![]() Vivaldi’s operas are among the few from the period to use obbligato instruments in arias, sometimes borrowing arias from other composers such as Handel and Pergolesi. Of the forty or so operas Vivaldi composed, only twenty-one have survived, and many of these are incomplete. In other sonatas, the previously distinct genres of church and chamber music are subtly merged. 5 are modelled after those of Corelli and are in a chamber music style. He also composed around 90 sonatas, which maintain traditional formal designs and stylistic traits. So too do his unusual combinations of instruments, his chromaticism and his use of special effects such as scordatura (in RV348 and RV391). The pictorial dimensions of Vivaldi’s concertos, most notably Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) and La Caccia, RV362, anticipate 19th-century developments. He has even been credited as a precursor of musical Romanticism. His innovations here anticipate the early Classical style. These concertos alone show him to be one of the most important composers of the late Baroque. His standard model was the three movement design, with two allegros framing a slow movement in the same, or a closely related, key. Vivaldi had injected the concerto form with a remarkable variety of structure, originality of scoring and imagination of conception. The solo instruments in these categories include bassoon, cello, oboe, flute, viola d’amore, recorder, trumpet and mandolin. About forty are for two soloists, and thirty for three or more. Around half of these are for solo violin and strings. Among the works he left, the most significant are his concertos, about 500 in all. Vivaldi died in poverty the following year. But the death of Emperor Charles VI in 1740 left him without even a prospective patron. He hoped to become composer to the Imperial court in Vienna. From 1730, he visited Vienna and Prague, trying with mixed success to stage his operas in those cities. During his travels, Vivaldi retained a position with the Pietà, regularly providing the school with concertos. Further opera work took him back to Venice, where he was involved with the Teatro San Angelo from 1726 to 1728. Here he composed more operas under the patronage of Cardinal Ottoboni. Vivaldi remained in Mantua for two years from 1718, writing cantatas and serenatas for the court. ![]() Following the success of Vivaldi’s opera Armida al campo d’Egitto there, the prince appointed Vivaldi as maestro di cappella da camera. He also wrote for theatres in Venice and Mantua, where the Habsburg governor, Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, was a famous music lover. His first opera, Ottone in villa, was premiered in Vicenza in 1713. Opera became an increasingly important part of Vivaldi’s output in the second decade of the 18th century. ![]() ![]() He also wrote two oratorios for the Pietà, the most significant being Juditha triumphans (1716). Prior to these, he had disseminated a number of concertos in manuscript form. Publications of his works began appearing in 1705: trio sonatas, violin sonatas and concerto sets. He taught the violin there, organised services with music, composed and gave concerts. In the same year as his ordination, he was appointed to the Ospedale della Pietà, a Venetian convent for orphaned or illegitimate girls. His red hair earned him the nickname ‘il prete rosso’ (the red priest). He trained for the priesthood and was ordained in 1703. Vivaldi played the violin from an early age, probably taking lessons with his father. Vivaldi’s concertos became a model for his contemporaries, and the form was soon one of the most important in eighteenth century Europe. He introduced a range of new styles and techniques to string playing and consolidated one of its most important genres, the concerto. But his most important achievement was in his music for strings. He ignited transformations in music for the church, the opera house and the concert hall. Vivaldi’s influence on the development of Baroque music was immense. ![]()
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