Anton BrucknerAnton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. His symphonies are often considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
's
Symphony No. 7 in E major (WAB 107) is one of his best-known symphonies. It was written between 1881 and 1883 and was revised in 1885. It is dedicated to
Ludwig II of BavariaLudwig II was king of Bavaria from 1864 until shortly before his death...
. The premiere, given under
Arthur NikischArthur Nikisch ; October 12, 1855 – January 23, 1922) was a Hungarian conductor who performed mainly in Germany. He was considered an outstanding interpreter of the music of Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Liszt.- Biography :...
in the opera house at
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
in 1884, brought Bruckner the greatest success he had known in his life. The symphony is sometimes referred to as the "Lyric", though the appellation is not the composer's own, and is seldom used.
The symphony has four
movementsA movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession.Often a composer attempts to...
:
- Allegro moderato
Moderato may refer to:* Tempo, a speedy execution mode in Italian musical vocabulary;* Moderato Wissnteiner, a Brazilian footballer active in 1920s and 1930s, who played in 1930 FIFA World Cup....
E majorE major is a major scale based on E, with the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps .Its relative minor is C-sharp minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....
.
Anton BrucknerAnton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. His symphonies are often considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
's
Symphony No. 7 in E major (WAB 107) is one of his best-known symphonies. It was written between 1881 and 1883 and was revised in 1885. It is dedicated to
Ludwig II of BavariaLudwig II was king of Bavaria from 1864 until shortly before his death...
. The premiere, given under
Arthur NikischArthur Nikisch ; October 12, 1855 – January 23, 1922) was a Hungarian conductor who performed mainly in Germany. He was considered an outstanding interpreter of the music of Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Liszt.- Biography :...
in the opera house at
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
in 1884, brought Bruckner the greatest success he had known in his life. The symphony is sometimes referred to as the "Lyric", though the appellation is not the composer's own, and is seldom used.
Description
The symphony has four
movementsA movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession.Often a composer attempts to...
:
- Allegro moderato
Moderato may refer to:* Tempo, a speedy execution mode in Italian musical vocabulary;* Moderato Wissnteiner, a Brazilian footballer active in 1920s and 1930s, who played in 1930 FIFA World Cup....
E majorE major is a major scale based on E, with the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps .Its relative minor is C-sharp minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....
. Starts with tremolo strings and the cellos presenting "a complete, divinely given melodic whole."
- Adagio. Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam C-sharp minor. Legend has it that Bruckner wrote the cymbal clash at the climax of this movement upon hearing the news that Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas...
had died.
- Scherzo. Sehr schnell A minor
A minor is a minor scale based on A, consisting of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The harmonic minor scale raises the G to G...
with Trio in F majorF major is a musical major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat .Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor....
- Finale. Bewegt, doch nicht schnell E major. In the recapitulation, the subject groups are reversed in order (a form sometimes called "tragic sonata form").
1883 version
This was the version performed at the work's
premiereA premiere is generally "a first performance." This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media attention...
. Unfortunately it survives only in one autograph copy which includes later changes by Bruckner and others, so the exact contents of this version are lost unless new manuscripts are found. This version is unpublished.
Gutmann edition (published 1885)
Some changes were made after the 1884 premiere but before the first publication by Gutmann in 1885. It is widely accepted that Nikisch,
Franz SchalkFranz Schalk was an Austrian conductor. From 1918 to 1929 he was director of the Vienna State Opera, a post he held jointly with Richard Strauss from 1919 to 1924. Later, Schalk was involved in the establishment of the Salzburg Festival.-Biography:Schalk was born in Vienna, Austria, where he later...
and
Ferdinand LöweFerdinand Löwe was an Austrian conductor.-Biography:Löwe was born in Vienna, Austria where along with Munich, Germany his career was primarily centered. From 1896 Löwe conducted the Kaim Orchestra, today's Munich Philharmonic, where he returned from 1908 to 1914...
had significant influence over this edition, but there is some debate over the extent to which these changes were authorized by Bruckner. These changes mostly affect tempo and orchestration.
Haas edition (published 1944)
Robert HaasRobert Haas may refer to:*Robert Haas , Austrian musicologist*Robert Haas , American calligrapher, typographer, photographer and book designer*Robert Haas , German clergyman and ecumenist...
attempted to remove the influence of Nikisch, Schalk and Löwe in order to retrieve Bruckner's original conception of the symphony. Haas used some material from the 1883 autograph but because this autograph also includes later changes much of his work was the product of conjecture. The most prominent feature of Haas's edition is the absence of
cymbalCymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s,
triangleThe triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel in modern instruments, bent into a triangle shape. Usually held by a string at the top curve.- Shaping :...
and
timpaniTimpani are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick...
in the slow movement: Haas asserted that Bruckner decided to omit the percussion, a claim scholar Benjamin Korstvedt deems "implausible".
Nowak edition (published 1954)
Leopold NowakLeopold Nowak was a musicologist chiefly known for editing the works by Anton Bruckner for the International Bruckner Society. He reconstructed the original form of some of those works, most of which had been revised and edited many times.Nowak studied piano and organ at the Imperial Academy of...
kept most of the changes in the 1885 Gutmann edition, including the percussion. He reprinted the tempo modifications from Gutmann but placed them in brackets. Some performances of this edition omit the cymbal clash at the climax of the slow movement, although it is included in the printed score.
An arrangement of this symphony for chamber ensemble (consisting of 2
violinThe violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
s,
violaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position...
,
celloThe cello is a bowed string instrument. The word derives from the Italian violoncello. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra...
,
bassThe double bass, also called the upright bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. The name, "double bass," derives from the early use of the instrument to double—an octave lower where possible—the bass part written...
,
clarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet...
,
hornThe horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
,
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
4-hands, and
harmoniumA harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air, supplied by foot-operated or hand-operated bellows, being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion....
) was prepared in 1921 by students and associates of
Arnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg was an Austrian and later American composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, for the Viennese "
Society for Private Musical PerformancesThe Society for Private Musical Performances was an organisation founded in Vienna in the Autumn of 1918 by Arnold Schoenberg with the intention of making carefully rehearsed and comprehensible performances of available to genuinely interested members of the musical public...
":
Hanns EislerHanns Eisler was a German and Austrian composer.-Family Background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...
(1st and 3rd movements),
Erwin SteinErwin Stein was an Austrian musician and writer, prominent as a pupil and friend of Schoenberg, with whom he studied between 1906 and 1910. He was one of Schoenberg’s principal assistants in organizing the Society for Private Musical Performances...
(2nd mvt.), and
Karl RanklKarl Rankl was a British conductor and composer of Austrian birth.-Biography:Rankl studied with Arnold Schoenberg as a private pupil for four years beginning in 1918. His first appointment was as chorus master at the Volksoper in Vienna in 1922 where he later became an assistant conductor...
(3rd mvt). The Society folded before the arrangement could be performed, and it was not premiered until more than 60 years later.
Instrumentation
The symphony requires the following orchestra:
- woodwind
A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against an edge of, or opening in, the instrument, causing the air to vibrate within a resonator...
s: 2 fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
s, 2 oboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s, 2 clarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet...
s in A, 2 bassoonThe bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 1800s, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature...
s
- brass
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
: 4 hornThe horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
s in F, 3 trumpetThe trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC...
s in F, 3 tromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
s, 4 Wagner tubaThe Wagner tuba is a comparatively rare brass instrument that combines elements of both the horn and the tuba. It was originally created for Richard Wagner's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Since then, other composers have written for it, most notably Anton Bruckner, in whose Symphony No. 7...
s (2 tenors in B-flat, 2 basses in F)1, tubaThe tuba is the largest and lowest pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
- percussion
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration...
2 timpaniTimpani are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick...
, cymbalCymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s, triangleThe triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel in modern instruments, bent into a triangle shape. Usually held by a string at the top curve.- Shaping :...
- strings: violin
The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
s 1, 2, violaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position...
s, violoncellos, double bassThe double bass, also called the upright bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. The name, "double bass," derives from the early use of the instrument to double—an octave lower where possible—the bass part written...
es
1Used in the 2nd and 4th movements only. If Wagner Tubas are not available, they are sometimes substituted with
EuphoniumThe euphonium is a conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced"...
s.
2Except the third movement where the use of timpani figures prominently, usage of percussion in the symphony is extremely limited. A timpani roll enters at the coda of the first movement. In some performance editions, the timpani reenters along with cymbals and triangle together in the climax of the second movement (the only movement employing cymbals and triangle). (Many conductors have taken to performing the second movement without percussion, however, and the decision is generally settled by the performers' preferences.) In the last movement, the timpani rolls in brief climaxes before crescendoing with orchestral tutti in the final bars.
Use by Hitler
According to Frederic Spotts's
Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics,
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
compared this symphony favorably with
BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...
's
Ninth SymphonyThe Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 "Choral" is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire and is considered one of Beethoven's greatest masterpieces.The symphony was the first example of...
. When he consecrated a bust of Bruckner at
RegensburgRegensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
's
Walhalla templeThe Walhalla is a hall of fame for "laudable and distinguished Germans" resp. "famous personalities in German history – politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists" "of the German tongue", housed in a neo-classical building above the Danube River east of Regensburg, in Bavaria, Germany...
in 1937, the Adagio from the Seventh was played as Hitler stood in quiet admiration, a widely photographed propaganda stunt. A recording of the Adagio was played before the official radio announcement of the German defeat at
StalingradThe Battle of Stalingrad was a battle of World War II between Nazi Germany and its allies and the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943....
in January 1943 and before Admiral
Karl DönitzKarl Dönitz was a German naval Commander who served in the Imperial German Navy during World War I, and during World War II commanded first the German submarine fleet, and then the entire German Navy .In the final days of the war, Dönitz was named by Adolf Hitler as his successor, and after the...
announced Hitler's death on Radio Berlin on May 1 1945.
Discography
The first commercial recording was made by
Oskar FriedOskar Fried , was a German conductor and composer.Born in Berlin, the son of a Jewish shopkeeper, he worked as a clown, a stable boy and a dog trainer before studying composition with Iwan Knorr and Engelbert Humperdinck in Frankfurt. He later moved to Dusseldorf to study painting and art history...
with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra in 1924 for Polydor. Along with the
FourthAnton Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major is one of the composer's most popular works. It was written in 1874 and revised several times through 1888. It was dedicated to Prince Konstantin of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst. It was premiered in 1881 by Hans Richter in Vienna with great success...
, the Seventh is the most popular Bruckner symphony both in the concert hall and on record.
Herbert von KarajanHerbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor and one of the most renowned conductors in music history. His obituary in The New York Times described him as "probably the world's best-known conductor and one of the most powerful figures in classical music." Karajan conducted...
's last recording with the Vienna Philharmonic, 23 April 1989, three months before his death, on the
Deutsche GrammophonDeutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label, now part of the Universal Music Group. It is also UMG's oldest active label.-History:...
label, of the Haas edition of the 1885 score, has been singled out by
Norman LebrechtNorman Lebrecht is a British commentator on music and cultural affairs and also a novelist. He has been Assistant Editor of the Evening Standard since 2002 and has presented lebrecht.live on BBC Radio 3 from 2000...
as #80 in his list of the 100 best recordings, and described as "more human and vulnerable" than his earlier Berlin recording. In reviewing the 1999 recording by
Kurt SanderlingKurt Sanderling is a German conductor.-Biography:Born in Arys, East Prussia, Sanderling, after early work at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, left for Russia in 1936, where he worked with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. From 1942 to 1960 he was joint principal conductor with Evgeny Mravinsky of the...
, the critic David Hurwitz listed as reference (benchmark) recordings of Bruckner's Seventh those by
Eugen JochumEugen Jochum was an eminent German conductor.Born in Babenhausen, near Augsburg, Germany, Jochum studied the piano and organ in Augsburg until 1922. He then studied conducting in Munich...
in 1952,
Bernard HaitinkBernard Johan Herman Haitink CH KBE is a Dutch conductor and violinist.-Early life:Haitink was born in Amsterdam, the son of Willem Haitink and Anna Haitink. He studied music at the conservatoire in Amsterdam...
in 1978, Karajan in 1989, and
Günter WandGünter Wand was a German orchestra conductor and composer....
in 1999. Stephen Johnson prefers
Karl BöhmKarl August Leopold Böhm was an Austrian conductor.-Biography:Born in Graz, Austria, Böhm studied law and earned a doctorate on this subject. He later studied music at the Graz Conservatory. On the recommendation of Karl Muck, Bruno Walter engaged him at Munich's Bavarian State Opera in 1921...
's recording with the Vienna Philharmonic, saying that Bohm balances "clear-sighted formal understanding with a more fluid, supple approach to phrasing."
The chamber arrangement has been recorded.
External links