List of masses by Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner's early Masses were settings of the Mass composed while he was a schoolteacher's assistant in Windhaag (1841-1843) and Kronstorf (1843-1845). These masses were intentionally simple, because they were intended for the meagre resources of the local village churches.[1]
Windhaager Messe
The Windhaager Messe in C major (WAB 25) is a Choral-Messe for alto solo, two horns and organ composed in 1842. It was first believed that it was composed for Maria Jobst, the alto soloist in the Windhaag church choir.[2] It is now stated that it was composed for her younger sister, Anna.[3]
Setting
The work employs a text compressed to the absolute minimum and is predominantly homophonic in texture - often close to plainchant[2] as, e.g., the initial phrase of the Kyrie and the Credo[4] - with occasional contrapuntal interruptions. The organ part consists of the alto solo line and a mostly unfigured bass.[1] The use of horns "adds a warm, familiar timbre to music, and helps to clarify the harmony".[5] Total duration: 8 to 10’.
As in the Landmesse tradition the Gloria and the Credo employ only a portion of the extensive text usually associated with these sections of the Mass.[1] Such short masses (Missa brevis) were frequently performed in Austrian country churches, especially during Advent and Lent.[2]
The short Sanctus presents the most extensive horn parts in the work. The Benedictus, in E-flat major, is more melodic and uses a much less syllabic text setting than the rest of the work.[6]
The final notes of the Agnus Dei recall the closing of the Credo – a small, but effective touch of musical integration.[6]
Bruckner’s designation of this composition as a Choral-Messe referred to its simple, hymn-like style.[2] Tonally the work follows conventional harmonic patterns, but, as Bruckner was to do throughout his life, it also contains frequent modulations, often to rather distant keys, without the uses of pivot chords. The frequent appearances of unison passages throughout this work are an additional hallmark of Bruckner’s later style.[6]
Kronstorfer Messe and Messe für den Gründonnerstag
These two Missa brevis for mixed choir a cappella, which exhibit relationships to Palestrina's style,[7] survive from Bruckner’s next stay in Kronstorf.[1]
The Kronstorfer Messe in D minor (WAB 146), a Choral-Messe which Bruckner composed in 1843-1844 presumably for the Lenten season, survives only in a fragmentary state. It is without Gloria or Credo.[1][8] The manuscript has two blank pages with an autograph indication that they were to contain a Credo. Alike the contemporaneous Asperges me in F major (WAB 4) the Agnus Dei contains audacious modulations without use of pivot chord. Total duration: about 5’.
The Messe für den Gründonnerstag, a Choral-Messe in F major (WAB 9) composed in 1844 for Maundy Thursday, contained originally no Kyrie or Gloria, but included the Gradual Christus factus est and the Offertory Dextera Domini proper for the feast.[1][9] As also in the following Missa solemnis, Mass No. 1 and Mass No. 2 the first verse of the Credo is not composed and has to be intoned by the priest in Gregorian mode before the choir is going on. Only the first part of the Credo is composed, until "descendit de caelis".[3] The Sanctus is a modified version of the Sanctus of the Kronstorfer Messe.[1][8] Total duration: about 10’. The extra fugated Kyrie and Gloria, which were composed in 1845, have been lost.[3]
During this period Bruckner also sketched a Kyrie in G minor of a Missa pro Quadragesima (Mass for the Lent) for mixed choir, 3 trombones and organ (WAB 140).[10]
Use in the modern liturgy
To make the Windhaager Messe usable for Eucharist celebration Kajetan Schmidinger and Joseph Messner made in 1927 an arrangement for mixed choir with revised Gloria and Credo, and accompaniment by organ, horns and string quintet.[11][12]
To make the Messe für den Gründonnerstag usable for Eucharist celebration Messner revised in 1941 the existing movements, and created a Kyrie and a Gloria, by using elements of the Gradual and the Offertory, and organ accompaniment ad libitum.[9]
Discography
There are a few recordings of the original settings of Bruckner's early Masses.
Windhaager Messe
- Wolfgang Riedelbauch, Anton Bruckner - Psalm 146 and Windhaager Messe, Hans Sachs-Chor, Lehrergesangverein Nürnberg und Nürnberger Symphoniker, LP-Colosseum SM 548, 1973.
This long out-of-print recording of the Windhaager Messe has recently been transferred to CD, together with the historical recording of the Symphony No. 0 by Hortense von Gelmini: Klassic Haus KHCD 2012-007 - Rupert Gottfried Frieberger, Anton Bruckner – Oberösterreichische Kirchenmusik, Sigrid Hagmüller (Alto) - Fabian Records CD 5112, 1995
- Rupert Gottfried Frieberger, Anton Bruckner – Kirchenmusikalische Werke, Barbara Schreiner (Alto) - Fabian Records CD 5115, 2007
Kronstorfer Messe
- Jussi Kauranen, Tuhansin Kielin, Pirkanpojat boys' choir (Finland), 1998 - CD with limited edition by the choir-self.[13]
This CD with the single recording of the Kronstorfer Messe is since long out-of-print.
Note: A live performance of the Mass (20 May 1987) by the church choir of Kronstorf, conductor Erich Nowotny, can be heard on John Berky’s website.
Messe für den Gründonnerstag
- Rupert Gottfried Frieberger, Anton Bruckner – Oberösterreichische Kirchenmusik, Vokalensemble Schrärding - Fabian Records CD 5112, 1995 (without Credo)
- Rupert Gottfried Frieberger, Anton Bruckner – Kirchenmusikalische Werke, Vokalensemble der Stiftsmusik Schlägl - Fabian Records CD 5115, 2007
References
- ^ a b c d e f g J. Williamson, p. 43
- ^ a b c d K. W. Kinder, p. 2
- ^ a b c C. van Zwol, p. 700
- ^ K. W. Kinder, p. 3
- ^ K. W. Kinder, p. 4-5
- ^ a b c K. W. Kinder, p. 4
- ^ J. Garrat, p. 183
- ^ a b Roelofs' commented discography of the Kronstorfer Messe
- ^ a b Roelofs' commented discography of the Messe für den Gründonnerstag
- ^ C. van Zwol, p. 710
- ^ Messe in C-dur, arrangement for mixed choir
- ^ Roelofs' commented discography of the Windhaager Messe
- ^ Pirkanpojat boys' choir - Recorded works
Sources
- Free scores by Kronstorfer Messe at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Jos van Leeuwen Jos, Bruckner, J. H. Gottmer & H. J. W. Becht BV, Bloemendaal, Netherlands, 1993 Template:Nl - ISBN 90-257-2175-3
- Keith William Kinder, The Wind and Wind-Chorus Music of Anton Bruckner, Greenwood Press, Westport CT, 2000 - ISBN 0-313-30834-9.
- John Williamson, The Cambridge Companion to Bruckner, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004 - ISBN 0-521-80404-3
- James Garrat, Palestrina and the German Romantic Imagination, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004 - ISBN 0-521-80737-9
- Cornelis van Zwol, Anton Bruckner - Leven en Werken, Uit. Thot, Bussum, NL, 2012 - ISBN 978-90-6868-590-9
- Commented discography of the Windhaager Messe by Hans Roelofs
- Commented discography of the Messe für den Gründonnerstag by Hans Roelofs
- Commented discography of the Kronstorfer Messe by Hans Roelofs