The Southern Delaware Choral Society’s winter concert, My Soul Now Magnifies The Lord, will be at 7 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 12, at Eagle’s Nest Fellowship Church, Milton, and at 3 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 13, at Woodbridge High School, Bridgeville.
Adult tickets are $20; student tickets cost $8 and can be purchased at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, Puzzles in Lewes, online at southerndelawarechoralsociety.org or by calling 945-0393.
The accompanist will be choral conductor, organist and pianist Lee Dettra, who recently retired as organist and choirmaster at Immanuel Episcopal Church on the Green in New Castle. Prior to that, for 15 years he presided at the largest church organ in the world as choirmaster and organist of the cadet chapel at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
The concert features pieces from Magnificats written by Bach and Mendelssohn and selections from Handel’s “Messiah.” The “Magnificat,” also known as the “Song of Mary,” is a canticle frequently sung liturgically in Christian church services. The text of the canticle is taken directly from the Gospel of Luke, in which it is spoken by the Virgin Mary upon the occasion of her visitation to her cousin Elizabeth. In the narrative, after Mary greets Elizabeth, who is pregnant with the future John the Baptist, the child moves within Elizabeth’s womb. When Elizabeth praises Mary for her faith, Mary sings the “Magnificat” in response.
Bach’s “Magnificat” was written in Leipzig for the 1723 Christmas Vespers. Some years later he revised it, removing the Christmas interpolations, making the piece suitable for use throughout the year and transposing it into D, a much brighter key. Bach’s “Magnificat” was conceived on a grand scale, requiring five soloists and a five-part choir.
Mendelssohn first heard Bach’s “Magnificat in D” in 1819. He was so impressed that he set out to write a work in a similar vein as a tribute to Bach. In spring 1822, when he had just turned 13, Mendelssohn composed a work, his first major choral composition, with many parallels to Bach’s original - not only in the same key but even quoting fragments of Bach’s music.
“This is a beautiful concert designed to challenge the voices of our singers and to delight our audiences. We are combining new music with music that listeners have come to expect at our winter concert, such as the pieces from the ‘Messiah’,” said Gail Launay, executive director of the choral society.
Support for concerts performed by the Southern Delaware Choral Society is provided, in part, through grants by the Delaware Division of the Arts and Sussex County Council.
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