The text of the Gloria begins by quoting one of the more theatrical passages of the Bible, from the story of the Nativity in the Gospel of Luke, in which an angel announces Christ’s birth to the shepherds: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will” (ii.14). Vivaldi was not the first Italian composer to bring operatic recitatives and arias into the music of the Catholic Church, but his Gloria is proof of the expressive powers that opera could lend to religious experience. While each work bears the unique imprint of its creator, they also share many elements of style and are connected, in their inspiration, to the whole world of sacred art. In composing music for two of the oldest Christian liturgical texts-the Gloria and the Magnificat-Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian Bach stepped onto a well-worn path. Music, especially, plays a prominent role in religious imagination, from the hymns of ancient Greece, to the cantorial traditions of Judaism and Islam, to the continuing attempts by composers to capture the “songs of heaven” in earthly music. Whether it takes shape in the arabesques and mosaics of the Great Mosque of Damascus or the intricate calligraphy and illuminated details in sacred books, spirituality has motivated countless artists. Among all the areas of human experience and endeavor, religion has perhaps inspired the greatest works of art.
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