The Story of Antonio Vivaldi - Essay Example

The study of Antonio Vivaldi’s Motet RV 626 < In FuroreGiustissimaeIrae>

The 18th century witnessed a strong musical uprising ushering in the baroque period. Baroque period refers to the period between 1600 to around 1750 when great milestones were made in the musical field in Western Europe. It was marked by drama, flamboyance, and use of ornaments. The name baroque has its origin in Portuguese “barroco” meaning “an irregular pearl”. Its name was suggestive of its features in that it was going to be free of restrictions in its composition and performance. This music style developed as a way of revolution against the existing musical style which was fringe thus baroque was meant to be a less restrictive music style. However, the style still followed the traditional renaissance style as it became more ornate and ostentatious. Baroque music, thereforereferred to music that was confused in harmony, charged with dissonance and modulations, with hash melody and a little unnatural having difficult intonation and constrained movements and featured through bass, oratio and cantata (Buelow 2). Also noticeable at this time was concerto for solo instrument established by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). By analyzing the use of baroque motet in vivaldi’s RV 626, one gains knowledge for practical performance of baroque music today.

Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian baroque composer and violinist who made major contributions to the development of baroque music. Vivaldi was the most revolutionary piece of the baroque era because of his contribution to the era through his development of concerto, solo sonatas and instrumental sinfonias. He is also known for his impressive collection of sacred music including oratorios and motets. He is considered one of the most talented minds in his century (Heller 15). Among his major masterpiece is his solo motet in RV 626 which is one of his eleven motets. This is one of his musical collections composed during one of his visits to Rome. Being an ordained Catholic priest, Vivaldi adopted religious theme in most of his compositions. Having been brought up by a musician father, he learned most of his musical skills from his father and even had his first performance with his father. He later grew up to become an accomplished musician with outstanding compositions of time.

To start with, baroque music had similar common characteristics. First, the music had grandiose dimension. The instruments used in baroque music were majorly large in size and grandiose. The artists were keen on ensuring the instruments were as fine as possible to be splendidly impressive. No flaws were encouraged in the instruments. A good example is the important place of the pipe organ which was one of the most powerful and largest musical organs during that time. Vivaldi himself was a good violin player. His skills in violin playing were refined by years of training and performing. This is evident in his original composition RV626 which was composed in Rome, Italy.

Secondly, the style was associated with specific costume worn during performance. Baroque period was not only marked with musical style but also with the trend in fashion. The style adopted in this era was more ornamental and less restrictive compared with the previous era. An example of the fashion during baroque period is as per the image below.

Accessed from: https://historyofeuropeanfashion.wordpress.com/category/baroquerococo-1650-1800/

The clothing were less restrictive as they had flexible stays, accompanied with ornaments, laces, having several colors and even had floral prints on them.

The third characteristic is the religious intensity of the music. The baroque music mostlycarries religious messages as they originated from religious practices. During the period of development of baroque music, there was widespread religious conflict between the Catholics and Protestants. While the Protestants dominated the northern part of Europe, Catholics dominated the south. Any action by one group led o counteraction by the other group to ensure they remained relevant. A reform carried out by Protestants prompted the Catholic Church to carry out reforms thus the adoption of baroque and other artistic work in the Catholic Church (Hoofer 79). These reforms are accountable for Vivaldi’s numerous performances in the Roman Catholic Church.the new reforms adopted organ elaboration in their organ hymns. More specifically, RV 626 was written during his visit to Rome, where he was passing a message of repentance to the people recognizing God’s anger at the sins of men. RV 626 addressed God and Jesus directly, thus adding to its religious aspect. The music was addressing religious issues beyond the normal musical performance (Talbot 189).The style of performance, which had actions accompanying the words, made the music stand out different from other previous Renaissance music.

Furthermore, monody was also a major characteristic of the baroque music. This made it different from its predecessor the Renaissance music that practiced polyphony in its performance. Homophony ensured one voice was adopted in the music as the main voice expressed the message being conveyed by the musicwith few musical accompaniments.Baroque motet emphasized on solo voice parts and participation of instruments (Swain 198). One major instrument was adopted for the performance to accompany the solo performance, tornal variation was also applied in the motet to make the music interesting and communicate the right message both in the words and the tone. RV 626 was performed by only one voice using high pitched soprano voice. The original composition was intentionally designed to have one voice do the singing in order to have the message out loud and clear. Additionally, few instruments accompany this piece with the violin being the major instrument originally meant to accompany this music. Vivaldi was a violin player thus he would play the violin in his musical performance while a solo voice would do the singing.

An understanding of the baroque music during the time of Vivaldi can be done best through using actual examples from RV 626. During the baroque period, few musicians studied instruments and voice, butthe composition of the music was never taught at that time (Hoffer 81). Therefore, to be able to learn how to compose music, young boys who were upcoming musicians would spend time with already established musicians copying their work as part of the musical learning process. Vivaldi did not attend any formal music school; he learnt the art of writing and performing music from his father who was a professional violinist (Fritz 1702). His father was generous with information teaching him everything he knew about violin. Additionally, he would take him along to perform in different parts of Venice. Through continued practice and performance, he was able to develop his unique style of music.

Moreover, the music was always expected to be new and original thus composers had plenty of writing to do. Music was composed on demand, thus composers had to work extra hard to produce good music. Most composers depended on patronage system to sell their music whereby they would compose music specifically for their employer. Due to the short notice given to composers resulting from music on demand, they were used to using shorthand writing where not all notes were written in a chord.With time, established composers arose and would publish their music before selling as opposed to composing for an employer. Vivaldi is among these composers who operated as freelncers and would sell their published composition to willing buyers. Vivaldi has a large collection of music as per his long music career; every performance needed a new composition. He would compose songs for every occasion as per the request of the client. In RV 626, the Roman Catholic Church was the target of the music, though it is not clear whether he was selling to them or just writing for the church. Therefore, the music has to suit the purpose of the church that is to remind believers of their sinful nature and call them to repent.

Further, composers depended on their own themes to develop music while at times would use another composer’s theme. Further, tiny details of the music were given little attention since most of these composers would perform the music themselves. Vivaldi was a Catholic believer and as stated earlier, he had even been ordained as a priest. Therefore, most of his music had religious themes. The religious theme of his work is evident in the RV 626 composition where he is conveying a Christian religious message. In addition, he visited Rome on several occasions and composed songs in the process to suit the religious occasion. He enjoyed using tonal symmetry in his work so as to marry the written movements in keys and actual outer movements (Brover-Lubovsky263). This was his unique preferred style of composition and performance.

So, how was the baroque music performed? During that time, there were no theatres for public performances thus public performances were rare. Most of this music was performed in churches and palaces. Additionally, there were no leaders conducting the instrumentalists, only a head node by the keyboard player would indicate the beginning of a performance. Most players had limited skills given that the majority of them did music as part time and had other jobs to attend to. Worse still, most musical instruments were not fully developed, for example brasses had no valve to be able to produce pitches that were not part of their basic overtone series. The performers were also expected to be able to improvise complicated intricate music. Ornaments to the melody were a common addition by the singers and instrumentalists. However, irrespective of the challenges during this musical era, there were outstanding composers and singers of the baroque period such as Antonio Vivaldi. His work stands out in as being intricate and improvised as evidence in the RV 626. He even received royal approval for his work (Everett 3). The design of the motet makes it stand out by itself through the message in the music, the tonal variation and the rhythm. He is able to combine all three elements in one piece of work to bring out an outstanding performance of solo motet. It ends with a vigorous Alleluia to balance the music that was a combination of stormy and slow movements and sounds. Vivaldi was a composer who chose specific singer Anna Giroto perform his work. He would move from one city to another performing with his singer his original work. He would perform in palaces, churches and even for individuals who wanted his published music. With time, he would stop publishing his music and opted to sell the manuscripts directly to willing buyers. Though he had no specific permanent job throughout his career, he stuck to his career in music; he would compose and play the violin in his original composition. Vivaldi is known for his unique ability to compose very fast on demand. Occasionally, he would teach young upcoming musicians (Fritz 1729). Though his career eventually declined towards the end and he died poor, his legacy was later revived in the 19th century through the discovery of his original compositions.

An understanding of the baroque music during the time of Vivaldi can be done best through using actual examples from RV 626. During the baroque period, few musicians studied instruments and voice, butthe composition of the music was never taught at that time (Hoffer 81). Therefore, to be able to learn how to compose music, young boys who were upcoming musicians would spend time with already established musicians copying their work as part of the musical learning process. Vivaldi did not attend any formal music school; he learnt the art of writing and performing music from his father who was a professional violinist (Fritz 1702). His father was generous with information teaching him everything he knew about violin. Additionally, he would take him along to perform in different parts of Venice. Through continued practice and performance, he was able to develop his unique style of music.

Moreover, the music was always expected to be new and original thus composers had plenty of writing to do. Music was composed on demand, thus composers had to work extra hard to produce good music. Most composers depended on patronage system to sell their music whereby they would compose music specifically for their employer. Due to the short notice given to composers resulting from music on demand, they were used to using shorthand writing where not all notes were written in a chord.With time, established composers arose and would publish their music before selling as opposed to composing for an employer. Vivaldi is among these composers who operated as freelncers and would sell their published composition to willing buyers. Vivaldi has a large collection of music as per his long music career; every performance needed a new composition. He would compose songs for every occasion as per the request of the client. In RV 626, the Roman Catholic Church was the target of the music, though it is not clear whether he was selling to them or just writing for the church. Therefore, the music has to suit the purpose of the church that is to remind believers of their sinful nature and call them to repent.

Further, composers depended on their own themes to develop music while at times would use another composer’s theme. Further, tiny details of the music were given little attention since most of these composers would perform the music themselves. Vivaldi was a Catholic believer and as stated earlier, he had even been ordained as a priest. Therefore, most of his music had religious themes. The religious theme of his work is evident in the RV 626 composition where he is conveying a Christian religious message. In addition, he visited Rome on several occasions and composed songs in the process to suit the religious occasion. He enjoyed using tonal symmetry in his work so as to marry the written movements in keys and actual outer movements (Brover-Lubovsky263). This was his unique preferred style of composition and performance.

So, how was the baroque music performed? During that time, there were no theatres for public performances thus public performances were rare. Most of this music was performed in churches and palaces. Additionally, there were no leaders conducting the instrumentalists, only a head node by the keyboard player would indicate the beginning of a performance. Most players had limited skills given that the majority of them did music as part time and had other jobs to attend to. Worse still, most musical instruments were not fully developed, for example brasses had no valve to be able to produce pitches that were not part of their basic overtone series. The performers were also expected to be able to improvise complicated intricate music. Ornaments to the melody were a common addition by the singers and instrumentalists. However, irrespective of the challenges during this musical era, there were outstanding composers and singers of the baroque period such as Antonio Vivaldi. Read More