The glorious company of the Apostles praise You;
the noble fellowship of the prophets praise You;
the white-robed army of the martyrs praise You.
Throughout the world, the holy Church acclaims You:
Father, of majesty unbounded;
Your true and only Son, worthy of all worship;
and the Holy Spirit, Advocate and Guide.
Princess Estelle of Sweden and Prince Oscar of Sweden attend the Te Deum during King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden's Golden Jubilee celebrations, at The Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden -September 15th 2023.
OTD in Music History: Composer Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) is born in Austria.
Bruckner is widely considered to be one of the greatest symphonists in history. Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911), who studied with him, called Bruckner his own “forerunner.” Bruckner was also one of the best organists of his day, although curiously he wrote no major works for that instrument.
In his personal life, however, Bruckner was one of the weirdest guys around – an extremely awkward man with a raging inferiority complex who was regularly bullied by his more socially adept colleagues (many of whom literally tinkered with his symphonies, which now exist in a confusing myriad of different versions as a result).
Bruckner experienced extended periods of crippling depression; suffered from severe OCD; was a lifelong bachelor who was constantly trying to marry teenage girls even into his old age; and had a morbid fascination with death (after his mother died, he commissioned a portrait photograph of her corpse which he thereafter displayed on his desk).
On the latter point, Bruckner developed an extreme obsession with viewing dead bodies. He became a frequent visitor at funeral parlors and random funerals, and he even (unsuccessfully) sought permission to exhume the body of his dead cousin. When the remains of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) and Franz Schubert (1798 – 1828) were exhumed to be moved to Vienna’s Central Cemetery in 1888, Bruckner “fingered and kissed the skulls of both composers.” He also allegedly dropped a lens from his pince-nez into Beethoven’s coffin, where it presumably still remains to this day...
PICTURED: A c. 1910s real photo postcard showing the elderly Bruckner.
Given Bruckner’s obsession with death, it is hardly surprising that he gave very specific instructions on how to deal with his own dead body. In October 1896, he died at age 72 in Vienna. His body was initially released for viewing at the St. Charles Church in Vienna, and then five days later he arrived back at the St. Florian Monastery in his hometown of Linz, where he had served as the organist for many years.
Between the viewing in Vienna and the burial in Linz, however, a certain “Professor Paltauf” had mummified Bruckner’s body – just as the composer had specified in his Will. Bruckner was then buried in a coffin *with a glass plate inserted into the lid*, so that his mummified face could be easily viewed by curious onlookers in perpetuity.
In 1996, in preparations for Bruckner’s centenary celebrations, monastery authorities discovered that Bruckner’s mummy had begun to decay. They arranged for the mummy to take a secret restoration trip over to Switzerland… and after being “restored” in both body and clothing, Bruckner was returned to Linz, where officials declared the project a resounding success, proclaiming that it looked “like he just died yesterday.”
Judge for yourself at https://www.abruckner.com/editorsnote/features/talesofthecrypt/therepairofantonbr/
Thinking about how one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, arias in opera history is also an incredible sinister villain song. How it combines heaven and hell, exhilaration and lust, tenderness and violence, hate and love, in this one exquisite piece. Just the power and intensity of it...
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Prince Daniel of Sweden, Princess Estelle of Sweden, Prince Oscar of Sweden and Princess Sofia of Sweden attend the Te Deum during King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden's Golden Jubilee celebrations, at The Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden -September 15th 2023.
A Ceccano, il Te Dem di Charpentier per coro e orchestra, sabato 13 gennaio, ore 18,45, Chiesa di S. Nicola
L’ouverture ci fa pensare subito a ben altro, la tv dell’eurovisione l’ha infatti utilizzata come sigla per tanti eventi, soprattutto sportivi, ma poi le parole dell’antico inno di ringraziamento, il Te Deum, vengono proposte dalla musica barocca di Marc Antoine Charpentier, con una solennità assolutamente adatta a questi ultimi giorni dell’anno. Lo presenteranno domani a Ceccano, nella Chiesa di…