Background
Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian composer during the baroque period. He wrote a huge amount of music, including more than 40 operas. He most well known for his writing for string orchestra in the “Four Seasons”. For more stuff about Vivaldi click here.
Concerto Grosso – musical composition featuring a group of musicians accompanied by an orchestra.
Instrumentation
Concerto Grosso in D minor consists of two violins and cello with a string orchestra and a continuo (which had to read figured bass). The piece is written for a standard trio sonata group, but the actual instrumentation is not fixed, meaning that the melody instruments could be changed. The cello, however, was always included. The continuo (possibly harpsichord or organ) would harmonise by improvising over the figured bass. It was common for the continuo to consist of two instruments and so a trio sonata can be played by four musicians.
Wider Listening for trio sonata music:
- Arcangelo Corelli – Trio Sonata in D major, Opus 3, no.2
- George Handel – Trio Sonata in G Minor, Opus 2, no 6
Structure
1st Movement
- Fast
- Introductory section for 2 unaccompanied violins leading into solo cello section
2nd Movement
- Starts with tutti (slow) chordal section
- Fugal style ritornello (to return) type section.
- An episode for the soloists (concestino)
- Another ritornello
- Final Tutti
3rd Movement
- Slow and in a siciliano rhythm
- Type of ternary form (tutti – solo – tutti)
4th Movement
- Fast
- Starts with unaccompanied violins
- Cello Solo
- Alternates between episodes for solos and tutti sections
Texture
- Two Part cannon at movement 1
- Homophony (such as at the start of mvt 2)
- Flugal Style (contrapuntal)
- IMITATION
Rhythm and Texture
- Changes metre:
- Mvt 1 in 3/4
- Mvt 2 in 4/4
- Mvt 3 in 12/8
Melody
- Melodic melodies are elaborately decorated (e.g mvt 1 bar 16)
- Scalic passages
- Short motifs
- Juxtaposed leaps
- Chromatic melody
- Outline circles of 5ths
- Sequences (common feature of vivaldi)
- Broken Chords
- Terraced dynamics
Harmony
- Use of pedals
- Use of chromatic descending bass lines
- Triads in root positions/1st inversion
- Use of figured bass
- Perfect cadences define keys
- Circles of 5ths (common with Vivaldi)
- 2nd Mvt contains the most colourful harmony with the use of secondary dominants in slow section, use of 7th chords in bars 3 and the use of a neopolitan 6th
- Sequence of suspensions
Tonality
- All movements are in D minor but modulate to related keys, particularly G minor (subdominant) and A major (dominant)
- F minor is a more remote key used in mvt 3
Jack Williams Music 