("Wedding chorus"), WAB 49, is a wedding song composed by Anton Bruckner on 8 January 1865.
History Bruckner composed the setting for the wedding ceremony of his friend Karl Kerschbaum, chairman of the Liedertafel Frohsinn, with Maria Schimatschek, a concert singer and daughter of Franz Schimatschek.C. Howie, Chapter III, p. 94 The sacred piece was performed by Frohsinn, with Bruckner at the organ, on 5 February 1865 during the celebration of the wedding in the Linzer Stadtpfarrkirche (Linz Parish Church).C. van Zwol, p. 724
The original manuscript is stored in the Frohsinn-archive of the Linzer Singakademie. After this single performance the music fell into oblivion. It was first published in band III/2, pp. 219–224 of the Göllerich/Auer biography. It is put in Band XXIII/2, No. 18 of the .Gesamtausgabe – Weltliche Chöre
Text The work uses a text by Franz Isidor Proschko. O beautiful day, o three times blessed hour, When I received the new sacrament, When God's priest blessed my hand To the holy band, which only death will cut.
If you want to walk softly like angels Your way through this time, Take in mind, take in action Only peace as your guidance!
Music The in total 55-bar long work in F major is scored for choir, voice quartet, and organ. The setting of the first strophe (bars 1 to 17) is sung by the choir. The setting of the second strophe (bars 18 to 38) is sung by the vocal quartet. Thereafter the setting of the first strophe is repeated da capo.
In the newspaper Linzer Zeitung of 8 February 1865 the work was praised as a unique product of a creative spirit (originelle Geistesschöpfung).
Discography There are two recordings of the Trauungschor: Thomas Kerbl, Chorvereinigung Bruckner 08, Anton Bruckner Männerchöre – CD: LIVA 027, 2008 * Yoshihiko Iwasa, MGV Tokyo Lieder Tafel 1925 (TLT), MGV Tokyo Lieder Tafel 1925 - CD issued by the choir, 2016
References
Sources August Göllerich, Anton Bruckner. Ein Lebens- und Schaffens-Bild, – posthumous edited by Max Auer by G. Bosse, Regensburg, 1932 Anton Bruckner – Sämtliche Werke, Band XXIII/2: Weltliche Chorwerke (1843–1893), Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Angela Pachovsky and Anton Reinthaler (Editor), Vienna, 1989 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
Trauungs-Chor F-Dur, WAB 49 Critical discography by Hans Roelofs