Magnificat (Torri)

[4] In the early 1790s Torri wrote scenic works such as L'ambizione fulminata and Gli amori di Titone e d'Aurora for Munich, and I Preggi della primavera for Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, Electress Palatine at Leuchtenberg.

[4] He returned to Munich in 1715, where he would remain till the end of his life, composing still over 20 new operas and other stage works, at a rate of around one every year.

[4] Among his liturgical compositions of this period is a Requiem mass for the Elector, who died in 1726, after which Torri remained in the service of Charles Albert, son and successor of Maximilian II Emanuel.

[12][13] The text of Torri's Magnificat is the Latin version of the Biblical canticle "My soul doth magnify the Lord" from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke (10 verses), followed by the Minor Doxology Gloria Patri.

[13] Torri's Magnificat is set à 15 et più (for 15 voices and more):[13] and basso continuo (Bc; figured bass for the organ).

[1][3] The second movement, setting the third verse of the Magnificat, is a duet for the alto and tenor of the first choir, accompanied by both trumpets and the continuo.

[1][3] The third movement, setting the next verse of the Magnificat, is another duet: soprano and bass of the first choir sing, accompanied by the continuo.

[1][3] The fourth movement, taking a central place in the composition, is a stile antico setting of the fifth verse of the canticle, for all four voices of the first choir, and continuo.

[1][3] The fifth movement, setting the next verse of the Magnificat, is a duet for the alto and tenor of the second choir, accompanied by two violin voices, and continuo.

[1] The seventh movement, setting the ninth verse of the Magnificat, is the last duet, for soprano and bass of the second choir, and continuo.

Peter Wollny thinks it likely that it was there that the Prince obtained a copy of Torri's Magnificat, which he brought back to Germany.

Johann Sebastian Bach, who was employed by Ernest Augustus, then Duke of Saxe-Weimar, from 1708, thus likely knew Torri's Magnificat from his time in Weimar, and may have taken performance parts of the work with him when he left that city in 1717.