Te Deum
Arrangement for soli, choir, 2 pianos and timpani ad lib (arr. S. Bartmann) WAB 45
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, transcriptions of large (choral) symphonic works for two pianos were extremely popular: They enabled a large audience to get to know classical compositions in an age before recorded music. In many cases, world-famous works were first performed in such a version – including Bruckner’s Te Deum. Unfortunately, only a few bars of this transcription have survived.
The Stuttgart composer, pianist and experienced piano-duo performer Sebastian Bartmann was commissioned by the Landesakademie für die musizierende Jugend in Baden-Württemberg Ochsenhausen to newly arrange Bruckner’s Te Deum and the Mass in D minor for soloists, choir and two pianos. A timpani part (ad libitum) provides additional color. The arrangements are based on the original Carus editions. The vocal scores and choral scores of the original version can also be used.
Today the Te Deum is Bruckner’s most frequently performed vocal work. The greatest challenges for any choir are the high register and the enormous orchestration of this extremely effective piece: The singers are often required to declaim against a large orchestra performing forte fortissimo! This problem is resolved in the arrangement for two pianos; moreover, the scaling back of the sonic forces helps reveal compositional structures that otherwise can all too easily get lost in the intoxicating orchestral sound.
| Original version | Arrangement for two pianos |
| Soli SATB, Coro SATB, 2 Fl, 2 Clt, 2 Fg, 4 Cor, 2 Tr, 3 Trb, Tuba, Timp, 2 Vl, Va, Vc, Cb, Org | Soli SATB, Coro SATB, 2 Pfte |
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Composer
Anton Bruckner
| 1824-1896Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden (Austria) in 1824 and did not have a particularly easy life. The Austrian composer came from a simple, rural background and was plagued by self-doubt throughout his life. After the death of his father, he was accepted as a choirboy at St Florian's Abbey at the age of 13. After several years as a school assistant and self-taught organ and piano studies, he initially worked as an organist in St Florian. In 1855 he was appointed cathedral organist in Linz. After an introduction to music theory and instrumentation by Simon Sechter and Otto Kitzler, Bruckner discovered Richard Wagner as an artistic role model, whom he admired throughout his life and also visited several times in Bayreuth.
In 1868 Anton Bruckner became professor of basso continuo, counterpoint and organ at the Vienna Conservatory, ten years later court organist. In 1891 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna. He was regarded as an important organ virtuoso of his time, but his compositional recognition was a long time coming. It was not until the Symphony No. 7 in E major, composed between 1881 and 1883, with the famous Adagio, which was written under the impression of Wagner's death, that he received the recognition he had hoped for, even if he did not want to accept it in view of his tendency towards scepticism and self-criticism.
Anton Bruckner was a solitary composer who did not want to follow any school or doctrine. He wrote both sacred and secular works in all their facets. In addition to numerous motets, Bruckner composed three masses, the Missa Solemnis in B flat minor (1854) and the Te Deum (1881-84; CV 27.190/00), which is available from Carus-Verlag. As a symphonist, he wrote a total of nine symphonies and many symphonic studies from 1863 onwards, whereby he tended to revise finished versions several times. Bruckner's orchestral works were long considered unplayable, but for the tonal language of their time they were merely unusually bold sound monuments on the border between late Romanticism and Modernism, uniting traditions from Beethoven to Wagner and folk music.
Personal details
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Arranger
Sebastian Bartmann
| 1979
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