Page 99 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

BAROQUE 1600–1750 97

describes musically in the first Painting pictures with music
movement of the “Spring” concerto,
where the opening ritornello is a
dance representing the celebratory
joy of returning spring, succeeded
by three solo violins conveying
birdsong and other characteristics
of the season.
High praise Spring Summer
In Italy, Vivaldi’s popularity Three solo violins mimic chirruping Tranquil sounds speak of summer heat,
had waned by the end of his life birds and babbling brooks. An upbeat with buzzing insects, a cuckoo, and
due to rising interest in a new third movement suggests a spring a lark. Minor chords and dramatic
festival with dancing.
undertones convey a summer storm.
Neapolitan style of opera. North
of the Alps, however, Vivaldi’s
concertos, and Le quattro stagioni
in particular, made him one of the
most famous composers of the
day. Vivaldi’s patrons included the
Bohemian nobleman Count Wenzel
von Morzin, to whom Vivaldi
dedicated Il cimento dell’armonia
e dell’inventione, the collection Autumn Winter
The fast first movement captures
Fast violins convey chattering
that contained Le quattro stagioni. the drama of a harvest festival. The teeth and stamping feet, and rapid
“I beg you not to be surprised,” orchestra is interrupted by a solo violin scales and dissonance suggest
he wrote, “if among these few and representing a “swaying drunkard.” winter chills and gales.
feeble concertos Your Illustrious
Grace should find the Four Seasons
which, with your noble bounty, commanded a performance of to his earliest biographer, Johann
Your Illustrious Grace has so long the “Spring” concerto, played by Nikolaus Forkel, it was this
regarded with indulgence.” an orchestra assembled entirely experience that taught him the
Another illustrious endorsement of musically gifted nobles and importance of “order, coherence,
came from King Louis XV of courtiers. Another lover of the and proportion” in music.
France, who in November 1730 “Spring” concerto was philosopher According to modern scholars,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who Forkel’s assessment may be
in 1775 arranged the piece for an exaggeration, but Vivaldi’s
unaccompanied flute. influence on Bach is clearly evident
in, for example, Bach’s use of the
Influence on composers ritornello form. Equally evident is
Vivaldi played a splendid Most remarkable, however, was the fact that Vivaldi gave the three-
solo … Such playing has not the legacy of Vivaldi’s concertos movement (fast-slow-fast) concerto
been heard before and can to his fellow musicians. One a place among the most important
notable devotee was J.S. Bach.
music forms, inspiring countless
never be equalled.
J.F.A. von Uffenbach His patron, the Duke of Saxe- future composers from Bach,
Haydn, and Mozart to Beethoven
Weimar, returned from a trip to the
German traveler Netherlands with a copy of Vivaldi’s onward. Moreover, the concerto
(1687–1769)
first concerto collection, the L’estro was a major influence on another
armonico (“Harmonic Inspiration”), emerging form, one that soon
published in Amsterdam. Bach became the supreme form of
transcribed six of the concertos instrumental expression for
for solo harpsichord, and according composers—the symphony. ■

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