Morales’s Magnificats and Some Anonymous Settings in Portuguese Sources: Questions of Style and Authorship

Abstract

Morales’s Magnificat settings were among his most popular and important sacred works. The main series, loosely associated with his ‘Roman’ period (c. 1534-45) appeared in print from 1542 onwards and also survive in some fifty manuscripts sources preserved in Europe, including in Portugal, and the New World. As is not commonly known, these were not his only settings: others dating from before his time in Rome are also to be found in Iberian sources. Two important Portuguese codices dating from the late 16th-17th centuries—Oporto MM 40 and the Arouca Codex—preserve copies of a selection of the printed Magnificats by Morales. These sources also contain a few anonymous Magnificats integrated with settings by Morales that are analogous in thematic content and style to both his ‘Roman’ series and those surviving only in manuscript. Through analysis supported by musical examples, this study explores the possibility of Morales’s authorship of these anonymous Magnificat settings.