St Asaph Choral Society

Magnificat - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736)

Like so many pieces connected with the gifted composer Pergolesi, this Magnificat may not be by him at all. The young composer, who was born near Ancona and studied in Naples with the composers Durante and Feo, both of whom continued the Neapolitan School founded by Alessandro Scarlatti, became a noted violinist and church organist. In his own lifetime he was a composer of comic operas but later turned to sacred music. So popular was he that, after his tragic early death from tuberculosis, several secular and sacred works by other hands were falsely attributed to him and printed under his name by publishing seeking to cash in on his reputation. With one or two exceptions, his operas are largely forgotten now, and today he is best known for his setting of the Stabat Mater, for soprano and alto soloists (both male, originally).

The circumstances surrounding the composition of this Magnificat in B flat for four-part choir and soloists are unknown, and no autograph exists to prove it as an authentic work by Pergolesi. In structure it follows a cantata-like approach typical of the 18th-century baroque. Thus it is laid out in six movements. The first, a bright allegro for chorus, is dominated by one of the plainchants customarily used for the Magnificat in the Roman Catholic liturgy. The same tune recurs in the closing chorus, "Sicut erat in principio ("As it was in the beginning"), also an allegro.

These two choruses frame a series of four varied movements, the third of which is a lovely duet for bass and tenor on the words "Suscepit Israel" ("He hath helpen his servant Israel"). All the others are choruses: in the first, "Et misericordia" ("And his mercy is on them that fear him"), an andante for soprano and alto soloists prefaces a brisk choral setting of the words "Fecit potentiam" ("He hath shown strength with his arm"); the next "Deposuit potentes" ("He hath put down the mighty"), marked alla breve, has an antique feel to it. The last of the inner movements, following the duet, majestically sets the words "Sicut locutus est" ("As he spake unto our fathers, Abraham and his seed forever").

Programme Note by William Gould. This note was supplied through the Programme Note Bank of Making Music Wales.