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Monteverdi provided a second setting of the Magnificat, for six voices and organ only, to be used on those occasions when the large array of obbligato instruments called for in the seven-part setting were not available. In fact, the 1610 partbooks allow the possibility for all the essential items of a Vespers service to be performed with organ alone: thus, in addition to this Magnificat, Monteverdi provides a simple chanted version of Deus in adiutorium and marks the instrumental ritornellos of Dixit Dominus as optional; the ritornellos for the hymn Ave maris stella, too, can be omitted.

One easily audible difference between the seven-part setting of the Magnificat and the six-part one, from which it was probably developed, is that in the former Monteverdi omits one pitch from the second part of the plainsong (listen to the endings of verse 1 of each setting). This small change, together with differences in the patterning of the bass, has the effect of making this verse in the larger setting seem more sharply focused than its model. Similarly, in the three-part settings of ‘Et exultavit’, the leisurely triple-time of the six-part setting becomes a more lively and virtuosic duple-time setting in the version for seven voices. Elsewhere, however, and particularly in those movements in which obbligato instruments are employed, the seven-part setting is an altogether larger and grander conception. Almost all the verses in the seven-part version draw on those of the smaller setting. The exceptions are the verse ‘Suscepit Israel’ and the opening of the ‘Gloria Patri’. The two settings are also linked in that both include detailed indications of the organ stops to be used.

from notes by John Whenham © 2006