Psalm 146 (Bruckner)

Psalm 146 in A major (WAB 37) by Anton Bruckner is a psalm setting for eight-part double mixed choir, four soloists and orchestra. It is a setting of verses 1 to 11 of Psalm 147, which is Psalm 146 in the Vulgata.

History

It is not known what occasion prompted Bruckner to compose this large-scale work or whether there was any performance in Bruckner's lifetime. The composition was presumably initiated during the St. Florian period (c. 1850) and completed in c. 1856 (at the latest 1858) in Linz, when Bruckner was studying with Simon Sechter.

A sketch of the work is stored in the archive of Wels. An incomplete manuscript and a completed copy with annotations are stored in the archive of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. A critical edition was published by Paul Hawkshaw in 1996 in Band XX/4 of the Gesamtausgabe.

The first performance of Bruckner's Psalm 146 by Wolfgang Riedelbauch with the Hans Sachs-Chor, the Lehrergesangverein Nürnberg and the Nürnberger Symphoniker occurred in the Meistersingerhalle of Nürnberg on 28 November 1971.
A second performance by Heinz Wallberg with the Niederösterreichiches Tonkünstler Orchester and the choir of the Wirtschaftsuniversität occurred twenty years later (Vienna, 10 November 1991). This performance was repeated one day later in Baden bei Biel, Switzerland.
The American premiere by Leon Botstein with the American Symphony Orchestra and the Canticum Novum Singers occurred about three years later, on 13 January 1995. The American premiere used the score prepared by Hawkshaw for the Bruckner's Gesamtausgabe.
Twenty years later, during the 25th Ebrach Summer Music Festival, a next performance by Gerd Schaller with the Philharmonie Festiva orchestra and the Philharmonic Choir of Munich occurred on 6 September 2015. Recordings of Wallberg's, Botstein's and Schaller's performances are put in the Bruckner archive.

Psalms

The Book of Psalms, Tehillim in Hebrew (תְּהִלִּים or תהילים meaning "Praises"), commonly referred to simply as Psalms or "the Psalms", is the first book of the Ketuvim ("Writings"), the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament. The title is derived from the Greek translation, ψαλμοί psalmoi, meaning "instrumental music" and, by extension, "the words accompanying the music." The book is an anthology of individual psalms, with 150 in the Jewish and Western Christian tradition and more in the Eastern Christian churches. Many of the psalms are linked to the name of King David, although his authorship is not accepted by modern Bible scholars.

Structure

Benedictions

The Book of Psalms is divided into five sections, each closing with a doxology (i.e., a benediction) – these divisions were probably introduced by the final editors to imitate the five-fold division of the Torah:

Psalm (disambiguation)

Psalms is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament.

Psalm may also refer to:

Psalm 79

Psalm 79 (Greek numbering: Psalm 78) is the 79th psalm in the biblical Book of Psalms.

Uses

Judaism

References