Bruckner, Anton

containing sketches for Bruckner's 1888 revision of the last movement, written in short score in pencil, on eight two- or three-stave systems, with many revisions, alterations and deletions, the pitches changed or confirmed by the composer in many places with letter-names ("...e d gis h a gis g fis" etc.), and annotated by him in the margins ("cism[oll]; gilt"); together with a transcription of a violin part on the facing page, in another hand

2 pages in all, folio (35 x 27cm), 24-stave paper (B & H. Nr 14.A), on a bifolium with an attestation by Franz Christ on the first page ("Original Handschrift von Anton Bruckner, Aus dem Besitz des Herrn Viktor Christ welcher für Bruckner dessen Symphonie in's Reine übertrug und für den Druck vorbereitete"), ownership stamp of Viktor Christ, [Vienna, summer 1888], minor splitting at fold, dust-marking to margins

Viktor Christ, with his stamp at the top of the page ("Viktor Christ Wien").

Anton Bruckner, III. Symphonie (Fassung von 1889), edited by L. Nowak, (Sämtliche Werke, Vienna, 1958), pp.197-200; T. Röder, III. Symphonie D-Moll, Revisionsbericht, (Vienna 1997), pp.314-319

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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AUTOGRAPH MUSIC FROM BRUCKNER'S SYMPHONIES IS RARE AT AUCTION. The Third Symphony is a crucial work in Bruckner's career as a symphonist, setting the pattern for his mature works.  This is the symphony famously praised by Richard Wagner, and which Bruckner therefore named after him.

Bruckner's manuscript contains radical revisions to the last movement of his "Wagner" Symphony (1873). There has long been controversy surrounding the various versions of Bruckner's major works, many cuts and changes being urged on him by his pupils.  For this revision of the finale of the Third Symphony, Bruckner used a version actually prepared for him by Franz Schalk, but he rejected passages recomposed by Schalk early on in the process and wrote all the music himself.  The present manuscript is therefore entirely in the hand of the composer.  It is written in Bruckner's fully mature style, contemporary with his composition of the Ninth Symphony and first revisions of the Eighth.

The sketches are for the climax of the last movement, the culmination of Bruckner's long-range tonal planning--specifically the trombone calls and accompanying strings at the final return of the principal theme in the third group. They begin at bar 407 (letter X), 1889 edition) and contain drafts of bars 407-416 (systems 1 & 2), bars 417-432 (systems 5, 6 & 7), together with other working preliminary drafts deleted by the composer. The manuscript has been heavily reworked by the composer with many deletions, so that he has had to resort to identifying the notes with letter-names. These sketches relate to drafts of the last movement (bars 393-425 etc) in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Krákow, which are on identical 24-stave paper. (These passages are revisions of those found at bars 193ff. of the 1877 version: cf. the Eulenburg miniature score by W. Altmann).

The manuscript is from the collection of Bruckner's pupil Viktor Christ, who acted as a copyist on the Eighth Symphony and, according to Franz Christ's annotation on the first page, also prepared the fair copy for the publication of this symphony by Josef Eberle in 1889.