Set in Latin for Alto, Tenor and Bass with occasional split voices, the Magnificat starts with an Alto solo calling to mind the voice of the young Mary whilst also providing a rising fifth incipit to an imagined plainchant setting. Indeed, the Tenor and Bass response to this incipit is reminiscent of plainchant, though rhythmically more robust. There follows a section lively, interlocking melodies, sometimes contrapuntal, sometimes homophonic and always punctuated by return of the original "Magnificat" rising fifth motif. This falls away with the emptiness of "et divites dimisit inanes" represented by frequent pauses between the text, to allow the cathedral's famous acoustic to tell its tale. After a more lyrical section in which the Altos feature more as a lead against the lower voices' accompaniment, the rising fifth motif begins to crop up again, this time with greater insistence, heralding the return of the opening, more lively music. The Gloria arrives via a dramatic key change in the basses, leading to a more reflective "sicut erat" which is scored in 6 parts  until the end.

The Nunc Dimittis is scored for Tenor solo and ATB. It was originally written for (but never performed by) Roy's long standing Tenor colleague, Andrew Yeats. Initially, the soloist, representing the old man Simeon, seems reluctant to move from his first note or his first words, delivering a monotone throughout his first 8 bars whilst leaving the melody to his colleagues in the choir. The moment he appears to have found his voice, however, the Altos break in on "Quia viderunt" with our by now familiar rising fifth phrase, leading to a slightly slower repeat of the ending of the doxology from the Magnificat.