Vivaldi's concertos are generally in three movements, arranged in the order of fast, slow, fast. The concerto for orchestra features contrasts of style rather than contrasts of instruments. The concerto grosso features a small group of solo players, set in contrast to the full orchestra. He also wrote concertos for several solo instruments, concerti grossi, and concertos for full orchestra. Other concertos are for a variety of solo instruments: recorder, flute, piccolo, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, viola d'amore, and mandolin. Of his concertos, 221 are for solo violin and orchestra. He wrote the majority of his sonatas for one or two violins and thorough-bass. In his instrumental works he naturally favored the violin. This virtuosity is reflected in his music, which made new demands on violin technique. Vivaldi was also one of the great violin virtuosos of his time. Most of his operas were written for Venice, but some were commissioned for performance in Rome, Florence, Verona, Vicenza, Ancona, and Mantua. But in his own day he was famous and successful as an opera composer. Today the vocal music of Vivaldi is little known. According to the latest research, his compositions may be numbered as follows, though not all these compositions are preserved: 48 operas (some in collaboration with other composers) 59 secular cantatas and serenatas about 100 separate arias (but these are no doubtįrom operas) two oratorios 60 other works of vocal sacred music (motets, hymns, Mass movements) 78 sonatas 21 sinfonias one other instrumental work and 456 concertos. Vivaldi was prolific in vocal and instrumental music, sacred and secular. He died in Vienna on July 26 or 27, 1741. He left Venice for the last time in 1740. Within Italy he traveled to various cities to direct performances of his operas. He went, among other places, to Vienna in 1729-1730 and to Amsterdam in 1737-1738. But his long years there were broken by the numerous trips he took, for professional purposes, to Italian and foreign cities. Vivaldi remained at the Pieta‧ until 1740. Under Vivaldi's direction, this orchestra gave many brilliant concerts and achieved an international reputation. A few years later he was made conductor of the orchestra at the same institution. In the autumn of 1703 he was appointed a violin teacher at the Ospitale della Pieta‧ in Venice. (He was later nicknamed "the red priest" because he was redheaded.) His active career, however, was devoted to music. After going through the various preliminary stages, he was ordained a priest in March 1703. It is possible, though not proved, that as a boy Antonio also studied with the composer Giovanni Legrenzi.Īntonio was trained for a clerical as well as a musical life. The elder Vivaldi was a well-respected violinist, employed at the church of St. His first music teacher was his father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi. Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice on March 4, 1678.
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