Composer Study: Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

"About six works by some great composer are chosen for study each term. These compositions are played or sung to the children constantly and studied carefully. The children are taught something about the form, harmonic structure, thematic development of the composition and some information is given about the life of the composer."
-Art and Literature in the Parents' Union School
by Marjorie F. Ransom. (Ex-student House of education)Volume 34, 1923, pgs. 75-84

This week when we made our spring pictures, we listened to Vivaldi's spring portion of The Four Seasons. Today we learned a little about the biography of the Red Priest and his all-girl orchestra.

It is nice if your student is studying piano to have them learn to play a few of Vivaldi's pieces on the piano, but they can still learn about the composer even if they are not able to do this.
Vivaldi's Four Seasons concertos are examples of the concerto grosso. The concerto grosso, is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists (the concertino) and full orchestra (the ripieno).



 In the next few weeks we will be listening to:
Gloria
Oboe Concertos
and Mandolin Concertos
We also love Classical Kids' Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery a CD which not only has incorporated his music into some facts about his life, but also weaves in an interesting story. We love listening to it in the car.

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