Mass No. 2 (Bruckner)

Mass No. 2
by Anton Bruckner

The votive chapel in the Linz Cathedral (Mariä-Empfängnis- Dom), with a statue of Mary to whom the cathedral is dedicated
Key E minor
Catalogue WAB 27
Form Mass
Composed
  • 1866 (1866): Linz (first version)
  • 1882 (1882): Vienna (second version)
Dedication Dedication of the Votivkapelle of the new Linz Cathedral
Performed
  • 29 September 1869 (1869-09-29): Linz (first version)
  • 4 October 1885 (1885-10-04): Linz (second version)
Published 1896 (1896)
Movements 6
Vocal SSAATTBB choir
Instrumental Wind band

The Mass No. 2 in E minor, WAB 27, by Anton Bruckner is a setting of the mass ordinary for eight-part mixed choir and wind band (2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets and 3 trombones).[1]

History

The bishop of Linz, Franz-Josef Rudigier, had already commissioned a Festive cantata from Bruckner in 1862 to celebrate the laying of the foundation stone of the new cathedral, the Maria-Empfängnis-Dom. In 1866, he asked Bruckner for a mass to celebrate the accomplishment of the construction of the Votive Chapel of the new cathedral. Because of a delay in completing the construction, the celebration of the dedication didn't take place until three years later, on 29 September 1869.

Bruckner subjected the work to far-reaching revision in 1869, 1876, and 1882. The second version of 1882 was performed on 4 October 1885 in the Alter Dom, Linz.

Versions and editions

Two versions of the mass are available:

The differences among the two versions are described in detail at the end of the score of the 1882 version.[2]

Setting

Front-page of Bruckner's manuscript

The piece is based strongly on old-church music tradition, and particularly old Gregorian style singing. The Kyrie is almost entirely made up of a cappella singing for eight voices. The Gloria ends with a fugue, as in Bruckner's other masses.[3] In the Sanctus, Bruckner uses a theme from Palestrina's Missa Brevis.

According to the Catholic practice – as also in Bruckner’s preceding Missa solemnis and Mass No. 1 – the first verse of the Gloria and the Credo is not composed and has to be intoned by the priest in Gregorian mode before the choir goes on.

The setting is divided into six parts.

  1. Kyrie – Ruhig Sostenuto, E minor
  2. Gloria – Allegro, C major
  3. Credo – Allegro, C major
  4. Sanctus – Andante, G major
  5. Benedictus – Moderato, C major
  6. Agnus Dei – Andante, E minor veering to E major

Total duration: about 40 minutes[1]

Previously Bruckner had been criticized for "simply writing symphonies with liturgical text," and although the Cecilians were not entirely happy with the inclusion of wind instruments, "Franz Xaver Witt loved it, no doubt rationalizing the use of wind instruments as necessary under the circumstances of outdoor performance for which Bruckner wrote the piece."[4] "The Mass in E minor ... is a work without parallel in either 19th- or 20th-century church music."[1]

Selected discography

Version 1 (1866)

There is as yet only one out-of-print recording of a music-school performance:[5]

A live-performance by Hans-Christoph Rademann (23 June 2013), which has not been commercially issued, is available in John Berky's Bruckner archive (Charter Oak COR-1904).[6]

Version 2 (1882)

About 100 recordings of Bruckner's Mass No. 2 have been issued.[5] The first recording of the mass was by Hermann Odermatt with the Gregorius-Chor and Orchester der Liebfrauenkirche, Zürich in 1930 (78 rpm Christschall 37-41).

Of the recordings from the LP era, Eugen Jochum's recording with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on Deutsche Grammophon[7] has been remastered to CD. Matthew Best's more recent recording with the Corydon Singers has been critically acclaimed.[8] Other excellent recordings, according to Hans Roelofs, are i.a. those by Roger Norrington, Hellmut Wormsbächer, Philippe Herreweghe, Simon Halsey, Frieder Bernius, Helmuth Rilling, Marcus Creed, Winfried Toll and Otto Kargl.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Anton Bruckner – Critical Complete Edition: Requiem, Masses & Te Deum
  2. ↑ Leopold Nowak, Messe e-Moll Fassung 1866 – Studienpartitur, pp. 3-11, Vienna, 1977
  3. ↑ Hawkshaw (2004), p. 50
  4. ↑ Strimple, p.48
  5. 1 2 Commented discography of Mass No. 2 by Hans Roelofs
  6. ↑ The Bruckner archive
  7. ↑ Lovallo, p. 28
  8. ↑ Johnson, p. 361

Sources

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