Nisi Dominus

Nisi Dominus is a pictorial series composed of nine panels which attempt to take up to the Letter; the nine movements of the composition in nine movements composed by Vivaldi (1678-1741) around 1716 (RV608), he wrote another version in 1739 (RV803).

This lyrical and baroque music itself takes up psalm 127 which was traditionally sung or recited during the office of nun during the week since the High Middle Ages.

Vivaldi's Nisi Dominus is a musical setting of Psalm 127 (or 126), the 7th of 15 canticles of the Steps or Psalms of Ascents (Canticum graduum Salomonis) - supposedly written by the Prophet Solomon, King of Israel, in the 10th century BC It has a central place among the other hymns supposedly written by David. These fifteen canticles of the degrees were sung during the ascent of the fifteen steps leading to the temple of Jerusalem at the time of the pilgrimage festivals.

This psalmody on a background of stringed instruments evokes faith, belief and the mystery of faith.

The set of nine paintings take up to the letter; the setting to music of the psalm by Vivaldi, offering spectators a gradual, luminous and circular way of the cross where the beginning becomes the end and questions us about our place in the world. cosmos, whatever our religious convictions, to connect us to others and to what surrounds us, and to transform the apparent void into a staff that will be both our bread and our weapon.

This faith is also that of the artist, the musician or the visual artist and of any creator who gets back to work to build works whose usefulness is not obvious for society, confronted with its finitude. and to the cosmos.

Whatever our beliefs and convictions, these are the same eternal questions that connect us:

Where do we come from ?

Who are we ?

Where are we going ?

First movement / First scene:

Nisi Dominus aedificaverit domum in vanum laboraverunt qui aedificant eam nisi Dominus custodierit civitatem frustra vigilavit qui custodit in vain)

Second movement / Second scene:

Vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere (There is no point in getting up before dawn)

Third movement / Third scene:

Surgitis sederitis postquam sederitis qui manducatis panem doloris (…to go to bed late or to eat a bread earned with difficulty)

Fourth movement / Fourth scene:

Cum dederit dilectis suis somnum Ecce hereditas Domini filii mercies fructus ventris (He grants sleep to those he cherishes. Behold the inheritance of the lord, of the sons, the fruit of the womb is a reward.)

Fifth movement / fifth scene:

Sicut sagittae in manu potentis ita filii excussorum (The sons that a man has in his youth are like arrows in the hand of a strong man)

Sixth movement / Sixth scene:

Beatus vir qui implevit desiderium suum ex ipsis non confundentur cum loquentur inimicis suis in porta (Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with it according to his wishes: he will not be confounded when he speaks with enemies at the city gate)

Seventh movement / Seventh scene:

Gloria Patri and Filio, and Spirítui Sancto. (Glory to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit)

Eighth movement / Eighth scene:

Sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper (As it was in the beginning, now and always)

Ninth movement / Ninth scene:

Et in sæcula sæculórum, Amen (And forever and ever, so be it)