Kitzler Study Book


The Kitzler Study Book is an autograph workbook of Anton Bruckner which he wrote taking tuition with the conductor and cellist Otto Kitzler in Linz. Bruckner tried to complete his knowledge in musical form and instrumentation with Kitzler after the end of his studies with Simon Sechter.

Description

The workbook is composed of 163 pages of different sizes in landscape format in chronological order, some of them dated, from H Nacht anno 861 on p. 30, to 10 July 1863 on p. 325. The workbook contains autograph sketches, comments, complete and partial compositions, which are displaying a rigorous tuition in musical formatting and instrumentation.
The first entries are exercises in musical form: cadences and periods. They are followed by lieder in two and three parts, and by pieces for piano and string quartet: waltz, polka, mazurka, études, theme and variations, rondos, sonata form, etc., and the String Quartet in C minor and its additional Rondo.
The exercises in form are followed by exercises of instrumentation, among others the orchestration of the first movement of Beethoven's Sonate pathétique. These exercises are followed by Bruckner's first orchestral compositions: the Four Orchestral Pieces. The volume ends with sketches for the Overture in G minor and for the Symphony in F minor.

Complete and partial compositions

A not exhaustive list:

Edition and performances

Until 2015, only few of the compositions of the study book were published: the String Quartet and the additional Rondo in C minor, the Sonatensatz in G minor, and the Four Orchestral Pieces.
The Kitzler Study Book, which was first in possession of Bruckner's pupil Ferdinand Löwe, went later in private possession of Margarethe Mugrauer – the daughter of Josef Schalk – in Bamberg, who legated it to her daughter Traudl Kress in Munich. In 2013, the Austrian National Library was able to acquire the valuable original manuscript. In 2015, the MWV has issued a colour facsimile of the manuscript and could so provide interested people with this important source for study and scholarship.
On 30 April 2016, the Orchestergemeinschaft Nürnberg e.V has premiered Bruckner's orchestration of the opening of the first movement of Beethoven's "Sonate pathétique" Other performances occurred on 6 and 7 October 2017 in Austin, TX by Colin Mawby with the Austin Symphonic Orchestra.
The Scherzo in G minor for string quartet was performed first in a transcription for string orchestra on 28 May 2016 by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs with the Göttinger Barockorchester. The original version of the two Scherzos in F Major and G Minor for string quartet was premiered by the Bruckners Kammermusik ensemble in Tokyo on 8 March 2019.
In 2018, a première of thirteen piano works from the Kitzler Study Book has been recorded by Ana-Marija Markovina. In 2019, Francesco Pasqualotto has recorded 21 piano works from the Kitzler Study Book, of which are 10 premiere recordings.

Discography

Orchestration of the first movement of Beethoven's Sonate pathétique:
CD with piano works from the Kitzler Study Book: