''Abendlied'' (Evening song), Op. 69/3, is a sacred

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

Josef Rheinberger Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (17 March 1839 – 25 November 1901) was an organist and composer from Liechtenstein, residing in Kingdom of Bavaria, Bavaria for most of his life. As court conductor in Munich, he was responsible for the music in the ...

for a six-part mixed choir ( SSATTB). It has been regarded as his best-known sacred composition. He wrote the first version in 1855 at the age of 15. The text is a verse from the biblical narration of the

Road to Emmaus appearance According to the Gospel of Luke, the road to Emmaus appearance is one of the early post-resurrection appearances of Jesus after his crucifixion and the discovery of the empty tomb. Both the meeting on the road to Emmaus and the subsequent suppe ...

according to in

Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...

's German version of the bible: Rheinberger wrote a first version on 9 March 1855, one month before Easter and two weeks before his 16th birthday. At age 24, he revised the motet, for example eliminating repetition of notes and changing the marking. He published it in 1873 by N. Simrock in Berlin as No. 3 of his Opus 69, ''Drei geistliche Gesänge für gemischten Chor'' (Three sacred songs for mixed choir, the others being ''Morgenlied'' (morning song), on a poem by

Hoffmann von Fallersleben August Heinrich Hoffmann (, calling himself von Fallersleben, after his hometown; 2 April 179819 January 1874) was a German poet. He is best known for writing "", whose third stanza is now the national anthem of Germany, and a number of popular ...

, and ''Dein sind die Himmel'' (Yours are the Heavens) after . A Latin version ("Mane nobiscum quoniam advesperascit, inclinata est iam dies") was written in 1878 for a performance on

Easter Monday Easter Monday is the second day of Eastertide and a public holiday in more than 50 predominantly Christian countries. In Western Christianity it marks the second day of the Octave of Easter; in Eastern Christianity it marks the second day of Br ...

of 1878 at the

Allerheiligen-Hofkirche The Allerheiligen-Hofkirche (Court Church of All Saints) is a Catholic church in the Munich Residenz designed by Leo von Klenze and built between 1826 and 1837. The church was badly damaged from bombing during World War II and for decades remaine ...

in Munich, which only permitted Latin for liturgical singing. It was published by

Carus-Verlag Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart. Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. the catalogue includes more than 26,000 works ...

. Carus published a recording titled ''Abendlied'', a collection of sacred vocal music by Rheinberger, performed by the Vancouver Cantata Singers conducted by James Fankhauser. The music in

F major F major is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat.Music Theory'. (1950). United States: Standards and Curriculum Division, Training, Bureau of Naval Personnel. 28. Its relati ...

is marked ''Andante molto''. The text is mostly sung syllabically. The three upper voices begin with a F major chord, held for three beats on "Bleib" (Bide) and repeated for "bei" (with), changing to an A minor chord on "uns" (us), when the lower three voices begin a similar pattern.

References

External links

*
Abendlied, Op. 69, No. 3 (Josef Rheinberger)
ChoralWiki

(in German) wagners.ag.vu {{DEFAULTSORT:Abendlied Rheinberger Motets 1855 compositions