Josef Anton Bruckner was born on September 4, 1824 in
the upper Austrian town of Ansfelden. His father was a
schoolteacher and church organist, and Bruckner's
initial studies followed similar lines. When Bruckner
was 13, his father died, and he enrolled in the church
school at St. Florian (some ten miles from Linz) as a
chorister. There, he studied organ, piano, and music
theory.
At the age of 16, he entered a teacher-training school
in Linz, and began work as a schoolteacher at St.
Fl...(+)
Josef Anton Bruckner was born on September 4, 1824 in
the upper Austrian town of Ansfelden. His father was a
schoolteacher and church organist, and Bruckner's
initial studies followed similar lines. When Bruckner
was 13, his father died, and he enrolled in the church
school at St. Florian (some ten miles from Linz) as a
chorister. There, he studied organ, piano, and music
theory.
At the age of 16, he entered a teacher-training school
in Linz, and began work as a schoolteacher at St.
Florian in 1845. He became the cathedral organist in
1848. At St. Florian he began to compose sacred music.
In 1855, he went to Vienna to formally study harmony
and counterpoint at the Vienna Conservatory under
Professor Simon Sechter. The next year, he became the
cathedral organist in Linz, and began studies in
orchestration with Otto Kitzler, a cellist who
introduced Bruckner to Wagner's operas.
The course of Anton Bruckner's musical development may
have taken a new turn when he first made the
acquaintance of Wagner's music in the 1860s, but to
regard him as a simple musical offshoot of Wagner, a
disciple who brought to the symphony something of what
Wagner brought to music drama, is both inaccurate and
unfair. Indeed, an understanding of Bruckner's own
sacred music—both the large masses and such smaller
works as the a cappella motet Virga Jesse floruit of
1885—provides many keys to understanding Bruckner's
immense symphonic works. Virga Jesse floruit, which is
one of comparatively few sacred works composed after
Bruckner turned to symphonies, reminds us once again
that even the idea of classifying Bruckner as a
Romantic is not without problems. His musical mind-set
was, as has often and rightly been observed, more of
the Renaissance or even the pre-Renaissance than
nineteenth century modern, and no amount of chromatic
elaboration and structural expansion can hide the fact
that, psychologically speaking, his symphonies have
nothing whatever to do with the throbbing, searching
new ways of Liszt, Wagner, and company. In Virga Jesse
floruit, Bruckner very consciously draws on an ancient
musical heritage, spinning out rich, pure lines in a
style reminiscent of Palestrina and the stile antico.
It is as if time itself has no meaning to Bruckner, and
in his music-making—long or short, old or new—his
identity remains the same.
"Virga Jesse Foruit" is one of Bruckner's most famous
pieces; it is sung at Christmas by choirs, amateur and
professional, around the globe. The brief gradual text
translates something as follows: "The rod of Jesse
flourished; a virgin produced both God and man: and God
restored peace, reconciling both lowest and highest
within Himself. Alleluia." Bruckner's 92 measures of
music move from a group of isolated phrases at the
beginning of the piece through some expansive imitative
play on the text "pacem Deus reddidit," and finally to
the staggered alleluias, at first ecstatic and then
absolutely tender, that fill the final third of this
most effective piece.
Although this piece was originally written for Voices
(SATB), I arranged it for Wind Ensemble (Flute, Oboe,
English Horn, Bb Clarinet, French Horn, Alto Horn, Bass
Clarinet & Bassoon).
PARTITION