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Celebrating its 100th anniversary, this extraordinary series continues to amaze and captivate its readers with detailed insight into the lives and work of music's geniuses. Unlike other composer biographies that focus narrowly on the music, this series explores the personal history of each composer and the social context surrounding the music. In a precise, engaging, and authoritative manner, each volume combines a vivid portrait of the master musicians' inspirations, influences, life experiences, even their weaknesses, with an accessible discussion of their work-all in roughly 300 pages. Further, each volume offers superb reference material, including a detailed life and times chronology, a complete list of works, a personalia glossary highlighting the important people in the composer's life, and a select bibliography. Under the supervision of music expert and series general editor Stanley Sadie, Master Musicians will certainly proceed to delight music scholars, serious musicians, and all music lovers for another hundred years.
This particular volume contains a vivid account of Bruckner's struggles and achievements both in his personal life and in his creative career. The later chapters cover each of his works in detail, from the mighty span of the mature symphonies to the smallest of his undeservedly neglected motets. As well, the characteristic features of his art and his strikingly individual conception of mass and symphony are discussed and set alongside the works of his contemporaries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Bruckner's Best Critical Bio...
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Oxford UP reissued the old Dent Master Musicians series in updated texts.Unfortunately, Oxford quickly let the series go out of print.

Watson's Bruckner is about the best critical bio around.It's not perfect, but till we get a better, it's all we've got.

Bruckner is still not well understood: certainly less so than Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Mahler, et alii.
He was a trained school teacher who was well versed in Latin; moreover, he was a professional organist appointed to the royal house of Hapsburg, who toured Europe representing the Austro-Hungarian empire.
He was fêted in Paris by César Franck, Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Ambroise Thomas (president of the Paris Conservatoire) [tough crowd!!] when he performed on the Cavaillé-Coll organ of la Notre Dame de Paris.
He performed to much acclaim at the Cyrstal Palace in London.
Furthermore, of course, he was a professional musician who had completed full courses with Schubert's teacher Simon Sechter; and whose works were performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
To crown his lifetime's work, in 1895 he was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of Vienna.

Dr. Bruckner was a very complex man who practiced sincere humility.
And as Oscar Wilde aptly says, "Simplicity is the last refuge of the complex."

Look for other books in this series:Schoenberg (Master Musicians Series);Franck (Master Musicians Series);Chopin (Master Musicians Series);Schubert (Master Musicians Series);Brahms (Master Musicians Series);Mahler (Master Musicians Series);Bach (Master Musicians Series);Beethoven (Master Musicians Series).
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Masterful!
Derek Watson is one of the only critics who truly understands Bruckner's art.With his intimate knowledge of Bruckner's style, Watson effectively refutes the erroneous arguments of Bruckner's detractors.This biography is compact, but it covers all the important aspects of Bruckner's life and work.It also contains a complete categorized list of Bruckner's compositions and short biographies of important people in Bruckner's life.Any aspiring Brucknerian should not be without this book! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

For the 1st time in all these years regarding DOVER........
I found this volume to be nothing short of trash.I must admit it stunned me as I have truck loads of their scores and this is such a huge disappointment.No wonder the inventory of DOVER available scores is vanishing with an ever increasing frequency.

I recently sent an email wondering if there were any plans to re-issue the Gounod FAUST - no response.I can only assume this is their open contempt for their customers.How sad a benchmark publisher is persuing this route.PAUL

Worst Dover score ever published
Oh dear.Originally Dover promised to publish these two symphonies in the editions by Robert Haas and indeed that is what the original blurb said over 18 months ago when the publication was announced for January 2009.Well several order renewals later the score appears out of the blue, but all mention of and connection with Haas has disappeared and the result is a travesty in more ways than one.

This Dover publication makes no mention of who edited the scores and simply says they come from "an authorative edition".Well Dover may not want to say which edition but they can't hide it from those of us who know. This edition of the 8th symphony is from 1892 and edited by Schalk which was originally published that same year by Haslinger-Schlesinger-Lienau.This edition in particular is far from authorative and is today widely rejected as inauthentic despite Schalk's not unjustified claim that Bruckner himself had approved the score for publication.There is much that is questonable, in particular the massive cuts in the finale and the smaller cuts in the third movement along with many alterations to dynamics.However it should be bourne in mind that this edition was used for several decades as the principal edition for recordings and performances.Furtwängler, Knappertsbusch, Krips, Steinberg, Szell and Walter all made recording with it.Things have moved on since then with renewed scholarship into Bruckner's works and Dover should have bourne this mind when choosing which edition to publish.

The 6th Symphony presented here is the 1894 edition by overseen by Cyril Hynais and published in 1899.The clue is the repeat to the 2nd half of the trio which is not present in Hass or Novak who presented the original score.Otherwise the symphony is pretty much as Bruckner's original score.

This particular publication of 8th symphony is also far from acceptable in that it features many pages of blurred images and cramped images, Not so blurred that it is impossible to read, but they have no measure of the clear typefaces that where available at the time.Most of the fault lays in the thick-set type face used for the original engraving, but Dover's scan of it also leaves something to be desired.In this respect the edition of 6th symphony in the volume is very clear, just a pity that the edition itself is not by Haas.

One other highly spurious feature on the back cover are the labels Dover append to the two Symphonies,"The Philosopher" for no. 6 and "The Apocalyptic".From where these appellations come is far from clear except it is not from Bruckner himself.When combined with all the other drawbacks this makes for a really shoddy level of publication and when this edition is compared next to the excellent edition Dover made of the 4th and 7th symphonies (in the editions by Hass) it immediately becomes clear just how much this one is found wanting.

The best thing Dover could do is to immediately withdraw this lamentable publication, pulp all remaining copies and destroy the plates.What is needed is a reissue of the Hass editions of both symphonies and perhaps if Dover do listen to their customers they will do second time what they have failed to do first time.If you need an edition of the 8th symphony buy one from the Bruckner Society and at least you will have a Novak edition.There is also a very rare edition from Kalmus that corresponds with the Haas edition of the symphony.Originally published as 382 in the Kalmus Miniature Scores series if you can find it, you will have no need of this Dover travesty.

Not what I was expecting
I ordered this book well over year ago, and at the time I believe it was represented as being a reproduction of the Haas Edition of the 6th & 8th symphonies, following Dover's superb edition of the 4th & 7th symphonies in the Haas version: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7 in Full Score.

The publication was delayed several times, yet each time I approved keeping the order open despite my doubts that I would ever see the book.

To my amazement, it was just delivered.But guess what: a "bibliographical note" on the page facing the table of contents describes the source of the texts as " ... a compilation of works originally published separately in authoritative early editions."Translation: NOT the Haas Edition.

So which editions are they?Not clear, though the 6th is a clean scan of what appears to be an early 20th century edition.The 8th might in fact be the Haas, though the scan is so crude in places as to be headache-inducing.

Otherwise the book is very high quality: good paper, nicely sewn binding and fun cover art, reminiscent of Eliahu Inbal's goofy Teldec Bruckner disc covers in the 1980s.

If only it contained what I wanted and thought I'd ordered.

Shame on You. Dover
Dover had previously reprinted Bruckner's 4th and 7th symphonies from the Bruckner Society scores published in Austria.I was hoping they would do the same for no. 6&8.I was very disappointed to see the eighth reprinted from the Kalmus version.It is not as detailed as the Bruckner Society version, and more difficult to read.I do not know what the source was of the sixth, but since it a smaller work it is easier to read. Shame on you Dover for reprinting such an inferior score as the kalmus.I am thinking about returning this inferior score. ... Read more

Product Description
Sixteen essays by leading experts introduce the lay reader to issues that have concerned scholars over the past twenty years regarding Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). They provide an introduction to the composer's life and works, covering such problematic areas as his relationship to Vienna; the numerous editions of his symphonies; performing styles; and his appropriation by the Nazis during the Third Reich. They also consider the extent to which his Catholicism shaped not just his religious music but his symphonies as well. ... Read more

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This comprehensive study treats the wind works of Anton Bruckner as a complete genre and uses them to illustrate how the composer evolved in style throughout his career. A major nineteenth-century composer, organist, and church musician, Bruckner's compositional style changed dramatically in the early 1860s, dividing his career into two distinct parts. During his early career he immersed himself in the study of traditional musical principles including form, harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration. The second phase of his career, in which he composed the symphonies upon which much of his current reputation rests, was marked by his experimental approaches to harmony and tonality. Many of his early compositions exhibit landmarks of his later style. The wind instrument pieces incorporate the best aspects of both of Bruckner's styles and reflect the progress of his professional life. ... Read more

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Despite significant advances in Bruckner scholarship, many problems persist. Although the relationship between Bruckner's music, post-Wagnerian ideology and, ultimately, Nazism has been carefully reconstructed, questions of how such matters should condition our responses to the music remain unaddressed. This important study isolates problematic issues of interpretation, analysis, reception, and historical location, and offers potential solutions through case studies of individual works. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Anton Bruckner remains one of the most complex and enigmatic creative personalities of the 19th century. A leading avant-garde figure of his generation, he was an accomplished performer and teacher in addition to being a great composer. This book, a collection of essays written by an international group of scholars, offers diverse theoretical and musicological perspectives on Bruckner the composer-teacher-performer. Facets of his formidable theoretical training and his application of it as part of the compositional process are explored. A variety of analytical methodologies is used to examine the Second through to the Ninth Symphonies, the heart of the composer's mature repertoire. Finally, aspects of Bruckner's career as a teacher and performer, his complex personality, his influence and dissemination of his music are considered. ... Read more

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Contrary to the many commentators who presumed there to be a tension, between Sechter's theory and Bruckner's mature musical language, this study demonstrates their compatibility. Using the Adagio of Bruckner's "Ninth Symphony", the case is made for fundamental-bass theory as a revealing tool for analyzing the composer's music. Anton Bruckner was already in his thirties when he gave up composition for six years to study with Simon Sechter. Fundamental-bass theory, Sechter's idiosyncratic method, was the basis for Bruckner's instruction, and it not only became the bedrock for Bruckner's own teaching but also, according to first-hand accounts, underpinned all his subsequent harmonic thought. Scant attention has ever been given to the influence that Sechter's ideas had on Bruckner, mainly because fundamental-bass theory was itself superseded and all-but forgotten. This work discusses the context of fundamental-bass theory not only in relation to the history of theory but also in the light of Sechter's compositional practice, including his re-working of Beethoven's "Sonata, Op. 110". The theory is explained with examples from Bruckner's student exercises.Previous applications of the theory are examined, from Mayrberger's use of the theory to analyze Wagner's harmony onwards. ... Read more

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Ein detaillierter Vergleich der Erstfassung (1873) und ersten Druckfassung (1877/78) von Bruckners "Wagner-Symphonie" stellt einerseits der nach wie vor aktuellen Diskussion um die differierenden Werkgestalten einiges konkretes Material zur Verfugung, beleuchtet jedoch andererseits auch die zentrale Schaffensphase, wahrend der Bruckners symphonischer Personalstil sich auspragte. Die in analytischer Hinsicht sparliche jungere Bruckner-Literatur wird daruber hinaus durch Interpretation und Wurdigung prominenter Phanomene wie etwa der "Chorale", der "metrischen Ziffern", der "Wagner-Zitate" bereichert. (Franz Steiner 1987) ... Read more