Chorus: S-S-A-T-B
Soloists:  Soprano 1, soprano 2, alto, tenor, bass
Orchestra:  2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 oboes d'amore, 3 trumpets, timpani, strings, continuo

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Magnificat
Quia respexit
Quia fecit mihi magna
Et misericordia eius
Fecit potentiam
Deposuit potentes
Suscepit Israel
Gloria patri
Sicut erat in principio

Program Notes by Martin Pearlman

In 1723, for his first Christmas as cantor of the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Bach presented a newly composed setting of the Magnificat. It was a grand, celebratory work with a five-voice chorus and a colorful variety of instruments, and Bach expanded the Magnificat text itself by interpolating settings of several traditional Christmas songs between movements. This was the original Eb-major version of his Magnificat, and it was Bach's largest such work up to that point.            

About a decade later, he reworked the piece, lowering the key from Eb to the more conventional trumpet key of D major, altering some of the orchestration, and, perhaps most importantly, removing the Christmas inserts, so that the work could be performed at a variety of festivals during the liturgical year.  It is this later D major version of the Magnificat that is normally heard today.

Despite its brilliance and grandeur, Bach's Magnificat is a relatively short work.  Nonetheless, it is filled with countless fascinating details.  The tenor opens his aria Deposuit with a violent descending F# minor scale to depict the text "He hath put down [the mighty]".  At the end of the alto aria Esurientes, Bach illustrates the words "He hath sent the rich away empty" by having the solo flutes omit their final note.  In the movement Suscepit Israel, the oboes play the old plainchant of the Magnificat in long notes against the faster moving vocal parts.  Finally, there is the stirring moment near the end, at the words sicut erat in principio ("thus it was in the beginning"), where Bach brings back the music from the beginning of the work.

Boston Baroque Performances

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