“See, gentlemen, that is the rule. Of course I don’t write like that.”—Anton Bruckner
This is the web page of the book “Anton Bruckner, Eleven Symphonies”, known also as “The Bruckner Red Book”, by William Carragan, Contributing Editor, Anton Bruckner Collected Edition, Vienna, and Vice-President, Bruckner Society of America. The book was published in 2020 with a large group of sponsors in an edition of 1000 copies, and it is now more than half sold out. On this website there is an alternate method of accessing the more than 400 sound files associated with the book, which are regularly being expanded.
Eleven Symphonies
Bruckner scholars and enthusiasts have been aware at least from the 1930s that there are in the Austrian National Library and elsewhere manuscript sources for Bruckner’s symphonies and masses that differ rather widely from the publications of these works made during his lifetime.
On August 7, 1862, as the final part of his studies with Otto Kitzler, Bruckner completed a string quartet in C minor with a seven-part rondo as the finale, and eight days later, he produced at Kitzler’s request a longer rondo movement, also in seven parts, but with entirely different themes.
The gift of St. Nicholas in 1862 was Bruckner’s first full-length orchestral work, the Overture in G Minor, arriving in its earliest incarnation on December 24.
This symphony has only one version. It was written as the culmination of Bruckner’s study of practical music, along with the German setting of Psalm 112(113) (Laudate pueri) and the Overture in G Minor.
The First Symphony was completed in 1866, using many of the techniques brought to life in the previous Symphony in F Minor, but going beyond its predecessor in its scale and complexity, particularly in the developments and codas.
- Topic 1, Example 1.1
- Topic 5, Example 1.2
- Topic 6, Example 1.3
- Topic 7, “Listen here”
- Topic 8, Example 1.4
- Topic 9, Example 1.5
- Topic 11, Example 1.6
- Topic 12, Example 1.7
- Topic 13, Example 1.8
- Topic 14, Example 1.9
- Topic 15, Example 1.10
- Topic 16, Example 1.11
- Topic 17, “Listen here”
- Topic 18, Example 1.12
- Topic 19, Example 1.13
- Topic 20, Example 1.14
in B flat”. In the sketch there is a total of 68 measures of music, with six more measures metrically numbered in preparation for further composition to be entered.
The Second Symphony, begun in 1871 and completed on September 11, 1872, is considered to be the first of his Vienna-style symphonies.
- Topic 1, Example 3.1
- Topic 2, Example 3.2
- Topic 4, Example 3.3
- Topic 5, Examples 3.4 and 3.5
- Topic 6, Example 3.6
- Topic 7, “Listen here”
- Topic 8, Examples 3.7, 3.8, and 3.9
- Topic 9, Example 3.10
- Topic 10, Example 3.11
- Topic 11, Example 3.12
- Topic 13, Example 3.14
- Topic 14, Example 3.15
- Topic 15, Example 3.16
- Topic 16, Example 3.17
- Topic 17, “Listen here”
- Topic 18, Example 3.18
- Topic 19, Example 3.19
- Topic 21, Example 3.21
- Topic 22, Example 3.22
The Fourth Symphony, the only one to which Bruckner gave a descriptive name, was begun on January 2, 1874 and was completed in its first version on November 22 of the same year.
- Topic 1, Example 4.1
- Topic 2, Example 4.2
- Topic 3, Example 4.3
- Topic 4, Example 4.4
- Topic 5, Example 4.5
- Topic 6, Example 4.6
- Topic 7, Example 4.7
- Topic 8, Example 4.8
- Topic 9, Example 4.9
- Topic 10, Example 4.10
- Topic 11, Example 4.11
- Topic 12, Example 4.12
- Topic 13, Example 4.13
- Topic 14, Example 4.14
- Topic 15, Example 4.15
- Topic 16, Example 4.16
- Topic 17, “Listen here”
- Topic 18, Example 4.17
- Topic 19, Example 4.18
- Topic 20, Example 4.19
- Topic 21, Example 4.20
- Topic 22, Example 4.21
- Topic 23, Example 4.22
- Topic 24, “Listen here”
- Topic 25, “Listen here”
- Topic 26, Example 4.24
After the enormous effort of the Fifth Symphony and the simultaneous revision of nearly all of his other major works, all accomplished by 1878, Bruckner regrouped his resources by undertaking new works on a deliberately smaller scale, in which his stylistic resources could continue to develop in more intimate and controllable dimensions.
As with the Fifth and Sixth, the Seventh Symphony has effectively only one version. However, there are significant problems in editing, most of which are listed here. These apply to the first publication by Albert Gutmann in 1885, the edition brought out by Robert Haas in 1944, and the slightly-revised Nowak edition of 1954.
- Topic 1, “Listen here”
- Topic 2, Example 7.1
- Topic 4, Example 7.2
- Topic 6, “Listen here”
- Topic 8, Example 7.3
- Topic 10, “Listen here”
- Topic 11, “Listen here”
- Topic 12, “Listen here”
- Topic 13, Example 7.4
- Topic 14, Example 7.5
- Topic 15, Example 7.6
- Topic 16, Example 7.7
- Topic 17, Example 7.8
- Topic 18, Example 7.9
The Eighth Symphony was completed in its first version in 1887, and Bruckner sent it to the conductor Hermann Levi who had already presented the Seventh to great success. But Levi felt he could not understand it and thus could not conduct it, and wrote to Joseph Schalk asking him to break the news to Bruckner.
The Ninth Symphony has only one version, consisting of three movements with extensive sketches of the finale. If Bruckner had lived to complete the finale, he would almost certainly have gone over the other movements and made adjustments. Thus what we have is a work in progress.
” Before one can criticize, one needs to know the facts, and it turns out that every version of each symphony has something wonderful and unique to offer. “—William Carragan