' (Tell, my tongue), WAB 31, 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 ...

in . It is a setting of the first strophe 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 ...

hymn Pange lingua for the celebration of Corpus Christi.

History

Bruckner composed the motet in when, as eleven-year-old boy, he was studying by Johann Baptist Weiß in

Hörsching Hörsching is a municipality in the district Linz-Land in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. It is next to the Linz Airport which is served by a shuttle bus from the Hörsching railway station. Anton Bruckner Joseph Anton Bruckner (; ; 4 ...

.C. van Zwol, pp. 699-700U. Harten, p. 329 It is not known whether it was performed at that time. In 1891, towards the end of his life, Bruckner "restored" this beloved very first composition.C. van Zwol, p. 709 The first version of the work, the original manuscript of which is lost, was found as a transcription by Franz Bayer,

Steyr Steyr (; ) is a statutory city (Austria), statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3rd lar ...

. The transcription of the first version and the manuscript of the 1891 version are stored in the archive of the ''

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek The Austrian National Library (, ) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in center of Vienna. Since 2005, some of the collection ...

''. The second version of the motet was first published as a facsimile in 1927 by Max Auer in his book '. The first version was first published in band II/1, p. 228 of the Göllerich/Auer biography. The two versions are put in Band XXI/1 and 39 of the '.

Music

The work is a setting of 28 bars in C major of the first verse of the Pange lingua for mixed choir ''

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

''. On 19 April 1891 Bruckner made some "restoration" of the work. The differences between the two versions are small, mainly a different articulation in bars 15 and 22, and a

reharmonisation In music, harmonization is the chordal accompaniment to a line or melody: "Using chords and melodies together, making harmony by stacking scale tones as triads". A harmonized scale can be created by using each note of a musical scale as a roo ...

of bars 25-27.

Discography

First version

There are two recordings of the first version: * Philipp von Steinäcker, Vocalensemble Musica Saeculorum, ''Bruckner: Pange lingua - Motetten'' - CD: Fra Bernardo FB 1501271, 2015 * Markus Stumpner, ''Erinnerung - Bruckner in St. Florian'', Sankt Florianer Sängerknaben – CD: Solo Musica SM 450, 2024

Second version

There is a single recording of the 1891 version: * Jonathan Brown, Ealing Abbey Choir, '' Anton Bruckner: Sacred Motets'' – CD: Herald HAVPCD 213, 1997 : Note: A live performance by Philipp von Steinäcker is available in the Bruckner Archive.Bruckner Archive
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References

Sources

* Max Auer, ''Anton Bruckner als Kirchenmusiker'', G. Bosse, Regensburg, 1927 *

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 * ''Anton Bruckner – Sämtliche Werke, Band XXI: Kleine Kirchenmusikwerke'', Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Hans Bauernfeind and Leopold Nowak (Editor), Vienna, 1984/2001 *

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''. Residenz Verlag, Salzburg, 1996. . * Cornelis van Zwol, ''Anton Bruckner 1824–1896 – Leven en werken'', uitg. Thoth, Bussum, Netherlands, 2012. * Crawford Howie, ''Anton Bruckner - A documentary biography'', online revised edition

External links

* - Both versions
Pange lingua C-Dur, WAB 31
Critical discography by Hans Roelofs
Pange lingua, WAB 31
− First version of the motet by the Vocalensemble b-choired of Linz (26 April 2014)
Pange lingua, WAB 31
− Second version of the motet by Leon Chu conducting the Choir of the Chinese University of

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, Chung Chi Chapel (18 April 2024) {{Authority control Motets by Anton Bruckner 1835 compositions 1891 compositions Compositions in C major