Magnificat, by Arvo Pärt

Quire of Cheahs présente la célèbre mise en musique du Magnificat par Arvo Pärt. L’œuvre a été commandée par le Deutscher Musikrat et composée en 1989 pour Christian Grube et le Staats- und Domchor de Berlin (à qui elle est également dédiée). One of Pärt’s most widely performed choral works, “Magnificat“ showcases the composer’s signature and original compositional style of tintinnabuli which is characterized by two types of voice, the first of which (dubbed the “tintinnabular voice“) arpeggiates the tonic triad, and the second of which moves diatonically in stepwise motion. Set in a slow and meditative tempo, the piece uses length and repetition to establish a sense of timelessness or a continual present. This effect is derived from a gentle eloquence — without actually setting the text in a descriptive way — and from the contrast of verse- and tutti-like sections. Pärt’s wife Nora’s descript