Anton Bruckner and the Reception of His Music: A History of Dichotomies and Controversies
- Author: Ramirez, Miguel J.
The sheer depth of its engagement with the primary sources stands out as its greatest merit...[By] dissecting the rhetorical strategies of the opposing critical camps...the book's potential...
Anton Bruckner and the Reception of His Music: A History of Dichotomies and Controversies
- Author: Ramirez, Miguel J.
Purchase product
The sheer depth of its engagement with the primary sources stands out as its greatest merit...[By] dissecting the rhetorical strategies of the opposing critical camps...the book's potential...
About
A bold, deeply researched, and long-needed debunking of the platitudes and prejudices that have long clouded our view of the personality and compositional habits of Anton Bruckner. Bruckner was, and continues to be, among the most divisive figures in the history of nineteenth-century music, in large part owing to the complexities and contradictions of his personality and the amalgam of differing stylistic features that characterize his musical language. Miguel J. Ramirez's insightful book scrutinizes the stereotypes about Bruckner's personality that loom large in the public imagination, the controversial editorial policies behind the publication of his collected works, and the trends in the reception of his music that were set early on by a handful of Viennese journalists. Working to undo the platitudes and prejudices that cloud our view of Bruckner's true personality and compositional habits, this study debunks the entrenched misconception that he was a helpless victim of "the Viennese press"-a notion contradicted by the pugnacious exchange in which pro- and anti-Bruckner critics invariably engaged after the premiere of each of his works. Ramirez demonstrates that, from the mid 1880s onward, only Eduard Hanslick, Max Kalbeck, and a few other critics persisted in their opposition to the Brucknerian symphonic oeuvre and that their caustic and denigrating reviews were vastly outnumbered by those of more appreciative critics who heard what performers and listeners cherish now: the music's coherence, grandeur, and emotional sweep.
Contents
- List of Musical Examples Note on Access to the Periodical Literature Cited
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I : Perceptions of Bruckner's Personality
- Chapter 1 . Bruckner's History: History's Bruckner Of Candles and Flames Of Platitudes and Psychograms Of Biographies and Hagiographies
- Chapter 2 . A History of Controversies The Transmission of Bruckner's Music The IBG and the "Regensburg Walpurgis Night"
- Part II : Viennese Reception of Bruckner's Music
- Chapter 3 . Early Reception, ca. 1873-1885 "A Sort of Dictatorship Over Public Opinion": Feuilletonism vs Music Criticism "At the End of All Music": Early Works and The Second Symphony "An Unforgettable, Heart-Wrenching Moment": The Third Symphony "A Musi
- Chapter 4 . Mid Reception, ca. 1885-1892 "The Pinnacle of Symphonic Creation": The Seventh Symphony in Germany "The Time Is Near": The Te Deum and the Seventh Symphony in Austria "Malicious and Subjective Criticism": 1890 Performance of the Third Symphony
- Chapter 5 . Late and Posthumous Reception, ca. 1892-1924 "A Total Victory of Light Over Darkness": The Eighth Symphony and the Late Reception "Bruckner Is A Simple Being": Schenker's Reception of Bruckner "Already Blessed with A Monument!": Posthumous Rec
- Conclusion Myths and Fallacies Of Opponents and Enemies Of Unbildung and Formlessness
- Bibliography
- Index
Awards and reviews
Music and Letters
The sheer depth of its engagement with the primary sources stands out as its greatest merit...[By] dissecting the rhetorical strategies of the opposing critical camps...the book's potential relevance extends beyond its immediate subject. A magnificent achievement and an indispensable contribution to the field...[and] a trenchant warning that simplistic judgments, however attractive the narratives they produce, risk ossifying into myth...Essential reading not only for Bruckner specialists, but also for anyone interested in the very nature of historical narrative, critical reception and the construction of cultural memory
Notes: Journal of the Music Library Association
Challenges misunderstandings that suggest the composer was a victim of hostile critics...[and] explores the composer's works during the Third Reich...Can help modern audiences to think critically about their own responses...[and to] to explore Bruckner's personality
