Catalogue WAB 4 | ||
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Composed 1843/1844 (1843/1844): Kronstorf | ||
Asperges me (Thou wilt sprinkle me), WAB 4, is a sacred motet composed by Anton Bruckner. It is a setting of the Latin Asperges me, the antiphon used for the celebration of Asperges.
Contents
History
In 1843/1844, Bruckner composed this first setting of Aperges me during his stay in Kronstorf. It is not known when it was performed at that time.
The work, the original manuscript of which is lost, exists as a transcription by Arthur Bauer. The motet was first published in band III/II, pp. 140-141 of the Göllerich/Auer biography. It is put in Band XXI/4 of the Gesamtausgabe.
Music
The work is a setting of 32 bars in F major of the Asperges me for mixed choir a cappella.
According to the Catholic practice, the incipit ("Asperges me") is not composed and has to be intoned by the priest in Gregorian mode before the choir is going on. The score is in two parts. Part 1 (7 bars) begins with "Domine, hysopo" and ends with "dealbabor". Part 2 (18 bars) begins with the remaining of the text, and follows by the doxology ("Gloria Patri") and the repeat in unison of the incipit.Thereafter part 1 has is repeated da capo. Alike the contemporaneous Kronstorfer Messe, the second part of the score contains audacious modulations.
Discography
There is a single commercial recording of Bruckner's first Asperges me: