Josef Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) was an Austrian composer and organist best known for his symphonies and sacred music, which includes Masses, Te Deum and motets. The symphonies are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and considerable length. His compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies.

Unlike other musical radicals such as Richard Wagner and Hugo Wolf, Bruckner showed respect, even humility, before other famous musicians, Wagner in particular. This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his life in a way that gives a straightforward context for his music. Hans von Bülow described him as "half genius, half simpleton". Bruckner was critical of his own work and often reworked his compositions. There are several versions of many of his works.

His works, the symphonies in particular, had detractors, most notably the influential Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick and other supporters of Johannes Brahms, who pointed to their large size and use of repetition, as well as to Bruckner's propensity for revising many of his works, often with the assistance of colleagues, and his apparent indecision about which versions he preferred. On the other hand, Bruckner was greatly admired by subsequent composers, including his friend Gustav Mahler.

Zur Vermählungsfeier ("For the wedding ceremony"), WAB 54, is a wedding song composed by Anton Bruckner on 27 November 1878. He composed the setting for the wedding ceremony of his landlord Anton Ölzelt Ritter von Newin with Amalie Edler von Wieser. The piece was intended to be performed during the ceremony in the church of the Klosterneuburg Abbey. However, the ceremony did not occur, because the groom was a Protestant. The original manuscript is stored in the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. It was first published in the yearbook of the Klosterneuburg Abbey (Vienna & Leipzig) in 1910. It has been re-edited by Wöss in 1921 together with the Ave Regina caelorum, WAB 8. It is put in Band XXIII/2, No. 30 of the Gesamtausgabe.

It is not known when the piece was performed first. A performance by the Hilliard Ensemble occurred on 15 September 1993 during the 20th Brucknerfest.

Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zur_Verm%C3%A4hlungsfeie r,_WAB_54).

Although originally created for Male Chorus (TTBB), I created this Interpretation of "Zur Vermählungsfeier" ("For the wedding ceremony WAB 54) in D Major for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).