Antonio Vivaldi - the Red Priest
Bewitched, Red-haired, Satanic Rock Star
[In which we pause for musical break in the Tom Paine related history and socio-political commentary]
To listen to this (see below), you should pause and give it attention ... it's not exactly background music. It was written to be absorbed and comprehended; to elevate the mind and open the heart. Listen for patterns. Listen for pictures of light. Listen for emotion, the sounds of water, of birds. Listen for ascending patterns.
I don't so much say ignore the lyrics -- which are Latin and Roman Catholic in nature -- as to say one should bear in mind that in Vivaldi’s time by FAR the best income, the most generous patron or customer for the musician/composer was the Church. The Church was the recording industry of its day and the Cathedral was the boom box. The Church didn't give Vivaldi his brilliance. Vivaldi shared his brilliance and vision by use of the Church.
That said, there are profundities to be found in an esoteric understanding of the exoteric and apparently orthodox lyrics posted below the “Leave a Comment” link.
Also keep in mind that -- if you're thinking "he could have made it another way" -- people were still burned alive for stepping outside the Roman Catholic Church in great parts of Europe. Vivaldi's dates are 1678 – 1741). The Dominican friar Giardano Bruno, who dared teach his students there are infinite worlds in the universe, was burned alive just 75 years before Vivaldi. The last person burned alive (auto de fé) in Europe, Cayetano Ripoll in 1834. The last recorded was in Mexico 1850., over one hundred years after Vivaldi's death.
One more way Vivaldi was far in advance of his time. He toured Europe with an all-female ochestra, itself revolutionary, to tumultous acclaim. The fire of his music made people faint. It was considered dangerous by some who thought him satanic due to the emotion of his music and his long, curly, fiery red hair: nicknamed 'il Prete Rosso' - the red priest. He was a rock-star almost 400 years before the first rock-stars; perhaps the first musical celebrity on his scale.
If you have compositional or music appreciation knowledge ... pause, listen carfully, and behold how far Vivaldi was advanced of his time; a lightening bolt in the culture of the West and the world.
[With thanks to colleague Fred Whitehead for the recent share of this very fine recording]
Libretto and translation of the Dixit Dominus:
1. Dixit Dominus domino meo ... (Double choir)
2. Donec ponam inimicos tuos ... (Double choir)
3. Virgam virtutis tuae ... (Soprano and alto soloists)
4. Tecum principium ... (Alto soloist)
5. Juravit dominus ... (Full choir)
6. Dominus a dextris tuis ... (Tenor and bass soloists)
7. Judicabit in nationibus ... (Double choir)
8. De torrente in via bibet ... (Soprano soloist)
9. Gloria Patri ... (Double choir)
10. Sicut erat in principio ... (Double choir)
English 1. The Lord has said to my lord: Sit you at my right hand
2. Until I make your enemies a footstool.
3. The Lord will send the sceptre of your power out of Zion:
rule in the midst of your enemies.
4. Sovereignty will be your’s in the day of your strength:
in the splendour of the saints I have given you birth
before the morning.
5. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent: you are a priest
for ever after the order of Melchizedech.
6. The Lord will be at your right hand:
He will break kings in the day of his wrath.
7. He will judge among the nations, he will fill with ruins:
He will crush the heads of many in the land.
8. He will drink of the torrent in the way:
Thus will He lift up his head.
9. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit
10. As it was in the beginning, is now
And ever will be, Amen.