The 3rd movement is a duet for 2 sopranos. The work opens with fast-paced music punctuated with octave leaps in the violins, typical of Vivaldi's opening concerto movements, with the choir adding the richness of the text. He wrote the work for strings, two trumpets, 3 soloists (2 sopranos and contralto) and choir. Vivaldi's setting breaks the text into twelve separate movements, each with its own blending of instruments and voice to the text. The work has become a favorite of choral groups since then.

It can be recited or sung to music, and there are hundreds of melodies and musical settings of the text. The Gloria RV 589 In D Major is thought to have been composed around 1715 and had its first hearing in over 200 years in 1939 in Siena, Italy. Gloria in excelsis Deo, shortened to Gloria, is an ancient text that dates to as early as the 2nd century, and is part of the Catholic Mass. There was evidence of Vivaldi's choral music in other sources but no actual manuscripts were found until the 1920's in the National Library of Turin. While Vivaldi is most well known for these concertos, he also wrote in other forms, including sacred choral music. It was for this organization that he wrote most of his works, including over 500 concertos for various instruments, roughly half of them for solo violin. While the boys had to leave the facility when they were 15, the best girl musicians stayed on to become members of the orchestra and choir. The boys were taught a trade while the girls received a musical education. Antonio Vivaldi spent many years as the master of violin at the Conservatorio dell'Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, an orphanage for displaced boys and girls.

Vivaldi gloria rv589