Birth

 

Antonio Vivaldi was born in 1678 in Venice, Italy.  He was one of six children of Giovanni, a barber turned professional violinist, and Camilla, a domestic engineer.  From the time of his birth Vivaldi's health was not very good. It is believed that he had some form of asthma.  Since there was no medicine for asthma at that time, and Vivaldi could not play outside with the other children, his father taught him to play the violin.  He became very good and performed in concerts with his father throughout Venice. 

 

 

During His Lifetime

 

At the age of 15 Vivaldi began training to become a priest, and was ordained at age 25.  He was known as the The Red Priest because of his red hair.  Due to his health, he was given a dispensation from priestly duties three years later.  Although he remained a priest for the rest of his life, he actually worked in a girls orphanage as a violin teacher.  Vivaldi worked in the orphanage for over 30 years, and most of his music was written for the girls who lived there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several things happened during Vivaldi's lifetime that you might have heard about before today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Death

 

Although Vivaldi had been quite successful during his early career, he experienced financial difficulties during his later years.  In fact, he was impoverished when he died at age 63 while living in Vienna in 1741, and was buried in a simple grave in a cemetary owned by the public hospital fund.  His grave site has since been demolished and is now the site of a Technical Institute - only a small plaque on the side of a building's wall denotes Vivaldi was buried somewhere in the vicinity.

 

 

 

 

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Type of Music

 

Vivaldi was a composer during the Baroque Period.  He was employed as a violin teacher/music director at a girls orphanage for most of his adult life, which meant he was responsible for composing music for the girls that lived there.  Below are two YouTube videos that describes Vivaldi's life and music in more detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most Famous Music

 

Vivaldi's most famous piece of music is his Four Seasons, which is a group of four violin concertos depicting scenes appropriate for each season.  These concertos are considered Program Music because they convey the sounds, events, and feelings of winter, spring, summer and autumn. In fact, Vivaldi wrote sonnets to match each season to describe what he was thinking while he composed each movement of each concerto (click icons below to view).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music in Pop Culture

 

Vivaldi's music has been used a few times in popular culture.  Click Vivaldi's pop art portrait to see video examples.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Listening

 

The videos below are great examples of Vivaldi's most famous music, the Four Seasons.