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BRUCKNER – Virga Jesse (‘The branch from Jesse’) – FOUR CELLOS OR CELLO ORCHESTRA

Other Identification:
Virga Jesse (The branch from Jesse), WAB 52, is a motet by the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner. It sets the gradual ‘Virga Jesse floruit’ for unaccompanied mixed choir. This romantic work was completed on 3rd September 1885 and may have been intended for the celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the Linz diocese. However, it was first performed on 8th December that year in the Wiener Hofmusikkapelle for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

The original manuscript seems to have been lost, but copies/transcriptions of the original are archived at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, the Hofmusikkapelle, and at the Abbey of Kremsmünster.

Movements or sections:
This 91-bar gradual (originally in E minor) is for mixed choir a cappella. In the first part on the verse Virga jesse floruit (bars 1-20) Bruckner used twice the Dresdner Amen on the word floruit (bars 7-9 and 17-19). The last part (bars 63-91) consists of an Alleluja, for which Bruckner drew his inspiration from the Hallelujah of Händel’s Messiah, on which he often improvised on organ. The motet ends in pianissimo. Max Auer regards it as the most accomplished and magnificent a cappella motet of the composer. The Bruckner biographer Howie also calls this work “one of Bruckner’s finest motets”.

Instrumentation: QUARTET OF FOUR CELLOS, OR CELLO ORCHESTRA Original arrangement by Shigeru Kan Prepared for cello ensemble by David Johnstone

2 PDFs:
1] – General Score
2] – All individual parts

Approximate difficulty:
Medium to difficult (above all a precision in ensemble playing is vital in this piece)
This was prepared a couple of decades ago for trombone choir by Shigeru Kan; Johnstone has simply prepared the bowings and fingerings to the cello parts and a couple of minor retouches. It may be performed equally well either by a solo cello quartet or by a larger cello ensemble or orchestra.

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