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Te Deum (Bruckner) edit
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Te Deum (Bruckner) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Te Deum (Bruckner)

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The Te Deum in C major WAB 45 by Anton Bruckner is a setting of the early Christian Te Deum hymn text for chorus, soloists and orchestra, and organ ad libitum. The composer dedicated the piece "to God in gratitude for having safely brought me through so much anguish in Vienna."1

The chorus consists of sopranos, altos, tenors and basses, while the orchestra consists of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in A), 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in F, alto, tenor and bass trombones, contrabass tuba, timpani in C and G, and strings.

The setting is in five movements, which is not the number chosen by many other composers. However, there is no standard: e.g., Joseph Haydn's is in one movement, Michael Haydn's is in four movements and Hector Berlioz's is in six.

  1. "Te Deum laudamus" - Allegro, Feierlich, mit Kraft, common time, C major
  2. "Te ergo quaesumus" - Moderato, common time, F minor
  3. "Aeterna fac" - Allegro, Feierlich, mit Kraft, common time, D minor
  4. "Salvum fac populum tuum" - Moderato, common time, F minor
  5. "In Te, Domine speravi" - Mäßig bewegt, common time, C major

Bruckner had criticised Berlioz's Te Deum for not being properly "ecclesiastical", in part because the performance Bruckner attended did not take place in a church.2 Bruckner started work on his own Te Deum some time before May 1881, but mostly focused his attention on his Symphony No. 6.3 It wasn't until after finishing (or being close to finishing) his Symphony No. 7 that Bruckner resumed work on his Te Deum,4 finishing it on March 7, 1884.56 A melody used for the words "non confundar" (in the final movement) is remarkably similar to the main theme of the second movement of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7.7

It was first published in 1885 by Theodore Rättig, who paid Bruckner 50 gulden, "the only money he ever earned as a composer in the whole of his life."8 Another important difference with Bruckner's other first publications is that there are few differences between it and the original manuscript,9 with no recomposition from the Schalk brothers. The Te Deum was premiered "in the small Musikvereinsaal in Vienna on May 2, 1885" with soloists "Frau Ulrich-Linde, Emilie Zips, Richard Exleben, and Heinrich Gassner, with the choir of the Wiener Akademischer Richard Wagner Verein," and "Robert Erben and Joseph Schalk" substituting for the orchestra on two pianos.10 Hans Richter conducted the first performance with full orchestra on January 10, 1886.11 After that there were almost thirty more performances within Bruckner's lifetime;1213 the last performance Bruckner attended was conducted by Richard von Perger at the suggestion of Johannes Brahms.14 On his copy of the score, Gustav Mahler crossed out "for chorus, solos, and orchestra, organ ad libitum" and wrote "for the tongues of angels, heaven-blest, chastened hearts, and souls purified in the fire!"15

In the 1890s Bruckner was aware that he might not live to finish his Symphony No. 9, and some commentators have suggested that the Te Deum could be used as a finale. However, Robert Simpson believed that not "even in the poor state of health and mind of his last few months of his life, [would Bruckner have] considered the use of the C major Te Deum as finale to a D minor symphony to be more than a makeshift solution," and that the link to the Te Deum was simply a matter of self-quotation more than anything else.16

During the Nazi era, Bruckner's Te Deum and Psalm 150 were ignored, because their existence contradicted the Nazi myth that exposure to Richard Wagner's music had freed Bruckner from ties to the church.17 It wasn't until after the war that Eugen Jochum brought attention to Bruckner's Te Deum and other sacred music, conducting several concerts and recordings. Herbert von Karajan soon followed suit, and today there are several recordings of the Te Deum.

Contents

Discography

There are more than 100 recordings of Bruckner's Te Deum, mainly together with a symphony or another choral work.

The first recording, was by Felix Gatz with the Bruckner-Chor & the Staatskapelle Berlin in 1927: 78 rpm disc Decca 25159 (only parts 1 & 2)

Some other historic recording are:

  • Eugen Jochum, Chor und Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, 1950: 78 rpm disc Polydor 72020-1; transferred later to LP: DG 16002, and CD: Forgotten Records fr 227/8 (with Symphony No. 7)
  • Herbert von Karajan, Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien and Wiener Symphoniker, 1952: LP: Melodram DSM B01; transferred to CD: Arkadia CDGI 705.2 (mit Symphony No. 8)
  • Bruno Walter, Westminster Choir, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, 1953: LP: Columbia ML6EYE 4980; transferred later to CD: CD: Sony SMK 64 480

Notes

  1. ^ p. [iv], Nowak (1961)
  2. ^ p. 41, Hawkshaw (2004)
  3. ^ p. [iii], Nowak (1961)
  4. ^ p. [iii], Nowak (1961)
  5. ^ p. 80, Schönzeler (1978)
  6. ^ p. 40, Watson (1975)
  7. ^ p. 27, Simpson (1967)
  8. ^ p. [iii], Nowak (1961)
  9. ^ p. [iii], Nowak (1961). "The most important [difference] being the absence of the trombone and double-bass tuba chords at bars 275 and 283 of the "Salvum fac" section. At bar 26 the second clarinet has a different note, and in the first edition the clarinets are in B flat instead of in A as in the original manuscript."
  10. ^ p. [iv], Nowak (1961)
  11. ^ p. [iv], Nowak (1961)
  12. ^ p. 126, Kinder (2000)
  13. ^ p. 52, Watson (1975)
  14. ^ p. 127 n. 2 (continued), Kinder (2000)
  15. ^ Alma Mahler-Werfel, Gustav Mahler. New York: READ Books (2006): 89
  16. ^ p. 182, Simpson (1967)
  17. ^ p. 82, Gilliam (1997)

References

  • Gilliam, Bryan (1997) "The annexation of Anton Bruckner", Bruckner Studies, edited by Timothy L. Jackson and Paul Hawkshaw, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
  • Hawkshaw, Paul (2004) "Bruckner's large sacred compositions", The Cambridge Companion to Bruckner edited by Williamson, John, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
  • Kinder, Keith William (2000) The Wind and Wind-Chorus Music of Anton Bruckner, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut.
  • Nowak, Leopold (1961) Preface to Anton Bruckner: Sämtliche Werke: Band 19: Te Deum: Studienpartitur, Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Rickett, Richard (translator), Vienna
  • Schönzeler, Hans-Hubert (1978) Bruckner, Marion Boyars, London
  • Simpson, Robert (1967) Robert The Essence of Bruckner: An essay towards the understanding of his music, Victor Gollancz Ltd, London
  • Watson, Derek (1975) Bruckner, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, London

External links



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