• Duration: 8'
• Year: 1. poł. XV w.
• Editor: Józef Chomiński
• Language of text: lat
• Type: parts, score

The work which inspires the most interest in Mikołaj of Radoms legacy is his Magnificat - i.e. a musical arrangement of the canticle of the Virgin Mary taken from the Gospel according to St. Luke. Works of this type were fairly common in the 15th century; for us, what is most significant is that the composer made use here of fauxbourdon technique, which became a symbol of the transformations which were taking place in the music of that time. The utilization of this technique was of momentous significance for the sound of the work n for it is in fauxbourdon that we see the beginnings of thinking in chords, so important to the music of subsequent era. However, what is particularly important is that Mikołaj of Radom was one of the first European artists to utilize this - for those times - truly avant-garde solution. His Magnificat is compared in particular with the works of the young Guillaume Dufay (b. 1397, d. 1474) - a great master of the art of polyphony, a pioneer in the use of this technique who set the standards for music composition in the 15th century. Radomskis work resembles in unusual measure the Magnificat sexti toni written no doubt at the same time by the Burgundian composer not only on account of utilization of fauxbourdon and of melodic similarities, but also in view of the kindred, unusually symmetrical structure of the work.