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    Vivaldi Four Seasons

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    Francois le Roux
    The Four Seasons is a set of four concertos composed by Vivaldi to represent each season of the year through music. Each concerto has three movements that depict specific scenes from each season, such as a harvest dance or a winter storm. Vivaldi was an Italian priest and composer in the Baroque era known as "Il Prete Rosso" who became famous for writing over 400 concertos, including The Four Seasons, while serving as the director of music at a Venetian orphanage.

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    Vivaldi Four Seasons

    Uploaded by

    Francois le Roux
    84 views11 pages
    The Four Seasons is a set of four concertos composed by Vivaldi to represent each season of the year through music. Each concerto has three movements that depict specific scenes from each season, such as a harvest dance or a winter storm. Vivaldi was an Italian priest and composer in the Baroque era known as "Il Prete Rosso" who became famous for writing over 400 concertos, including The Four Seasons, while serving as the director of music at a Venetian orphanage.

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    The Four Seasons is a set of four concertos composed by Vivaldi to represent each season of the year through music. Each concerto has three movements that depict specific scenes from each season, such as a harvest dance or a winter storm. Vivaldi was an Italian priest and composer in the Baroque era known as "Il Prete Rosso" who became famous for writing over 400 concertos, including The Four Seasons, while serving as the director of music at a Venetian orphanage.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    84 views11 pages

    Vivaldi Four Seasons

    Uploaded by

    Francois le Roux
    The Four Seasons is a set of four concertos composed by Vivaldi to represent each season of the year through music. Each concerto has three movements that depict specific scenes from each season, such as a harvest dance or a winter storm. Vivaldi was an Italian priest and composer in the Baroque era known as "Il Prete Rosso" who became famous for writing over 400 concertos, including The Four Seasons, while serving as the director of music at a Venetian orphanage.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 11

    The Four Seasons

    by Vivaldi
    The Four Seasons is a set of four concertos, named after each
    one of the seasons of the year.

    It was written in the Baroque era.

    Each concerto consists of three movements and they are very


    programmatic i.e. different themes represents specific scenes
    or events through sound. If you listen closely, it’s not hard to
    hear a harvest-time barn dance, slippery winter ice, birds
    singing, growling thunder and a sudden storm. Certain
    segments of this are extremely popular and you will definitely
    recognise them.

    Listening list:
    Spring 1st movement
    Summer 3rd movement
    Autumn 1st movement
    Winter 2nd movement
    Antonio Vivaldi
    Italy
    (1678-1741)
    Vivaldi’s father was a violinist at St
    Mark’s Cathedral in Venice.
    Although he saw to it that his son
    received a sound musical training, he
    encouraged him to be a priest.
    Antonio was ordained in 1703, and
    soon became known as Il Prete Rosso
    (the “Red Priest”) because of the fiery
    colour of his hair.
    But his church career was extremely
    brief. While celebrating Mass he would
    leave the alter, then return a short while
    later. Some claimed that musical ideas
    would come into his mind and he would
    slip into the sacristy to write them down;
    Vivaldi himself later explained that he
    sometimes suffered from attacks of
    asthma. Whatever the reason, from then
    on he was barred from saying Mass so he
    decided to leave the church and give all
    his time to music.
    He became Director of Music at the
    Ospedale della Pietà. This was an
    orphanage for girls – but with an
    excellent choir and orchestra. The
    instrumentalists were many and
    varied, and it was for these
    musicians that Vivaldi wrote a great
    deal of his music. Many of his
    compositions were concertos –
    pieces for one or more solo
    instruments accompanied by a
    string orchestra and harpsichord.
    The Concerto
    We can trace the idea of the concerto back to before
    1600. The seeds had been planted in the kind of
    pieces Giovanni Gabrielli and other composers had
    been writing for two (or more) groups of
    instruments. This idea of strong opposition and
    contrast led to the concerto grosso. In this, the
    composer still contrasted two groups of instruments
    – a small group of strings called the concertino, and
    a larger group of strings called the ripieno (an Italian
    word meaning “full”). Sometimes the concertino
    instruments played on their own; sometimes they
    were heard in combination with the ripieno group.
    Solo concerto
    A little later on, the idea of the solo concerto
    became more usual. Here, a single solo instrument
    was set against the orchestra. The idea of contrast
    became sharper still. One of the most exciting
    things about a solo concerto is the dramatic
    contrast of one against many – the single soloist
    against a full orchestra.
    Solo concertos were written in three movements:
    Fast – Slow – Fast
    Vivaldi wrote more than 400 concertos, including
    both kinds – the concerto grosso and the solo
    concerto.
    1 Movement from the
    st

    “Spring” Concerto
    from the Four Seasons
    The main theme
    (also known as the ritornello theme)
    The Baroque Orchestra:
    Violin Concerto

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