Antonio Vivaldi (aka, the Red-Haired Priest), 1678-1741, a virtuoso violinist and foremost composer of the late Italian Baroque, is known for spontaneity and simplicity of melody, rhythmic vitality, clarity of form and skillful orchestration.
Venetian Antonio Vivaldi trained as a musician since childhood. Nevertheless, his parents expected him to enter the priesthood. He attended seminary, took holy orders but fell ill and was excused from active service. Soon afterwards he joined the faculty at the Conservatory of Pietà, a school for orphaned and illegitimate girls in Venice, and spent his life as a violin teacher, composer and conductor. His all-female orchestra was among the finest in Europe, and he composed much of his instrumental music for them.
Opera, Fame and Fortune
Antonio's father worked in opera house management and his connections helped Antonio break into opera. He staged forty-five operas across Europe, received royal commissions, and reached superstar status. His operas are rarely produced today because many leading roles were written for castrated male singers (Italian, castrati)—men surgically altered to enhance the upper singing range.
Vivaldi was censured by the Church in 1737 for "unpriestly" conduct: rumors of his affair with Anna Giraud, a popular opera singer, were scandalous for the time. Soon demand for his music in Venice ceased, drifting out of fashion.
Vivaldi was a friend and favorite musician of Emperor Charles VI. In 1741, Antonio sold his possessions and moved to Vienna to restart his career under the patronage of Charles. Unfortunately, Charles passed away shortly after Vivaldi's arrival and the great maestro died penniless and alone in his hotel room.
Revival of Vivaldi's Music
Despite Vivaldi's great fame during his career, he was quickly forgotten after death. His music was virtually unheard until its revival in the twentieth century. Vivaldi's twentieth century revival was partly fueled by the fact so many of his works survived. After he died, manuscripts of nearly three hundred concertos and twenty operas were found in his room! These scores are preserved in Turin’s Biblioteca Nazionale, the oldest national library in Italy.
Works
Baroque composers furiously churned out new works to please audiences craving only the latest music. Audio recording was centuries in the future, so music existed only as written scores or live performance. Vivaldi composed a shocking amount of music, over a thousand works, most of which contain multiple movements—as much music as Bach and Handel put together!
Vivaldi excelled in most of the genres of the time—opera, orchestral suites, chamber music, church music, etc.—but is remembered mainly for the solo concerto and concerto grosso, forms he helped develop. He wrote over four hundred-fifty concerti for diverse instruments.
During the Baroque, the concerto was an instrumental work that pitted a soloist or group of soloists against a larger group of players. The soloists were called the concertino or soli whereas the larger group were the ripieno or tutti.
Solo Concerto and Concerto Grosso
The Baroque concerto existed in two forms: solo concerto (simply called concerto) and concerto grosso. Both forms feature a ripieno or tutti of strings and basso continuo, but may contain woodwinds and brass in larger ensembles.
The difference between the solo concerto and concerto grosso revolved around the number of soloists used. The solo concerto used a single soloist whereas the concerto grosso featured a group of soloists, called the concertino or soli. The concertino was set apart from the ripieno by their smaller numbers and virtuosic playing. Terraced dynamics—sudden changes from forte to piano—resulted as musical materials were passed between the soli and tutti.
Concerto for bassoon RV 469 | First page of Vivaldi's autograph score of Concerto for Bassoon. His handwriting is tidier than Handel but messier than Bach. | National University Library of Turin (ms. Foà 32, c. 154r)
Movements
A movement is a self-contained section of a larger musical composition. It sounds complete enough to stand alone but is performed in a sequence of three or four movements. All concertos feature multiple movements of contrasting tempo and character, usually three movements in a fast-slow-fast tempo format.
Ritornello Form
The outer two movements of the solo concerto and concerto grosso are normally in ritornello form. The ritornello is the principle theme and is played by the tutti before each solo episode, often in abbreviated form and contrasting keys. In other words, the ritornello behaves like a chorus or refrain, returning with the same theme each time. Here's a typical organization of the ritornello form:
ripieno | solo | ripieno | solo | ripieno | solo | ripieno
The form of the concerto grosso's second movement varies but is usually slow and lyrical, often in ternary or binary form.
Here's a taste of Vivaldi's concerto style performed in his home town of Venice:
Mandolin Concerto In C Major RV 425 | Antonio Vivaldi | Three movements in a fast-slow-fast tempo scheme: Allegro, Largo and Allegro (8:00)
The Four Seasons, Le quattro stagioni, are a set of four solo violin concerti intended to evoke the seasons of the year. It was written in 1721 and published in Amsterdam in 1725 with eight other violin concerti under the title Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention). The Four Seasons are Vivaldi's best known works and have been used in countless sound tracks and advertisements.
The Four Seasons team with imitations of birds song, chattering teeth, barking dogs, and a host of seasonal sounds. And, in case you don't get the musical imitations, Vivaldi spelled it out with an accompanying poem (sonnet) for each concerto, as well as vivid descriptions written directly in the musical score.
Why should you listen to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" | Ted Ed about Vivaldi's most famous concerti (4:19).
Vivaldi took care to link his music to the poem text, writing the lines of poetry above musical passages. For example, the phrase "the birds celebrate her return with festive song" is placed next to violin solos filled with trills and repeated notes meant to imitate bird song. As such, The Four Seasons are an early example of program music, instrumental music intended to tell a story and evoke feelings, images and scents beyond the music.
The last concerto of the set, L'Inverno (Winter), has three movements: Allegro con molto, Largo and Allegro (fast, slow and fast). In each movement Vivaldi evokes the sights and sounds of Winter: snow fall, penetrating wind, chattering teeth and icy pathways. Here's a translation of the poem for each of the three movements:
Allegro con molto
Shivering, frozen mid the frosty snow in biting, stinging winds;
running to and fro to stamp one's icy feet, teeth chattering in the bitter chill.
Largo
To rest contentedly beside the hearth, while those outside are drenched by pouring rain.
Allegro
We tread the icy path slowly and cautiously, for fear of tripping and falling.
Then turn abruptly, slip, crash on the ground and, rising, hasten on across the ice lest it cracks up.
We feel the chill north winds coarse through the home despite the locked and bolted doors
this is winter, which nonetheless brings its own delights.
Four Seasons: L'Inverno (Winter) | Antonio Vivaldi (9:26)
Vocabulary
Antonio Vivaldi, castrati, concerto, solo concerto, concerto grosso, tutti, concertino, ripieno, movement, ritornello, ritornello form, cadenza, program music
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Italy
Works
The Four Seasons
L'Inverno (Winter)
Allegro con molto
Largo
Allegro
