From Heavenly Harmony
A Mysterious Sense of Rightness
by Ken Myers
Few composers have prompted as intense and diverse a chorus of responses as Anton Bruckner (1824–1896). His contemporary Johannes Brahms dismissed Bruckner's massive symphonies as "a swindle that will be forgotten in a few years." On the other hand, more than a few years later, Ludwig Wittgenstein would remark: "I don't believe a note of Gustav Mahler. I believe every note of Anton Bruckner." While some listeners are attracted to his music at first hearing—an attraction that deepens with time—others adamantly deny that there's anything there worth loving. In 2012, Jessica Ducken, a music journalist for The Independent, wrote a cranky column entitled "-Anton Bruckner makes me lose the will to live," . . .
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Ken Myers is the host and producer of the Mars Hill Audio Journal. Formerly an arts editor with National Public Radio, he also served as editor of Eternity, the Evangelical monthly magazine, and This World, the quarterly predecessor to First Things. He also serves as music director at All Saints Anglican Church in Ivy, Virginia. He is a contributing editor for Touchstone.
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