- Vivaldi's Four Seasons
- Vivaldi Four Seasons Year
- Vivaldi Four Seasons Year Composed
- What Is Vivaldi Four Seasons
The Four Seasons. Antonio Vivaldi. Solo violin, violins, violas, cellos, basses. Notes by James Keays. Start studying #Four Seasons, Spring by Vivaldi. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.
A landscape with rivers and figures by Marco Ricci, a contemporary of Vivaldi who shared his bold representations of elemental forces.
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons are four violin concertos depicting the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. They are some of the most extravagant examples of music that tells a story (“program music”) from the baroque period. Here are some key moments to listen out for.
About Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Title:Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons), op. 8
Composer: Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
Period: Baroque
Composed: c. 1723, Italy
Published: 1725, Amsterdam as part of a set of 12 concertos, Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention)
Genre: Concerto (set of four)
Instrumentation: Solo violin, violins, violas, cellos, double basses, organ or harpsichord
Duration: c. 45 minutes
What to Listen for in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Timecodes refer to the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra's album Vivaldi: The Four Seasons with Elizabeth Wallfisch as soloist (ABC Classics).
Each concerto has three movements, Fast-Slow-Fast. Vivaldi published the concertos alongside sonnets, possibly written by himself, describing the events of the music in meticulous detail.
Birds in Spring
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The first movement celebrates the start of spring with singing birds, murmuring streams, and soft breezes, which are depicted between returns of the infectiously happy theme.
The theme’s first statement is interrupted by a chorus of birds [0:30]. Vivaldi imitates birdsong in five different ways. The solo violin plays trills and a solo first violin responds with a dipping three-note pattern ending in a trill. Then the solo violin changes to short, chirping “staccato” notes while the first violin plays a downward run. The chorus builds with the second violins playing a rising skipping pattern that becomes faster and more even before becoming a rapid trill. These are clearly not Australian birds.
Summer storms
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The first two movements of Summer depict an experience that will be familiar to all Australians: lying in the suffocating heat waiting for the wind to change. A fierce north wind does eventually arrive. The third movement depicts the ensuing storm with vigorous scrubbing and wild arpeggios.
Drunk peasants in Autumn
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Autumn opens with the songs and dances of peasants as they celebrate the harvest. “Fired up by Bacchus’ liquor” the solo violin breaks from the village dance and ranges virtuosically between its high and low registers [1:10]. The first violin is still in control of itself, if a bit boorish, but Vivaldi specifically marks the string accompaniment to be played “drunk” [1:32]. The solo violinist finally succumbs to Bacchus [2:33], though interpretations differ in their portrayal of inebriation. The peasants end their revelry in sleep [3:30].
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The slow movement of Autumn depicts “the season that invites so many, many / Out of their sweetest slumber to fine enjoyment,” but you tell me if these woozy chords don’t sound like a hangover.
Winter Chills
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Winter opens with relentless icy daggers that engulf the string orchestra. The solo violin breaks in with the “harsh breath of a horrid wind,” though the effect again depends upon the performance. The first violins try to keep warm with fast, running notes and wide leaps depicting stamping feet [1:05].
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But winter isn’t all icy winds, there is also the cosy feeling of sitting by the fire with the rain dripping outside. Vivaldi has the violins pluck the strings to imitate the sound of raindrops while the solo violin plays a pleasant, contented tune.
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The Four Seasons, Italian Le quattro stagioni, group of four violinconcerti by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, each of which gives a musical expression to a season of the year. They were written about 1720 and were published in 1725 (Amsterdam), together with eight additional violin concerti, as Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione (“The Contest Between Harmony and Invention”).
The Four Seasons is the best known of Vivaldi’s works. Unusually for the time, Vivaldi published the concerti with accompanying poems (possibly written by Vivaldi himself) that elucidated what it was about those seasons that his music was intended to evoke. It provides one of the earliest and most-detailed examples of what was later called program music—music with a narrative element.
Vivaldi took great pains to relate his music to the texts of the poems, translating the poetic lines themselves directly into the music on the page. In the middle section of the Springconcerto, where the goatherd sleeps, his barking dog can be marked in the viola section. Other natural occurrences are similarly evoked. Vivaldi separated each concerto into three movements, fast-slow-fast, and likewise each linked sonnet into three sections. His arrangement is as follows:
Spring (Concerto No. 1 in E Major)
Allegro
Spring has arrived with joy
Welcomed by the birds with happy songs,
And the brooks, amidst gentle breezes,
Murmur sweetly as they flow.
The sky is caped in black, and
Thunder and lightning herald a storm
When they fall silent, the birds
Take up again their delightful songs.
Largo e pianissimo sempre
And in the pleasant, blossom-filled meadow,
To the gentle murmur of leaves and plants,
The goatherd sleeps, his faithful dog beside him.
Allegro
To the merry sounds of a rustic bagpipe,
Nymphs and shepherds dance in their beloved spot
When Spring appears in splendour.
Summer (Concerto No. 2 in G Minor)
Allegro non molto
Under the merciless sun of the season
Languishes man and flock, the pine tree burns.
The cuckoo begins to sing and at once
Join in the turtledove and the goldfinch.
A gentle breeze blows, but Boreas
Is roused to combat suddenly with his neighbour,
And the shepherd weeps because overhead
Hangs the fearsome storm, and his destiny.
Adagio
His tired limbs are robbed of rest
By his fear of the lightning and the frightful thunder
And by the flies and hornets in furious swarms.
Presto
Alas, his fears come true:
There is thunder and lightning in the heavens
And the hail cuts down the tall ears of grain.
Autumn (Concerto No. 3 in F Major)
Allegro
The peasant celebrates with dancing and singing
The pleasure of the rich harvest,
And full of the liquor of Bacchus
They end their merrymaking with a sleep.
Adagio molto
All are made to leave off dancing and singing
By the air which, now mild, gives pleasure
And by the season, which invites many
To find their pleasure in a sweet sleep.
Allegro
The hunters set out at dawn, off to the hunt,
With horns and guns and dogs they venture out.
The beast flees and they are close on its trail.
Already terrified and wearied by the great noise
Of the guns and dogs, and wounded as well
It tries feebly to escape, but is bested and dies.
Winter (Concerto No. 4 in F Minor)Vivaldi Four Seasons Year
Allegro non molto
Frozen and shivering in the icy snow,
In the severe blasts of a terrible wind
To run stamping one’s feet each moment,
One’s teeth chattering through the cold.
Largo
To spend quiet and happy times by the fire
While outside the rain soaks everyone.
Allegro
To walk on the ice with tentative steps,
Going carefully for fear of falling.
To go in haste, slide, and fall down to the ground,
To go again on the ice and run,
In case the ice cracks and opens.
To hear leaving their iron-gated house Sirocco,
Boreas, and all the winds in battle—Vivaldi Four Seasons Year Composed
This is winter, but it brings joy.What Is Vivaldi Four Seasons