‘The Four Seasons’
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Program Notes by Paul Hyde
Antonio Vivaldi was remarkably prolific. Not counting works that may have been lost, the Italian Baroque composer wrote more than 40 operas, 60 sacred choral works and 500 concertos, including 221 concertos for violin. He lived most of his life in Venice, serving as music director for almost 40 years at an orphanage for girls.“The Four Seasons” is the work for which Vivaldi is best known today. Vivaldi wrote four relatively short concertos, each reflecting on one of the four seasons and each closely connected to nature. Using only instrumental music, Vivaldi represents flowing creeks, singing birds (of different species), a shepherd and his barking dog, buzzing flies, storms, drunken dancers, hunting parties from both the hunter's and the prey's point of view, frozen landscapes, and warm winter fires. Each of the four concertos has three movements, with the traditional structure of fast-slow-fast. Vivaldi prefaced each concerto with a sonnet explaining the music. It’s not known whether Vivaldi wrote the sonnets or whether the music or poetry came first. But the sonnets, quoted below, offer an indispensable guide to the music.
“SPRING”
I. The piece opens with a jaunty tune signaling that “spring has returned.” Soft trilling and delicate solo runs indicate “birds in happy song.” Softly murmuring violins reflect flowing streams. This placid scene is interrupted by swift scales and trembling sounds indicating “lighting flash and thunder.” Soon, however “the birds take up their charming songs once more.”
II. The second-movement scene is a “flower-strewn meadow, with leafy
branches rustling overhead.” The poem continues, “The goat-herd sleeps, his faithful dog beside him.” A flowing melody reflects the pleasant nap of the goat-herd while interjections from the viola indicate that the dog is wide awake, and barking!
III. “Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes, nymphs and shepherds lightly dance beneath spring’s beautiful canopy.”
“SUMMER”
I. “Under the heat of the summer sun,” the poem tells us, “man and beast droop. … Soft breezes stir the air, but the threatening north wind sweeps them suddenly aside. The shepherd trembles, fearing violent storms and his fate.”
II. “The fear of lightning and fierce thunder robs his tired limbs of rest as gnats and flies buzz furiously around.”
III. “Alas, his fears were justified. The heavens thunder and roar and with hail cut the head off the wheat and damage the grain.”
“AUTUMN”
I. Peasants celebrate the harvest “with songs and dances, and fired up by Bacchus' liquor, many end their revelry in sleep.”
II. “Everyone is made to forget their cares and to sing and dance by which the air is tempered with pleasure and by the season that invites so many out of their sweetest slumber to fine enjoyment.”
III. “The hunters emerge at the new dawn, and with horns and dogs and guns depart upon their hunting. The beast flees and they follow its trail; terrified and tired of the great noise of guns and dogs, the beast, wounded, threatens languidly to flee, but harried, dies.”
“WINTER”
I. The movement opens with a description of the shivers caused by the winter cold. Swift arpeggios and scales depict the severity of the “horrid wind.” A series of vigorous chords suggests running and stamping of feet, but that doesn’t warm the body. The movement closes with the sound of “teeth chattering in the extreme cold.”
II. A lyrical violin solo suggests the bliss of sitting indoors in winter before a fire. Pizzicato accompaniment suggests raindrops falling gently outside.
III. The finale opens with a sequence of sliding phrases intended to depict the perils of walking on ice. “We tread the icy path slowly and cautiously, for fear of tripping and falling,” the poem tells us. These precautions, however, appear to be useless. Broken, jerky figures suggest that falling on ice is inevitable. The poem continues, “We feel the chill north winds course through the home despite the locked and bolted doors.” But Vivaldi concludes on a positive note: “This is winter, which nonetheless brings its own delights.”
Paul Hyde, a longtime Upstate journalist, is an English instructor at Tri-County Technical College. He has written the program notes for the Greenville Symphony for 23 years. Paul writes frequently about the arts for the Greenville Journal and Atlanta Journal-Constitution.