Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in A minor [RV522, Op.3, No.8] 1. Allegro (Synthesized)

This video is alternately presented with the Music Animation Machine Midi visualization so you are able to follow along with the music. The voicing is listed as follows: 1st Violin - Yellow 2nd Violin - Lime Green Violin I - Turquoise Violin II - Teal Viola - Blue Cello - Mauve Double Bass - Pink Harpsichord - Orange During the time when Vivaldi was stated at the Ospedale della Pieta, the famous Venetian home for wayward and abandoned young girls, he not only taught violin, he also developed an instrumental ensemble that became renowned for its spirited and professional playing. In 1709 he had become Maestro del Concerti, which meant that he was the official composer for the Ospedale "with the duty of teaching the girls the art of composing and performing concertos." This position allowed Vivaldi to engage in a great deal of experimentation in terms of his compositions, since he had an orchestra on hand to tryout new works. And due to these opportunities, he became particularly renowned for his contributions to the development of the concerto form. A concerto is an instrumental composition for solo instrument(s), and is often structured in three movements with the sequence fast-slow-fast. The accompaniment for a concerto typically is an orchestra. Prior to Vivaldi, many elements of the concerto were not standardized (the more weighty Roman model of Corelli, for example). Vivaldi helped establish the lighter "Venetian" model of the three movement form, as well as inner features of the movements. In his lifetime, Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) wrote an estimated 500 instrumental concertos. The first published set of these concertos was named "L'estro armonico," roughly, "The Harmonic Inspiration." Vivaldi dedicated it to Ferdinando III de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany. (Dedications were often a way to try to gain favour - and financial support of prominent patrons). Although Vivaldi sold much of his music through commissioned manuscripts, he also gained some profit from the printed sales of his compositions. And so this work became the most influential and innovative collection of orchestral music of the first half of the eighteenth century and had a tremendous impact on composers in Northern Europe. It was published as his "Opus No. 3" around 1710-11 in Amsterdam by Estienne Roger, one of the most esteemed printers of music in all of Europe, and its appearance brought Vivaldi fame all over the continent. It also attracted a number of musicians to come to Venice for the purpose of studying violin technique and performance practice under the Master himself. Others paid him the more subtle compliment of making arrangements of his music (such as J.S. Bach, who arranged five of work's concertos for keyboard). Composed of twelve concerti for one, two, or four violins and strings, "L' estro armonico" is a brilliant tribute to Vivaldi's unlimited creative talents and his ability to write concertos that are refreshingly diverse; in all twelve compositions the variety and subtlety of the myriad moods he creates is quite astounding. The eighth work in the set is the Concerto in A minor, RV 522, a three-movement work for two solo violins concertino (one out of four in the set that are "double concertos") plus orchestral ripieno of violins, violas, cello, and basso continuo. The opening Allegro begins with the ripieno ensemble stating a grand and powerful theme that that cascades down an A minor scale and that will be the primary motive used by the strings. In between the tutti sections, the two soloists engage in no less energetic but more introspective "conversations" between themselves, playing both separately and in imitation of each other. The movement is quite lively, but somehow there is dramatic tension in the music rather than joy. It is said that this concerto dramatizes Vivaldi's impressions of the man to whom he dedicated "L'estro armonico," a most distinguished patron of music described as a "champion of debauchery, dissipa­tion, and intemperance." (Incidentally, through his patronage of the instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori, Ferdinando made possible the invention of the piano). In our first music collaboration, my fellow YouTuber Russty sequenced his own version of the piece and gave me the MIDI to do my own "Switched-On" version. I modified some of my basic timbre pre-sets and added some "non-imitative chiff" (a description Wendy Carlos used in her liner notes for 1969's "The Well-Tempered Synthesizer," the follow up to her ground-breaking "Switched-On Bach" of 1968). The "electronic fire flies" as I call them add a breath of extra interest to the kitschy throw-back style of Carlos' early analog Moog work. AS ALWAYS, THE USE OF HEADPHONES WILL GREATLY ENHANCE THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE.