Alharbi 1

Fawziah Alharbi

Prof. N.Perrin

Music 1121

25 October 2018

The Extra Credit “Antonio Vivaldi”

Antonio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678, in Italy. His parents were Camilla Calicchio

and Giovanni Battista Vivaldi. His father was a barber, baker, and also a famous violinist.

Through his father, he met and learned from some of the finest composers and musicians in

Venice where they had settled. In regards to his baptism, he was baptized immediately after he

was born in his own home. Notably, he was probably baptized because of his ill health and also

the earthquake that affected Venice on the day that he was born. In addition, he created hundreds

of works that were governed by highly influential patterns and forms of innovation. He sang the

Baroque music which was rare during those days. Besides, he was raised in the Republic of

Venice under a humble background. Antonio was the eldest child in his family of five and

trained as a priest hence being ordained in 1703 (Talbot, 2017).

He had red hair which later made people who loved to nickname and use the earned title

of ‘’The Red Priest’’. According to Cyr (2017), Antonio Vivaldi made his first ever public

appearance by playing alongside his father in the basilica as a supernumerary violinist in 1696.

This made him become the best violinist which followed being appointed as the violin master at

the Ospedale Della Pieta, which was a home for foundlings. However, he suffered a condition

that was known as the tightness of the chest his entire life. This affected how he spoke to the

extent that he was weak and dizzy.

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Concerning his adult personal life, he was ordained in 1703 but withdrew from his

priestly duties because of the challenges that his health resulted to. As a result, he opted to shift

to his musical obligations. Apart from his religious obligations, he was also a composer for 37

years, a teacher, and a conductor especially for the girls who were orphans. This orphanage was

known as ‘’Pieta’’ and was founded in 1492 and was fundamental since it allowed training of the

girls as musicians (Fish, 2015). Antonio accommodated the most talented girls by advocating for

them to work in the hospital's renown as orchestra and choir.

Based on his professional life, Vivaldi worked in a hospital during 1703-1715 and was

voted off the faculty but was voted back in 1723 where he worked until 1740 (Kaltwasser, 2015).

Although he had bad health, his profession as a musical composer was not affected. He made

significant strides for the benefit of his music career by continuing to write and compose songs.

This made him receive a lot of commissions from all over Italy and also Europe allowing him to

travel frequently. In 1722, Vivaldi moved to Rome from an invitation to present by Pope

Benedict XIII before he moved back to Venice in 1725. During his profession, he visited

Amsterdam and held a festive opening concert in 1738 to mark the 100th Anniversary of the

Schwouburg Theater at a time where he was battling with his health (Tablot, 2017).

One of the reasons that Antonio Vivaldi is a famous person in our textbook is because of

his success as far as music is concerned. He led an Ospedale which was used to host the boys for

trade and girls who were interested in music. Soon, this gained international recognition which

was followed by attendance by many talented musicians globally. This made him be appointed

as a music director since he was an excellent example in the promotion of music. According to

Fish (2015), another reason that he is a famous person is the style that he used to compose his

works. A tradition of virtuosity governed his style in the Italian string which was a very rare
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style. Besides, he was also seen as a prime mover since he embraced the gallant style. As a

result, his styles made people love music, hence making it part of their daily life.

Typically, he made a lot of musical compositions that seemed to stand out during his

musical career. First, Vivaldi wrote and composed fragments of poetry via the manuscripts for

his ‘’The Four Seasons’’ which embraced creativity and uniqueness. In addition, he also

composed ‘’the barking dog in spring, ‘’Languor caused by the heat’’ in summer and ‘’the

drunkards have fallen asleep’’ in autumn (Kaltwasser, 2015). It is attributed that the four seasons

are the most famous works that he composed since the representation of the sounds of nature was

similar to that of Ludwig van Beethoven’s pastoral symphony. He also composed 50 authentic

sacred vocal compositions that included hymns for solo voices that were essential in the

elaboration of Psalm settings.

He also wrote multiple opera sources by 1715 which governed by the most successful

operatic works, the Constanza trionfante and Farnace that were performed during multiple

revivals in his life (Fish, 2015). Vivaldi also made significant changes in the music industry

since he was the first to regularly employ the ritornello, which was accompanied by a solo

instrument during the presentation. The solo presentations and passages represented new

possibilities for other musicians to use solo instruments. For that reason, it was possible to

categorize movements based on how fast and slow they were.

Concerning humorous or exciting anecdotes, he once boasted that he was in a position to

compose a concerto faster than a copyist. This is because he believed that he was right in what he

did. Unfortunately, he was also plagued by rumours of a sexual incidence with one of his vocal

students hence being censured by ecclesiastical authorities. After this incidence, his career began

to head into the rocks, and he immediately headed for Vienna. After some time, he died in
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poverty in Vienna on July 28, 1741, and was buried in a simple grave after a burial service that

proceeded without music yet he was a musician in his entire life (Talbot, 2017). However, his

grave was lost when Vienna’s Technical University was built over the graveyard. During the

20th century, scholars and musicians revived his music during the process of recovering other

composer’s works from obscurity.

References

Cyr, M. (2017). Performing baroque music. Routledge.

Fish, M. D. (2015). Discovering the Rediscovery of Antonio Vivaldi. Choral

Journal, 55(10), 18-31.

Kaltwasser, C. (2015). Antonio Vivaldi and the Musical Environment of Venice During

the Early Eighteenth Century (ca. 1700–1741).

Talbot, M. (2017). Vivaldi's music for flute and recorder. Routledge.