Symphony No.6 in a major

Majestoso

Adagio (sehr feierlich)

Scherzo: nicht schnell - langsam - nicht schnell

Finale: bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell

The first theme of the Sixth Symphony is one of Bruckner’s greatest melodic inspirations. It is both exciting in itself, as a melodic and rhythmic shape, and so interesting in its harmonic implication that it determines the course of much of the rest of the work.

Introduced by cellos and basses, its first phrase - falling from dominant to tonic and, together with the high ostinato on violins, establishing the key of A major - is conventional enough. But then it twists away in G minor. A harmonic analyst might point out that the flattened seventh and the Neapolitan inflections which produce this effect are acceptably orthodox and nothing to worry about. Nevertheless, as the second phrase of the theme rises and falls through the first three notes of the scale of G minor, the alien feeling is there and, moreover, Bruckner worries about it.

In fact, he becomes quite obsessed by those three notes. The second subject for example begins with a violin theme which twice rises through the same series, now transposed to E minor. The melody is still in the 2/2 metre in which the work began but - at a slower tempo and accompanied by a pizzicato bass in an apparent 6/4 - there is something peculiarly precarious about it. Indeed, as the 6/4 element becomes gradually more predominant, there is something precarious about the whole section - so much so that when the violin theme re-enters in a loud E major it is more glimpse of what might be achieved with the three notes than an achievement in itself.

Although the exposition ends firmly in 2/2 and with a whole series of diatonic closing themes, the development begins in a floating 6/4, to make a poetic examination of the relationship between the two principal melodies and of the major or minor nature of the three notes. But the exploration remains incomplete. The first subject reasserts itself in such a ways as to propel the orchestra towards an acceleration and into a full-scale restatement - in E flat major, as it happens, then in A major.

So the real development is postponed until after the recapitulation. It is in the coda that the chromatic kinks in the first theme are finally straightened out, transformed into brass fanfares and irradiated by the A major brilliance of the ostinato which began the work.

Adagio

Bruckner is still worried about the three notes in the slow movement. They are incorporated into the main theme in their minor version - which gives the solemn F major melody, drawn in long bows by first violins over a chromatic bass line, a sad tinge of B flat minor. The series is present too, in inversion, in the plaintive countermelody on the oboe. The emotional implications of the minor inflections are not reflected in the E major second subject, which is a lovely A-string inspiration for the cellos in serene counterpoint with the violins. A third main theme, introduced in C minor by first violins over another chromatic bass line, is so desolate, however, that it is presented as a funeral march.

Again the development is short and again it is in the coda that the harmonic clarification takes place. When it is recapitulated by the horn the first subject has the same B flat minor colouring as before. But, after the reappearance of the second subject in an even more serene F major, the third theme loses much of its funereal character and, in the last bars, the three notes achieve their major version and the main theme its diatonic liberation.

Scherzo

Now Bruckner stops worrying. Although the Scherzo is in A minor, there is nothing demonic about it. It is physically exhilarating but not hard-driven and the goal of its steady tread is the fanfares of major harmonies which occur at the end of the exposition and at the end of the Scherzo itself. The slower trio section must be Bruckner’s most magical creation, an evocation of a nocturnal woodland approached on quiet pizzicato footsteps and resounding with romantic horn calls. It echoes Beethoven’s Eroica and at the same time anticipates Mahler’s Seventh Symphony.

Finale

In the Finale Bruckner confirms and consolidates the achievement of the first two movements. Indeed, he goes further and tests his hard-won confidence in face of the three-note motif in its minor form by incorporating it (in descending order) in an introductory melody of uncertain tonality on violins. Then he throws a violent chord of A major at it and strides into a majestic march in that key with trumpets brandishing three notes in the major version like a crusader’s banner. Not that this stops them walking into another trap, a heavily threatening chromatic motif on all the brass.

The second subject, an extended lyrical idea for violins in counterpoint with violas, is not unlike that of the first movement in melodic shape, except that the first three notes here are in the major version. This Bruckner tests against less congenial material - the chromatic threat, a busy motif derived from the oboe’s plaintive countermelody in the Adagio, and the introductory theme of the Finale. For much of the development it seems that the inimical forces will prevail in spite of Bruckner’s confidence. In fact, of course, he has the divine right to leave the introductory theme and its companions out of the recapitulation. He brings them back in the coda but only to crush them under the weight of the A major march and, in the last bars, the opening theme of the symphony - without its chromatic kinks, of course, and in its unequivocal A major fanfare harmonies.

Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony was written between 1879 and 1881 and the second and third movements were performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Wilhelm Jahn two years later. It was first published (in a corrupt version) in 1889, three years after the composer’s death, and the first performance of all four movements together - though with extensive cuts - was given in the same year by the Vienna Philharmonic under Gustav Mahler, who learned a lot from it.

Gerald Larner