Nachruf, WAB 81a

 ("Obituary"), WAB 81a, is a song composed by Anton Bruckner in 1877 in memory of Joseph Seiberl. The song is better known as its 1886 reissue as ("Music, the Comforter"), WAB 81b.
History.
Bruckner composed the song on a text of Heinrich von der Mattig on 19 October 1877 in memory of his friend Joseph Seiberl, who died on 10 June 1877. The piece was performed nine days later by the Liedertafel Sängerbund in the St. Florian Abbey. The work, of which the original manuscript is stored in the Library of Congress in Washington, was first issued in Band XXIII/2, No. 28a of the "".
"Trösterin Musik".
In 1886 Rudolf Weinwurm asked August Seuffert, editor of the "Wiener Zeitung", to write another text to fit to Bruckner's "Nachruf". Weinwurm performed the revised setting as "Trösterin Musik" with the "Wiener Akademischer Gesangverein" in the "Musikvereinsaal" on 11 April 1886. The original manuscript is lost. A copy of it is stored in the "Österreichische Nationalbibliothek". The revised setting, which was first edited by Viktor Keldorfer (Universal Edition) in 1911, is put in Band XXIII/2, No. 28b of the "".
Text.
Nachruf uses a text by Heinrich von der Mattig.
Trösterin Musik.
The second setting as Trösterin Musik uses a text by August Seuffert.
Music.
The 51-bar long work in C minor is scored for choir and organ. The first 30 bars are sung "a cappella". The organ is set "fortissimo" (in "organo pleno" with pedal) on bar 31 by the text "Drum mag's im Orgelstrome brausen". The song ends "a cappella" "pianissimo" on "nun ruh' in Frieden!".
Selected discography.
In the original setting as Nachruf the organ accompaniment from bar 31 is meaningful because of the profession of the defunct. In the second setting as Trösterin Musik, the organ accompaniment can, as many performers are doing, be removed without harming the sense of the piece. The second strophe, which is a variant of the first is also often omitted.
"Nachruf".
There is only one recording of the original setting as "Nachruf":
"Trösterin Musik".
The first recording of "Trösterin Musik" was by Willi Schell with the Cronenberger Männerchor in 1956 – 45 rpm: Tonstudio Wolfgang Jakob (Dortmund)
A selection of the about 30 other recordings: