Antonio Vivaldi

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Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born in Venice on March 4, 1678, son of Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio. It seems that Antonio’s life was immediately in danger, as he was baptized by the midwife immediately after his birth. There is also a possibility that his mother dedicated his life to the priesthood that day. Some sources say his life was endangered because there was an earthquake in Venice, while others say the earthquake was on March 17 of the following year. Antonio’s health was always poor, with a chronic ailment he later described as “tightness of the chest” (probably asthma or angina), so perhaps his difficulty in breathing is why an emergency baptism seemed in order. His official baptism was two months later. He had five younger siblings.

Giovanni Battista was a professional violinist and possibly a composer himself. He played violin at the Basilica di San Marcos. He taught Antonio the violin at an early age and toured the Venetian Republic playing violin with his young son. The maestro di cappella at San Marcos was Giovanni Legrenzi, an early Baroque composer who probably gave the young prodigy his first lessons in composition. Antonio’s first known composition is Laetatus sum (RV Anh 31), written at the age of thirteen.

In 1693, at the age of fifteen, Antonio began studying to become a priest. Not only had his mother dedicated him to the priesthood at birth, but also this was one of the few ways a child from a poor or middle-class family could get a good education. During his training, he lived with his parents. He developed his skills in composition and became a virtuosic violinist.

He was ordained in 1703 at age 25, and was soon nicknamed “il Prete Rosso” or “the Red Priest” because of his flaming red hair. Shortly after his ordination he was given a dispensation from celebrating Mass, possibly because of his ill health. Another factor may have been his distraction from his priestly duties; apparently he would leave the altar during Mass to jot down the compositions that occurred to him during the service! He withdrew from liturgical duties but, despite his censure, remained a “secular” member of the priesthood and was an ardent Catholic until his death. Later in his life it was said of him that he had a rosary in his hand at all times unless he was playing or composing music.

In the year of his ordination, Antonio was appointed violin master for the girls at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice, one of four orphanages in Venice which provided shelter and education to children who were abandoned or orphaned, or whose families could not take care of them. The boys in these institutions would learn a trade and had to leave at age fifteen; the girls received a musical education, and the more talented among them could remain as members of the choir and orchestra. This particular Ospedale was a home for the illegitimate children of noblemen and so was very well-funded by the “anonymous” fathers, with musical standards among the highest in Venice.

Vivaldi was soon appointed as the viola teacher in addition to his duties as violin instructor, and for a time the position of choirmaster was added to his responsibilities. Vivaldi wrote a wide variety of sacred music for the girls, including concertos, cantatas, oratorios, solo motets and grand choral works. Under his tutelage the choir and orchestra of the Ospedale della Pietà began to gain international renown.

Antonio had a strong personality and did not always get along with the board of directors of the Ospedale, who had to vote every year on whether to keep a teacher. In 1709 the board voted against him 7 to 6. So Vivaldi became a freelance musician for a year, composing and publishing music, and perhaps also already working for the Venetian opera theater Teatro Sant’ Angelo. L’estro armonico, his collection of twelve concertos published in Amsterdam during this time, was dedicated to the Grand Prince Ferdinand of Tuscany, who also sponsored many musicians such as Scarlatti and Handel. L’estro armonico (Opus 3, “Harmonic Inspiration”) was a resounding success in Europe and effectively launched his composing career.

In 1711 Vivaldi was recalled to teach at the Ospedale by unanimous vote, and in 1716 he was promoted to concertmaster, responsible for all the musical activity of the orphanage. Despite traveling extensively in later years, he maintained a working relationship with the Ospedale as “Maestro di concerti” throughout the remainder of his life, regularly supplying the girls with new compositions and rehearsing with them while he was in Venice.

The Gloria in D Major that we are singing today, RV589, was written around 1715. It is one of Vivaldi’s most popular choral works and was originally composed for the girls at the Ospedale. There are twelve sections, each expounding upon the words of the Gloria in Excelsis Deo from the Latin Mass. Vivaldi uses widely different styles and rhythmic contrasts to illustrate the meaning of the words. For example, the first movement (“Glory to God in the highest”) is a joyous chorus in D major; the orchestral introduction sets up themes of jubilant octave leaps and a rhythmic melody, while the choir enters with declamatory chorale-like phrases. The second movement (“And on earth peace to men of goodwill”) is in B minor, and is in triple rather than duple time. It is slower and more chromatic, reminding us of Renaissance motets in its textures and overlapping imitative lines. Vivaldi’s masterfully crafted characterization of each line of the text of the Gloria culminates in a double fugue in the last section (“With the Holy Ghost, in the glory of God the Father, Amen”). This double fugue is an adaptation of the ending of a Gloria for two choirs written by the Veronese composer Giovanni Maria Ruggieri in 1708.

The Concerto for Strings in C Major, RV114, is a two-movement piece copied out by Vivaldi’s father in the 1720s, and was probably composed after 1717. Its original manuscript is in the library of the Paris Conservatory, so it is known as one of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Paris Concertos.” Out of the more than 500 concertos that Antonio wrote in his lifetime, it was one of approximately 60 that was written for string orchestra alone, with no solo part. This short piece may have helped to catalyze the emerging genre of the orchestral symphony, as it is written primarily in the French Baroque style, but also shows influences of the later Classical style. The second movement is especially innovative in its use of variation within the French chaconne form.

Opera was the most popular musical entertainment at this time. Vivaldi composed at least 94 operas during his lifetime, around 50 of which have been discovered. His opera compositions proved to be a lucrative source of income. His earliest known opera was performed at the Teatro San Angelo in 1713; in the years that followed, he traveled to Mantua, Milan, Rome, Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam and other European cities to produce and promote his many operatic works.

In 1718-1721 Vivaldi lived in Mantua (also called Mantova), having accepted the position of Maestro di Cappella in the court of the governor of Mantua, Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt. It was during this time that Vivaldi met Anna Tessieri Girò, an elegant young soprano who became his student. Anna and her older half-sister Paolina moved in with Vivaldi. Anna became his housekeeper and traveling companion. As one might expect, there was much speculation as to whether Antonio and Anna were in a romantic relationship, but Vivaldi vehemently denied such rumors. He stayed together with Anna until his death.

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It was probably during his time in Mantua that Vivaldi composed his most popular work, a group of four concertos called le quattro stagioni (“The Four Seasons”). Each of these concertos gives musical expression to a season of the year, inspired by a sonnet that describes the scenes depicted by the music. These sonnets were probably written by Vivaldi himself. The concertos are the first known example of the instrumental representation of specific sounds of nature. Sounds mentioned in the sonnets, such as the singing of various bird species, mosquitos, flowing creeks, barking dogs, storms, and drunken dancers, are clearly recognizable in the music. This was a conceptual revolution at the time, and these concertos became wildly popular, especially in France. They were published in Amsterdam with eight other concertos in 1725.

During the early 1720s Vivaldi was active in Rome under the patronage of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni.
During his three years there, he was invited by the new Pope Benedict XIII for a private audience to play
the violin. Commissions and honors from European royalty and nobles were many, especially during the
years following the publication of The Four Seasons. Highlights include compositions in honor of the
marriage of Louis XV and to commemorate the birth of the French royal princesses Henriette and Louise
Élisabeth. Emperor Charles VI gave Vivaldi the title of knight, a gold medal, and an invitation to Vienna.
Vivaldi moved frequently from city to city, writing and producing operas and other music, and earning a
great deal of money. By 1733 he had stopped publishing his concertos, preferring to sell the
handwritten compositions for much more than he would make from the published versions.

In 1737, Vivaldi was censured by the Catholic Church for “conduct unbecoming a priest” because of the
scandalous rumors surrounding his relationship with Anna. In 1738 Vivaldi returned to Venice. His
popularity was waning; changing musical tastes were making his music seem old-fashioned. Venice was
in an economic downturn at the time, and Vivaldi began to have financial difficulties. In hopes of
moving to Vienna and taking up a position as composer in the imperial court of Emperor Charles VI, the
composer began selling off his manuscripts in earnest. He finally resigned from the Ospedale and
journeyed to Vienna in 1740.

Soon after Vivaldi’s arrival in Vienna, Charles VI died. With no royal protection and no steady source of income, Vivaldi quickly became impoverished. He took a room in the house of the widow of a Viennese saddlemaker. During the night of July 27 or early morning of July 28, 1741, at age 63, he died of “internal fire.”

Vivaldi’s funeral was held at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Joseph Haydn was a young choirboy there at the time, but since Vivaldi was a pauper there was no music at the funeral. His grave was in a burial ground owned by the public hospital fund. Anna Girò returned to Venice, where she lived until her death in 1750.

During his lifetime, Vivaldi composed more than 500 concertos. He helped to establish the structure of fast-slow-fast movements that even still defines the concerto form. He was the first to use the “ritornello” form regularly, in which restatements of a refrain alternate with solo passages, enabling virtuosic display by solo instrumentalists. About 230 of his concertos are for violin, about 40 for the bassoon, 25 for the cello, 15 for oboe, 10 for flute, and others for viola d’amore, recorder, lute and even the mandolin. In addition to his prodigious number of concertos, Vivaldi composed at least 60 mass movements, 40 cantatas, 3 oratorios, and numerous psalms, hymns, antiphons, vespers, and motets. He wrote more than 90 sonatas, and, as previously noted, at least 94 operas.

We know that Vivaldi’s concertos in particular had a deep influence on Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach transcribed several of Vivaldi’s concertos, five of which were from the L’estro armonico collection, and adopted Vivaldi’s conventions of structure and form.

After the end of the Baroque period, Vivaldi’s work became relatively unknown. After almost 200 years of decline, interest was revived in his compositions during the early 20th century. Scholars rediscovered many of his manuscripts, and in 1939 composer and pianist Alfredo Casella organized the Vivaldi Week revival. The Gloria we are performing today was reintroduced to the public at this festival. Since World War II the music of Vivaldi has been performed widely. His compositions are still being discovered, one (Dixit Dominus, RV807) as recently as 2006.

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Martin Sedek

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Described as "a formidable new composer" by the Worcester Telegram, Polish-American composer and conductor Martin Sędek was born in Germany and raised in Poland and the United States. He is an award-winning voice in the world of choral and orchestral music, educated at Berklee College of Music in Boston (BM), Montclair State University (MM), and Rutgers University (PhD). Martin has studied composition with Tarik O'Regan, Robert Aldridge, and Matthew Harris, with additional studies with Steven Stucky, Chen Yi, and Steven Sametz. He has studied conducting with David Callahan and Julius Williams, with additional studies with William Weinert and Craig Hella Johnson.

Martin is Composer-in-Residence at Harmonium Choral Society & The Baldwin Festival Chorus of NYC. He is currently the Music Director and Conductor of Choral Art Society of NJ and Associate Conductor for The Masterwork Chorus.  Martin was a member of the choral and theory faculties at Montclair State University’s Cali School of Music from 2011-2020, and is currently chair of the music department and Director of Music at Keio Academy of New York.  His music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Africa and commissioned by professional ensembles around the US. Notable composition awards include the Yale Glee Club Emerging Composer Award (2015) and the Stephen Paulus Prize (2018).  He is a regular visiting lecturer in the collegiate composition studio throughout the US and his works are published by Ovation Music & Hal Leonard. His recordings are available on the Albany and Ovation Music Media labels.  His website may be found at https://www.martinsedek.com. Sędek composed Cantata for the Four Seasons in 2014. Its world premiere was performed in 2015 by Choral Art Society of New Jersey under Sędek’s direction. Cantata for the Four Seasons is written for string orchestra, mixed chorus, solo soprano, and solo violin. It features choral settings of the sonnets that were written by Vivaldi himself as basis for his most popular work, The Four Seasons. The Cantata honors the original orchestration, structures, and text-painting of the earlier work, with small fragments of Vivaldi’s themes interpolated into the newer piece. The culmination merges the two works together in a recapitulation of “Spring,” with the chorus singing over Vivaldi’s original music. The Greater Middletown Chorale is proud to present the Connecticut premiere of Martin Sędek’s choral fantasy on Vivaldi’s most famous concerto.