BWV 243a
|
Magnificat BWV 243a |
|
|---|---|
| by J. S. Bach | |
|
|
| Key | E-flat major |
| Related | base for Magnificat in D major (1733) |
| Occasion | Vespers on feast days |
| Performed |
|
| Movements | 12 (16 for Christmas) |
| Text |
|
| Vocal | SSATB choir and solo |
| Instrumental |
|
The Magnificat in E-flat major, BWV 243a, by Johann Sebastian Bach is a musical setting of the Latin text of the Magnificat, Mary's canticle from the Gospel of Luke. It was composed in 1723 and is in twelve movements, scored for five vocal parts (two sopranos, alto, tenor and bass) and a Baroque orchestra of trumpets, timpani, oboes, strings and basso continuo including bassoon. Bach revised the work ten years later, transposing it from E-flat major to D major, and creating the version mostly performed today, BWV 243.
The work was first performed in Leipzig in 1723. In May that year Bach assumed his position as Thomaskantor and embarked on an ambitious series of compositions. The Magnificat was sung at vesper services on feast days, and, according to recent research, Bach's setting was written for a performance on 2 July, celebrating the Marian feast of the Visitation. For Christmas the same year, he performed it at the Nikolaikirche with the insertion of four seasonal movements.
As a regular part of vespers, the canticle Magnificat was often set to music for liturgical use. Bach, as some of his contemporaries, devotes individual expression to every verse of the canticle, one even split in two for a dramatic effect. In a carefully designed structure, four choral movements are evenly distributed (1, 4, 7, 11). They frame sets of two or three movements sung by one to three voices, with individual instrumental colour. The work is concluded by a choral doxology (12), which ends in a recapitulation of the beginning on the text "as it was in the beginning". In Bach's Leipzig period, Magnificat is the first major work on a Latin text and for five vocal parts.
...
Wikipedia