New Music Edition Series founded at Wilhering Abbey in Upper Austria: Matthias Pernsteiner, Missa posta in musica, edited by Ikarus Kaiser

Ikarus Kaiser

Monday, October 24, 2016

The following guest post is by our colleague Ikarus Kaiser of RISM Austria:

Recently the new music edition series “Sacred Music in Wilhering Abbey” was founded. It is focused on the music tradition of the Upper Austrian Cistercian abbey Wilhering and its large music collection. Ikarus Kaiser, titular organist since 2001 and also music archivist since 2010, is responsible for the RISM documentation of this large archive containing over 4,000 music manuscripts and prints.

The first volume presents an orchestral mass of the Romantic era, composed by Matthias Pernsteiner (1795-1851). He worked as titular organist in Wilhering Abbey in Upper Austria from 1822 until 1823. Later on he went to Salzburg and Tyrol. The Messa posta in musica features a large number of instruments, with choir, vocal and instrumental soli, strings, brass, woodwinds and organ. It is dedicated to the Wilhering Abbot Bruno Detterle. So far it has neither been published nor performed. From a musical point of view, it is a remarkable document concerning Austrian church music practice at the time of Schubert.

Several works by Matthias Pernsteiner were printed in Austria and Bavaria during the composer’s lifetime. However, modern editions have not been published yet. This work can be considered a first step towards rediscovering this outstanding composer of the Biedermeier period.

The score has been worked out by Father Maximilian Bak OCist with assistance of the editor. The edition contains also a detailed introduction with biographical notes, several images, and a critical commentary.

The Mass is going to be performed for the first time on Sunday, 20 November 2016 (Christkönigsfest), 10.00 a.m. in Wilhering Abbey by the choir, soloists and instrumentalists of Wilhering Abbey, Ikarus Kaiser at the organ and directed by Kurt Azesberger. More information can be found here.

Sacred Music in Wilhering Abbey, ed. by Wilhering Abbey, vol. 1: Matthias Pernsteiner (1795-1851), Messa posta in musica, ed. by Ikarus Kaiser (German / English)
Wagner Verlag, Linz 2016
EUR 45
ISMN979-0-000-00190-9
ISBN978-3-903040-13-7

For further information see the websites of Wagner Verlag as well as Wilhering Abbey and the music collection of Wilhering Abbey.

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Category: New publications

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