Antonio Vivaldi And The Four Seasons: Baroque Era

Katherine Lowe
English 102
Research Paper
Dr. Gaarden
Antonio Vivaldi and “The Four Seasons”

Antonio Vivaldi is widely known as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque Era. Vivaldi was considered a musical genius in Venice and all over Italy. He and his music quickly spread around the world. His achievements are remarkable and inspiring to any musician or composer. His unique techniques and musical elements he used made his music stand out. Vivaldi’s famous concerto, The Four Seasons, is perhaps his most famous work. This concerto has four movements, and each movement portrays different elements to depict the four seasons of the year. Vivaldi also had influences on many famous composers after his time. He has made one
(Cordell 133) All four movements were also accompanied by a descriptive poem on the same subject. (Headington 117) Despite the normal 3 movement concerto, this concerto had four movements, each movement representing the four seasons of each year. The Four Seasons was dedicated to a neighbor of the Esterhàzy family who Haydn had served, and later, Haydn composed an oratorio called The Seasons. (Headington 117) “Vivaldi shared the half-serious, half-playful attitude of his time toward the naïve realism implied in such musical depictions.” (Grout 489) In the concerto, both the soloist and the ensemble work together to make visualization and the color that Vivaldi intended. In each movement, there seems to be mercurial changes in mood and atmosphere as you listen to each. Two of the movements involved musical painting of storms. The summer and winter movements both contained storms. (Pincherle 154) “The responses to the thunder build up are dizzying,” says Maxham, a music critic. (Maxham 276) The names of the movements are “La Primavera,” which represents spring, “L’Estate,” which represents summer, “L’Autunno,” or “Danza Partorale,” represent autumn, and “L’Inverno,” represents winter. The first movement solo in “spring” is an aria-type violin solo with orchestra accompaniment. (Maxham 81) This movement was the most popular and the favorite
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