Vivaldi: a list of works, the most famous compositions and the history of their creation

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Vivaldi - the name of this composer is familiar to each of us. It is hard not to recognize his virtuoso violin works, they accompany us everywhere. This is because each of them is incredibly beautiful, unique, but at the same time recognizable due to the composer's unified style. The list of Vivaldi's works is extensive and varied. These are operas, concertos, sonatas and small pieces, some of which have not survived.

The article presents a list of famous works by Vivaldi, information is given, how and when he wrote them.

The life of a great creator

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi - Italian composer - was born on March 4, 1678 in the beautiful city of Venice. His father was a hereditary barber, but part-time was fond of playing the violin. And his hobby attracted him so much that he became a virtuoso violinist, very famous in his city.

He gave his talent along with the instrument toinheritance to his son, and he, multiplying the talents of his parent, managed not only to play the violin, but also to compose unique melodies.

Antonio became interested in writing musical texts in his youth - he composed simple "songs", motifs, sometimes wrote them down, sometimes just memorized them. Soon he began to compose full-fledged works that were to the taste of the Venetian musical elite.

Vivaldi was invited to work as a composer at the Pieta Conservatory, where abandoned and orphaned girls studied music. It was for them that Antonio wrote 2 concertos a month, and they studied these creations as studies. This is how numerous works of Vivaldi came into the world. The list is endless, there are incredibly many of them, they are somewhat similar to each other, but at the same time each is unique.

Concerto grosso

Antonio Vivaldi is rightfully considered the founder of a separate musical genre - concerto grosso, which translates as "big concert". The bottom line is that during the performance of the work, scores alternate in which the entire orchestra performs and individual parts, where this or that instrument is the soloist (in the case of Vivaldi, this is most often the violin). This is a variation of the pre-existing trio sonata, where the first movement is fast, the second is slow, and the third is again fast. Only now its sound has become more multifaceted and interesting due to such coloring. In the list of works by Antonio Vivaldi, there are 517 concertos, which are divided into the followingCategories:

• 44 concerto for basso continuo and string orchestra;
• 49 concerto grosso;
• 38 concertos for two instruments with string orchestra or basso continuo accompaniment;
• 32 concerto for three instruments with basso continuo or string orchestra accompaniment;
• 352 concertos for one instrument and accompaniment as basso continuo or string orchestra.

The concert list of Vivaldi's works is still almost in full the property of music schools and colleges. Children learn and play concertos, thereby improving their virtuosity and sound technique.

Operas

Antonio Vivaldi was a composer who could write an entire opera in three days - it was this fame that spread about him throughout Venice. And it was true. He really very quickly and at the same time talentedly composed such complex vocal and instrumental works, which were a great success.

On account of the composer 90 operas, many of which are undeservedly forgotten. Others still enjoy success in the world's leading theaters.

Let's consider the opera list of Vivaldi's works, touching only on the most famous creations:

1. "Furious Roland".
2. "Farnaces, ruler of Pontus".
3. "Olympics".
4. "Griselda".
5. "Aristide".
6. "Tamerlan".
7. "Moses, God of Pharaoh".
8. "WorshipMagi".
9. "Triumphant Judith".

Other works

It's amazing, but given the pace at which Vivaldi wrote to order, he still had time and inspiration to compose for his own pleasure! So to speak for the soul, the composer wrote more than 100 sonatas, as well as serenades, cantatas, symphonies and small pieces. But it is worth introducing another biographical fact about Antonio - he was a priest. He never apostatized from the church, so he wrote many Catholic sequences Stabat Mater.

For the most august persons

Thanks to his incomparable talent and genius, Vivaldi quickly became a favorite composer and musician. Louis XV simply adored his creations. Antonio, on the day of the marriage of the king, wrote a serenade-cantata "Gloria and Igomene". A year later, on the birthday of the two august princesses, Vivaldi wrote another serenade - "Celebrating the Seine." The next creation was already created specifically for Charles VI and was called "Zither". They say that the emperor was so imbued with the creativity and personality of the composer that he could talk with him all day long. He granted Vivaldi a gold medal and a knighthood, and also invited him to Vienna. For this, the composer sent him a copy of the work "Zither".

Seasons

Let's move on to the list of Vivaldi's musical compositions that have won timeless success. We are talking about the famous "Timesyears", which received such a simple and uncomplicated name only because there are 12 of them in the opus.

In the early 1720s, Vivaldi began to write a new opus number 8. He called it "The Dispute of Harmony with Invention", but clearly these "sonatas" had a seasonal context. The fact is that before the execution of each of them, a sonnet was read, in which a specific time of the year was clearly represented. Presumably, Antonio himself wrote these sonnets, but hid his authorship. What is Opus No.8 like?

These are four concerts, each of which consists of three parts. The first is called "Allegro", the second - "Largo" or "Adagio" and the third again "Allegro" or "Presto". That is, the structure is like a regular sonata or concerto grosso - the two extreme parts are faster, and the middle is slow and drawn out.

Often "Four Seasons" sound in films, programs, they are performed at social events or just enjoy this wonderful music at home.

Conclusion

A complete list of Vivaldi's works, indicating the name of each work, would be incredibly huge and would not fit into a single article. It is difficult to imagine how talented and brilliant this man was, how masterfully he mastered the instrument and his own inspiration. He gave the world a rich heritage in the form of countless concerts, sonatas, operas and other musical creations that are played and listened to with great pleasure.today.