Symphony in D Minor, WAB 100 ‘Die Nullte’

​Anton Bruckner’s Symphony in D Minor is the “Nullte” or No. 0, a full-scale four‑movement symphony. It is an entirely independent work, not a sketch, that Bruckner later disowned, which is why it lacks an official number in the cycle. The work was originally labelled Symphony No. 2 by Bruckner, with the later C‑minor symphony of 1872 then bearing the number 3. In the 1890s he crossed this out, wrote terms such as annulled on the score, and replaced the number with the null symbol, which led to the nickname “Die Nullte.” Bruckner dated the autograph from 24 January to 12 September 1869, placing it firmly after the First Symphony and before the later D‑minor Third. The symphony was not performed in his lifetime and only received its premiere in Klosterneuburg on 12 October 1924, decades after his death.
 
Bruckner submitted the score to Otto Dessoff of the Vienna Philharmonic, hoping for a performance, but Dessoff reportedly asked where the principal theme of the first movement was, which deeply unsettled the composer. This criticism contributed to Bruckner’s decision to withdraw the piece and later mark it as invalid, even though the music is structurally complete and stylistically characteristic.
 
The symphony uses a standard late‑Romantic orchestra of double woodwinds, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings, aligning it with his numbered symphonies. It unfolds in four movements;Allegro, Andante, Scherzo (Presto with a slower Trio), and a Finale that begins Moderato and continues Allegro vivace, lasting roughly 40–45 minutes.
 
First movement: Allegro
The opening builds from a D‑minor ostinato in the strings, over which Bruckner layers a rather reticent, fragmentary first idea rather than a bold, singable Hauptthema. The effect is of an emergent theme growing out of background motion, which may explain why Dessoff complained that there was ‘no main theme’ here. Structurally it is a sonata form with three clear thematic groups: an unsettled D‑minor first group, a more flowing and strongly syncopated second group (pivoting through A major) and a more stable, cantabile third group in F major. The exposition is relatively concise, the development works mostly through sequencing, fragmentation, and dynamic terracing rather than dense counterpoint, and the recapitulation is straightforward, leading to a weightier coda that stabilizes D minor and already hints at the peroration codas of the later symphonies.
 
Second movement: Andante
The slow movement, in B‑flat major, is one of Bruckner’s rarer slow movements cast in sonata form rather than in an ABA or set‑of‑variations design. The first theme is a long‑breathed lyrical melody, predominantly in the strings, with a gentle but persistent syncopation that recalls the second group of the first movement and gives the line a slightly hovering quality. A contrasting second subject is introduced in the violins over a more active inner‑string accompaniment, creating a more intimate, chamber‑like texture. The development focuses on motivic and harmonic intensification rather than on large climaxes; the movement’s rhetoric is comparatively inward, with a recapitulation that calms the harmony back toward B‑flat and a coda that withdraws rather than transfigures, so the movement feels like a lyrical intermezzo more than the metaphysical Adagio‑cathedral of later Bruckner.
 
Third movement: Scherzo – Trio
The Scherzo (Presto) is in D minor and begins fortissimo, making it the last of Bruckner’s scherzos to open in this abrupt, tutti fashion before he standardizes the more stealthy or rhythmically focused openings of the middle symphonies. The main idea has affinities with the Mannheim rocket: a leaping, upward, highly energized figure, but charged with chromaticism that points forward to the more demonic scherzos of the middle works. The outer scherzo sections are built from short rhythmic cells and sharp dynamic contrasts, relying more on drive and color than on elaborate thematic transformation. The Trio, in G major with hints of G minor, provides a rustic but slightly shadowed relief: a more songful line over lighter orchestration, in the manner of Ländler rather than urban waltz. Unusually (for later Bruckner), the reprise of the Scherzo has its own small coda, giving the movement a clearer sense of closure instead of simply snapping back into the main symphonic argument.
 
Fourth movement: Finale – Moderato / Allegro vivace
The Finale begins with a Moderato introduction in D minor, one of the very few Bruckner finales with an explicit slow introduction (the other major case being the Fifth). Here the violins present a broad, somewhat searching theme over semiquaver figuration in the woodwinds; this idea later reappears in inversion in the development, so the introduction is thematically integrated rather than merely atmospheric. The main Allegro section is again a sonata form with at least three thematic components: a vigorous primary idea that also serves as a kind of third theme later on, a lighter, almost Rossinian second subject that momentarily thins the texture and brightens the affect and transitional material that keeps pulling the harmony away from and back to D. The development folds in the introductory theme contrapuntally, foreshadowing the more complex thematic working of the Fifth, though here the textures remain relatively transparent. In typical Bruckner fashion the recapitulation is reinforced by an extended coda; crucially, the symphony turns from D minor to a bright D major, aligning the work with the Beethovenian narrative of a struggle‑to‑triumph arc that Bruckner would return to in later D‑minor symphonies.
 
Commentators note how the D‑minor ostinato of the opening anticipates both the later Third Symphony and typical Brucknerian thematic woodshed use, where motives reappear transformed in later works. The Finale’s slow introduction and the major‑key ending have often been likened to a preliminary essay in procedures Bruckner would refine in the Fifth Symphony and in the handling of D minor versus D major in Beethoven’s Ninth.
 
References
 
Buja, M. (2022, July 12). Getting to Zero: Bruckner’s Symphony No. 0 in D Minor, “Nullte.” Interlude.
 
Pell, N. (2018, March 1). 24(1). Key Profiles in Bruckner’s Symphonic Expositions: “Ein Potpourri von Exaltation?” MTO.
 
(2025, October 28). Symphony in D Minor by Bruckner, In Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_in_D_minor_(Bruckner)