' (Thou wilt sprinkle me), WAB 4, is a sacred

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 preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

composed by

Anton Bruckner Joseph Anton Bruckner (; ; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer and organist best known for his Symphonies by Anton Bruckner, symphonies and sacred music, which includes List of masses by Anton Bruckner, Masses, Te Deum (Br ...

. It is a setting of the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

Asperges me, the

antiphon An antiphon ( Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are usually taken from the Psalms or Scripture, but may also be freely compo ...

used for the celebration of

Asperges Asperges is the rite of sprinkling a congregation with holy water. The name comes from the first word in the 9th verse of Psalm 51 (Psalm 50 in the Vulgate and Septuagint) in the Latin translation which is sung during the traditional form of t ...

History

In 1843–44, Bruckner composed this first setting of ''Asperges me'' during his stay in

Kronstorf Kronstorf is a municipality in the district Linz-Land in the Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, s ...

.C. van Zwol, p. 700U. Harten, p. 64 It is not known when it was performed at that time. The work, the original manuscript of which is lost, exists as a transcription by Arthur Bauer. The motet was first published in volume III/2, pp. 140–141 of the Göllerich/Auer biography. It is put in volume XXI/4 of the '.

Music

The work is a setting of 32 bars in F major of the ''Asperges me'' for mixed choir ''a cappella''. According to the Catholic practice, the

incipit The incipit ( ) of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of Musical note, notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin an ...

("''Asperges me''") is not composed and has to be intoned by the priest in

Gregorian mode A Gregorian mode (or church mode) is one of the eight systems of pitch organization used in Gregorian chant. History The name of Pope Gregory I was attached to the variety of chant that was to become the dominant variety in medieval western and ...

before the choir begins. The score is in two sections. Section 1 (7 bars) begins with "''Domine, hysopo''" and ends with "''dealbabor''". Section 2 (18 bars) begins with the remaining of the text, and is followed by the

doxology A doxology (Ancient Greek: ''doxologia'', from , ''doxa'' 'glory' and -, -''logia'' 'saying') is a short hymn of praises to God in various forms of Christian worship, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns. The tradition derives ...

("''Gloria Patri''"). Thereafter the incipit is repeated by the choir in

unison Unison (stylised as UNISON) is a Great Britain, British trade union. Along with Unite the Union, Unite, Unison is one of the two largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, with over 1.2 million members who work predominantly in public servic ...

, concluded by a ''

da capo Da capo ( , , ; often abbreviated as D.C.) is an Italian musical term that means "from the beginning" (literally, "from the head"). The term is a directive to repeat the previous part of music, often used to save space, and thus is an easie ...

'' of section 1. The second section contains audacious

modulation Signal modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform in electronics and telecommunication for the purpose of transmitting information. The process encodes information in form of the modulation or message ...

s, similar to the contemporaneous '' Kronstorfer Messe''.H. Schäfer, p. 189

Discography

There is a single commercial recording of Bruckner's first ''Asperges me'': * Philipp von Steinäcker, Vocalensemble Musica Saeculorum, ''Bruckner: Pange lingua - Motetten'' - CD: Fra Bernardo FB 1501271, 2015

References

Sources

August Göllerich August Göllerich (2 July 185916 March 1923) was an Austrian pianist, conductor, music educator and music writer. He studied the piano with Franz Liszt, who made him also his secretary and companion on concert tours. Göllerich is known for study ...

, ''Anton Bruckner. Ein Lebens- und Schaffens-Bild'', – posthumous edited by Max Auer by G. Bosse, Regensburg, 1932 * Hansjürgen Schäfer, ''Anton Bruckner. Ein Führer durch Leben und Werk''. Henschel Verlag, Berlin, 1996. * ''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. *

Uwe Harten Uwe Harten (born 16 August 1944) is a German musicologist, who works in Austria. Life Born in , Harten grew up in Hamburg, where he was a boy soprano at the Staatsoper. He took over the roles of a child. In Hamburg he also began his studies of ...

, ''Anton Bruckner. Ein Handbuch''. , Salzburg, 1996. .

External links

*
Asperges F-Dur, WAB 4
Critical discography by Hans Roelofs {{Authority control Motets by Anton Bruckner 1844 compositions Compositions in F major