ABSTRACT
The revision process consolidated Bruckner's personal approach to the symphony; but on his return to original large-scale composition in the late 1870s, when he produced four masterpieces that he never afterwards felt the need to revise, Bruckner sought freer and more plastic approaches to his established format. To compensate, a declamatory octave-unison theme, of the type that usually served Bruckner for his Hauptthemas or third groups, appears at the climax of the second group. The Finale takes the principle of tonic deferral to a new structural level. The heart of the work is the slow movement, whose form could be described either as Bruckner's characteristic ABABA form or as a more traditional modified sonata form with coda. The recapitulation begins with the second theme, omits the third theme entirely and only reprises first group material at bar 159 in preparation for the F major coda.
