![]() ![]() Like his father and other members of his family, Vivaldi had red hair and, when he was ordained into the priesthood at the age of 25, he was given the nickname "The Red Priest" (Il Preto Rosso) for this reason. The violin was to be a key instrument for Vivaldi as both performer and composer. Mark's Cathedral, and taught the young Antonio to play the violin at a young age. His father was a musician in the prestigious St. He was born in Venice at the time when the city was the capital of an independent state called the Republic of Venice. It’s important to note also that Vivaldi’s works for the Pietà favour almost exclusively high voices - sopranos and altos - for the solo parts.Alongside Bach and Handel, Vivaldi is one of the most famous and celebrated of composers from the Baroque Period. ![]() Vivaldi set this text more than once but this version (RV598), for choir, orchestra and three soloists would have perfectly fitted the forces of the Pietà. Modern performances use mixed choirs in this music as a rule as they work perfectly well with a normal disposition of tenors and basses, such as in this setting of the psalm Beatus Vir. The bass parts could have been handled by girls and women with exceptionally deep voices or sung up the octave without damaging the texture the bass parts are always doubled by the bass instruments of the orchestra. Vivaldi’s sacred works written before 1719 have tenor parts which any girl with a low voice can sing, and we must remember there were adult women at the Pietà as well, not just children. The answer is simple and has been proven by recent scholarship beyond reasonable doubt: the girls did. Mixed church choirs were simply not permitted in Catholic Europe at the time so the question arises as to who sang the tenor and bass parts in the choirs. These works for the Pietà were designed for the girls and women of the institution to sing. ![]()
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