City in Austria on the Danube. Its musical history can be traced back to the mid-14th century. Masses were sung at the Deutschordenskirche (from 1348), at the parish church (from 1355) and at the church of the Minorite convent (from 1397), where the pupils of the parish school performed under their teacher, the choirmaster. There were no important figures among either the choirmasters (from 1355) or the organists (from the mid-16th century). From about 1550 there are records of town musicians whose tasks included sounding calls from the tower (Turmblasen), playing at weddings, funerals and dances, and assisting in the parish church as well as, briefly, in the Lutheran Landhauskirche. The town’s first organ builder was Hans Lar (1485). When the household of Emperor Friedrich III was in Linz (1485–93) it brought with it its own court orchestra, imperial trumpeters and pipers and the celebrated lutenist Albrecht Morhanns. In 1490 Paul Hofhaimer was in Linz under the auspices of Maximilian I; a longer visit by the emperor in 1501 brought a performance of Ludus Dianae by Conradus Celtis to the town, complete with four-part odes by an anonymous composer. Musicians from Linz such as Johann Pruelmair and Asmus von Linz were members of Maximilian’s household; Matthias Serna and Christoph Hoffmaister were employed by Ferdinand I. Ferdinand’s court Kapellmeister, Arnold von Bruck, lived in Linz from 1548 until his death.
The affinity of urban populations for Lutheranism meant that the Lutheran Landschaftsschule and Landhauskirche became important centres of musical culture in the second half of the 16th century, and such composers as Nicolaus Rosthius, Wolfgang Rauch, Daniel Scheuchmair, Johannes Brassicanus and Martin Zeiller held positions there. Johannes Kepler, a teacher at the Landschaftsschule, wrote his Harmonices mundi libri V (Linz, 1619); this work and a contemporary composition by Elias Ursinus mark the beginnings of music printing in Linz. The repertory of chorales of the Lutheran community in Linz was published by the senior minister and music theorist Daniel Hitzler, in exile in Strasbourg (1634).
With the closing-down of the Lutheran school and church as a consequence of the early Counter-Reformation (1624) the Jesuits, with their college (founded in 1610) and seminary (founded in 1628), became particularly important in the musical life of the town. Their pupils assumed responsibility for church music in the Jesuit church, in that of the Ursulines (from 1680) and at sacred performances organized by religious fraternities. The composers Romanus Weichlein, Franz Weichlein, Joseph Riepel and J.B. Lasser were pupils of the Jesuits in Linz. At the theatre of the Jesuit school 343 Latin dramas were performed between 1608 and 1764; the music for 15 of these was provided by F.T. Richter, Andreas Rochner, J.B. Staudt, J.M. Kämpfl and Georg Butz. Linz’s first opera production took place on 7 January 1677 with Antonio Draghi’s Ercole acquistatore dell’immortalità in the presence of Leopold I. During the next 100 years such performances remained isolated events, associated with great occasions at the court, but regular opera performances began in the 1760s. Mozart visited Linz in 1783 and wrote his Linz Symphony k425 for a concert at the theatre.
The 19th century began with the formation of new musical organizations, one of which, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (later Linzer Musikverein) arranged the town’s musical activities for 100 years. The music academy that it established in 1822 later became the Bruckner-Konservatorium. Towards the middle of the century, the town’s first choral unions were founded. The oldest of these, the Liedertafel Frohsinn (1845), of which Anton Bruckner was twice choirmaster (1860–61 and 1868), later became the Sängerbund Frohsinn. During the next 60 years other choral societies were founded, the most important of which are the Männergesangverein Sängerbund (1857), the Oberösterreichischer und Salzburgischer Sängerbund (1865), the Arbeitersängerbund (1880), and the Christlich-Deutscher Gesangverein (1905). The Neue Ständische Theater was built in 1803 after a fire had destroyed its predecessor in 1800. The theatre, in which plays, operas, operettas and ballets were performed, has always laid particular emphasis on new productions. Since 1870 many young singers have begun their careers there before moving to the Vienna Opera.
Although one active organization, the Konzertverein, was founded in 1919, the theatre in particular was affected by the world economic crisis in the post-World War I period. Of the musical institutions planned after the Nazis occupied Austria in 1938 (an opera house, a symphony orchestra etc.), only the academy of music survived the end of World War II. The theatre has been rebuilt twice, and since about 1920 it has been known as the Landestheater. In 1958 Clemens Holzmeister designed a new theatre complex comprising a small Kammerspiele (cap. 421) and the new Landestheater (cap. 756). This has, however, proved too small and acoustically problematic. The Landestheater also maintains a tradition of premières, in particular of works by Upper Austrian composers as well as rare works (Wagner's Rienzi, Krenek). A municipal music council, now the Linzer Veranstaltungsgesellschaft, organizes orchestral and chamber concerts, solo recitals, youth concerts and industrial concerts. There are also public and private concerts given by Catholic and Lutheran church choirs, amateur music-making and student concerts.
Since the 1970s the musical life of Linz has flourished. 1974 saw the opening of the Brucknerhaus on the banks of the Danube, a fine complex of concert and congress halls designed by the Finnish architect Heikki Siren (Brucknersaal, cap. 1520, Stiftersaal, cap. 392, Keplersaal, cap. 168). The excellent organ in the large Brucknersaal was built by Flentrop; the Anton Bruckner organ competition takes place there every four years. The Internationale Brucknerfest Linz, founded in 1974, is held annually in September and October. At the Linzer Klangwolke, an open-air festival for up to 200,000 people held since 1979 on the banks of the Danube during the Bruckner Festival, music by Bruckner, Mahler and even Pink Floyd is broadcast widely by high-tech sound. The idea of music outside the confines of the concert hall is regarded as the new trademark of Linz. Ars Electronica, a festival ‘between art, technology and society’, is held annually in June.
The Anton Bruckner-Institut Linz, founded by Franz Grasberger, has been accommodated in the Brucknerhaus since 1978. Its publications include a series of Dokumente und Studien and reports on symposia at the institute. The Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum contains a good collection of historical musical instruments of the 16th to 19th centuries. Since 1985 the Posthof has been a centre for rock, pop, dance and cabaret.
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O. Wessely: ‘Linz und die Musik: von den Anfängen bis zum Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts’, Jb der Stadt Linz 1950 (1951), 96–197
O. Wessely: ‘Das Linzer Musikleben in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts’, Jb der Stadt Linz 1953 (1954), 283–442
O. Wessely: ‘Anton Bruckner und Linz’, Jb der Stadt Linz 1954 (1955), 201–82
W. Formann: ‘Richard Tauber: unsterbliche Stimme aus Linz, Oberösterreicher’, Lebensbilder zur Geschichte Oberösterreichs, ii (Linz, 1962), 192–207
O. Wessely: ‘Musik und Theater in Linz zu Bruckners Zeit’, Anton Bruckner und Linz, Landhaus, 20 June – 11 Oct 1964 (Vienna, 1964), 35–40
O. Wessely: ‘Von Mozart bis Bruckner: Wandlungen des Linzer Musiklebens 1770 bis 1870’, ÖMz, xxv (1970), 151–8
H. Kreczi: Das Bruckner-Stift St. Florian und das Linzer Reichs-Bruckner-Orchester 1942–1945 (Graz, 1986)
H. Leopoldseder: Linzer Klangwolke: Kunsterlebnis zwischen Himmel und Erde: die Geschichte eines Markenzeichens (Vienna, 1988)
K. Gerbel and H. Leopoldseder, eds.: Die Ars Electronica: Kunst im Zeitsprung (Linz, 1989)
E. Schmutz: ‘Studien zur Linzer Musikgeschichte vor und nach 1945’, Historisches Jb der Stadt Linz (1989), 103–249
R. Kannonier: ‘Musik nach 1945 in Österreichs Bundesländern: Oberösterreich’, ÖMz, xlvi (1991), 115–18
Musikstadt Linz, Musikland Oberösterreich: Linz 1990
H. Kreczi: ‘Bruckner-Orchester Linz und Brucknerhaus’, Anton Bruckner-Dokumente und Studien, ix (Vienna, 1992), 308 only
U. Otter and R. Schollum: ‘Die Jahre 1913–1959: organisatorisches und pädagogisches Wirken’, Historisches Jb der Stadt Linz (1993), 59–321
OTHMAR WESSELY/HARALD GOERTZ