[1][2] The original manuscript is in a private collection (Dr Wilhelm, Bottmingen), but transcriptions of it are found in the archives of the Abbey of Kremsmünster and the Austrian National Library.

In the first part (bars 1–19), till "mortem autem crucis", the choir is singing in homophony.

[7] Thereafter the motet is evolving diminuendo and a gradual sorrowful rest returns[6] with the 8-bar coda in pianissimo, which is harmonically similar to that of the previous setting of 1873.

Publisher Carus-Verlag summarizes that by means of modulation and chromatic, Bruckner achieves heightened expressiveness for the Passion text.

The second part of the Grail motif from Wagner's Parsifal which the composer had heard in Bayreuth in 1882 is also the Dresdner Amen.