The 18th century was a turning point in how choral music was written and performed. In their Choral Magnificence concert, the Nelson Civic Choir shares with us some of history’s most magnificent and exciting examples of choral music by some of the greatest choral music geniuses of all time. The exuberance and vitality of choral music is on full display in a programme of music by JS Bach and his son CPE Bach, as well as choral excerpts by Vivaldi, Pachelbel and others.

Opera and oratorio both went through a huge transformation: composers used existing genres of the Mass setting, as well as Passions and sacred texts such as Magnificat and Te Deum, to push out the boundaries of choral music and open up magnificent and thrilling opportunities which were to unfold over the next 200 years.

The 18th century witnessed an exciting development in both choral and orchestral music. Composers were intent on getting more sound out of orchestral instruments, both in range and timbre; this was accompanied by a development in homophonic choral sounds as well as more complex polyphonic choral writing, to match the exuberance and complexities of the orchestral music.