Josef Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) was an Austrian
composer and organist best known for his symphonies and
sacred music, which includes Masses, Te Deum and
motets. The symphonies are considered emblematic of the
final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of
their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic
character, and considerable length. His compositions
helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing
to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and
roving harmonies.
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Josef Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) was an Austrian
composer and organist best known for his symphonies and
sacred music, which includes Masses, Te Deum and
motets. The symphonies are considered emblematic of the
final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of
their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic
character, and considerable length. His compositions
helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing
to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and
roving harmonies.
Unlike other musical radicals such as Richard Wagner
and Hugo Wolf, Bruckner showed respect, even humility,
before other famous musicians, Wagner in particular.
This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and
Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his
life in a way that gives a straightforward context for
his music. Hans von Bülow described him as "half
genius, half simpleton". Bruckner was critical of his
own work and often reworked his compositions. There are
several versions of many of his works.
His works, the symphonies in particular, had
detractors, most notably the influential Austrian
critic Eduard Hanslick and other supporters of Johannes
Brahms, who pointed to their large size and use of
repetition, as well as to Bruckner's propensity for
revising many of his works, often with the assistance
of colleagues, and his apparent indecision about which
versions he preferred. On the other hand, Bruckner was
greatly admired by subsequent composers, including his
friend Gustav Mahler.
"Tantum ergo" [Tantum ergo sacramentum] ("Let us
raise"), WAB 32, is the first of eight settings of the
hymn Tantum ergo composed by Anton Bruckner in 1845. He
composed the motet in the fall of 1845 at the end of
his stay in Kronstorf or at the beginning of his stay
in St. Florian Abbey. The original manuscript, which
was dedicated to the St. Florian Abbey, is stored in
the archive of the abbey. A copy made by Bruckner's
student Oddo Loidol is stored in the archive of the
Kremsmünster Monastery.
The motet was first published without the "facultative"
bars as Pange lingua by Wöss, Universal Edition,
together with the Vexilla regis in 1914 – the reason
why Grasberger put is as WAB 32 after the Pange lingua,
WAB 31. The full version is put in Band XXI/7 of the
Gesamtausgabe. The work of 38 bars (36 bars + a 2-bar
Amen) in D Major is scored for SATB choir a cappella.
The bars 23 to 34, which Bruckner put as optional, were
removed in the first edition. This early Tantum ergo,
which gives a feeling of angelic purity, is in
Schubert's style. The fully conventional first part in
D major is followed by a second part, which moves on
via the mediant key of F-sharp minor and back to the
coda in D major.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantum_ergo,_WAB_32).
Although originally created for Mixed Chorus (SATB), I
created this Interpretation of "Tantum ergo" (Let us
raise WAB 32) for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola &
Cello).
