Anton Bruckner

1824-1896. Austrian composer. In his earlier years as the cathedral organist at Linz, Austria, he attained fame for his playing. He also wrote a considerable quantity of church music. His masterpieces are his Te Deum and three great masses for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. The second of these, for double chorus and wind instruments, is closely allied in spirit to the aims of the Cecilian Movement in Catholic music that led up to the Moto Proprio of Pope Pius X in 1903. In his later years he taught composition at the conservatory in Vienna. Known most widely for his gigantic symphonies, he is associated with the last flowering of the symphonic type of church music that goes back to Haydn* and his contemporaries.