Vivaldi is one of my all time favorites.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), a towering figure of the late Italian baroque, was the son of a violinist at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice. He became a priest, but left the ministry after about a year because of poor health; for most of his life, he was a violin teacher, composer, and conductor at a Venetian music school for orphaned and illegitimate girls. It was for the school's all-female orchestra--considered one of the best in Italy--that he composed many of his finest works. Though he was famous and influential as a virtuoso violinist and a composer, his popularity waned shortly before his death in 1741; he died in poverty and was almost forgotten until the baroque revival of the 1940s and 1950s.
Vivaldi is best know for his 450 or so concerti grossi and solo concertos ( a solo concerto is a piece for a single soloist and an orchestra). He exploited the resources of the violin and many other instruments and is noted for fast movements with vigorous, tuneful themes and impassioned, lyrical slow movements.
Vivaldi's most popular work is the concerto La Primavera (Spring) from The Four Seasons, a set of four solo concertos for violin, string orchestra, and basso continuo. Each of these concertos depicts sounds and events associated with one of the seasons, such as the bird songs heard in spring and the gentle breezes characteristic of summer. The descriptive effects in the music correspond to images and ideas found in the sonnets that preface each of the four concertos. To make his intentions absolutely clear, Vivaldi placed lines from the poems at the appropriate passages in the musical score and even added such descriptive labels as the sleeping goatherd and the barking dog. The Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter concertos are examples of baroque program music, or instrumental music associated with a story, poem, idea, or scene. They are forerunners of the more elaborate program music that developed during the romantic period.
Like most of Vivaldi's concertos, Spring has three movements: (1) fast, (2) slow, (3) fast. Both the first movement and the last are ritornello form.
Vivaldi is best know for his 450 or so concerti grossi and solo concertos ( a solo concerto is a piece for a single soloist and an orchestra). He exploited the resources of the violin and many other instruments and is noted for fast movements with vigorous, tuneful themes and impassioned, lyrical slow movements.
Vivaldi's most popular work is the concerto La Primavera (Spring) from The Four Seasons, a set of four solo concertos for violin, string orchestra, and basso continuo. Each of these concertos depicts sounds and events associated with one of the seasons, such as the bird songs heard in spring and the gentle breezes characteristic of summer. The descriptive effects in the music correspond to images and ideas found in the sonnets that preface each of the four concertos. To make his intentions absolutely clear, Vivaldi placed lines from the poems at the appropriate passages in the musical score and even added such descriptive labels as the sleeping goatherd and the barking dog. The Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter concertos are examples of baroque program music, or instrumental music associated with a story, poem, idea, or scene. They are forerunners of the more elaborate program music that developed during the romantic period.
Like most of Vivaldi's concertos, Spring has three movements: (1) fast, (2) slow, (3) fast. Both the first movement and the last are ritornello form.
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