Bruckner's Psalm 22, WAB 34, is a setting of a German version of Psalm 23, which was psalm 22 in the Vulgata.
Amongst the five psalm settings composed by Bruckner, Psalm 22 is the only one with piano accompaniment. The work was composed in circa 1852 in St. Florian, but it is unknown when it was performed at that time.
The manuscript is stored in the archive of the St. Florian monastery. The first known performance occurred on 11 October 1921 in St. Florian by Franz Xaver Müller. It was first published in Band II/2, pp. 119âÂÂ130 of the Göllerich/Auer biography. It was edited by Paul Hawkshaw in 1997 in Band XX/2 of the '.
(The Lord is shepherd and caregiver)
The 131-bar work in E-flat major is scored for choir and soloists, and piano.
The setting of the first part is in general homophone, with a few imitations on "So will ich nichts ÃÂbles fürchten", "Du has bereitet einen Tisch", "wie herrlich ist er!" and "Und deine Barmherzigkeit". As in Bruckner's contemporaneous Magnificat the verses are sung as an Arioso alternatingly by the choir and the soloists. From bar 43 onwards, the last verse is sung by the choir as a fugue, which evolves, on bar 115, in an ending a cappella Chorale.
There are three recordings of this work: