Krzysztof Penderecki's setting of the biblical canticle Magnificat was commissioned for the 1,200th anniversary of Salzburg Cathedral and premiered there on 17 August 1974 under the composer's baton.

The solo bass expresses power (potentia) in the fourth section, first juxtaposed by lower strings, then concluding alone but still with high intensity.

The fifth section is a passacaglia which includes declaimed text sung, spoken and whispered, reminiscent of Penderecki's earlier choral compositions.

After a climax that "pivots between tonal stability and disintegration", with brass dominating but interjected by strings and timpani, the conclusion arrives in a "mood of anxious and equivocal calm".

[6][7][8] In her review in The Guardian, Kate Molleson noted that the composer wrote his early sacred music in defiance of the Communist regime in Poland and observed that Penderecki was in a period of transition from avant-garde composition to reminiscences of late-romantic music and his Magnificat mixes tone clusters and diatonic chords.