Requiem (Bruckner)

The Requiem in D minor WAB 39 by Anton Bruckner is a setting of the Missa pro defunctis for vocal soloists, trombones, one horn, strings and organ with figured bass, written to memorialize Franz Sailer, the notary of the St. Florian monastery, who bequeathed Bruckner a Bösendorfer piano. The Requiem was premiered on September 15, 1849, a year after Sailer's death.

Setting

1. Introit ("Requiem aeternam") and Kyrie - Andante, D minor, common time
2. Sequence
   1. "Dies irae" - Allegro, D minor, 3/4
   2. "Judex ergo" - Recitativ, etwas langsamer
   3. "nil in ultum remanebit" - Tempo I
3. Offertorium
   1. "Domine Jesu" - Andante, F major, 2/4
   2. "Hostias et preces" - Adagio, B-flat major, common time: Chorale by divided man voices and trombones
   3. "Quam olim Abrahae" - Con spirito, F minor, cut time: Double fugue ending in F major
4. Sanctus - Andante, D minor, 12/8
5. Benedictus - Andante, B-flat major, 6/4 - a solo horn replaces one of the trombones
6. Agnus Dei and Communion
   1. "Agnus Dei" and "Lux aeterna" - Adagio, D minor, common time
   2. "Requiem aeternam" - Adagio, D minor, cut time: Chorale a capella
   3. "Cum sanctis tuis" - Alla breve, D minor ending in D major, cut time

The Requiem is most likely Bruckner's "first truly large-scale composition and probably his first significant work." "[It] is amazing what he achieved, especially if we look at the great double fugue of the Quam olim Abrahae, written at least six years before he even commenced his thorough contrapuntal studies with Simon Sechter!"

There is clear influence of Mozart throughout the work. "[There] are many passages reminiscent of what was even then, in 1848/49, a past age (the very opening points irresistibly to Mozart's Requiem in the same key), and though the very inclusion of a figured bass for organ continuo strikes one as backward looking, there are already several flashes of the later, great Bruckner to come." "[Despite it] is by no means a perfect masterpiece, … [it] can be said to be the first full demonstration that the young man was a composer of inestimable promise."

"[The] expressively reticent opening of the opening of the Requiem, with his softly shifting syncopations in the strings … already faintly anticipates one or two of his own symphonic passages in the two earlier D minor symphonies, for instance Nos. ‘0’ and 3. … [We] cannot escape the solemn beauty of this music, which already has the authentic atmosphere of natural genius."

"During the years following the composition of the Requiem, Bruckner wrote a number of small choral works as well as two works on a larger canvas: a Magnificat (1852) and the Missa Solemnis in B-flat minor (1854). Strangely enough these do not quite measure up to the qualities inherent in the earlier Requiem."

Unlike the later Masses, Bruckner never revised this setting. Still, there are three different editions in the Gesamtausgabe: the first, by Robert Haas in 1930, added a lot of dynamics markings but ignored some of Bruckner's hairpins; the second, by Leopold Nowak in 1966, corrected these oversights but retained antique clefs for the vocal parts, (that is, different C-clefs for soprano, alto and tenor); the third edition, by Rüdiger Bornhöft in 1998, modernised the clefs (treble for all but bass) and corrected minor errors.

Discography

The Requiem remains still somewhat in the background of other Bruckner's works. Most of the about 20 recordings of it are live performances, which were not brought to the commercial market.

The LP-recording by Schönzeler in 1970 was a pioneer and remained for years the best recording.
Best’s excellent CD-recording in 1988 has supplanted Schönzeler’s one and is still, according to Hans Roelofs, currently the reference.
The recording of Farnberger of 1997 with the Instrumentalensemble St. Florian and the St. Florianer Sängerknaben provides the work with some special touch of authenticity.
Out of the more recent recordings, Roelofs picks out Janssens' recording of 2006.

• Hans-Hubert Schönzeler, Requiem & 4 Orchestral Pieces, Alexandra Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Robert Munns (Organ), LP: Unicorn UNS 210, 1970
• Hans Michael Beuerle, Requiem in D minor, Laubacher Kantorei, Instrumental-Ensemble Werner Keltsch, LP: Cantate 658 231, 1972.
  This long out-of-print LP has recently been transferred to CD: Klassic Haus KHCD 2011-092 (with Psalm 146 by Wolfgang Riedelbauch).
• Matthew Best, Corydon Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, and Thomas Trotter (organ), CD: Hyperion CDA66245, 1987 (with Psalm 112 and Psalm 114)
• Anton Bruckner in St. Florian – Requiem & Motetten, Franz Farnberger conducting the Instrumentalensemble St. Florian and the St. Florianer Sängerknaben - CD Studio SM D2639 SM 44, 1997
• Guy Janssens, A history of the Requiem - Part III, Laudantes Consort, Benoît Mernier, Organ - CD: Cypres CYP 1654, 2006 (with Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem)

References

• Bornhöft, Rüdiger (1998) Note to the Preface to Anton Bruckner: Sämtliche Werke: Band 14: Requiem D-Moll: Studienpartitur, Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Rickett, Richard (translator), Vienna
• Hawkshaw, Paul (1997) "An anatomy of change: Anton Bruckner's Revisions to the Mass in F minor" Bruckner Studies edited by Timothy L. Jackson and Paul Hawkshaw, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Jackson, Timothy (1997) "Bruckner's 'Oktaven'", Music & Letters Vol. 78, No. 3
• Kinder, Keith William (2000) The Wind and Wind-Chorus Music of Anton Bruckner, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut.
• Nowak, Leopold (1966) Preface to Anton Bruckner: Sämtliche Werke: Band 14: Requiem D-Moll: Studienpartitur, Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Rickett, Richard (translator), Vienna
• Redlich, Hans Ferdinand (1967) Preface to Mass in F minor (revision of 1881), Ernst Eulenburg, Ltd, London
• Schönzeler, Hans-Hubert (1978) Bruckner, Marion Boyars, London.
• Simpson, Robert (1967) The Essence of Bruckner: An essay towards the understanding of his music, Victor Gollancz Ltd, London
• Watson, Derek (1996) Bruckner, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, London

External links

• Complete discography by Hans Roelofs
• Full score of Bruckner's Requiem at IMSLP