Antonio Vivaldi: biography
Name: Antonio Vivaldi
Date of Birth: March 4, 1678
Age: 63 years old
Date of death: July 28, 1741
Place of Birth: Venice, Italy
Activity: composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher, conductor, Catholic priest
Family status: not married
Antonio Vivaldi: biography
Antonio Luciano Vivaldi is an Italian composer, conductor, teacher, virtuoso violinist, author of 500 concertos for solo instruments and orchestra, 90 operas, a genius whose works have been forgotten for 200 years.
Antonio was born on March 4, 1678 in Venice in the family of a barber and musician Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and his wife Camilla. Giovanni was originally from Brescia, and at the age of 10 he settled in Venice with his mother. In those days, barbers shaved, cut, curled and pomaded clients, and also entertained them with music.
Vivaldi Sr. combined hairdressing with playing the violin. Giovanni became a violinist in the chapel of St. Mark's Cathedral, and his name also appears on the list of the founders of the musical society and even on the title page of one opera dated 1689.
The director of the mentioned society was the composer and author of operas Giovanni Legrenzi. Based on these facts, the compilers of Vivaldi's biography came to the conclusion that the composer owes his talent and first steps in the musical field to his father, who instilled in his son a love for the violin and passed on his own skills, perfect ear and playing skill. There is also a version that young Antonio studied with Giovanni Legrenzi.
The circumstances of the birth of Vivaldi Jr. made it possible to find out the exact date of his birth. The fact is that the boy was born prematurely, in the seventh month. The midwife who delivered the baby advised to immediately baptize the child in case of sudden death. A couple of hours after the birth, the baby was already baptized, as evidenced by the entry in the church book.
Church of St. John in Bragora, where Antonio Vivaldi was baptized in 1678
According to legend, an earthquake hit Venice that day, and the baby was born prematurely. Camilla allegedly made a vow to give her son to the priesthood if he survived. Surprisingly, Antonio survived, although he was distinguished by poor health and a slender build.
Due to asthma, it was difficult for the boy to move around, and wind instruments were also banned. But the violin, beloved from infancy, was at the full disposal of the future maestro, and from the age of 10 Antonio replaced his father, playing in St. Mark's Chapel.
From the age of 13, Vivaldi Jr. served as "goalkeeper" at the cathedral, opening the gates of the temple. Then several more dedications of the young minister of the church to higher positions took place. Antonio served mass only once, he was given an indulgence due to poor health, and the young man got the opportunity to devote himself to music.
In those days, the Venetian priests combined the writing of concertos, sacred music with the service of God. This was considered as natural as the presence of musical instruments in every barbershop. In the 17th century, the Venetian Republic was one of the most enlightened and cultured countries in the world, and in the field of opera, secular and sacred music set the tone for the rest of Europe.
Music
At the age of 25, Vivaldi began teaching the art of playing the violin at the Venetian conservatory Ospedale della Pietà. Conservatories were then called shelter schools at monasteries, where orphans and children whose parents were not able to provide for them studied. These schools were financed from the funds of the republic.
Orphanages for girls specialized in the humanities, with special attention paid to singing, music, performance of spiritual melodies, psalms and chants. The boys, from whom merchants and artisans were trained, were taught the exact sciences.
Antonio Vivaldi became a violin master for the young pupils of the orphanage, and then a viola teacher. His duties included writing monthly concertos, cantatas, vocal works for soloists and choir, as well as creating new oratorios and concertos for each church holiday. In addition, the teacher personally taught the orphans music, playing instruments and vocals, rehearsed and honed the skills of the girls.
Vivaldi worked at Pietà from 1703 to 1740, not including an eight-year break from 1715 to 1723, and from 1713 became director of the conservatory. All these years the composer worked tirelessly, only for the shelter he wrote more than 60 works, including cantatas, concertos for solo, choral, orchestral performances.
In 1705 and 1709, Venetian publishing houses published two Vivaldi opuses of 12 sonatas, in 1711 - 12 concertos under the title "Harmonic Inspiration". In those same years, the young and talented composer was first heard outside of Italy. In 1706, Vivaldi spoke at the French embassy, and three years later the Danish king Frederick IV listened to his oratorio, to whom Antonio subsequently dedicated 12 sonatas.
In 1712, the musician met the German composer Gottfried Stölzel, and five years later, Vivaldi moved to Mantua for three years at the invitation of Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt.
Since 1713, the composer became interested in a new kind of musical art for himself - secular opera. The first opera written by Vivaldi was Otto at the Villa. The talented young man was noticed by the impresario and patrons, and soon Antonio received an order from the owner of the San Angelo theater for a new opera.
According to the composer, in the period from 1713 to 1737 he wrote 94 operas, but only 50 scores with the confirmed authorship of the great Vivaldi have survived to this day. The author of operas was waiting for a stunning success, but Vivaldi's secular fame was short-lived. The musically sophisticated Venetian audience soon found new idols, and Antonio's operas fell out of fashion.
In 1721, the maestro visited Milan, where he presented the drama Sylvia, and the following year he returned with an oratorio on a biblical theme. From 1722 to 1725, Vivaldi lived in Rome, where he wrote new operas and performed before the Pope by personal invitation. For a musician-clergyman, this event was a great honor.
In 1723-1724, Vivaldi wrote the famous concertos, erroneously referred to in the CIS as "The Seasons" (the correct name is "The Four Seasons"). Each of the violin concertos is dedicated to spring, winter, summer and autumn. According to most critics and researchers, these concerts are the pinnacle of the maestro's work.
The revolutionary nature of works of genius lies in the fact that the human ear clearly perceives in music the reflection of the processes and phenomena characteristic of a particular season. So, in the song of the violin, you can hear the noise of a storm and the barking of dogs, the squeak of mosquitoes and the seething of streams, children's voices, the trills of birds of recognizable breeds, and even the fall of a skater on the ice.
Tours and wanderings led the maestro to get acquainted with the Austrian Emperor Charles VI. The king was a great admirer of Vivaldi's work, and friendly relations began between them. Surprisingly, as the popularity of the composer's music declined in his homeland, in Venice, his fame grew in Europe, at the courts of the French and Austrian kings.
At the end of his life, luck left the brilliant composer, and he was forced to sell his sonatas for a penny, just not to vegetate in poverty. Disappointed in the Venetians, who fell out of love with his creations, Antonio Vivaldi decided to move to Vienna, "under the wing" to the royal admirer of his talent, Charles VI.
Unfortunately, shortly after the composer moved to Vienna, the emperor died, then the war began, and the maestro was forgotten.
Personal life
As a clergyman, Antonio Vivaldi took a vow of celibacy, which he observed throughout his life. And yet detractors were able to see a violation of decorum in his close relationship with one of the pupils of the Pietà conservatory, Anna Giraud and her sister Paolina.
Vivaldi was Anna's teacher and mentor, who, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, attracted the attention of the public not by the strength and range of her voice, but by her acting talent. For this girl, the composer wrote the best of operas, composed arias and spent time together at home and on the road.
Anna's sister, Paolina, idolized the maestro and became a voluntary nurse and nurse with him, helping to cope with congenital ailments and bodily weakness. The higher clergy for a long time looked through their fingers at the maestro's passion for secular music and operas, but they could not forgive him for the constant presence of two young girls next to him.
In 1738, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Ferrara, where the next carnival with the same operas was to take place, did not let Vivaldi and his companions into the city, and also ordered that Mass be celebrated in view of the composer's fall into sin.
Death
The brilliant composer died in poverty and loneliness in a foreign land, in Vienna. The life of Antonio Vivaldi ended on July 28, 1741. His property was described and sold for debts, and his body was buried in a cemetery for the city's poor. Only a month after the death of Antonio, his younger sisters received the sad news.
Sculptural composition in Vienna dedicated to Antonio Vivaldi
After his death, the name of Vivaldi was undeservedly forgotten. Perhaps, he only sincerely and deeply loved the music of the Italian, for a long time remaining his only true admirer. Bach transcribed ten Vivaldi concertos for various instruments and orchestra, and the legacy of the Venetian composer had a tangible impact on the work of the virtuoso organist.
- Great merit in the study and discovery of Vivaldi's masterpieces for posterity belongs to the Italian musicologist Alberto Gentili, who discovered 14 volumes of the composer's works at the beginning of the 20th century.
- Antonio Vivaldi is the first composer to create concertos for violin and orchestra, two, four violins and two mandolins.
- The only color portrait of Vivaldi, which is familiar to everyone from photos in textbooks, may well be an image of a completely different person (the initials are not indicated in the picture, and the portrait itself does not look like other portraits of the composer).
- The maestro was nicknamed "the red-haired priest" because of the copper color of his hair, rare among the Venetians.
- Vivaldi also became famous for the fact that he could write a three-act opera and dozens of musical variations on one theme in five days.
- The infamous "Tango of Death" attributed to Vivaldi is actually a composition called Palladio by contemporary composer Carl Jenkins, while "Elf Night (Song)" is a song by Secret Garden.
- The composition “Summer Thunderstorm (Storm)” from the cycle “The Seasons” performed is one of the most popular melodies in the world.
Discography
Operas:
- "Otto in the countryside", 1713;
- "Roland, an imaginary madman", 1714;
- "Arsilda, Queen of Pontus", 1716;
- "Coronation of Darius", 1717;
- "Artaban", 1718;
- "Teusone", 1719
- Titus Manlius, 1719;
- "Farnace", 1727 and others.
Choral and vocal music:
- Sacrum (Mass);
- Laudate Dominum omnes gentes;
- Stabat Mater and others.
- Psalms:
- Beatus vir;
- Confitebor tibi Domine;
- Dixit Dominus;
- Lauda Jerusalem and others.
Oratorios:
- "Triumphant Judith", 1716;
- "The Adoration of the Three Wise Men to the Infant Jesus", 1722;
- Grand Cantata Gloria and Hymen, 1721.
- Cantatas for voice with accompaniment:
- "Under the shadow of a beautiful beech";
- “My gaze is directed towards him”;
- "Cupid, you won";
- “You disappeared, golden days”;
- "So cry, sources of tears" and others.
Instrumental concertos and sonatas, including:
- "Storm at sea";
- "Pleasure";
- "Hunting";
- "Seasons";
- "Night";
- "The Goldfinch";
- "Prelude".