Antonio Vivaldi, a Venetian-born composer and violinist, published arguably his most famous concerto “The Four Seasons” in 1725. This was towards the end of the Baroque Era, a musical era typified by the development of musical keys, the refinement of polyphony, and the heavy implementation of ornamentation. “La Primavera”, Italian for “Spring”, is the first of the four seasons in Vivaldi’s famous concerto and falls very much in line with these Baroque characteristics. It is, along with all of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”, program music. A series of poems, possibly written by Vivaldi himself, were intended to accompany the performance of each ‘season’ (“Antonio Vivaldi: A Detailed..”). These poems were intended to reinforce the emotions conveyed by each respective season. Due to the great length of the piece, only the first movement of “La Primavera” will be analyzed in detail.
“La Primavera” is a violin concerto written to exemplify the season of spring. It features a traditional string quartet (two violins, a viola, and a cello), an additional solo violinist, and a harpsichord. It is written in common time (4/4) and is classified as quadruple meter (4 distinct beats per measure). The melody for the first movement is primarily conjunct, with few leaps greater than a fifth. It is distinctly Baroque in style; featuring only two main dynamics (forte and piano), with occasional ornamentation of the melody (in the form of trills and mordents), and the basso continuo part, played by the harpsichord and cello, features figured bass.
