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.
Christus fa...(+)
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.
Christus factus est ("Christ became obedient"), WAB 11,
is a sacred motet by Anton Bruckner, his third setting
of the Latin gradual Christus factus est, composed in
1884. Before, Bruckner composed in 1844 a first piece
on the same text as gradual of the Messe für den
Gründonnerstag (WAB 9), and in 1873 a motet (WAB 10)
for eight-part mixed choir, three trombones, and string
instruments ad libitum. The motet is an expressive
setting of the gradual, influenced by Wagner's
music.
Bruckner composed this motet, which uses the gradual of
Maundy Thursday, on 25 May 1884. The piece was
performed six months later, on 9 November, in the
Wiener Hofmusikkapelle. Bruckner dedicated the work to
Oddo Loidol, one of his students. The original
manuscript is in a private collection (Dr Wilhelm,
Bottmingen), but transcriptions of it are found in the
archives of the Abbey of Kremsmünster and the Austrian
National Library. The piece was published together with
three other graduals (Locus iste, WAB 23, Os justi, WAB
30, and Virga Jesse, WAB 52) by Theodor Rättig, Vienna
in 1886. The motet was published in volume XXI/30 of
the Gesamtausgabe.
In the first part (bars 1–19), till "mortem autem
crucis", the choir is singing in homophony. It
expresses in sombre lines how inhuman is God's demand
to implacable obedience to the death, even the death on
the cross. After a one-bar rest (bar 20), the motet
evolves in waves of intensification, with twice the
Dresdner Amen, on "exaltavit illum" (bars 23–24) and
"super omne nomen" (bars 37–38), respectively. After
a second one-bar rest (bar 56) it reaches a dramatic
climax (bars 57–62). Thereafter the motet is evolving
diminuendo and a gradual sorrowful rest returns with
the 8-bar coda in pianissimo, which is harmonically
similar to that of the previous setting of 1873.
Publisher Carus-Verlag summarizes that by means of
modulation and chromatic, Bruckner achieves heightened
expressiveness for the Passion text.
Bruckner composed the piece when he was in preparation
to have his Symphony No. 7 performed and revised his Te
Deum. The second part of the Grail motif from Wagner's
Parsifal which the composer had heard in Bayreuth in
1882 is also the Dresdner Amen.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Os_justi_(Bruckner))
Although originally composed for Chorus (SATB), I
created this arrangement of the Graduale: Christus
factus est (WAB 11) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French Horn
& Bassoon) and Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).