Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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The Arts in the Everyday
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Subject Topic: St. Florian’s Composer of the Month Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Helen
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Posted: March 05 2007 at 6:30pm | IP Logged Quote Helen
I’ve been intrigued by the life of Anton Bruckner. He spent much of his time in the monastery of St. Florian in Austria – not as a monk but as a musician, specifically as an organist. He believed he had a vocation from God to compose music and he was a devout Catholic.

(I thought St. Florian might help the children to connect with the music of Bruckner. I asked for help over at A Living Faith.)

Listening suggestions:
Motets – particularly Ave Maria

BBC site with program and examples of his motets.
(I was reluctant to suggest this study because I have had a hard time finding Bruckner’s music in the libraries. But at least this show is available online. For me it was helpful to have a written list of the Latin names of the motets so that I could follow along.
a CD with the motets)

4th Symphony, 2nd movement
Called the “Romantic”, the symphony sounds like an organ in the second movement.

Symphony number 7
The second movement includes a recognition of the death of Richard Wagner (Bruckner’s musical inspiration)

Bruckner said:
“The thought had crossed my mind that before long the master (Wagner) would die, and just then the C-sharp-minor theme of the Adagio came to me.”

Four Wagnerian Tubas play this part culminating with a gigantic cymbal crash.

I think this symphony was one of the few Bruckner symphonies which received a postive reaction upon its first performance. It is probably the most popular.

Bruckner wrote Symphony number 9 for the Lord. (I think the Te Deum is here.)

I thought it would be interesting to contrast traditional chant with Bruckner’s motets. (I think the motets are considered polyphony.) Would anyone have any suggestions for this? Someone who knows more about chant than I do?

Here are some older chant threads from 4Real. There are some links for online listening.

At my library, I found many of Bruckner's symphonies on video. Personally I liked to watch Bruckner’s symphonies as opposed to just listening to them. I don’t think they are “background music.”
They exhibit lots of brass, extra quiet moments and very loud moments and cymbals crashing.

Herbert Von Karajan has several videos conducting Bruckner's symphonies

There is also Celibidache Conducts Bruckner which my library carried.

I didn't realize that Leonard Bernstein also has a DVD.

Not many of the collections of classical music for children contain an entry for Bruckner
History’s 100 Greatest Composers by Helen L. Kaufmann (Grosset & Dunlap, 1957) does.

I didn't realize this had become so long. I've been putting away snippets in a word file and this is what happened.

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alicegunther
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Posted: March 05 2007 at 7:39pm | IP Logged Quote alicegunther
You are amazing, Helen. Thank you!

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