9 San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti, going back to the thirteenth century. The second oldest was the Santa Maria di Pietà, which was founded in 1346 to minister to orphaned and abandoned children.22 These ospedali, following the example of those in Naples, made use of music as a means of income as well as training for the girls in their care. Vivaldi’s association with the Pietà would continue for most of his career, and this association has produced some of his better-known sacred works, such as the Gloria, RV 588. Despite his long association with the ospedale, Vivaldi was never named the maestro di capella. While the Pietà had its own composers on staff, at the times that those composers were absent either due to illness or travel, Vivaldi would often compose music for the singers at the orphanage-conservatory.23 During those years at the Pietà, Vivaldi composed some thirty motets, a mass, vesper Psalms, and the Oratorio Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernis barbarie. Domine ad adjuvandum me, RV 539, was composed during this association with the Pietà and is considered to be written in the middle period of his compositional output. The first period, from 1713-1717, consists of compositions for the Pietà; the second period in the early 1720s is made up of works written for San Lorenzo in Damaso and possibly other Roman churches; and the third period consists of works once again written for the Pietà. During this middle period Vivaldi also traveled to Mantua to work as maestro di capella and was quite busy as an opera composer. There are over a dozen sacred vocal works written in the mid 1720s. It is believed that RV 539 comes from this 22 23 Patrick Barbier, Vivaldi's Venice. (London: Souvenir Press, 2003), 55. Antonio Vivaldi, Music from the Venetian Ospedali, San Francisco Girls Chorus; Sharon J. Paul; San Francisco Girls Chorus SFGC 9801, 1998, Compact Disc. 10 group and was written to celebrate the feast of St. Lawrence the Martyr. Talbot supposes that these works were commissioned by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni for the patronal festival of San Lorenzo in Damaso, “the church attached to his Roman residence, the Cancelleria.”24 It is also been assumed that the composition could have been written for the church of San Lorenzo in Venice. This convent church is known to have commissioned special works for this feast day, including settings of the Vespers. Vivaldi wrote festive instrumental music for the feast of San Lorenzo in Venice, most notably his concerto for multiple instruments, RV 562, the designation of which as “per la solennità di San Lorenzo” has earned it the name “San Lorenzo” concerto. In most of the choral music written for the choir at the Pietà the bass parts of the choral scores are doubled by the instrumental forces, and the lowest notes are used sparingly. The writing in RV 539, however, shows repeated forays into the lower range for the basses. This and the likelihood of a commission for the piece from Cardinal Ottoboni tell us that the piece was not written for performance by the Pietà forces, but a choir with men. The other music from this middle period of Vivaldi’s output demonstrates this as well. It was also in this period that Vivaldi produced nearly all of his compositions for two SATB choirs. Very unlike sacred music of the reformed Northern countries, sacred music in Venice during the time of Vivaldi was at times virtuosic and often dramatic. The birth of Italian sacred music in Venice came from the conservatories and ospedali where the musicians were trained. When Vivaldi stopped producing operas, he had written ninetyfour of them.25 Having composed so many operas; Vivaldi must have considered himself 24 Antonio Vivaldi, Domine ad adjuvandum me festina, Michael Talbot, (Milan:Ricordi critical, 1995), 51. 25 Robbins Landon, 40. 11 a composer of opera first, much more than as a composer of church music. It should also be pointed out that much of the sacred music written for the ospedali was written to gain and retain an audience. The ospedali relied on monies brought in by these performances. Arnold says “the masses and motets performed at these institutions were not the product of the contemplation of eternal life. They and their composers were firmly rooted in their surroundings. The musicians were as at home in the opera house and concert room as in church.”26 Although until the 1720s Vivaldi did not compose for divided forces, there is a long standing tradition of two-choir singing in Venice. It was held for many years that this practice was begun by Adriano Willaert for the split choir lofts in the famed San Marco Cathedral. His famous edition of Psalms from 1550 is often cited. It is now thought that the practice has earlier roots, as there are several works from earlier composers in places other than Venice. There is a mass attributed to Fra Ruffino Bartolucci of Assisi written for eight voices coro spezzato, the term used to describe these multi-choired works (Bartolucci served as maestro di cappella at the cathedral in Padua from 1510 to 1520). There are also nine Psalms for coro spezzato from a manuscript listing the composer as Frater Ruffinus Patavinus which dates from before 1550.27 The practice of coro spezzato is therefore traceable to the early sixteenth century. The practice of two-choir singing was well established by the time of Vivaldi. The governors of the Pietà made plans in 1724 to make some improvements to the chapel to provide more space for the singers to move between galleries on either side of the 26 27 Arnold, 66-74. Giovanni D'Alessi. “Precursors of Adriano Willaert in the Practice of ‘Coro Spezzato’”. Journal of the American Musicological Society, Autumn 1952, 187-210. 12 chapel.28 We know that Vivaldi wrote several pieces for, as he notated, due cori; RV 539 Domine ad adjuvandum me festina is one of these due cori compositions. The text Domine ad adjuvandum me festina is the response to the versicle Deus in adjutorium meum intende. This versicle is usually sung in Gregorian chant (and is included in the Walton edition of the score). This marks the beginning of the Vespers service, a daily service toward the end of the day. The tradition stems from the Lucernarium of the Jewish tradition, which was the blessing of lights.29 The Vespers are among the most ancient offices known to the church. Vespers were sung in the monasteries of St. Benedict in the middle sixth century and Cassiodorus referred to the evening office of Lucernarium in the late sixth century.30 The office of Vespers begins with the aforementioned versicle Deus in adjutorium meum intende intoned by the priest; it is then followed by a sung Domine ad adjuvandum me festina. Following this, there is a concluding lesser Doxology, “Gloria patri . . . Amen.” The liturgy continues with five antiphons and five psalms, and a strophic hymn and Magnificat.31 The text of RV 539 was used each and every day, although there are not the large numbers of settings of this text that are found for the Dixit Dominus and the Magnificat. Talbot reports that settings of this text were relatively uncommon in Italian church music and were likely to have been written for festive occasions. 28 Denis Arnold, “Vivaldi's Church Music: An Introduction.” Early Music, April, 1973, 66-74. 29 Ron Jeffers, Translations and annotations of choral repertoire, Volume One, sacred Latin texts.(Corvalis: Earthsongs, 1988), 23. 30 Ibid. 31 Talbot, 69. This course includes a written component in the form of a Term Paper. This paper will be at least seven pages in length (not including cover or works cited list), double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 pt. You will include a works cited list, and you must cite your sources. You must use at least six sources; at least two should be a book, do not use all websites/blogs/program notes. The best place to start is the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians in the library. It will be an informative paper, there is no thesis to defend. This is a scholarly paper and must conform to a style-guide such as MLA, APA, or Turabian. The paper will be due November 19, by 5:00pm. (200) An example will be distributed via email.
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