@Wikipedia; @bach-cantatas.com; Latin text; Latin-English text; text at Wikipedia;
YouTube playlist
Two (!) performances of the Bach Magnificat:
First, Ton Koopman with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir (2003) and
second, Nikolaus Harnoncourt
with the Concentus Musicus Wien and the Arnold Schoeberg Choir
performed at the Kloster Melk Benedictine monastery (2000).
Take your pick of Amsterdam or Vienna. (How’s that for diversity? :-)
There are two video screens below, one above the other,
to give you the option of playing Koopman, say, in the top
and Harnoncourt in the bottom.
There are lots of fun things you can do with this capability;
I will leave you to discover those for yourself.
(In some browsers, the color images are not displayed;
clicking on the play symbol (the triangle) starts play even so,
at least in Internet Explorer.)
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The following is an expansion of the “Table of Contents” to include the complete text,
in both Latin and English, of the (non-Christmas) movements of the Magnificat.
| Movements | Performances | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Latin | English | Scoring | Harnoncourt CMV 2000 | Koopman Amsterdam Leipzig 2003 | Rilling ?? Stuttgart | |
| 1 | Magnificat anima mea Dominum. | My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. | SSATB | (H1) H1 | K1 | ||
| 2 | Et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo | and my spirit has exulted in God my saviour | S2 | (H2) H2 | K2 | ||
| A. Vom Himmel hoch | A. Vom Himmel hoch | --- | --- | A | |||
| 3 | Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae; ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent. | because he has regarded the lowly state of his slavegirl; for look! from now on [they] will say that I am blessed | S1 | (H3) H3 | K3 | ||
| 4 | Omnes generationes. | every generation. | SSATB | H4 | K4 | ||
| 5 | Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est, et sanctum nomen eius. | because he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. | B | (H5) H5 | K5 | ||
| B. Freut euch und jubiliert | B. Freut euch und jubiliert | --- | B | ||||
| 6 | Et misericordia a progenie in progenies timentibus eum. | and his mercy [continues ] from generation to generation for those who fear him. | AT | (H6) H6 | K6 | ||
| 7 | Fecit potentiam in brachio suo, dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. | He has made known the power of his arm, scattered those who are arrogant in the thoughts of their heart. | SSATB | H7 | K7 | ||
| C. Gloria in excelsis Deo | C. Gloria in excelsis Deo | --- | --- | C | |||
| 8 | Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles. | He has put down the mighty from their seats [of power] and raised up those who are lowly. | T | (H8) H8 | K8 | ||
| 9 | Esurientes implevit bonis et divites dimisit inanes. | The hungry he has filled with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. | A | (H9) H9 | K9 | ||
| D. Virga Jesse floruit | D. Virga Jesse floruit | SB | --- | K-D | D | ||
| 10 | Suscepit Israel puerum suum recordatus misericordiae suae. | He has taken under his protection Israel his boy, and remembered his mercy. | SSA | H10 | K10: 0:00 | ||
| 11 | Sicut locutus est ad Patres nostros, Abraham et semini eius in saecula. | in accordance with what he said to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever. | SSATB | H11 | K10: 1:52 | ||
| 12 | Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. | Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be : world without end. Amen. | SSATB | H12 H12 H12 H12 H12 H12 H12 | K10: 3:05 | ||
| 13 | Virga Jesse floruit | Virga Jesse floruit | SB | --- | K13 | ||
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | ||||||
By the way, FWIW, my favorite segment of the Magnificat is
the three numbers starting with “Suscepit Israel” in the Harnoncourt performance.
Below is an adaption of the discussion of BWV 243 and 243a in
Christoph Wolff’s biography Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician:
The Magnificat of Christmas 1723, BWV 243a,
the first larger-scale composition for the Leipzig main churches,
was performed at a small festival of sacred music
during Bach’s first Christmas season in his new city.
Of the various works performed then,
Bach’s only setting of the Canticle of the Virgin (Luke 1: 46–55)
represented the fullest and most elaborate compositional effort
of his then-young career.
Having begun his duties
after the high feasts of Easter and Pentecost had already passed,
Christmas 1723 offered the first opportunity for an exhilarating musical statement.
At Vespers services in Leipzig,
the Magnificat was sung in German on regular Sundays
but performed in concerted form and in Latin on high feasts.
Following a local Christmas tradition that had originated in the late Middle Ages
and had also been observed by his predecessors,
Bach expanded the setting of the Magnificat
by interpolating four German and Latin songs of praise, so-called Laudes:
“Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her,”
“Freut euch und jubiliert,”
“Gloria in excelsis Deo,” and
“Virga Jesse floruit.”
At St. Thomas’s,
these inserted movements were performed from the east organ loft,
the swallow’s nest opposite the main musicians’ gallery
at the west end of the church.
But even at St. Nicholas’s,
where the performing conditions did not permit this kind of stereophony,
the double-choir structure of such an expanded Magnificat
could not but produce a splendid and festive effect.
Apart from its unusual five-part choral setting and rich instrumental scoring,
the piece’s symmetric frame and
the different polyphonic textures and expressive gestures of the individual movements
were distinctive innovations.
Bach’s close reading of the concluding Lesser Doxology,
with the phrase “sicut erat in principio” (as it was in the beginning),
resulted in a finale that presents a literal repeat of the opening movement,
not as an abstract architectural device
but as an effort to translate this portion of the text meaningfully into music.
A decade later, between 1732 and 1735,
Bach substantially revised the Magnificat.
For the new version, BWV 243, he deleted the interpolated Christmas movements,
thereby neutralizing its liturgical destination,
transposed the piece from E-flat to D major, one of the standard “trumpet keys,”
and modified the instrumentation by replacing recorders
with the more modern transverse flutes
and, for movement 10, “Suscepit Israel,”
the solo trumpet with two oboes in unison.
These largely pragmatic decisions,
which converted the Magnificat into a Vespers repertoire piece,
indicate that Bach was striving to convert his Magnificat into
a liturgical work that would be suitable for any festive occasion.
An upload of the Mezzo broadcast of the Koopman-conducted BWV243a Magnificat (including the Laudes!) as a single video (33m45s, 360p):
Uploaded on Dec 3, 2011 by ArcaDellaMemoria
This next seems to be the same, but without the Laudes:
Bach - Magnificat BWV 243a (Koopman) Mezzo broadcast(25m43s, without Laudes)
Uploaded on Jul 31, 2006 by Bacholoji (240p, video distorted)
Timings for Harnoncourt performance uploaded by Faces of Classical Music – 2
https://youtu.be/41blIyHQ0hs
(00:02) 01:07 i. Magnificat Anima Mea (Coro)
(03:24) 03:42 ii. Et Exultavit (Aria - S2)
(05:58) 06:26 iii. Quia Respexit (Aria - S1)
08:15 iv. Omnes Generationes (Coro)
(09:48) 10:02 v. Quia Fecit Mihi Magna (Aria - B)
(11:45) 12:07 vi. Et Misericordia (Duetto - AT)
15:40 vii. Fecit Potentiam (Coro)
(17:44) 18:09 viii. Deposuit (Aria - T)
(19:56) 20:24 ix. Esurientes (Aria - A)
22:50 x. Suscepit Israel (Terzetto - S1S2A)
24:35 xi. Sicut Locutus (Fugue - S1S2ATB)
26:07 xii. Gloria Patri (Coro)
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