(Led to the king), WAB 1, is a

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

, which

Anton Bruckner Josef Anton Bruckner (; 4 September 182411 October 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-Germ ...

composed on 7 November 1861 on the text of the Offertorium of the .

History

is the second of the two "great motets" during a "fruitful though brief" period of Bruckner's compositional career following Sechter's tuition, the other motet being the ''

Ave Maria The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's s ...

'' WAB 6. was premiered in St. Florian Abbey on the feast day of

Saint Lucy Lucia of Syracuse (283–304), also called Saint Lucia ( la, Sancta Lucia) better known as Saint Lucy, was a Roman Christian martyr who died during the Diocletianic Persecution. She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ...

, 13 December 1861. An early draft for choir alone was found in a monastic archive at

Kremsmünster Abbey Kremsmünster Abbey (german: Stift Kremsmünster) is a Benedictine monastery in Kremsmünster in Upper Austria. History The monastery was founded in 777 AD by Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria. According to the foundation legend, Tassilo founded the ...

. The original manuscript is not extant, but several transcriptions were found in the archive of St. Florian Abbey. Many years later, in 1885, Bruckner dedicated the work as an ''Offertorium als Graduale'' (

offertory The offertory (from Medieval Latin ''offertorium'' and Late Latin ''offerre'') is the part of a Eucharistic service when the bread and wine for use in the service are ceremonially placed on the altar. A collection of alms (offerings) from the c ...

gradual The gradual ( la, graduale or ) is a chant or hymn in the Mass, the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, and among some other Christians. It gets its name from the Latin (meaning "step") because it was once chanted ...

) to Johann Baptist Burgstaller, choir director of the New Cathedral in Linz. The work was edited in 1922 as an addendum to band 11–12 of ''Musica Divina'',

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. It is put in Band XXI/21 of the .

Text

The text is derived from , which is Psalm 44 in the

Vulgata The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

. :

Setting

The 38- bars piece scored in

F major F major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor F minor is a minor scale based on F, consis ...

for mixed choir and three

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

s ''ad libitum'' is a polyphonic

. The piece is in

ternary form Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form consisting of an opening section (A), a following section (B) and then a repetition of the first section (A). It is usually schematized as A–B–A. Prominent examples includ ...

, with an opening motive drawn from a pre-existing Latin

plainchant Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. ...

. In the first part (bars 1–7), "" is sung in canon by the alto and tenor voices, and with inverted motif by the bass and soprano voices. A similar pattern is repeated in bars 8–15 on "''proximae ejus''". The middle section (bars 15–24), which begins with "''et exultatione''" by the bass, similarly as "''usque in aeternum''" in bars 299-309 of Bruckner's later ''

Te Deum The "Te Deum" (, ; from its incipit, , ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to AD 387 authorship, but with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin Chur ...

'',M. Auer, pp. 64-65 is stylistically similar to faux bourdon, a technique employed primarily in medieval and Renaissance music. It is followed by a general pause. The third part (bars 25–38) on "''adducentur in templum''" begins as the first part and ends on a

pedal point In music, a pedal point (also pedal note, organ point, pedal tone, or pedal) is a sustained tone, typically in the bass, during which at least one foreign (i.e. dissonant) harmony is sounded in the other parts. A pedal point sometimes function ...

on the tonic. Keith W. Kinder suggests that its use of counterpoint may be a reflection of Bruckner's sense of liberation from the "prohibition on free composition" imposed by his former composition teacher,

Simon Sechter Simon Sechter (11 October 1788 – 10 September 1867) was an Austrian music theorist, teacher, organist, conductor and composer. He was one of the most prolific composers who ever lived, although his music is largely forgotten and he is now mainl ...

. Dermot Gault notes that in this work Bruckner "wears his learning lightly" in the contrapuntal writing. Bruckner quoted from the in the movement ''Qui cum Patre et Filio'', part of the

Credo In Christian liturgy, the credo (; Latin for "I believe") is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed – or its shorter version, the Apostles' Creed – in the Mass, either as a prayer, a spoken text, or sung as Gregorian chant or other musical setti ...

of the Mass in D minor.

Selected discography

Bruckner's was recorded at first in 1965 by Giulio Bertola with the Coro Polifonico Italiano ''a cappella'' (LP: Angelicum LPA 5989) A selection of the about 30 recordings: *

Simon Halsey Simon Halsey, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 8 March 1958) is an English choral conductor. He is the chorus director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus (CBSO Chorus), a position he has held since 1983, and has bee ...

, City of Birmingham Symphony Wind Ensemble & Chorus, ''Bruckner: Mass in E minor & Motets'' – Conifer CDCF 192, 1990 *

Hans-Christoph Rademann Hans-Christoph Rademann (born 5 August 1965 in Dresden) is a German choral conductor, currently the director of the Dresdner Kammerchor and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart. Career Born in Dresden, Rademann grew up in Schwarzenberg an ...

NDR Chor The NDR Chor (North German Radio Choir) is the choir of the German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), based in Hamburg. It was founded in 1946, with Max Thurn as the first director of then 55 singers. The group has participated in premieres ...

Hamburg, ''Anton Bruckner: Ave Maria'' – Carus 83.151, 2000 *

Dan-Olof Stenlund Dan-Olof Bertil Stenlund (born 25 October 1937 in Skellefteå) is a Swedish university professor and choir conductor. Life and work Dan-Olof Stenlund, was born in 1937 in Skellefteå, the son of the cantor Bertil Stenlund and his wife Esther Vi ...

, Malmö Chamber Choir, ''Ausgewählte Werke''. MKKCD 051, 2004 * Michael Stenov, Cantores Carmeli, ''Benefizkonzert Karmelitenkirche Linz'' – CD/DVD issued by the choir, 2006, and on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. * Duncan Ferguson, Choir of St. Mary's Cathedral of Edinburgh, ''Bruckner: Motets '' – CD: Delphian Records DCD34071, 2010 *

Philipp Ahmann Philipp Ahmann (born 1974) is a German conductor, especially known as a choral conductor. He has been the director of the NDR Chor from 2008 to 2018. Since 2020, Ahmann is the MDR Rundfunkchor's artistic director. Career Ahmann studied conducti ...

MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig MDR Rundfunkchor is the radio choir of the German broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), based in Leipzig, Saxony. Dating back to 1924, the choir became the radio choir of a predecessor of the MDR in 1946, then called Kammerchor des Senders L ...

, ''Anton Bruckner & Michael Haydn - Motets'' – SACD: Pentatone PTC 5186 868, 2021

References

Sources

* Max Auer, ''Anton Bruckner als Kirchenmusiker'', G. Bosse, Regensburg, 1927 * ''Anton Bruckner – Sämtliche Werke, Band XXI: Kleine Kirchenmusikwerke'', Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Hans Bauernfeind and Leopold Nowak (Editor), Vienna, 1984/2001 * Cornelis van Zwol, ''Anton Bruckner 1824–1896 – Leven en werken'', uitg. Thoth, Bussum, Netherlands, 2012.

External links

* *
F-Dur, WAB 1
Critical discography by Hans Roelofs * Can be heard on YouTube: **A live performance by Johannes Kleinjung with the Universitätschor, München (2011):

**A live performance by Gilles Michels with the Student Choir of Utrecht (24 June 2017)
– Bruckner , USKO
**A live performance by Andrew Lewis with the Elgin Master Chorale (26 February 2018)
Bruckner - Afferentur regi, WAB 1
{{authority control Motets by Anton Bruckner 1861 compositions Compositions in F major