Magnificat Wq 215

C. P. E. Bach’s nine-movement Magnificat (1749), the first great vocal work from his Berlin years, is among the most magnificent sounding, in which the solo vocal parts are also among the most ambitious settings of the “Hymn to the Virgin Mary” (Luke 1).

The work fulfills all the criteria required for a larger sacred composition: grandeur, dignity, polyphonic and concertante choral movements, sensitive (“empfindsam”) and expressive arias, a long concluding double fugue. This richly scored Magnificat (with 3 trumpets and timp. ad. lib.), which is almost one hour in duration, would be well suited, for example, as the central work on every Christmas or pre-Christmas concert programme.

Scoring: 2 Fl, 2 Ob, Fg, 2 Cor, 2 Vl, Va, Bc; 3 Tr, Timp ad lib.