{"id":361,"date":"2007-06-07T12:11:38","date_gmt":"2007-06-07T12:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2007\/06\/07\/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bruckner\/"},"modified":"2019-09-21T23:33:36","modified_gmt":"2019-09-21T22:33:36","slug":"how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bruckner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2007\/06\/07\/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bruckner\/","title":{"rendered":"How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bruckner"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most common questions I get both from audience members and fellow performers alike is \u201cI just don\u2019t get so-and-so\u2019s music, what am I missing?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

I think that is a great question, regardless of the composer, whereas hearing \u201cI don\u2019t like<\/strong><\/em> so-and-so\u2019s music\u201d is a very sad thing. Why give up? Why cut yourself off? Better to say “I don’t like…. yet!”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve genuinely never regretted getting to know a piece better- even pieces that don\u2019t become central to your love of life can still have something to offer, and with great composers, I almost always find that the very characteristics of their music that I find most off-putting at first become the qualities that I later value the most. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One composer about whose music I hear this “I just don’t get it” \u00a0all too often is Bruckner. Of course, I’ve also heard a few “I don’t like’s” when it comes to Bruckner as well.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bruckner is actually one composer of whom I think most people have read too much about and heard too little of (and here I am, writing more!), a sad fate he shares with Schoenberg, Schumann and Hindemith. In these cases, most of what you read about them is not very helpful or interesting, and, even where true, it\u2019s not the kind of information that\u2019s going to make most listeners want to run out and by the album, or go to a concert with completely open ears and minds.<\/span><\/p>\n

I owe my love of Bruckner to a dinner party with friends of my parents when I was about 13. For some reason, my mom mentioned that I had recently discovered the music of Mahler\u2026. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, is he the absolutely awful one?\u201d asked one of our fellow guests. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo darling,\u201d said their spouse, \u201cMahler is tedious but tolerable because he at least writes some nice tunes. It\u2019s Bruckner that is absolutely unbearable.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBruckner- yes that\u2019s the one! The worst composer who ever lived!\u201d A general murmur of agreement quickly followed: “Terrible!” “Bloated!” “Old-man music!”\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnbearable?\u201d I asked. \u201cWhy?\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, you\u2019ve never heard any Bruckner? Lucky you! It\u2019s absolutely horrendous music. It goes on for hours, it\u2019s thunderously loud- written for gigantic brass sections and there are no melodies at all.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cReally?\u201d I asked. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Another diner then chimed in, \u201cDidn\u2019t the university orchestra do one of the symphonies\u00a0a few years ago that completely emptied the house?\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes!\u201d someone else answered. \u201cThe first movement must have been forty-five minutes long, after which about a hundred people left. Then the next movement was even longer! About three hundred left after that. By the end of the concert, only a quarter of the audience were still there.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what does it sound like?\u201d I asked. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite hard to describe. We had some records but threw them out- it was just so strange and loud…. and long\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Needless to say, I ran out and bought an LP of Bruckner 9 the very next day, and fell madly in love with it on first hearing. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I could tell you that when I hear Bruckner, I don\u2019t hear religiosity at all, I\u2019ve never heard any Wagner in it, I\u2019m not reminded of cathedrals, and it never occurred to me in my own listening over several early years that it sounded like organ music at all. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To me, Bruckner sounds like the cosmos- or should I say Cosmos, the old Carl Sagan show?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n