The arrival of the solstice means “It’s official: winter is here!”

Now, it may not seem like winter to some of you listening, say, in Southern California or Puerto Rico, but here in Minnesota, where I happen to be at the moment, the season is, how shall we put it, usually “noticeable.”

Winter must have been noticeable as well for the transplanted Italian composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, who was born in Florence but settled in Paris and ended up as the court composer for King Louis XIV.

One of Lully’s operas, “Isis,” had its premiere in the winter of 1676-77, and contains this music—a chorus of ‘Trembleurs,” or “Trembling People from the Frozen Climes,” whose teeth chatter in slurred tremolos. This chorus became particular famous for the wintry pantomime ballet that accompanied it, as well as for its evocative music.

Of course, the most famous of all Baroque “Winter” music was also served up by another Italian, Antonio Vivaldi, who was born in Venice but traveled widely in Northern Europe as well, and died in Vienna.

Vivaldi’s “Winter” Violin concerto from “The Four Seasons” includes its own musical shivers, not to mention a musical depiction of slipping and sliding on icy streets.

Let me tell you, Antonio, as bad as it might have been in Vienna, if you want to talk real winter, real slipping and sliding, we can book you a gig here in Lake Wobegon.