🎵 Buy the MP3 album on the Official Halidon Music Store: Stream it on Spotify: iTunes & Apple Music: http. Vivaldi's The Four Seasons are not only among the most popular pieces of classical music today, but they circulated widely in the composer's time, as well, and inspired programmatic pieces by others. The concertos were especially popular in France, where they were played many times in the Concert Spirituel. Spring (La primavera), perhaps the particular favorite of the French, was not only.
The solo concerto of the Baroque era was particular in that it arose from the Baroque era as a replacement of the Concerto Grosso. One of the main performers/composers of the solo concerto from the Baroque period was Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi composed over 350 solo concertos, his main one being The Four Seasons Concerto, composed in 1723. The Four Season Concerto was made up of an orchestra, a group of violas, a solo violin, and a bass continuo. Four Seasons was based upon a poem that was written by Vivaldi himself, in which it described several seasons within a year. The concerto can be described as having lots of energy, very virtuosic, and the majority being in major modes, except every once in a while minor modes would come into play within the storms of the specific…show more content…
“The violin, by all accounts, originates in Northern Italy during the first half of the 16th century. But the 'inventor' is unknown and will remain open to discussion” (Bartuff). However, some try and credit Andrea Amati of Cremona (c.1511-1566), as he created two violins between 1542 and 1546. Today several different violins have been created throughout history, but the first standardized violin resulted from the Baroque period. “The Baroque violin [had] a shallower angle of the neck, which is usually thicker to support the tension of the strings, although the string tension is lower than on a classical violin” (Bartuff). The sound of this violin is typically characterized as being “quiet with a sweet sharpness” (“The Baroque Violin More Than the Catgut Strings”). As innovation occurred, the classical violin came about and the violin came to have a slenderer neck, higher string tension and was made in different types of wood based on the preference of musicians. As for the sound of the classical violin, the sound can be classified as having a warm sound with rich
From Renaissance to Baroque
The Baroque period saw many changes to the music scene after the Renaissance. The violin and trumpet became more favored instruments, and composers and songwriters began to favor pieces with less polyphony and more monody (Music of the Baroque). Amidst this changes to music stood Vivaldi, a titan of the Baroque era, known for composing a staggering amount of operas and concertos during this era.
From Mass to Concerto
Vivaldi lead an interesting life, being both a cleric and a famous musician (Talbot 1999). He learned to play the violin through his father, a once barber who decided to take up strings, and the two toured the city of Venice playing together (Wikipedia). At 25, Vivaldi became a priest through familial pressures, but within a year of his clerical duties, he resigned for a string of reasons, such as a “tightness” in his chest during sermons (Talbot). He continued to serve as a priest, for much longer than that, but he rarely gave sermons on account of his ill-health (Wikipedia).
After discontinuing much of his priestly duties, Vivaldi was then employed but what is famously, though incorrectly, referred to as an orphanage known as “Ospedale della Pietà ”. This facility was instead a home for girls born of nobleman’s affairs, and Vivaldi was appointed to be their violin instructor (Talbot). He worked there for most of his working life, and composed many great concertos there.
Riches to Rags
For a time, Vivaldi was one of the most successful and popular of the Baroque composers. His hard-earned success came to a sudden halt when his music began to fall out of favor. He tried many things, but ultimately had to settle with an offer he had received prior: he would go back to Vienna to serve as the court composer for Emperor Charles VI. Vivaldi was no stranger to receiving commissions from nobility and royalty, so he felt reasonably sure taking this position (Wikipedia). Unfortunately, Charles died shortly into Vivaldi’s stay, and with no financial stability left to speak of, he died an impoverished man. His lack of support from the wealthy royalty once his works no longer appealed to the general lead to his tragic downfall. Vivaldi, and many other musicians of the time were afforded comfortable lives at the behest of the royal families and their nobles, but when their influence is removed, the money stops flowing in for many, Vivaldi being no exception to this tragic fate (Wikipedia). The man once revered for his genius compositions received a modest burial shortly thereafter, his fame a distant memory in the general populace’s minds (Talbot).
La Primavera
Vivaldi Four Seasons Baroque
Of Vivaldi’s many critically acclaimed concertos, few have enjoyed as great of a success as his four-sectioned piece, The Four Seasons. The Four Seasons is, like the name implies, a four piece concerto, making dramatic use of violins and other stringed instruments to recreate each season (Harrison 2011). La Primavera opens on a somewhat slow note, with violins at the forefront.Then the piece rapidly picks up steam, and the violins begin to accelerate into the higher registers. Vivaldi’s mastery over composition allows him to paint the picture spring, from start to finish. Birds sing, represented by the trills of the violin, and softer notes represent the gurgling of freshly thawed streams (Samantha 2010). The tone quickly changes however, and the strings evoke a powerful thunderstorm in the later parts of this piece, evoking the varied weather patterns unique to springtime.
Verdict
I personally enjoy the sounds of Vivaldi, and believe that the Baroque period took a step in the right direction from where the Renaissance left off. The Renaissance had too much of a singular focus on polyphonic pieces for my taste, and the resulting sounds come across as cloudy and simply noisy. Vivaldi, as well as the numerous other composers of the Baroque address this concern I have, by having pieces that center around a few key instruments, like the violin. Primavera especially appeals to me, as I enjoy the whimsical sense of joy that the birdsong in the first movement provides. I believe Vivaldi truly went above and beyond with his portrayal of spring in the truest form he could. He was able to paint a picture of a beautiful spring landscape, thriving with nature with not a canvas or words, but instead with strings. Few other composers of his time would have been capable of doing such a task, and as such, Vivaldi earns great praise from me.
Vivaldi Four Seasons Baroque Era
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