[+] Floros, Constantin. "Zur Deutung der Symphonik Bruckners: Das Adagio der Neunten Symphonie." In Bruckner-Jahrbuch 1981, ed. Franz Grasberger, 89-96. Linz: Druck- und Verlagsanstalt Gutenberg, 1982.
The final movement of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony is not "absolute music," since it contains religious symbols and allusions to the composer's approaching death. This conclusion is supported by taking into account not only sketches, structural analysis, and Bruckner's own hermeneutic statements, but also interpretations of borrowed material. In his opening theme, for example, Bruckner strongly alludes to his Fifth Symphony, the Sehnsuchtsmotiv from Wagner's Tristan, and the "Dresden Amen" from Parsifal. The following climax (or Klangfläche) quotes Liszt's "symbol of the cross" from the Graner Messe, and the second theme (letter C) presents and develops a motive ("miserere") taken from the D Minor Mass. Several other self-quotations (from the Benedictus of the Mass in F Minor and the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies) reinforce the impression of the look back suggested by Bruckner himself for the passage at letter B ("Abschied vom Leben," mm. 29-44).
Works: Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 (90), Symphony No. 9, Mass in D Minor (90).
Index Classifications: 1800s
Contributed by: Andreas Giger
