Germany: Bruckner

Germany issued this stamp (Scott 1947) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Anton Bruckner on 9 October 1996. The stamp itself shows Bruckner and a musical score, but no reference to the organ. Bruckner was however an organist and wrote a handful of pieces for the instrument. In fact his Opus 1 is a set of four organ preludes. After his father's death, when Bruckner was 13, he was sent to the Augustinian School in St Florian. There he studied violin and organ, and became enamored of the Baroque organ at the school. In 1845 Bruckner returned to St Florian now as a teacher at the school and organist. The instrument he played now bears his name, "The Bruckner Organ." The instrument itself has been featured on an Austrian stamp. In 1868 Bruckner accepted a teaching position at the Vienna Conservatory, previously held by his own teacher, Simon Sechter. Bruckner remained an active organist while in Vienna, concertizing in France in 1869 and in England at the Royal Albert Hall in 1871. Bruckner died in 1896 and was buried in the crypt of the St Florian monastery. Though his oeuvre contains no significant organ works, there are a handful.