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.

Bruckner's Psalm 114, WAB 36, is a psalm setting of verses 1 to 9 of a German version of Psalm 116, which is Psalm 114 in the Vulgata (Psalm 116 is the 116th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications". It is part of the Egyptian Hallel sequence in the Book of Psalms). The work was composed in 1852 in St. Florian. Bruckner dedicated it to Hofkapelmeister Ignaz Assmayr for the celebration of his name-day. The work was rehearsed at that time, but it was not followed by a public performance. The original manuscript, which is somewhat incomplete in detail, is stored in the archive of the St. Florian Abbey.

The work was premiered by August Göllerich on 1 April 1906, using a copy of the manuscript. The work was first recorded by Matthew Best in 1987 and edited by Paul Hawkshaw in 1997 in Band XX/1 of the Gesamtausgabe, based on the dedicated Reinschrift, which had been retrieved in 1957 in a private collection in Vienna. During a concert on 25 June 2017 with the Missa solemnis, ?ukasz Borowicz with the RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin performed also Bruckner's Psalm 114. The later issued Accentus CD ACC 30429 of this concert did however not include this performance of Psalm 114.

The 209-bar long work in G major is written for five-part mixed choir (SAATB) and three trombones. "The music is at first of an impressive archaic austerity, bare in harmony, and strikingly simple in texture. E minor is the opening key, but G major ultimately dominates." The structure of the psalm, which is quite simple in concept, is grounded on liturgical practice. The composition begins with a four-phrase, homophonically constructed Alleluja, which serves as an antiphon to the psalm setting. The individual verses, with the exception of verses seven and eight, are clearly separated by strong cadences or a few beats of silence. "[Bruckner] relied to the trombones to reinforce contrasts delineated by the silences that would become so poignant in his later music." The trombones are so reinforcing the contrasts between "Es umgaben mich die Schmerzen des Todes" (shift to minor) and "Kehre zurück meine Seele" (return to major). The truly inspired work, which projects a profound understanding of the text, captivates the ear with interesting harmonies and varied timbres and textures. The final words of verse eight ("meinen Füße vom Falle."), which are set in a two-voice canon over a dominant pedal, provide an effective bridge to the large-scale, five-voice double fugue, which ends with a powerful unison on "im Lande der lebendigen.".

Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_114_(Bruckner))

Although originally composed for Mixed Choir (SAATB) and Trombones, I created this arrangement of "Psalm 114/116" (WAB 36) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French Horn & Bassoon) and Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).