Vivaldi : Baroque Idol . . Violin Virtuoso . . Composer. . and Artist

Wednesday, 24 May 2006 11:47

 
We'll see your American Idol, and raise you a rocking violin.  Here's our Baroque Idol: violin virtuoso and concerto master Antonio Vivaldi, born way back in 1678-1741.  You've heard his famous music whether you realize it or not.

Budding Artist

Before he was a famous composer, Antonio Vivaldi was just a boy learning the family trade.  His father, Giovanni, was a violinist in St. Mark's Basilica orchestra in Venice, his son's music teacher, and a walking advertisement for home schooling.  Witnesses to Antonio's virtuoso violin performances were so distracted by his blazingly fast bow and finger movements they could hardly remember what they heard.

Like most serious musicians of his day, young Vivaldi faced a choice between working in the courts of kings or in the cloisters of the church.  The nobles paid handsomely but often practiced creative despotism, while the church's repertoire needs were rather confining. 

Vivaldi chose the church.  He was ordained a priest in 1703 and made an instructor at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, a home for orphaned and illegitimate girls.  Musical education was the specialty of the house.  Vivaldi taught violin, conducted choirs and orchestras, and composed prodigiously to keep his talented students busy. 

If It Ain't Baroque . . .

When Vivaldi's full-time employment at the Pietà ended in 1709, he was free to pursue new, secular musical forms, including opera.  He traveled extensively to musical meccas like Paris and Vienna, doing freelance composing and listening to examples of this new art form.

In art and music, the Baroque period was a time of high drama and complex ornamentation.  Where Renaissance artists focused on the wonders of the human form and mind, Baroque folk depicted humans in motion, interacting with each other and the world.  Baroque music used contrasts--between instrumental and vocal parts, loud and soft, soloists and larger ensembles--to create drama and evoke emotion.

Vivaldi composed some 50 Baroque operas, many of which were acclaimed as exemplary, but few of them are performed today.  Musical tastes have changed radically, and we're not just talking Vivaldi vs. Britney.  The librettos, or scripts, of Baroque operas seem stilted even to today's opera buffs.

Concerto Master

Now concertos, that's another story.  You're almost certainly familiar with Vivaldi's magnum opus, the 1725 concerto cycle known as The Four Seasons.  Still a popular musical form today, the concerto pits a solo instrument (or small group of players) against a larger orchestra.

Vivaldi's concerti, with their intense rhythmic energy, lyrical themes, and fast-slow-fast plan for the three movements, became the gold standard of the era.  Baroque heavy-hitter Johann Sebastian Bach even honed his composing skills by transcribing 10 of Vivaldi's concerti for keyboard instruments.

By the time the concerto form reached its height in the late 18th century, Vivaldi's fast-slow-fast plan had become de rigueur.  His trademark use of the "ritornello" form had lasting impact, too.  Concerto composers everywhere worked to showcase the virtuoso's talents by alternating an orchestra's statement of a straightforward melodic refrain with the virtuoso's departure from it.

A Man for All Seasons?

Unfortunately, though he was popular and well paid at the zenith of his career in the 1720s, Vivaldi's music quickly fell out of fashion in the 1730s, as audiences sought lighter, less ornamented sounds.  He died in poverty in 1741.  His manuscripts were purchased by a private collector and remained hidden until they were rediscovered and claimed by an Italian museum in the 1920s.

Since then, classical connoisseurs have periodically taken renewed interest in all things Baroque, and with each revival, Vivaldi's stock has risen, with musicians and listeners alike.

Laura Kane....Updated May 23, 2006