Magnificat - Jonathan Willcocks (b.1953)

Jonathan Willcocks has composed extensively for choirs and has received many commissions from home and abroad, including Worcester Mass, written for the Three Choirs Festival. He is conductor of the Portsmouth Choral Union and Chichester Singers and is Director of the Junior Academy of the Royal Academy of Music in London. The Magnificat was commissioned by the Hickory Choral Society of North Carolina, U.S.A. and first performed in 1997, conducted by the composer. It combines the Latin words of the Magnificat with two anonymous 15^th century English texts, and is scored for soprano solo, chorus, brass, timpani, percussion and organ. Its tremendous rhythmic exuberance is apparent from the very opening.