Bruckner · Anton Bruckner
Bruckner Symphony No. 9 in D minor
An unfinished symphony dedicated "to the dear Lord"
- Key
- D minor
- Composed
- 1896
- Premiere
- 1903 Vienna
- Duration
- About 60 min
- Movements
- 3 movements
- Instrumentation
- Woodwinds 3·3·3·3 · Brass 8·3·3·1 (horns 5–8 double on Wagner tubas) · Timpani · Strings
The story behind this piece
Bruckner dedicated his last symphony "to the dear Lord" (dem lieben Gott). He began it right after finishing No. 8 in 1887, but progress was slow because of revisions of other works and his failing health. He kept working on the fourth movement until he died on October 11, 1896, but never finished it.
Bruckner called the third-movement Adagio his "farewell to life." There's also a story that he suggested that, if he couldn't finish the last movement, his own Te Deum be played in its place, but it seems he thought of that as a stopgap rather than an ideal ending.
In 1903 in Vienna, his student Ferdinand Löwe premiered the three movements, but Löwe altered the orchestration and harmony as he saw fit. The score exactly as Bruckner wrote it wasn't performed until 1932, by Siegmund von Hausegger in Munich. Today most performances end with the third movement, and there are several versions in which the fourth movement was completed from the remaining sketches.
What to listen for
- Second-movement scherzo: the strings hammer down the same chord heavily, like pounding. It's the roughest, most frightening sound of any Bruckner scherzo.
- End of the third movement: after a huge dissonant climax, the horns and Wagner tubas quietly recall earlier works and fade into stillness.
Listen · Score
Credits