# Bruckner 5.4 Fugue Subject/Bruckner 9.3 primary theme



## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

Bruckner 5, in the finale, introduces a rather bouncy chromatic theme first squeaked out by the clarinet in between the refrains to past movements. This theme, almost comically given how we first here, becomes a powerful and integral part of the contrapuntal masterpiece that follows that introduction. This theme's augmentation marks what I consider the most epiphanic moment in the coda, where it feels like, due to the aforementioned augmentation, that time has slowed down, and the cosmic world of counterpoint before it has been the vehicle to some transcendent Divinity that only Bruckner seemed to portray. With this augmentation the theme reaches a new meaning that it had not had before.

Here is the part that I speak of (I link to a time a few seconds before this moment and theme come)





Now, the reason for this thread was not to give my piece on the above mentioned apotheosis, but rather to note and start a discussion on what I see as a thematic correlation that is either A.) Interesting and could potentially have a great meaning or B.) purely coincidence or a result of Bruckner's unique thematic tendencies and mannerisms.

The second theme in question is that of the Adagio of the 9th, the very first theme. The theme, starting with the melodic interval of a minor 9th (I first became enchanted by this Symphony when seeing a performance of it in Boston conducted and even commentated on before the music by Benjamin Zander, who said while explaining this movement that Bruckner begins the movement with "a minor 9th, an interval that belongs to nobody."), is actually a rough inversion of the theme from 5.4. The actual inversion of the theme from 5.4 sounds much different but if you look at the shape of the themes, they are pretty much a reflection. Both involve the leap of at least an octave, and then some stepwise motion (of which the shape is invertible between the two themes) to another octave leap.

Here is the 9th adagio theme: 




So: thoughts? I haven't come to a conclusion myself, but given Bruckner's knack for themes, I'd like to think this was intentional and conscious. Perhaps, and this is purely conjecture, the inversion of the once powerful and brute fugal theme into the reaching and longing Adagio theme is an admission of some kind of weakness, brought upon by age or otherwise. Not spiritual doubt, I reject such notions when speaking of Bruckner.


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