Antonio Vivaldi was a 17th and 18th-century composers that became a renowned and popular figure in the European classical music. Antonio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678, in Venice, Italy. He became ordained as a priest but instead choose to pursue the passion he had for music. He became successful and was a prolific composer that created hundreds of works. He became popular for concertos that were in Baroque style. He thus had an immense influence in the development of the Baroque music. He ignited the transformation of music for the concert hall, the church, and the opera house. However, one of the most important achievements for Antonio Vivaldi was in stringed music. Antonio Vivaldi’s early life was based on music composition and this saw the success in his career of music.
Early Life and Career
Antonio Vivaldi’s music career started at a young age. The main influence of music in his life was through his father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, a professional violinist. Giovanni was a well-respected violinist that was employed at the church of St. Mark’s. He taught his young son how to play well. Through the skills and influence from his father, Vivaldi was able to meet and learn from some of the leading composers and musicians in Venice. Even though he excelled in his violin practice, he had difficulties with his health in shortness of breath. This barred him from mastering other wind instruments.
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Antonio was also trained as a clergy during his early life. He went through the various introductory stages to become a clergy at the age of 15 and was ordained as a priest in March 1703. Vivaldi had red hair that made him conspicuous and he thus earned the name “the Red Priest.” (Fish, 2015). His career in the clergy was short-lived since he experienced health problems that prevented him from delivering a mass. He was ordained into priesthood but abandoned his religious career. Vivaldi was appointed in 1703 as a violin teacher in Venice. Several years later, he became the conductor of the orchestra. Vivaldi was able to direct orchestra that achieved international recognition and resulted in several brilliant concerts.
Vivaldi stayed and worked in Venice until 1740. Throughout his stay, he had taken several trips for professional purposes. He traveled to other foreign and Italian cities. He went to Vienna, Italy between the years 1729 and 1730 and proceeded to Amsterdam, the Netherlands between the years 1737 and 1738. Throughout Italy, he was able to travel to different cities where he directed various performances of his operas While most of his operas were written in Venice, some of them were performed throughout Italy in Mantua, Rome, Ancona, Florence, Vicenza, and Verona.
Music Career
Vivaldi had a successful music career. He was productive in both instrumental and vocal music and in different genres such as secular and sacred music. Analysis of his music career shows that he was able to compose more than seven hundred pieces that ranged from sonatas, operas, to concertos. Sonatas are composed with three or four movements, operas are musical dramas consisting of vocal and instruments, while concertos are musical compositions meant for one or two vocal performers that were set against a full orchestra (Burkholder & Grout, 2014). He was able to succeed in all these different compositions making him famous in his day.
Little of Vivaldi’s vocal music is known today. However, he was quite famous and a successful composer in his day. He was also one of the greatest eighteenth-century violin virtuosos that were considered for his superb musical ability. His ability in music was highly reflected in his sophistication with violin technique. His instrumental work thus highly favored the violin. He wrote most of his sonatas for one or two violins through violin bass. Out of all of Vivaldi’s concertos, 221 were for solo violin and orchestra. He also wrote concertos for other instruments such as the flute, the trumpet, the mandolin, and the clarinet.
Pieces Composed
The Four Seasons
The four seasons was the first concertos of a composition of twelve concertos that were written by Vivaldi called The Contest Between Harmony and Inventory. The works were written between 1720 and 1723 and were first published in the year 1725. The four violin concertos broke new grounds since they had a detailed depiction of poetic ideas and technical ingenuity. They particularly involved high-lying passages and rapid string crossing for the left hand. The composition is often considered as an example of program music since they were published with companion poems that shared the natural aspects of the seasons he wanted to evoke through his music ("The Four Seasons | work by Vivaldi", 2019). The collection of the violin concertos has been one of the most adopted in the world. It is used in several television shows and movies from different genres.
La Tempesta Di Mare ( The storm at sea)
La Tempesta Di Mare was the fifth concerto from the same series as the four seasons. Even though it was not quite famous, it had a significant punch and the piece was filled with fresh and colorful passages. Vivaldi also gave the subtitle La Tempesta di Mare to three of his other concertos that were composed to be played for the flute. A catalog of Vivaldi’s work was created in the early 20th century and it had the acronym RV (Ryom Verzeichnis) along with a numbering system. La Tempesta Di Mare was labeled as RV 253.
Gloria
Gloria (RV 589) was a piece that was composed in one of his first performances. The piece was composed in 1715 and was meant for the Ospedale della Pieta, an orphanage for girls. Vivaldi had previously composed several sacred words for Ospedale where he had spent a large part of his career and made several instrumental concertos that were played by the girl’s orchestra. Gloria became one of the most famous choral pieces by Vivaldi and was adopted by the Latin mass.
Gloria has a wonderful and sunny nature and has distinctive rhythms and melodies. It features a joyous chorus with a trumpet. However, the piece remained hidden under Vivaldi’s manuscript until it was discovered in the 1920s ("Vivaldi's Top 5 Greatest Hits for Violin", 2019). The choral composition was reintroduced to the public in the Casella’s Vivaldi Week. It became quite famous and is commonly played in Christmas celebrations across the world.
The Mandolin Concerto
The Mandolin Concerto (RV 425) was written by Antonio Vivaldi in 1725. It is often accompanied by The Four Seasons that was composed in the same year. The music is made of a virtuosic treatment of the solo mandolin instrument and an interplay between the soloist and the orchestra. The composition is made of three movements that include allegro and largo. The first movement is a rapid and cheerful tune that lasts for more than three minutes. Vivaldi creates contrasts of sharps and lows with the mandolin and the orchestra. The end result is that it attracts a significant amount of crescendos in the music. The second part of the movement of the music is a three-minute-long of enthusiastic tune in a slower and thoughtful composition.
Other Pieces
Another famous piece by Vivaldi was titled Anna Maria Concertos which were written to be performed for his favorite student Anna Maria. She was considered a virtuoso violinist in her life and Vivaldi composed concertos that were to be specifically performed by her. L’Olimpiade is also one of Vivaldi’s most celebrated operas that involved a variety of misunderstandings of identity. It was based on the Olympiad games. The Introduzione is also a motet that was written for solo voice with the intention that it would be sung for a certain choral setting.
Later Life and Death
Vivaldi’s composition and music did not translate to financial success in Vivaldi’s life. He was eclipsed by younger composers that featured modern styles. Vivaldi left Venice for Vienna, Austria and hoped to find a job position at the imperial court in the place. He died in poverty in Vienna on July 28, 1741. He became buried in a simple grave throughout a funeral service that went on without any music. It was only until the 20th century where musicians and scholars revived Vivaldi’s music ("Antonio Vivaldi | Italian composer", 2019). Most of the unknown works from the composer were discovered during that time. The works of Vivaldi were arranged in the year 1939 in the Vivaldi Week revival. The music of Vivaldi has been performed widely after the occurrence of World War II.
In conclusion, Antonio Vivaldi was successful in his music career. His life and his early entry to music made him successful in music. He made a variety of compositions such as the Four Seasons and Gloria which are widely popular in the modern world. However, Antonio Vivaldi’s compositions did not gain wide recognition throughout his life. Most of his works were discovered several years later after his death. However, the sophistication and creativity in his music have seen his works gain popularity and stand the test of time.
References
Antonio Vivaldi | Italian composer. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antonio-Vivaldi
Burkholder, J. P., & Grout, D. J. (2014). A History of Western Music: Ninth International Student Edition . WW Norton & Company.
Fish, M. D. (2015). Discovering the Rediscovery of Antonio Vivaldi. Choral Journal , 55 (10), 18-31.
The Four Seasons | work by Vivaldi. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Four-Seasons-by-Vivaldi#ref1180203
Vivaldi's Top 5 Greatest Hits for Violin. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.connollymusic.com/stringovation/vivaldi-greatest-hits-for-violin
