Bruckner-2024

Aspects of Bruckner: 200 Years of Bruckner – 100 Years of Bruckner Research
'''An International Symposium of the Austrian National Library '''and the Austrian Academy of Sciences Vienna, 10 – 12 April 2024

In 2024, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner's birth, the Austrian National Library and the Austrian Academy of Sciences will host a symposium entitled "Aspects of Bruckner: 200 Years of Bruckner - 100 Years of Bruckner Research" („Bruckner-Aspekte: 200 Jahre Bruckner – 100 Jahre Bruckner-Forschung“) from April 10 to 12, 2024. Focal points of the symposium will include biographical and socio-cultural perspectives as well new approaches to long-standing topics, including Bruckner’s creative process, the versions of his works and related editorial questions.

Composer anniversaries and new impulses in musicological research often coincide. This is the case with Bruckner. Bruckner research was first begun by his friends and students. Ongoing Bruckner research in the German-speaking world began with the Centennial year of 1924, followed in the 1930s with the publication of the nine-volume Göllerich/Auer Bruckner biography, which is still much cited today, as well as the first complete edition of Bruckner's works and the controversy about the "original versions" that arose around it.

With the National Socialist appropriation of Bruckner and again with the new beginning and reorientation of Bruckner research after World War II, interpretive perspectives and images of Bruckner (Bruckner as German, as Austrian, or as Catholic) were created, which due to their one-sided ideological orientation, remain a difficult legacy that still confronts Bruckner research.

It was not until around 1974 - another Bruckner anniversary year - that research on the history of the compositions of his symphonies and biographical issues began to be pursued in a more objectively factual manner that offered a sound basis for the interpretation of his works and his artistic personality. In concert with this much was done to document Bruckner iconography, bibliography, and lexicography, along with detailed study of people in Bruckner’s circle.

With the current development of the research platform bruckner-online.at and application of the techniques and methods of new media, Bruckner's work are being made accessible worldwide in new ways. Fully digitalized manuscripts as well as a catalog raisonné, an online encyclopedia and computer-aided analysis provide online access to Bruckner's music and in turn open up new questions about, for example, reception and repertoire formation.

We will welcome proposals for presentations on the following topics as they pertain to Bruckner:
 * Biography
 * Compositional process
 * Musical analysis and aesthetics
 * Philology and Versions
 * Interpretation and reception
 * Sociocultural context

The official languages of the symposium are German and English. Proposals may be submitted in either language.

We request abstracts (max. 2,500 characters, or ca. 400 words) for 20-minute papers on topics within the thematic framework of the symposium outlined above. Proposals should be accompanied by a short vita (max. 500 characters) including contact information by April 15, 2023 to the email address: bruckner-wien-2024@oeaw.ac.at.

For the German version of the Call for Papers see: bruckner-online.at