Anton Bruckner

Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer and organist, born at Ansfelden near Linz, known for his symphonies and sacred music, including Masses, a Te Deum and motets. He worked as a teacher and organist at Sankt Florian, studied with the theorist Simon Sechter, and in 1868 took over Sechter's post teaching music theory at the Vienna Conservatory. His long symphonies, with their rich harmony, strong polyphony and unprepared modulations, are regarded as emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism. Critics led by Eduard Hanslick attacked their size and repetition, and he revised many of his works, leaving several versions; he died in Vienna in 1896.