Antonio Vivaldi Essay

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9 [pic] Antonio Vivaldi March 4, 1678 - July 28, 1741 Baroque Period Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice, Italy, which is where he spent most of his life. His father taught him to play the violin, and the two would often perform together. Antonio continued to study and practice the violin, even after he became a priest. He was called the "Red Priest" because of his flaming red hair. However, after a while, his bad asthma kept Antonio from saying Mass. After that, Vivaldi spent all his time writing music and teaching. He taught at an orphanage for girls, and wrote a lot of music for the girls to play. People came from miles around to hear Vivaldi's talented students perform the beautiful music he had written. Many people think Vivaldi was the best Italian composer of his time. He wrote concertos, operas, church music and many other compositions. In all, Antonio wrote over 500 concertos. His most famous set of concertos is The Four Seasons. Antonio Vivaldi was a prolific composer and is most well-known for composing: • over 500 concertos (210 of which for violin or violoncello solo), • 46 operas, • sinfonias, • 73 sonatas, • chamber music (even if some sonatas for flute, as Il Pastor Fido, have been erronously attributed to him, but were composed by Cedeville) and • sacred music ('oratorio' Juditha Triumphans, written for Pietà, two Glorias, the Stabat Mater, the Nisi Dominus, the Beatus Vir, the Magnificat, the Dixit Dominus and others); • his most famous work is perhaps 1723's Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons). In essence, it resembled an early example of a tone poem, where he attempted to capture all the moods of the four seasons without the use of percussion to dramatize the effects he sought to portray. What was Vivaldi’s first name? a) Arthur b) Antonio c) Larry Was Vivaldi's nickname “The Red

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