This church is where Bach spent much of his working life. Unlike Protestant England, where at this time the use of Latin for church services was pretty much proscribed, the good Lutheran burghers of Leipzig allowed, on high days and holidays, performance of some of their liturgy in Latin.
And so in 1723, having just secured the job as kantor at the Thomaskirche, Bach wrote a Latin setting of the Magnificat (in E-flat) which he later revised, transposing it down a semitone to D (the version that’s mostly performed now).
0:07 Magnificat
3:05 Et Exsultavit (Aria)
5:28 Quia Respexit (Aria)
8:12 Omnes
9:36 Quia Fecit (Aria)
11:49 Et misericordia (Duetto)
15:28 Fecit Potentiam
17:25 Deposuit (Aria)
19:34 Esurientes (Aria)
22:26 Suscepit Israel (Terzetto)
24:30 Sicut Locutus Est
26:14 Gloria Patri
A year later – and now a settled Leipziger – Bach returned to the Magnificat canticle, but this time in the vernacular translation by Martin Luther himself. An interesting comparison:
0:07 Meine Seel erhebt den Herren
3:37 Herr, der du stark und mächtig bist (Aria)
9:55 Des Höchsten Güt und Treu (Recitative)
11:22 Gewaltige stößt Gott vom Stuhl (Aria)
14:07 Er denket der Barmherzigkeit (Duet & choral)
16:02 Was Gott den Vätern alter Zeiten (Recitative)
18:08 Lob und Preis sei Gott
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The Art of Listening 