Josef Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) was an Austrian
composer, organist, and music theorist best known for
his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The first
are considered emblematic of the final stage of
Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich
harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and
considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to
define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their
dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving
harmonies.
Afferentur ...(+)
Josef Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) was an Austrian
composer, organist, and music theorist best known for
his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The first
are considered emblematic of the final stage of
Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich
harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and
considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to
define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their
dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving
harmonies.
Afferentur regi (Led to the king), WAB 1, is a motet,
which Anton Bruckner composed on 7 November 1861 on the
text of the Offertorium of the Missa pro Virgine et
Martyre. It is the second of the two "great motets"
during a "fruitful though brief" period of Bruckner's
compositional career following Sechter's tuition, the
other motet being the Ave Maria WAB 6. Afferentur regi
was premiered in St. Florian Abbey on the feast day of
Saint Lucy, 13 December 1861.
An early draft for choir alone was found in a monastic
archive at Kremsmünster Abbey. The original manuscript
is not extant, but several transcriptions were found in
the archive of St. Florian Abbey. Many years later, in
1885, Bruckner dedicated the work as an Offertorium als
Graduale (offertory as gradual) to Johann Baptist
Burgstaller, choir director of the New Cathedral in
Linz.
The 38-bars piece scored in F major for mixed choir and
three trombones ad libitum is a polyphonic offertory.
The piece is in ternary form, with an opening motive
drawn from a pre-existing Latin plainchant. In the
first part (bars 1–7), "Afferentur regi" is sung in
canon by the alto and tenor voices, and with inverted
motif by the bass and soprano voices. A similar pattern
is repeated in bars 8–15 on "proximae ejus". The
middle section (bars 15–24), which begins with "et
exultatione" by the bass, similarly as "usque in
aeternum" in bars 299-309 of Bruckner's later Te Deum,
is stylistically similar to faux bourdon, a technique
employed primarily in medieval and Renaissance music.
It is followed by a general pause. The third part (bars
25–38) on "adducentur in templum" begins as the first
part and ends on a pedal point on the tonic.
Keith W. Kinder suggests that its use of counterpoint
may be a reflection of Bruckner's sense of liberation
from the "prohibition on free composition" imposed by
his former composition teacher, Simon Sechter. Dermot
Gault notes that in this work Bruckner "wears his
learning lightly" in the contrapuntal writing.
Bruckner quoted from the Afferentur regi in the
movement Qui cum Patre et Filio, part of the Credo of
the Mass in D minor.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria_(Bruckner))
Although originally composed for Voice (SATB), I
created this arrangement of the Offertory: Afferentur
regi (WAB 1) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French Horn &
Bassoon) and Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION