In 1868 he became professor at the Vienna Conservatoire where he taught harmony and counterpoint. This was an excellent job. The last 25 years of his life he spent his time teaching and composing his symphonies. He also travelled and gave organ recitals at Notre Dame in Paris and the Royal Albert Hall and Crystal Palace in London.
His music was very modern for its time and some people, including the famous music critic Eduard Hanslick, did not like it. Hanslick said that Bruckner composed like Wagner, but although Bruckner had learned from Wagner he did not simply copy him. Bruckner’s music shows his own strong personality. Hanslick, who preferred the symphonies of Brahms, did Bruckner a lot of harm by writing bad reviews of his music. He was Dean of the Music Department at the university in Vienna and did not want Bruckner to be appointed lecturer at the University. However, Bruckner did get that job in 1875. He became more and more famous, especially after the great conductor Arthur Nikisch conducted the first performance of his "Symphony no 7" in the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1884. He was given many honours. At the time of his death he had not yet finished his "Symphony no 9". He was buried in St Florian.
Bruckner always remained a simple person who dressed and behaved like someone from a small village. He never felt very self-confident and was always asking other people whether he was good enough for his job. He never married or had a proper relationship with anyone although he fell in love with several young women.
Bruckner’s symphonies show a wonderful ability to develop ideas slowly over a long period of time. Some of the slow movements last about 30 minutes. His music builds up in stages to big climaxes in a similar way to organ music. His scherzos (third movements) are tuneful dance movements which often sound like country dances. His music shows great harmonic and polyphonic skills. Bruckner often made revisions (changes) to his music. This often makes a problem for conductors today as they have to decide which version to use. Many musicians think that often Bruckner’s first versions were the best. The revisions were often cuts to make a symphony shorter so that orchestras would be more likely to play it, but the cuts spoil the flow of the music. Nowadays we recognize Bruckner as one of the greatest writers of symphonies as well as a great composer of choral music.
Rondo
In music a rondo is a piece of music which has one main theme, which is heard several times, and other musical ideas in between each time. If we give the main theme a label "A" and the other musical ideas "B", "C", "D" etc. then the form of a rondo can be described as ABACADA. The sections in between the main "A" section are called "episodes". Rondos can vary in length, e.g. a rondo might be ABACADAEAFA. Each episode is normally in a different key from the main key.
The word "rondo" is sometimes given the French spelling: rondeau.
Composers from the Baroque period onwards often write movements which are in rondo form. In the Classical music period the last movement of a symphony or sonata is very often a rondo. Rondos are normally fast and lively. They are a good way of finishing a long piece of music with something that is happy.
The word "rondo" is related to the word "ritornello" meaning: something that keeps returning.
Rondo form is sometimes combined with sonata form to make something which is called "sonata rondo form". In sonata rondo form the second tune is treated like the second subject in sonata form where it comes back in the main key the second time.
Military engineering
A military engineer uses his skills in construction to build many different structures for warfare. These different structures can be made for either offense or defense. Other jobs include building and taking apart minefields and bridges. In some cases an engineer may have to destroy something that he has built before. This may be to stop the enemy soldiers following them across the river for example. In many armies the military engineers are also called pioneers or sappers.
Today a military engineer that operates during battle is called a combat engineer.
Perhaps the first people who had a special force of military engineering specialists were the Roman army. Roman military engineering was very good in its time. They were able to build a double-wall of fortifications that was thirty miles (50 km) long in total (both walls together) to besiege a city in Gaul, in just six weeks
The design, construction, and destroying of the works shown would be the task of a military engineer.
Melisma
In music, a melisma is the technique of singing one syllable to a lot of notes. They are often called vocal runs or simply runs. Music which uses melismas can be called melismatic.
In Western music melismas are often used in operas or any other music which is written for the singer to show off the voice. Melismatic music is the opposite of music where each syllable has its own note. In the "Alleluia Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah" each syllable of the word "Alleluya" has its own note. But in other parts of the "Messiah" there are often melismas, e.g. in "Thus saith the Lord" the word "shake" ("and I will shake the heavens and the earth") is set to a run of 25 fast notes. This example can also be described as "word painting". Handel uses the melisma to make it sound like someone shaking something.
Melismas are used a lot in music from many different cultures.
Spinet
A spinet is a small kind of harpsichord. In Renaissance and Baroque times, and even later, people often had a spinet in their homes. The advantage of a spinet was that it was cheaper than a harpsichord and it also took up less room.
Sometimes the word used to be spelt differently, e.g. "spinnet" or "spinnit".
The spinet is different from a harpsichord because of the angle of the strings which run at an angle to the right. The whole instrument is a bit like a triangle in shape. The strings are arranged in pairs and the jacks (the quills which pluck the strings) are also in pairs in the wider gaps, plucking the string next to them.
Harpsichords may have several sounds (in the same way that an organ has several stops making different sounds. This is not possible on a spinet, which has one sound only. It is always an 8-foot sound (the notes sound at the normal pitch, never an octave higher). Spinets were useful for accompanying.
United Artists
United Artists is a Hollywood movie company. The original company was created in 1919 by actors by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. This group did not want to depend on commercial studios.
In 1967, United Artists was bought by Transamerica Corporation. In 1981, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists merged to form MGM/UA Entertainment Co.. In 1985, Turner Broadcasting System announced it would buy MGM/UA. Then in 1986, MGM split from Turner (while keeping MGM's library of pre-May 1986 films, television and cartoons to make way for Turner Entertainment Co.) and renamed to MGM/UA Communications Co.. In 1990, MGM/UA was bought out by Pathé and renamed to MGM-Pathé Communications. In 1992, MGM-Pathé was bought by Crédit Lyonnais and reverted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1997, MGM was sold to Tracinda Corporation. In 2005, MGM/UA formed the new company MGM Holdings.
The current United Artists formed in November 2006. It was a partnership between producer/actor Tom Cruise and his production partner, Paula Wagner, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. from 2012 to 2015. It is a fully owned subsidiary of MGM. In 2015 it was owned by DHX Media until sold back to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, while handling UA's movies from 1952 to 2016. However, MGM decided to purchase United Artists back from DHX. They sold UA's stake to Amblin Partners in 2017, with newer movies produced by UA, under a partnership between MGM and Amblin.