Antonio Vivaldi: Gloria - Selections for Treble Choir

  
With the popular reputation of il prete rosso, (the red-headed priest), Antonio Vivaldi was active both as string instructor and maestro di coro(choir master) at the Ospedali dell Pieta, a girls orphanage, from 1713-1717. Many of his sacred vocal works, including the famous Gloria in D, were composed for ensembles of young female singers and instrumentalists in residence at the Ospedali. These orphan girls were trained solely in music and performed regular orchestral and symphonic concerts open to the public. Vivaldi's artistry, then lies in composing concert pieces of the highest calibre aimed at furthering music education for young performers.
The Gloria in D features Vivaldi's vibrant and imaginative string composition as well as SATB choral composition, which raises the question of how the tenor and bass lines were performed at the Ospedali.  Scholars have discovered lists of the girls' names with range allocations of 'tenore' and 'basso', and it is believed that the lower two parts were in fact sung by women, possibly transposed up an octave to accomodate the female range. In accordance with eighteenth-century performance practices, this present edition is an abridged version of the Gloria for four-part treble voices. This performance edition may also be used with Kalmus string parts.