Antonio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678, Venice - July 28, 1741, Vienna), nicknamed Il Prete Rosso, was an Italian priest and music composer.
His father, a barber and a talented violinist himself (some have said he was a virtuoso), had helped him in trying a career in music and made him enter the Cappella di San Marco orchestra, where he was an appreciated violinist.
In 1703 Vivaldi became a priest, soon nicknamed Il Prete Rosso, "The Red Priest", probably because of his red hair. In 1704 he was given a dispensation from celebrating the Holy Mass because of his ill-health (he suffered from asthma), and became a violin teacher at an orphanage for girls called Ospedale della Pietà in Venice. The orphans little after started to gain appreciation and esteem, abroad too; Vivaldi wrote for them most of his concertos, cantate and sacred music. In 1705 the first collection (raccolta) of his works was published. Many others would follow. At the orphanage he covered several different duties, with the only interruption for his many travels, and in 1713 became responsible for the musical activity of the institute. He was indeed a prolific composer and is most well-known for composing:
- over 500 concertos (210 of which for violin or violoncello solo),
- 46 Operas,
- sinfonias,
- 73 sonatas,
- chamber music (even if some sonatas for flute, as Il Pastor Fido have been erronously attributed to him, but were composed by Cedeville) and
- sacred music ("oratorio" Juditha Triumphans, written for Pietà, two Gloria, the Stabat Mater, the Nisi Dominus, the Beatus Vir, the Magnificat, the Dixit Dominus and others);
- his most famous work is perhaps Le Quattro Stagioni (the Four Seasons).
Vivaldi's music, together with Mozart's, Tchaikovsky's and Corelli's, has been included in the theories of Alfred Tomatis on the effects of music on human behaviour, and used in music therapy.
Selected works