Though he composed numerous operas, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741) is best known for his close to 500 concertos. His own instrument was the violin, which he had studied with his father, a violinist at the Basilica San Marco in Venice. Vivaldi trained for the priesthood, taking his Holy Orders in 1703, the same year he became maestro di violino at the Pio Ospedale Pietà, an orphanage and renowned conservatory for girls in Venice. Though his later activities as a composer and impresario occasioned much travel, Vivaldi retained his association with the Pietà throughout his life and many of his instrumental works were composed for his students there.

The D Major Guitar Concerto RV 93 was originally written for two violins, lute, and basso continuo and was dedicated to Bohemian Count Johann Joseph von Wrtby. There was a great difference between Austro-German lutes and Italian lutes and present day performances on the guitar may more authentically represent the sound of its original solo instrument.

All three movements of the concerto follow the “rounded” type of binary form, in which the opening music returns halfway through the second section. The first movement is notable for its energetic three-note melodic elaborations and the propulsive repeated notes in the bass line. The slow movement employs a singing line in dotted rhythms with a “halo” of upper string suspensions and the animated closing movement races along in the rhythm of a gigue.

Antonio Vivaldi
Born March 4, 1678, Venice, Italy.
Died July 28, 1741, Vienna, Austria.

The four concerti known as The Four Seasons are part of a group of eight violin concerti published in Amsterdam in 1725 as Op. 8. Vivaldi provided sonnets, probably his own, to head each of the four concerti. Vivaldi attempted to make the music as programmatic as possible, marking the score with capital letters showing sections of the sonnets and their corresponding music.

Concerto in G minor, Op. 8, No. 2, Summer

Under the heat of the burning sun
Man droops, his herd wilts, the pine is parched
The cuckoo finds its voice, and singing with it,
The dove and the Goldfinch

 Zephyr breathes gently but, countered,
The north wind appears nearby and suddenly
The shepherd cries because, uncertain,
He fears the wind squall and its effects

 His tired limbs have no rest, goaded by
His fear of lightning and wild thunder
While gnats and flies in furious swarms surround him

 Alas, his fears prove all too grounded
Thunder and lightning rive the heavens, and hail
Slices the tops of corn and other grain.

The opening phrases droop in the heat of the summer sun. Suddenly the violin depicts the singing of the birds. The zephyr’s voice is heard gently on the violins and violas, interrupted by the wind squalls, depicted by rapid scales in the violins. A lonely violin solo describes the weeping shepherd’s apprehension of an impending storm.

In the second movement, the shepherd’s rest (solo violin) is interrupted repeatedly by his fear of distant thunder (strong tremolo by the whole orchestra). He tries to sleep again, but the gnats and flies (repeated dotted notes on the strings accompanying the solo violin) don’t let him rest.

The third movement describes the violent storm, justifying the shepherd’s fears. Darting scales in the violins describe the lightning while the cellos and basses portray thunder.

Music from Vivaldi’s Summer was used in the movie Pacific Heights and several other films

MAR 4 1678 Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born to Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio in Venice then the capital of the Republic of Venice.