Program Notes

Magnificat

carol Carol Talbeck was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest countryside of small farms and evergreen woodlands. She has held many jobs - mother of three, health foods worker, ESL and English tutor, and technical writer and manager in high-tech. She re-entered college in midlife and completed a master's degree in literature. During the past few decades, she has pursued creative writing - poetry, short stories and, most recently, historical fiction. She has been writing program notes for the chorus for several years.

During his first year in Leipzig (1723), Bach created the melodious, Italian style Magnificat in the key of E-flat for Christmas. Nearly ten years later he revised the text for year-round use, transposed the score to the key of D, and included trumpets for more sonority. This large-scale canticle is an exhilarating and innovative ride through swift contrasts, alive with freshness and vitality, characterizing Mary's youthfulness in light of her profound task. Bach’s young new second wife, Anna Magdalena, was pregnant with their first child at the time.

A jubilant Mary dances forth in the opening movement. She is pregnant and declares “Magnificat anima mea Dominum” (My soul doth magnify the Lord). Her happiness increases, until we feel the universe itself resound with praise. The chorus’s final utterance leads to the soaring curve of the soprano solo “Et exultavit” (My soul magnifies the Lord). The animated rhythms expressing Mary's joy build a sense of excitement that suffuses the entire piece. A descending melody, accompanied by a discreetly melancholy oboe d'amore, expresses the humility that tempers her joy. Remarkably, she is not afraid. Instead, she feels blessed. Rising above the Reformation’s condemnation of medieval idolatry of the Virgin Mary, Bach portrays an irresistibly upbeat young woman who embraces her task: to “guarantee the reality of the incarnation and of the human nature of Christ.¹

For the text, Bach chose Luke 1:46-55, words attributed to Mary on learning both of her pregnancy and its significance to humanity. Mary’s prayer echoes the Old Testament Song of Hannah, the prophet Samuel’s mother (1 Samuel 2:1-10). With the words “Omnes generations” (All generations), each voice part makes an ascending entrance and, in the last bars, the combined voices climax in a dominant chord, portraying humanity’s timeless multitudes.

The bass aria “Quia fecit mihi magna,”with its graciously flowing gentleness, ushers in divine mercy. The contralto and tenor duet, “Et misericordia,” considered to be a Baroque masterpiece, leads in a steady, somber E-minor key to the word “timentibus” (them that fear him). “Fecit potentiam” is a gust of wind, taking perilous height on the word “superbos” (the proud ones) and then becoming reflective in a brief adagio, “mente cordis sui” (the imagination of their hearts).

The “Deposuit potentes” leaves no question that the mighty will suffer a headlong fall while the humble are exalted. Expressing fulfillment of the ancient promise, the “Sicut locutus est” (As He spoke to our fathers) flows effortlessly through a five-part fugal structure. Finally, the “Gloria,” with its seraphic trumpets, draws the work to a dazzling conclusion, as a rhythmic change at “Sicut erat” asserts the duration of the ages.

— Carol Talbeck

Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture, Jaroslav Pelikan, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1996.