His greatest influence was in the development of the concerto. Vivaldi's highly distinctive and recognizable musical style had a profound impact on his contemporaries and future composers such as Giuseppe Tartini (1692 –1770). Twenty-one of his operas have survived, at least in part, although their full artistic and dramatic power has yet to be evaluated. Vivaldi was extraordinarily prolific, producing over five hundred concertos for almost every combination of instruments, solo and trio sonatas, instrumental sinfonias, and an impressive body of sacred music, including oratorios, masses and motets. His efforts met with limited success, and he died on 28 July 1741, receiving a pauper's funeral at Vienna's Cathedral of St. Vivaldi vigorously denied all accusations of sexual impropriety, but the widespread rumors had a detrimental effect on his career and reputation.īetween 17 Vivaldi traveled widely to Vienna, Prague, and several Italian cities to supervise productions of his operas, and he ultimately returned to Vienna at the age of sixty-two, in the hope of securing patronage from Charles VI. Vivaldi's questionable relationship with the singer Anna Gir ò and her half-sister Paolina dates from this period. Among these are Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (in which we find his most famous work, the violin concerto The Four Seasons ), La Cetra, flute and string concertos, and Il pastor fido. Vivaldi spent 1718 –1720 in Mantua, devoting himself to opera composition, and later traveled to Rome to produce three operas for the 17 carnivals, but he also wrote 140 concertos for the Piet à. He returned to the Piet à in 1711, becoming maestro de' concerti in 1716, and successfully produced sacred and instrumental music, including trio sonatas, violin sonatas, the set of twelve concertos for one, two, and four violins called L'estro armonico (1711), and the oratorio Juditha Triumphans (1716). He was dismissed from this position on 24 February 1709 -the first of several dismissals and rehirings, largely the result of the precarious financial conditions at the hospital -but used the freedom to meet both George Frideric Handel (1685 –1759) and Domenico Scarlatti (1685 –1757), who were in Venice at the time, and to begin writing operas. Musical training was an integral part of the curriculum for the young girls at all of the ospedali, and Vivaldi's responsibilities included teaching violin, buying new instruments, and maintaining the collection. In September 1703, Vivaldi accepted his first position, as maestro di violino for the Pio Ospedale della Piet à, one of four "hospitals" established in Venice to care for poor orphaned children, and he would remain intermittently associated with this institution for much of his career. Because of the red hair he inherited from his father, Vivaldi was known throughout his career as il prete rosse ('The Red Priest'). Vivaldi studied the violin with his father, and he was also trained as a priest, but his asthma prevented him from effectively saying mass. This illness plagued him throughout his life and exerted a strong influence on his personal and professional behavior. An important and influential musician during his career, his music figured prominently in the baroque revival of the 1950s and 1960s.īorn in Venice on 4 March 1678, Vivaldi suffered from what was described as strettezza di petto (tightness of the chest), which was probably bronchialĪsthma. Vivaldi produced numerous instrumental and vocal works during his lifetime, but he is best known for his concertos for a diverse group of instruments. VIVALDI, ANTONIO (1678 –1741), Venetian composer and violinist.
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