(To Thee, Lord, to Thee will I surrender myself), WAB 12, is a sacred motet composed by Anton Bruckner in .

History Bruckner composed the motet in either during his stay in Kronstorf or at the beginning of his stay in St. Florian Abbey. The original manuscript, on which the Tantum ergo, WAB 43 is also found, is in the archive of the St. Florian Abbey.C. van Zwol, pp. 701 The motet was first published in volume II/3, pp. 114–115 of the Göllerich/Auer biography. It is put in volume XXI/9 of the .Gesamtausgabe - Kleine Kirchenmusikwerke

Text

|style="padding-left:2em;"|To Thee, Lord, to Thee will I surrender myself, Thee, whose property I am. Thou alone, Thou art my life, and so death then becomes to me a gain. I live for Thee, I die for Thee, that Thou alone be mine, so am I fulfilled.Text on ChoralWiki

This text, which was also used by Felix Mendelssohn in his oratorio Paulus, is based on the ninth verse of the hymn Herr Gott, du kennest meine Tage by Ludwig Rudolph von Senftt zu Pilsach over the Stoning of Stephen.Ulrich Schröter, „Dir, Herr, dir will ich mich ergeben“. Bibel und Gesangbuch in Mendelssohns „Paulus“, Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 64: 1, 2007

Music The 32-bar work in A major is a chorale for mixed choir a cappella.

As Crawford Howie writes, "both In jener letzten der Nächte WAB 17 () and Dir, Herr, dir will ich mich ergeben WAB 12 () for a cappella mixed-voice choir are chorale harmonizations, probably the result of his studies with Zenetti."C. Howie, Chapter II, p. 26

Selected discography There are only a few recordings of Dir, Herr, dir will ich mich ergeben: Balduin Sulzer, Chor des Linzer Musikgymnasiums, Stiftskirche Wilhering - Geistliche Musik – CD: Preiserrecords 90052CD, Thomas Kerbl, Chorvereinigung Bruckner 2011, Anton Bruckner: Lieder/Magnificat – CD: LIVA 046, 2011 Philipp von Steinäcker, Vocalensemble Musica Saeculorum, Bruckner: Pange lingua - Motetten - CD: Fra Bernardo FB 1501271, 2015

References

Sources August Göllerich, Anton Bruckner. Ein Lebens- und Schaffens-Bild, – posthumous edited by Max Auer by G. Bosse, Regensburg, 1932 Max Auer, Anton Bruckner als Kirchenmusiker, G. Bosse, Regensburg, 1927 Anton Bruckner – Sämtliche Werke, Band XXI: Kleine Kirchenmusikwerke, Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Hans Bauernfeind and Leopold Nowak (Editor), Vienna, 1984/2001 Cornelis van Zwol, Anton Bruckner 1824–1896 – Leven en werken, uitg. Thoth, Bussum, Netherlands, 2012. Crawford Howie, Anton Bruckner - A documentary biography, online revised edition

External links

Dir, Herr, dir will ich mich ergeben, Choral A-Dur, WAB 12 Critical discography by Hans Roelofs Dir, Herr, dir will ich mich ergeben, WAB 12, Leon Chu conducting the Choir of the Chinese University of Hong Kong - Live, Chung Chi Chapel, 18 April 2024 There is also a transcription of the motet as Ave verum corpus: Ave Verum Corpus - Anton Bruckner