Choral repertoire ​vault

The Old and New in Choral Music Repertoire

200 years of bruckner

Anton Bruckner, born 200 years ago this month, composed over 100 choral works in his lifetime.

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the Choral music of

a​nton ​bruckner

Written by Hon​ey Meconi

Bruckner’s smaller-scale choral works are less well-known ​than those with orchestral accompaniment, though again many ​spectacular pieces fall into this category. Some of my favorites ​include the aforementioned Ave Maria; Locus iste (1869); Tota ​pulchra es (1878, with tenor and organ); Ecce sacerdos magnus ​(1885, with three trombones and organ); and Virga Jesse floruit ​(also 1885).

Many of Bruckner’s motets are unaccompanied, and in that ​respect fit into the Cecilian movement that was current in Austria ​and Germany while Bruckner was alive. This was a movement ​that strove to restore Catholic church music to the style of the ​distant past, as in plainchant and Palestrina. The emphasis was on ​functional church music of relatively simple compositional means. ​Although Bruckner was a devout Catholic, his taste in church ​music had been formed and influenced by the dramatic sacred ​music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and

Mendelssohn, which often used full orchestral forces to

increase​ theatricality and affect.​

Christus factus est

Christus factus est is his third and last setting of this text; the first time was in a youthful plenary mass (1844); ​the second setting, from 1873, includes instruments. Our version (1884, dedicated to Oddo Loidol, a priest in the ​Benedictine monastery of Kremsmünster) is SATB, departing from four voices only when the alto line splits in ​mm. 24, 27, 28, and 55, and the bass moves to octaves on the final note. Bruckner’s textural restraint is for ​naught, though, as he uses dynamics, rests, melodic contour, and especially harmony to create a blazing musical ​drama in a mere 79 measures. Consider for example the work’s constantly shifting dynamics, such as the move ​from a forte dynamic to pp in less than two measures (mm. 15–17; remember that the choral conductor Bruckner ​was a stickler for dynamics); the impact of general pauses in both mm. 20 and 56 (the first in the structurally ​appropriate position immediately before the verse); the move away from the home key of D Minor beginning ​already in m. 3, with the first firm cadence on the far distant key of D-flat Major in m. 19; a lively melodic ​contour that includes for example an upward leap of a tenth in m. 53 of the alto part; and the constantly shifting ​chromatic lines throughout: all appropriate for a text that reminds us of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice. The ever-​changing key center makes the work challenging to keep in tune. Mad-Eye Moody’s exhortation for “constant ​vigilance!” is useful here, as is strict attention to uniform pronunciation of vowels.

Translation:

Os justi

Os justi (1879) is different from Christus factus

est in almost every respect beyond the lack of instruments. The choral forces are SSAATTBB; the ​dynamics shift and change rather more slowly than

in Christus factus est; general pauses are not indicated in the score (though all voices are silent before

the beginning of the verse at “Lex Dei eius”); the melodic motion is somewhat smoother. But the greatest ​contrast is harmonic, for Os justi is written in pure Lydian throughout.

Lydian was one of the medieval church modes, and its use in a late nineteenth-century motet is an ​obvious gesture to the past that would be appreciated by followers of the Cecilian movement. To simplify ​a complex matter, we can describe the medieval modes as the scale patterns from which music before ​1600 was constructed (as opposed to the major and minor scales used to create later music). The scale ​patterns were specific mixtures of half and whole steps most readily described as the white notes on a ​piano from D to an octave above (Dorian); the white note octave on E (Phrygian); on F (Lydian); and on G ​(Mixolydian). Thus, a work in pure Lydian uses no B-flat despite its “tonic” of F. And, indeed, Os justi ​has no accidentals anywhere. It further eschews six-four chords and seventh chords, as Bruckner ​himself pointed out in a letter to its dedicatee. Yet despite these restrictions Bruckner manages to include ​harmonically effective devices such as a quick taste of the circle of fifths starting in m. 29, as well as ​yummy suspensions from m. 57 on. But the unison chanted “Alleluia” conclusion leaves no doubt as to ​where the heart of this composition lies, while the central fugal passage on “et lingua eius,” the longest ​such passage in his motets, is another gesture to Cecilian ideals (notwithstanding the initial G, D, A, and ​E entry pitches of the four parts).

Os justi was dedicated to Cecilianist Ignaz Traumihler, the chorus director of St. Florian, and it ​obviously suits the objectives of the Cecilian movement far better than does the thrilling Christus factus ​est. It also meets the Cecilian desire for a functional liturgical work. The text is that of the Gradual for ​the mass for the common of doctors (doctors of the church, that is, such as St. Augustine, St. Jerome, ​and—yes!—St. Hildegard of Bingen), and the premiere was at St. Florian on the litugically appropriate ​date of 28 August 1879—the Feast of Saint Augustine (a farewell gift; Traumihler died less than two ​months after the premiere). In contrast—as we might expect from the music’s style—the premiere of ​Christus factus est on 11 September 1884 was far removed from the text’s liturgical position as the ​Gradual for the evening mass on Holy Thursday. The text for Os justi is biblical, incidentally, Verses 30–​31 of Psalm 36/37 (did you know that Catholics and Protestants number the Psalms differently? They do. ​Thank you, Martin Luther).

Translation:

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New choral

publications

New publications become available every ​day. Here are some pieces published in ​2023 and 2024 to investigate.

Ave Maria - Andrew Balfour (SSA a cappella)

Without Knowing - Henrik Dahlgren (SATB a cappella)

Before the West - Henrik Dahlrgren (SSATBB a cappella)

Caritas - Elaine Hagenberg (SATB, piano, violin)

Music of the Stars - Cecilia McDowall (3-movements)

The Light of Paradise - Paul Mealor (SATB; sax quartet)

Sunflower - Jacob Nerverud (SATB and cello)

Na gori je moj dom - Jan Triler (SATB div. a cappella)

O Sleeper, Awake! - Patrick Vu (SATB and piano)

On the Hill-Side - Patrick Vu (SATB and piano)