Antonio Vivaldi

1
Antonio Vivaldi

• By Ben Daniell

2
Early, Early Childhood

• Was born in Venice Italy on March 4, 1678 (And
  the World Rejoiced)
• His father was Giovanni Battista and his mother
  was unknown
• He had 4 bros and 4 siss but he and his father
  were the only musicians

3
Father and Son

• His father was a barber who took up the violin,
  and was apparently good enough to dazzle the
  basilica (sanctuary) of St. Mark (San Marco)
  since he got a job there performing in 1685, and
  later performed in operas
• Taught Antonio to play the violin and they
  performed together on many occasions
• The Vivaldi's playing together became one of the
  biggest tourist attractions in Venice, Italy.

4
Vivaldis Style of Playing

• Vivaldi became a master violinist and had a very
  unique style of playing
• Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach sums up his style
  of playing as following "Vivaldi played a solo
  accompaniment-- splendid in which he brought his
  fingers up to only a straw's distance from the
  bridge, leaving no room for the bow-- and that on
  all four strings with imitations and incredible
  speed."
• He put his fingers but a hair's breath from the
  bridge, so that there was scarcely room for the
  bow, and he did this on all four strings

5
Vivaldi the Priest

• Vivaldi was ordained as a priest in 1703
• This did not last very long because he no longer
  wished to celebrate mass anymore because of
  tightness in the chest other wise known as
  asthma.

6
Vivaldi and Ospedale

• At the age of 25 Vivaldi accepted a job as a
  music teacher at an all girls orphanage called
  the Ospedale delle Pieta (the Hospital of Pity or
  Compassion.)
• Not all of the girls were orphans ,however, many
  of them were poor or illegitimate, and some were
  just unruly types for which the Ospedale was
  their "reform school.
• Vivaldi produced many talented young girls who
  made names for themselves after they left the
  school.
• The girls popularity gave Vivaldi a great deal of
  popularity, in fact many rich and wealthy
  families began to send there daughters to Ospedale

7
Vivaldis Style of Composing

• He was the first composer to use ritornello
• A ritornello is the use of a solo group in the
  concerto grosso
• The ritornello was usually used in the fast
  movements

8
Vivaldis Style of Composing

• He was also one of the first composers to use the
  three movement plan (slow, fast, slow)
• His methods of securing greater thematic unity
  were widely copied as well as his vigorous
  rhythmic patterns

9
Vivaldis Works

• He wrote over 550 concertos, as well as 40
  cantatas, 22 operas, and more than 60 sacred
  works, and there were many more that have not
  survived (or been discovered.)
• Vivaldis most famous piece was, The Four
  Seasons
• The Four Seasons was made up of Four different
  concertos Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter
• The Four Seasons is was programmatic or in other
  words was intended to tell a story.

10
Spring
11
Summer
12
Autumn
13
Winter
14
Death

• Vivaldi died in 1741 and by that time he had
  already lost his fame and fortune
• Just like Mozart he was buried in an anonymous
  pauper's grave
• The young composer Joseph Haydn was a choir boy
  at the funeral
• Along with Vivaldis name being forgotten his
  music was also forgotten for almost 200 years

15
Vivaldis Revival

• The search for Vivaldi's original concertos,
  however, was the road to one of music history's
  greatest comebacks
• The first major discovery was in a music cabinet
  in Dresden. Vivaldi had composed a large quantity
  of music specifically for the Dresden orchestra,
  and once it had fallen out of fashion (in the
  1760's) it had been placed in storage where it
  collected dust

16
Vivaldis Revival

• In 1926 a monastery in Piedmont was looking to
  sell part of its archives for some needed cash so
  they called on an Italian musicologist, Alberto
  Gentili, to go through the enormous stash and
  sort it out
• He was able to find 14 volumes of Vivaldi's
  music, mostly unknown, including over a hundred
  concertos, twelve operas, 29 cantatas, and a
  complete oratorio
• This music had sat idle for nearly 200 years, and
  is perhaps one of the greatest discoveries in
  musical history

17
Contributions

• Greatly advanced violin technique.
• Fathered the present form of the solo concerto.
• Established the three-movement concerto form.
• Developed the cadenza greatly (may have fathered
  the written cadenza).
• Helped develop solo sonata.
• Introduced new bowings and techniques for
  stringed instruments.
• Pushed programmatic music a step further ("The
  four seasons").
• Opened the door for modern instruments by writing
  many advanced and previously virtuosically
  unmatched concertos and sonatas for instruments
  new at the time but now standard.
• Spread a more advanced style for the concerto
  (grosso) across Europe.
• Created a new dimension of originality in spirit
  of the composer that would be a standard of
  freedom that composers allowed themselves only
  match in a later era.