Night Scenes from the Ospedale (2013)

For nearly forty years Antonio Vivaldi worked at the Ospedale della Pietà directing music services, performing, composing and overseeing the musical education of orphan girls. That some of the most enduring pieces of western classical music may have had their origins at the hands of these young wom- en performing semi-obscured behind latticed metal grilles in a small Venetian church is to me an incredible and inspiring bit of history.

When Daniel asked me to compose music to accompany selections from L’Estro Armonico I found myself drawn to this story. My imagination drifted to the Ospedale and I began to wonder what it would have been like to live and work in such a place. What did the musicians do when they weren’t playing? What did their world sound like, look like, feel like?

The Vivaldi concerti are full of bold acrobatics and exuberant pyrotechnics. They are thrilling pieces that command our attention and I knew from the first my music had to be different. I began to think of the Vivaldi as daytime music and mine as something more nocturnal, a kind of music barely heard, melting into the stillness of empty rooms and dimly lit hallways. With this in mind I set upon the idea of a suite exploring the nocturnal world of the Ospedale.

The scenes—Barcarolle, Lamento, Notturno, Bisbigli, and Prima l’alba—take the listener on a night’s walk through the Venetian building, filled with the sounds of creaking wood, fragments of a distant song, lapping waves, an or- phan crying, whispers in hallways, and the stillness just before dawn.

The night scenes weave between the sun-filled Vivaldi and I think it is in the stark juxtaposition of night and day that both the Vivaldi and my music come into greatest focus. The extreme contrast traces an arc from the past to the present, revealing surprising ways to hear both old and new music alike.

Premiered December 17, 2011 by Quodlibet, Spring Glen Congregational Church, Hamden, CT.

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