Magnificat Es-Dur, BWV 243a
The Magnificat in E♭ major, BWV 243a, also BWV 243.1, 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.
Movements
- Coro "Magnificat anima mea Dominum"
- IIa. Aria (Sopran II) "Et exsultavit"
- IIb. Coro (a-cappella) "Vom Himmel hoch"
- Aria (Sopran I) "Quia respexit"
- Coro "Omnes generationes"
- Va. Aria (Bass) "Quia fecit mihi magna"
- Vb. Coro "Freut euch und jubiliert"
- Aria (Alt, Tenor) "Et misericordia"
- VIIa. Coro "Fecit potentiam"
- VIIb. Coro "Gloria in excelsis Deo"
- Aria (Tenor) "Deposuit potentes"
- IXa. Aria (Alt) "Esurientes implevit bonis"
- IXb. Aria (Sopran, Bass) "Virga Jesse floruit"
- Aria (Sopran I, Sopran II, Alt) "Suscepit Israel"
- Coro "Sicut locutus est"
- Coro "Gloria Patri et filio"