A Mature Choral Work

Os Justi; Anton Bruckner, composer; Christ Church Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, Indianapolis

The 1982 South Dakota All-State Honors Choir truly sang great repertoire. Inasmuch as I considered Haydn’s “Te Deum” to be the “grown up” piece on the concert, after twenty-eight years of consideration, I tend to place Anton Bruckner’s motet setting of “Os justi meditabitur” on a loftier peak of maturity. I would guess that I found beauty in the piece at the time that we performed it, but, now, I daresay that I find deeper eloquence, more wholehearted significance and a deeper rooted essence of musical depth and fine compositional craft.

During the year that I conducted the girls’ and concert choirs at Brookings High School, I reacquainted myself with this excellent piece and hoped upon hope that the exceptional musicians that formed the concert choir would find a place in their souls for the exalted peals that Mr. Bruckner’s “Os justi” could summon.

Dr. C., Director of Choral Activities at SDSU at the time, invited the BHS Concert Choir to share a concert in March of 1996. Each ensemble would sing four or five selections, and then the combined choirs sang two pieces together. At the end of our single combined rehearsal, Dr. C. said, “I think we have time for your choir to sing something for our choir.” Okay, choir, Dr. C. has invited us to sing something for them right now. What would you like it to be? Fifty-six voices out of fifty-six voices called out, “Bruckner”. I was never so proud.

The Latin text, “Os justi meditabitur sapientiam …”, is Psalm 37, verses thirty and thirty-one:

The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.

The law of his God is in his heart.

It ends with a very humble:

Alleluia.

Some time in the last four or five years, I reached out into the wi-fi saturated atmosphere of my house, latched onto that world-wide interweb, lassoed a hunk of that Bruckner “Os justi”, hauled her on in, and injected her shanks of moral and modal goodness onto my iPod.

Credits: To the Brookings High School Concert Choir of 1995-1996. You folk were a towering bastion of musical, social and law-abiding fiber. I miss you.

This is my normal Saturday individual track posting.