By the mid 1500’s, Vatican officials had become frustrated with how complex choral music had become in the church. The music was so elaborate that words had become indiscernible. Giovanni da Palestrina, an Italian composer who lived from 1525-1594, was one of the first to convince church officials that polyphonic choral music (multiple vocal lines, complexly woven in at different times) could be composed in a such a way that it could retain complexity, but deliver the text clearly. So, in 1567, he composed a setting of the mass and successfully presented it to the Vatican. That moment paved the way for a style of sacred, a cappella music that has been used ever since.

Anton Bruckner, an Austrian composer and organist, was composing music during a time period when opera and large symphonic works dominated the culture. The style of Palestrina had all but vanished. But what you’ll hear this morning in his setting of Os Justi is a reinvigoration of that style, but with a dramatic application of more modern-sounding harmonies. I am almost certain that Bruckner was influenced by the great master, Palestrina. The “Palestrina Style,” as it’s known, is a seamless, clear, sustained, style of a cappella choral music. This music is prayerful. As it once was described by a friend of mine, think of it as “sonic incense.”  

Long after Bruckner died, the Nazis became huge fans of his symphonic music. They saw it as the zeitgeist of German folklore, the delusion of German supremacy. They even erected a bust of Bruckner in 1937, adopting him as their musical mascot, in a manner of speaking. Close to the end of the Second World War, Hitler had become completely enamored. He planned to convert the monastery of St. Florian in Linz, where Bruckner had been the organist, to a library containing all of his musical manuscripts. Hitler evicted the monks from the building and personally paid for the restoration of the organ. This is also where Bruckner is buried.

What’s fascinating about this story is that the obsession with Bruckner’s music by the Nazi’s did not hurt Bruckner’s reputation in history. Several movies and TV productions have used his music ever since the 1950s, and his sacred music, widely adored and revered even today, is considered some of the finest compositions for church services. It’s chilling that Bruckner’s musical output, born from a deeply creative mind, could “inspire” the most repulsive people who indoctrinated hate. But history would show us otherwise. Bruckner himself wasn’t a hateful man. We know from historical accounts that he was a humble man. His compositions were lovingly, and painstakingly revised, rewritten, and reworked. Go online and look at his picture. He looks like someone’s grandfather! Not even Adolf Hitler could besmirch that peaceful image and the creative intention of his music.

This music has a depth of stillness that is often found in sacred places, in nature, and in quietness itself. Stillness cannot be weaponized. Psalm 46 reminds us of that, “Be still and know that I am God.” That’s the sacred message inscribed into the intention of this music. It cannot be befouled by violence – it’s immune to it, and that’s why history would never associate it with the Nazis, who adopted it as their own. Bruckner was inspired by a higher power than the kind of power that ensnared Hitler’s insidious mind. It contains a stillness that could never be used to promote anything except the goodness of God. That makes me very happy. Soli deo Gloria!