World Premiere: 1715
Last HSO performance: Dec 22, 2012
Instrumentation: Chorus, 1 oboe, 1 trumpet, continuo, strings
Duration: 30’

Though Antonio Vivaldi is noted in the history textbooks for his profound influence on the development of instrumental music, he was also known to his contemporaries for the breadth and quality of his sacred and secular works for voice. In addition to nearly forty cantatas, 45 operas (!) and three oratorios, there are some sixty Mass movements, Psalms, hymns, antiphons, motets and miscellaneous pieces for service use. Vivaldi’s chief responsibility as violin teacher and director of the public concerts at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, one of four institutions in Venice devoted to the care of orphaned, abandoned and poor girls, was to produce instrumental music, but he was also pressed into service to write sacred works when Francesco Gasparini left his post as church composer at the Ospedale in 1713 to move to Rome. Vivaldi was then charged with composing two new Masses and Vespers a year (for Easter and the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom the Ospedale’s church was consecrated), at least two motets a month, special music for Holy Week, and such additional pieces as might be required for funerals or other special occasions. So well did Vivaldi dispense his duties in this area that in March 1715, the Ospedale’s directors awarded him an exceptional gift of 50 ducats “for excellent musical compositions contributed after the departure of Maestro Gasparini.” Much of this music has been lost; the Gloria in D major for Two Soprano and Mezzo-Soprano Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra (No. 589 in Peter Ryom’s authoritative catalog) is the best-known of Vivaldi’s extant sacred creations.

The date and occasion of the composition of the Gloria are unknown. The score was discovered in the 1920s in an important manuscript collection of Vivaldi’s works in Turin that also contains another setting in D major of the Gloria (R. 588), which has never enjoyed the popularity of its companion. Both Glorias, extraordinarily, close with a choral setting of the Cum sancto spiritu text based on a similar movement by Giovanni Maria Ruggieri, an obscure opera composer active in Venice between 1685 and 1715. Why Vivaldi made not just one but two separate adaptations of Ruggieri’s 1708 Cum sancto is unknown. What is clear from this practice of reworking other musicians’ pieces, however, is that Vivaldi, like Johann Sebastian Bach, was able to raise routine compositions of his contemporaries into musical documents for the ages. 

The text of the Gloria, the second item in the Ordinary of the traditional Roman Catholic Mass, is spread across twelve compact movements that provide both emotional illumination of the ancient words and balance of the musical structure. The opening Gloria in excelsis Deo, with its excited bounding-octave principal motive, captures perfectly the jubilation of this paean to the Almighty. Et in terra pax, built across long arches of perfectly executed harmonic suspensions, is one of Vivaldi’s most intense and moving creations. Laudamus te is a luminous duet for the sopranos. The brief and austere Gratias agimus tibi serves as an introduction to the imitative choral treatment of Propter magnam gloriam. Domine Deus is a gentle aria in the rocking rhythms of a siciliano for soprano. Domine Fili unigenite is carried along on the majestic dotted rhythms reminiscent of the French operas of the Italian expatriate Jean-Baptiste Lully (née Giovanni Battista Lulli in 1632 in Florence). Domine Deus, Agnus Dei is a tragic aria for alto with choral interjections. Qui tollis receives a severe setting in block harmonies. The alto spins long threads of melody above the swaying, dance-like accompaniment of the orchestra in Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris. The joyous music and mood of the Gloria’s opening return in the Quoniam tu solus sanctus before a grand fugal setting of Cum sancto spiritu closes this masterwork of Baroque
musical piety.

Chorus
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Glory to God in the highest.

Chorus
Et in terra pax hominibus
And on earth peace to men

bonae voluntatis.
of good will.

Two Sopranos
Laudamus te, benedicimus te,
We praise you, we bless you,

adoramus te, glorificamus te.
we worship you, we glorify you.

Chorus
Gratias agimus tibi
We give you thanks

Chorus
Propter magnam gloriam tuam.
for your great glory.

Soprano
Domine Deus, Rex coelestis,
Lord God, heavenly King,

Deus pater omnipotens.
God the Father almighty.

Chorus
Domine Fili unigenite,
The only-begotten Son,

Jesu Christe,
Lord Jesus Christ, 

Mezzo-Soprano and Chorus
Domine Deus, Agnus Dei,
Lord God, Lamb of God,

Filius Patris,
Son of the Father,

qui tollis peccata mundi:
you take away the sin of the world:

miserere nobis.
have mercy on us.

Chorus
Qui tollis peccata mundi:
You take away the sin of the world:

suscipe deprecationem nostram.
receive our prayer.

Mezzo-Soprano
Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris:
You are seated at the right hand of the Father:

miserere nobis.
have mercy on us.

Chorus
Quoniam tu solus sanctus,
For you alone are the Holy One,

tu solus Dominus,
you alone are the Lord,

tu solus altissimus,
you alone are the Most High,

Jesu Christe,
Jesus Christ,

Chorus
Cum sancto spiritu,
with the Holy Spirit,

in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.