Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) was an Italian composer and violinist, considered among the greatest exponents of Baroque music. A priest, although unable to celebrate mass for health reasons, he was called "the Red Priest" due to the color of his hair. He was one of the most virtuosic violinists of his time and one of the greatest composers of Baroque music. Considered the most important, influential and original Italian musician of his era, Vivaldi contributed significantly to the development of the concerto, especially solo (a genre initiated by Giuseppe Torelli), and of violin technique and orchestration. Furthermore, he did not neglect opera in music and his vast compositional work also includes numerous concerts, sonatas and pieces of sacred music.

His works influenced numerous composers of his time including the greatest Baroque genius Johann Sebastian Bach, but also Pisendel, Heinichen, Zelenka, Boismortier, Corrette, De Fesch, Quantz. His best-known compositions are the four violin concertos known as The Four Seasons, a famous example of subject music. As with many Baroque composers, his name and music fell into oblivion after his death. Only thanks to the research of some 20th century musicologists, such as Arnold Schering, Marc Pincherle, Alberto Gentili, Alfredo Casella and Gian Francesco Malipiero, his name and his works became famous again, becoming one of the best known and most performed composers.

Antonio Vivaldi composed three settings of the Dixit Dominus (The Lord said [unto my Lord]), the Latin version of Psalm 110. They include a setting in ten movements for five soloists, double choir and orchestra, RV 594, another setting in eleven movements for five voices, five-part choir and orchestra, RV 595, and a recently discovered setting in eleven movements for five soloists, choir and orchestra, RV 807, which had been attributed to Baldassare Galuppi. It is said to be one of his "most significant sacred works.".

There are three recorded compositions of Dixit Dominus – Psalm 110 in Latin (or Psalm 109 in the Vulgate) – by Vivaldi. Each is an extended setting of the vespers psalm for five soloists, choir and orchestra; one only having been identified as his work in 2005. Psalm 110 is regularly included in Vespers services, usually as the opening psalm. Dixit Dominus has been said to be one of his "most significant sacred works".

The setting discovered next was catalogued as RV 595 in D major and is structured in eleven movements, eight psalm verses and three movements for the doxology. Until the late 1960s the only setting of the Psalm Dixit Dominus by Vivaldi known to exist was the splendid one for double choir, RV594, preserved in Turin. Then, unexpectedly, a second setting, similarly large in scale but this time for a single coro (with divided sopranos in some movements), was discovered in the National Library in Prague. The history of its manuscript, which survives as a set of locally copied separate parts, is complex and enigmatic. This new Dixit Dominus, RV595, was almost certainly composed for the Pietà before 1717 and may have been among the works taken back to Bohemia by Balthasar Knapp. The manuscript is dated 1738; a note in the second violin part connects the work with the Jesuit seminary of St Francis Xavier in Prague’s New Town, adjoining the square known as the Cattle Market. After the Jesuit order was suppressed throughout Bohemia in 1773 the manuscript passed to the military order of the Knights of the Cross (usually known by their German name of Kreuzherren), whose church in Prague held a vast stock of sacred works by Vivaldi and his Italian contemporaries.

Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixit_Dominus_(Vivaldi)) .

Although originally written for SSATB soloists, Chorus (SATB), and Orchestra, I created this Interpretation of "Sicut erat in principio" from the "Dixit Dominus" in D Major (RV 595 Mvt. 12) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French Horn & Bassoon) and Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).