Credo (Vivaldi)

The Credo in E minor (RV 591) by Antonio Vivaldi is the only extant setting the composer wrote of the Nicene Creed. Another setting exists (RV 592) but is of dubious authenticity.

Settings

RV 591

Figure 1. Measures 1 and 2 of the Violini I e II staff of RV 591.

RV 591 has four movements, all choral. In a style similar to his psalm setting of In exitu Israel (RV 604), the first movement adorns the chorus' simple rhythms of crotchets and minims with the orchestra playing semiquavers and quavers. The second movement is a brief choral episode in the stile antico, borrowing thematic material from the composer's Magnificat. In the third movement, based on the Crucifixus portion of the Nicene Creed, Vivaldi establishes pain and grief with constant quavers (followed by a rest of the same duration) in the orchestra and the use of the lamento pattern (chromatic steps descending from the tonic to the dominant). The fourth movement is similar to the first, based on the similar semiquaver-quaver motif, yet ends with a fugue.

Figure 2. Measures 129 and 130 of the Violino I staff of RV 588.

RV 591 is connected to Gloria RV 588 by the rhythmic similarity in the first and fourth movements and its date of composition.

Movements

1. Credo in unum Deum
2. Et incarnatus est
3. Crucifixus
4. Et Resurrexit

Media

RV 592

RV 592 is a disputed composition, attributed to Johann Adolph Hasse.

External links

• Free scores of Credo in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)