Organist and Fiddler

Anton Bruckner and Carl Nielsen are composers who revolutionized orchestral music in widely different ways. But underlying both their styles of experimentation was an obsession with thoroughgoing and methodical thematic modulation.

Bruckner as a silhouette entering heaven. He is greeted from left to right by Liszt, Wagner, Schubert, Schumann, Weber, Mozart, Beethoven, Gluck, Haydn, Handel, and Bach, at the organ.

Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, the most popular of his oeuvre since its release, passes motives through every conceivable key, mode, possible dynamic, and section of the orchestra. The observation that Bruckner's orchestral effects echo the rumblings of an organ loft remains a proper cliche. All of the symphonies' finales let loose the brass like organ stops; supporting harmonic oscillation takes after pedal point. Although his idiosyncratic style broke with tradition, Bruckner's music is exceptional in its simplicity. As the final movement of the Seventh approaches its climax, for example, the composer repeats his theme over and over, with each iteration only gaining an interval and layer of sound until the ultimate blast of affirmation. Gustav Mahler, one of Bruckner's greatest admirers, described the man as "half simpleton, half God."

A standing Nielsen with the members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet. Nielsen wrote a great quintet for the group, and concerti for the flautist and clarinetist.

Nielsen tinkers with melodies so that even his grandest symphonic edifice bears structurally compromising cracks. His most mature music is proliferated with so many flutters that the trill and turn are more substantive than the occasional outburst of melodic meat. As a result of these meanderings, Nielsen's music is extremely hard to play. Osmo Vanska, maestro of the Minnesota Orchestra, claimed before a concert with the piece on the program that Nielsen's Sixth, subtitled "Sinfonia Semplice" ("Simple Symphony"), is the hardest symphony ever composed. Amongst clarinetists, it is common knowledge that his Clarinet Concerto is the most technically ardous piece in the repertoire -- upon receiving the manuscript, dedicatee Aage Oxenvad of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet grumbled that to have written such obscure and squeaky sequences of notes, Nielsen must have known how to play the clarinet. In contrast to Brucker's late masterpieces, which conclude with the heraldically triumphant, in full praise of the Almighty (he intended to write a major key final movement for the unfinished Ninth Symphony), the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto and Fifth and Sixth Symphonies leave earthy and esoteric afterthoughts. Composer and Nielsen scholar Robert Simpson writes, "The tense Clarinet Concerto, hitting every nail ruthlessly on the head, is the finest since Mozart's masterpiece, and the problems it raises will have powerful significance while there is trouble in the world."