ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to tease out some of the extra-musical meanings in Anton Bruckner's symphonies by seeking to understand how the sacred character of his music is constructed, and how religious thought, especially relating to the dualism darkness/light, may have influenced Bruckner's compositional practice. Robert Simpson 's and Deryck Cooke 's comments provide evidence for the author's contention that it is more appropriate to speak of plateaus in Bruckner's music rather than peaks. The inverted theme in the Seventh Symphony does work as an opposite, because musical descent has been established by convention as an opposite to ascent in music of this style and period, and the inversion of this theme produces an unwavering descent. The peculiarly non-muscular character of Bruckner's dialectic is in some ways epitomized by the lack of struggle between the polka theme and the chorale theme in the Finale of his Third Symphony.
