Welcome to
Bruckner for Guitar
Bruckner symphonies for guitar? After all, the guitar is supposed to be a small orchestra, Being nevertheless aware that arranging a symphony may be a bit time-consuming, I decided to start from motets and short choral and instrumental works, which I believe are valuable - or invaluable - masterpieces in their own right. Just listen to such motets as Ave Maria, Locus iste, Christus factus est, Virga Jesse, Vexilla regis and many others), or even less known secular choral works (e.g. Am Grabe, Trösterin Musik) or works for the organ (Postlude, Perger Prelude). This website aims to present brand new arragements of such works.
Some time ago I imagined that such pieces can be easily transferred onto the six-string texture and the only reason why practically nobody* had such an idea was that for most people, Bruckner’s music and guitar music are planets in different galaxies. I soon discovered though that this has been probably only one of the reasons.
It is worth noting that Bruckner's music has been arranged many times, mainly for the the organ as well as brass but ocassionally also for other somewhat exotic ensembles. So perhaps it is the guitar which is an inadequate instrument for such music? (I am discussing this question in my first blog.) Considering, however, that you can play not only Dowland and Bach but also Beethoven and Chopin on the guitar, why not Bruckner?
I can think of one important reason for playing Bruckner’s pieces on the guitar. Anyone playing the guitar or listening to guitar music will agree that most of the famous works for the instrument, however great, challenging, imaginative, captivating pieces they are, tend to be sentimental, sometimes quite excessively (for example, the famous anonymous Spanish Romance, pieces by Tarrega, Villa-Lobos, Albeniz, Granados, Lauro and many others). Bruckner’s music is remarkable. Although thoroughly romantic in terms of harmony and expression, it is totally devoid of any sentimentality. So Bruckner guitar arrangements may open up completely new guitar soundscapes.
I have imagined that this website may interest especially two groups of music lovers and musicians:
- Bruckner lovers who may recognize the arrangements as real Bruckner music,
- guitar music lovers and guitarists who may recognize the arrangements as good guitar music,
I would expect that the intersection of these two sets may be very small, but hopefully is not empty (I know that it is not completely empty). In addition, I would like to address my project to the following groups:
- music lovers in general who may want to listen to something new,
- musicians who may look for inspiration,
- those who like not only listening to music but also reading about it,
- other people and possibly, members of different species.
I made a great effort to launch this website around 4 September 2024, the bicentenary of Bruckner's birth, but long before I realized that this may be a project for many years to come, maybe a lifetime project.
*I have written "practically nobody" because actually some attempts have already been made to play Bruckner's music on the guitar - see my second blog.
The website is organised as follows:
Music - here you can listen to recordings grouped in several thematic playlists:
Early sacred music, Secular choral works, Middle motets, Late motets, Miscellaneous works.
About the Music - here each piece is described. This section is also cross-linked with the previous one.
Blog - here I discuss various issues related to Bruckner, guitar and the connection between the two.
- The first post Bruckner for Guitar - a Contradiction in Terms? discusses an apparent tension between the nature of Bruckner's music and the sound of classical guitar.
- The second post Virgin Territory is about arrangements of Bruckner's music for guitar until now.
- The third post Bruckner Problems at a Micro-Scale shows that problems with Bruckner's large-scale works, such as multiple versions, completions and interpretative issues, can be also found in shorter works which I have arranged for guitar.
- The fourth post Bruckner and Brevity, discusses his shortest pieces.
About me - here I reveal who I am and present some basic personal information about me and my project.
At the bottom of this page, there is a contact form and an invitation to join my mailing list just in case you might feel like sending me a message or wish to be alerted to new features on this website.
