ANTON BRUCKNER Locus Iste
This month Bridget Mermikides arranges and transcribes Bruckner’s sublimely serene but approachable and satisfying choral ‘motet’.
This month Bridget arranges a stunningly beautiful choral work by this brilliant Austrian composer, often used for church dedications.
In this issue, we look at a work by a new composer in this series, the Austrian theorist, organist and composer Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). His compositions were well informed by years of humble study and dedication as a student, teacher and well-respected organist; and only started composing at the age of 37. When he did so his music had a wild, modernist and dissonant flavour which belied his humble and diffident manner. These were met with some controversy and disdain, which did not help his lifelong issues with anxiety and depression, and he often revised his works on the basis of such criticism (which incidentally has created a real challenge in the cataloguing of his works). Despite this contemporaneous resistance and a faltering confidence, his work is highly praised by other composers at the time and since, and he successfully forged a bold new symphonic and compositional style. As such - alongside his friend and admirer, Gustav Mahler -he might be seen as a key ancestor of the 20th century modernist movement.
None of his bombastic symphonic style (although some deep harmony) is evident in this issue’s piece, the sublimely serene Locus Iste. Written in 1869 for four unaccompanied voices, this motet was composed to mark the dedication of a new chapel in Austria. Despite its deep profundity, it is relatively easy to perform hence its continuing popularity for choirs of all levels.
Written in C Major, only 48 bars long and largely very tonal there are some sumptuous moments of expressive chromaticism which are a joy to hear and play. I’ve transposed the original key to A Major to make it more idiomatic and sonorous on the guitar, but is otherwise very faithful to the original. The challenge however is to allow these vocal lines to sustain through, as it’s the guitar’s natural tendency to clip them short if one is not focusing on that. There are other issues of plucking-hand security which are addressed in the tab captions. However, this is otherwise quite an approachable piece in duration and challenge, and with a beautiful but satisfying expressive harmony and melody.
This serene and beautiful piece of music is less technically challenging than many of the classical arrangements usually presented here in GT. Being a four-part harmony choral work, it translates very well to chord shapes on the guitar - the transposition from the original key of C Major down to A Major is designed to help us reach the melody and harmony as successfully as possible.
NEXT MONTH Bridget tabs Bunyan’s To Be A Pilgrim (He Who Would Valiant Be)
WRITTEN IN 1869 FOR FOUR UNACCOMPANIED VOICES, THIS MOTET WAS COMPOSED TO MARK THE DEDICATION OF A NEW CHAPEL IN AUSTRIA