Jasmin Cameron

AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SACRED MUSIC CONVENTIONS:VIVALDI’S ET INCARNATUS AND CRUCIFIXUS (RV 591)

Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est.Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est.

And was made incarnate by the Holy Spirit (born of) the Virgin Mary and was made man.He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried.

In the midst of the lengthy and largely doctrinal text of the Roman CatholicCredo, the Et incarnatus and Crucifixus offered expressive potential to composersof the Baroque. The Et incarnatus describes the mystery of the incarnation ofChrist, while the following section gives a brief account of His Crucifixion.These descriptive passages are thrown into relief by the framing Credo text: theyin fact form the core of the Credo. As Bruce MacIntyre states:

As it has been for centuries, the “Et incarnatus” is the true heart of the Credo – itstwenty four words describing the mystery, life, death and suffering of Christ.1

Josef Andreas Jungmann indicates the traditions of genuflection associatedwith the Et incarnatus in his book on the liturgy, and he also acknowledges theappeal that the text held for many composers:

Rightly does this article become the center and the turning point of the whole creed.In his mercy God wanted it that way, and so the inconceivable became a reality. Wetherefore fall on our knees at the words Et incarnatus est, in awe of the mystery. [In afootnote Jungmann states: “This genuflection certainly goes back to the eleventhcentury”]. Some of the grandest creations of ecclesiastical music have here made thedevout offering of their greatest endeavour, in an effort to help us conceive themeaning that tremendous descent of the Son of God from heaven to bring peace toearth. After the mystery of the person of the God-man is thus sketched out, the Credo turnsto His work, which is again clearly designated in two steps: first, the lowly path ofpain and the cross and the grave (with a stressing of pro nobis), then the victorioussurge of His Resurrection…2

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Jasmin Cameron, 38 Wellside Road, Kingswells, Aberdeen, AB15 8EE, Gran Bretagna.e-mail: wanderingjasmin@hotmail.com1 BRUCE C. MACINTYRE, The Viennese Concerted Mass of the Early Classic Period, Ann Arbor, UMI

Research Press, 1986, p. 371.2 JOSEF ANDREAS JUNGMANN, The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development, New York,

Benziger Brothers, 1959, p. 296.

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The reasons for such lavish musical attention to these short sections of textare twofold. First, these central phrases of the Credo are key to Christian belief(was made man, crucified [and resurrected]): they are of theologicalsignificance. Second, as already suggested, these sections of text, despite beingbrief, harbour opportunities for musical response.

During the Baroque it was customary to set these sections of the Mass in amusically similar manner. While these are traditions that remain undocumentedby theorists of the time, an extensive study of the Crucifixus has demonstratedthat composers seemed to have been aware of the accepted conventions thatwere in existence.3 Common topoi are already evident in the Mass settings ofPalestrina and Monteverdi and are recognizable in the work of such composersas Lotti, Caldara, Zelenka and J. S. Bach. The tradition persisted well into theClassical era, where its representatives included Mozart and Haydn.

For Vivaldi, with his priestly vocation, I suspect that the words of the liturgywould have carried even greater significance than for a composer who did nothold such status, and so it is not unreasonable to expect that Vivaldi would offera heightened musical response to these texts. Michael Talbot suggests that:

The intimate knowledge of the liturgy brought certain benefits to him when he cameto set it to music. It was not that he had privileged access to these texts (which can befound in any breviary or missal), nor that he had a better understanding of them thana lay person. It is rather that they were so much a part of his life that he felt able totreat them with unusual freedom, intercalating and troping fragments in such a waythat a non-priest might have considered too disrespectful.4

It is interesting to note that Vivaldi bows to existing Mass conventions bydividing his Credo setting into four, the Et incarnatus and the Crucifixus beingtwo separate sections contained within the overall work. The initial division isone that derives naturally from the structure of the text itself, but I wouldsuggest that it also occurred for practical reasons. It was an indication to thecongregation that this was the point at which they were to kneel. The nature ofthis division varies between Credo settings. Sometimes, as with Vivaldi, the Etincarnatus is clearly marked as a distinct section. In other cases, there might be arest in all parts, such as occurs in Schmeltzer’s Missa Nuptialis (c. 1660-1680).5 Inthis case, not only is there a change of scoring (from lower voices, mostappropriately completing the previous statement “descendit de coelis”, to full

3 See JASMIN MELISSA CAMERON, The Crucifixion in Music: An Analytical Survey of Settings of theCrucifixus between 1680 and 1800, Lanham, Scarecrow Press, 2006. This study involved the collectionand analysis of over one hundred settings of the Crucifixus. The sample of Et incarnatus settings is amore recent study, a total of thirty-five settings having been examined to date. The latter originatemainly from the late Baroque period, but the intention is to broaden this enquiry in the future.

4 MICHAEL TALBOT, The Sacred Vocal Music of Antonio Vivaldi (“Quaderni vivaldiani”, 8), Florence,Olschki, 1995, p. 56.

5 J. HEINRICH SCHMELTZER, Missa Nuptialis, from Messen von Heinrich Biber, Heinrich Schmeltzerund Johann Kaspar Kerll, ed. Guido Adler, Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, vol. 49, Graz,Akademische Drück- und Verlagsanstalt, 1960.

coro), but the Et incarnatus is further separated from the preceding text by theinsertion of a rest in all vocal parts. Similarly, Gasparini’s Messa a quattro vociconcertata (1) has a rest of one beat in all parts (organo included) before the Etincarnatus, as does Scarlatti’s Messa per il Santissimo Natale, together with achange of metre and an indication that the tempo should be adagio.6

ET INCARNATUS

Thrasybulos Georgiades states that it was traditional to perform the Etincarnatus in slow tempo, with everyone kneeling, the “attitude of reverencealso [being] expressed in the simplicity of the setting”.7 This is reflected in manysettings, Vivaldi being no exception (adagio). Adagio is a fairly common tempomarking for the Et incarnatus, encountered in settings such as Gasparini, Missa aquattro voci concertata (2) and Draghi, Missa a 9. Sometimes the movement ispaired, as in Vivaldi’s Credo, with a largo Crucifixus (for example, in Caldara,Missa in A, Missa in spei resurrectionis).8 In some instances, composers deemedandante sufficient to indicate their intentions.

Vivaldi’s Et incarnatus is tonally open – again, a common strategy for thissection (see Figure 1). From Rigatti (1640) to Gasparini, Scarlatti and Zelenka,composers frequently cast the Et incarnatus as a tonally open movement.9 Atonally open approach is highly appropriate since (through the device ofmodulation) it helps to give the impression of ‘shifting’, thereby creating the ‘airof mystery’ required for this section of the Mass. In Vivaldi’s case, the Etincarnatus has to bridge the gap between E minor (of the first section) and Aminor (of the Crucifixus).

Et incarnatus settings tended to be through-composed and largelyhomophonic, although composers would frequently choose to single out the all-important statement of “et homo factus est” in several ways. One way ofachieving this was through contrast: Vivaldi highlights this phrase by changingthe texture from a homophonic to a contrapuntal one. In many Et incarnatussettings there is an unexpected twist in terms of modulation or harmony at thewords “et homo factus est”, possibly intended to illustrate Christ’s remarkabletransformation into human essence.10 For example, Scarlatti in his Messa per il

6 Both these settings are found in: Masses by Alessandro Scarlatti and Francesco Gasparini: Musicfrom the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, ed. Luca Della Libera, Middleton, A-R Editions, 2004.

7 THRASYBULOS GEORGIADES, Music and Language: The Rise of Western Music as Exemplified inSettings of the Mass, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982, p. 66.

8 For details of Gasparini, see note 6. Draghi, Missa a 9 from Kirchenwerke, ed. Guido Adler,Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1916; A. Caldara, Missa in A (1732), A-KR, Ms. B17, 353; Missa in speiresurrectionis (c. 1720), A-Wgm, Ms. A 323.

9 GIOVANNI ANTONIO RIGATTI, Messa e Salmi, parte concertati, Part 1 (1640/1), ed. Linda MariaKoldau, Middleton, A-R Editions, 2003; Gasparini and Scarlatti – see note 6; Zelenka, Missa OmniumSanctorum, ZWV 21 (1741), ed. Wolfgang Horn, Wiesbaden, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1989; and MissaCircumcisionis (1724) GB-Lbl, Add. 32141.

10 BRUCE C. MACINTYRE points to this feature in Albrechtsberger’s Missa Annuntiationis (1763) inThe Viennese Concerted Mass of the Early Classic Period, cit., p. 383.

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Santissimo Natale, switches from the key of D major (for “ex Maria Virgine”)directly to B minor, while Gasparini’s Messa a quattro voci concertata (1) movesfrom C major to G minor, seemingly in order to express the transformative effectof incarnation.11 Vivaldi breaks away from the hitherto homophonic setting byinitiating a lengthy melisma on the “fa-” of “factus”, and proceeds to movethrough several temporary keys. These bars (8-15) are a borrowing. The modelwas an ideal choice: its shifting harmonies could be put to good use in helpingto depict the mystery of Christ’s being “made man”. As Michael Talbot pointsout, these actual bars are a topos in Vivaldi’s work, appearing with littlealteration also in the Magnificat, RV 610/611 (Magnificat anima mea Dominum andGloria Patri, bars 1-7), the Kyrie, RV 587 (Kyrie eleison I, bars 10-25), the Concertomadrigalesco, RV 129 (first movement), and the bassoon concerto RV 491 (secondmovement).12 Why introduce this particular borrowing in this part of the Etincarnatus? Clearly, the passage, with its meandering tonality, held great appealfor Vivaldi; he may have felt it appropriate to assign this music to the mostsignificant line of the Et incarnatus. Finally, he further emphasizes “et homofactus est” by devoting more bars to this textual phrase than to the other threecombined (i.e., “Et incarnatus est / de Spiritu Sancto / ex Maria Virgine”).While this bias is observed in other settings, usually in the ratio of 70:30 or 60:40per cent, the sample studied did not yield any settings with a greater disparitythan Vivaldi’s (7 bars for the first three phrases as against 11 bars and 2 beats for“et homo factus est”).

A significant number of settings employ the Tierce de Picardie at the end ofthis section and Vivaldi’s is no exception. After the words “et homo factus est”have been repeated (a confirmation of the dominating melismatic statement thathas preceded), the Et incarnatus concludes in D minor. By ending the Etincarnatus with a major chord, however, Vivaldi sets up a strong sense ofcontrast, since the Crucifixus opens in A minor. The Tierce de Picardie appears toserve either of two purposes. As in Vivaldi’s case, it can ensure the maximumimpact for the opening of a minor-key Crucifixus setting. Alternatively, the useof this cadential formula allows the mode to revert to the major in preparationfor a major-key Crucifixus (or at least a major-key opening to a Crucifixus).13

While the operation of many conventions is evident within the brief nineteenbars of the Et incarnatus, the Crucifixus is even more remarkable in itsdemonstration of Vivaldi’s response to the text.

11 See note 6.12 MICHAEL TALBOT, The Sacred Vocal Music of Antonio Vivaldi, cit., p. 482.13 Examples of the former are: A. Scarlatti, Missa breve e concertata a cinque voci (see note 6); Lotti,

Missa VII, ed. Hermann Müller, Wiesbaden, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1959. An example of the latter isCaldara, Missa in spei resurrectionis (see note 8).

CRUCIFIXUS

The Crucifixus is the emotional climax of the entire Credo, and Vivaldiresponds to this fact by setting the scene for the Crucifixion at the very outset(see Figure 2). The first four notes in even crotchet pulse are typical of theCrucifixus tradition, setting up a mesmerizing bass rhythm, which underpins theentire setting. Such ‘via dolorosa’ bass lines, reminiscent of the tragic march toCalvary, appear in many eighteenth-century settings, such as Caldara’s Mass for4 Voices, Heinichen’s Missa 12 and Albrechtsberger’s Missa Annuntiationis. Thetenor voice, bearing the first entry of the word “Crucifixus”, follows exactly theoutline of the bass and thus introduces a melodic motive that, while not exact,is close to the traditional musical sign of the cross.14 The introduction of a sharpat the end of Vivaldi’s motive creates a linear diminished fourth, an‘excruciating’ interval that suitably expresses the agony of crucifixion. A furtherdimension is that the sharp itself represents the cross visually in the manner ofAugenmusik. The use of four ‘measured’ notes to express the word “Crucifixus”was a frequent occurrence, doubtless generated by the syllabic properties of theword itself, but probably further prompted by the imagery of these foursyllables, which could represent the four points of the cross.

The “Crucifixus” motive is used in imitation, and here Vivaldi introduces afurther dimension to depicting the Crucifixion in music. He causes his voicesliterally to ‘cross over’ one another. This rhetorical figure (metabasis or transgressus)was described by both Mauritius Vogt and Meinrad Spiess in their respectivetreatises and cited by Dietrich Bartel in his recent lexicon of Baroque musical-rhetorical figures: “The voices ‘step over’ each other, creating in fact a two fold‘transgression’”.15 Bartel goes on to point out that “such voice crossing is considereda compositional irregularity in traditional counterpoint”. This device was oftenused for the literal depiction of the text and occurs in many Crucifixus settings.16

14 The musical sign of the cross appears in many early- to mid-eighteenth-century settings of theCrucifixus: Examples occur in G. A. Perti, Missa Canone a 3 (early eighteenth century) (a'-g#'-c''-b');GB-Lcm, Ms. 661/27; and A. Caldara, Crucifixus a 16 voci (c. 1730) (a'-f''-g#'-a'), D-MÜs, SANT Dr 127.Irving Godt discusses the musical sign of the cross in: Italian Figurenlehre? Music and Rhetoric in a NewYork Source, in Studies in the History of Music, eds R. Broude and E. Beebe, New York, BroudeBrothers, 1983, 1, pp. 178-203: 186. Godt gives examples of various “cross” figures and cites musicby Ludwig Senfl (Missa super signum cruces) and Biber (Mystery Sonata X) as examples that explicitlypresent musical signs of the cross.

Musical sources: A. Caldara, Mass for 4 Voices (c. 1720), GB-Lcm, Ms. 105; J. D. Heinichen, Missa12, D-Dl, Mus. 2398-D-11; J. G. Albrechtsberger, Missa Annuntiationis, in BRUCE MACINTYRE, TheViennese Concerted Mass of the Early Classical Period, cit.

15 DIETRICH BARTEL, Musica Poetica: Musical-Rhetorical Figures in German Baroque Music, Lincolnand London, University of Nebraska Press, 1997, p. 319.

16 The example given by Vogt, and cited by Bartel (loc. cit.), describes the text as “Take me withyou; seize me in your [arms]”. As the voices intertwine, one voice ‘seizes’ the other and ‘drags’ italong. Other examples occur in Bach’s Crucifixus from the Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, Facsimileedition, ed. Alfred Dürr, Leipzig, Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1965, rev. 1981, and in Zelenka’s MissaS. Caeciliae, ZWV 1 (c. 1711), D-Dl, Mus. 2358-D-7a.

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The following two phrases, “etiam pro nobis” and “sub Pontio Pilato”, areneutral, narrative phrases, and in the majority of Crucifixus settings are treatedin a speech-like, syllabic manner. Vivaldi is no exception. However, he goes onestep further: “etiam pro nobis” is actually offset against the ensuing Crucifixus‘subjects’ that appear in close imitation in the first five bars. Its very neutralityis contrasted with the ‘tortured’ entries of successive “Crucifixus” subjects.Caldara adopts the same approach in his Crucifixus a 16 voci.17 While the“Crucifixus” subject itself is the musical sign of the cross, it is there set againstthe plain setting of “etiam pro nobis”. In addition, Caldara contains “etiam pronobis” within the span of the “Crucifixus” subject, thus creating a metabasis, asthe main subject steps its way around its short countersubject (see Figure 3).

The use of small falling intervals, the rhetoricians’ pathopoeia, was anotheraccepted tradition in association with this section of the text.18 Commonlyemployed in order to express pathos, this device was used in connection withthe words “etiam pro nobis” in settings such as Zelenka’s Missa NativitasDomini, ZWV 8, Schmidt’s Missa Sanctae Caeciliae and, of course, Vivaldi’s ownsetting.19 Meanwhile, “sub Pontio Pilato” features only twice in Vivaldi’setting,where it functions as a connecting phrase between “Crucifixus etiam pro nobis”and “passus et sepultus est”.

Preservation of the order of the textual phrases was important to Vivaldi:both the Et incarnatus and the Crucifixus reflect this priority. The propersequence of the text was similarly respected by many other composers. If therewas any jumbling of text, this tended to occur in the Crucifixus. Nonetheless,there is still a strong sense of ‘beginning–middle–end’, since all settings beginwith “Crucifixus” and end with “et sepultus est”. In the Crucifixus Vivaldi runsthrough the text twice but takes care to preserve the order of the phrases eachtime.

“Passus” is given the expected traditional treatment. In order to express thesense of duration that “suffering” implied, composers would often draw out themusical phrase that corresponds to this word. The two syllables of the word“passus” lend themselves well to this task. The available devices includedmelisma, syncopation and longer note values (relative to what had appearedbefore), together with chromatic and dissonant devices to express suffering.Towards the end of the first statement of the text Vivaldi sets “passus” as a plainsyllabic setting (thus mirroring the earlier syllabic “Crucifixus”), butintroducing longer note values – for the first time we see the appearance ofminims, offset in each part, to create a lengthening effect through syncopation(bars 9-10). The second appearance of “passus” (bar 16 onwards) introducesmelisma (tenor, bars 17-18; alto, bars 20-21) in conjunction with a falling

17 See note 14 for details.18 Pathopoeia was also used for the words “sub Pontio Pilato” and “passus”.19 J. D. Zelenka, Missa Nativitas Domini, ZWV 8 (1726), D-Bsb, Mus. ms. 23539; F. Schmidt, Missa

Sanctae Caecliae (before 1746), in BRUCE MACUNTYRE, The Viennese Concerted Mass of the Early ClassicalPeriod, cit.

chromatic fourth. The master-stroke in this setting, however, is the reversal indirection of the chromatic fourth at bars 23-25 (S and B). This leads to the highestnote of the entire setting since bar 7 for the soprano and creates the potential forthe descent (achieved by extending the descending soprano line beyond itsfalling chromatic fourth) that is required to express (in relative terms) “etsepultus est”. The lowering of the body was usually conveyed either by literalvocal descent, or as a relatively low-register statement compared with what hadgone before.20 Here, “et sepultus” is a low-voiced chord, the soprano remainingon a monotone for this final statement.

TRANSMISSION OF MASS CONVENTIONS

Et incarnatus and Crucifixus conventions were handed down from onegeneration to the next during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Andwhile these topoi tended to be further modified and moulded by eachindividual, definite trends and patterns of influence are nonetheless evident.21

Composers often began their careers in the cori of the religious institutions ofvarious musical centres, thus absorbing from an early age the style of Masssettings. Various printed and copied materials were in circulation at the time,permitting access to a range of music from which the developing (and expert)musician could learn. Composers from Italy frequently travelled north of theAlps, taking up positions in various German and Austrian cities: for example,Lotti worked at the court in Dresden, while Caldara was based in Vienna. Onthe other hand, Hasse was employed at one point by the Ospedale degli Incurabili,and also spent some time in Naples, studying with Scarlatti and Porpora. As aconsequence, the style, certainly as far as the Mass was concerned, was a fairlyinternational one.

Vivaldi’s own collection of music demonstrates that he was aware of theneed to study the sacred vocal manuscripts of others before embarking on hisown compositions.22 Furthermore, his work as a violinist in various orchestras

20 The final bars of Bach’s Crucifixus present us with a fine example of the tradition, remarkablein that while most of the Crucifixus is a reworking of the first section of an earlier church cantata,Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12, these last few bars are a new addition – therefore, at thispoint in the Crucifixus setting Bach was no longer constrained by the original musical setting. Also,Perti, Messa Canone a 3 (see note 14). Haydn offers a late example of this convention in his MissaSanctae Theresiae (1799) from The Complete Works, Ser. XIII, vol. V, ed. Friedrich Lippmann, München-Duisberg, G. Henle Verlag, 1966.

21 See JASMIN CAMERON, The Crucifixion in Music: An Analytical Survey of Settings of the Crucifixusbetween 1680 and 1800, cit., pp. 65-66, 216-221.

22 For example, the autograph scores of Giovanni Maria Ruggieri’s settings of the Gloria arepreserved in Vivaldi’s volumes of music (Gloria in D, RV Anh. 23: I-Tn, Foà 40, ff. 63-97, Gloria in G,RV Anh. 24: I-Tn, Giordano 32, ff. 64-89). These two scores appear among nineteen non-Vivaldiancompositions present in the sacred music volumes. It is evident that Vivaldi studied these scorescarefully, and even – famously – borrowed from Ruggieri’s D Major setting. He was not the onlycomposer assiduously to collect sources available to him: CHRISTOPH WOLFF lists the contents ofBach’s personal library of Latin sacred music in Der Stile antico in der Musik Johann Sebastian Bachs,Wiesbaden, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1968, pp.161-162.

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would have no doubt introduced him to many more examples of Mass settings.His Et incarnatus and Crucifixus certainly demonstrate his awareness of currentMass-setting practices of the time, but what is also evident from this short studyis his expertise in setting and depicting words. Out of the two movements, it isthe Crucifixus that offers the musical high point of the Credo. It is a remarkableexample of its kind, exhibiting an extreme response to the imagery of the tragicCrucifixion text: Casella described it most aptly as a “fearful nocturnal funeralprocession”.23

Hence the evidence we see before us today is that Vivaldi, despite respectingconventional Mass-setting practice, created settings that were uniquely his.Observing tradition created no boundaries for him – it rather seemed to open upthe path to inspiration.

23 ALFREDO CASELLA, Le composizioni sacre e vocali di Antonio Vivaldi, in Antonio Vivaldi. Note edocumenti sulla vita e sulle opera, ed. S. A. Luciani, Siena, Ticci,1939, pp. 15-22: 19.

Figure 1. A. Vivaldi, Et incarnatus from Credo, RV 591

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Figure 2. A. Vivaldi, Crucifixus from Credo, RV 591

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Figure 3. A. Caldara, Crucifixus a 16 voci

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