Mass No. 1 in D minor, WAB26
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) grew up in a musical environment and
received his early musical education from his schoolmaster father.
However, he did not embark on his first orchestral compositions until
he was nearly forty, and it was only when he was aged in his 60’s that
he became sufficiently well known to be awarded the Order of Franz
Joseph. Over the course of his career Bruckner composed symphonies,
masses, and sacred choral works, including a requiem, a number of
motets and psalm settings.
Bruckner displayed an intense devotion to the spiritual life, an inexorable
appetite for musical study, revision, and improvement, and a love of
practice and improvisation at the organ. He cut an odd figure among
the sophisticated Romantic composers who were his contemporaries,
with his provincial background and devout nature. He never lost his
simplicity of character, his rural accent and dress, his social naiveté,
or his unquestioning deference to authority. Throughout his life he
remained inwardly insecure and continually needed validation as to his
ability. He became obsessive about tiny and inconsequential details, and
constantly sought to pass some new musical examination or diploma
in order to reassure himself that he was every bit as capable as his
contemporaries.
Despite his rigorous training and religious inclinations more closely
echoing the nature of the Baroque or Renaissance composers,
Bruckner’s compositional style is daring in form, harmony, and tonality.
His immense polyphonic skill, his ability to incorporate archaic forms
within his own advanced style, his fondness for sudden contrasts of
timbre and dynamics, and his use of magnificent brass effects all testify
to his boldness and originality.
Incredibly, by 1862 Bruckner still only had a handful of compositions to
his name. But this was also the year that he attended a performance
of Wagner’s Tannhäuser and it changed his life forever: from now
on he determined to devote more time to composition. With only
minimal experience in orchestral scoring, Bruckner immediately set to
work. He completed the Mass in D Minor in September 1864, and it
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