Ex. 7-1: Deposuit

From Bach's Magnificat in D major (BWV 243). The first version was likely composed for 2 July 1723 — Bach's first feast day after leaving his court position to become Thomaskantor in Leipzig. A revised version in D major followed around 1733; the key was changed to suit the natural trumpets, which were usually tuned in D in Saxony.

"Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles" (He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly) is the eighth movement, a tenor aria.

Bach makes the music follow the meaning of the words. When the text brings down the powerful ("Deposuit"), the music drops quickly downward. When it lifts up the poor and humble ("exaltavit humiles"), the music rises. Only a tenor, violins, and a bass line play, so this rising and falling is easy to hear.

This was Bach's first large work in Latin — the kind of grand Latin church music he would return to decades later in his Mass in B minor. His son Carl Philipp Emanuel wrote his own Magnificat in 1749, also in D major and with trumpets, clearly modeled on his father's. The other aria from this Magnificat in this app is "Et exultavit." (Ex. 5-1: Et Exultavit by Johann Sebastian Bach)

From the album Bach: Cantata BWV 140 & Magnificat BWV 243, with tenor Ernst Haefliger, Karl Richter and the Munich Bach Orchestra (1979)
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