The repertoire of choral music of J.S. Bach is vast and contains many consummate masterpieces that rise far above the level of all other choral music, even exceeding Handel at times. There are many enormous works, such as the B minor mass, the St Mathew Passion, and the Christmas Oratorio. There are six extraordinary motets, the Easter Oratorio, the Easter Cantata, The St John Passion, four Protestant masses, a couple hundred sacred cantatas and several secular cantatas. Today I wish to discuss the Magnificat.

This is an early work. It occurs right at the beginning of his long career as Kapellmeister in the Church of St Thomas in Leipzig It was composed for the evening Christmas service of 1723. The time he was allotted for the music of this service was short. Bach’s inspiration was not dimmed a bit by the time restriction imposed on him. This is high quality music. The original version was in E-flat, but Bach later revised it and transposed it to the key of D.

Some may argue that Bach’s Magnificat is not as polished and complex as most of his later music. Perhaps so, but it is still a wonderful work.

The opening movement is exuberantly joyful. It is scored for three trumpets, two timpani, two flutes, two oboes, the usual string section, continuo, five-part (two sopranos) choir. The three trumpets dominate during the introduction, but they do not overly dominate or make the music sound too thick. This is powerful music, yet full of subtle effects.

This magnificent opening movement is followed by another movement in the same key, D major. This is followed by the B minor movement, “Quia Respexit,” with its plaintive sounding oboe d’amore and soprano solo.  This B minor movement segues directly into a short energetic fugue, “Omnes.” The last note of the previous movement functions as the first note of this fugue. The brevity of this fugue precludes a gradual buildup of power, such as Bach created in so many of his fugues. But it does not suffer from brevity. The feeling of perpetual motion dies away rather suddenly and this fugue comes to an end on the chord of F-sharp major.

An E minor duet with alto and tenor forms the sixth movement of the Magnificat. The seventh movement, “Fecit Potentiam,” returns to the key of D major and is another short, but great, choral movement. This movement suddenly slows down and changes texture several measures before the end. The choir sings in a declamatory fashion, almost purely in block-chordal fashion, and a short flourish and trill by the first trumpet (with the second trumpet trilling a minor third below the first one and the third trumpet holding onto one note) decorates the penultimate measure.  This is followed by a tenor aria in F-sharp major and then an alto aria in E major.

The tenth movement is a trio entitled “Suscepit Israel.” Bach was not clear in his score whether he wanted each part sung by a soloist or by a section of the choir. The parts are soprano one, soprano two, and alto. It is accompanied only by two oboes and organ continuo with bass violin. This movement has always impressed me as having an ethereal, other-worldly quality. It is very soft and exquisitely beautiful. Incidentally, the two oboes play a protestant hymn in unison in very slow notes above the fabric of the singers and continuo. The hymn they are slowly giving out is the same hymn that Mozart gave to the soprano soloist in the first movement of his Requiem mass, more than 60 years later.

The penultimate movement, “Sicut Locutus,” is another choral fugue. It is majestic and grand and does not fail to please my ear even after repeated listenings. The final movement begins with the word Gloria sung in block chordal fashion with the choir and orchestra on the chord of D major. This is followed by the same word being sung to a flourish of rising triplets, each voice entering one at a time, ending in block chords again on “gloria patri.” This goes on for a while until the words “et spiritui sancto” lead us to a fermata on an A-7 chord. The music of the first movement is now sung to different words, creating a rousing conclusion to this wonderful early masterpiece by J.S. Bach.