Vivaldi’s Spring, Form The Four Seasons

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Vivaldi’s Spring, form The Four Seasons
The Baroque era produced a wealth of vocal music, such as Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Cantata, as well as instrumental music such as Fugue and Prelude and Suites. A large scale of music pieces with polyphonic style is the theme of Baroque music. Although voice is the king but the rise of instrumental music began near the end of this period. One of the best composers of this time was Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi was an Italian music composer who lived from 1678 to 1741. He lived in Venice and taught music at an all-girls orphanage for most of his life. He was a master of the violin and is widely known as the composer of concertos. By exhibiting such extraordinary powers of musical memory and ear-sophistication, Vivaldi was able to write more than 450 concertos and over 50 operas. After his death he was all but forgotten for 200 years until his works were discovered early in this century. The Four Seasons, his most famous work, has become a true classic in the modern world and has remained a popular piece until this day. Indeed, Vivaldi’s masterpiece was proudly presented by Paramount High School String Orchestra in the Orchestra Exchange Concert as their opening piece that was held on Monday, Apirl 28th, 2003.
A concerto is an instrumental from based on the opposition between two dissimilar bodies of sound. In most of Vivaldi’s concerto, the solo is violin. The Four Seasons is a collection of four concertos that depicts the seasons musically. Of the four concertos, Spring is the least descriptive; it evokes mood and atmosphere rather than specific actions. Nonetheless, Spring’s energetic mood is evoked by the bird’s joyous welcome followed by thunder and lightning.
Spring is divided into three movements where sections are noticeably distinct. The first movement is Allegro, this is where the motive of the music is introduced. Following the motive is the solo violin with birdlike tri...