Of Antonio Vivaldi. I believe that Vivaldi’s The Four Seasonsrepre-sents the musical collage that is life. As one of the world’s most influential and well-known classical composers, Vivaldi’s importance lies, above all, in his concertos for their boldness and originality, and for their central place in the history of music.

Biography

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 to 1741) was born and lived in Italy, and was a BAROQUE style composer and violinist. Vivaldi had very bright red hair and was nicknamed 'the Red Priest.'

His dad, Giovanni, was a barber before becoming a professional violinist. He taught his son probably at a very young age to play violin. As an adult, Vivaldi became a Catholic priest. However, his asthma kept him from saying the mass. He then went to teach in an orphanage for girls, and composed lots of music for them; for example Vivaldi wrote over 400 concertos for his students.

While Vivaldi's music was quite popular in his lifetime, towards his final years his music fell out of popularity, and he died as a pauper.

Listen to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons!

The most well-known piece of music he wrote was a set of violin concertos titled 'The Four Seasons.' The concertos are accompanied by sonnetes (poems) that depict the seasons. Some people think that Vivaldi wrote the sonnets himself.

For each season, there are three parts. The parts are titled with Italian words such as Allegro (joyfully) or Largo (slowly). These Italian words indicate the TEMPO of the piece—how fast or slow it should be played.

Read the poem that goes with each part of The Four Seasons, and then listen to the part. Does the music resemble or portray the things in the sonnets? Does the music match the seasons?

• After that, Vivaldi spent all his time writing music and teaching. He taught at an orphanage for girls, and wrote a lot of music for the girls to play. People came from miles around to hear Vivaldi's talented students perform the beautiful music he had written. Many people think Vivaldi was the best Italian composer of his time.
• Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678, in Venice, Italy. When he was born he looked so frail that the midwife baptized him immediately. He grew to love the violin and played along with his father at St. Mark’s Basilica. The young Vivaldi studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1703.

You can also draw on paper what the music makes you 'see' in your mind. Compare your thoughts and feelings with those around you.

In the audio files below for the Four Seasons, John Harrison plays the lead violin. I don't have information about the other musicians. Licensed by CC BY-SA 3.0.

Spring

1. Allegro (fast, joyfully)

Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven,
Then they die away to silence, and the birds take up their charming songs once more.

Children: Can you hear the joy of spring and the birds? Can you then hear the thunderstorm? And can you lastly hear the birds again?

2. Largo (slowly)

On the flower-strewn meadow, with leafy branches rustling overhead, the goat-herder sleeps, his faithful dog beside him.

Children: Does the music sound restful, like someone is sleeping?

3. Allegro (fast, joyfully)

Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes, nymphs and shepherds lightly dance beneath the brilliant canopy of spring.

Children: In this music, we first hear bagpipes. Later on, there are musical passages as if someone is dancing.

Summer

1. Allegro non molto (not very quickly)

Under a hard Season, fired up by the Sun
Languishes man, languishes the flock and burns the pine
We hear the cuckoo's voice; then sweet songs of the turtledove and finch are heard.
Soft breezes stir the air... but threatening north wind sweeps them suddenly aside.
The shepherd trembles, fearing violent storms and his fate.

Children: This piece starts out slow, as if animals and people are 'languishing' in the unpleasant, hot sun. In the middle the music is a bit faster: there is the soft breeze. The loudest part is like the threatening north wind. Later on, the violin plays alone, singing like birds. Then suddenly the music sounds fearful: the shepherd trembles. Can you hear all that?

2. Adagio e piano - Presto e forte (slow at ease and soft - very fast and loud)

The fear of lightning and fierce thunder
robs his tired limbs of rest,
as gnats and flies buzz furiously around.

Children: Does the music sound like someone is resting, but occasionally feels fearful?

3. Presto (very fast)

Alas, his fears were justified
The Heavens thunders and roar and majestically
Cuts the head off the wheat and damages the grain.

Children: Does the music sound like thunder and lightning?

Autumn

1. Allegro (fast and joyfully)

Celebrates the peasant, with songs and dances,
The pleasure of a bountiful harvest.
And fired up by Bacchus' liquor, many end their revelry in sleep.

Children: This music starts out joyful and very happy, because the farmers are celebrating the harvest with songs and dances. Can you hear the parts where a few of them get tired and fall asleep (music slows down)?

2. Adagio molto (very slow)

Each one renounces dance and song,
the mild air is pleasant,
and the season invites ever-increasingly
to savour a sweet slumber.

Children: Can you hear how this music sounds like 'sweet slumber' (deep sleep)?

3. Allegro (fast and joyful)

The hunters emerge at the new dawn,
And with horns and dogs and guns depart upon their hunting
The beast flees and they follow its trail;
Terrified and tired of the great noise
Of guns and dogs, the beast, wounded, threatens
Languidly to flee, but harried, dies.

Children: The music starts out march-like, when the hunters and dogs and horns are going boldly to hunt. When you hear the violin playing solo (alone), it portrays the beast that is fleeing and being hunted.

Winter

1. Allegro non molto (not very quickly)

To tremble from cold in the icy snow,
In the harsh breath of a horrid wind;
To run, stamping one's feet every moment,
Our teeth chattering in the extreme cold.

Children: In the beginning, the music sounds like trembling because of the cold. The parts where the violin plays solo, it's like someone running and stamping their feet to keep warm. Does any part of the music sound like chattering teeth?

2. Largo (very slowly)

We move to the fire and contented peace,
while the rain outside pours in sheets.

Children: When you listen, can you imagine staying warm and peaceful in front of the fireplace?

3. Allegro (fast & joyful)

We tread the icy path slowly and cautiously, for fear of tripping and falling.
Then turn abruptly, slip, crash on the ground and, rising, hasten on across the ice lest it cracks up.
We feel the chill north winds course through the home despite the locked and bolted doors...
this is winter, which nonetheless brings its own delights.

Children: The music starts out carefully, cautiously, and not very fast, like treading on ice. Can you hear it getting faster—someone hastening and hurrying? Near the end we hear the north wind and its chill...

Vivaldi Four Seasons Children's Book

Here's also one video, an excerpt from Antonio Vivaldi's famous Concerto for 2 Cellos, Strings & Continuo in G minor. It is performed by New Trinity Baroque orchestra (on instruments similar to those used in Vivaldi's time), and directed from the harpsichord by Predrag Gosta.

I hope you liked the song/lesson!

I'd also like to introduce you to my favorite: 24K Gold Music - dynamic musical showband performing many genres and styles of music!

Vivaldi China

(1678–1741). The most influential and innovative Italian composer of his time, Antonio Vivaldi was an accomplished violinist who wrote music for operas, solo instruments, and small ensembles. His finest work was thought to be his concerti in which virtuoso solo passages alternate with passages for the whole orchestra. He orchestrated in new ways and prepared the way for the late baroque concerto.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678, in Venice, Italy. When he was born he looked so frail that the midwife baptized him immediately. He grew to love the violin and played along with his father at St. Mark’s Basilica. The young Vivaldi studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1703. The same year, he was given a teaching position at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, where he gave music lessons to those among the resident orphan girls who showed musical aptitude. Their Sunday concerts, for which Vivaldi composed many orchestral and choral works, gained renown, until no visit to Venice was considered complete without hearing a performance.

Vivaldi taught there until 1709, when for financial reasons the school voted not to renew his post. Two years later he was reappointed, however, and he remained as a teacher until 1716, when he was appointed to the higher position of maestro. In his later years Vivaldi traveled widely, living for extended periods in Vienna and Mantua, where he was the director of secular music for the city’s governor, Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt. He probably also performed and composed in Prague, Dresden, and Amsterdam. His popularity declined at the end of his life, and he died in Vienna on July 28, 1741.

Early in his life Vivaldi’s operas were performed throughout Italy and in Vienna. More than 750 works are known to exist, and researchers have long struggled with the task of identifying and cataloguing them. Vivaldi’s original musical style had wide influence on later composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach, who transcribed some of Vivaldi’s concerti for keyboard. His operas are seldom heard now, but his orchestral and chamber music are performed frequently, as is his popular sacred Gloria.