Bruckner Mass No. 3 in F minor

Probably no other great master began his career in a more sceptical and timid manner than Bruckner. With these words, the great German musicologist Friedrich Blume cut to the quick in his brief and specific description of the peculiar initiation of Anton Bruckner in his development from the village school-assistant to composer, from socially secure secondary school teacher to free-lance artist. For alongside his tenure as organist in Linz, Upper Austria from 1856 to 1868, the former school assistant and high school teacher Bruckner completed a seven-year course of music theory studies with none other than Simon Sechter. Following the death of Georg Albrechtsberger, Sechter was considered “the leading authority in music theory” in Vienna. And Bruckner submitted to this authority with heart and soul, during a period of intensive self-study in Linz as well as during prolonged stays in the Austrian capital. At the end of his apprenticeship in 1861, the student asked his teacher for testimonials of the skills he had learned in the following music theory subjects: harmony, studies in single, double, triple and quadruple counterpoint, as well as in church music, canon and fugue.