The K-2 class recently learned about Antonio Vivaldi’s concerto The Four Seasons during music class. Besides having charming melodies and lovely instrumentation, this work also is captivating for being “program music,” that is, music with a narrative or story that guides the form and content of the piece. Knowing the scenes Vivaldi was picturing as he composed awakens the imagination all the more while listening, as falling scalar passages in the violins become rolls of thunder, and the staccato, plucked notes of a minor chord spark visions of chilled feet picking carefully over ice.
Vivaldi’s composition was influenced by his time as a music teacher among the girls of the Ospedale della Pietà. This institution was a blend of convent, orphanage, and music school for girls in Venice and was one of several such places in the town. Perched on the side of one of the many canals, the Ospedale had a narrow window designed to receive unwanted infants who would be cared for and taught to become exceptional musicians. The many instruments taught there included voice, organ, violin, flute, oboe, cello, and bassoon. Though Vivaldi was ordained as a priest, his father had taught him violin and he used his talents as a virtuosic violinist to teach the orphans, resulting in famous weekly concerts that captivated elite listeners. (It was considered impolite to clap for these nun-like instrumentalists, so audience members made use of other approving noises, like shuffling, stamping, and coughing.) As a composer, Vivaldi had an advantage in having all of these orphaned musicians on hand, as he could easily explore new combinations of players and soloists without the cost of hiring professionals.
Out of these experiences and experiments came The Four Seasons, which was published in 1725 as a set of concerti that included a series of poems with specific imagery for each season. Each season has three movements, fast-slow-fast, in true concerto form. Spring’s poem begins by describing the coming of the season, with the birds that “celebrate her return with festive song, and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes.” It is delightful to hear the solo violins in this section imitating the call of these birds, and the later movements of spring depict a sleepy goatherd and then dancing nymphs and shepherds. Summer includes hints of a storm, a weary shepherd resting in the heat, and then “the heavens thunder and roar” as a violent hailstorm comes suddenly in an unmistakable flurry of notes. Autumn is full of harvest celebrations, the fading of cares and worries, and the excitement of hunting, depicted musically with a buoyant triple meter and a lively tempo. Winter sounds appropriately chilly with a minor key at its beginning and cold, timid footsteps portrayed by staccato chords. The middle movement provides contrast with a lush, warm escape to “the fire to pass peaceful, contented days,” giving way in the final moment to a man’s fearful passage along an icy path, his slipping and crashing, and the fury of the wind. Hearing this work without familiarity with the content of the poems is still enjoyable, but knowing the words that inspired each section doubles the listener’s delight and shows Vivaldi’s talent in representing all these varied scenes musically.
In Christ,
Miss Engwall
P.S. If you’d like to listen to the Four Seasons and follow along with the accompanying poems, click this link for the poems and this link for the concert.
Painting: Pastoral Landscape by George Cole, 1873
