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Form und Metrik: Zahlen in den Symphonien von Anton Bruckner.

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Form und Metrik: Zahlen in den Symphonien von Anton Bruckner. By Wolfgang Grandjean. (Publikationen des Institut fur Osterreichische Musikdokumentation, 25.) Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 2001. [285 p. ISBN 3-7952-1055-0. DM 110.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography.

Bruckner Symphonien in Bearbeitungen: Die Konzepte der Bruckner-Schuler und ihre Rezeption bis zu Robert Haas. By Wolfgang Doebel. (Publikationen des Institut fur Osterreichische Musikdokumentation, 24.) Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 2001. [522 p. ISBN 3-7952-1034-8. DM 144.] Illustrations, bibliography.

Zwischen Einfuhlung und Abstraktion: Studien zum Problem des symphonischen Typus Anton Bruckners. By Bo Marschner. Translated from the Danish by Karl Antz. (Studier og publikationer fra Musikvidenskabeligt Institut Aarhus Universitet, 6.) Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2002. [480 p. ISBN 87-7288-9314. C40.] Music examples, bibliography.

These three studies of Bruckner's music differ in style, approach, and topic. Wolfgang Grandjean's Form und Metrik explores the role periodic structures play in Bruckner's music. His starting point is Bruckner's so-called metrical numbers, the sequential numbering of bars into metrical groups found in Bruckner's composition scores. These numbers, Grandjean writes, provide "evidence of the formal organization of his works and therefore are indispensable tools for the understanding of his music and for musical analysis" (p. 13). This is a strong statement, especially considering that few scholars have paid serious attention to these numbers, but Grandjean ably demonstrates their importance to the metrical structuring of Bruckner's works. Grandjean approaches his topic in several ways. He compares Bruckner's careful regulation of periodic structures with theoretical discussions by Johann Christian Lobe, Adolf Bernhard Marx, Ernst Friedrich Richter, and particularly Simon Sechter, all which Bruckner himself had studied (pp. 40-77). He summarizes Bruckner's analyses of the periodic organization of Beethoven's Third and Ninth Symphonies, the latter of which had not previously been discussed in the literature (pp. 82-96). The most rewarding portions of Grandjean's book deal directly with Bruckner's music. As Grandjean shows,...

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