| Concerted music for vespers was regularly performed during the 17th and early 18th centuries in the main Evangelical churches of present-day central and northern Germany. Given the importance of the Canticle of the Magnificat within the vesper service--as evidenced by the Bokemeyer, Krieger (Weissenfels), Michaeliskirche (Erfurt), Erlebach (Rudolstadt), Michaelisschule (Luneburg), and Thomasschule (Leipzig) collections or inventories--and the small number of settings known to have been performed on the many feastdays during the liturgical year in Leipzig, the question arises: Which settings of the Magnificat were performed at vespers on the main feastdays and on specific Sundays at the Thomas-, Nicolai-, and Neukirchen in Leipzig, before and during the period when Bach was "Director Musices" for the town?;Although many of these settings were obtained by the Breitkopf firm in Leipzig from the Nachlasse of the Neukirche organist and Bach student, Carl Gotthelf Gerlach, and Bach's successor, Gottlob Harrer, it is argued that these settings must have been performed by J. S. Bach himself on the numerous occasions--of which there were a minimum of sixteen--during the liturgical year demanding concerted settings of the Latin Magnificat.;Reconstructed from a study of the contemporaneous manuscripts extant in Berlin, Darmstadt, Dresden, and Leipzig, the repertoire consists of thirty-odd Magnificats, including settings connected with Georg Melchior Hofmann at the Neukirche; those associated with Johann Kuhnau's tenure as Kantor; Bach's setting (and revision) and his personal copies of contemporaries' settings; and student settings and copies of anonymous Magnificats prepared by Thomasalumni and performed in Leipzig during the 1720s and 1730s. In addition to J. S. Bach, the composers represented include J. C. Broeder, Antonio Caldara, Ruggiero Fedeli, Christoph Graupner, G. M. Hofmann, Gottfried August Homilius, Johann Ludwig Krebs, Johann Philipp Krieger, Johann Kuhnau, Francesco Mancini, Johann Adolph Scheibe, and Georg Philipp Telemann; the composers of a number of settings remain unidentified. |
