| Nachruf | |
| Key: | C minor |
| Catalogue: | WAB 81a |
| Text: | Heinrich von der Mattig |
| Language: | German |
| Dedication: | In memory of |
| Vocal: | choir |
| Instrumental: | Organ |
("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.
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.[1] The work, of which the original manuscript is stored in the Library of Congress in Washington,[1] [2] was first issued in Band XXIII/2, No. 28a of the German: Gesamtausgabe.[3]
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,[4] [5] is put in Band XXIII/2, No. 28b of the German: Gesamtausgabe.[3]
Nachruf uses a text by Heinrich von der Mattig.
You have from a chequered chaos of soundQuite often in free organ playDriven artfully the melodiesTo devout harmonies. Therefore may it roar in the organ's streamAnd whiz today in stormy chords:You will never be forgotten here on earth:You gave us art, now rest in peace |
The second setting as Trösterin Musik uses a text by August Seuffert.
| You lovely creation, Full of high power and sweet mildness,We feel double deep your motion,When sorrow has split our hearts. The clouded pressure of the waves of painIt softens by your sounds,Smoothly all the flows travelIn the wide sea of harmonies. Like the tone of the organ and the waves of the sea,The consolation draws then into the heart,And calms the wild longings of the soulAnd loosens the pain in mild tears. |
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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".[1] The song ends a cappella pianissimo on "nun ruh' in Frieden!".
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.[6]
There is only one recording with the original text as Nachruf:
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: