Sounds of the season: John Rutter’s ‘Magnificat’

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On a chilly Sunday evening, community members filed into the Baptist Church of the Covenant’s wood-paneled sanctuary in Birmingham. Like many Christmas celebrations, the church is honoring the season with a performance from their choir along with other musicians.

“Four violins, a full string section and flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, horn, timpani, harp and percussion,” Dan Lawhon, the conductor of the choir, said. 

Many of the musicians are from the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and have been hired to accompany the choir in their performance of John Rutter’s Magnificat.

According to Pastor Erica Cooper, the Magnificat is Mary’s song of praise in the Gospel of Luke, just after she finds out she’s pregnant with the Messiah and celebrates with her cousin Elizabeth. As the women celebrate, Mary sings a song. 

“This very powerful song that is known in Latin as the Magnificat. And in that song, she speaks of tremendously powerful things like God coming down to give justice to the oppressed, to feed the hungry, to send the rich away empty,” Cooper explains.

The choir has been preparing rigorously for the performance since October. Bart Grooms is a member of the group and has been attending the church since its founding in 1970. 

“For me, singing is part of worship. It’s a part of acknowledging God’s love and presence with us,” Grooms said. 

He said  it’s what he can offer to the spiritual community.

“Not everyone can sing, but I do and several of us get together and we try to, in the words of the scripture, make a joyful noise.”

Grooms also described the discipline of singing with a choir. The point is to try to blend with the people around you.

“The goal is to make something that’s beautiful and that speaks to people.”

He added there’s a rule that if you can only hear yourself, you’re singing too loud.

John Rutter’s composition of the Magnificat is unique; it’s infused with festive music and changing meters inspired by how Mary is celebrated in places like Spain, Mexico and Puerto Rico. 

Lawhon conducts the piece with matching zeal. 

After the performance, audience member Ronald Williams shared his reaction.

“I thought it was wonderful, and I am glad they had the English translation of it,” Williams said. 

He also enjoyed Rutter’s version influenced by Latin sounds. 

“I was proud of that. I mean we did something different.”

Pastor Erica Cooper summed up the piece this way.

“Basically, it’s hope for a very impoverished group in Galilee to receive what they have been deprived of for so long,” Cooper said. 

It’s a sentiment she hopes spreads around the city this Christmas season.