The Austrian “Image of the World” and the Spiritual Attitudes of Anton Bruckner’s Creativity

Abstract

Relevance of the study. Current trends in contemporary art and cultural thought can be considered to be the development of issues related to national cultural codes and “images of the world”. The above is also correlated with the examples of artistic creativity of 19th century Austria, in particular, with the creative personality, A. Bruckner's outlook and his heritage. The deep religiosity of the composer, which has virtually no analogues among his contemporaries, in turn raises the question of the relevance of further comprehension (or rethinking) of his artistic universe in the context of spiritual guidelines of 19th century Austrian culture.The main objective of the study is to reveal the religious and aesthetic attitudes of A. Bruckner's creative personality and heritage in the context of the spiritual and stylistic specificity of 19th century's Austrian culture and the national “image of the world”.The methodology of work is complex and is based on the combination of cultural, historical, musicological, hermeneutical and art studies, which in the aggregate significantly deepens the study of the genre-style specificity of A. Bruckner's work.Findings and conclusions. Generalization of materials on the history of Austria's multinational culture in its historical development, its basic concepts (equilibrium, compromise, musicality, etc.) and the «image of the world» testify to the essential role in it of ideas of unbroken order (ordo), common sense, optimism with centuries-old spiritual-religious grounds and determine the specificity of Austrian culture of modern times. One of the essential stylistic features of the latter is the typology of the Austrian Biedermeier, which determines the specific creativity of its representatives during the last two centuries, including A. Bruckner. The spiritual and religious environment of formation of his personality (the monastery of St. Florian), patriarchal tendencies of the family and Austrian culture in general formed the basis not only of his religious “cathedral” worldview, but also of the artistic universe of the composer, characterized by the unity of ecclesiastical and secular principles for the service of the glory of God.