Froxfield Choir

Anton Bruckner: Christus Factus est (1884)

Gradual for Maundy Thursday

This motet was one of the small scale liturgical works Bruckner wrote during his Vienna period. The text is from Philippians 2 v.8-9 and it is set for Maundy Thursday, a day that held particular significance for Bruckner. It recalls Christ's suffering and also the origins and institutions of the Christian priesthood. This was his third setting of the text. The piece has a carefully considered harmonic style, gradually building up tension and then easing away, and always with a purity of expression. Bruckner was moving away from his earlier sources of inspiration and drew on older vocal polyphony and Gregorian plainchant for the basis of the melodies, but seen through his own artistic lens.

Christus factus est pro nobis obediens
usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.
Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum et dedit illi nomen,
quod est super omne nomen.

Christ became obedient for us unto death,
even to the death of the cross.
Therefore God exalted Him and gave Him a Name
which is above all names.