Choral Christmas: Open the gates of Heaven

At 10am GMT on each day of Advent, I’ll be posting a YouTube video of a piece which, in my opinion, celebrates the best of music made by the human voice. You can access the full Choral Christmas here.

Bach: Gloria Patri

I was once asked by a budding playwright, arranging the first staging of a new production, what piece of music I would suggest be used to accompany a scene which depicted the opening of the gates of Heaven. After some deliberation I handed over a recording of this final movement of Bach’s Magnificat in D Major, particularly emphasising the passage which begins in this video at around 60 seconds. This piece resonates majesty and joy.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, and ever shall be. World without end, Amen.

In this recording we see some period instruments – a couple of baroque flutes and some sackbuts, and an utter lunatic of a conductor – Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Enjoy.

Scores for the whole Bach Magnificat in D are available on CPDL.