Antonio Vivaldi Research Paper

In this week’s listening exercises, I found there to be much excitement and mood all in one movement. I enjoyed listening to all the pieces, but my favorite two were Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Third Movement: Minuet, Allegretto) by Mozart and Symphony No. 94 in G Major, Second Movement: Andante (Surprise) by Haydn. Even though they were very different I found them both to be entertaining.

Overall I actually enjoyed the piece more than I thought I would. It had a nice tempo that allowed listeners to be engaged and even when the volume dropped the violins played a softer texture as if they were inviting you to listen closer and pay more attention. Generally, the theme was also joyful which I took notice of and enjoyed. Lastly, I didn’t notice any musical mistakes, and thought the piece was well played.

Antonio Vivaldi was born in 1678 in Venice; he was the eldest of nine children born to Giovanni Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio. His family was fairly poor; his father was a barber turned professional violinist. His father cofounded a musical fraternity called the Sovvegno Dei Musicisti di Santa Cecilia in 1685 with Giovanni Legrenzi, a famous Venetian music figure. Antonio traveled around performing with his father

This piece has a different theme than the other songs that I am reviewing today. Built to give thanks for the Russian victory over the French in 1812, the “1812 Overture” gives off a very strong and heroic feeling. The “1812 Overture” was introduced with a forte entrance with the help from the brassier, deeper instruments like the trumpets and trombones. The tempo of the song juggled back and forth between slow and fast paces to set the theme of the song. The “1812 Overture” started more at a homophonic texture followed by some imitative polyphony when the flutes were introduced. The flutes accented the song with their mesmerizing high pitch tones creating the audience to picture a scene where bells were ringing. The accompaniment of the flutes with the brassier instruments really intrigued the audience and left them wanting to hear

Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele was a very eye opening book to read. I never realized before reading this book how big of an impact stereotype threat can have on people. I obviously knew of stereotyping, and all the different types of stereotyping there are, but I didn't realize how much of an impact it could have on education. When I think of stereotypes, I usually think of stereotyping different races, but this book brought to my attention that stereotyping can be towards gender, minorities in different situations, and many many more. After reading this book, I feel like it made me more conscious of what I say to people and the way I think of them. Also, it made me really open my eyes and made me aware for when I become a teacher and the way I portray others, and how it can effect them academically.

“Using motivation to overcome barriers… theme of black life in America, as it is for other groups contending with negative stereotypes” (p. 108), the aforementioned quote is an impeccable main overview of the novel Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele. Steele is a renowned social psychologist that, in this novel, centralizes on stereotype threats and its effects in society. Steele defines stereotype threat as a standard predicament of life that are intersubjective upon social groups based on identity (p.5). In Whistling Vivaldi, by Claude M. Steele, the topic of discussion included stereotype threats against certain identity groups and its potential effects among these groups.

A few pieces gave me emotional responses .The theme from “Jaws” made me tense up a little, the music reminded me of the movie and made very conscious of my surroundings. I didn’t want anything to happen to me. As I mentioned earlier I enjoy Star Wars and Harry Potter, so when they played the music I was a little excited about these music pieces being played. The highlight musical piece would have to be the Suite from “Star Wars”. All of the pieces were great but,

The pieces were quite odd for me at the first time, first hearing, but I got used to it at the end of the each piece. “The Gospel Train” and “Little David, Play On Your Harp” were African-American Spiritual songs, which I kind of enjoyed, because I was also, very spiritually active. The last song, “Precious Lord Take My Hand” was very calming songs. I liked the lyrics of the song. The lyrics were very touchy that it made me ponder after the applause.

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.

Vivaldi grew up in a Catholic family. His father was a talented violinist and would be his first teacher. This allowed them to perform together. He also took lessons from a choral teacher who knew violin. Vivaldi loves speed. At age 15, he began studying for the priesthood, which gave him 10 years to study and develop the musical and composing talents that is displayed in his works. Vivaldi spent his entire life, other than the last six or so years, with his father. As a child, they toured Venice together. Then, later on as a man, he toured Italy and later Europe. Vivaldi and his father were a pair and it seems that they held a good relationship. His father helped to write out some of the pieces that Vivaldi would think of. He preferred a combination of the choral religious music, dramatic-operatic, and classics of Italy. His most influential works were written for the orchestra of a Venetian girls’ orphanage where he was music director. It was for them that he wrote his famous concertos. Vivaldi also invented the concerto-grosso.

Antonio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678 in the town of Venice, Italy. His father was quite the musician and helped his son master the violin and also helped him get find lessons from some the best composers in Italy. Sadly, do to his symptoms that were similar to asthma often causing him to have severe shortness of breath he was unable to master several instruments. At one point in his early life he even became a priest but this was short lived do to his continuing health issues therefore he had to give up his priesthood. “At the age of 25, Antonio Vivaldi was named master of violin at the Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice” (). This is where he spent in upwards of thirty years teaching his students and only having

Antonio Vivaldi is a famous Italian baroque composer, known by most Suzuki violin students who study his concertos or by audiences everywhere who have heard and love his composition of the Four Seasons.  Having grown up as students of the Suzuki Violin Method, we recognize this composer and have experience performing his pieces.  In addition to his many concertos written for solo violin, Vivaldi composed many concertos intended to be performed by two solo violins, accompanied by a small orchestra.  Because we are both violinists, we chose to analyze the second movement of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins in A minor, RV 522, included in his L’Estro Armonico works.

Ludwig van Beethoven was born around December 16th in 1770 in the city of Bonn. His father, Johann van Beethoven was a singer and terrible alcoholic. He was locked in a cellar, flogged, and made to practice for hours upon hours. He was also beaten for any mistakes made while playing piano. Beethoven’s father hoped he would be a musical child prodigy just like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When Beethoven turned the age of ten, he dropped out of school to pursue studying music full time. When his father’s health began to decay due to his alcoholism, Beethoven began to work in order to support his family. He worked as an Assistant Court Organist. Ludwig van Beethoven was sent to Vienna to study music further, but returned home when his mother became ill. Beethoven’s earliest piece was titled “Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II” and was written after the death of Emperor Joseph II. In 1792 Beethoven

Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770. His father, a music enthusiast, dreamed of molding his son into the next Mozart. Beethoven never showed the impressive characteristics of Mozart, but he was unusually talented, learning the piano, organ and violin at a very early age. At 14, he was already skilled enough on the organ to receive a professional appointment (Beethoven). He held positions as an assistant organist in the electoral chapel where he obtained his first

1 in G Major, BWV 1007. I really loved this piece because the first part, the prelude, is super familiar and it helped to know the music beforehand so I could just follow along with the melody. The other two movements, Sarabande and Gigue, were new to me but just as exciting and pleasant as the prelude. Technique-wise, this entire piece is lovely and Dr. Snyder executed it very well. The notes were very clean and precise, and his use of vibrato and rubato were excellent. Because he was a soloist, it did not matter whether he kept tempo since he did not need to maintain a rhythm with anyone else, unless the music instructs the musician to keep a steady tempo. It is the same with dance, if one is a soloist, that person does not have to worry about matching the movements of another dancer. I also enjoyed that the Sarabande was so peaceful. It was quite flowy, smooth, and overall gentle. I especially loved the intro to this movement, with a grand entrance that figuratively just filled me with anticipation for the rest of the song. It was also just the right amount of time; it was not too long or too short. I also really liked the Gigue. One reason is because it’s different than the prelude and the Sarabande, so it gives variation to this collection. This last movement was very lively and cheerful, a difference compared to the previous two movements. When I listened, I could imagine a village scene with little kids dancing around a maypole, and it just made me