The in E major, 243a, also BWV243.1, 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 some ten years later, transposing it from E 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, as suggested by recent research, Bach's setting may have been written for a performance on 2 July, celebrating the Marian feast of the Visitation. For a Christmas celebration the same or a later year, he performed it at the Nikolaikirche with the insertion of four seasonal movements.

As a regular part of vespers, the canticle 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.

Background

Bach's beginning in Leipzig

Bach composed the Magnificat in 1723, his first year as in Leipzig, music director of the main Lutheran churches in the city. He had worked previously as an organist in Arnstadt, Mühlhausen and Weimar, where he was promoted to Konzertmeister (director of music) in 1714. From 1717 to 1723 he held a secular position at the court of Köthen. He applied for the post in Leipzig on 7 February 1723, performing two cantatas written for the audition on Estomihi or Quinquagesima, the last Sunday before Lent. In April he was accepted for the post, which he assumed on the first Sunday after Trinity, presenting a new cantata in 14 movement, Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75, on 30 May. A week later he led the new cantata , again in 14 movements. The feast of the Visitation, celebrated always on 2 July, was a few weeks later the first Marian feast day of his tenure in Leipzig.

Magnificat

The canticle , one of three New Testament canticles, has long been a regular part of the liturgy in daily vesper services. After the Reformation, Martin Luther kept the Magnificat in the liturgy. He provided a German translation of the canticle, "Meine Seele erhebt den Herren" (which Bach used as the basis for his chorale cantata Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10). However, the Latin text was also permitted in Lutheran worship. The canticle was often set to music. Contemporary extended settings include works by Heinichen and by Vivaldi.

Bach had an audience familiar with the text and its background. In Leipzig, a Latin Magnificat was sung on the high holidays (Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, then performed on two of the three days of celebration) and on the three Marian feasts Annunciation, Visitation and Purification. According to some scholars, further feast days included New Year's Day, Epiphany, Feast of the Ascension, Trinity Sunday, St. John's Day and St. Michael's Day, and the vespers before the feast days.

Composition history

Bach composed the work in 1723, his first year as in Leipzig, probably for the feast of the Visitation. For the occasion, he presented the Magnificat as his first work on a Latin text and his first five-part choral setting in Leipzig. Otherwise, he used five voices in the funeral motet , the Missa in B minor, composed in 1733 for the court of Dresden, from which he derived the derived cantata , and in the Mass in B minor. Richard D. P. Jones notes: "Without exception these works lie outside the normal routine of Bach's sacred vocal works".

Bach probably first performed the Magnificat on the feast day, 2 July. Until 2003, most musicologists believed that Bach wrote the Magnificat for his first Christmas in Leipzig. Then Andreas Glöckner published Bachs Es-Dur-Magnificat BWV 243a – eine genuine Weihnachtsmusik? (Bach's Magnificat in E major, BWV 243a – a genuine Christmas music?) in the Bach-Jahrbuch (Bach yearbook) 89, questioning the Christmas date in favour of Visitation the same year. Older sources naturally still have Christmas as the first performance, for example Neil Jenkins, the editor of an edition for Novello in 2000. He writes that the "new Thomaskantor was obviously intending to impress his new employer and the congregation", which makes even more sense at the beginning of Bach's tenure. Not all scholars follow Glöckner's arguments, but Jones agrees with Glöckner: "... may well have received its first performance at the Feast of the Visitation on 2 July 1723, only five weeks after he took up his Leipzig post."

For Christmas the same year, Bach performed his Magnificat with four inserted , songs of praise related to Christmas, partly in German, partly in Latin. In a vespers service on 25 December 1723, he performed the cantata , and the Magnificat at the , on 26 December the cantata , in the Thomaskirche.

Bach used as a in movement 10 the chant associated with Luther's German version of the Magnificat canticle, "". A year later Bach composed for the feast of the Visitation the chorale cantata , BWV 10, based on the German Magnificat. The musicologist Alberto Rizzuti compared the two settings which were possibly performed in one service on 2 July 1724.

For Visitation of 1733, Bach revised his Magnificat, creating the version better known today. In that version, transposed to D major, the laudes interpolations were abandoned. Limited differences in instrumentation include replacing the recorders by flutes and including these in the tutti movements. Changes in musical texture were even smaller, mellowing the harmony near the end of the Omnes generationes movement being the most noticeable.

Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach followed the example of an extended setting, composing a Magnificat in nine movements in 1749, at the end of his father's life.

Music Scoring and structure Bach scored the work festively. The autograph reads: "J.J. Magnificat à 3 Trombe Tamburi 2 Hautb. Basson. 2 Violini. Viola 5 Voci è Continuo", translating to: Jesu Juva ("Jesus, help!") / Magnificat for three trumpets, timpani, two oboes, bassoon, two violins, viola, five voices, continuo). The five voices are two sopranos (SI, SII), alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)). The instruments of the Baroque orchestra are listed in the first publication by Simrock in 1811 as "due violini, due oboe, tre trombi, tamburi, basson, viola e basso continuo", i.e. two violins, two oboes, three trumpets (in E), timpani (E and B), bassoon, viola and basso continuo. Two recorders (flauto dolce) are required for aria No. 9 Esurientes.

Movements

Bach structured the text in eleven movements for the canticle (Luke 1:46–55), concluded by a twelfth doxology movement. Each verse of the canticle is assigned to one movement, except verse 48, beginning with a soprano solo in the role of Mary (third movement), then switching to the fourth movement sung by the chorus when "all generations" are mentioned. The structure, alternating choral and solo movements, is similar to "contemporary Italian concerted settings of the Magnificat". The four Christmas hymn movements are placed after the second, fifth, seventh and ninth movement on the Magnificat text.

Choral movements are evenly distributed in the structure, numbers 1, 4, 7, and 11 within the canticle, and the concluding doxology as movement 12. Choral movements 1, 7 and 12 are accompanied by the full orchestra (), with the exceptions of the recorders which add specific colour only in movement 9. The movements for one to three solo voices are accompanied by an obbligato instrument or only strings or even only continuo, as in Bach's church cantatas. In two consecutive solo movements, the second one is often in richer scoring. The work contains, other than typical cantatas on Baroque poetry, no da capo arias. Similar to the first two Leipzig cantatas, BWV 75 and BWV 76, it is a complex structure of rather short movements.

The following table shows the title, voices and instruments, time, key and text sources for the twelve movements for Visitation and the inserted movements for Christmas. Note that the timpani are no wind instruments but always go with the trumpets. The basso continuo is not listed, playing almost throughout. The first Christmas chorale is a four-part setting with no continuo. In Suscepit Israel, the lowest line played by violins and viola in unison has been described as a bassett and an "unusual continuo". The last column, Dig, provides a link to the Bach Digital database, for more details such as scoring and the text. The Christmas interpolations are highlighted in colour, as are the choral movements, the movements with trumpets, and those movements of the canticle that are in major mode.

+ Movements of Bach's Magnificat in E major (BWV 243a) No. Title Voices Winds Strings Key Time Text source Dig 1 SSATB 3Tr Ti 2Ob 2Vl Va 2 SII 2Vl Va E major A SATB E major Hymn by Martin Luther 3 SI Ob C minor beginning 4 SSATB 2Ob 2Vl Va end 5 B B SSAT B major Verse by Sethus Calvisius 6 A T 2Vl Va F minor 7 SSATB 3Tr Ti 2Ob 2Vl Va E major C SSATB Vl E major 8 T 2Vl Va 9 A 2Fl F major D S B F major fragment of a longer Christmas hymn 10 SSA Tr 2Vl Va C minor 11 SSATB E major 12 SSATB 3Tr Ti 2Ob 2Vl Va E major Doxology

The twelve movements of the Magnificat canticle

1

The opening movement (My soul magnifies the Lord) is performed by all voices and all instruments except the recorders. The instruments present the material with almost continuous runs in the upper parts, octaves and broken triads in the bass. The sopranos enter first, in third parallels: they sing the first word "" (literally: makes great) with a melisma on the first syllable, ending in a figure like a trill, then a stressed dotted note on the stressed syllable "gni", and relaxing on "ficat". The motif is abbreviated to a "fanfare figure" of just four notes, a low upbeat followed by three same notes, with the first one dotted. The sopranos sing it twice, reaching first E, then G. The interplay of the fanfare and the melismas shapes the movement. One measure after the sopranos, alto and tenor begin to imitate the sopranos, another measure later, the bass adds the short motif as an octave up. The text remains for most of the movement. After the voices conclude with "", the instruments close in a shortened version of their opening.

2

(And my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour) is an aria, as an image of personal celebration, sung by soprano II, accompanied by the strings. The major-mode and motifs of joy in the instruments illustrate the exultation. (And exults) begins with a broken upward triad followed by a rest, suggesting a minuet. (my spirit) is a sequence of 16th notes, two for every syllable. Longer melismas illustrate (salvation).

A note in the autograph requests the insertion of the first Christmas interpolation here: "" (Here follows the chorale: ).

3

(For He has regarded the lowliness [of His handmaiden.]