Antonio Vivaldi Biography

Latest news biography Antonio Luchio Vivaldi is an Italian composer who embodied in his work all the sophistication and bizarre of the aesthetics of the Baroque era. He left a rich musical heritage, which was unfairly forgotten for almost two centuries. Vivaldi lived a life full of paradoxes.

His society was enjoyed by nobles and kings, while he spent his last days in poverty. The sacred dignity and the pressure of the Inquisition did not prevent the maestro prevent the maestro with the time and create works in which a love of life was sung. The childhood and youth of Antonio was born on March 4 in Venice in the family of the barber and musician Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and his wife Camilla.

Giovanni was a native of Breshia, and at ten years old he settled in Venice with his mother. In those days, the bargains shaved, cut, curled, and imprisoned customers, and also entertained them with playing music. Vivaldi Sr. combined hairdresser with a violin game. He became a violinist in the Cathedral of St. Mark at that time - the court chapel, his name is also listed in the list of the founders of the musical society and even on the title sheet of one opera dated year.

The director of the aforementioned society was the composer and author of the opera Giovanni Legrenzi. Based on these facts, the compilers of Vivaldi’s biography came to the conclusion that the composer owed the composer and the first steps in the musical field to his father who instilled his love for the violin and handed over his own skills, ideal hearing and skill of the game. There is also a version that young Antonio studied with Giovanni Legrenzi.

The circumstances of the birth of Vivaldi Jr. allowed to find out the exact date of its birth. The fact is that the boy was born prematurely, in the seventh month. The midwife, who took birth, advised to immediately baptize the child in case of sudden death. A couple of hours after birth, the sacrament of baptism was performed, as evidenced by the record in the church book.

Embed from Getty images Antonio Vivaldi in his youth according to legend, on that day an earthquake occurred in Venice, and the child was born a previous time. Camilla allegedly vowed to give her son to the clergy, if he does not die. Surprisingly, despite the poor health, which distinguished him from three sisters and two brothers, Antonio survived. As a child, it was difficult for the boy to move due to asthma, and wind instruments were also banned.

But his favorite violin was at his full disposal. The future composer from his father studied music. There is no information about other places where he received education. From the age of ten, Antonio replaced Vivaldi Sr., playing in the chapel of St. Mark. From the age of 13, the teenager served at the temple, opening his gates. In the future, the young man was dedicated to higher church posts.

He served the Mass only once, he had a relief due to poor health, and Antonio got the opportunity to devote himself to music. In those days, Venetian priests combined the spelling of concerts, spiritual music with the service of God. This was considered as natural as the presence of musical instruments in each barber. In the XVII century, the Republic of Venice was one and the most enlightened and cultural states of the world, and in the field of opera, secular and spiritual music set the tone of the rest of Europe.

The conservatories were then referred to the schools at monasteries, where orphans and children were studied, whose parents were not able to provide them. These schools from the republic’s funds were financed. Shelters for girls specialized in the humanities, special attention was paid to singing, music, the performance of spiritual melodies, psalms and chants. The boys from whom traders and artisans were trained, taught accurate sciences.

Antonio became a master of violin for the young pupils of the shelter, and then the Alta teacher. His duties included a monthly writing concerts, a cantata, vocal works for soloists and choir, as well as the creation of new oratorios and concerts for each church holiday. In addition, the teacher personally dealt with orphans of music, playing instruments and vocals.

All these years, the composer worked tirelessly. Only for the shelter they have written more than 60 works, including cantata, concerts for solo, choral, orchestral performances. In the years, the Venetian publishers published two opuses of Vivaldi 12 sonata, 12 concerts called "Harmonic inspiration". In the same years, they first heard about the young and talented composer outside Italy.

In M, Vivaldi spoke at the French embassy, ​​and three years later his oratorio was listened to by the Danish king Frederick IV, to whom Antonio subsequently dedicated 12 sonatas. In M, the musician met with the German composer Gottfried Shtölice, and five years later for three years he moved to Mantus at the invitation of Prince Philip Hesse-Darmstadt.

Since the year, Vivaldi was carried away by a new form of musical art - a secular opera. The first opera he wrote was Otton on the villa.The talented young man was noticed by the impresario and philanthropists, and soon Antonio received the order of the owner of the San Angelo Theater for a new opera. Embed from getty images possible a possible color portrait of Antonio Vivaldi at the request of the composer, in the period from for the year he wrote 94 opera, but only 50 scores with a confirmed authorship of the great Vivaldi have reached this day.

The author was waiting for a stunning success, but secular glory was short -lived. The Venetian public sophisticated in music soon found new idols, and Antonio operas went out of fashion. Milan visited Maestro, where he introduced the drama "Sylvia", and the next year he returned with the oratorio on a biblical theme. From the year, Vivaldi lived in Rome, where he wrote new operas and performed in front of the dad at the personal invitation.

For a musician-servant, this event was a great honor. In the years, Vivaldi wrote the famous violin concerts, erroneously called the “times of the year” the correct name - “four seasons”. Each of them is dedicated to spring, winter, summer and autumn. According to most critics and researchers, these concerts are the pinnacle of the creativity of the maestro and the manifesto of the Baroque style in music.

The revolutionaryness of brilliant works is that the human ear clearly captures in music a reflection of the processes and phenomena characteristic of a particular season. So, in the song of the violin you can hear the noise of the storm and barking of dogs, a mosquito squeak and the streams of streams, children's voices, trill of birds and even the drop of the skater on ice.

Tours and wanderings led the maestro to get acquainted with the Austrian emperor Charles VI. The monarch was a great fan of Vivaldi's work, and friendly relations began between them. Surprisingly, as the composer’s popularity in his homeland, in Venice decreased, his glory grew in Europe, at the courts of the French and Austrian kings. At the end of her life, luck left a brilliant composer, and he was forced to sell his sonatas for a penny, just not to vegetate in poverty.

Disappointed in the Venetians who fell out of loving his creations, Antonio decided to move to Vienna, under the wing of the highest admirer of his talent - Charles VI. Unfortunately, soon after the composer moved to Vienna, the emperor died, then the war began, and they forgot about the maestro. Personal life as a clergyman Antonio Vivaldi vowed celibacy, so there is no need to talk about his personal life.

Vivaldi was an Anna teacher and mentor, who, according to his contemporaries, attracted the attention of the public not by force and a range of voice, but by acting. For this girl, the composer wrote the best of the operas, composed the arias and spent time with her at home and traveling. The sister of Anna, Paolina, idolized the maestro and became with him a voluntary nurse and a nurse, helping to cope with congenital ailments and bodily weakness.

For a long time, the highest clergy looked through the fingers at the hobby of maestro with secular music and operas, but it could not forgive him for a constant stay of two young girls. In the year, the Cardinal Archician of Ferrara, where the next carnival with unchanged operas was supposed to take place, did not let Vivaldi and his companions into the city, and also ordered the Mass to serve due to the composer's fall.

Death is a brilliant composer died in poverty and loneliness in a foreign land, in Vienna. His life broke off on July 28. The notes of the quarterly doctor showed the cause of death - internal inflammation. Vivaldi's property was described and sold for debts, and the body was buried in a cemetery for the poor. Only a month after the death of Antonio, his younger sisters received sad news.

Memory after the death of Vivaldi his name was undeservedly forgotten. Perhaps only Johann Sebastian Bach sincerely and deeply loved the music of the Italian, for a long time remaining his only true admirer. Bach deciphered ten concerts of Antonio for various instruments and an orchestra, and the legacy of the Venetian composer had a tangible influence on the work of the virtuoso organist.

A great merit in the study and opening of Vivaldi masterpieces for descendants belongs to the Italian musician Alberto Gentley, who discovered 14 volumes of the composer's works at the beginning of the 20th century. A new wave of popularity of the composer has begun. His works have found a response in the hearts of contemporaries of the new century. Antonio Vivaldi - “Seasons” There are several images of Antonio, one of which is presented at the expositions at the Bologna International Museum of Music.

The only color portrait of Vivaldi, which is familiar to everyone from the photo in the textbooks, may well be an image of a completely different person in the picture. The initials are not indicated, and the portrait itself does not look like other portraits of the composer. The picture was called "Red Priest". The composer’s name was used in astronomy in his honor named a crater on Mercury, in computer technology when creating a browser.

The initials of the musician are assigned to the Institute in the Italian Siena. In cinema, the image of Vivaldi was used already in the 21st century.Biographical dramas of French and Italian filmmakers were created about the composer. And in Russia an animated film “Tales of the Old Piano appeared. Antonio Vivaldi. "