Winter – Concerto in f-minor
Allegro non molto
Shivering, frozen mid the frosty snow in biting, stinging winds;
running to and fro to stamp one’s icy feet, teeth chattering in the bitter chill.
Largo
To rest contentedly beside the hearth, while those outside are drenched by pouring rain.
Allegro
We tread the icy path slowly and cautiously, for fear of tripping and falling.
Then turn abruptly, slip, crash on the ground and, rising, hasten on across the ice lest it cracks up.
We feel the chill north winds coarse through the home despite the locked and bolted doors…
this is winter, which nonetheless brings its own delights. (VIVALDI: “Four Seasons” Sonnets texts in Italian & English, n.d.)
The four season is a group of four violin concerti written by an Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). Each of the violin concerti gives musical expression to a season of the year. The piece written around 1716-1717 and published in 1725 in Amsterdam.
Concerto No.4 in F minor, op.8, RV 297, “Winter”
This piece has three parts. First is Allegro non molto (in F minor). Vivaldi brilliantly reflects the biting cold, gusting wind, trembling bodies and chattering teeth on the violin. The first notes describe with a smooth and persistent rhythm the slow fall of the snowflakes. The violins reflect the teeth chattering caused by the intense cold. Then we listen to a gust of wind that shakes the fall of the snowflakes in the first violin solo. At the end of this part, little by little the force of the music increases and end with a great theme.
The second movement is called Rain and is Largo (in Eb major). The music excellently reflects a rainy winter day. We can imagine as we are sitting in our house next to the fireplace while outside is very cold, windy and rainy. While the violin solo plays a beautiful melody, which describes the warm and cosy home with a feeling of happiness, the rest of the instruments represents the rhythmically falling rain.
Third movement is Allegro on F minor. It begins with a violin solo than the orchestra appears imitating a smooth burst of wind that gradually grows until reaching great force, and the terrible winter storm arrives. The snow drifts of the North are interpreted by the violin solo and the orchestra, finishing in a great and beautiful ending.
Reference
2010. Antonio Vivaldi – Winter (Full) – The Four Seasons. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZCfydWF48c> [Accessed 16 February 2021]
Baroquemusic.org. n.d. VIVALDI: “Four Seasons” Sonnets texts in Italian & English. [online] Available at: <https://www.baroquemusic.org/vivaldiseasons.html> [Accessed 16 February 2021]
Aname 