Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi has been one of my favorite composed works of all time. As a violinist himself, Antonio Vivaldi has always been one of my most admired musicians and composers. Since I started playing the violin 6, I have played lots of violin pieces written by him. In high school, my friends and I formed a chamber ensemble group, and we chose to play Concerto No.1 in E Major “Spring” for our first performance. We ended up performing it multiple times at my school’s Christmas Eve show (I went to high school in China), New Year Gala, and a charity show. That was definitely my best memory in high school.

If I were to describe Four Seasons to someone who has never heard it before, I would just use the form of storytelling. Vivaldi wrote a short poem for each movement of each concerto in Four Seasons. When listening to the first movement I noticed the following story: in the beginning, the movement of spring advanced with the birds’ joyful greeting in delightful songs. Suddenly, a thunderstorm came and the wind blew violently. Lighting and thunder then heralded the storm, shrouding the air with a black cloak. After the storm recedes, the birds return to their joyful singing again. The first movement is really cohesive and consistent with the joy of spring in my mind. With just a little imagination, the listeners will be able to hear the sound of birds chirping, the brooks murmuring, and the rain falling.

There are lots of concepts and vocabulary from class relevant to Four Seasons. The texture of each concerto varies and resembles its respective season. For each season, there are three parts, and Vivaldi used the fast-slow-fast tempo organization for each part. This first movement in Spring an Allegro, meaning that it should be performed fast and joyfully. In addition, the first movement is written in ritornello(return) form. The ritornello appeared five times in the first movement, and the ensemble and the soloist return to it in different keys and harmonies, which really establishes the unifying theme of “Spring”.

Although people may not be familiar with musical terms, I feel like the above characteristics of Four Seasons are still easily detectable. Listeners can still get a close-enough sense of the music just by listening. Even if I have not performed this piece, I would still love it just for how beautiful it sounds. The first movement is so energizing, joyful, and vivid, exactly like my feelings for spring.

I think listeners can benefit by both actively and passively listening to this piece. Four Seasons has been played so prevalently in soundtracks and public places today, which proves its beauty and timeless popularity. Yet every time I listened to this piece passively, I ended up finding myself engaged and internalizing the expressions. Vivaldi uses text painting to better portray the scenes and sounds of the seasons. The closer I pay attention, the more I could get. Therefore, I still believe listeners could really benefit from active listening to this piece.