Bruckner gets no respect!!!

[DavidRoss]

The name "Bruckner" just does not sound cool. I mean, do you think anyone would know Rodney Dangerfield had he kept his original name?

Rodney Bruckner?

[RJR]

The name "Bruckner" just does not sound cool. I mean, do you think anyone would know Rodney Dangerfield had he kept his original name?

You could add dozens of names to that list:
Lauren Bacall, Cary Grant, Woody Allen, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Rock Hudson, Joan Crawford, Franz Liszt, Leopod Stokowski, Christine Jorgensen ...
Feel free to add your own.
By the way, what was Rodney's birthname?

[Sergeant Rock]

Rodney Bruckner?

Bruck Danger...if he'd had that name he'd definitely get respect...at least in the porn business 

Sarge

[springrite]

By the way, what was Rodney's birthname?

Jacob Cohen

[RJR]

Bruck Danger...if he'd had that name he'd definitely get respect...at least in the porn business 

Sarge

How about Dangerman, AKA Secret Agent? Starring Patrick McGoohan.

[mahler10th]

BRUCKNER does sound cool.  It sounds big, a huge shadow is cast by it.  I can hear important people saying "I like Anton Bruckner" with a degree of reverence.  Brukner is a great name.  It is hard ended, and I can hear brass in it.   

[Scarpia]

BRUCKNER does sound cool.  It sounds big, a huge shadow is cast by it.  I can hear important people saying "I like Anton Bruckner" with a degree of reverence.  Brukner is a great name.  It is hard ended, and I can hear brass in it.   

I have trouble disassociating the name Bruckner from the "Bruckner Expressway," which is part of the "Cross Bronx Expressway" complex which is credited with destroying several neighborhoods in the South Bronx and leading to urban blight which persists to this day.  It was the brainchild of Robert Moses, whose other well known project, Lincoln Center,  is the reason the old Metropolitan Opera house is gone and the New York Philharmonic plays in one of the worst concert halls in the world, instead of Carnegie Hall.
 

[MishaK]

I have trouble disassociating the name Bruckner from the "Bruckner Expressway," which is part of the "Cross Bronx Expressway" complex which is credited with destroying several neighborhoods in the South Bronx and leading to urban blight which persists to this day.  It was the brainchild of Robert Moses, whose other well known project, Lincoln Center,  is the reason the old Metropolitan Opera house is gone and the New York Philharmonic plays in one of the worst concert halls in the world, instead of Carnegie Hall.

Peter Schickele, in his introduction to Nicholas Slonimsky's "A Lexicon of Musical Invective", tells the story of a Bruckner-hating musician friend who said "The Bruckner Expressway was given that name because it's long, slow, boring and doesn't go anywhere." 

[Scarpia]

Peter Schickele, in his introduction to Nicholas Slonimsky's "A Lexicon of Musical Invective", tells the story of a Bruckner-hating musician friend who said "The Bruckner Expressway was given that name because it's long, slow, boring and doesn't go anywhere." 

Except the Bruckner Expressway is only 8 miles long.  It is true that it is slow, boring, and takes you between two highway interchanges, both withing the Bronx, so it does not go much of anywhere.   

[Szykneij]

As someone previously unfamiliar with Brukner's music, I decided to participate in The Bi-weekly Listening and Appreciation Thread - Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 and I'm having a really hard time with the piece. There are many elements I have a problem with, but one in particular is his string writing. The strings in that symphony seem nearly superfluous. Most of the time, they're doubled by the brass or woodwinds or relegated to a background role. Although he did study the violin at one point, Brukner's organist background is most evident to me in this symphony. I was convinced he couldn't write a lick for strings until I sought out and listened to his String Quintet, which I find thoroughly enjoyable. The compositional devices he uses in his symphony that I find too bombastic and repetitive seem to work nicely with a smaller ensemble.

(Plus, there's are no timpani parts in a string quintet).   

[MishaK]

As someone previously unfamiliar with Brukner's music, I decided to participate in The Bi-weekly Listening and Appreciation Thread - Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 and I'm having a really hard time with the piece. There are many elements I have a problem with, but one in particular is his string writing. The strings in that symphony seem nearly superfluous. Most of the time, they're doubled by the brass or woodwinds or relegated to a background role. Although he did study the violin at one point, Brukner's organist background is most evident to me in this symphony. I was convinced he couldn't write a lick for strings until I sought out and listened to his String Quintet, which I find thoroughly enjoyable. The compositional devices he uses in his symphony that I find too bombastic and repetitive seem to work nicely with a smaller ensemble.

(Plus, there's are no timpani parts in a string quintet).   

Szykniej, welcome to Bruckner. 

This should probably go in the listening thread.... your gripes are the same ones my dad had playing Bruckner as a 2nd violinist. Violinists are always mortally offended when they don't get to carry the main themes.  You have to abandon certain expectations regarding the strings, e.g. that they carry the melody, etc. If you don't come to Bruckner's music expecting Mozart, you won't find the strings superfluous at all. It's not a background role they play, it is a central role in creating the right atmosphere and texture. In the opening movements at least Bruckner's model is the opening of Beethoven's 9th, where a fog of string tremolo create sthe mysterious atmosphere through which the main theme gradually comes into being. The difference is that Bruckner gives the main tune to the brass and winds most of the time. The influence here is actually not his background as an organist, but the influence of choral church music. The brass section often plays as a choir. This is readily apparent if you listen to how Bruckner uses the chorus in his masses and motets. Think of the brass and winds as a choir on a bed of string tremolos and ostinatos. The timpani often play a grounding role in providing a sustained bass, but unlike a sustained note on the tuba or double bass, a sustained timpani roll has a pulsating energy that Bruckner is after. But the strings are not superfluous at all. E.g. Bruckner gives the violas often the role to carry a lamenting tune in the slow movements, or sometimes the cellos get the "big" tune, e.g. in the opening of the 7th (though supported by solo horn). Indeed, in that glorious Adagio of the 8th that you just listened to, the strings carry most of the main themes. But Bruckner would not be Bruckner without the intensity of his tremolos and ostinatos. That searing climax of the Adagio of the 9th would be unthinkable without those crazy violin ostinatos.

[Szykneij]

Thanks for that, Mensch! Great insight I'll keep in mind for another listen. He definitely seems to prefer the lower string sonorities. Interesting that his string quintet uses an additional viola as the fifth voice.