Concert Notes

Bruckner: Mass in E minor

Bruckner's three Masses of the 1860s (in D minor, E minor, and F minor) are considered the first fruits of his maturity as a composer. Of these three, the works in D minor and F minor are what Derek Watson calls "symphonic masses," following in a tradition developed by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven; Bruckner's use of the orchestra in these works also intimated ideas he would express more fully as a symphonist. The Mass in E minor is treated differently by commentators, prized above all for its originality and individuality. Bruckner chose to write this Mass for eight-part chorus, winds, and brass, a unique combination of forces; and in it he demonstrated triumphantly the expressive strategies he had learned from a study of choral polyphony going back to the Italian Renaissance.

He also displayed a willingness to push his singers to their limits. The writing for all parts is demanding in terms of range, the harmonies are often unconventional, and the chorus must avoid drifting from the correct pitch during long passsages of a cappella singing--or incur embarrassment when the instrumental accompaniment suddenly reappears.

The opening of the Kyrie--stated by the women and repeated in modified form by the men--is an invocation in four-part texture characterized by the dissonant interval of the second. Intensity builds to a fortissimo climax on "Christe eleison," then subsides to the original mood of hushed supplication. In contrast, the Gloria (after the plainsong intonation of the opening words) begins with a motoric bassoon figure whose cheerful energy pervades the ensemble. A poignant interlude corresponds to the text "Qui tollis peccata mundi . . . miserere nobis," followed by the return of the allegro bassoon motif, and the movement closes with a harmonically adventurous fugato on "Amen."

The Credo, like the Gloria, begins with a plainsong intonation--a feature suggesting that Bruckner intended this Mass for liturgical use. (Its premiere, however, was given outdoors, to celebrate the consecration of a chapel in the cathedral of Linz, Austria, where Bruckner served as organist.) This movment follows a pattern familiar from the Classical Mass tradition: a spirited beginning, the mood then shifting to tenderness at "Et incarnatus est" and to pathos at "Crucifixus," then a rousing depiction of the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Last Judgment. Bruckner rounds out the Credo by bringing back the opening melody for the words "Et in Spiritum Sanctum."

In the Sanctus, the techniques of Renaissance canonic writing, along with a direct quotation from the Missa Brevis of Palestrina, are used to create a meditative structure that gradually rises to a peak of exaltation. In the Benedictus, Bruckner brings together traditional sonata form and achingly chromatic harmonies that seem to look ahead at least as far as Debussy. And in the Agnus Dei, the plea for compassion addressed to the Savior is matched with melodic figures that suggest a soul in torment by the way they move between widely distant pitches; in Derek Watson's image, they are "cries of 'miserere' . . . which stand like great Gothic arches." All the more impressive after this troubled counterpoint is the serenity conveyed by the work's closing cadence.