With spring around the corner and “springing up” all around us, you can make a connection with Vivaldi’s Equinox soundtrack. We feel as though Vivaldi cornered the market on this soundtrack…it is the “Happy Birthday” to birthdays, it is Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration” to weddings, it is the “Love Story” to every drunk, lovesick karaoke crooner.
It is pretty much the first music that we think of when thinking about spring, we dare to say.
There is something that we are not sure that everyone knows, however…Vivaldi wrote sonnets for each and every movement of his Four Seasons masterpiece; twelve altogether. Each movement in the four concerti (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter) has the following order of tempo: fast-slow-fast, with the text corresponding in feeling to each.
We have yet to listen and read these at the same time, but it is now on our list of things to do and we suggest that you do too! We have heard of times when conductors or directors have read these aloud to an audience before performing the movement.
You can click on each of these to hear the 3 movements of Vivaldi’s Spring Concerti and read along below:
1st Movement: Spring has come and joyfully the birds greet it with happy song, and the brooks, while the streams flow along with gentle murmur as the zephyrs blow. There come, shrouding the air with a black cloak, lighting and thunder chosen to herald [the storm]; then, when these are silent, the little birds return to their melodious incantations.
2nd Movement: And now, in the pleasant, flowery meadow, to the soft murmur of leaves and plants, the goatherd sleeps with his faithful dog at his side.
3rd Movement: To the festive sound of a pastoral bagpipe, nymphs and shepherds dance under their beloved roof, greeting the glittering arrival of the spring.
It is also reported that Vivaldi was inspired by the landscape paintings of Marco Ricci. We would like to imagine that he would be just as inspired by one of the landscape scenes that we are lucky enough to be surrounded by on a daily basis.
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