Anton Bruckner

Bruckner was born in Ansfelden and trained as a teacher and choirboy at the monastery of St Florian, where he became organist in 1848. He began composing seriously at 37, took lessons from Otto Kitzler, who introduced him to Wagner's music, and moved to Vienna in 1868. The Overture in G minor (1862 to 1863) is a school exercise from the Kitzler lessons.

His symphonies have four movements and sound in organ-like blocks of orchestra, and the last three use Wagner tubas. The Seventh (1881 to 1883) begins with tremolo strings under a long cello melody that Bruckner said he heard in a dream. Its Adagio was begun in anticipation of Wagner's death, and its Leipzig premiere in 1884 under Arthur Nikisch brought him wide success.

He revised many symphonies, and the versions differ in length and sometimes in whole passages. The Fourth ("Romantic") exists in versions of 1874, 1878 to 1880 and 1888; the 1878 version replaced the first scherzo with a "Hunt" scherzo that opens with hunting-horn calls. The Eighth exists in versions of 1887 and 1890. In both, the Scherzo comes before the Adagio, and the finale's coda combines the main themes of all four movements. The Ninth (1887 to 1896) is dedicated to God and has three finished movements, with the finale left incomplete.