Vivaldi - Autumn (Seasons) - for violin and piano

Vivaldi - Autumn (Seasons) - for violin and piano. You can download the PDF sheet music Vivaldi - Autumn (Seasons) - for violin and piano on this page.

ANTONIO VIVALDI - Le quattro stagioni Die vier Jahreszeiten • The Four Seasons • Les Quatre Saisons

Concerto in fa maggiore

(F-dur • in F major • en fa majeur) RV 293 L'autunno (Der Herbst • Autumn • L'Automne)

1. Allegro
2. Adagio molto
3. Allegro

In the course of the harvest time the peasants celebrate merry festival, the autumn concert begins with a rural dance. A lot of wine is drunk, the exuberant solo passages of the violin symbolize the general intoxication which is finally terminated by the big sleep, which is depicted by the quietness of the second movement, where the solo instrument keeps silence. The third movement, with its joyful imitation of the horns and sharp reports, paints the activities of hunting.

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Instrument part: 7 pages. 141 K

Piano part: 13 pages. 282 K

Vivaldi makes a lot of use of 'tone painting' in the "Four Seasons": the sound of bagpipes is as unmistakable in the Danza pastorale in "Spring" as the thunder and lightning in the summer-time Tempo impetuoso; the autumnal caccia paints the huntsmen's pursuit of their quarry as vividly as the stabbing "secco" chords in the opening movement of "Winter" depict biting cold. Yet although the composer keeps to his programme, right down to the smallest musical detail, formally, in the succession of the movements and in the alternation of solo and tutti sections, the four works ae paradigms of the Baroque solo concerto, in the form that Vivaldi himself had established around 1710.

'The Four Seasons" carried Vivaldi's reputation far beyond the borders of Italy; as late as 1775 no less a music-lover than Jean-Jacques Rousseau arranged ''Spring" for solo flute. Then Vivaldi's name vanished into the shadows of musical history, to be rediscovered only in our own century as that of one of the greatest masters of his age. The "Concerto grosso" is a type of orchestral concerto developed during the Baroque period. One of its formal characteristics is the alternation of the whole orchestra with smaller groups of solo instruments. It differs from later types of concerto above all in that the virtuoso performance of individual soloists does not yet play a decisive part, but rather "tutti" and "concertino" (or the solo instrument) appear as formally equal partners as far as the sound is concerned. In the Baroque period much importance was attached to the contrasting emphasis of various instrumental groups. Vivaldi played an extremely significant role in the development of the solo concerto. He developed the solo concerto from the concerto grosso until it became the main musical form of the mature Baroque. One novel feature was the concisely accentuated rhythmic character of his themes.