[ANPPOM-L] importante trabalho de Vivaldi descoberto em Dreden

[Carlos Palombini]

Important new Vivaldi work discovered in Dresden

A superb, eleven-movement setting for choir, soloists and orchestra of 
the psalm Dixit Dominus composed by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) has 
turned up in the Saxon State Library (its full name in German is 
'Sächsische
Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek'), Dresden. The 
discoverer was the Australian scholar Dr
Janice Stockigt, who is working on a large research projectaimed at 
identifying and analysing the repertory of the Catholic court church 
(Katholische Hofkirche, in German) ofthe Saxon capital during the 
eighteenth century. Her project, funded by a QE II Research Fellowship 
of the  Australia Research Council and based at the Faculty of Music, 
University of Melbourne, requires her to examine each of the countless 
dozens of surviving manuscripts formerly belonging to this repertory and 
today housed in the Saxon State Library. One manuscript particularly 
caught her eye: a large-scale setting of the Dixit Dominus (Ps. 109/110) 
whose style seemed to be that of Vivaldi rather than that of his much 
younger Venetian contemporary Baldassarre Galuppi (1706-1785), to whom 
the score was attributed. It so happened that Dr Stockigt was working in 
the library at the time of an international conference (May 2005) which 
was also being attended by Professor Michael Talbot, a leading Vivaldi ex!
  pert. Michael Talbot was easily persuaded to examine the manuscript - 
he was himself chasing up in the same library the manuscript of an 
arrangement by Vivaldi of a short, anonymous work preserved in the 
composer's own collection, a Lauda Jerusalem, which similarly had once 
belonged to the repertory of the
Catholic court church. Within minutes, he had pronounced the Dixit 
Dominus, as well as the Lauda Jerusalem, genuine.

The reasons why first Janice Stockigt and then Michael Talbot were 
quickly convinced of Vivaldi's authorship of
the Dixit Dominus are many and varied. First, the new work displays all 
the peculiarities of Vivaldi's general style - peculiarities that are 
familiar to musicians and music-lovers and much commented on in 
musicological
literature. Second, several of its themes and musical motifs are 
strikingly similar to ones present in other
Vivaldi works. Third, there are strong parallels between the concept and 
structure of this new Dixit Dominus and the two by Vivaldi already known 
- parallels far too numerous to have arisen by coincidence. Fourth, the 
notation of the score shows some peculiarities not common outside 
Vivaldi's autograph manuscripts and their copies.

There was also a good reason why it was so easy to override the 
attribution to another composer, Galuppi, on the scores of both the 
Dixit Dominus and the Lauda Jerusalem. Both manuscripts originated from 
the copying shop (a business turning out musical manuscripts to the 
order of customers) run by a certain Iseppo Baldan, a Venetian priest 
notorious among students of eighteenth-century music for the readiness 
with which he falsified attributions. At some point in the 1750s, over 
ten years after Vivaldi's death, Baldan received (apparently) a massive 
order from the Saxon court to supply it with up-to-date Italian music. 
It appears that he did not stock enough works genuinely by Galuppi to 
satisfy the demand, so he plucked a few Vivaldi works off the pile and 
had them copied with Galuppi's name replacing Vivaldi's on the title 
page. (In any case, Vivaldi was no longer a composer in fashion: by the 
1750s, no work by him, except, perhaps, The Four Seasons, would
have been welcomed anywhere under its true composer's name!) Before the 
current pair of discoveries, two other psalm settings by Vivaldi 
masquerading under Galuppi's name in the same collection had come to 
light: a Beatus vir (numbered RV 795 in the standard catalogue of the 
composer's works) in the early 1990s, and a Nisi Dominus (RV 803) in 
2003. So the number of Vivaldi works preserved under Galuppi's name in 
the Saxon State Library has suddenly climbed from two to four 
(remembering that the new Lauda Jerusalem is not an original work by him 
but only an arrangement). Perhaps there are further works in the same 
collection still awaiting discovery - an exciting prospect!

On the new Dixit Dominus, Janice Stockigt comments: It is just a 
coincidence that the 'discovery' of this Vivaldi work misattributed to 
Galuppi -more correctly, its verification as an authentic composition- 
took place in Dresden during the final week of a five-year project. 
During this time I have worked exhaustively on
reconstructing the repertory of Dresden's Catholic court church based on 
a catalogue made in 1765. Broad sweeping projects like this one -funded 
by the Australian Research Council and taken at the Faculty of Music at 
The University of Melbourne- stand a great chance of producing 
discoveries if they are conducted systematically and thoroughly. 
Sifting through large masses of old sources-many of them 
unexamined-leads to unexpected finds. In fact, the hope of making such 
discoveries is one of the things that keeps a researcher going when 
engaged in the seemingly dull business of working through unending lists 
or huge piles of
documents. The challenge is to recognise the significance of the 
information as it appears, to have the necessary experience to identify 
the new important material, and then to be able to call upon colleagues 
whose expertise is capable of verifying one's own suspicions once the 
initial excitement has calmed.

It is amazing how one simple detail-the name on a manuscript-can change 
everything. Even though Galuppi is a fine composer (some would say: the 
equal of Vivaldi), his name on the score did not suffice to get scholars 
to examine it closely and critically. And although the world rejoices in 
Vivaldi discoveries, there is much fine music from the same period by 
less well-known composers equally worthy of our attention. Bringing 
unknown works of high quality to the public in the concert hall, and 
through recording is as rewarding as the find itself.

Michael Talbot comments:
'In terms of sheer musical quality (rather than mere bulk), this is the 
most important Vivaldi discovery for about 75 years. The new Dixit 
Dominus outshines the two Dixit Dominus settings by Vivaldi (both of 
which are likewise in D major) that are already known. Its strongest 
point is the consistency of its musical inspiration. Whereas the two 
other settings, RV 594 and RV 595, occasionally falter, the new setting 
remains at white heat throughout. Its style is that of Vivaldi's late 
period (roughly, 1730-1741), and it reveals the depth of experience that 
the composer had by then acquired in the domain of sacred vocal music. I 
predict great popularity for it. Choirs will love the choruses, and 
singers will revel in the solo numbers (there are also two duets) - once 
they have mastered their considerable technical difficulties.'

As usual, discovery means hard and hectic work for the discoverer. 
Janice Stockigt, working in collaboration with Michael Talbot, has 
completed an article introducing the two new works and justifying their 
attribution to Vivaldi. This will be published in the next issue (March 
2006) of the journal Eighteenth-Century Music 3/1 (Cambridge University 
Press). Meanwhile, the two compositions have been presented for 
authentication to the Editorial Committee of the Italian Antonio Vivaldi 
Institute, based at the Cini Foundation in Venice, which - if it agrees 
that Vivaldi is the true author - is likely to lose no time in 
publishing the Dixit Dominus in its 'New Critical Edition' of the 
composer's works. Finally, the modern première of the Dixit Dominus has 
to be prepared and organized. Plans are afoot to give this première in 
Dresden, which is about to celebrate the 800th anniversary of its 
existence as a city. This would be a fitting tribute, Dr Stockigt feels, 
to the library and !
  city that have been at the centre of herrecent research (she is the 
author of the standard life-and-works study of the important Bohemian 
composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745), who worked for the Saxon court 
in the period immediately preceding Baldan's consignment of music).

For further information, contact Janice Stockigt or Michael Talbot at
j.stockigt em music.unimelb.edu.au
mtalbot em liverpool.ac.uk

-- 
carlos palombini
diretor
centro de pesquisa em música contemporânea
universidade federal de minas gerais
cpmc-ufmg
<palombini em terra.com.br>