Te Deum

Te Deum: allegro

Te ergo quaesumus: moderato

Aeterna fac: allegro

Salvum fac: moderato - allegro

In te, Domine, speravi: mässig bewegt

On the title page of Mahler’s copy of the Te Deum the direction “for chorus, soloists, orchestra and organ ad libitum” is replaced in his own hand by the words “for angels’ tongues, God-seekers, troubled hearts and souls purified by fire.” Clearly, although the Te Deum has less in common with his own music than most of Bruckner’s works, Mahler was profoundly impressed by the massive sincerity contained within its relatively small-scale structure. Completed in March 1884, six months after the Seventh Symphony, in comparison with that work, it seems not only short but almost stark in its simplicity - in the regular structural pattern, the fidelity to C major, the use of the primary vocal colours, and the straightforward choral textures which prevail until (as an inspired afterthought) they spectacularly divide in the brief but complex double fugue on In te, Domine, speravi. In some ways it resembles Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, which is neither short nor simple but which is similarly inocent of seductive guile, voluptuous detail and easy compromise.

Te Deum

At the beginning of the Te Deum - with the chorus in unison doubled by brass alternating the two notes C and G against an ostinato of the same two notes on strings in octaves - Bruckner’s vision is presented in its elemental simplicity. This is the point to which the work periodically and finally returns. The ostinato of fourths and fifths, which was fundamental to Bruckner’s conception of the Te Deum from the moment he started work on it in 1881, is present in one form or another in all the choral movements. A variant of it runs through the first solo ensemble, which offers valuable lyrical contrast with a useful change of harmony, and it returns in its original form when the chorus brings the key back to C major on Sanctus and back again on Te gloriosus. The chorus remains in rhythmic unison until Tu ad liberandum and divides into counterpoint for the first time at Tu devicto mortis - only, of course, to make an affirmatory return to C major, in company with the ostinato on the strings, at Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes.

Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur.

Te aeternum Patrem, omnis terra veneratur.

Tibi omnes Angeli, tibi coeli et universae

potestates:

Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim, incessabili voce

proclamant:

Sanctus: Sanctus: Sanctus Dominus Deus

Sabaoth.

Pleni sunt coeli et terra majestatis gloriae

tuae.

Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus:

Te Phrophetarum laudabilis numerus:

Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.

Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia:

Patrem immensae majestatis:

Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium:

Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.

Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.

Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.

Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non

horruisti Virginis uterum.

Tu devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus

regna coelorum.

Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris.

Judex crederis esse venturus.

We praise thee, O God: we acknowledge

thee to be the Lord.

All the earth doth worship thee, the Father

everlasting.

To thee all Angels cry aloud, the Heavens,

and all the Powers therein.

To thee Cherubin, and Seraphin, continually

do cry:

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.

Heaven and earth are full of thy

Majesty and Glory.

The glorious company of the Apostles,

the goodly fellowship of the Prophets,

the noble army of Martyrs praise thee.

The holy Church throughout all the world

doth acknowledge thee;

the Father, of an infinite Majesty:

thine honourable, true and only Son;

also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.

Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.

The art the everlasting Son of the Father.

When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man,

thou didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb.

When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death,

thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven

to all believers.

Thou sittest at the right hand of God, in the

Glory of the Father.

We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge.

Te ergo quaeseumus - Aeterna fac - Salvum fac

The two most expressive episodes in the work are the Te ergo quaesumus and the first part of Salvum fac. They are both in F minor and both are led by the tenor, who is joined by the other soloists at the cadences in Te ergo quaesumus and by the chorus as well in Solvum fac. The relationship between the Te Deum and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis seems to be confirmed, incidentally, when the violin solo introduced as a radiant contrast to the sombre clarinet and viola colours in Te ergo returns in Salvum fac on the words et benedic - which is more or less where Bethoven’s violin solo comes in.

Between the two F minor episodes, the chorus Aeterna fac echoes the opening of the work but in the wrong key. There is no danger of disorientation, however, for Salvum fac runs straight into an elemental C major chorus on Per singuloso dies, which is confirmation enough even though the movement ends uncertainly in a quiet prayer reflecting the contrapuntal Tu devicto mortis in the first movement.

Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni, quos

pretioso sanguine redemisti.

Aeterna fac cum Sanctis tuis in gloria numerai.

Salvum fac populum tuum Domine, et benedic

haereditati tuae.

Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.

Per singulos dies benedicimus te.

Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum, et in

saeculum saeculi.

Dignare Domine die isto sine peccato nos custodire.

Miserere nostri Domine.

Fiat misericordia tua Domine super nos, quem

admodum speravimus in te.

We therefore pray thee, help thy servants,

whom thou hast redeemed with thy

precious blood.

Make them to be numbered with thy

Saints in glory everlasting.

O Lord, save thy people, and bless

thine heritage.

Govern them, and lift them up for ever.

Day by day we magnify thee;

and we worship thy Name, ever world

without end.

Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day

without sin.

O Lord have mercy upon us.

O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us,

as our trust is in thee.

In te Domine speravi

The last movement opens in C major with a solo ensemble which quotes on Non confundar the noble phrase which Bruckner had already used in the Adagio of the Seventh Symphony. The choral fugue, though based on two themes - one introduced by sopranos on In te, Domine, the other by the altos on Non confundar - is short and, instead of rising to the expected climax, it gradually disintegrates. The soloists introduce another theme from the Seventh Symphony, and it is on this that the ostinato makes its return, at first over a chorus in B major but finally - and after a brief fanfare on the brass - as part of a brilliant C major reflection of the elemental opening chorus.

In te Domine speravi: non confundar

in aeternum.

O Lord, in thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded.

programme notes by Gerald Larner©