Vivaldi Solo Concerto Essay

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.

I selected Antonio Vivaldi as from the list of composers due to his vast influence in the development of music, including current popular styles such as the double violin concertos and ritornellos, and his influence on future composers such as Bach. Vivaldi’s significance to the music world is further emphasized by the introduction and popularization of concepts such as his usage of rhythm to create escalating tension and the application of motivic elements as themes for his pieces. Vivaldi’s life was set out to pursue priesthood from a young age yet, ironically, an illness allowed him to follow his true passion as both a violinist and composer. Antonio Vivaldi remained pious throughout his life and it was his particular education as a priest

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1757 - 1791, was a prolific writer of concertos, composing 27 piano concertos. Throughout his writing he developed the use of the cadenza, highlighting the performer’s talent with a virtuosic passage. Not all Mozart’s cadenzas have survived therefore future composers have attempted to recreate these passages, often reflecting the period in which they were written.

“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.

Also he had composed keyboard pieces, oratorios, symphonies, and operas. He performed his first major opera when he was fourteen it was staged in Milan in 1770 the style of the opera was opera seria, Mitriade.

Since the Baroque era, the concerto has played a vital role in the music world. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, a concerto is “a composition for one or more soloists and orchestra with three contrasting movements.” There are two main types: the concerto grosso and the classical concerto; both will be discussed later. While the term concerto is relatively easy to understand in context, when put into use the term becomes more complicated to define.

Vivaldi's musical contribution to the development of music during his timeline were his operas that he wrote. He wrote the operas for Venice but they were performed through Italy. Vivaldi's concertos were very dramatic the way he performed

The string family and a piano only played Vivaldi: The Four Season - Winter. Instruments noted from the string family are: violins, violas, cellos and double basses. There was a female concertmaster and she played in both sharp and soft ways. She also played in group movement and solo movements. During group movements the violins were being plucked. When that was happening it gave an effect that a harp was being played.

In order to convey the message of a piece of music, the tonality or the mode of the song must be set. Specifically, in the Baroque era, the music was full of movement and excitement. For example, Antonio Vivaldi in his piece, The Four Seasons "Winter,” 1st movement, shows the listener the winter scene and sets the mode of excitement. Typical of the Baroque era, Vivaldi composed this piece in ritornello form, with the mixture of a string orchestra and one violin soloist (polyphonic texture). The temper of the violin is sharp which helps in conveying the trembling feeling of snow and the coldness of the winter. Also, the chattering sound made by bouncing the bow very rapidly on the string of the violin with a very high pitch suggests the feeling

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.

During the Baroque period, there were two concepts of music: concerto and concerto grosso. A concerto was a piece written with a soloist and an orchestra, and a concerto grosso is a piece written for multiple soloist (Bonds). A concerto grosso was meant to pit a small group of soloists and the small orchestra against each other through sound. The soloists each have contrasting sounds that work together to have a different sound from the entire orchestra; for example, in Brandenburg Concerto no. 2, Bach uses to loudness of the trumpet and the highness of the oboe to contrast with the stringed instruments in the orchestra. The form of a concerto grosso is the ritornello principle (Bonds). This is the changing of sections of music between the

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.

German composer and pianist, Ludwig van Beethoven, was born December 1770 and spent most of his life in Vienna, Austria. His first teacher was his alcoholic father, who worked as a musician at the Court of Bonn. Teaching him day and night, Ludwig suffered from his father's harsh and erratic behavior. For a time, he and his father played at the Church. As his father's alcoholism increased, Ludwig became the main musician.

Thesis: Wolfgang Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor has been admired and analyzed numerous times. Although it has been criticized by many, I believe deeply interpreting this piece will aid in a better understanding of the music during the Classical

By 1700, composers were writing three kinds of concertos. The first two types - concerto grosso and solo concerto - were more numerous and, in retrospect, more important. Both played on the sonic contrast between many instruments and one or only a few. The concerto grosso set a small ensemble (concertino) of solo instruments against a large ensemble (concerto grosso or ripieno, meaning full). The concertino normally comprised two violins, cello, and continuo, the same forces needed to play a trio sonata, although other solo string or wind instruments might be added or substituted. In the solo concerto a single instrument, most often a violin, contrasted with the large ensemble.