The #1 Musical Experience

Four Seasons ~ Vivaldi


Listen Later

Why We Should Expose Our Kids To Classical Music https://ourtownlive.net #herbw79

The Four Seasons (Italian: Le quattro stagioni) is a group of four violin concerti by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, each of which gives musical expression to a season of the year. They were written around 1716–1717 and published in 1725 in Amsterdam, together with eight additional concerti, as Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention).

The Four Seasons is the best known of Vivaldi's works. Though three of the concerti are wholly original, the first, "Spring", borrows patterns from a sinfonia in the first act of Vivaldi's contemporaneous opera Il Giustino. The inspiration for the concertos is not the countryside around Mantua, as initially supposed, where Vivaldi was living at the time, since according to Karl Heller they could have been written as early as 1716–1717, while Vivaldi was engaged with the court of Mantua only in 1718.

They were a revolution in musical conception: in them Vivaldi represented flowing creeks, singing birds (of different species, each specifically characterized), a shepherd and his barking dog, buzzing flies, storms, drunken dancers, hunting parties from both the hunters' and the prey's point of view, frozen landscapes, and warm winter fires.

Unusual for the period, Vivaldi published the concerti with accompanying sonnets (possibly written by the composer himself) that elucidated what it was in the spirit of each season that his music was intended to evoke. The concerti therefore stand as one of the earliest and most detailed examples of what would come to be called program music—in other words, music with a narrative element. Vivaldi took great pains to relate his music to the texts of the poems, translating the poetic lines themselves directly into the music on the page. For example, in the middle section of "Spring", when the goatherd sleeps, his barking dog can be heard in the viola section. The music is elsewhere similarly evocative of other natural sounds. Vivaldi divided each concerto into three movements (fast–slow–fast), and, likewise, each linked sonnet into three sections.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The #1 Musical ExperienceBy Herb Williams

  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3

4.3

9 ratings


More shows like The #1 Musical Experience

View all
Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,727 Listeners

Boring Books for Bedtime Readings to Help You Sleep by Sharon Handy

Boring Books for Bedtime Readings to Help You Sleep

1,244 Listeners

Sleep - Meandering Piano by Meandering Piano

Sleep - Meandering Piano

256 Listeners

I Can’t Sleep by Benjamin Boster & Glassbox Media

I Can’t Sleep

1,045 Listeners

Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories by Slumber Studios

Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories

9,411 Listeners

Music To Calm The Mind by The Relaxation Channel

Music To Calm The Mind

308 Listeners

Sleep Better | Sleep Music with Noise by Sleep Better

Sleep Better | Sleep Music with Noise

127 Listeners

The Sleepy Bookshelf by Slumber Studios

The Sleepy Bookshelf

3,338 Listeners

White Noise and Sleep Sounds (12 Hours) by White Noise and Sleep Sounds (12 Hours) to Sleep | Study | Relax | Soothe a Baby

White Noise and Sleep Sounds (12 Hours)

227 Listeners

Stories from the Village of Nothing Much by Wellness Loud

Stories from the Village of Nothing Much

434 Listeners

8 Hour Sleep Music by 8 Hour Sleep Music

8 Hour Sleep Music

330 Listeners

Lights Out Library: Sleep Documentaries by Olimpia Pérez

Lights Out Library: Sleep Documentaries

493 Listeners

Sleep & Relaxation Music to Calm the Nervous System by SOMA Sound

Sleep & Relaxation Music to Calm the Nervous System

90 Listeners

Sleepy History by Slumber Studios

Sleepy History

644 Listeners