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Anton Bruckner's path to becoming a symphonist

 

532 pages, Bielefeld 2023, www.vpe-web.de

Text volume: 386 pages with many musical examples and transcriptions from the Kitzler study book)

 

On the basis of the Kitzler study book, which was only published in 2014, Rudolf Innig presents for the first time a detailed analysis of Anton Bruckner's early symphonic works. In musical life and in Bruckner literature, they have so far received little attention and are undervalued as 'study works'.

The author, known for his numerous CD recordings, shows that the essential characteristics of Bruckner's symphonies are already evident in his first symphony in F minor. The quality of his music can be demonstrated here just as it is proverbially the case with the symphonies of Johannes Brahms.

Bruckner's first symphonic works are not works of his youth; he composed them at the age of 39, when he was already past middle age.

The analyses of the symphonic works are preceded by four introductory chapters: on Bruckner's earlier compositions (mostly sacred music), which make up more than half of his entire output,

on the music theory works that Bruckner knew and which form the intellectual background of his music,

on his working techniques and the question of the order in which the various work steps were created, and finally

on Anton Bruckner as an organist with insightful details about his teaching at the Vienna Conservatory and his surviving improvisation sketches.

532 pages (text volume: 386 pages with many musical examples, in the appendix: 148 pages with transcriptions from the Kitzler study book) 15 x 29 cm

Hardcover with thread seal

cover bildDr. Rudolf Innig

"Where then is the third subject ?"

  - About a misunderstanding in the symphonies of Anton Bruckner -

 

According to legend, the conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, Otto Dessoff, asked during a rehearsal of the Second symphony in D minor (1869, WAB 100), later canceled by Anton Bruckner: "Yes, where is the theme then?" If that had actually been the case, there would be reason to doubt the artistic rank of Otto Dessoff, who was one of the best-known conductors of his time: After positions as music director in Altenburg, Düsseldorf, Kassel, Aachen and Magdeburg, he was appointed court conductor in Vienna in 1860 where, two years later, he became Abonnementdirigent of the Vienna Philharmonic. 

Around 50 years later, another 'misunderstanding' occurred in the reception of Bruckner's symphonic music, but a misunderstanding with consequences that continue to have an impact today: In 1921, Alfred Orel wrote in his essay Unknown Early Works by Anton Bruckner(without going into a specific symphony by Bruckner) the momentous sentence: "In principle the second theme of the sonata form is extended to a third theme." This moment can be described as the 'hour of birth' of the so-called third theme....

cover bild

Dr. Rudolf Innig:

"Where then is the third theme?" - About a misunderstanding in the symphonies of Anton Bruckner -

 

According to legend, the conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, Otto Dessoff, asked during a rehearsal of the Second Symphony in D minor (1869, WAB 100), which was later cancelled by Anton Bruckner: "So where is the theme?"

If this had actually been the case, this would give rise to doubts about the artistic standing of Otto Dessoff, who was one of the most famous conductors of his time: after working as music director in Altenburg, Düsseldorf, Kassel, Aachen and Magdeburg, he was appointed court conductor in Vienna in 1860, where two years later he was promoted to subscription conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra...

Around 50 years later, another 'misunderstanding' occurred in the reception of Bruckner's symphonic music, but a misunderstanding of a different kind, the consequences of which continue to have an impact to this day: In 1921, Alfred Orel wrote in his essay Unknown Early Works of Anton Bruckner (without going into any particular symphony by Bruckner) the momentous sentence: "In principle, the second theme of the sonata form is expanded to a three-theme", a sentence that can be described as the 'birth' of the so-called third theme...

lexikon orgel

Lexikon Orgel
Laaber–Verlag

Organ Lexikon: Poland, Nowowiejski

 

Excerpts from the article:

 

As a result of the division of Europe after the Second World War by the "Iron Curtain", organ music from Poland and other Eastern European countries remained largely unknown in the former West. This applies not only to the "Chopin of the organ", as Felix Nowowiejski is called in Poland, a composer and organ virtuoso who was known throughout Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and whose works were printed and performed in the centers of musical life...

 

Felix Nowowiejski was generally known in Europe as a composer, organist and conductor in the first half of the 20th century. His extensive work encompasses all musical genres of his time, with vocal works (operas, oratorios, cantatas, masses, solo songs) forming a focus. He also composed numerous symphonic works (symphonies, overtures, symphonic poems), chamber music, piano and organ music. In particular, his early oratorio Quo vadis op. 13 (1905–1909), based on the novel by the Polish Nobel Prize winner for literature Henryk Sienkiewicz, established his international recognition as a composer with over 200 performances worldwide....

(Dr. Rudolf Innig)

handbuch orgel

Handbook of Organ Music:  (Article Poland and Felix Nowowiejski)

Dr. Irmlind Capelle, Dr. Rudolf Innig

 

Felix Nowowiejski was well known in Europe as a composer, organist and conductor in the first half of the 20th century. His extensive work encompasses all musical genres of his time, with vocal works (operas, oratorios, cantatas, masses, solo songs) forming a focus. He also composed numerous symphonic works (symphonies, overtures, symphonic poems), chamber music, piano and organ music. In particular, his early oratorio Quo vadis op. 13 (1905–1909), based on the novel by the Polish Nobel Prize winner for literature Henryk Sienkiewicz, established his international recognition as a composer with over 200 performances worldwide....

 

Nevertheless, the artificial division of Europe by the "Iron Curtain", which lasted for almost half a century, meant that Felix Nowowiejski's compositions are now almost unknown outside Poland. This is also due to the fact that publications about the "Chopin of the organ", such as the extensive biography by Jan Böhm (1985), have appeared almost exclusively in Polish. Above all, however, most of Felix Nowowiejski's works, including his organ works, are still not available in internationally accessible, historical-critical editions....



 Messiaen Dokumentation Titelblatt 300x441

 

MESSIAEN TAGE COESFELD 1980

DOCUMENTATION

 

It was very unusual news in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1980: The famous French composer Olivier Messiaen traveled to Münsterland with his wife, the pianist Yvonne Loriod, to take part in a festival dedicated to him, the 'Messiaen - Tage - Coesfeld'. Music lovers from various parts of the Federal Republic came to Yvonne Loriod's piano evening with the great  piano cycle 'Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jesus' and the panel discussion with Olivier Messiaen and several German musicologists.

National newspapers such as 'Die Zeit', and also the WDR in its third programs on radio and television reported on it, often with an expression of astonishment that the most important living composer of his time had travelled to a district town in Münsterland to take part in a music festival dedicated to his work...

 

LA NATIVITÉ DU SEIGNEUR - On the music of Olivier Messiaen ESSAY BY Dr. RUDOLF INNIG (p. 25 ff.)

Among the organ works that are at the heart of Olivier Messiaen's work, "La Nativite du Seigneur" occupies a special position: with nine meditations, this is his first major organ cycle, after only individual pieces - Le banquet celeste (1928), Diptyque (1929), Apparition de l' église éternelle (1931) - had previously been published in print, and Messiaen had still wavered between an orchestral version (1932) and an organ version (1935) in his four-movement cycle L' Ascension.

Looking back, Messiaen himself also felt this way: in his theoretical work Technique of my musical language (1944, German translation, which is used as the basis for the following, Paris 1966) he describes La Nativite du Seigneur as the first composition that is particularly characteristic of his musical language...


 Rheinberger 300x424

 

Coesfeld Music Festival 2005 Josef Gabriel Rheinberger
 
 
From the documentation ...
 
"The Liechtenstein composer Joseph Rheinberger, who trained two generations of young musicians at the Munich Music Academy in the second half of the 19th century, including Engelbert Humperdinck and Wilhelm Furtwängler, has experienced a welcome and justified rediscovery in recent decades.
 
Exhibitions and symposia on his life and work have highlighted the importance of his influence as a music teacher and the significance of his musical work, a complete edition of his compositions is already well underway and the International Josef Rheinberger Society in Vaduz is dedicated to the cultivation and research of his music...
 
Mentioning the Rheinberger Initiative of the city of Coesfeld in this context seems rather peripheral at first glance, but on closer inspection it proves to be well justified: Vaduz, Munich, Berlin and now most recently Coesfeld have organized important Rheinberger exhibitions and concert series.
 
In 2005, the city of Coesfeld dedicated its music festival to Josef Rheinberger with an impressive series of concerts in which local musical forces united with local and internationally renowned performers to create engaging and worthwhile performances...."
(Prof. Dr. Hans Joachim Irmen)

Hans Martin Theopold

Renate Behrens (Lübeck),

Rudolf Innig (Bielefeld),

Thomas Rothert (Bayreuth)

In memory of Hans-Martin Theopold

 

"Contact with Günter Henle was established immediately after the founding of the publishing house, when Theopold expressed his great enthusiasm for the first Urtext editions of the newly founded music publishing house. An extensive correspondence from the publishing house's archive was bequeathed to the Lippe State Library in 2014 in order to make it accessible to the interested public in the long term.

This correspondence proves, on the one hand, Theopold's strong interest in musical source and text issues, and, on the other hand, his initial strict rejection (!) of fingerings in such text-critical editions: "Because fingerings are and remain an individual matter despite all their quality" (letter to Günter Henle dated May 26, 1949). Günter Henle, however, is not put off and insists on the necessity of fingerings in his Urtext editions: "It is better to publish the Urtext [...] with fingerings that are unnecessary for a few or even, I admit, may be found disturbing here and there" (Letter to Hans-Martin Theopold dated September 17, 1953)."

(Website of the G. Henle Verlag Munich on November 29, 2014, with kind permission of the publisher)

 MGG Sonderdruck Titelblatt 300x426

 

Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Article "Organ chorale"
 
Excerpt: "... Johann Sebastian Bach's work was essentially based on the chorale arrangement types developed in central Germany...
 
Under Bach's hand, however, the traditional chorale arrangement types changed fundamentally due to the new importance that the contrapuntal voices now had: they now stand opposite the chorale melody, whether they are freely designed or derived from the material of the cantus firmus..."
 
(Prof. Dr. Arno Forchert, Rudolf Innig)

Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer as organist

Even 50 years after Albert Schweitzer's death, his name is still present in many countries and in many different ways: hospitals, schools and streets are named after him all over the world - but especially in Germany and France; the hospital in Lambaréné, which he founded in 1927, is still of great importance for the health care system in Gabon today. Most people associate the name Albert Schweitzer with the 'jungle doctor' and founder of a hospital in Africa; many remember him as the Nobel Peace Prize winner who received the same attention around the world with his thesis of respect for life as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi with the non-violent resistance they practiced, or Mother Teresa, who was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her selfless service to the poor, sick and homeless in India. The name Albert Schweitzer is still known today among theologians as the author of standard theological works, and musicians remember his name as a concert organist and Bach biographer...

If one looks at Albert Schweitzer's musical career and his later career as a concert organist against this background, the first thing that strikes one is that, in contrast to his brilliant academic career, he never studied music at a conservatory....

On Charles Marie Widor's recommendation, Albert Schweitzer took piano lessons from two well-known pianists in Paris (Isidor Philipp and Marie Jaëll-Trautmann), which enabled him to train as a pianist. All of this resulted in a 'private music study' that was more intensive than would have been possible at a public conservatory in Strasbourg. It remains astonishing that he later managed to have an international career as a concert organist despite his time-consuming and exhausting work as a doctor in Africa. This was only possible because he was able to maintain his musical skills in Lambaréné and continue to work on his organ repertoire. The Paris Bach Society gave him a piano with organ pedals that had been specially built for the tropics and sent it to him on his way to Africa. And it is even more astonishing that he also became internationally known and recognized as a music writer, editor and organ building expert...

                                                                    (Dr. Rudolf Innig)

 

Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: "Orgelchoral"

Orgelchoral in: Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (MGG)

 

Excerpt:
 
"... J. S. Bach's work was essentially based on the types of chorale arrangements developed in Central Germany...
 
Meanwhile, the traditional types of chorale arrangements changed fundamentally under Bach's hands due to the new importance that was now attached to the contrapuntal voices that confront the chorale melody, whether they were freely designed or derived from the material of the cantus firmus..."
 
(Prof. Dr. Arno Forchert, Rudolf Innig)

 

 

MESSIAEN-TAGE COESFELD 1980

Documentation

In 1980, it was a surprising news in the Federal Republic of Germany: The famous French composer Olivier Messiaen traveled to the Münsterland region with his wife, the pianist Yvonne Loriod, to take part in a festival dedicated to him, the 'Messiaen Days - Coesfeld'.

Music lovers from various parts of the Federal Republic came to Yvonne Loriod's piano evening with the piano cycle 'Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jesus' and the panel discussion with Olivier Messiaen and several German musicologists. National newspapers such as 'Die Zeit', and also the WDR in its third programs on radio and television reported on it, often with an expression of astonishment, that the most important living composer of his time had travelled to a district town in Münsterland to take part in a music festival dedicated to his work...

 

LA NATIVITÉ DU SEIGNEUR - On the music of Olivier Messiaen

ESSAY BY Dr. RUDOLF INNIG (p. 25 ff.)

Among the organ works that are at the heart of Olivier Messiaen's work, "La Nativite du Seigneur" occupies a special position: with nine meditations, this is his first major organ cycle, after only individual pieces - Le banquet celeste (1928), Diptyque (1929), Apparition de l' église éternelle (1931) - had previously been published in print, and Messiaen had wavered between an orchestral version (1932) and an organ version (1935) in his four-movement cycle L' Ascension. Looking back, Messiaen himself also felt this way: in his theoretical work Technique of my musical language (1944, German translation, which is used as the basis for the following, Paris 1966) he describes La Nativite du Seigneur as the first composition that is particularly characteristic of his musical language...

lexikon orgel

Lexikon Orgel
Laaber–Verlag,

Lexikon der Orgel: Polen, Nowowiejski (2007)

Excerpts from the article:

 

As a result of the division of Europe after the Second World War by the 'Iron Curtain', organ music from Poland and other Eastern European countries remained largely unknown in the former West. This applies not only to the 'Chopin of the organ', as Felix Nowowiejski is called in Poland, a composer and organ virtuoso who was known throughout Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and whose works were printed and performed in the centers of musical life...

 

Felix Nowowiejski was well known in Europe as a composer, organist and conductor in the first half of the 20th century. His extensive work includes all musical genres of his time, with vocal works (operas, oratorios, cantatas, masses, solo songs) forming a focus. But he also composed numerous symphonic works (symphonies, overtures, symphonic poems), chamber music, piano and organ music. In particular, his early oratorio Quo vadis op. 13 (1905–1909), based on the novel by the Polish Nobel Prize winner for literature Henryk Sienkiewicz, established his international recognition as a composer with over 200 performances worldwide....

(Dr. Rudolf Innig)