We would perhaps not immediately associate Bach with a hymn to Mary, but the Feast of the Visitation of Mary was also celebrated in the Lutheran church - and Bach composed his Magnificat for the Maria celebration on July 2, 1723 (the first large choral work that Bach composed after his appointment in Leipzig in the spring of that year). The Magnificat owes its title to the first words in the Latin text "Magnificat anima mea Dominum," ("My soul doth magnify the Lord") and these words are uttered by Mary, when visiting her cousin Elisabeth. Mary visits her cousin at a time that both are pregnant, Mary with Jesus and Elizabeth with John the Baptist. Mary wants to bring divine grace to Elizabeth and her unborn child, for the first time exercising her function as "mediator" between God and man.
The Magnificat has been set to music, often to the Latin text, by many composers. For example, there are settings by Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Henry Purcell, Antonio Vivaldi, Domenico Cimarosa and Franz Schubert. This work by Bach is considered the pinnacle of the genre.
Bach rarely used a five-part vocal scoring. Because of this and the
Latin, the Magnificat is related to that other rarity, the Mass in B
minor. Along with the Lutheran minor masses and sanctuses, they are the
only works Bach composed on a Latin text.
Bach reworked his version from 1723 ten years later and at that time also transposed it from E-flat to D. It is one of Bach's best-known vocal works: a grand and demanding work, for five soloists, a five-part choir and with all the instruments available to Bach at the time. It includes 12 movements that are unusually short, each lasting no more than three minutes. But the expressive power of this song of praise about God’s justice is overwhelming. He lets rulers bite the dust while the humble are raised up, and he feeds the hungry while sending away the rich. The text is given warm color by using brass for the martial sounds and woodwind for the more loving passages. The full ensemble plays only at the beginning, in the central section and at the end. In the intervening parts, different vocal and instrumental combinations alternate, in order to support the text as expressively as possible.
Listen to the Netherlands Bach Society conducted by Jos van Veldhoven, playing in the Grote Kerk, Naarden:
Interviews with the performers:
For the interview with soprano Hana Blažíková
For the interview with conductor Jos van Veldhoven
For the interview with cellists Lucia Swarts and Richte van der Meer
For the interview with tenor Thomas Hobbs
For the interview with trumpet player Robert Vanryne
Choral Masterworks