Insights into our Spring Collaboration with the WYO...

The Chorale is incredibly excited to work again with the Worcester Youth Symphony Orchestra. The WYO Artistic Director, Jonathan Colby, has been very generous over the years in including the Chorale in many of WYO’s ventures. I remember, in one of our first collaborative efforts, learning the Dvořák Te Deum to prepare for WYO’s 2017 performance. And here we are, in 2026, learning the Bruckner Te Deum for the March 29 Mechanics Hall performance. It is always inspiring to work with Jonathan and the young WYO musicians.

The Te Deum text, around since the late 4th or early 5th century, has been set by many composers (e.g., Handel, Haydn, Berlioz, Verdi, Kodály, Pärt). It is a text that is more difficult to set than one might expect – for one thing, it has a ton of words, and it covers a lot of theological ground. As Rich Lusk puts it:

First, this great hymn reveals the magnitude of what we do when we gather to worship the God of the universe. All the earth worships God; the angels cry out; the spirits of just men made perfect (apostles, prophets, and martyrs) worship the Lord; and to this cosmic assembly, the church militant on earth adds her praises.

Second, this hymn is centered on the mystery of the Trinity…“The Father, of an infinite majesty;

Thine [honorable], true and only Son; also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.”

Third, the Te Deum re-narrates the gospel – the story of the death and resurrection of [Jesus].

Anton Bruckner handles the problem of all those words masterfully. First, he uses over 50% of the text in the opening section (from “Te Deum laudamus – O God, we praise you” to “Judex crederis esse venturus – We believe you are the Judge who is to come.”). This leaves him free to expand his musical ideas in the remaining sections: the second movement is one sentence (“Te ergo quaesumus, And so we beg you, help your servants,”), as is the third (“Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis - Number them among your saints in eternal glory.”). The fourth movement is a prayer (“Salvum fac – Save your people, Lord,”); it begins by repeating the music from the second movement, and then returns to the opening Te Deum motive at “Per singulos Dies – Day by day we bless you”. Bruckner then concludes the hymn with a magnificent double fugue on the line “In te Domine speravi - In you, O Lord, I rest my hope: let me never be confounded.”

The Bruckner Te Deum is a barn burner of a piece, super fun to sing and to play. Bruckner is quoted as saying, “When the Almighty finally calls me to Him and asks: ‘Where are the talents that I gave you?,’ then I will proffer the roll of sheet music containing my Te Deum, and He will judge me mercifully”.