Anton Bruckner

Anton Bruckner (German: Anton Bruckner, September 4, 1824 - October 11, 1896) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music educator. He is famous for composing symphonies, masses and motets, as well as outstanding chamber music works such as string quartets and string quintets. His symphonies are considered representative of the final stage of German-Austrian Romanticism due to their rich sound structure, multiple polyphonic characteristics and grand structure. Bruckner's work has had a wide-ranging influence on contemporary musical activism with its use of dissonance, sudden modulations, and sustained harmonies. Unlike the rebellious musical radicals of his time, Wagner and Hugo Wolf, Bruckner was extremely humble towards other musicians, especially Wagner. This disparity between Bruckner as a person and as a composer makes it extremely difficult to describe his life and, through this description, to understand the context of his music. His works, especially his symphonies, have been criticized by many people. Prominent among the critics were the Austrian composer Eduard Hanslick and other supporters of Brahms (including Wagner's critics). They criticized the work for its length, repetitive melodies, and Bruckner's habit of constantly revising his works, often with the help of his colleagues, and for his indecision over which version to approve. It is precisely because Bruckner frequently and repeatedly revised the completed works that he created many versions of his symphonies, resulting in the famous "Bruckner Problem" in musicology. Although he had many critics, Bruckner also had many supporters, the most famous of whom was his student and friend Gustav Mahler. Hans von Bülow once commented that Bruckner was "a half-god and half-mad".