Tota pulchra es

Tota pulchra es, WAB 46, is a sacred motet by the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner.

The work, which was composed on 30 March 1878 between symphonies 5 and 6, is scoring the Latin antiphon Tota pulchra es. It was performed on 4 June 1878 in the Votive Chapel of the new cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Franz-Josef Rudigier as bishop of Linz.

The manuscript is archived at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. The Widmungsexemplar (dedicated copy) is stored in the archive of the new cathedral. The motet was edited, together with the Ave Maria WAB 6, by Emil Wetzler, Vienna in 1887. It is put in Band XXI/27 of the Gesamtausgabe.

The 80-bars piece, scored for solo tenor, choir and organ, is primarily in the Phrygian mode, with some remote enharmonic modulation.

In the first part (bars 1-16) the soloist and the choir are dialoging a cappella. In the second part (bars 17-36), which begins fortissimo by the soloist with the organ on "Tu gloria Jerusalem", the choir becomes divided till 9 voices. In the third part (bars 37-52), which begins on "O, Maria", the soloist and the choir are dialoging a cappella as in the first part. In the last part, which begins as in the second part by the soloist with the organ on "Ora pro nobis", the choir goes on diminuendo till the end in pianissimo.

Bruckner's Tota pulchra es was first recorded in 1929 by Ludwig Berberich with the Münchner Domchor, 1929 (78 rpm: Polydor/Grammophon 27119)

A selection of the about 40 recordings: