The piece is composed for eight-part mixed choir and wind instruments (2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets and 3 trombones).

It is based strongly on old-church music tradition, and particularly old Gregorian style singing.
The Kyrie is almost entirely made up of a cappella singing for eight voices.
The Gloria ends with a fugue, as in Bruckner's other masses.
In the Sanctus, Bruckner uses a theme from Palestrina's Missa Brevis.

According to the Catholic practice – as also in Bruckner’s preceding Messe für den Gründonnerstag, Missa solemnis and Mass No.
1 – the first verse of the Gloria and the Credo is not composed and has to be intoned by the priest in Gregorian mode before the choir goes on.

The setting is divided into six parts.

Kyrie – Ruhig Sostenuto, E minor
Gloria – Allegro, C major
Credo – Allegro, C major
Sanctus – Andante, G major
Benedictus – Moderato, C major
Agnus Dei – Andante, E minor veering to E major
Total duration: about 40 minutes

Previously Bruckner had been criticized for "simply writing symphonies with liturgical text," and although the Cecilians were not entirely happy with the inclusion of wind instruments, "Franz Xaver Witt loved it, no doubt rationalizing the use of wind instruments as necessary under the circumstances of outdoor performance for which Bruckner wrote the piece."

The Mass in E minor ... is a work without parallel in either 19th- or 20th-century church music. …
Even as Bishop Rudigier was laying the foundation stone for a new cathedral, Bruckner too was beginning to raise a cathedral in music.
The piece is composed for eight-part mixed choir and wind instruments (2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets and 3 trombones).
It is based strongly on old-church music tradition, and particularly old Gregorian style singing. The Kyrie is almost entirely made up of a cappella singing for eight voices. The Gloria ends with a fugue, as in Bruckner's other masses. In the Sanctus, Bruckner uses a theme from Palestrina's Missa Brevis.
According to the Catholic practice – as also in Bruckner’s preceding Messe für den Gründonnerstag, Missa solemnis and Mass No. 1 – the first verse of the Gloria and the Credo is not composed and has to be intoned by the priest in Gregorian mode before the choir goes on.
The setting is divided into six parts.
Kyrie – Ruhig Sostenuto, E minor
Gloria – Allegro, C major
Credo – Allegro, C major
Sanctus – Andante, G major
Benedictus – Moderato, C major
Agnus Dei – Andante, E minor veering to E major
Total duration: about 40 minutes

Previously Bruckner had been criticized for "simply writing symphonies with liturgical text," and although the Cecilians were not entirely happy with the inclusion of wind instruments, "Franz Xaver Witt loved it, no doubt rationalizing the use of wind instruments as necessary under the circumstances of outdoor performance for which Bruckner wrote the piece."
The Mass in E minor ... is a work without parallel in either 19th- or 20th-century church music. … Even as Bishop Rudigier was laying the foundation stone for a new cathedral, Bruckner too was beginning to raise a cathedral in music.
Mass No. 2 (Bruckner)