About this edition
Antonio Vivaldi's Gloria in D major, RV 589, is the most celebrated of his sacred choral works and one of the enduring masterpieces of the Italian Baroque. Composed around 1715 for the girls' choir and orchestra of the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, its twelve compact, sharply contrasted movements travel from the blazing octave leaps of the opening chorus to the aching lament of Domine Deus, Agnus Dei and the deliberately archaic counterpoint of the closing Cum Sancto Spiritu. Brilliantly scored for trumpet, oboe, strings, and continuo, and unfailingly grateful to sing, it has become a cornerstone of the choral-orchestral repertoire since its twentieth-century revival.
Like most of Vivaldi's church music, the Gloria disappeared from view for nearly two centuries, surviving in the vast collection of the composer's manuscripts now held at the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria in Turin. The work returned to public life at the Settimana Musicale Senese in Siena in 1939 and was afterward published by Casa Ricordi, entering the modern catalogue as RV 589. This printing reproduces a carefully engraved modern edition prepared by the Italian editor Eugenio Giovine (b. 1974), whose extensive catalogue of freely available scholarly editions of Baroque music has placed repertoire like this in the hands of performers worldwide. Giovine dedicated this edition to the public domain, and it presents all twelve movements in a clean, generously spaced full score that reads easily from the podium or the study desk.
About this edition:
- Format: complete full orchestral and choral score, all twelve movements
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- Scoring: SATB chorus, soprano and alto soloists, trumpet, oboe, strings, and basso continuo
- Reproduced from a public domain edition dedicated to the public domain by its editor, Eugenio Giovine
- Publisher: Purple 4R Publishing
This volume reproduces a public domain historical score, freely and generously shared for everyone to use, so that one of Vivaldi's greatest works stays within easy reach of the musicians and scholars who love it. We are glad to help keep it in print and on music stands.