Analysis Of The Four Seasons

This composition consists of three movements of which we will further examine movement II, Adagio Cantabile. This movement is placed in high contrast with the other two, particularly in tempo.

The melody in the first movement opens with the violins and they are then accompany by the violas and the cello. As you keep listening you notice that French horn, clarinets, flutes, and oboes contribute to the harmony. The first movement is also in the key signature of G minor. As you move through the first movement you enter into the second section which is in a different key. The key signature of the second movement is in B flat major. The instruments that have the melody this time are the violins along with the clarinets and bassoons.

This concerto is made up of three movements, with the second movement entitled Larghetto e spiritoso in between two Allegro movements.  Originally intended for two solo violins, violin I, violin II, viola, cello, and bass, this piece has been transposed in various forms and is now commonly performed with two solo violins and piano.  While the other two movements are lively and exciting, the second movement provides a great contrast.  It is in a different key and has a completely different feeling, one of heaviness and melancholy, though its chord progressions and harmonies make it appealing to audiences.  This composition in its entirety gained Vivaldi his greatest popularity as it spread throughout Europe and became a standard for 18th century composers.

Jersey Boys on Broadway played Friday August 22nd at 8 Pm, and performed at the August Wilson Theater in New York. The main characters consisted of Dominic Scaglione Jr. as Frankie Valli, Richard H. Blake as Tommy DeVito, Quinn VanAntwerp as Bob Gaudio and Michael Lomenda as Nick Massi. Jersey Boys is a musical memoir of the 1960’s rock and roll group, The Four Seasons. Through the progression of the play, the audience is taken on a journey as each member of the group narrates a particular development emphasizing how the Four Seasons came to be. In the first Act, Tommy DeVito walks out on stage and begins to tell the audience about the development of the band. At first, the group started out as starting out as "The Variety Trio" along with his brother, Nick DeVito and friend Nick Massi. At that time, Tommy discovered a confused teenager, Frankie Castelluccio, and took him under his wing, teaching him everything he knows about music. With Nick DeVito in prison, the band struggled to gain any form of success, they changed their names multiple times until Bob Gaudio, singer and songwriter came along uniting the lost group (Playbill: Jersey Boys).

From 1600 to 1750, Western Europe music was known as the Baroque period. The most known composers of this era were Bach, Vivaldi and Handle. Their music and styles inspired the people of their time and continue to do so 400 years later in the modern world. The Baroque era was considered a time of flamboyant lifestyles; a style that “filled the space.” When the church began to distance themselves from the political control of Europe, composers began to come up with more radical styles to be used in their pieces that had not been seen before. For this reason, Baroque music became known for its highly energetic and dramatic styles. Of course, behind this great music came amazingly talented composers who made it all happen. Perhaps one of the

The first movement, “Spring,” in E Major represents the birdsong of the season. The solo violin is supported by two other violin soloists, Jorge Ochoa and Martin Irving. Unfortunately, the cohesiveness between the three violins was slightly off in tempo. However, they quickly recovered representing a high level of musicianship. Next, “Summer,” demonstrates the intense heat and storms by the G Minor key. Takayama imitates the goldfinch, turtledove, and cuckoo on her violin while the orchestra imitates buzzing insects. Later, in F Major, “Autumn,” consists of the theme of a drunken solist which provides extreme freedom in the music. Lastly, the terrifying season of “Winter” voices the frozen water and bitter cold of the outside air. The instruments begin by conversing in F Minor prior to the virtuosic entrance of solist, Akemi Takayama. The second movement switches to E-flat Major, demonstrating the coziness of the indoors during the colder

The first work that I will be analyzing is Vivaldi’s Spring from the Four Seasons of the Baroque period. To begin, I will give a brief background of the composer. Vivaldi was born in 1678 in Venice, Italy. His father was a professional violinist, and taught him to play as a child. Though he was a talented musician, Vivaldi got ordained as a priest, though health complications prevented him from executing most duties, like performing masses. Soon after he terminated his priestly duties, he was employed as master violinist at an institution for orphans where he taught girls to play music. He later moved to Vienna, Austria in hopes of obtaining a job as a composer for the imperial court, but after Charles VI died, he lost his income and royal protection, and soon after died impoverished in 1741. In his lifetime, Vivaldi created hundreds of works and was a highly influential composer of the Baroque period. His influence was widespread throughout Europe.

In the article “The Seasons Aren’t What They Used to Be,” David George Haskell berates that fact that climate change is evident in most forms of life around us, however, humans have refused to acknowledge the obvious signs and take necessary action. Haskell is a professor of biology on the faculty of Sewanee University in Sewanee, Tennessee. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oxford, and a Ph.D. from Cornell University and writes about biodiversity, evolution, and conservation. Haskell education background and experience give him the credibility to speak on the effect of climate change. Haskell’s purpose is to point out the signs of the changes in season triggered by climate change and its effect on plant, animal and human

In the United states we have 4 seasons throughout the year. We have spring, summer, fall, and winter. We are quite lucky to experience that. Some countries only have 2 which are summer and winter which is like our summer and fall.

They performed Concerto, Op. 6, No. 8 in G Minor, also known as “The Christmas Concerto.” I really enjoyed this piece very much. It was also enjoyable for me to watch this piece, because my rowing teammate, Siena Vietti, was a principal player for the violins and they all wore Santa hats which was cute. The performance media for this piece was violins, violas, cellos, and bass, and it looked like a keyboard. I believe this to be a harpsichord, but was not entirely sure. Once listening to this piece a couple times, and doing some research on it, I learned it was interpreted from the Baroque period. However, I feel that this piece is not as bizarre or strange sounding as other Baroque music we have listened to in class. I noticed 4 distinct movements when I first heard it at the concert, but after listening a couple more times and doing some more research on it, I learned there about 6 movements within the song. It begins very slowly, then grows to a faster speed, and then becomes more moderate, then very lively, a bit faster, and then slow again at the end. My favorite movements were the 4th and 5th. These movements were very lively and fast, and really enjoyable and interesting to listen to. I really enjoyed listening to the violins throughout this part. Overall, this piece was very interesting to listen to and the MU Orchestra did a fantastic job at

Music during the Baroque era was regarded as a powerful form of communication that could invoke any emotion in the audience members. This philosophical belief was derived from a revival of the ideas of the Greco-Roman culture. As a result of these ideas, composers believed that they could also affect their listeners through the power of melody, harmony, rhythm, and stylistic details. The emphasis on communication was reflected in the major styles and components that were used throughout Baroque compositions. Baroque music is characterized by the composers’ attention to detail, such as contrast in dynamics, ornamentation, and the emphasis on bass line. These characteristics of the Baroque era of music are reflected in Antonio Vivaldi’s compositions. Known as one of the most popular pieces in Baroque repertoire, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons reveals how composers of the Baroque period used different techniques, such as ritornello and contrast, to invoke emotion through the powerful communication of music. The Four Seasons perfectly represents the Baroque period because of Vivaldi 's style, techniques, and theme.

In the 1700s, Antonio Vivaldi composed his highly accredited Four Seasons concerto. The autumn movement in this concerto follows the allegro-adagio-allegro pattern. Vivaldi provided sonnets to go along with each movement to explain what the true meanings are. As a group, we felt it was necessary to provide all of our reactions to the piece. This allowed us to interpret what each of the others were visualizing throughout the composition. Some of our opinions may have varied, but overall the general mood of the piece allowed us each to have the same emotions toward the Autumn movement of the Four Seasons.

This work was composed during the Classical period, 1750- 1820. One aspect of the classical music style beign applied to this work includes the reoccurance of two or more contrasting themes. Another is the use of short and clearly defined musical phrases. Lastly, this piece, on a purely musical level, was simply more to hum along to. This type of melody took over the complex polyphony of the Baroque period.

The Baroque Period (1600-1750) was mainly a period of newly discovered ideas. From major new innovations in science, to vivid changes in geography, people were exploring more of the world around them. The music of the baroque period was just as extreme as the new changes. Newly recognized composers such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Monteverdi were writing entirely new musical ideas and giving a chance for new voices to be heard that were normally not thought of sounds. Their musical legacy is still recognized today, and is a treasured discovery of outstanding compositions being reiterated with every performance of them.

The baroque period of music commenced in the year 1600 and ended around 1750 (Fuller – “Baroque”). Its texture was mainly polyphonic (Fuller – “Classical”). Polyphonic means that two or more different melodies are played simultaneously (McComb). This provides an energetic rhythm, long melodies, and many ornaments. The most famous composers of this time period were Vivaldi, Corelli, Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, J.S. Bach, and Couperin. Many new styles of music were introduced, such as operas, sonatas, oratorios, suites, fugues, and concertos. Orchestras began to develop, but it was not until the classical period when orchestral music was perfected (Fuller – “Baroque”).