CJ Replay: Bruckner’s Masses

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “Bruckner’s Mass in F Minor: Culmination of the Symphonic Mass” by William Weinert)

 

       The decade between 1864 and 1874 witnessed the composition of several of the most  significant large-scale choral works of the Romantic period: Brahms’s Ein deutscbes Requiem (1868), Verdi’s Requiem (1874), and Bruckner’s three mature masses (186468). The Brahms and Verdi works have become staples of the choral/orchestral repertoire; however, in 1996, one hundred years after Bruckner’s death, more widespread study and reevaluation of his mature choral works are long overdue. The Mass in F Minor (sometimes known as “the Great”) is the last, the most extended, and the finest of Bruckner’s masses, and it occupies a significant place both in the evolution of Bruckner’s mature style and in the development of the symphonic mass in the Romantic period.

       Bruckner’s seven masses, seven other extended sacred works for chorus and orchestra, and more than three dozen motets constitute a body of sacred music larger and more varied than that of almost any other major composer of his day. The first half of Bruckner’s compositional life was occupied almost entirely with writing music for the church. Two important factors influenced his sacred output during these years. First, from his early youth through his student days in Linz, he had often heard the classical masses of Mozart, Franz Joseph Haydn, and Michael Haydn, music which was still very much alive in Austria thirty years after the deaths of the Haydns.  Second, Bruckner also was interested in older traditions of music for the Roman rite: Renaissance polyphony, modal music, and plainsong. These factors influenced not only his early liturgical works but also his mature masses and symphonies of the 1860s. Bruckner’s interest and skill in polyphonic technique were fostered and refined during his years of compositional study with Simon Sechter (1855-61), years during which his teacher permitted Bruckner no composing except for counterpoint assignments.

       Two short masses for small performance forces date from the early 1840s. Two important transitional works (the Requiem and Missa solemnis in B Minor) employ more extended structures and demonstrate a higher level of craftsmanship. The three final masses of the 1860s constitute the first full flowering of Bruckner’s genius and his first masterpieces in any genre.

READ the entire article.