Vivaldi four seasons spring2/1/2024 ![]() The coastal city is interwoven with canals and therefore largely navigable by boat. Image 6.12: This painting captures Venice in the time of Vivaldi. The other were mostly for bassoon, flute, oboe, and cello-all instruments played by girls at the Hospital. About half were for violin, including 37 for his most successful protege, a virtuoso known as Anna Maria dal Violin. Over the course of his career, Vivaldi wrote 500 concertos. His primary vehicle was the concerto, which is a work for an instrumental soloist accompanied by an orchestra. He not only taught them how to play their instruments but wrote music for them to play. ![]() Vivaldi was exceptionally good at his job, and soon the girls at the orphanage became the best musicians in the city. His job was to teach them the musical skills that would allow them to secure desirable husbands. The Devout Hospital of Mercy, at which Vivaldi took a position, was an orphanage for girls. Source: Wikimedia Commons Attribution: Pier Leone Ghezzi License: Public Domain The text refers to Vivaldi as “The Red Priest,” a nickname he was given due to his curly red hair. Image 6.11: This portrait of Antonio Vivaldi was completed by Pier Leone Ghezzi in 1723. The children were brought up with all of the advantages (except parents), and were prepared for comfortable lives. ![]() While not all of the surrendered infants were of high birth, the city’s noblemen took an interest in the welfare of their illegitimate children, which meant that the orphanages were always well-funded. Instead, unwanted infants were deposited at orphanages via the scaffetta, which was an opening just large enough to fit a newborn. It was common- even acceptable-for Venetian aristocrats to keep mistresses, but the children of these relationships could not be brought up in the marital home. Venetian orphanages were not the squalid workhouses we know from Victorian literature. However, he became highly skilled as a violinist and composer, and in 1703 he took the position of violin master at a local orphanage, the Devout Hospital of Mercy (Italian: Ospedale della Pietà note that Hospital at this time does not indicate a center for medical care). He initially trained as a Catholic priest, but ill health prevented him from performing many of his duties. Vivaldi spent his life in the city of Venice, which at the time was a wealthy and independent Republic. “Antonio Vivaldi.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Vivaldi will be remembered as a “pioneer of orchestral programme music”, his autographed musical manuscripts bound in 27 volumes still with us today. After a decline in popularity in 1739, it is believed that he died in poverty (as his funeral on July 28, 1741, would suggest). In his “Spring” concerto, we are able to hear a sleeping shepherd (solo violin), a sheepdog (viola), and a rippling brook (orchestral violins). 1–4), cycles of violin concerti, depicting a different season of the year. He used instruments to illustrate a scene, especially notable in The Four Seasons (Opus 8, no. Vivaldi mastered the three movement concerto and is believed to be the first composer to use ritornello form regularly. He later made his debut as a sacred vocal music composer in 1713, and composed operas, sonatas, sacred compositions, cantas, and instrumental works. In September 1703 Vivaldi obtained his first official post, becoming maestro di Violino at Pio Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, a music school for orphaned and abandoned girls. Soon after he was ordained a Priest on March 23, 1703, having trained at S Geminiano and S Giovanni in Oleo, he was forced to give up celebrating mass due to his bronchial asthma. Mainly taught violin by his father, Giovanni Battista, the “Red Priest” (called this due to his red hair) first played with his father in the basilica. He is described by Oxford music as “The most original and influential Italian composer of his generation,” with a musical language so distinctive that, “no brief description can do justice to the variety of form, scoring, and imaginative conception in Vivaldi’s 500-odd concertos”. Born Antonio Lucio Vivaldi on Main Venice, Italy, Vivaldi was an Italian composer who made his mark on the late Baroque style of the concerto.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |