Antonio Vivaldi: Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke (RV).

Antonio Vivaldi: Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke (RV). By Peter Ryom. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Hartel, 2007. [xxx, 633 p. ISBN-13: 9783765103728. [euro]98.] Fascimile, bibliographic references, indexes.

The only competition for Peter Ryom's Antonio Vivaldi: Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke (RV) comes from earlier works by Ryom himself. These begin with his Verzeichnis der Werke Antonio Vivaldis, Kleine Ausgabe (Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag fur Musik, 1974; revised ed., 1977) and continue with the collective source study of imprinted materials Les manuscrits des Vivaldi (Copenhagen: Antonio Vivaldi Archives, 1977) plus the instrumental music catalog called Repertoire des auvres d'Antonio Vivaldi:les compositions instrumentales (Copenhagen: Engstrom & Sodring, 1986). The first exposition of the RV numbering system came in his Table de concordances des auvres (RV) (Copenhagen: Engstrom & Sodring, 1973). All of Ryom's Vivaldi works (apart from translations into English of prefaces and introductions in the two later catalogues) are in French or German. The contents and main differences between the three catalogs (hereafter cited as A, B, and C) are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1 (Ryom review)

Feature                 Kleine        Repertoire       Thematisch-
                        Ausgabe          des          systemalisches
                                       oeuvres          Verzeichnis

Code used here       A               B                C

Date (saminathan)    1974/rev. 1977  1986             2007
of publication

Place of             Leipzig         Copenhagen       Wiesbaden
publication

No. of pages         214;rev. 226    726 + lxxviii    633 + xxx

Nature of entries    Brief           Extensive        Comprehensive

Numbering-system
allocations

  Instrumental       1-585           1-585            1-585
  works

  Sacred vocal       586-648         -                586-648
  works, oratorios,
  et al.

  Secular cantatas   649-686         -                649-686

  Serenatas          687-694         -                687-694

  Operas             695-740         -                695-740

  Unclassifiable     741-750         -                741-750
  works

  Authorship claim   Anhang 1-63     -                Anhang 1-134
  rejected

  Summary of         --              -                751-808
  recently
  discovered works
  (1974-2006)

Any reader comparing these publications at a glance will be led to believe that there is little difference in the contents, because the outer limits of work numbers do not seem to vary by category. However, the total number of instrumental works (covered in all three) is not actually uniform, because relative to A (and to each other), B and C contain insertions and deletions. Fifty-seven new works have been added to the pool of authentic works since 1974. Seventy-one entries have been added to the appendix (Anhang) of works not considered to be by Vivaldi, and some of these are collections of works or work-fragments. Recently disattributed works hold a permanent place in the main numbering system but in lieu of an entry, the reader is referred to its new placement in the appendix. Some works which were originally placed in the appendix have taken "newly discovered" numbers (i.e., 751+) and are now integrated in the main sequence. What is stable is the tree-structure organization for instrumental music, which begins with genre (sonata, concerto), then passes to instrumentation, then to key (further segregated by mode). Ryom has abandoned an earlier sub-numbering system (in which some of this classification data was encoded) in C. Operas are ordered alphabetically. Vocal repertories employ various principles of organization (key and instrumentation where multiple works bear the same title; alphabetical order for the operas).

Table 1 also indicates that since C has a smaller page count than B, which covers only instrumental music, its typography (while admirably clear and employing helpful contrasts and running headers) relies on font sizes that will be problematical for some users. This raises the issue of whether committing so much material to one volume was a wise choice. It also raises the question of whether it was really necessary to reproduce the section on instrumental music. The whole of B is represented in the first 258 pages of C. Yet it is not entirely the same material. B includes with each entry a generous comment on details of manuscript sources. This has been almost entirely excluded from C, although the sources themselves are fully listed. No harm is done to those seeking instrumental listings, since they can still consult B and also Les manuscrits. Since, however, a terse listing is maintained for the vocal and dramatic music in C, there is no catalog that offers for this repertoire the same depth of information on sources as found in B (other than what is available in Les manuscrits). However, source description can be found in the prose commentaries on particular genres of Vivaldi's music in a series of publications made under the auspices of the International Vivaldi Institute in Venice. These include Michael Talbot's studies of the sacred vocal works (The Sacred Vocal Music of Antonio Vivaldi [Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1995]) and the cantatas (The Chamber Cantatas of Antonio Vivaldi [Wood-bridge: Boydell Press, 2006]), Federico Maria Sardelli's book on works involving flute (La musica per flauto [Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2001]; trans, by Michael Talbot, Vivaldi's Music for Flute and Recorder [Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007]), and Reinhard Strohm's new study of the operas (The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi [Florence: Leo S. Olschki, forthcoming]).

The coverage of instrumental music in C, although more abbreviated in extent, is arguably more complete and more even. Without reiterating the coverage on instrumental music, it would not have been possible to trace links between instrumental and vocal music, nor would it have been feasible to refine entries with information (not known in 1974 or 1986) about the hands of copyists, implied date ranges, and so forth. Indeed, Ryom's biggest challenge in compiling C would undoubtedly have come from absorbing new findings, which have been reported at an unrelenting pace over the past twenty years. Complementing Karl Heller's source studies of the Vivaldi manuscripts in Dresden (Die deutsche Uberlieferung der Instrumentalwerke Vivaldis [Leipzig: Deutche Verlag fur Musik, 1971]), Paul Everett carried diplomatic studies for Vivaldi manuscripts to a high level of precision in his studies of the Turin and Manchester MSS (The Manchester Concerto Partbooks [New York: Garland, 1989]). The close comparisons of variant opera libretti by Livia Pancino ("Le opere di Vivaldi nel raffronto fra libretti e partiture," published in a series of articles in Studi Vivaldiani from 1995 to 2005) facilitate Ryom's careful differentiation of multiple versions of operas (on this more later). Refinements to Vivaldi's colorful instrumentation come from Sardelli. Reinhard Strohm's pursuit of aria migrations ("Italienische Opernarien des fruhen Settecento (1720-1730)," Analecta Musicologica 16 [Cologne: Volk, 1976]) has benefited Ryom's opera coverage and appendix. To cite these important studies is not to discredit Ryom's own. He has worked long and hard in the trenches examining the minutiae of a scattered repertory. Readers are greatly benefited by having access to such a broad collation of information.

No reader observing the tightly knit organization of C (or B or A) might suppose the repertory stands in such disarray as it does. Most of Vivaldi's works were never printed. Manuscript sources are more concentrated in a few libraries than they are for many of his contemporaries, but the bulk of them are undated. Prior to the work of Heller there was no systematic study of the scribal hands in which the music is preserved. Autographs are largely confined to the famous Foa and Giordano collections in Turin. Even in these collections questions arise as to what constitutes a particular work, for Vivaldi, like Handel, changed his mind en passant, leaving trails of possible paths through folios in his own hand. The approaches of individual copyists bear study in their own right. Among the most credible are the composer's father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi (1655-1736), a violinist at St. Mark's, a violin teacher at the Mendicanti, and a theater orchestra player. Another is the Saxon violinist Johann Pisendel, who in transcribing Vivaldi's works often introduced his own articulations and rhythmic refinements.

The most complex repertory is that of the operas. Operas were almost always prepared in haste. They were especially prone to borrow from earlier works. Lapses between libretto and score were common. There is often no obvious road map to fully define the contents of an opera. If the music survives, it makes the job more complicated. In the absence of a complete score, the libretto becomes the roadmap. That few critical editions of Vivaldi's operas exist owes partly to the difficulty of editing one. In working through the opera entries, Ryom has cataloged the repertory not only at the title level but also at the level of individual movements. This makes travels of arias and sinfonia movements more apparent. With respect to primary placement, Ryom's objective has been to present an aria which appears in multiple contexts with the listing for the piece bearing the earliest date. Subsequent uses are signaled with cross-references by RV number and summarized in the first-line index.

Music that was printed in Vivaldi's lifetime generally presents many fewer problems to the cataloger, but there are exceptions. Although Venice had been an important publishing center for music, superior technology in Paris. Amsterdam, and London caused a mass exodus to northern publishers. Sending music to press in distant cities came at the price of less fidelity to the composer's original, some games of attribution, occasional reordering of movements, and occasional simplification (e.g., of continue) figuration) for the amateur market to which northern publishers catered. Although problems of authenticity have been raised for Opp. 1--12, Vivaldi's Op. 13 was shown to be an anthology of works fashioned by Nicolas Chedeville from works by other composers (Philippe Lescat, "'Il Pastor Fido,' une oeuvre de Nicolas Chedeville," Informazioni e Studi Vivaldiani 11 [1990]: 5-10). The origin of the cello sonatas op. 14 has subsequently been questioned but lacks a final verdict.

Questions of authorship can arise from manuscript sources, too, especially when the hand or hands is not familiar from Vivaldi's circle of copyists and/or when the earliest mention of Vivaldi's name occurs after his death (1741). The importance of the works for which such questions arise is in general minor. However, debates as to what constitutes Vivaldi's style--that is, the musical features that are uniquely Vivaldi's and cannot, be found in the works of any other composer--have been frequent. Every prolific composer produced some pieces that were out of character. Vivaldi had imitators, especially in France, but what was most easily circulated was the printed music. Judgments of attribution (not necessarily Ryom's own) have contributed significantly to changes of placement, especially between catalogs A and C.

The presentation of the music itself is generous in quantity and, font size apart, beautifully presented. Ryom has always been a diligent observer of the graphical details of manuscripts. There is a conspicuous difference between the presentation of the thousands of music examples in B (the Repertoire) and those in the complete Verzeichnis. (To call them incipits shortchanges their very substantial content and frequent enrichment by ornaments, dynamics marking, slurs, marcatos, bowing, text-underlay, and a host of other refinements.) In both volumes, examples are polyphonic where desirable for clarification of thematic process. Yet not everything that is polyphonic in B is necessarily so in C, and vice versa. The music appears to have been entirely reset for C. Some examples shown on two staves in B are shown on a single staff (with clef changes as required) in C. Some that are longer in one are shorter in the other. On balance at least as many are lengthened as shortened.

The clarification of differences between sources for the best known works is striking. For the Larghetto of RV 580, a concerto for four violins officially labeled RV 580 but better known as the concerto op. 3, no. 10 (the model for J. S. Bach's four-harpsichord concerto BWV 1065), the incipit now shows the four violins on four staves to clarify differences of articulation: Violino 1: triple stops to indicate arpeggiation "beaten in biscrome"; Violino 2: "sempre legato" with a single slur on the first three of every four-sixteenth-note pair; Viola: "sempre sciolto," with staccato marks on every note; and Violoncello: "sempre legato" with running sixteenth-notes slurred two in every beamed group. The details of instrumentation, faithfully followed from the studies of Sardelli and others, are conspicuous in the concerti for string and wind ensembles. In one instance (the concerto in C Major for the feast of San Lorenzo, RV 559), the indication in B for two recorders (flauti in the original) and two trumpets (clarini) is changed in C to two (transverse) flutes and two (early) clarinets.

Ryom has done a fine job of absorbing recent discoveries. Steffen Voss's identification of surviving portions of the opera Montezuma in the Berlin Sing-Akademie collection (identified in, but not yet retrieved from Kiev) offers one important instance. The only major discovery post-dating Ryom's press date is that of Ondrej Macek, who followed clues to major portions of the "lost" opera Argippo in Regensburg (2007) and has now (May 2008) staged the work in Prague Castle. A current debate as to the veracity of Vivaldi's claim (recently discovered in the files of a Venetian notary by Micky White) to have composed "40 pieces" for a pastiche called Creso (Venice, 1705) is largely moot: no music from the work is traceable.

The most difficult cases for cataloging in the opera section are variants of the same work, Armida al campo d'Egitto (RV 699) serves as a worthy example. Libretto studies support four versions. RV 699A represents what is thought to have been the first performance (Venice, 1718), while 699B indicates the performance given that year in Mantua. RV 699C identifies a version for Vicenza (1720), while 699D denotes the revival of the work in Venice in 1738. (Ryom discounts Vivaldi's involvement in a modest production there in 1731 and a pastiche of 1748.) For Farnace (RV 711) seven versions are recognized, but they span a shorter time span (1727 to 1738). Version G (from Turin MS Giordano 37), although never performed, is a collage of items appropriated from earlier works interspersed with new arias. For La costanza trionfante degl'amori e degl'odii (RV 701) Ryom itemizes five versions between 1716 and 1732: Venice (1716 and 1719); Vicenza (1719); Mantua (1725); and Prague (1732), to which one more (Fano, 1718) can be deduced from Edward Corp's work on the Stuart court in exile. A large set of miscellaneous arias associated with various works by Vivaldi is subsumed in the appendix as RV Anh. 127. A substantial number (forty-seven) of the arias here have been linked by Strohm to Prague; the rest are connected with Brno, Graz, Hamburg, London, Turin, and Venice. Only one opera in C is previously uncataloged. It is an alternative version (RV 778) of Tito Manlio (RV 738; Mantua, 1719). Only the third act of this pastiche is by Vivaldi. Its independence from RV 738 is adduced not from a complete source but from an aria collection in the Musiksammlung des Grafen von Schonborn in Wiesentheid, Germany.

Trails of concordances for individual movements also occur in the serenata and sacred vocal repertories. Ryom reports concordances for specific pieces in the best known serenata, La senna festeggiante (RV 693, 1725) with material in the operas La Silvia (RV 734, Milan, 1721); Ercole sul Termodonte (RV 710, Rome, 1723); and the pastiche La virtu trionfante (RV 740, Rome, 1724). (I question Ryom's performance date of 4 or 5 September 1726 for La senna, since the wedding it celebrated was marked at the French embassy in Venice on 12 September 1725.) Musical concordances figure prominently in the independent circulation of opera sinfonias as instrumental pieces. These works are cataloged singly in the instrumental section but with cross-references to the appearance of component parts in listings for individual operas. The fact that conordances are largely lacking in the chamber cantata repertory indicates that these works were little circulated but were newly composed.

Helpful summaries of additions and changes to the lists of accepted and rejected attributions are given at the end of C. The placement of inserted listings is indicated by RV number in an index, but no page numbers are given. While few listings can be found in the contextually correct location. non-sequiturs of numeration are still somewhat jarring. Among instrumental works. RV 758 (a virtuoso Violin Sonata in A Major in Manchester) follows RV 31 (the Violin Sonata in A Major op. 2, no. 2) on p. 15. Other violin sonatas preserved in Manchester are likewise inserted where their key dictates. The Nisi Dominus (one of three sacred vocal works recovered by Janice Stockigt in Dresden, where Galuppi was listed as the composer) is now RV 803; its placement occurs between RV 608 and 609 (p. 85). The six sonatas ubiquitously cataloged as Vivaldi's op. 13 (collection title: II pastor fido) were originally numbered RV 54-59, but because of reattribution they are now designated RV Anhang 95. 1-6. Conversely, former RVAnh. 66, a Sonata in C Major for flute oboe, bassoon, and cembalo (once attributed to Handel) has now been absorbed into the main listing as RV 801. Among movements shared by different genres, the third movement of the Sinfonia RV 117 also introduces the third act of the opera Farnace (RV 711). The first and third movements of RV 117 are also shared by La senna festeggiante (RV 693). A renumbering motivated by a decision concerning the relative dates of different manuscripts is that of ex-RV 223 (in D Major), which is now RV 762 (in E Major). It appears in the Verzechnis after RV 271 (E Major). The Flute Concerto in D Major previously numbered RV 426 is now RV Anh. 109, the reallocation was based "on stylistic grounds." For further enlightenment on the source itself, one needs to consult B.

The critical apparatus at the end of the book includes a very helpful summary of number changes across the span of Ryom Vivaldi catalogs, a brief description of collected manuscript sources (pp. 586-90), concordances for the Pincherle and Fanna catalogs (the Rinaldi concordance has been dropped), and indexes of titles, text incipits, and singers. The title-and first-line indexes are enormously useful in that they subsume all the surreptitious appearances of migratory arias and movements.

Although the merits and demerits of the numbering system and decisions about authorship based on stylistic features are currently the most discussed topics, readers in future decades may lament only that the work is committed exclusively to the static medium of print. A dynamic (that is, digital) presentation would make discovery of new sources and concordances as well as changes of opinion much easier to accommodate. Questions of order are largely redundant in a searchable digital medium. On balance, this comprehensive catalog is nothing short of a heroic achievement. The careful, even artistic handling of musical content will serve performers and librarians well for many decades. The source information is accurate, and the whole work has been very carefully proofread. The absorption of information from a host of relatively recent works that are themselves both important and complex is faithful and painstaking. While scholars will not want to forego the use of Ryom's earlier catalogs (especially B), there can be no doubt that even they will turn to this one first ... and last.

ELEANOR SELFRIDGE-FIELD

Stanford University