Composer’s Note

The idea of setting the words of the Magnificat to an elaborate ‘falsobordone’ emerged from the practice at Westminster Cathedral of singing the Magnificat to simple falsobordone settings, except that I attempted to incorporate the outline of the psalm tone in an inner voice (Tenor 2 in Magnificat 1) thus emulating a Renaissance cantus firmus structure. The setting constitutes a half-way house between a chant rendition and a through-composed composition, and  similar to an alternatim chant/polyhony Magnificat familiar in the Renaissance, though much shorter. Practically speaking most of the settings here were designed for maximum musical effect with minimum complexity.