Classical Christmas Music: Magnificat

Music AppreciationFaith Matters
Written By Edward Wolfe

To continue the series about beautiful art music poured out in celebration of Christmas, I draw your attention to Bach’s transcendentally beautiful Magnificat. The piece, written for 5-voice choir, soloists, a duet, a trio, and orchestra, like so much of Bach’s glorious music, is based on a biblical text.

This is the song Mary sang while visiting with her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:46-55) while they both were expecting a miraculous first-born. The sublime text is matched by Bach’s beautiful music. The piece is written in Latin and takes its name from the first word, “magnficat,” “magnifies.”

The text in Latin and English can be found here. The recording on YouTube is about 28 minutes in length.

The piece consists of 12, short movements, concluding with “Gloria patri:”

Magnificat (Coro)

Et Exsultavit (Aria)

Quia Respexit (Aria)

Omnes (Coro)

Quia Fecit (Aria)

Et misericordia (Duetto)

Fecit Potentiam (Coro)

Deposuit (Aria)

Esurientes (Aria)

Suscepit Israel (Terzetto)

Sicut Locutus Est (Coro)

Gloria Patri (Coro)

Magnificat is the first large choral piece written by Bach after his appointment as music director at the church in Leipzig in 1723, a post which he held until his death in 1750.

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Edward Wolfe

Edward Wolfe has been a fan of Christian apologetics since his teenage years, when he began seriously to question the truth of the Bible and the reality of Jesus. About twenty years ago, he started noticing that Christian evidences roughly fell into five categories, the five featured on this website.
Although much of his professional life has been in Christian circles (12 years on the faculties of Pacific Christian College, now a part of Hope International University, and Manhattan Christian College and also 12 years at First Christian Church of Tempe), much of his professional life has been in public institutions (4 years at the University of Colorado and 19 years at Tempe Preparatory Academy).
His formal academic preparation has been in the field of music. His bachelor degree was in Church Music with a minor in Bible where he studied with Roger Koerner, Sue Magnusson, Russel Squire, and John Rowe; his master’s was in Choral Conducting where he studied with Howard Swan, Gordon Paine, and Roger Ardrey; and his doctorate was in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature, where he also studied group dynamics, humanistic psychology, and Gestalt theory with Guy Duckworth.
He and his wife Louise have four grown children and six grandchildren.

https://WolfeMusicEd.com
Next

Classical Christmas Music: Messiah