject(s): Bruckner, Anton, 1824-1896 | Composers -- Austria -- BiographyDDC classification: 780.92 BRU
Contents:
Vocation -- The man -- The musician -- A contract with God.
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Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Popular anecdotes represent Bruckner as a visionary simpleton, his life dominated by music and religion, but this bizarre figure is also widely held to have produced some the most original music written in the second half of the 19th century. The reminiscences collected here offer insights into a complicated and sometimes tormented mind. While some are content to dismiss him as a gifted country bumpkin, others describe a lively intellect, a compulsive student, and a meticulous musical theorist.

Bibliography: (pages 178-179) and index.

Vocation -- The man -- The musician -- A contract with God.

Alan Cutts Collection.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Chapter One VOCATION Joseph Anton Bruckner was born on 4 September 1824, in the Upper Austrian village of Ansfelden, about ten miles south of Linz. He was the eldest of five surviving children born to Anton Bruckner (1791-1837), schoolteacher and organist, and his wife Theresia, née Helm (1801-60), a keen singer, evidently with a good voice. The young Anton (`Tonerl') soon showed signs of musical talent, which his parents encouraged. At four, he was playing hymns on a miniature violin, progressing quickly to the family spinet; and by the age of ten he was able to stand in for his father as church organist. By then he had also made his first visit to the Augustian monastery of St Florian, a few miles to the east of Ansfelden, which in later years was to become his spiritual home. With the arrival of three younger sisters, Rosalie (`Sali'), Josefa and Maria Anna (`Nani'), and brother Ignaz, the house was now too full, so in 1835 the young Anton was sent to nearby Hörsching to stay with his godfather and cousin Johann Baptist Weiss (1813-50), a respected local composer and organist who taught Bruckner music theory (including figured bass) and introduced him to choral works by Mozart and Haydn. The following year, Anton senior became seriously ill; he died, of consumption, in 1837. Soon afterwards Bruckner entered St Florian as a chorister. IGNAZ BRUCKNER As the style of this reminiscence shows, the composer's only surviving brother, Ignaz, was what used to be called a `simple soul' (his spelling defies translation). From 1851, Ignaz was a gardener at St Florian, until his eyesight began to deteriorate, after which he worked as a servant in the monastery, one of his duties being the operation of the bellows for the great organ. He remained close to his brother and in 1893 he was named, along with his sister Rosalie, as the composer's heir. He died in 1913. I don't know anything about our father when he was well. But I remember him when he was sick, how he once called me by name --I ran away. I can remember him lying in bed ...     Mother said father was just like my brother. In later years, brother got more robust.     When father died, he was wearing a black cassock and a black nightcap.     I liked the music (at the funeral). I laughed then. The woman gravedigger said to me. `You musn't laugh, it's your father that's died.'     I still know what the food was at the funeral. It was on a day of fasting so we had Grießschmarrn [semolina pancakes]. Otherwise we'd've had beef with bread dumplings and horseradish and rice with raisins too!     The last thing I can remember is how we got to Ebelsberg.     I don't know anything about my brother -- he never played with me -- he had bigger friends than me.     He often told us how he played robbers in the meadows with the other boys. They always caught him and then whacked him with sticks on his backside. But he put heavily patched trousers on so he couldn't feel anything. That really pleased him, when they hit him so hard and he felt nothing.     Father noticed when he came home late because of the singing lessons. When he caught him by the hair he just got a lump of it -- brother slipped away and father did nothing to him ...     Brother's patrons always died too soon. He was more demanding than anyone else can ever have been. In the last years he said, `Some day you've got to hear one of my symphonies!' I said, `I don't understand anything about them.' `It doesn't matter,' he shouted, `you've still got to listen to one!'     Our sister Anna was in Linz and Vienna as brother's housekeeper. She was our favourite. Mother still prayed for her on her deathbed. She said that he (Anton) should look after her instead of mother, since she was so weak.     She was the eleventh and the last.     Brother looked after her. Unfortunately she died early, in 1870. She's got her own grave in the cemetery in Währing. [Göllerich/Auer, I, 67-72] KARL SEIBERL The son of a headmaster from St Marienkirchen, Karl Seiberl went to the Monastery of St Florian as a chorister in 1839, two years after Bruckner. He went on to study law, eventually becoming a councillor in the Higher Regional Court ( Oberlandesgerichtsrat ) at Wels. He was to remain on friendly terms with Bruckner until the composer's death, though according to Seiberl their musical differences became more marked in the 1870s: `Bruckner was Wagnerian, whilst I remained true to Mozart.' Seiberl's account is written in a very plain, matter-of-fact style which doesn't always make for easy reading (one enormous, largely redundant parenthesis in paragraph four has been removed), but it is full of useful information. His final remark is striking: despite the evidence of his exceptional talent, Bruckner was evidently far from convinced about his musical vocation. In 1839 I became a chorister in the monastery of St Florian. There I got to know Anton Bruckner, the son of a schoolmaster from Ansfelden. Bruckner was also a chorister; but he was fifteen years old and his voice had already broken, so he was now used as a violinist rather than as a singer. He was given his first basic training in organ continuo playing by his cousin, Johann Weiss, schoolmaster at Hörsching -- he was also Bruckner's sponsor -- and it was Weiss who brought him to St Florian as a chorister in 1837. Schoolmaster Weiss was an excellent organist, much valued by Schiedermayr, at that time cathedral organist in Linz; Schiedermayr always let Weiss play the organ whenever he appeared in the choir of the old Linz cathedral -- a special honour. I know this from my brother, Josef Seiberl, who died in 1908 while he was headmaster in St Marienkirchen an der Polsenz. Between 1843 and 1847 he was assistant teacher at Hörsching, and often witnessed the conversations between Weiss and Bruckner, whom my brother had befriended on the teacher-training course, whenever the latter came to visit his cousin in Hörsching.     According to my brother's description, Johann Weiss was a very talented musician with an excellent memory, which meant that he could play Haydn's Seasons and Creation off by heart. He was a magnificent improviser at the organ, as he showed to advantage in the chapel at St Florian, where he gave concerts with the monastery organist Kattinger and with Bruckner. The three organists -- Kattinger (a Master organist for whom Bruckner had the highest respect) at the great organ. Bruckner and Weiss on the two side-organs -- improvised on a theme given by Kattinger. I myself was not present at this coming together of the three finest organists in the region and beyond, and therefore missed what must have been a great musical event. But my brother Josef was there, and he told me that for most of those acutely attentive listeners, it was schoolmaster Weiss who made the most positive impression. From this, Weiss gave Bruckner a firm foundation in organ playing, on which he would be able to build later. And that is exactly what Bruckner did. Through his great talent and his tireless dedication to his theoretical studies, by listening to the outstanding monastery organist Kattinger and to the classical church and chamber music nurtured at the Stift, and with the firm foundation of Weiss's teaching, Bruckner was able to progress from year to year without rest until he grew into the figure that we admired so much.     As mentioned above, Bruckner often visited my brother when he was Weiss's assistant at Hörsching. On one such visit, when Bruckner again showed his unquestionable ability, Weiss said to my brother, `Watch him, one day he'll make a name for himself.' Weiss did not live to see the fulfilment of his prophecy; he died too soon. A pity -- perhaps Weiss could also have made a name for himself if his talent had found the right channels.     During the teacher-training course (in Linz) Bruckner lived, with perhaps a landlady, in a little one-storey house in the Bethlehemstrasse [...] where I visited him. After the completion of the course I did not see Bruckner again until 1846, when he was assistant teacher at Kronstorf. Bruckner played to me on the organ, ending, as usual, with a fugue, whose theme he took from the folk-hymn with which he had begun. He also took me to the nearby farmhouse where he was always met with a warm reception and had the opportunity to play on a piano that belonged to the farmer. Between 1845 and 1855 Bruckner was a teacher at St Florian. At that time I was at the grammar school in Linz, and I walked over to the monastery as often as I could. Thanks to the benevolence of the Prelate Arneth and the other canons, especially the Regens chori (choir-leader) Traumihler, St Florian became my second home, in which I could easily feel like a member of the brotherhood.     Naturally I often met Bruckner there, and I know that it was during this time that he came to possess his valuable `Bösendorfer'. If my memory serves me right, it was part of an exhibition held in a country house in Linz in 1848. It was bought by Sailer, the court scribe who was employed by the monastery, and given to Bruckner as a present. This instrument, which served Bruckner to the very end, is now preserved at the monastery of St Florian.     Bruckner became organist at St Florian at the beginning of 1849, as the previous organist Kattinger went to Kremsmünster as a tax official after the Revolution of 1848. In March 1855 I too came to St Florian, after completing my university studies. As a legal practitioner, I made my probation with the regional authority, of which Schiedermayr, the son of the Linz Cathedral organist, was in charge. I had not been to St Florian since 1850, and so I was delighted to able to go there again and see my friend Bruckner. Strange! Bruckner's behaviour was friendly enough, but he did not seem especially pleased to see me. Instead he was morose and taciturn, and I wondered what the problem was. One day Bruckner asked me, `Seiberl, do you think that if I had studied I would also have been a lawyer, or would I have become a priest?' A priest, I replied, since he was such a devout person. Bruckner did not seem at all pleased with this answer. Before long he began studying for the grammar school, taking lessons from a canon whose name I cannot mention, throwing himself with typical dedication into learning Latin. It turned out that he had already studied the other subjects on the teacher-training and lower state secondary school courses so that he would know enough to enter the grammar school. He meant to become a lawyer and then a civil servant. [Gräflinger, 100-103] MAX VON OBERLEITHNER The composer Max yon Oberleithner (1868-1935) was the son of a wealthy industrialist in Mähren. He graduated in music from the Vienna University, then in 1890 he became a private student of Bruckner on the recommendation of the conductor and composer Felix Mottl. They became close, and in 1892 Bruckner dedicated his last great choral work, Psalm 150 , to his pupil. Oberleithner's book Meine Erinnerungen an Anton Bruckner (`My memories of Anton Bruckner') is a particularly rich source of information about the composer. The following passage occurs in a chapter with the self-explanatory title `Episodes from Bruckner's life, as he himself told them'; it is not therefore a primary recollection of the younger Bruckner, rather a memory of a recollection. The material it contains is, however, sufficiently interesting to justify its inclusion here. Anton Bruckner was thirteen years old when his father died. When one of the priests at the Monastery of St Florian asked him what he would like to be, he replied, `What my father was.'     As a result he was trained as a teacher at the monastery's expense. At that time this was a hard career, wretchedly paid, and perpetually subordinate to the clergy. His first post was as `assistant teacher' in Windhaag, and later he moved to Kronstorf, and a salary of twenty florins a year.     It was while he was in Kronstorf that he fell in love with the sister of the parish priest. This was the only time a woman returned his feelings, for his later inamoratas were all `Salsen', (`trollops' -- Bruckner's own description). She still wrote to him when he found a better position at St Florian, asking if it was all over between them. She got married later, when Bruckner was cathedral organist in Linz, and died shortly after giving birth.     In spite of all trials and tribulations, Bruckner managed to obtain a post as organist at St Florian, though his musical education was no more than was normal for a trainee teacher, and as an organist he was actually self-taught. His first musical impressions -- hearing Schubert Lieder at the monastery, and the playing of the organist Kattinger -- fired his enthusiasm so strongly that he was able, through unparalleled diligence, to make the transition from teacher to musician.     As a musician, Bruckner made sure he always honoured St Cecilia's Day. Especially in 1852 -- `I made a colossal idiot of myself then.' The drink was punch, and in proposing a toast to the saint, Bruckner held forth on her life and works without knowing much about either. But on the way home he lost the key to the great organ, and he was to play the next morning at seven o'clock. How could he find it again? There was nothing for it but to get the boys up early and set them looking; fortunately they found the missing key with time to spare.     Bruckner seems to have spent rather more time in lively company in those early days. As he himself told me, `The Prelate Arneth used to like me a lot, but he changed his tune.' He once said that if the visits to the tavern didn't stop soon, he would have Bruckner and the organ thrown out. `It struck me that if the Herr Prelate had thrown both me and the organ out together, things would have been all right. I wrote a cantata for the Herr Prelate's name-day and he arranged for me to get thirty florins holiday money in return. But I wasn't able to thank him; he never let me.' [Oberleithner, 72-4] MATTHIAS LEUTGÄB At the time he wrote this reminiscence, Matthias Leutgäb was a headmaster in the town of Enns, about five miles east of St Florian. He was a friend of Leopold von Zenetti, who taught Bruckner from 1843 to 1846 and encouraged him to compose: the results included a Mass in F for Maundy Thursday and several shorter liturgical works. Leutgäb was present at Bruckner's audition for the position of organist at Linz cathedral in November 1855. Bruckner applied for this post when it fell vacant after the death of the previous organist, Wenzel Pranghofer. To those who knew him, Bruckner would have been the obvious successor to Pranghofer; but it seems he had to be virtually bullied into going to Linz on the day of the audition and, on arriving, he needed further gentle coercion from his teacher, August Dürrnberger, to take part in the examination. Once he did, though, the outcome was obvious. Some time has elapsed since I was in contact with Bruckner. At the beginning of the fifties, he was an assistant teacher at Kronstorf. He undertook a course in harmony, and his work was judged `good', but he studied very diligently and in time achieved complete mastery. His first instrument was a so-called spinet: a rectangular box, finely strung, that could be set down on a table. In later years he wanted to buy the spinet back, but it had vanished without trace, for when Bruckner moved on, the spinet ended up in the loft. There it was exposed to the elements, fell apart, and the schoolmaster's children took the strings one by one when they needed some wire.     Herr von Zenetti, a fine organist and composer, played an important part in Bruckner's education. He supported Bruckner by giving him proper work, excellent church music and practical advice. Later, when Bruckner was appointed Court Organist, he remembered Zenetti with gratitude. Whenever he stayed at St Florian he would pay a visit to Enns and spend a few convivial hours with his old teacher. It was during these visits that I got to know him better. After the death of the Linz organist Pranghofer he held the post provisionally -- I was then still at my studies. When the auditions for the post were held there were five [ sic ] candidates. They were heard one afternoon in the old cathedral. The only people present were the members of the committee and the applicants. Each player was given a fugue theme, on which he had to improvise. One of them was handed a theme in the minor key, but he handed it back because it was beyond him. Bruckner listened eagerly. He was the last to play. Before he did so, Professor Dürrnberger called softly to us in the church, `Listen to this, now we'll hear the real thing.'     Bruckner performed his task with highest mastery, especially in his varied use of the organ stops, and with this his appointment was assured. His achievements in Linz are well known. I should only add that during a conference of local teachers he delighted us in church with his playing. Later on, I was a regular guest at St Florian on holy days and attended his organ recitals; in later years these became more obscure because of his growing absorption in the music of Wagner. He was a diligent worker and a hearty eater. His appetite was well catered for by the monks. His favourite dish was strudel, and for his sake it often appeared on the table. At St Florian, everyone went to their rooms after the evening meal; but Bruckner would go and spend a few hours at the Gasthaus, drinking rough cider with his old friends. [Gräflinger, 91-2] BRUCKNER'S AUDITION AT LINZ The record of Bruckner's audition for the post of organist at Linz cathedral survives. It confirms accounts that Bruckner was the outstanding candidate, by some margin. The concluding testimonial to Bruckner's character and `scholarly' accomplishment should also be noted. Record Written in the Sacristy of the Cathedral of Linz, 25 January 1856, in the presence of the undersigned committee-members. Object The examination, in sequence, of candidates for the vacant post of Cathedral and Parish Organist in Linz. Registered Candidates 1. Georg Müller, private music-teacher from Linz, 2. Ludwig Paupie, organist of the Parish Church in Weis, 3. Raimund Hain, assistant teacher at the Parish School of St Mathias in Linz and organist of the same, 4. Anton Bruckner, formerly organist at St Florian and currently provisional cathedral and parish organist at Linz.     This examination was carried out at the cathedral organ, in the above-written order, to themes prepared by the undersigned K. &. K. Ordinarius Professor of Continuo and Choral Singing, with the following results. I. Georg Müller played through the easy B major theme given to him quite simply, without any contrapuntal elaboration, passing instead into the mechanical execution of a prelude, which lacked structure and coherence and showed, in its mundane way, a complete lack of proper education in counterpoint and technique. The candidate left secretly soon afterwards, of his own volition, and did not sit the further examination in choral accompaniment. II. Ludwig Paupie was given a theme in C minor which was considered appropriate to one of his position and experience, but he handed it back, declaring that it was too difficult, and asked for an easier theme. With the approval of all present, he was given the one in D major. Instead of developing this theme artfully however, he lapsed quickly into the execution of a prelude, in which he nevertheless showed a certain mechanical competence; of the higher plane of strict contrapuntal style however, and of the artistic riches that spring from it, he showed no knowledge. He performed the desired choral accompaniment as though this were quite alien to him, and as a result, his attempt was unsatisfactory. III. Raimund Hain, following the wishes of everyone present, took the theme in D major that had defeated his predecessor. He elaborated it contrapuntally, in combination with a second theme, very worthily, if not quite in the strictest style. His choral accompaniment was equally satisfactory, and in this he showed the level of artistry required of a respectable organist in the position concerned; however for some considerable time he has shown a noticeable inability to go beyond this level, and signs of a determined, intelligent striving after the highest perfection and complete mastery are lacking. IV. Anton Bruckner was invited to take the theme in C minor that Paupie had rejected as too difficult. He declared himself willing, and developed it in a rigorous, skilful, formally complete fugue. He then performed the choral accompaniment with outstanding accomplishment and perfection to the delight of all present, showing that very excellence which is already apparent in his command of the organ, and not least in his well-known and soundly composed liturgical works.     The outcome of these individual performances was the unanimous decision that out of all the above-named candidates, Anton Bruckner should with justice be preferred; not only so, but taking into consideration the important and influential position of a cathedral organist as regards the reputation of the first and foremost church in the diocese, his role as model and lofty example of religious artistry to all other organists in the diocese, and the necessity arising from his position that there should be general recognition and respect for his personal authority in the highest technical and scholarly matters, especially in the obligatory educational work, or in the case of any doubts arising about his true commitment to his post, only Anton Bruckner, on account of his long, dedicated and enthusiastic studies and his tireless technical training, could be counted fully worthy and equal to this calling.     With which this record is concluded and confirmed by the authority of the assembled committee-members at the date given above. For the Reverend Domscholaster and Parish-Administrator J. Storch mp. Senior. Franz Gugeneder mp. Sacristry-Director and Ordinariat Cv. A. M. Storch Vinzenz Fink, Deputy Congregational Representative J. Aug. Dürrnberger, K. &. K. Ordinarius Professor of Continuo and Choral Singing Georg Arminger, Cathedral Vicar and Vicar-Choral [Gräflinger, 21-3] KARL SEIBERL Bruckner's triumph at the Linz audition should have put an end to his doubts about his future career, but the next extract from Karl Seiberl's recollection shows him still thinking of entering the legal profession. That Bruckner could have found time to study Latin and Law seriously is astonishing: his duties at the cathedral and at the parish church, his private piano tuition and rigorous daily practice regime demanded an enormous amount of time and energy. Even after Bruckner decided to devote himself to musical studies with the eminent theorist Simon Sechter, his obsessive thoroughness could be alarming. `I implore you to take more care of yourself and to allow yourself sufficient relaxation,' Sechter wrote to Bruckner; `I must tell you that I have never had a more dedicated pupil.' In 1855 I finished my legal probation at St Florian. I got a position in the Linz District Court. In the same year Bruckner came to Linz to take up the post of cathedral organist after the death of Pranghofer -- the same Pranghofer that wrote the motto of the Linz male-voice choir `Frohsinn'. A number of people formed a group around the candidates, amongst them the teacher Engelbert Lanz of Linz. All the applicants had to undergo an examination at the organ. Bruckner's playing was so masterly that Lanz, deeply impressed, said to him, `Bruckner, you'll be the death of us!'     Bruckner became cathedral organist in Linz. At that time we ran into each other only by chance. All I know about him is that he was continuing his Latin studies with a student in the upper part of the grammar school, and that his social life centred on the guesthouse `Zum Bayrischen Hof' (now `Zaininger'), where he had his lunch, and where he was able to meet lawyers, whose company he preferred.     In the autumn of 1856 I came to Weyr as an actuary. Before I left, I met Bruckner in the Kollegiengasse, and on finding out that he was still working away at his law studies, I encouraged him -- almost begged him -- to knock all that useless stuff out of his head. His great talent showed him the way. He should go to Vienna and continue to study music theory with Sechter, and thus become a great man! I do not know whether my advice had any influence on him; all I can report is that from 1857 onwards, Bruckner did indeed continue his studies with Sechter. [Gräflinger, 103-4] Bruckner's musical studies, with Sechter, then with the German conductor Otto Kitzler (form and orchestration), lasted until July 1863, when the composer was nearly thirty-nine. It was only then, Bruckner recalled, that he at last felt like `a watchdog who'd broken his chain'. Three weeks after his fortieth birthday, Bruckner completed his Mass in D minor, the work most commentators acknowledge as his first fully mature large-scale composition. (It was this work which caused Moritz yon Mayfeld to make the prophetic remark quoted below.) However, two further formative experiences -- the first encounters with Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (1865) and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (1866) -- were still to come. (Continues...) Copyright (c) 1998 Stephen Johnson. All rights reserved.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Stephen Johnson is a regular contributor to Gramophone and The Independent. He lives in London.

(Bowker Author Biography)