Composed: unknown
Premiered: unknown
Duration: 12 minutes

Venice is one of the great tourist destinations of the world today, as it also was in the 18th century. Musically knowledgeable visitors at that time made it a point to visit the Ospidale della Pietà, a home for orphaned girls, which was noted for the brilliance of the music to be heard there. Among the inhabitants of the institution were quite several extraordinarily talented players; musically knowledgeable people reported that their performances were as good as the best anywhere in Europe.

The music master intermittently from 1703 onwards was Antonio Vivaldi. Many a wealthy visitor brought home a manuscript of a sonata or a concerto by Vivaldi as a memento of their trip. The violin was Vivaldi’s own instrument, so naturally most of his concertos were for violin. But he composed for a wide variety of other instruments, both familiar and unusual. The one we are hearing is one of three for flautino, probably an alternative name for flageolet. This was a miniature recorder, sometimes used in the 18th century to teach cage birds to sing melodies, or to imitate the sound of songbirds in concert music. Its sound was apparently very shrill, like the sound of the present-day piccolo, pitched an octave higher than the standard flute. It is seldom given solo parts in orchestral music; most often we are only aware of the intensification of big climaxes by the addition of piccolo sound.

Program note by the late Dr. C.W. Helleiner.