Polyphonic Magnificat
  • Gilbert
    Posts: 106
    Hey,

    Does anyone know of a good polyphonic Magnificat, in latin, that can be sung a capella, with no more voices than SATB? Preferably, not the kind that switches back from polyphony to chant throughout. I've searched on CPDL, but can't find one that I really am happy with. Thanks yall.

    Gilbert
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    I know there is a Morales "full-text" Magnificat, but I would need to dig for it. How about Pärt's Magnificat?
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    For his Magnificat settings, Palestrina generally (exclusively?) uses the psalm tone as his thematic material. He has several sets for each tone, some setting the even verses and some setting the odd verses. Theoretically, you could mix one of each to have a completely polyphonic setting, assuming you have the rehearsal and performance time.
  • Gilbert
    Posts: 106
    Thanks for the ideas gentlemen. Do you know why magnificat settings were done with either "only odd verses" or "only even verses." Did composers intend people to combine them to form a whole, if it was doable? Or is there a reason for it that I'm not seeing?
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,486
    There is a very nice one by Gibbons, not too hard. for SATB.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    More than one reason, really. Since Magnificats were sung antiphonally by tradition, alternating liturgical choir with trained polyphonic singers was a natural next step. Alternatim singing like this gave the lesser trained canons (or their paid replacements!) half the verses in the Magnificat tone, and the polyphonic paid singers the other half. While there are a number of "full text" settings, one cannot assume that they were sung as written. Maybe on occasion, but it sure puts a lot stress on the polyphonic singers' voice. There seems to be pretty good evidence that even these settings alternated between singers and organ (or the cathedral wind band that included some combination of sackbuts, shawms, cornetti, recorders, and viols) MOST settings of the Magnificat, however, are either odd or even verses. In Spain, for example, the odd verses were sung at First Vespers and the even at Second Vespers. This was part of my diss research so I have some good evidence on that. Now, Richard is right, one could mix the odd setting in tone 1 with the even setting in tone 1, but I suspect that a good composer created each setting with some motivic and rhythmic cohesiveness that may interfere with that plan. For example Juan de Esquivel and Sebastian de Vivanco set many of their Magnificats in canon. The Magnificat seemed to be the preferred text for canonic procedures for some reason.
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