Film: The Singing Revolution March 23rd at 3 p.m. Grace Church, Madison Street
Vivaldi: Gloria RV 589
Vivaldi was a composer, violinist, instructor, and opera impresario of the late Baroque era (1678-1741). His birthplace and home for most of his life was in Venice. During his lifetime the Republic of Venice was a primary center of European culture, especially music. As is true today, the city was full of tourists, hungry for concerts and other forms of entertainment.
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For about three decades, beginning in 1703, Vivaldi held a variety of roles at the Ospedale della Pietà. The Ospedale was an orphanage, which took in hundreds of infants and young children each year. By the age of 13, the boys of the orphanage were serving as apprentices in various trades, and they were forced to leave around the age of 14.
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The education for the girls was much broader, and focused on music. Many were given voice and instrumental lessons and permitted to remain as adults in the Ospedale community, often taking on leadership roles as they matured. Some of the young women of the Ospedale became accomplished performers, and many played in the Ospedale orchestra and sang in the chorus.
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Vivaldi wrote the Gloria RV 589 for these women to perform. The performance space at the Ospedale was large, beautiful, and resonant. The chorus and orchestra were positioned in the balconies, above the audience, with screens hiding them from view of the audience. By Vivaldi's time, the Ospedale della Pietà and a few other Ospedales (orphanages) functioned as concert venues for the finest music in Venice, rivaled only by the great performance halls of Vienna.
In Vivaldi's Gloria:
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The women sang all four parts: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Notice that most of the notes in the bass part are not in the lower part of the bass range.
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The composition is in the key of D major. This is helpful for those occasions when women are singing the bass parts. Music that conveys feelings of rejoicing and celebration (like much of Gloria) is often composed in D major.
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Solo parts are given to soprano and alto soloists. Several of the women from Ospedale della Pietà came to be famous and sang in concert venues across Europe.
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The influence of concerto form is strong. Vivaldi was an innovator and master of the concerto. In the Baroque era, concerto form entailed alternation between different groups of musicians (or soloists). The alternation of fast and slow, solo and chorus, loud and soft, and other musical elements were fundamental to Vivaldi's art.