Second only to Handel's incomparable oratorio, The Messiah, Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi may be the most often performed baroque choral work on a Christmas subject.
The Gloria text is an ancient song based on the words of the angelic chorus as recorded in the Bible in Luke 2:14. The Gloria, along with the Magnificat , (the angel's pronouncement to the virgin Mary) have been a mainstay of Christian religious worship from earliest times. Often set to music, they remain a part of Christmas celebrations worldwide to this day.
The complete Gloria text follows - in both Latin (used by Vivaldi) and English. The numbers refer to the movements of Vivaldi's setting in which the particular line of text appears.
3. We praise Thee. We bless Thee. We adore Thee. We glorify Thee.
4. We give thanks to thee
5. For Thy great glory.
6. O Lord God, heavenly King
God the Father Almighty.
7. O Lord, the Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
8. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
Who takes away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
9. Who takes away the sins of the world,
Receive our prayer.
10. Who sits at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.
11. For Thou only art Holy. Thou only art the Lord.
Thou only art most high, Jesus Christ.
12. With the Holy Spirit, in the Glory of the Father.
Amen
The Gloria is presumed to have been written in about 1725 when the composer was 50. It is scored for trumpet, oboe, strings, continuo and choir with solos for two sopranos and one alto. The thirty minute work is divided into 12 movements, but is usually performed in 11 sections - movements 4 and 5 being combined into a single musical unit.
The MIDI files found on this month's NautilusCD follow performance practice and appear as 11 separate files instead of 12 (combining movements 4 and 5). They are saved as Mastertracks Pro files (.mts) as well as standard MIDI (.mid). Both follow general MIDI instrument assignments with the exception of the vocal solos for which you are left to chose suitable voices. [A performance note - my velocities for the trumpet are unusually high in an effort to insure the full, bright, hard attack of a baroque trumpet. Having done this it was necessary to reduce the volume of that channel on the actual sound source (in this case a Korg 01/W) to maintain orchestral balance. If this is not an option with your configuration, then a global velocity reduction of, say, 30-40 might be in order for each movement where the trumpet is employed]. As is our custom, sound-only QuickTime movies have also been included so that you may enjoy the music regardless of your MIDI involvement.