Anton Bruckner Josef Anton Bruckner (; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist best known for his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-Germ ...

composed the Overture in G minor, WAB 98 in 1862–63, during his tuition by

Otto Kitzler Otto Kitzler (18 March 1834 – 6 September 1915) was a German cellist and conductor. He is noted for being the form and orchestration teacher of the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner from 1861 to 1863. Kitzler led the Linz theatre orchestra a ...

History

In the fall of 1862, when studying with Otto Kitzler in

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

, Bruckner composed his first orchestral compositions: the Four Orchestral Pieces (the March in D minor and the Three Pieces for orchestra). His next orchestral composition was an

Overture Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") in music was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overt ...

G minor G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major. According to Paolo Pietropaolo, it is the cont ...

, WAB 98. A sketch of the Overture, which was started in November 1862, is found in the '' Kizler-Studienbuch'' pp. 287–301.U. Harten, p. 328 A first version of the Overture was completed on 24 December 1862. On 6 January 1863 Bruckner started with the composition of a new

coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...

, which he finished on 22 January 1863.C. van Zwol, p. 679 The original manuscript of the Overture contains both the 1863 version and, on pp. 44–50, its 1862 coda. The manuscript, of which sheet No. 7 ( bars 188-212) is missing, is stored in the archive of the

Kremsmünster Abbey Kremsmünster Abbey (german: Stift Kremsmünster) is a Benedictine monastery in Kremsmünster in Upper Austria. History The monastery was founded in 777 AD by Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria. According to the foundation legend, Tassilo founded the ...

.
A copy of the complete score of the Overture was given by Bruckner to his friend Cyrill Hynais, together with that of the Four Orchestral Pieces and the Symphony in F minor. These scores are stored in the archive of the ' of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. The work was first published by Alfred Orel in ', 1921. The Overture was first performed by Franz Moißl on 8 September 1921 in

Klosterneuburg Klosterneuburg (; frequently abbreviated as Kloburg by locals) is a town in Tulln District in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It has a population of about 27,500. The Klosterneuburg Monastery, which was established in 1114 and soon after give ...

. The Overture in G minor (''Ouvertüre g-Moll''), as well as its 1862 coda, are edited in Band XII/5 of the current Bruckner's '' Gesamtausgabe''.Anton Bruckner Critical Complete Edition – Early orchestral and instrumental works
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Setting

The orchestral setting is the same as that of the earlier March in D minor, except that the second flute is replaced by a

piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

. The first (1862) version of the Overture in G minor, which is 301-bar long, had a different coda on bars 233–288. This was replaced—and approved by Kitzler—with a new coda in the final version of 1863. The final version is 8 bars shorter (293 bars). The "coda of the coda" (bars 289–301 of the 1862 version / bars 281–293 of the 1863 version) is the same in both versions. After an

introduction Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to: General use * Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music * Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...

in ''

Adagio Adagio (Italian for 'slowly', ) may refer to: Music * Adagio, a Tempo#Basic tempo markings, tempo marking, indicating that music is to be played slowly, or a composition intended to be played in this manner * Adagio (band), a French progressive m ...

'' (bars 1-22), the work in ''Allegro non troppo'' is further in

sonata form Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical form, musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle ...

, with the use in its

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped *Photographi ...

of theme inversion. In contrast with the earlier Four Orchestral Pieces and the next Symphony in F minor, the Overture appears a much more mature work. Bruckner's characteristics are already present: the opening subject with his

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

leap in

unison In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or per ...

, the full orchestral chords followed by

semiquaver Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest. Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together. In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note (American) or semiquaver (British) is a note played for half the dura ...

runs, and the second slower (''Un poco meno mosso'') subject with its large interval leaps.

Discography

The first recording occurred in 1937 by

Sir Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the The Proms, Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introd ...

with the Queen's Hall Orchestra (78 rpm: Decca Album No. 7). A digitalisation of this recording can be heard on John Berky's website.

1862 version

There is a single recording of the 1862 version of the Overture: * Shunsaki Tsutsumi, Royal Metropolitan Orchestra – CD Harmony PCDZ-1621, 1997 (with Mahler's Symphony No. 4). A sample of this recording can be downloaded from John Berky’s site.

Final (1863) version

The 1863 version of the Overture has been recorded about twenty times, mainly as addendum to the recording of one of Bruckner's symphonies.
Five of these recordings can be downloaded from John Berky’s site.John Berky’s Download of the Month
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References

Sources

* ''Anton Bruckner - Sämtliche Werke, Band XII/5: Ouvertüre g-Moll (1863)'', Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Hans Jancik and Rüdiger Bornhöft (Editors), Vienna, 1996 * ''Anton Bruckner - Sämtliche Werke, Band XXV: Das Kitzler Studienbuch (1861-1863), facsimile'', Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Paul Hawkshaw and Erich Wolfgang Partsch (Editors), Vienna, 2015 *

Uwe Harten Uwe Harten (born 16 August 1944) is a German musicologist, who works in Austria. Life Born in , Harten grew up in Hamburg, where he was a boy soprano at the Staatsoper. He took over the roles of a child. In Hamburg he also began his studies of ...

, ''Anton Bruckner. Ein Handbuch''. , Salzburg, 1996. . * Cornelis van Zwol, ''Anton Bruckner 1824–1896 – Leven en werken'', uitg. Thoth, Bussum, Netherlands, 2012.

External links

*
Discography of the Overture by John Berky
{{Authority control Compositions by Anton Bruckner 1863 compositions Compositions in G minor