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2. Vivaldi Christmas Concerto
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4. Gloria Vivaldi Christmas

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Top 10 facts about Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi was a 17th and 18th-century musician who’s become one of the most famous figures in European classical music.

He was born on March 4, 1678, in Venice, Italy. Vivaldi must have been destined for greatness by virtue of his ground-shaking birth (Literally), a large earthquake occurred in Venice on his birthday.

Antonio Vivaldi was ordained as a priest at birth although he later chose to follow his passion for music. He became a prolific composer who created hundreds of works, became renowned for his concertos in Baroque style, and was a highly influential innovator in form and pattern.

Some facts about this Italian composer

1. Antonio Vivaldi was mentored by his father

Young Antonio was taught to play the violin by his father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, a professional violinist who was also a barber. Antonio got to tour Venice with his father while playing the violin together.

Through his father and the tours, Vivaldi met and learned from some of the finest musicians and composers in Venice at the time. While his violin practice flourished, chronic shortness of breath barred him from mastering wind instruments.

2. Antonio Vivaldi went to the monastery

At the age of 15, Antonio began studying to become a priest. He also took music lessons. He was ordained in 1703.

Due to his red hair, Vivaldi was known by the locals as “il Prete Rosso,” or “the Red Priest.” His career in the clergy was short-lived due to health problems that prevented him from delivering mass and drove him to abandon the priesthood shortly after his ordination.

3. Antonio Vivaldi the Maestro di violin

After leaving the priesthood, Vivaldi went to Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage in Venice where he became the master of the violin.

He was regarded as an exceptional technical violinist as well as a famous composer. He began his career at the orphanage aged 25 and stayed for over three decades composing most of his major work.

The orphanages provided shelter and education to children who were abandoned, orphaned or came from poor families.

Vivaldi taught and mentored the children who began to gain appreciation and praises abroad.

4. Vivaldi had a strained relationship with his workmates

Despite his amazing work and excellent teaching skills that saw most of the children master their musical skills and even joining the Ospedale’s renowned orchestra and choir, his relationship with the board of directors of the Ospedale was often on the rocks.

The board would vote every year to decide whether to keep him as a teacher. They unanimously voted him out once, and only later realized the importance of his role after a year. The recalled him back.

During that time, Vivaldi practised as a freelance musician. He later became responsible for the entire musical activity o the institution when he was called back.

5. Vivaldi took on other jobs other than teaching

In addition to his regular employment, Vivaldi accepted a number of short-term positions funded by patrons in Mantua and Rome.

It was during his term in Mantua, from around 1717 to 1721, that he wrote his four-part masterpiece, The Four Seasons. He paired the pieces with four sonnets, which he may have written himself.

6. Antonio Vivaldi’s secret love life

Vivaldi took up a job offer as a Maestro di Cappella by prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt in Mantua. He produced several operas in the three years he was there.

It was during this time that he was introduced to Anna Tessieri Giro, who became his student and protégée. She later moved in with him and would accompany him on his many travels.

Speculations flew around whether the two were involved in a romantic relationship beyond their friendship.

Vivaldi was quick to deny the speculations in a letter he wrote to his patron Bentivogilo on November 16, 1737.

7. Vivaldi had tough Financial Times

Although he seemed to be a successful and famous musician, he faced financial difficulties like most of his fellow composers at the time.

In his later years, Vivaldi’s compositions were no longer held in high regard as they once were in Venice. This could be as a result of his changing musical tastes that outmoded.

To get himself out of the financial murk, Vivaldi opted to sell a huge number of his manuscripts at low prices to finance his move to Vienna.

8. Vivaldi spent time in Vienna

There is no clear reason as to why he moved to Vienna, but it is believed that after meeting with Emperor Charles VI, he aspired to take up a position as a composer in the imperial court.

Vivaldi also staged operas while in Vienna when he lived near Karntnertor theater.

His new life and career were cut short after Charles VI died, leaving him without royal protection and no steady source of income. Antonio Vivaldi sunk back into bankruptcy.

9. Vivaldi died poor

Photo by Wendy Scofield on Unsplash

Antonio Vivaldi died a pauper despite his fame. He died on July 28, 1741, aged 63 of an internal infection.

No music was played at his funeral, only the bells at St. Stephen’s Cathedral chimed to note his passing. He was buried in a simple grave in a public hospital cemetery.

A memorial plaque has been placed on the site that was once his home, which has since been destroyed.

10. Antonio Vivaldi’s life documented

His life has been featured in a 2005 movie, Vivaldi, A Prince of Venice. A radio play was also done for ABC Radio that same year.

The play was later adapted to a stage play titled The Angel and the Red Priest.

Vivaldi’s genius skills and music continue to influence many musicians centuries later. His complete music catalogue was found in 1926 at a boarding school in Piedmont. The music of Vivaldi has been performed widely since World War II. The choral composition Gloria, re-introduced to the public at Casella’s Vivaldi Week, is particularly famous and is performed regularly at Christmas celebrations worldwide. His work includes nearly 500 concertos that have influenced subsequent composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach.

Antonio Vivaldi wrote at least three settings of the hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo, whose words date probably from the 4th Century and which is an integral part of the Ordinary of the Mass. Two survive: RV 588 and RV 589. A third, RV 590, is mentioned only in the Kreuzherren catalogue and presumed lost. The RV 589 Gloria is a familiar and popular piece among sacred works by Vivaldi. It was probably written at about the same time as the RV 588, possibly in 1715.

Introduction [edit]

As with other choral pieces the composer, Vivaldi, wrote many introduzione (introductory motets) that were to be performed before the Gloria itself. Four introduzioni exist for these Glorias: Cur Sagittas (RV 637), Jubilate, o amoeni cori (RV 639) (the last movement of which is compositionally tied with the first movement of RV 588), Longe Mala, Umbrae, Terrores (RV 640), and Ostro Picta (RV 642).

Settings[edit]

RV 588[edit]

The lesser known of the two surviving Glorias, RV 588 was most likely composed during Vivaldi's employment at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, known for its advanced choral ensemble. The first movement is interwoven with the last aria of RV 639, as explained above. The date of composition between this Gloria and RV 589 is still disputed, but both show compositional inspiration from each other.

RV 588 borrows extensively from a double orchestra-and-choir setting of the same text by Giovanni Maria Ruggieri (which will henceforth in this article be referred by its RV cataloguing number of RV. Anh. 23). Many movements show inspiration from this composition, and two movements ('Qui Tollis' and 'Cum Sancto Spiritu') are plagiarised from the original Ruggieri setting (although 'Qui Tollis' completely omits the second coro (chorus), and 'Cum Sancto Spiritu' is slightly modified). The first movement of RV 588 is also an extended version of RV Anh. 23, sans the second coro employed in RV Anh. 23, among other musical modifications. The second movements of both RV 588 and RV 589 ('Et in Terra Pax') both show chromatic patterns and key modulations similar to that of the second movement of RV Anh. 23.

Movements[edit]

1. Gloria in excelsis Deo (Chorus)
2. Et in terra pax (Chorus)
3. Laudamus te (Sopranos I and II)
4. Gratias agimus tibi (Chorus)
5. Propter magnam gloria (Chorus)
6. Domine Deus (Soprano)
7. Domine, Fili unigenite (Chorus)
8. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei (Alto, Chorus)
9. Qui tollis peccata mundi (Chorus)
10. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris (Mezzo Soprano)
11. Quoniam tu solus sanctus (Chorus)
12. Cum Sancto Spiritu (Chorus)

RV 589[edit]

This is the better known setting of the Gloria, simply known as the Vivaldi 'Gloria' due to its outstanding popularity. This piece, along with its mother composition RV 588, was composed at the same time during Vivaldi's employment at the Pietà. Two introduzioni exist as explained in the aforementioned article.

As in RV 588, there exists evidence of influence by RV Anh. 23: the first movement's chorus shares similar key modulations to that of the first movement of RV 588, only modified to fit a duple meter instead of the triple meter of RV 588. Motivic material present in the orchestral parts of either piece are also shared, including octave jumps in the opening motives of the piece. The second movement is significantly more chromatic in RV 589, but nonetheless is texturally similar to the setting present in RV Anh. 23, with the use of repeating rhythmic figures underneath harmonic motion. The 'Qui Tollis' movement of RV 589 is rhythmically similar to the first few measures of RV 588 (and ultimately RV Anh. 23). The last movement, 'Cum Sancto Spiritu,' is essentially an 'updated' version of movement present in both RV Anh. 23 and RV 588, except extensively harmonically modified, becoming more chromatic than its predecessors, reflecting a maturity in Vivaldi's output and the emerging style of the late Italian Baroque.

Movements[edit]

1. Gloria (Chorus)
2. Et in terra pax (Chorus)
3. Laudamus te (Sopranos I and II)
4. Gratias agimus tibi (Chorus)
5. Propter magnam gloriam (Chorus)
6. Domine Deus (Soprano)
7. Domine, Fili unigenite (Chorus)
8. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei (Contralto and Chorus)
9. Qui tollis peccata mundi (Chorus)
10. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris (Contralto)
11. Quoniam tu solus sanctus (Chorus)
12. Cum Sancto Spiritu (Chorus)

RV 590[edit]

Little information exists on this lost work other than its instrumentation (five voices and oboes in trombae) in the Kreuzherren catalogue. There is no other source of information; not even its possible key can be conjectured. In the Ryom-Verzeichnis catalogue, it is considered lost.

RV Anh. 23[edit]

As stated above, this Gloria for two cori (orchestras) was written by Giovanni Maria Ruggieri. This composition, probably for a Venetian church during a festival, is dated September 9, 1708 N.S. This Gloria provided much inspiration for Vivaldi's two settings and for other Glorias by other composers at the time, who may have used it in their settings.

Movements[edit]

1. Gloria in excelsis Deo (Chorus)
2. Et in terra pax (Seven Bass soloists)
3. Laudamus te (Chorus, Sopranos I and II, Tenor)
4. Gratias agimus tibi (Chorus)
5. Propter Magnam Gloriam (Chorus)
6. Domine Deus (Sopranos I and II and Bass from first coro, Sopranos III and VI and Bass from second coro)
7. Domine, Fili unigenite (Chorus)
8. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei (Chorus)
9. Qui tollis peccata mundi (Chorus)
10. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris (Chorus and Soprano, Contralto, and Tenor)
11. Quoniam tu solus sanctus (Chorus)
12. Cum Sancto Spiritu (Chorus)

Popularity[edit]

Vivaldi Christmas Music

The Glorias remained in a relatively unknown status, until RV 589's revival by Alfredo Casella during 'Vivaldi Week' in Siena (1939), along with the composer's setting of the Stabat Mater (RV 621). RV 589 enjoys well-founded popularity, performed at many sacred events, including Christmas. It has been recorded on almost one hundred CDs, sometimes paired with Bach's Magnificat (BWV 243), Vivaldi's own Magnificat settings (RV 610-611), or Vivaldi's Beatus Vir (RV 597). RV 588, however, has had little success and has only been published in few albums. Attempts to create more attention to RV 588 and other sacred Vivaldi works (most notably by The King's Consort) are underway.

As with many other pieces of the Baroque era, RV 589 (and its lesser known companion RV 588) have been performed in historically-informed instrumentation, even with the use of an all-female choir to simulate choral conditions at the Pietà. There are several different editions, and choirs need to exercise caution when combining different vocal and orchestral editions.

RV 589 has also been used in a number of films. The first movement featured in the 1996 Scott Hicks film Shine about pianist David Helfgott, as well as in the 2011 film The Hunter. An adaptation of the second movement was used with profound effect in the final climactic scenes of the 1985 Andrei Konchalovsky film Runaway Train.^[1]

Editions[edit]

• Vivaldi: Gloria in D RV 589, Stuttgart Carus-Verlag 1971

References[edit]

1. ^'Trevor Jones: Runaway Train'. maintitles.net. Retrieved 2010-01-23.

Vivaldi Christmas Concerto

External links[edit]

Vivaldi Winter Violin Sheet Music

• Free scores of this work in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Gloria in D major, RV 589: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Gloria, RV 589, performed by National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia on YouTube
• Gloria, RV 589, performed by University of North Texas College of Music on YouTube

Gloria Vivaldi Christmas