Anton Bruckner Lexicon online (ABLO)

The Anton Bruckner Lexicon online (ABLO) is designed to comprise more than 1,000 articles relating to Anton Bruckner including numerous illustrations and sheet music, covering the fields of „works“, „people“, „places“ and „special topics“. On 1 July 2017, the first articles of the new digital encyclopedia on Anton Bruckner went online, which were published on www.bruckner-online.at/ablo.  With the collaboration of national and international researchers and experts on Bruckner, a wide spread (e.g. articles on the reception of Bruckner on a worldwide basis) and high quality of content shall be ensured.

Previous history: In 1996, a comprehensive reference book on the life and work of Anton Bruckner was published for the first time: „Anton Bruckner. Ein Handbuch“, Residenz Verlag (Salzburg-Wien). This book was published on the occassion of the 100th anniversary of Bruckner’s death by Uwe Harten together with Renate Grasberger, Andrea Harrandt, Elisabeth Maier und Erich Wolfgang Partsch for the Anton Bruckner Institute in Linz. On more than 500 pages, it presented for the first time scientifically researched information on Bruckner clearly structured according to keywords.

Starting in 2007, there have been plans at the former Departement of Musicology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences to reissue a significantly extended and revised edition of the reference book of 1996, which was directed at both researchers and the general public. Even though preliminary work started promptly, these plans were not realised, not least because of the unexpected and sudden death of Erich Wolfgang Partsch. In 2016, the project was relaunched with a now different goal: to publish an online encyclopedia (instead of a printed reference book) based on already existing material. This decision was also taken with regard to the successful development of the Bruckner online portal at the Insitute of History of Art and Musicology, realised by Robert Klugseder in 2015.

On 1 September 2016, Christian K. Fastl, who is member of the editorial board of the „Oesterrreichische Musiklexion online“ (www.musiklexikon.ac.at) since 2003, was appointed project manager.  Together with Andrea Harrandt, board member of the „Internationale Bruckner Gesellschaft“, he ist the editor of the Anton Bruckner Lexicon online (ABLO). The technical implementation is performed by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities at the Austrian Academy of Sciences while the technical coordination at the Insitute of History of Art and Musicology is provided by Robert Klugseder. Klaus Kapsreiter is responsible for web design.