Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741) was an Italian
Baroque musical composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher,
and priest. Born in Venice, the capital of the Venetian
Republic, he is regarded as one of the greatest Baroque
composers, and his influence during his lifetime was
widespread across Europe. He composed many instrumental
concertos, for the violin and a variety of other
instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more
than forty operas. His best-known work is a series of
violin concerto...(+)
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741) was an Italian
Baroque musical composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher,
and priest. Born in Venice, the capital of the Venetian
Republic, he is regarded as one of the greatest Baroque
composers, and his influence during his lifetime was
widespread across Europe. He composed many instrumental
concertos, for the violin and a variety of other
instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more
than forty operas. His best-known work is a series of
violin concertos known as the Four Seasons.
The Concerto for strings, RV 129, is one of the more
than 140 concertos Vivaldi composed between 1723 and
1729. The works had been commissioned for performance
by the young female players at the Pio Ospedale della
Pietà in Venice, the orphanage-cum-music conservatory
where Vivaldi had held a teaching appointment in
earlier years. As concerts at the institution
contributed significantly to the Venetian cultural
identity, the school continued to solicit new pieces
from Vivaldi after his departure, requesting an average
of two concertos per month. While the sheer volume of
this output has historically opened Vivaldi to
criticism of being compositionally formulaic and
uninventive, the D minor concerto, RV 129,
distinguishes itself from the majority in a number of
regards. For one thing, it contains not three movements
but four, with the usual fast-slow-fast configuration
prefaced by a short, slow movement. Also, it is one of
a handful of concertos with which the composer supplied
nicknames. This so-called "Madrigalesque" concerto
seeks, in the contour and flow of its melodies, to
create a distinctly vocal quality. In this regard,
though, Vivaldi does prove his comfort with creative
economy and musical expediency: not only are the
melodies song-ish, but some of them are actually
recycled extensively from earlier vocal works.
Considered in this light, the opening Adagio -- with
its diminutive length, languid pace, and ethereal,
yearning harmonic twists -- takes on the feel of an
operatic instrumental introduction to a dramatic vocal
number rather than an independent movement of an
instrumental work. The quick second movement does not
articulate the clear ritornello form for which
Vivaldi's opening Allegro movements are known, but
rather presents an urgent theme subjected to continuous
fugal treatment; this music is borrowed almost entirely
from the second Kyrie eleison from the composer's own
Kyrie in G minor, RV 587. Much like the first movement,
the subsequent Adagio is not so much a proper movement
as an interlude to the concerto's finale. This closing
Allegro is also built upon a borrowed foundation,
transposed and rescored from the finale of Vivaldi's
Magnificat in G minor, RV 610. Though busy and
intricate, this last movement is also brief. In fact,
the concerto as a whole lasts less than
three-and-a-half minutes in most performances. Rather
than relying on the structural and harmonic
expectations established in his other works, the
Concerto madrigalesco takes a decidedly more
emotionally direct, melodically expressive tack.
Source: AllMusic
(https://www.allmusic.com/composition/concerto-madrigal
esco-for-strings-continuo-in-d-minor-rv-129-mc000235757
1 ).
Although originally created for Strings & Basso
Continuo, I created this Arrangement of the Concerto
Madrigalesco in D Minor (RV 129) for Winds (Flute, Oboe
& Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC