Music of the Week - December 8 - 12, 2003
and January 5 - 9, 2004

Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice, Italy in 1678. He lived and worked there for almost his whole life. His father was his first music teacher, teaching him the violin. 

In 1703 he became a priest and a teacher at a school for orphaned girls.   While there, he wrote music for his weekly concerts.  The Four Seasons (1725) is his best known and most popular work. 

Vivaldi wrote a massive amount of music, including concertos, sonatas, operas, and religious music.  He wrote his music during the Baroque period.

Vivaldi died in Vienna, Austria in 1741.

The Four Seasons: Winter

1. 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.

2. Largo
To rest contentedly beside the hearth, while those outside are drenched by pouring rain.

3. 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.

Antonio Vivaldi

St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Italy

Can you find Venice on this map of Italy?