Vivaldi Books

Vivaldi: Voice of the Baroque Vivaldi boasted that he could compose a concerto faster that a scribe could copy one. Despite his prolificacy, "The Four Seasons" and the majority of his already published work had fallen into obscurity by the time of his death in poverty in 1741. Most of his music, concertos, sonatas, operas, and sacral music, has been published only recently. Very little has been written on Vivaldi for the nonspecialist, especially in English. Landon rediscovers the composer in this accessible and musically informed biography while presenting documentation of the musician's life discovered after the Baroque revival in the 1930s. This book includes illustrations of 18th century Venice and several newly translated letters, thoroughly evoking the style of the time and revealing some of the more personal aspects of Vivaldi's life.

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons and Other Concertos, Op. 8 (Cambridge Music Handbooks) The Four Seasons and the rest of the concertos in Op. 8 represent Vivaldi's remarkable innovation in the field of the Baroque concerto. This detailed guide examines the work's origin and construction in a way that enables the reader to distinguish what is extraordinary about the Seasons and what constitutes the composer's customary method of 'characterising' the solo concerto. Drawing on recent research and his own expertise in the appraisal of Vivaldi's manuscripts, the author draws new and sometimes startling conclusions about the conception of the Seasons, the origin of their programme, the dating of the concertos and the rationale behind the collection's ritornello-form structures and aria-like slow movements. The significance of Vivaldi's idiosyncratic art is thus revealed in some of the most popular concert music of all time. Vivaldi Books.

The Chamber Cantatas of Antonio Vivaldi Vivaldi's chamber cantatas for solo voice, some forty in total, are steadily gaining in popularity: but because of their relatively small place in the oeuvre of a composer famed for his productivity, and also on account of the general scholarly neglect of their genre, they are little discussed in the literature. This book comprehensively explores their literary and musical background, their relation to the composer's biography, the chronology of their composition, and their musical qualities. Each cantata is discussed individually, but there is also a broader consideration of aspects concerning them collectively, such as performance practice, topical allusion, and the conventions of Italian verse. The author argues that while Vivalid's cantatas are not as innovative as his concertos and operas, he produced several masterpieces in the genre that rank with his best music.

Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest of Venice Written for students and lovers of music in general this study of the life of Vivaldi is a translation o f Karl Heller''s 1991 edition that marked the 250th anniversa ry of the composer''s death. This edition offers new perspect ives on the composer. Vivaldi Books.

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