The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, WAB 109, is the last symphony on which Anton Bruckner worked, leaving the last movement incomplete at the time of his death in 1896. Bruckner dedicated it "to the beloved God" (in German, dem lieben Gott). The symphony was premiered under Ferdinand Löwe in Vienna in 1903.
Dedication Bruckner is said to have dedicated his Ninth Symphony to "the beloved God". August Göllerich and Max Auer, in their biography of Bruckner, Ein Lebens- und Schaffensbild, claim he expressed to his doctor, Richard Heller, this dedication of his work saying:
You see, I have already dedicated two earthly majesty symphonies to poor King Ludwig as the royal patron of the arts [VII. Symphony, note d. Ed.] To our illustrious, dear Emperor as the highest earthly majesty, whom I acknowledge [VIII. Symphony, note d. Ed.] And now I dedicate my last work to the majesty of all the majesties, the beloved God, and hope that he will give me so much time to complete the same.
Genesis Immediately after completing the first version of his Eighth Symphony on 10 August 1887, Bruckner began work on his Ninth. First draft sketches, which are stored in the Jagiellońska Library, Kraków, are dated 12–18 August 1887. Additionally, the first score of the first movement is dated 21 September 1887.
Work on the first movement was soon interrupted. The conductor Hermann Levi, to whom Bruckner had just sent the score of his Eighth, found the orchestration impossible and the working-out of the themes "dubious", suggesting that Bruckner rework it. Bruckner set to revising it in 1888. During the revision of his Eighth, he also revised his Third Symphony from March 1888 to March 1889.
In the midst of revising his Eighth and Third, on 12 February 1889, Bruckner began to prepare his Second Symphony for publication. On 10 March 1890, he completed his Eighth before making further revisions of his First and Fourth Symphonies and his F minor Mass.
Bruckner announced in a letter dated 18 February 1891 to the reviewer Theodor Helm, "Loud secrets today. H. Doctor! [...] 3rd secret. The Ninth Symphony (D minor) has begun," concealing the fact that his first sketches of the Ninth had been written nearly four years earlier. Bruckner then composed two choral-symphonic works, a setting of the 150th Psalm (1892) and the male choral work Helgoland (1893).
On 23 December 1893, the first movement of the Ninth was completed after six years. The Scherzo (second movement), sketched as early as 1889, was completed on 15 February 1894.Manuscript, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Signatur Mus.Hs.19481 Bruckner composed three successive versions of the Trio:
The first version (1889), in F major, in Ländler style with a viola solo, recalls some ideas from the Eighth Symphony. The quarter-note pizzicato accompaniment at the outset recalls the opening of the Te Deum, which was also repeated in the sketches of the Finale.Manuscript, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Signatur Mus.Hs.28.225 und 3165/1 The second version (1893), in the remote key of F major, also in Ländler style with a viola solo, has a somewhat ethereal sound. The mid-part contains a reminiscence to the Hallelujah from Händel's Messiah.Manuscript, Vienna Library, Signatur 4189/34 The final version (1894), also in F major, is unusually fast in tempo for a trio. The slower mid-part contains, as in the previous version, a reminiscence of the Hallelujah from Händel's Messiah.Manuscript, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Signatur Mus.Hs.28.226
The Adagio (third movement) was completed on 30 November 1894. With regard to the final movement, the following entry can be found in Bruckner's calendar: "24. Mai 895 1.mal Finale neue Scitze" ("24th May 1895 first new sketch of finale"). Overall, the work on the Ninth stretched over the long period from 1887 to 1896 and had to be interrupted repeatedly due to revisions to other works and Bruckner's deteriorating health. Bruckner died during the work on the fourth movement, before completing the symphony.
First performance The first three movements of the Ninth were premiered in Vienna, in the Musikvereinssaal on 11 February 1903 by the Vienna Concertvereinsorchester, the precursor of the Vienna Symphony, under the conductor Ferdinand Löwe in his own arrangement. Löwe profoundly changed Bruckner's original score by adapting Bruckner's orchestration in the sense of a rapprochement with Wagner's ideal of sound, and made changes to Bruckner's harmony in certain passages (most notably in the climax of the Adagio). He published his altered version without comment, and this edition was long regarded as Bruckner's original. In 1931, the musicologist Robert Haas pointed out the differences between Löwe's edition and Bruckner's original manuscripts. The following year, conductor Siegmund von Hausegger performed both the Löwe-edited and the original Bruckner score, so that the actual premiere of the first three movements of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony took place on 2 April 1932 in Munich. The first recording (issued on LP in the 1950s) was made by Hausegger with the Munich Philharmonic in the original version (edited by ) in April 1938.first recording (LP): Anton Bruckner, Symphonie Nr. 9 (Edition Alfred Orel), Münchner Philharmoniker, LP-recording, Label Victor (15972-A) April 1938
Stylistic classification Bruckner expanded the symphonic form extremely using the negative sound of silence, sequencing phases, widened peaks and decay processes. Bruckner was rooted in the music of Palestrina, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert and also an innovator of late 19th-century harmony (alongside Franz Liszt). Bruckner continues his symphonic path by adhering to the sonata form in the Ninth Symphony. He also expands the form, enhancing it to the monumental. This expansion of the orchestra apparatus is also an expression of this mass increase.
According to Ekkehard Kreft, "the phases of improvement in the Ninth Symphony take on a new significance, as they serve to shape the character from the starting point of the thematic complex (first theme) to its final destination (main theme)." Both in the first sentence and in the final movement this is expressed in a hitherto unknown dimension. The entry of the main theme is preceded by a harmoniously complicated increase phase. The use of this increasingly complex harmony makes Bruckner the pioneer of later developments. The musicologist Albrecht von Mossow summarizes this with regard to the Ninth as follows: "To the material developments of modernity must be attributed to Bruckner as with other composers of the 19th century, the increasing emancipation of dissonance, the chromatisation of harmony, the weakening of tonality, the touch of the Triadic harmonics through the increased inclusion of four- and five-tone sounds, the formal breaks within his symphonic movements, and the revaluation of timbre to an almost independent parameter."
The Ninth Symphony has great waves of development, climax and decay, which music psychologist Ernst Kurth describes as a "contrast of sound-specific breadth and emptiness compared to the previous compression and summit position." Kurth compares this with Stockhausen's 1957 composition 'Gruppen', where structure is also shown in the dismemberment of the individual apparatus instead of the linear genesis, saying Bruckner transfers a wealth of sounds, colors, and characters, and not just spatial sound conceptions on instrumental apparatus.
The fugue is unusual because of its prominent position in the final movement of the Ninth Symphony, although the inclusion of a fugue in the symphonic context of Bruckner is not uncommon. As Rainer Bloss writes (as translated from German): "The main theme of the finale of the 9th Symphony has a peculiarity, because its form is changed, transformed in its last two bars ... Bruckner's 'unusual' two-bar extension demonstrates this modular regression exceptionally".
Bruckner increasingly refines his technique of citation in the Ninth Symphony. Paul Thissen sums it up in his analysis (translated from German): "Undoubtedly, the form of integration of quotations used by Bruckner in the Adagio of the Ninth Symphony shows the most differentiated appearance. It ranges from mere montage technique (as in Miserere) to the penetration of the sequence with transformations similar to Kyrie". (Originally 1995 dissertation Paderborn University)
Description The symphony has four movements, although the finale is incomplete and fragmentary:
Much material for the finale in full score may have been lost very soon after the composer's death; some of the lost sections in full score survived only in two-to-four-stave sketch format. The placement of the Scherzo second, and the key, D minor, are only two of the elements this work has in common with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
The symphony is so often performed without any sort of finale that some authors describe "the form of this symphony [as] … a massive arch, two slow movements straddling an energetic Scherzo."Kenneth McLeish & Valerie McLeish, The Listener's Guide to Classical Music: An Introduction to the Great Classical Composers and Their Works. New York: G.K. Hall & Co. (1986): 49
Scoring The score calls for three flutes, three oboes, three clarinets in B and A, three bassoons, three trumpets in F, three trombones, eight horns (5th to 8th doubling Wagner tubas), one contrabass tuba, timpani and strings.
Performing time Movements 1–3: ca. 55–65 min. (1: 535 bars, 2: 512 bars, 3: 243 bars) Movement 4 (completions by others): William Carragan: ca. 22 minutes (717 bars) Nors S. Josephson (1992): ca. 20 minutes (644 bars) Sébastien Letocart (2008): ca. 24 minutes (717 / 725 bars) Samale-Mazzuca-Phillips-Cohrs (1992, 2008, 2010, 2012): ca. 25 minutes (665 bars) John A. Phillips (2021–2022, based on SPCM version): ca. 23 minutes (649 bars) Gerd Schaller: ca. 25 minutes (736 bars) Free compositions incorporating material from the Finale sketches: Ernst Märzendorfer (1969): ca. 25 minutes P. J. Marthé (2006): ca. 30 minutes Replacement of the 4th movement by Bruckner's Te Deum: ca. 23 minutes
First movement
First and second parts The first movement in D minor (alla breve) is a freely designed sonata movement with three thematic groups. At the beginning, the strings in the tremolo intone the root note D, which is solidified in the third bar by the woodwinds. A first thematic nucleus sounds in the horns as a "(fundamental) tone repetition in the triple-dotted rhythm, from which the interval of the third, then the fifth dissolves, fits into the underlying metric order structure by caesurating strokes of the timpani and trumpets. A symphony can hardly begin more primitive, elemental, archetypal." The typical phenomenon of sound splitting for Bruckner occurs in bar 19: the root note D is dissociated into its neighboring notes E and D. A bold E major upswing of the horns announces something auspicious. As a result, an extended development phase prepares the entry of the main theme. Bruckner's music is specific, and this underlies his principle of development and the exploration of sound. Bruckner's path to this theme creation is getting longer; it takes more and more time for the main idea to break out.