Locus Iste for Flute Quartet

Locus Iste by Anton Bruckner

Transcribed for Flute Quartet by Georges Moreau

Instrumentation: 2 c flutes, alto flute, bass flute

Score and parts

Duration: 3:00

Locus Iste (This Place), WAB 23, is a sacred motet composed in 1869 by Anton Bruckner (1824-1896).  The text comes from the Latin gradual ‘Locus Iste’ for the annual celebrations of a church’s dedication.  The incipit “Locus Iste a Deo factus est” translates to “This Place was made by God”.  Bruckner set it for four unaccompanied voices, intended for the dedication of the Votivkapelle at the New Cathedral in Linz, Austria, where Bruckner had been a cathedral organist.  It was the first motet that Bruckner composed in Vienna.  It was published in 1886, together with three other gradual motets.

As a composition with no obvious technical difficulty, it has been performed by church choirs and by professionals, often to celebrate church dedications.