Ex. 9-1: Nulla in mundo pax sincera

A sacred motet (RV 630) composed by Vivaldi around 1713–1719 to an anonymous Latin text. Scored for solo soprano, two violins, viola, and basso continuo. The title translates as "In this world there is no honest peace." The motet is in four short sections — an opening aria, a recitative, a second aria, and a closing Alleluia. This track is the first aria. Its opening words are "Nulla in mundo pax sincera," and the whole motet has the same name.

The poem says the pleasures of the world are false, and that real peace can be found only in Jesus.

Vivaldi was a Catholic priest, and people called him "the Red Priest" because of his red hair. Because of a chest illness, he soon stopped saying Mass and gave his time to music instead. For much of his life, he taught music at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, a home for orphaned and abandoned girls. The girls there were trained to a very high level and became famous across Europe, but they sang and played behind screens, so the audience could not see them. Vivaldi wrote pieces like this one for the most skilled of these singers. The part is very hard to sing, and the voice often sounds like a solo violin. This opening aria has a gentle, rocking rhythm in 12/8 time. This kind of swaying rhythm is called a siciliana.

This aria was featured in the 1996 Australian film Shine, a film about the pianist David Helfgott.

From the album Handel: Silete venti, Gloria, Salve Regina – Vivaldi: Nulla in mundo pax sincera by Grace Davidson and the Academy of Ancient Music (2018)
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