This month Bridget Mermikides arranges and transcribes Bruckner’s sublimely serene but approachable and satisfying choral ‘motet’.

Bridget Mermikides

Bruckner is seen as an ancestor of 20th century modernist music

In this issue, we look at a work by a new composer in this series, the Austrian theorist, organist and composer Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). His compositions were well informed by years of humble study and dedication as a student, teacher and well-respected organist; and only started composing at the age of 37. When he did so his music had a wild, modernist and dissonant flavour which belied his humble and diffident manner. These were met with some controversy and disdain, which did not help his lifelong issues with anxiety and depression, and he often revised his works on the basis of such criticism (which incidentally has created a real challenge in the cataloguing of his works). Despite this contemporaneous resistance and a faltering confidence, his work is highly praised by other composers at the time and since, and he successfully forged a bold new symphonic and compositional style. As such - alongside his friend and admirer, Gustav Mahler -he might be seen as a key ancestor of the 20th century modernist movement.