Bruckner, Anton.

comprising a page from Bruckner's diary, bearing autograph annotations in ink covering the period 11-18 June 1896, Bruckner recording by means of abbreviations, mostly single letters, the prayers said, and indicating by means of horizontal strokes under the abbreviations the frequency of his observance of them



2 pages, 8vo (13.3 x 8.1cm), a printed page from Fromme's Österreichischer Professoren- und Lehrer-Kalender für das Schuljahr 1894/95, ("II. Monatsconferenz am...Schulaufgaben:...Sittliches Betragen:..."), [Vienna,] 11-18 June 1896, the leaf torn at one side, with slight loss of paper, apparently not affecting text, a tiny fragment at one corner becoming detached; together with two autograph letters, signed, by Bruckner's pupil and last secretary Anton Meißner, authenticating the document and recording anecdotes from Bruckner's last days, including a reference to a performance of the Te Deum, and a description of the circumstances of his move in to the ground-floor flat of the [Oberes] Belvedere [where he spent the last sixteen months of his life], 5 pages in all, 8vo, Vienna, 15 June 1928

Not recorded or published in Elisabeth Maier, Verborgene Persönlichkeit. Anton Bruckner in seinen privaten Aufzeichnungen [= Anton Bruckner. Dokumente und Studien 11] (Vienna, 2001)

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Bruckner was the most religiously minded of all nineteenth-century composers, regarding his talent as divinely given, and the purpose of his compositions the glorification of God. Indeed his last great work, the Symphony No.9, which Bruckner left unfinished at his death on 11 October 1896, bore the dedication "dem lieben Gott [to the beloved God]".

The present leaf, a remarkable witness to Bruckner's piety and obsession, was doubtless removed by the composer's former pupil and last secretary Anton Meißner from the former's diary - this now preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Mus.Hs. 3179/6) - in the period following Bruckner's death and the official sealing of his flat in the Oberes Belvedere on 16 October 1896. A key to Bruckner's abbreviations and their meaning is as follows: V = Vater unser [Our Father]; A = Ave Maria; S = Salve Regina or Sanctus; Lit = Litanei [Litany]; R = Rosenkranz [Rosary]; Abdg = Abendgebet [Vespers].