The four Seasons
The four seasons ( Italian Le quattro stagioni ) is probably Antonio Vivaldi's best-known work . There are four violin concertos with extra-musical programs ; each concert portrays a season . In addition, each concert is preceded by a sonnet - presumably written by Vivaldi himself ; Continuous letters in front of the individual lines and in the corresponding places in the score assign the verbal description of the music.
Vivaldi had previously repeatedly experimented with extra-musical programs, which were often reflected in his titles; the precise interpretation of individual passages in the score is unusual for him. His experience as a virtuoso violinist gave him access to particularly effective playing techniques; as an opera composer, he had developed a strong sense of effects - both of which were useful here.
As the title suggests, natural phenomena are mainly imitated - gentle winds , violent storms and thunderstorms are elements that appear in all four concerts. In addition, there are various bird voices and even a dog , other human activities such as hunting , a farmer's dance , ice skating including stumbling and falling to the heavy sleep of a drunk .
The work dates from 1725 and has been preserved in two printed editions, which apparently appeared more or less simultaneously in Amsterdam and Paris .
Origin and musical form
Vivaldi published these four concertos in 1725 at the beginning of his Op. 8 under the title Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (spelling at that time, today: invenzione , "The risk of harmony and invention"). Other concerts in this collection also contain poetic programs, including concerts numbered 5 ( La tempesta di mare , “The storm on the sea”), 6 ( Il piacere , “The pleasure”) and 10 ( La caccia , “The hunt ").
By this time, his concert form had already been standardized to three movements. The attraction of the four seasons also lies in the contradiction between a dramatic, extra-musical program on the one hand and the purely musical requirements for proportion and balance on the other; Vivaldi comes up with very different solutions in the twelve individual sentences.
The first movements are built on a ritornello - recurring at different levels and then often greatly abbreviated - with modulating solo passages in between, but also extended tutti passages. Due to the poetic program, not only the solo sections have a very different character, Vivaldi was also forced in some concerts not only to vary the ritornello strongly, but also to replace it with completely different material in the course of a movement ( Der Sommer ) or to let it arise gradually ( winter ).
The second movement is usually an aria , in Vivaldi usually in two parts. The first part modulates in the dominant or the parallel major key, the second part, which is roughly the same length, represents a varied repetition and modulates back. The solo melody is accompanied by a continuous motif in the orchestra, which is also inspired by the sonnet.
The final movement usually has stylized dance traits, always differs from the first in the time signature (typically three instead of four time) and tends to bring the ritornello to fewer levels, for example rondo-like only in the tonic . In general, these sentences are less elaborate; Following this tendency, they paint out the program in the four seasons in less detail and rather depict a general situation as a whole (such as “dance” or “thunderstorm”).
A typical dramaturgical feature of Vivaldi's music are the long organ points , on which the harmony seems almost frozen before it suddenly starts moving; Such effects can be observed again and again in all concerts, especially in the solo passages.
The single concerts
La primavera - The Spring, Op. 8, RV 269
- sentences
1. Allegro c in E major
2. Largo e pianissimo semper 3/4 in C sharp minor
3. Allegro 12/8 in E major
- music
The familiar theme of the first movement consists of two short sections, each of which is repeated piano . Then the first solo does not put the solo violin in the foreground, but a trio of equal violins, which vividly represent the chirping of different bird species over a latent E major chord. Between the next two short ritornelles a longer tutti passage, which illustrates the murmuring of the springs and gentle winds and modulates it in the dominant key, until suddenly a spring storm breaks out, with thunder throughout the orchestra and highly virtuoso flashes of the solo violin. In the parallel minor key, a brief resumption of the violin trio with different bird voices and the second half of the theme; another short solo then leads into the final ritornello.
The two-part slow movement alludes to the baroque tradition of shepherd poetry and portrays a sleeping shepherd. The accompanying violins paint the rustling of leaves and grass; in the background the tired barking of the shepherd dog.
The final movement represents a dance of nymphs and shepherds ( Danza pastorale , "shepherd's dance "); Vivaldi uses exceptionally traditional bagpipe effects and sometimes, unusually, chromatics in the bass lines and lead formations in the upper parts, which create an emotionally touching effect.
L'estate - The Summer, Op. 8, RV 315
- sentences
1. Allegro non molto 3/8 in G minor
2. Adagio c in G minor
3. Presto 3/4 in G minor
- music
The matte, dragging chords of the theme are understandable for today's listener as a representation of extreme heat and build up a tension that suddenly discharges in a virtuoso solo. Here the cuckoo can be heard, later also the pigeon and the goldfinch. The lying harmony illustrates the endless waiting of nature for some cooling. Suddenly light zephyr winds can be felt; but they only get going slowly, until suddenly the icy north wind Borea breaks loose. Pianissimo now a few more bars of the opening ritornello on the dominant, as if the heat was suddenly far away, and again we hear the shepherd lamenting his fate until the cold storm comes back and sweeps everything away.
Contrary to all conventions, this movement introduces a new ritornello in the middle, which could hardly have a greater contrast to the original, and thus ends it. This unusual procedure brings a strong dramatic element, because the motif of the all-destructive hurricane, from which nothing is safe, now runs through the further movements. The slow movement portrays a very restless sleeper who is plagued by swarms of mosquitoes; every few bars the threatening thunderstorm startles him. The fact that the sentence is not in the parallel key reinforces the feeling of being just a transition until the thunderstorm finally breaks out.
The sound painting of the thunderstorm in the last movement consists on a purely musical level only of virtuoso scales, chord breaks and tone repetitions, which only congeal once in the middle to something similar to a topic, but which immediately disintegrates again.
L'autunno - The Autumn, Op. 8, RV 293
- sentences
1. Allegro c in F major
2. Adagio 3/4 in D minor
3. Allegro 3/8 in F major
- music
The ritornello is clearly similar to that of spring , but the simplicity here is almost a caricature - it is a peasant drinking song in the simplest of harmonization. The solo violin repeats it cockily with dangerous double stops until the choir comes back. In the meantime more wine has flowed, the jumps become higher, the tricks more difficult and the ideas more incoherent. Only the drinking song in different keys and variations can bring some order to the event. Finally the soloist gets a hiccup and then simply falls asleep (piano e larghetto). Motive and harmonious development gradually come to a standstill. Perhaps more as a reminiscence of convention, the movement closes with the unchanged ritornello.
The slow movement completely dispenses with the soloist and forms a large-scale, often surprising chord study from which a pale melody of the first violin gradually emerges - according to the program, a gentle breeze that caresses the powerless drinker in their sleep.
The motif of the hunt, which now opens the final movement, is almost obligatory for baroque autumn music. A stylized three-bar with the sound of horns, but Vivaldi also reveals details: we hear rifle shots echoed back by the echo and the animal's excited attempts to escape. The animal becomes dull and dull and finally collapses - the horn ritornell triumphantly ends the hunt.
L'inverno - The Winter, Op. 8, RV 297
- sentences
1. Allegro non molto c in F minor
2. Largo c in E flat major
3. Allegro 3/8 in F minor
- music
The fourth concert begins with a dissonant staccato seventh chord and immediately creates a characteristic cold-frozen, trembling atmosphere. The virtuoso solo violin interrupts with a “merciless” wind; only after a third of the movement does a real ritornello form in the cold, which, according to Vivaldi, represents stamping of feet and which will conclude the movement. The initial motif of repeated eighth notes, however, remains constantly present; it even accelerates to sixteenths and now reproduces the chattering of teeth.
The two-part middle movement is probably the most accessible and formally most closed of the cycle: It shows the comfort and warmth by the fireplace, while “outside” the rain pounds on the pane (in the pizzicato of the violins). The contrast between the world inside and the inhospitable nature outside could hardly be greater.
In the final movement an ice skater draws his circles; other people walk more cautiously and carefully take the steps in front of one another in the smoothness until suddenly someone falls down. The ice skater continues to run and shows more and more virtuoso figures until the ice finally breaks. Back home, we hear the Scirocco from afar through the closed door until suddenly the storm breaks out again - Scirocco and Boréas unite and sweep everything away.
The sonnet closes: “This is winter. But it also brings joy. ”- Vivaldi evidently depicted the indicated joys in the homely and poetic atmosphere of the second movement.
literature
- Bernhard Moosbauer: Antonio Vivaldi, The Four Seasons . Bear rider; Edition: 1st, 2010 edition, ISBN 978-3-7618-1583-0 .
- Werner Braun: Antonio Vivaldi, Concerti grossi, op. 8, No. 1–4, the seasons (= masterpieces of music 9). Fink, Munich 1975. ISBN 978-3-7705-0426-8 .
See also
- The Seasons (Haydn)
Web links
- The Four Seasons : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
- The four seasons: sheet music for this and other works by Vivaldi for the Mutopia project
- Sonnets : original texts and translations.