Musical Investigation
Vivaldi's "Summer mvt 3: Presto"
Background
Musical Score
The Four Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi's best known work, was composed in 1723 and was first published in 1725.
Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315, "L'estate" (Summer), paints a picture of an Italian summer, with movement 3 portraying a violent storm. The concerti are said to be based off of 4 sonnets, which are thought to be written by Vivaldi himself. SUMMER (CONCERTO NO. 2)
Mvt. 1 Under the merciless sun
Languishes man and flock; the pine tree burns,
The cuckoo begins to sing and at once
Join in the turtle doves and the goldfinch.
A gentle breeze blows, but Boreas
Joins battle suddenly with his neighbour,
And the shepherd weeps because overhead
Hangs the dreaded storm, and his destiny.
Mvt. 2 His tired limbs are robbed of their rest
By his fear of the lightning and the heavy thunder
And by the furious swarm of flies and hornets.
Mvt. 3 Alas, his fears are well founded
There is thunder and lightning in the sky
And the hail cuts down the lofty ears of corn.
| Melody | The melody is very disjunct, with constant skips
and leaps throughout the violin lines. The skips and leaps are not
chosen randomly, but are more often than not chromatic  .
The disjunct nature of the melody causes it to be unlyrical, as the range is too great,
especially in solo parts   . The solo violin line sounds as if it tends
to stay in the higher tessitura of the piece’s range because of the speed at which
the sixteenth notes are played, though the range is actually quite broad .
The piece does not use any melisma. The melody is echoed with strict imitation
at two instances in the piece, near the beginning  and near the end  . |
| Harmony | This piece is in the key of G minor with some
tonicizations at some points   . The chords are consonant. A few places in the piece have no harmony at all due to the fact that every instrument is playing the same thing. This can be seen at the very beginning of the piece  , where each line starts on the tonic, and near the end  where the same thing is imitated on the fourth. |
| Rhythm | This piece is in 3/4 time, a simple triple meter.
The tempo is marked as presto, hence the name of this movement – "Presto.”
Throughout the entire piece, only rarely can anything but a set of sixteenth
notes be seen, along with occasional eighth notes and a few bars of quarter note
accompaniment to a solo |
| Timbre | The timbre is dark, which is created by the key of the piece and the dark, heavy tones of the instruments  . However, there
are some brighter moments, created by higher notes and a tonicization to a
major key . No extended techniques are used to change the timbre. One
would expect profuse vibrato from a piece comprised of only string
instruments, but there actually are no moments of vibrato. The only technique
used in this piece is bowing. |
| Form | The form of this piece is ABA. The first section
is played, with a varied middle section. The last section is an imitation of
the first section. |
| Texture | The texture varies between thick and thin, with up to 5 moving lines at a time. The only instruments used are strings – a principle violin, first and second violin, viola, and cello. The principal violin plays with the group and as the soloist. As stated in the harmony section, there are parts where each line plays the same thing, creating monophony . However, aside from the monophonic moments and the solos, the piece is homophonic. |
