Sacred Music for the Feast of the Visitation

Above all, the “Conjuring” film series brings the term visitation close to pure horror, as a demonic nun causes horror there.

In earlier centuries, however, visitation meant a friendly visit to someone’s home. The feast of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary commemorates the visit of the Blessed Mother Mary to her relative Elisabeth – this encounter is described in the New Testament.

praise when visiting

A dialogue develops between the two women, at the end of which Maria speaks her praise of God, the “Magnificat”. “My soul magnifies the greatness of the Lord,” reads the first verse. The theme of the prayer is the mighty acts of God, he exalts the lowly and overthrows the mighty from their thrones, among other things. She speaks these words as she meets with her cousin Elizabeth – after Mary has learned that she is to give birth to the Savior, Jesus Christ.

On the occasion of the festival on July 2, several sacred works that are intrinsically related to this festival will be heard on Sunday one day later. Johann Eccard’s famous motet “Übers Gebirg Maria geht” sounds – it addresses the biblical visit of Mary to her relative Elisabeth.

music for the festival

The baroque composer Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer set the Lauretan Litany to music several times on different occasions. He wrote Litany No. 6 for the feast of the Visitation on July 2nd.

Central to the work is the appeal to Mary for help. The composition is scored for four soloists, trumpets, strings and continuo. The litany begins with the Kyrie invocations to Jesus Christ. Then comes the invocation of Mary. Again and again changing language images are used for the Blessed Mother. At the end of the litany there is again the invocation of Jesus Christ. The composition ends with the Agnus Dei calls from the Latin Mass.

It is part of a series of 8 litanies of Lauretania that Fischer wrote for the Marian festivals of the church year. They were published in Augsburg in 1711 as the composer’s Opus 5.

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