Venice, Italy, Aug 6, 2017 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- While Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” echoes in concert halls and elevators around the world, for some, his greatest masterpieces are not the scores resonating spring, summer, fall and winter, but rather his sacred music.
Although less known, Vivaldi’s sacred music compositions, according to a researcher and expert on the musician’s life, is probably his greatest contribution to music – featuring an altogether unprecedented combination of deep spirituality and the contemporary trends of the time.
And this profound personal spirituality was rooted in what is likely a little-known fact for many: Antonio Vivaldi was a Catholic priest.
“I’m going to give you the most bizarre idea. Think of the Pope, who represents priests, spiritual things, and then you’ve got Jimmy Hendrix, a superb guitarist. You put them together and you’ve got Vivaldi,” British researcher Micky White told CNA Aug. 1.
It’s a combination altogether “bizarre,” she said. “Vivaldi the priest, deeply spiritual, comes out in his music. Jimmy Hendrix Vivaldi you’ve heard in the Four Seasons; it’s the most bizarre piece of music.”
“It’s timely, a priest wrote it,” and it’s meshed with the modern style of the day – a combination of two things that are essentially “polls apart,” she said. “That’s what makes him stand out among anybody. Bach wasn’t a priest, Mozart wasn’t a priest, nor was Beethoven, but Vivaldi was.
In listening to Vivaldi, it’s obvious that he was a very faith-filled man, she said, “you hear it in his music, you listen to it.”
White, who left a thriving greeting card company in England and moved to Venice to pursue an increasing interest in researching Vivaldi’s life, has become an expert and point of reference on the musician.
Not only has she published a book, “Antonio Vivaldi: A Life in Documents,” as the fruit of her research, but she was a consultant for a new display on his life called “Viva Vivaldi: The Four Seasons Mystery.”
The exhibit, located just behind St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, provides attendees with an indoor video-mapping show done with immersive HD images, surround sound and scent special effects such as scent and wind. It opened to the public May 13 at the Diocesan Museum, and will stay open during 2018.
One of the most famous Baroque composers, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, affectionately known by many in his time as “the Red Priest” due to his auburn locks, was born in Venice in 1678.
His father, who was an instrumental figure in his life (pun intended), was a professional violinist, and taught his son how to play as a young child. The two then went on tour together throughout Venice, giving Vivaldi an extensive knowledge and even mastery of the violin from a young age.
In 1693, at the age of 15, he began studying for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1703 at the age of 25, and shortly after was appointed chaplain and Violin Master at a local orphanage called the Pio Ospedale della Pieta, or the Devout Hospital of Mercy.
The orphanage, called the “Pieta,” was founded in 1492 by a poor friar as a home for abandoned babies. Young children were typically raised by older girls already at the center, and while the boys were taught a specific trade and ousted at the age of 15, the girls were trained as musicians if they had the ability. If not, they were taught a different trade, such as reading or sewing.
The most talented of the girls stayed on and became members of the hospitals renown orchestra and choir. Vivaldi worked at the hospital from 1703-1715, when he was voted off the faculty. He was voted back in 1723, and remained until 1740, composing some of his most famous works during that time.
However, after just a year of being a priest, Vivaldi requested a dispensation form celebrating Mass due to his poor health. From birth he had been afflicted with a serious, unknown, health condition thought to be a form of asthma.
All that is known about the mysterious illness comes from the letter Vivaldi wrote asking for the dispensation, in which he referred to it as a “tightness of the chest.”
According to White, “it would have been very hard for Vivaldi to give up saying Mass. It would have been his own decision, a decision of nobody but himself, and he also gave up a good salary.”
She pointed to rumors alleging that he had been kicked out of the priesthood or even excommunicated, saying they “are so ignorant and so stupid,” because if one actually looks to the facts, the rumors are “not proven.”
She also addressed rumors that Vivaldi had abused the choir girls as the reason he was kicked off the Pieta faculty in 1715. These rumors, she said, “not only are they not true, they’re impossible.”
Not only would Vivaldi have never been welcomed back in 1723, but many of the girls who remained in the orchestra stayed until they were 70 or even 80 years old. The hospital was also overseen by several governors, so had there been abuse, Vivaldi would have been kicked out right away, “so that doesn’t add up,” White said.
People often make assumptions about the past or judge by their opinions, telling others that “’it must be like this’ or ‘so and so said that,’” White said, adding that when this happens “you go from bad to worse.”
But when she first started digging into her research on Vivaldi and putting the information into context, “then everything made sense,” she said, because “research is a matter of fact, it’s not a matter of opinion, and it’s not a matter of ideas, it’s fact.”
She insisted that his priesthood was likely an essential element of his music. Even after stepping down from his liturgical duties, Vivaldi never stopped being a priest, White said. “Once a priest always a priest.”
“He was ordained, he was a priest his whole life (and) his spirituality comes out in his music, all you have to do is listen and you’ll hear it.”
Although in poor health, Vivaldi made great strides in his musical career. He continued to write a variety of compositions, and received many commissions from all over Italy and Europe, for which he traveled frequently.
During one jaunt in 1722, Vivaldi moved to Rome, where he was invited to play for Pope Benedict XIII before moving back to Venice in 1725.
The various pieces he wrote throughout his career include several different types of concertos – from violin to orchestra – arias, sonatas, operas and sacred music.
But according to White, while the Four Seasons, written around 1721, and his many operas are what made Vivaldi rise to fame in his day, “sacred music is on another plane compared all the other compositions. It’s the empire of composition itself that comes from faith.”
Among the sacred scores written by Vivaldi are the Gloria, the Credo, the Stabat Mater, the Magnificat, Dixit Dominus and Laetatus sum, among others. The “Laetatus sum,” specifically, was written by Vivaldi at the age of 13 in 1691.
White said that while these are the known liturgical and sacred works, “there’s a lot, lot missing.”
Given his 38 year career at the hospital, there are likely many, many works of Vivaldi that have never been discovered, she said. For example, “I’m sure that he wrote full Masses, absolutely positive,” but they are likely all lost.
Despite the success he enjoyed during his career, Vivaldi died in poverty in Vienna July 28, 1741. He had moved to the Austrian country after meeting Emperor Charles VI, to whom he had dedicated his Opus 9 work, in 1728.
The emperor was so impressed with Vivaldi’s work that he gave the musician the title of Knight, a gold medal and an invitation to Vienna. However, the emperor died shortly after Vivaldi’s arrival several years later, and with no royal connection or steady income, Vivaldi became impoverished and died from an infection at the age of 63.
According to White, the greatest legacy that Vivaldi left can be summed up in one word: “music.”
“Music comes out of him, it doesn’t come out of his brain, it just pours out of him. It’s like a waterfall,” she said.
While his sacred and classical music might seem outdated in a society enthralled with artists such as Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber, White said Vivaldi is so versatile in his style that he can mesh with well with contemporary music as well as the older
“Vivaldi could do a rock concert quite easily, and Vivaldi can appeal to everyone,” she said. “Vivaldi, he’s alone, he’s absolutely unique. You talk about the Baroque style, and the romantic style…Vivaldi cuts that whole suede.”
With the “tremendous energy” present in his music, Vivaldi is truly one of a kind and is difficult to imitate, she said. “He doesn’t fit anywhere, and he fits everywhere.”
[…]
[Pope Francis speaks of Europe as having a “spiritual patrimony” that needs communicating to Europeans themselves with “passion and a renewed freshness.”]
The blame is to be put on the European bishops, including the current bishop of Rome.
Cannot disagree with that.
Or as Robert Royale recounts the quip from the Russian mystic Soloviev: “Man is descended from monkeys, therefore let us love one another.”
He can’t be taken seriously.
The French Revolution was the death knell of Monarchical Europe to Govt by plebiscite. It was the prototype of the Bolshevik Revolution. The former deeply influenced by Rousseau’s secular idealism [Robespierre kept the Emile under his pillow] created the contemporary irreligious self sufficient independent European. The historically selective House of European History. Licence Egalitarianism Prejudice have replaced Liberty Equality Fraternity. Catholics in similarity to Robespierre’s Reign of Terror premise that “All citoeyens have equal rights, but not all are citoeyens” are today’s non citoeyen victims of the new Reign of secular humanist terror. European secularists should ask whether the concepts liberty equality fraternity existed anywhere prior to the advent of Christianity. They’re concepts borrowed from Christianity. Karl Marx atheist and opponent of God did likewise. Hijacked Christ’s teachings on sharing goods, fraternity, equal justice and secularized them shifting worship of Deity to worship of the materialistic state. The men occupying The House of European History are perhaps worse. Because the underlying premise of secular humanism is self deification. And if one presumes himself a deity the’re are no limits to his depravity.
The picture shows a bleak looking building reminiscent of Soviet style architecture.
Sadly this HEH project looks like an exercise in vanity and self delusion by EU social engineers and at a cost of £137m doesn’t seem good value for money.
A contrived history that has a year zero of 1946 deserves a limited future
The European project is looking more and more like a modern Tower of Babel, where secular Europe is trying to make a name, a shem, for themselves.
I think it is clear that the classic oath for witnesses in the courtroom says it all: “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” This is based on the fact that leaving out part of the truth can lead to the triumph of a lie, and this is precisely the purpose of the Father of Lies and his mislead slaves. That is why in this hundredth anniversary of Fatima, it is worth remembering that is spite of all this, Our Lady did promise that her Immaculate Heart would triumph. Let’s give her a hand with prayer rather than watching on the sidelines as passive spectators of history.
When a man is not enthralled by Christ, he is incapable of being passionate about Christianity.
Take for example Pope F’s favorite theologian the “retired” Cdl. Kasper, who has for his entire “ministry” denied the miracles of Christ testified in the Gospels. (Kasper, Jesus the Christ, 1st Ed 1976; 2nd ed. 2011.)
Kasper is “theology on its knees” says Francis.
Given the extent of Kasper’s “passion” for Christ, one might not wonder why German Catholics don’t “bother” going to Mass. I mean – it’s not like Jesus could command the wind and sea or something.
Kasper is “theology on its knees”? Said by a Pope who refuses to kneel during consecration.
That is impossible to hide. Christianity was Europe’s foundation.
if the decline in the birthrate does not inform catholics, especially bishops, that the faith is disappearing, nothing will. unless and until the bishops once again champion humanae vitae and effectively explain its importance, the faith will not revitalize.
it is kind of like here in america where the concept of modesty in dress by women is no longer taught. explaining the lack of charity in immodest dress is an elemental aspect of following Jesus. but now, even at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, many women dress in sexually provocative ways. such dress is extremely uncharitable and i have concluded that our priests and catholic schools are failing to give our young women an adequate understanding of both human sexuality and christian charity.
Immodesty is also infantile.
Modesty is adult behavior.
I once had to explain this to a young lady who was protesting that insisting on modesty was treating “young adults” like children.
I had to explain that we dress children modestly not because we are modeling childhood behavior, but we are modeling adult behavior for them.
It is only the “global Kim Kardashian cult” that believes that profaning your own body is a mark of “adulthood.”
Sort of like the meaning of “adult” as used by porno marketing.
The “House” itself is an ugly manifestation of the decadence of the present European elites and also the masses. The European elites deem to be falling head over heels over Islam, which intends to wipe them out.
If all comments are moderated, why are many of them Pope bashing?
Telling the truth about this disastrous papacy is not “Pope bashing.” It is simply telling the truth.
Not surprising they are erasing religion. The EU started by erasing recognizable historical buildings, many with religious connections, when the for printed the common currency. Instead they placed soulless, generic creations as a sign of unity. It would appear that descent into the new paganism should also be a act of unity.
Lol, you guys really are vying for world domination. That’s straight up supervillain stuff. Maybe you guys should, y’know, chill? Stop attacking literally everyone who doesn’t bow to your silly little superstitions? Just a thought. Otherwise you’ll continue to be removed from society. Just how it is. Nobody likes bullies.