Download Antonio Vivaldi Fun Facts

ANTONIO VIVALDI FUN FACTS: FAME LESSON 6.3
Born: Venice, 4 March 1678
Died: Vienna, 28 July 1741
Nationality: Italian composer
 Vivaldi’s father, Giovanni Battista, was a barber before becoming a professional violinist. He
taught his son to play the violin and then they toured Venice together playing the violin
when Vivaldi was young. Vivaldi was probably taught at an early age, judging by the
extensive musical knowledge he had acquired by the age of 24 where he was the "maestro di
violino" at the Ospedale della Pietá, one of the Venetian girls orphanages.
 Nicknamed, il Prete Rosso, "The Red Priest", because of his red hair, Vivaldi was ordained at
the age of 25 in 1703. However, within a year of being ordained Vivaldi no longer wished to
celebrate mass because of physical complaints (“tightness of the chest”). It is also possible
that Vivaldi was simulating illness - there is a story that he sometimes left the altar in order
to quickly jot down a musical idea in the sacristy. Training for the priesthood was often the
only possible way for a poor family to obtain free schooling.
 By 1718 Vivaldi was offered a new prestigious position as Maestro di Cappella in Mantua.
During this period Vivaldi wrote the Four Seasons, four violin concertos depicting scenes
appropriate for each season. The inspiration for the concertos was probably the countryside
around Mantua. They were a revolution in musical conception: in them Vivaldi represented
flowing creeks, singing birds (of different species, each specifically characterized), barking
dogs, buzzing mosquitoes, crying shepherds, storms, drunken dancers, silent nights, hunting
parties from both the hunters' and the prey's point of view, frozen landscapes, ice-skating
children, and warming winter fires. Each concerto is associated with a sonnet, possibly by
Vivaldi, describing the scenes depicted in the music.
 It is in the concerto that Vivaldi's chief importance lies. He was the first composer to use
ritornello (Italian for “return”: a recurrent musical section that alternates with different episodes of contrasting
material) form regularly in fast movements, and his use of it became a model; the same is true
of his three-movement plan (fast-slow-fast). His methods of securing greater thematic unity
were widely copied, especially the integration of solo and ritornello material; his vigorous
rhythmic patterns, his violinistic figuration and his use of sequence were also much imitated.
 Vivaldi was an enterprising orchestrator, writing several concertos for unusual combinations
like viola damore and lute, or for ensembles including chalumeaux, clarinets, horns and other
rarities. There are also many solo concertos for bassoon, cello, oboe and flute.
 Though Vivaldi's music was well received during his lifetime, it later declined in popularity
until its vigorous revival in the first half of the 20th century. Today, Vivaldi ranks among the
most popular and widely recorded of Baroque composers.