Josef Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) was an Austrian
composer, organist, and music theorist best known for
his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The first
are considered emblematic of the final stage of
Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich
harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and
considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to
define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their
dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving
harmonies.
Bruckner's ...(+)
Josef Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) was an Austrian
composer, organist, and music theorist best known for
his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The first
are considered emblematic of the final stage of
Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich
harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and
considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to
define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their
dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving
harmonies.
Bruckner's Psalm 114, WAB 36, is a psalm setting of
verses 1 to 9 of a German version of Psalm 116, which
is Psalm 114 in the Vulgata (Psalm 116 is the 116th
psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in
the King James Version: "I love the LORD, because he
hath heard my voice and my supplications". It is part
of the Egyptian Hallel sequence in the Book of Psalms).
The work was composed in 1852 in St. Florian. Bruckner
dedicated it to Hofkapelmeister Ignaz Assmayr for the
celebration of his name-day. The work was rehearsed at
that time, but it was not followed by a public
performance. The original manuscript, which is somewhat
incomplete in detail, is stored in the archive of the
St. Florian Abbey.
The work was premiered by August Göllerich on 1 April
1906, using a copy of the manuscript. The work was
first recorded by Matthew Best in 1987 and edited by
Paul Hawkshaw in 1997 in Band XX/1 of the
Gesamtausgabe, based on the dedicated Reinschrift,
which had been retrieved in 1957 in a private
collection in Vienna. During a concert on 25 June 2017
with the Missa solemnis, ?ukasz Borowicz with the RIAS
Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
performed also Bruckner's Psalm 114. The later issued
Accentus CD ACC 30429 of this concert did however not
include this performance of Psalm 114.
The 209-bar long work in G major is written for
five-part mixed choir (SAATB) and three trombones. "The
music is at first of an impressive archaic austerity,
bare in harmony, and strikingly simple in texture. E
minor is the opening key, but G major ultimately
dominates." The structure of the psalm, which is quite
simple in concept, is grounded on liturgical practice.
The composition begins with a four-phrase,
homophonically constructed Alleluja, which serves as an
antiphon to the psalm setting. The individual verses,
with the exception of verses seven and eight, are
clearly separated by strong cadences or a few beats of
silence. "[Bruckner] relied to the trombones to
reinforce contrasts delineated by the silences that
would become so poignant in his later music." The
trombones are so reinforcing the contrasts between "Es
umgaben mich die Schmerzen des Todes" (shift to minor)
and "Kehre zurück meine Seele" (return to major). The
truly inspired work, which projects a profound
understanding of the text, captivates the ear with
interesting harmonies and varied timbres and textures.
The final words of verse eight ("meinen Füße vom
Falle."), which are set in a two-voice canon over a
dominant pedal, provide an effective bridge to the
large-scale, five-voice double fugue, which ends with a
powerful unison on "im Lande der lebendigen.".
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_114_(Bruckner))
Although originally composed for Mixed Choir (SAATB)
and Trombones, I created this arrangement of "Psalm
114/116" (WAB 36) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French Horn &
Bassoon) and Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).