Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) was an Italian
composer and violinist, considered among the greatest
exponents of Baroque music. A priest, although unable
to celebrate mass for health reasons, he was called
"the Red Priest" due to the color of his hair. He was
one of the most virtuosic violinists of his time and
one of the greatest composers of Baroque music.
Considered the most important, influential and original
Italian musician of his era, Vivaldi contributed
significantly to the developm...(+)
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) was an Italian
composer and violinist, considered among the greatest
exponents of Baroque music. A priest, although unable
to celebrate mass for health reasons, he was called
"the Red Priest" due to the color of his hair. He was
one of the most virtuosic violinists of his time and
one of the greatest composers of Baroque music.
Considered the most important, influential and original
Italian musician of his era, Vivaldi contributed
significantly to the development of the concerto,
especially solo (a genre initiated by Giuseppe
Torelli), and of violin technique and orchestration.
Furthermore, he did not neglect opera in music and his
vast compositional work also includes numerous
concerts, sonatas and pieces of sacred music.
His works influenced numerous composers of his time
including the greatest Baroque genius Johann Sebastian
Bach, but also Pisendel, Heinichen, Zelenka,
Boismortier, Corrette, De Fesch, Quantz. His best-known
compositions are the four violin concertos known as The
Four Seasons, a famous example of subject music. As
with many Baroque composers, his name and music fell
into oblivion after his death. Only thanks to the
research of some 20th century musicologists, such as
Arnold Schering, Marc Pincherle, Alberto Gentili,
Alfredo Casella and Gian Francesco Malipiero, his name
and his works became famous again, becoming one of the
best known and most performed composers.
Antonio Vivaldi composed three settings of the Dixit
Dominus (The Lord said [unto my Lord]), the Latin
version of Psalm 110. They include a setting in ten
movements for five soloists, double choir and
orchestra, RV 594, another setting in eleven movements
for five voices, five-part choir and orchestra, RV 595,
and a recently discovered setting in eleven movements
for five soloists, choir and orchestra, RV 807, which
had been attributed to Baldassare Galuppi. It is said
to be one of his "most significant sacred works.".
There are three recorded compositions of Dixit Dominus
– Psalm 110 in Latin (or Psalm 109 in the Vulgate)
– by Vivaldi. Each is an extended setting of the
vespers psalm for five soloists, choir and orchestra;
one only having been identified as his work in 2005.
Psalm 110 is regularly included in Vespers services,
usually as the opening psalm. Dixit Dominus has been
said to be one of his "most significant sacred
works".
The setting discovered next was catalogued as RV 595 in
D major and is structured in eleven movements, eight
psalm verses and three movements for the doxology.
Until the late 1960s the only setting of the Psalm
Dixit Dominus by Vivaldi known to exist was the
splendid one for double choir, RV594, preserved in
Turin. Then, unexpectedly, a second setting, similarly
large in scale but this time for a single coro (with
divided sopranos in some movements), was discovered in
the National Library in Prague. The history of its
manuscript, which survives as a set of locally copied
separate parts, is complex and enigmatic. This new
Dixit Dominus, RV595, was almost certainly composed for
the Pietà before 1717 and may have been among the
works taken back to Bohemia by Balthasar Knapp. The
manuscript is dated 1738; a note in the second violin
part connects the work with the Jesuit seminary of St
Francis Xavier in Prague’s New Town, adjoining the
square known as the Cattle Market. After the Jesuit
order was suppressed throughout Bohemia in 1773 the
manuscript passed to the military order of the Knights
of the Cross (usually known by their German name of
Kreuzherren), whose church in Prague held a vast stock
of sacred works by Vivaldi and his Italian
contemporaries.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixit_Dominus_(Vivaldi))
.
Although originally written for SSATB soloists, Chorus
(SATB), and Orchestra, I created this Interpretation of
"Tu es sacerdos" from the "Dixit Dominus" in D Major
(RV 595 Mvt. 6) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French Horn &
Bassoon) and Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
