01 July 2008 Last Updated on 31 October 2011 Written by Ken Shifrin

Chapter 3: Bruckner

Page 5 of 5

 

Footnotes

  1. Robin Gregory, The Trombone, London, 1973, pp. 108-9.
  2. Eric Crees, 'Trombone Evolution' part 4, Sounding Brass and the Conductor (Autumn 1976), p. 73.
  3. 'I cannot believe that Bruckner intended a tenor trombone (for the first trombone part) when orchestrating his masses. I also feel that he composed for the trombones as was customary with him, that is to say vocally, for parts in the ranges of alto, tenor and bass.' Karl-Heinz Weber, personal correspondence with the author, 13.6.95.
  4. William E. Runyan, 'The Alto Trombone and Contemporary Concepts of Trombone Timbre', Brass Bulletin 28 (1979), p. 47.
  5. Mark Hartman, (The Use of the Alto Trombone in Symphonic and Operatic Orchestral Literature, DMA, Arizona State University, 1985, p. 47) incorrectly cites Anthony Baines in Brass Instruments in support of the claim that Bruckner specified the alto trombone for the Third Symphony. A closer reading reveals that Baines felt that, although Bruckner intended a tenor trombone, he feared that contemporary models had become over-large and thus too dark-timbred (Baines, Brass Instruments, pp. 245, 247).
  6. 'Anton Bruckner got his first inspiration for his creative work through sacred music.' Leopold Nowak, 'Preface' in Nowak (ed.), Anton Bruckner's Sämtliche Werke: Messe in D moll, Vienna, 1957. Trans. Christl Schönfeldt.
  7. Derek Watson, Bruckner, London, 1975, p. 65.
  8. Crawford Howie, tutorial, 17.6.96.
  9. Ibid.
  10. Personal correspondence with the author, 14.1.95.
  11. 'This funereal work, with its gentle melody moving at times in sixths, is an expression less of mourning than of consolation and hope. It was then a most cherished piece, played at the outermost gates of the abbey, where the corpses would be placed until the time the priest carried out the sacraments.' August Göllerich and Max Auer, Anton Bruckner: Ein Lebens- und Schaffens-Bild, Band II, 1 Teil, Regensburg, 1928, p. 63. Trans. A.C. Howie.
  12. The parts at St Florian were not available for examination.
  13. 'the two octaves between eb and eb'''. Gevaert, Nouveau Traité d'Instrumentation, Paris, 1855, p. 188.
  14. Göllerich and Auer, op. cit., 2 Teil, pp. 184-188. Unfortunately, the autograph score was not available for examination, nor do there appear to be any existing original handwritten parts, hence confirmation was not possible.
  15. Dr Rudolf Buchmeyer, Archivist and Librarian, Stift St Florian, personal interview, 10.4.96.
  16. 'outstanding and exact copyist'. Anton Bruckner, Kleine Kirchenwerke 1835-1882, Revisionsbericht, ed. Leopold Nowak, Vienna, 1984, p. 65.
  17. Especially because he was himself a brass player: according to Paul Hawkshaw he played French horn in the Linzer Theater Orchester (op. cit., p. 314).
  18. Ibid., p. 315.
  19. See Introduction to Part I, n. 6, p. 3; Chapter 1, n. 101, p. 37.
  20. Hawkshaw, op. cit., p. 78.
  21. Paul Hawkshaw, 'Preface' to Anton Bruckner, Sämtliche Werke: Psalm 146, Band 20/4, ed. Paul Hawkshaw, Vienna, 1996.
  22. Paul Hawkshaw, personal correspondence with the author, 18.6.96.
  23. 'It must remain to be seen whether Bruckner had originally intended his Afferentur as an a capella choral work and added the trombones later, or whether he left the trombones out from the sketch on account of the lack of staves.' Leopold Nowak (ed.), Anton Bruckner: Gesamtausgabe, Kleine Kirchenwerke 1835-1892, Revisionsbericht, Vienna, 1984, p. 65.
  24. Hawkshaw (The Manuscript Sources, p. 79) states that this work was not composed for Kitzler as an exercise.
  25. Ibid., pp. 270-71.
  26. The F Minor Mass (see p. 110).
  27. Crawford Howie, personal correspondence, 21/11/96. According to Hawkshaw, the exercises Bruckner carried out for Kitzler in the Kitzler Studienbuch (163 folios of manuscript) include on 115 r. - 125 v. practice in brass orchestration (The Manuscript Sources, p. 88).
  28. 'creative push'. Manfred Wagner, Bruckner, Mainz, 1983, p. 68.
  29. Hawkshaw, op. cit., pp. 272-73.
  30. Anton Bruckner, Overture in G Minor, ed. Arthur D. Walker, (Eulenberg) London, 1971.
  31. Hawkshaw, The Manuscript Sources, pp. 273-5. Nowak writes that 'Kitzler beurteilte die F-Moll Symphonie nicht sonderlich günstig, Bruckner hat sich daher nie wieder mit ihr beschäftigt, ihm war sie stets nur eine weggelegte “Schularbeit”'. ('Kitzler's opinion of the Symphony in F Minor was not particularly favourable, which is perhaps why Bruckner never returned to it; it remained a discarded “scholastic exercise”' (Anton Bruckner, 'Foreword' to Sämtliche Werke Band II, Symphonie D-Moll, 'Nullte', Fassung von 1869, ed. Leopold Nowak, Vienna, 1968. Trans. Richard Rickett). Yet according to Hawkshaw the Symphony was the only one of these three student works which Bruckner tried to have performed (Hawkshaw, The Manuscript Sources, p. 103).
  32. Work on the Symphony commenced a month after completion of the Overture (ibid., p. 89).
  33. Hawkshaw, personal correspondence, 18.6.96.
  34. Leopold Nowak, 'Preface' to Anton Bruckner: Sämtliche Werke, Kantaten und Chorwerken 1854-1893, Teil 1u.2, vorgelegt von Franz Burkhart, Rudolf H. Führer, Leopold Nowak, Vienna, 1987, p. viii.
  35. Bruckner was awarded second prize. Grasberger, op. cit., p. 76.
  36. Hawkshaw, The Manuscript Sources, p. 53. According to Hertha Gruber of the Linzer Singakadamie, the Musikkapelle des K.K. Husarenregiments Graf Radetzky performed at the Sängerfest the day before Germanenzug was presented and may have provided the accompaniment for Bruckner's composition (Hertha Gruber, personal correspondence, 18.9.96).
  37. Hawkshaw, The Manuscript Sources, p. 277.
  38. 'The accompaniment (for Germanenzug) is to be orchestrated for military band. I have with my chorus a soprano cornet in Eb, a soprano cornet in Bb (because there is no alto cornet available here), a baritone cornet in bass clef, 2 horns in F, 2 horns in D, 2 trumpets in Bb (though they prefer the Eb in Linz), all three trombones in bass clef, bass tuba'. Letter of 25 February 1864, in Max Auer (ed.), Anton Bruckner: Gesammelte Briefe, Neue Folge, Regensberg, 1924, p. 54.
  39. Hans F. Redlich, 'Foreword', in Bruckner, Mass No 3 in F minor (revision of 1881), ed. Hans Redlich, London, 1967, p. 29.
  40. Ibid., p. 25.
  41. 'reached the threshold of his artistic maturity'. Nowak, 'Preface' to Messe in D moll.
  42. Brosche, personal correspondence with the author, 2.2.96.
  43. Nowak, Messe in D Moll.
  44. Bartlett, personal correspondence with the author, 21.12.95.
  45. Redlich, op. cit., p. 30.
  46. Leopold Nowak, 'Foreword' in Nowak (ed.), Anton Bruckner: Sämtliche Werke: Messe in E moll, Fassung von 1866, Vienna, 1957.
  47. 'this instrument [is] rarely used in military music'. Kastner, Traité Générale, p. 53.
  48. Lobe, op. cit., p. 380. Ed. Kretzmar (German text not available).
  49. 'The great reform in Austrian military music by Army Band Director Andreas Leonhardt was adopted... The Leonhardt Reform Plan established the basic strength and instrumentation of the military bands for the following decades and indeed up to the present time.' Erich Egg and Wolfgang Pfaundler, Das Grosse Tiroler Blasmusikbuch, Wien, 1979, p. 57.
  50. Ibid., pp. 56-7.
  51. Eugen Brixel, personal correspondence with the author, 13.12.94.
  52. Egg and Pfaundler, op. cit., p. 57. Montagu takes this to mean an Eb alto horn (tutorial, 12.11.94).
  53. Hawkshaw, The Manuscript Sources, p. 53.
  54. Renate Grasberger, Werkverzeichnis Anton Bruckner, Tutzing, 1977, p. 129.
  55. Bruckner has written two separate parts, most likely for bass trombone and tuba.  According to Grassmeyer (ibid), Bruckner's instrumentation included '3 Posaunen' and no tuba, but the autograph score clearly shows two distinct parts for the 'Basso'. See Ex. 3.21.
  56. Hawkshaw, personal correspondence with the author, 29.8.96. In one set the fermata at the end of the trombones' first entry has been omitted. In the other set, in bars 19 and 21 of the Allegro following 'Et Incarnatus', the copyist has written which, according to Nowak (Anton Bruckner: Sämtliche Werke, Messe in E moll, Fassung von 1882, Band 17/2, Wien, 1959), should be:
  57. On both handwritten parts the tie from the sixteenth to the seventeenth bar of the 'Gloria' is missing.
  58. According to Brixel, though the Ernst Ludwig Infantry Band may have lacked an alto trombonist, if Bruckner really wished to have this part played by the instrument the Linzer Theater Orchester could surely have provided the player.  (Brixel, personal correspondence with the author, 13.12.94.)  Also, one cannot discount the possibility that a tenor trombonist from the Band could have been capable of doubling on the alto.
  59. 'merely inscribed “Trombones” which are written in bass clef'. Brosche, personal correspondence with the author, 30.12.94.  Contrary to Brosche, Hartman erroneously states that 'Bruckner clearly indicated the alto trombone in his Messe in F Moll' (Hartman, op. cit., p. 48).
  60. Redlich, op. cit., pp. 35, 29.
  61. The exception to this statement is this passage: (bars 278-281) in the Gloria, reinforcing the basses, which is unusually low for an alto.
  62. In the Mass in Bb, Bruckner takes the first trombone up to eb''.
  63. Leopold Nowak, 'Preface' to Anton Bruckner's Samtliche Werke: Messe in F moll, Vienna, 1990.
  64. Crawford Howie, personal correspondence, 13.11.95.
  65. Redlich, op. cit., p. 182, n. 5.
  66. Although I have seen the autograph score, the original parts were either lost or unavailable.
  67. The Vienna Philharmonic was initially rather unenthusiastic about this dedication due to the costs that would be incurred in having the parts copied. Indeed, Bruckner thus having offered to pay for the copying himself, an invoice was made out to the composer for the sum of 59 Gulden and 22 Kreuzer. Learning of this Richter became furious, declaring to the orchestra committee that it was 'unerhört... Es wäre zu viel das Bruckner diess zahlen soll' ('unheard of... It would be too much that Bruckner would have to pay for this') and offered to meet the cost personally (Clemens Hellsberg, Demokratie der Könige: Die Geschichte der Wiener Philharmonic, Mainz, 1992, p. 273).
  68. Numerical ordering of parts must have been more commonplace by now, thus making the bracketed, traditional term superfluous.
  69. Brosche, personal correspondence with the author, 30.12.94.
  70. This appears to hold true possibly from as early as 'Vor Arneths Grab' in 1854, but certainly from the year 1862 (Festkantate onwards).
  71. See n. 4 and n. 5, Chapter 2.
  72. See n. 4, Chapter 2.
  73. Bruckner scored a c'' in his student exercise Marsch in D moll in 1862. See Ex. 3.16.
  74. None of the parts from this edition exists according to Doblinger, the Austrian National Library, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
  75. Leopold Nowak (ed.) Symphonie D-moll, 'Nullte', Fassung von 1869, Vienna, 1968, p. 1.
  76. Bruckner again requires a c'' from the first trombone.
  77. Grasberger, op. cit., p. 274.
  78. Hartman, op. cit., p. 47.
  79. Moreover, the first trombone part of the 1890 edition, which is labelled '1. Posaune', is written in tenor clef.
  80. Biba, personal correspondence with the author, 29.11.95.
  81. 'Unfortunately, succeeding editions, up to the New Revision by J.V. von Wöss (Vienna 1927) continued to include the contradictions, and indeed occasionally contributed yet more errors'. Leopold Nowak, 'Foreword' in Anton Bruckner, Sämtliche Werke, VI Symphonie A-Dur, Originalfassung. 2. revidierte Ausgabe, ed. Robert Haas, Vienna, 1952, p. 2.
  82. Crawford Howie, personal correspondence with the author, 21.12.94.
  83. Hellsburg, personal interview, Vienna, 26.4.96.
  84. Played with the slide dangerously fully extended, this is the lowest (non-pedal) note on the Eb alto trombone.  See also n. 4, Chapter 2.
  85. Howie, personal correspondence, 14.12.94.
  86. See n. 9 in Introduction to Part II.
  87. 'In close position and in forte [the trombones] have an effect of penetrating force; the separate notes of the chords resound to produce the hardest sound, and indeed, it becomes vehement as the parts ascend higher and closer together'. Marx, Die Lehre, p. 69.
  88. 'mysterious expression'. Ibid., p. 69.

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