44Let us now sing the praises of famous men,
our ancestors in their generations.
our ancestors in their generations.
5 those who composed musical tunes,
or put verses in writing;
or put verses in writing;
Once upon a time, in far away Austria, there was a little boy. He would run into the forest behind the house. It was a large and seemingly empty forest. He was amazed at the intermingling of the forest sounds. Of course there was the tweeting of the little birds and the wind whistling through the branches. Above this was the unmistakeable sawing of trees felled for the nearby papermills and in the distance the din of the mills themselves could be faintly heard. But listening more intently there were the sounds that only those attuned to nature can observe- the autumnal dancing leaves spiralling downwards and the not so the gentle plop of chestnuts as they thundered to earth.
Not all was peaceful in the forest. Wild boar tore through the undergrowth chased by hungry huntsmen. Screeching, or is it croaking, pheasants were felled with a single shot.
Little Anton loved the forest with its melange of oral wonders. Just as the mustard seed grows into a tree so these sounds took seed in the little lad who later orchestrated them into symphonies in celebration of the Creator in whom he had delighted since his youth.
To the city dweller the forest is silent but to those who know it well the noise can be almost deafening. So it was for Anton Bruckner.
Luke 13:18-30
18 He said therefore, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? 19It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.’
Psalm 74
12 Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food* for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents;
you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you established the luminaries* and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth;
you made summer and winter.
working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food* for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents;
you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you established the luminaries* and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth;
you made summer and winter.
23 Do not forget the clamour of your foes,
the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.
Sometimes Anton would accompany his father to the church organ. He would listen and learn. It was work and worship together.
Anton's father also took him to school. He worked hard there striving to be a good student and succeeded. He became a teacher. But perhaps most of his striving was in his composition. He was continually making revisions. Is our spiritual life the same? Are we always reaching to attain the life of Christ? Did Bruckner not write organ music beyond the first piece because he knew that in his later years he had mastered that instrument?
Bruckner was a striver. He reached genius level because he worked hard to reach his goals. he reached goals that would have satisfied most of us but he was always looking to be better. He is a product of the reaction against the rationalization of the Age of Enlightenment. The straight lines of Georgian architecture gave way to ornate Victorian. Write it all down, include everything, leave no instrument out. Did I miss something? Should I change that? How difficult it is to be 100% perfect.
photograph
This work is in the public domain in the European Union and non-EU countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years or less.
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