Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46

• Bruch’s Fantasie unter freier Benutzung schottischer Volksmelodien (Schottische Fantasie), (“Fantasy Using Free Scottish Folk Melodies”) was published in Berlin in 1880.¹
• Bruch was working as a conductor in Liverpool when he composed this work.² Later he would work as a conductor in Scotland too.
• Listen for: a harp – it’s possible that Bruch wanted to suggest the sound of a Celtic harp in this work to evoke Scottish folk music.³

The violin “can sing a melody better than a piano, and melody is the soul of music.”

Max Bruch, on writing for the violin⁴

1. Christopher Fifield, “Bruch, Max,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 12, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000004122.
2. Ibid.
3. “Max Bruch: Scottish Fantasy,” Classic FM, accessed August 12, 2019, https://www.classicfm.com/composers/bruch/music/max-bruch-scottish-fantasy/.
4. Fifield, “Bruch, Max,” Grove Music Online.