Anton Bruckner: The Devout Symphonist
Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist of the Romantic era, renowned for his monumental symphonies and sacred choral works.
Born in Ansfelden, Upper Austria, Bruckner worked as a village schoolteacher and organist before studying music formally in his 30s. He served as organist at St. Florian Monastery and later became professor at Vienna Conservatory. His complex symphonies faced harsh criticism during his lifetime but gained posthumous recognition as masterpieces.
- Suffered from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, counting church towers, windows, and even musical notes compulsively throughout his life.
- Faced brutal opposition from Vienna's influential critic Eduard Hanslick and his supporters, who mocked Bruckner's symphonies as 'formless' and 'barbaric'.
- Made multiple revisions to his symphonies due to insecurity, creating conflicting versions that still challenge musicologists today.
- Remained a lifelong bachelor with eccentric habits, proposing marriage to teenage girls in his 70s after brief acquaintances.
- Died of heart failure in Vienna, surrounded by his manuscripts. His coffin was placed below the organ at St. Florian Monastery per his request.
