The Chorale Fantasia on the ‘Magnificat primi toni’, BuxWV203, a plainsong-based work, is the longer of the two Buxtehude works with this title. It comprises a flamboyant introduction—expressive, surely, of the exultation of the Virgin Mary—followed by eight sections, each based on a portion of the plainsong melody. It therefore has the sectional form of a praeludium, but it differs in that, with the exception of the seven-bar Lento beginning at bar 69 (3'25''), each is more or less strict in character.
from notes by Relf Clark © 2011
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