[Anton Bruckner: the Linz cathedral organist, university teacher, symphonic musician : Could modern intensive care medicine have helped him and his illnesses?]

Abstract

Background: Anton Bruckner was a famous cathedral organist, university teacher, and symphonic composer, but his life, illnesses, death and dying are little or not known to many.

Objectives: Which illnesses determined Bruckner's life and did lifestyle and illnesses influence his compositional work? From today's perspective, could modern intensive care medicine have helped him?

Materials and methods: A detailed analysis of Bruckner's diseases was carried out using the scientific databases PubMed® and MEDLINE®. All published articles were evaluated and examined in detail. In addition, data from a concert tour of the author to Linz and the St. Florian Abbey Basilica were collected.

Results: Anton Bruckner was born on 4 September 1824 in Ansfelden, Austria. As a child he received piano and organ lessons. After his father's death, he devoted himself to playing the organ and became in 1855 cathedral organist in Linz. His further career took him to Vienna, where he became a professor at the conservatory and turned to composition. His symphonies, his masses, and his Te Deum are his most famous works. During the first 40 years of his life, Bruckner suffered from psychopathological illnesses, including depression, delusions of persecution, and neuroses. Later, he suffered from chronic heart failure with recurrent right and left heart decompensation up to the development of cardiac cachexia, possibly caused by dilated cardiomyopathy due to alcohol toxicity. He died on 11 October 1896 in Vienna.

Conclusion: Bruckners life was marked by a wide variety of illnesses. His penchant for death and the dead was also striking. Modern medicine would probably have improved his quality of life through consequent heart failure therapy; an implantable automatic defibrillator with resynchronization therapy would probably have prolonged his life.