Customer Reviews

Bruckner Studies (Cambridge Composer Studies)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In view of the lack of modern books on this subject, and the failure to reprint the standard (and admirable) biographies, this monument of modern academic P & P (pedantry and pedagogy) is seriously disappointing. If you are seeking enlightenment about this motivation and methods of this most sublime of composers --- look elsewhere. This is a view through a microscope of the vast Brucknerian universe. You will, however, get a glimpse of current efforts to achieve tenure in academe. The standard works (in addition to Simpson, Schoenzeler, and Doernberg, perhaps the recent compilation by Stephen Johnson)remain essential --- so search the used book sites.

The other reviewer here who disparages this volume because it is too specialized must not have read many collections of musicological articles. Because that is what they are about; but at least this volume contains some very interesting ones. I want to especially highlight the two articles which treat Bruckner's reception during the Third Reich. I learned aspects I had not been aware of at all before. Both have strong points to make about pressing aesthetic issues even today in Bruckner interpretation and appreciation. The articles which treats the Gesamtausgabe Edition of the Symphonies uses history deftly to make clear what many of us feel for purely aesthetic reasons. Namely, that the editing done during Bruckner's lifetime was a good thing in many ways. I just had not been aware of how closely connected the Urtext enthusiasm was connected with fascist aesthetics and Nazi mythmaking. This relates to what I liked about the article on the Bayreuthians and Bruckner. It is incredibly fascinating to see how Nazi theorists developed an entire aesthetic approach of "immediate" experience for making judgments about the works, and roped Meister Eckhart in with it. It makes one reflect on how truly terrible history can be to great thinkers of the past! But I hope that perhaps I am reading too much into the assertions in that article which seemed to imply that ALL judgments made on prima facie aesthetic assessments of quality are crypto-authoritarian. Perhaps that is not what was meant. Though if there were ever a set of historical facts to cast a pall on an aesthetic approach, this author has assembled it. I think there is a big difference between making a judgment on quality, irrespective of historical information, and doing the same things but basing that assessment on qualities gauged by their congruence with things other than aesthetics (e.g. racial theories, class) But whatever the case these two articles are a real eye-opener, and certainly ought to be read by anyone interested in Bruckner. In fact one of the most striking moments is the quote provided from some perfervid Nazi asserting that Bruckner's symphonies were nearly identical with Nazi ideas rejecting traditional Christianity. How in the world they heard this in these very prayer meditations, especially in the slow movements is just unfathomable. And the further assertion that Bruckner's aesthetic utterly rejected a Catholic ethos is one of the most violent misprisions of historical and aesthetic analysis I have ever read. Clearly his works have a very Catholic valence, which is not diminished by the strong differing elements in them as well. Of such mixtures is great art often make!

I would like to start by responding to a comment in the first review. The "standard works" in many fields including Bruckner are not completely accurate and are in many cases simply outdated. New scholarship is much more self-critical and has found many flaws with earlier ideas and theories about Bruckner. I find the book to be a great resource and there's a reason that Jackson is co-author of the Bruckner article in the New Grove revised edition.

It's wonderful and helpful to me.

Because, nowadays, I'm listening to his symphonies conducted by Georg Tintner.

Especially, chapter 4 of Part I is very impressive showing the annexation with NAZI.

But, I feel that this book is more general than I thought before I purchase it. Then, I can not rate this book as 'Five Stars'.

Anyway, this book should be helpful to who wants to know about the composer or the Man (Anton Bruckner).