A. Vivaldi - Collection
Spring from The Four Seasons
for Flute and Strings
This Collection contains:
- Vivaldi’s “Spring” from “The Four Seasons” (transposed to Eb Major from the original key of E Major);
- the 2nd Movement of “Winter” from “The Four Seasons”;
- the 2nd & 3rd Movements “La Notte (“The Night” - Op. 10, No. 2)
- the “Badinerie” from Bach’s “Suite in B Minor” BWV 1067 (transposed to C Minor from the original key of B Minor); and - the “Badinerie” from Bach’s “Suite in B Minor” BWV 1067 in the original key (B Minor);
- “Spring” from “The Four Seasons” (in the original key of E Major).
Antonio Vivaldi, violinist and composer, was born on March 4, 1678, in Venice, Italy and died on July 28,1741 in Vienna, Austria. He was nicknamed “the red priest” because of his red hair and the fact that he had been ordained as a priest at St. Mark’s Chapel in Venice in 1703 (because of poor health, he was excused from active service as a priest in 1704). Of the composers of the Baroque Period (1600-1750) in music, Vivaldi is most remembered for his concertos - he wrote over 500! Most of his concertos were for the violin (The Four Seasons are but 4 of more than 230) but he also wrote concertos for other instruments, such as: viola (6), cello (27), mandolin (2), trumpet, oboe (17), bassoon (37), piccolo (3) and, of course, the flute (16).
Although for almost 200 years after his death, Vivaldi’s music fell into virtual obscurity, his influence on the solo concerto was widespread. His use of three movements (fast, slow, fast) and ritornello form (a refrain, alternating with solo episodes) was copied and developed by his successors. Vivaldi only assigned opus numbers to his published works; in 1733, after opus 12, he stated that he wasn’t going to publish any further because it interfered with the sale of his manuscripts (from which he received more money). The Il Pastor Fido, Op. 13 (“The Faithful Shepherd”) sonatas are considered spurious, constructed from parts of works by Vivaldi, in addition to Joseph Meck (1690-1758) and Giuseppe M. Alberti (1685-1751); the Alberti Bass pattern, used by Vivaldi and other Baroque and Classical composers is named for Domenico Alberti (1710-1740, no relation to Giuseppe), who was the first composer to employ it.
Opus 10 is a collection of 6 flute concertos published 4 years later by Vivaldi, in 1729-30, in Amsterdam - the first flute concertos ever published. The 2nd and 3rd movements from the 2nd Concerto Opus 10, No. 2 - La Notte (“The Night”) have been included. They are segue (to be played as one); the 2nd movement has the title Fantasmi (“phantoms”). For the 5th movement of La Notte (titled Il Sonno - “sleep”), Vivaldi used two sections (1-17 & 31-39) from the 2nd movement of Autumn from The Four Seasons (which also depicts sleep - “sweet slumber”).
Johann Sebastian Bach, composer, violinist and keyboard virtuoso, was born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany and died on July 28, 1750 in Leipzig, Germany. Bach admired Vivaldi’s music to the point that he “borrowed” several violin concertos for use as keyboard concertos. Badinerie is the 7th, and final, movement from Orchestral Suite No. 2, written between 1717 and 1723, while Bach was conductor of the court orchestra at Cöthen.
Several changes have been made in the arrangements in this book: short introductions have been added to most of the pieces; in the 1st movement of Spring, sixteenth note triplets in the solo part (48-56) were changed to sixteenth notes (transposed version only); in Winter the note values have been doubled; and Spring has been transposed down (from 4 sharps to 3 flats) and Badinerie up (from 2 sharps to 3 flats) - Original Key versions have also been included.
In addition to a separate MIDI file for the individual movements, there is a “complete” version of Spring (i.e., the movements will play consecutively, with a brief pause in between); this is for the high resolution versions only - most MIDI players (which use the low resolution versions) already play the files consecutively - see the inside back cover.
Book - 44 pages - 9” X 12” - $19.95
CD - 20 Audio tracks & 13 MIDI Files
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