In What We Trust: programme notes

Classical Catholic

First, a step back in history. The Mass in E minor is undeniably a special work by a special composer. Though Bruckner himself didn’t see it like that. He continued to doubt his ability, kept on educating and improving himself until beyond his fortieth birthday. After the premiere of a work, he would obsessively write new versions of his music. There are various reworkings of this score too. Originally, the Mass in E minor was intended for the opening of a new chapel in Linz Cathedral. But when that construction project was delayed, the music premiered outside the church walls, in 1869. As expected, Bruckner was not satisfied, and he thoroughly amended the score ‘to tighten the structure.’ Each of his approximately 150 changes is described in the afterword of the new version from 1882.

There is no denying that Bruckner did indeed make his work more concise with these interventions, tinkering with the phrasing and accompaniment. But the composer made few formal changes to the score. It remains a missa brevis (short mass) intended to accompany a church service – in concrete terms, this means a succession of six pieces of music: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei. In a way, it remains remarkably traditional. His writing style is a nod to the oldest form of church music, the Gregorian chant. And the composer uses techniques and settings that his Renaissance colleague Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina had already prescribed in the late sixteenth century. What’s more, for his ‘Sanctus’, Bruckner even borrows a theme from the Missa Brevis in F major by Palestrina – Bruckner did not do that kind of direct sampling in any other score.

This firm foundation on the Catholic liturgy is not surprising. Bruckner was very religious, and he was also writing music during the time of the Movimento Ceciliano (Cecilian Movement). In the second half of the nineteenth century, that movement tried to bring conformity to liturgical music, by returning to the source. In their eyes, the composition of a mass had become more and more detached from the underlying faith. The pendulum had swung from worship to spectacle for the Cecilians. It’s as if Bruckner wants to accommodate this. The opening bars of the ‘Kyrie’ with their rich polyphony seem many centuries older than they actually are, and certainly the openings of the ‘Gloria’ and the ‘Credo’ – in which a singer has to set the tone – seem to come from a medieval monastery rather than the pen of a 19th-century Romantic.

Contemporary, modern

That said, Bruckner definitely gives a contemporary interpretation to the music too. Not least with the special line-up of two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets and three trombones. Presumably, the choice of that instrumentation has to do with the fact that the original performance had to take place outside rather than inside the newly built chapel. Wind instruments are an easier choice in that context, because they are, for example, easier to move than timpani and less likely than string instruments to go out of tune.

In any case, it gives Frederik Neyrinck a clear framework within which to work. He wrote new music that enters a dialogue with Bruckner’s notes during In What We Trust. Most of the score is purely instrumental. ‘The Mass in E minor is already quite feisty with all those high notes that the singers have to cope with,’ he says. ‘So I thought it would be a nice way to give the singers a bit of a rest in my score and at the same time showcase the instruments in a different way.’

Unlike the solid sounds of Bruckner, Neyrinck plays much more with more intimate groups. You don’t get a constant tutti, but just a glance inside. The newly composed pieces are also woven through the existing score in such a way that as a listener you constantly stay on the tips of your toes. It is always unexpected when Bruckner ends and when Neyrinck begins.

That said, it was certainly not the intention to write an addendum to Bruckner’s Mass. ‘It’s mostly a personal response,’ says the composer. ‘A contemporary response. Not only musically, but also in terms of meaning. It’s there in the more intimate set-up because I think that today we seek meaning within ourselves rather than hoping for external intervention. But you also observe it in the few parts for which Maud Vanhauwaert has written a new text. She based this on the interviews we conducted with the young people. Their answers have been reworked into a rhythmic score in which the choir picks up the voice of the young people.’

In What We Trust looks at life in two directions at the same time: with a glance over the shoulder, resting on the experience of history; but also by standing uninhibited in the present and looking forward without fear. Now it’s up to you to formulate your own answer, and choose what (and who) you believe.