"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was seated on a high throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphim stood above him. Each had six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They called to one another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his glory. The doorposts shook at their loud cry, and the temple was filled with smoke" (Isaiah 6:1–4).

This vision of an ancient prophet dates back to the 8th century before our era. In the course of religious history, it became part of the Catholic Mass as it existed in the 19th century. Emerging from this long ritual tradition of liturgies, Bruckner ultimately became one of the greatest symphonists of the 19th century.

In his church music practice as a young composing (assistant) organist in Windhaag, Kronsdorf, St. Florian and Linz, Anton Bruckner acquired ever more perfect knowledge of counterpoint and composition. He once said that he had ‘grown up with church music’. His main musical goal became increasingly the composition of symphonies. To this end, he wanted to move to Vienna to professionally complete what he had begun with his earlier symphonies in the music city of Vienna. His Catholic religiosity had a formative influence on both his church music and his symphonies, which does not mean that Bruckner was uncritically pious. After all, Bruckner also read and reviewed David Friedrich Strauss' book ‘The Life of Jesus, Critically Revised’ (first published in 1835-36) ‘calmly and objectively’ (cf. Rüdiger Görner, Bruckner. Der Anarch in der Musik, p. 340). Existentially, Bruckner went through severe psychological crises, where even his faith did not simply help.

In the spring of 1867, he received a commission from the Vienna Court Orchestra to write a new mass. Bruckner had already set several masses to music since his time with Windhaag, and they had become increasingly longer and more elaborate. In the summer of 1867, he suffered a mental breakdown and had to undergo hydrotherapy in Bad Kreuzen. After his recovery, he began work on the mass. A third-hand account has been handed down of the old Bruckner saying: ‘On Christmas Eve 1867, after an hour of fervent prayer, the melody of the Benedictus for the F minor Mass came to him, with which he, who had been close to madness, found himself again.’ (Contained in the new, excellent biography: Felix Diergarten, Anton Bruckner. Ein Leben mit Musik [A Life with Music], p. 90). However genuine this memory may be, Bruckner then reused this melody in the slow movement of his Second Symphony, as it was obviously very important to him, especially in religious terms.

Because the premiere of the Mass in F minor (Bruckner himself called it a Mass in F!) was delayed – the reasons for this can no longer be ascertained – Bruckner later organised and conducted the premiere on 16 June 1872 at his own expense. His own costs amounted to two and a half times more than Bruckner earned in a month at the time!

Listen here:

Sanctus
Benedictus