a free translation of which is--‘The weeping, mournful mother stood close to the cross.’ The _Magnificat_ is the Song of the Blessed Mary, _Magnificat anima mea Dominum_ (‘My soul doth magnify the Lord’), and appears as the central point of musical interest in the Vesper service. During the period of the exclusively vocal service, it was sung antiphonally, sometimes as a plain-song melody, with choral response in several voices. In the second half of the sixteenth century, however, this was discontinued and only the first versicle was intoned by one voice, and the other eleven were sung by the choir. This was finally changed into the antiphonal singing of two choirs. With the development of the organ, this instrument began to take a place in alternating with the voices, giving a different antiphonal effect. Thus from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century we find many so-called ‘Organ Magnificats.’ Later a deterioration began by combining the plain-song with secular or irrelevant matter, and this custom gradually led to the substitution of a good secular melody as a _cantus_, in place of the plain-song chant. In this style Orlandus Lassus produced some of the most charming _a cappella_ compositions extant. In the Anglican Church, the Magnificat also assumed free and elaborate proportions and it consists of combined solo and chorus passages with organ and, sometimes, orchestral accompaniment. Bach, Mendelssohn and other modern composers have treated the Magnificat in elaborate oratorio style with orchestral accompaniment and complex voice-writing.