Locus iste (Bruckner)

 (English: This place), WAB 23, is a sacred motet composed by Anton Bruckner in 1869. The text is the Latin gradual Locus iste for the annual celebration of a church's dedication. The incipit, , translates to "This place was made by God". Bruckner set it for four unaccompanied voices, intended for the dedication of the "" (votive chapel) at the New Cathedral in Linz, Austria, where Bruckner had been a cathedral organist. It was the first motet that Bruckner composed in Vienna. It was published in 1886, together with three other gradual motets.
As a composition with no obvious technical difficulty, it has been performed by church choirs and by professionals, often to celebrate church dedications.
History.
Bruckner composed "Locus iste" on 11 August 1869. It was intended for the dedication ceremony of the ' () at the New Cathedral in Linz, Austria. The New Cathedral was under construction since 1862, and the ' was completed in 1869 as its first section. At that time Bruckner lived in Vienna, teaching at the Vienna Conservatory as a professor of harmony and counterpoint, and at the Vienna University as a part-time lecturer from 1876. He had a strong connection to the Old Cathedral of Linz, where he had been the organist from 1855 to 1868. He had already been commissioned by Bishop Franz-Josef Rudigier to compose a Festive Cantata for the laying of the foundation stone of the new cathedral, and composed "Preiset den Herrn" (Praise the Lord) on a text by Maximilian Pammesberger, which was performed on 1 May 1862 on the building site.
The Latin text of "Locus iste" is the gradual , part of the proper of the mass for "Kirchweih", the anniversary of a church's dedication. While some sources claim that the motet was first performed on the dedication day, 29 September 1869, together with the first performance of Bruckner's Mass in E minor, it was actually performed four weeks later, on 29 October, at the same location. Bruckner dedicated the work to Oddo Loidol, one of his students at the Vienna Conservatory. It was Bruckner's first motet composed in Vienna.
The motet, the manuscript of which is put in the collection Dr Wilhelm, Bottmingen, was edited together with three other motets based on graduals (', WAB 11, ', WAB 30, and ', WAB 52) by Theodor Rättig, Vienna in 1886. ' is often performed on the anniversary of a church's dedication. It is put in Band XXI/25 of the "".
Music.
The motet is scored for an unaccompanied mixed choir. It is in the key of C major and in common time, has 48 bars and takes about three minutes to perform. The text concentrates on the concept of the sacred place, based on the Biblical story of Jacob's Ladder, Jacob's saying "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not" (), and the story of the burning bush where Moses is told "put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" ().
Bruckner structured the three lines of the text in an ABA da capo form, closed by a coda, with A containing the first line, framing the second and third. Peter Strasser suggests that the work reflects elements of architecture, such as in the symmetry of the da capo form and the use of motifs like building blocks.
The motet is marked "Allegro moderato" and begins calmly in homophony. Max Auer notes that the beautiful work has touches with Mozart's "Ave verum". A. Crawford Howie notes further that the work "begins with Mozartian phrases, but soon introduces characteristic Brucknerian progressions". The repeat of the first line, beginning one step higher, is marked , confirming " higher and stronger, then repeating it softly. The bass begins each ". Musicologist Anthony Carver notes here as in many of Bruckner's motets the "isolation of the bass part at structurally important points". The bass also begins the second line with a new rising motif, marked ; the upper voices follow in homophony. The line is repeated as a sequence a whole tone higher, marked . After a pause of half a bar, the tenor alone begins in sudden the middle section on a repeated note, imitated by soprano and alto. Throughout the section, only the upper voices, without a bass foundation, sing in chromaticism, beginning in undefined tonality. In a gradual "crescendo", the intensity is heightened, but only to . Iso Camartin notes in an article dedicated to the work in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung: "das unanfechtbare Geheimnis" (the irreproachable mystery) appears as "unfassbar" (incomprehensible) and "beunruhigend" (disturbing), described by Ryan Turner as "transparently chromatic".
After another rest of half a bar, the first line is repeated. Instead of the last ", the word " is extended to the only melisma of the otherwise austere, strictly syllabic composition. The author of the program notes for an Oratorio Society of New York CD that includes the motet writes that the melisma "spins an ethereal spell". It leads to a long general pause, achieved "by carefully measuring out five beats", before "" is repeated a final time, concluding "peacefully and serenely". The author of the Oratorio Society notes concludes by stating that """ is a hauntingly beautiful work reminiscent of the quiet chapel it honored". Writing for "Gramophone", Malcolm Riley called it "sublime (and deceptively difficult)".
Selected discography.
The first recording of Bruckner's "Locus iste" occurred in the beginning of the 20th century:
A selection of the over 200 recordings of Bruckner's "Locus iste":