Features

J. S. Bach’s Magnificat

The text of the Magnificat (‘Magnificat anima mea’, Luke 1: 46) crops up several times in J. S. Bach’s output. As well as a five-part organ fugue ‘sopra di Magnificat’ (BWV 733) dating from his time in Weimar, and a now quite forgotten setting of the German text ‘Meine Seele erhebet den Herrn’, there are two settings of the Vulgate Latin.

Anonymous portrait of Johann Kuhnau
(Stadgeschichtes Museum Leipzig)

The less familiar E flat version of Bach’s Magnificat was written to be first performed at Vespers on Christmas Day at St Nicholas’ Leipzig in 1723. The D major version (BWV 243) appeared sometime between 1728–30. The E flat version contains four trope-like interpolations, which may have been sung by a separate semi-chorus, and were possibly accompanied by dramatic action. The texts were formerly used in a Christmas cantata by Johann Kuhnau during his period of office as cantor at St Thomas’ in Leipzig. From the ten biblical verses of the Gospel, Bach created twelve musical sections of paired texts; the resulting symmetrical structure has at its centre the choral fugue ‘Fecit potentiam’, The two outermost sections, ‘Magnificat anima mea’ and ‘Gloria Patri’, are similarly set for the full five-part chorus, with a large orchestral group which includes trumpets. The inner movements alternate solo arias (one each for alto, tenor and bass, and two for soprano) with a duet and choral sections.

Bach made full use of the augmented forces at his disposal on festive occasions, and the Magnificat is richly scored for three trumpets, drums, two flutes, two oboes, strings and continue. In addition, for Festal Vespers at St Thomas’ two choirs would have been available, and so Bach calls for a five-part chorus as opposed to the four-part vocal texture customary in church cantatas. The deliberate avoidance of recitative and da capo arias results in a work of striking concision and musical strength.

The church of St Thomas, Leipzig
(Johann Georg Schreiber, c.1740)

The first of the interpolations is a vocal chorale-prelude on ‘Vom Himmel hoch’, similar in style to ‘Suscepit Israel’ and telling of the angel’s visit to the shepherds. The second, ‘Freut euch und jubiliert’, proclaims the angel’s message and is a meter with continuo, similar in idea to ‘Sicut locutus est’. The third represents the heavenly host singing ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo!’ and is in the festive manner of most other choruses. Lastly, Mary and Joseph’s song on the Saviour’s birth, ‘Virga Jesse floruit’, has some of the joyousness of ‘Et Exultavit’. Only the first thirty bars of this interpolation are to found in the manuscript. It has been reconstructed by Alfred Dürr, based upon Bach’s use of the same music in the cantata ‘Unser Mund sei voll des Lachens.’

The church of St Nicholas, Leipzig
(Gabriel Bodenehr, c.1720,
Bilarchiv Preussicher Kulturbesitz)

Although the E flat version was published in 1811 in Berlin, opinion in the nineteenth century seemed, quite erroneously, to be that the D major version was the definitive one. A close comparison between both versions of the Magnificat reveals that Bach made a startling number of changes when compiling the D major one. In fact, excluding the interpolations, only ninety-eight bars out of a total five hundred and seventy-eight escaped alteration of any kind — except, of course, for the transposition! It is unusual to find a work of this period, in which trumpets and drums are used, in the key of E flat; it was probably a practical rather than an aesthetic move. The four Christmas interpolations, which are an essential feature of the E flat version, were omitted from the later version because this was required for a festival other than Christmas, and because they caused the work to exceed the thirty minutes allowed for it in the service.

Johann Sebatian Bach, at about 30
(J. E. Rensch, Erfurter Angermuseum)

There are several instrumental differences between the two versions. These could have been governed by the resources available to Bach at the time when each version was prepared. In the E flat version transverse flutes are not heard, thus adding lightness to the tutti sections and to ‘Et misericordia’. In ‘Esurientes implevit’ the obbligato parts are given to the more delicate sound of two treble recorders, originally played by the oboists. The violas add more strength to the obbligato of ‘Deposuit potentes’; in ‘Suscepit Israel’ violins and violas in unison instead of continuo create a clearer texture. The cantus firmus, ‘Meine Seele erhebet den Herrn’, is heard more easily when played, as it is in the E flat version, on a trumpet.