2006 - Pachelbel Cantata Christmas Concert

On Sunday, December 10, 2006, the FUMC Festival Choir presented Magnificat in C Major, by Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706).  Pachelbel’s music was quite popular during his life, and he taught and influenced many other German composers, including Johann Christoph Bach, the eldest brother of Johann Sebastian Bach.  The Magnificat is a mature work of Pachelbel, dating from 1700, and uses an unusually large, festive instrumentation, including choir, 2 sopranos, alto, tenor and bass soloists, 4 trumpets, bassoon, and timpani as well as strings.  The work is based on the Scripture text from Luke 1:46-55.

Because the work is seldom performed today, instrumental parts were not easily available. Our instrumental parts were obtained from a musicologist in Germany who copied the parts from the original manuscript housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England.  Professional musicians from Connecticut and New York were used in the orchestra for our performance, and the choir and orchestra was conducted by Patricia Grimm, Director of Music.

The colorful instrumentation and exuberant vocal parts perfectly express Luke’s account of Mary’s song of praise, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”