Analysis and Discussion of Selected Vocal Motets of Anton Bruckner
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Analysis and discussion of selected vocal motets of Anton Bruckner Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Low, Jeffrey Allan, 1950- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 01/10/2021 02:28:15 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/554667 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF SELECTED VOCAL MOTETS OF ANTON BRUCKNER ■by Jeffrey Allan Low A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF MUSIC In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of ; MASTER OF MUSIC In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable with out special permission, provided that accurate acknowlegment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quo tation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholar ship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: PREFACE Numerous volumes.have been written on the life $ sym phonies and large-scale sacred works of Anton Bruckner, but ■ very little of an in-depth nature has been written about his small-scale choral works, most of which were written for church services. As the scope of this paper is not such that all of these works could be included, I have chosen some specific examples, mostly a cappella, which I believe to be some of Bruckner's greatest compositions in this genre. Speaking practically, it must also be remembered that some of these works are not available through publishing houses in this country. However, the ones I have chosen are, and it is my hope that this paper might help to inspire choral directors to take a new look at this great composer's works. I would also.like to take this opportunity to thank 0. F. Peters Corporation and Arista Music Co. for their per mission to use the enclosed scores, and Dr. Edward Murphy for his assistance and advice. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT oooeoceo eo.oo v 1. INTRODUCTION 6606 0 66066000660000 1 2 . BIOGRAPHICAL- INFORMATION 600000066000 5 3= BRUCKNER8S CHORAL STYLE 0 00 6000006600 16 4-. PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS . ooeoeoaeoocooo 26 APPENDIX A FOUR TANTUM ERGOS e o e 6 e e o o o 31 APPENDIX B AYE MARIA 00060 0 60666606 36 APPENDIX C RANGE LINGUA 600066006600 40 APPENDIX D LOCUS ISTE 0060000000000 43 APPENDIX E TOTA PULCHRA ES 0060 6000000 4? APPENDIX F OS JUSTI 06000 0 66060606 53 APPENDIX G CHRISTUS FACTUS EST 59 APPENDIX H VIRGA JESSE 0 000660006000 65 APPENDIX I VEXILLA REGIS 600660608060 73 LIST OF REFERENCES 6 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 e 6 79 iv ABSTRACT Anton Bruckner, although widely known for his con tribution to symphonic literature, is hardly know at all by performers and audiences for his contributions to choral repertoire of an abbreviated nature, and yet. herein lies some of his greatest work as a religious man and composer. It is a medium in which he was occupied all of his life from before the completion of a single symphony through the time during which he attempted to complete his Ninth Symphony. His motet style, although different from his sym phonic style, reveals the same compositional technique i n . many instances indicating that maybe the real difference is not in the composer but rather in the inherent differences between the two media - vocal and instrumental. Examples of some similarities of style are such things as % the sameness of sound? the organ influence (block scoring, men versus women registration, etc.); the use of typical brass dotted rhythm; the use of rests between sections; the use of third relations; the occasional use of sequence $ the mostly homo- phonic texture; the unchanging meter; the same key for be ginning and end; a fairly slow harmonic rhythm; and finally, the use of rapid key shifts. v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION To understand the music of Anton Bruckner, one must understand the man, for this man was a religious fanatic in an age that concerned itself with much more earthly things. As Hans’Redlich (1955s P» 37) said, .Bruckner8s artistic personality seems to link him with the age of the Renais sance and the Baroque era rather than with the epoch of Liszt and Wagner." Wolfgang Streseman (19^+6, p. 18) said of hims Even as a personality Bruckner was entirely different from his famous, often quite glamorous musical contemporaries. In contrast to them he was by no means a. fascinating figure. He never outgrew his lowly origin and remained humble and modest throughout his life. His language was awkward, his general education below the average; his life passed for the most part monotonously, scarcely colored by any extraordinary events. Nothing in the intellectual field could arouse his interest. Yet his naive, almost childlike simplicity left people deeply touched. Some of those who knew Bruckner intimately, may well have thought of the words of the Bible: "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." ' This heavenly kingdom - apart from his music - was Bruckner8s only concern. He was by nature a deeply religious man. Filled with the thought of God he looked to the Creator with a childlike faith. The most familiar book to him was the Bible, for his whole life was devoted to God and the Church. 1 2 - It is curious to note that Bruckner’s religiosity permeates most of his biographies. Max Graf (1953, P« *0 gives us firsthand information in his article in Musical Courier when he states: When for the first time in Vienna I climbed up three flights to pay a call on Bruckner... the first thing which drew my attention was a large wooden crucifix before which the composer was accustomed to kneel and pray every day. The piety of Bruckner was not in any sense superficial; it was the center of his existence. Never have I seen a man pray as he did, never a more transfigured face than his, when during his lectures the vesper bells sounded from the church next door and he, forgetting his students, knelt to say the Ave Maria. Robert Simpson (I96B, p . I98 ), in his book, The Essence of Bruckner, attempts to give a more psychological view of the man. Bruckner’s devoutness in the Catholic faith was one of his few defences against a world he was men tally and psychologically ill-fated to face; as"he became less able to defend himself, so it developed more surely into religious mania. His natural tim orousness and his upbringing in the almost feudal conditions of nineteenth century pastoral Austria, under the stern authoritarianism of the Church, made it almost impossible for him to be other than what he became. This means, of course, that his music often expresses the emotional condition of religious conviction, but that cannot be said to be its essence any more than were the sonata forms he sometimes must have thought he was creating. Disagreements such as this are to be expected when talking about Anton Bruckner, as he was a very puzzling personality who seemed out of place. Still another inter esting psychological study is put forth by Redlich (1955? p. 27). In an attempt to assess his character one is struck at once by its paradoxical nature. A stur dy peasant body with a healthy appetite for coun- . try fare and good Pilsen beer, a naive joy in the simple pleasures of native dance and song? an iron constitution able to withstand years of poverty, ill-paid teaching jobs and even the grim austeri ties of Sechter's counterpoint - that is one side of him, A delicate, nervous sensibility (visible in his beautiful hands with their long tapering fingers) always threatening to disturb the balance of his mind; a firmly rooted piety and love of God; a sincere, almost fanatical attachment to the Roman Catholic creed and ritual; and lastly the indisputable fact of his innumerable affairs of the heart, continuing until well past his seven tieth year - that is the other, Redlich goes on with more specific observations concerning his "affairs of the heart", Bruckner was far from being the deliberate celibatarian some of his more mawkish biographers have tried to make of him. If he had remained chaste throughout life, of which we have no proof whatever, then continence would have been forced on him by a certain insufficiency in his relations with women rather than by religious vows. My own conviction is that celibacy was the outcome of his disappointments with the fair sex, not of a moral principle. That he was throughout his life strongly attracted by women and harboured a deep desire for the sexual consummation of his love is proved not only by the Opinions and reports of his pupils and friends, but by the events of his life. He fell continuously in and out of love, the objects of his infatuation being invariably young girls under twenty...In his diary two anti thetical forces in him can be seen in head-on clash.