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Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice, Italy in 1678 and he died in Vienna, Austria in 1741. He was trained in music when he was a child, but was later ordained as a priest. He was an Italian Baroque composer and musician. At the time, Baroque Music was considered very fancy and ornamental music. It was a shift from the renaissance music period before which was quite simple music. Vivaldi was a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. He was a great violinist as well as a composer. He wrote quite short, memorable pieces for the time. Physically he had a chest condition that made it hard for him to breath, possibly asthma. He composed many operas, for which he may have been famous during his lifetime, but only twenty-two of these survive. His music is quite complicated with a lot of notes and often quite fast paced. Most of his music was composed for talented musical students at the orphanage where he worked. One of his most famous works is The Four Seasons (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRxofEmo3HA ), played with a smaller string orchestra. …show more content…
He was born into a musical family and early on was trained in the violin and singing. He had a very beautiful soprano voice as a child which got him into a very important German musical school and choir. When his voice changed, he focussed his attentions on playing the organ and harpsichord. He became one of the best organists in Germany. He married and had many children. He composed most of his music for the church. One of his most famous works is the Brandenburg Concertos. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLj_gMBqHX8 ). These concertos are played with a smaller string group accompanied by a piano or
Vivaldi wanted to go into priesthood, but due to illness he was unable to continue this pursuit. (Kamien, 2015, p. 126). He spent the rest of his life involved in many aspects of music: teaching, composing, and conducting. It is important to reflect on the composer’s history to gain insight into their perspective. Kamien (2015) describes Vivaldi as a virtuoso violinist which is why he mainly featured violins in his works (p.127).
Antonio Vivaldi born on March 4th 1678, which was the Baroque music style. In 1678 not only was it the baroque period it was also the years just after the Renaissance. 1670s was part of the Age of Abolitionism. The Age of Absolutism was the age when European monarchs struggled to centralize their power. And in Britain the English Civil war and the glorious revolution happened a few years prior to Vivaldi's life. In Russia, Peter the Great and Catherine the great were reforming Europe and trying to improve it. Antonio lived until July 28th 1741, in his life the enlightenment happened, it was the age of reason, philosophy, and age of new music. Great music and composers came out of this era, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Bach, Frederic Chopin, George Handel, Wolfgang Mozart and many more composers. Also under this time ballets and operas became popular to the public. This was the time of the application of the Renaissance. Antonio Vivaldi had an interesting life during this time period, his childhood, his outstanding music and unique style, and influence were special for this time.
According to the article, “Johann Sebastian Bach”, “his Lutheran faith would influence his late musical works.” A tragic event occurred as both of his parents had passed away a few years later, which prompted him to live with his brother’s family. It was there that he continued learning about music. He continued to live there for five years as he left his brother when he was 15. He soon was enrolled in a school at a place called Luneburg. He was enrolled there due to him having “a beautiful soprano singing voice.”(Johann Sebastian Bach) However, as he got older, his voice didn’t sound the way it used to be, so he quickly transitioned back to playing the violin. His first job had also to do with music as he began to work in Weimar as a musician. According to the article, “Johann Sebastian Bach”, there were various jobs he did like serve as a violinist or occasionally fill in
Claudio Monteverdi was born on May 15, 1567, in Cremona Italy, Monteverdi was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and the Early Baroque, and is known as the first great composer of the operas. Monteverdi is often view as a composer of the Renaissance and of the Baroque, there is a similar pattern in that is continuous that is often viewed through his work in both styles. Monteverdi often was known as a dramatic composer, while bringing a tremendous meaning from the text he set that often turned each of his pieces into a believable musical and also produced a dramatic statement.
Some of the most well known composers came to be in the in the classical music period. Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the composers, along with other greats of the time like Haydn and Mozart, which helped to create a new type of music. This new music had full rich sounds created by the new construction of the symphony orchestra.
Gustav Mahler was born in 1860 in the small town of Kalischt, Bohemia. He was a late romantic-era composer. He was one of the leading conductors of his generation. Mahler was a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. In 1897 he was the director of the Vienna Court Opera. He stayed in Vienna for 10 years, but during that time he got a lot of opposition from the Anti- Semitic Press. His awesome productions and high production standards gave him the name of Greatest of Opera Conductors. Composing was only his part time job as living as a conductor was his full time. Most of his pieces are for large orchestra forces, symphonic choruses, and operatic soloists.
While he was taking lessons with Zachau at the Halle Cathedral, Handel became his assistant organist. He followed his father’s wish for him to study law, however after his father died, Handel quit his unwanted pursuit of the career, and eventually moved to Hamburg, Germany which was a major music...
According to Michael Talbot, of Grove Music, as well as the liner notes from the Analekta Classical Music CD, Antonio Vivaldi was born to Giovanni Battista and Camilla Calicchio in Venice in 1678. Giovanni made a profitable living as an accomplished violinist, and became Vivaldi’s main instructor from an early age. The oldest of nine children, Vivaldi led the way in studying music, and became the most musical of his siblings. Vivaldi spent much time learning about and preparing to be ordained to the office of a priest. In 1703, he was ordained a priest, but resigned after just a year due to his acclaimed medical limits (Heller 38-40). For his entire life, Vivaldi struggled with the effects of bronchial asthma and was unable to play wind instruments. Though his asthma was a real issue, there is some question about the actual reason of his resignation. He was often rumored to leave a Mass when inspired with new musical ideas. After serving as a priest, Vivaldi was hired by the Ospedale della Pieta, one of four learning institutions intended for orphaned, abando...
one cantata a week while he was music director at Leipzig. Due to the pace
Extensive travels around Europe significantly improved his skills as a musician an composer, particularly the years he spent in Italy. He was exposed to the best of oratorio, chamber cantata, opera, and instrum...
Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expanded his knowledge in the world of music. He taught him how to play the clavichord and exposed him to great composers at the time. At the age of fourteen, Bach and his good friend George Erdmann were awarded a choral scholarship to the prestigious musical school St. Michael’s in Luneburg. From then on, Bach began to build his career in the music industry. His first two years at the school he sang in the school’s a cappella choir. Historical evidence has shown that Bach at a young age would visit Johanniskirche and would listen to the works of organ player Jasper Johannsen. This was thought to have been the inspiration to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Studying at the prestigious musical school has help Bach network his way around and become acquaintances’ with some of the best organ players at the time such as Georg Böhm, and Johann Adam Reincken. Through his acquaintance with Böhm and Reincken Bach had access to some of the greatest and finest instruments.
Johann Sebastian Bach was a composer, a musician, teacher, and organist who later became a specialist in construction of organs. Bach learnt to play the violin, the orchestra, and the organ from his father and his famous uncle and twin brother to the father, Johann Christoph at a young age. The organ was his chosen instrument. He also achieved success in the art of Fugue, choral polyphone, instrumental music and dance forms. In Eisenach he attended Old Latin Grammar School, the same school that Martin Luther had attended. He sang in the schools choir. His parents died before Bach was 10 years old. His mother died when Bach was nine years old, his father’s death followed nine months later (Sherrane, 2011). After the parents death Bach was taken in by his older brother Johann Christoph who had already established himself as an organist in Ohrdruf. Johann Christoph had a great influence in Bach’s success in music as he taught him and encouraged him to study music composition. At the same time Bach was attending the Gymnasium grammar school in Ohrdruf where he studied theology, Latin...
Besides composing, he also worked as a conductor in Düsseldorf (1833-35) and Leipzig (1835-40). And in 1843, he established a new conservatory in Leipzig. Up to this point, Mendelssohn was already a well-known pianist, composer and conductor.
John Warrack, author of 6 Great Composers, stated, “Any study of a composer, however brief, must have as its only purpose encouragement of the reader to greater enjoyment of the music” (Warrack, p.2). The composers and musicians of the Renaissance period need to be discussed and studied so that listeners, performers, and readers can appreciate and understand the beginnings of music theory and form. The reader can also understand the driving force of the composer, whether sacred or secular, popularity or religious growth. To begin understanding music composition one must begin at the birth, or rebirth of music and the composers who created the great change.
Antonio Vivaldi was born on March 4th, 1678, in Venice, Italy, and died on July 28, 1741, in Vienna, Austria. His father, a barber and a talented violinist at Saint Mark's Cathedral himself, had helped him in trying a career in music and made him enter the Cappella di San Marco orchestra, where he was an appreciated violinist.