Interviewing Your Artist

 

            Hello I am interviewing my artist, Antonio Vivaldi!

1. Me: Where is your family from?

Vivaldi: Both my grandfathers were tailors.  My father is Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and my mother is Camilla Calicchio.  In 1666, my father moved with his mother to Venice.  At first, my father "worked as a barber, but then became a professional violinist" (Vernon 1996).  Being a professional violinist was one of the "best jobs that a musician in Venice could have" (Vernon 1996).

            My parents got married in 1676 and had 9 children, with me being the eldest.  I was born in Venice on March 4, 1678.  I was weak and sickly when I was born, and my parents thought I wasn’t going to make it, but I lived.  I have 4 younger sisters and 4 younger brothers, but none of them became musicians like me.  In 1685, my father became a "full time violinist at St. Marks Basilica" (Vernon 1996).  I started studying to become a priest at age 15 in 1693, and was ordained in 1703 after 10 years of hard studying.  I became a composer and musician later in life.

2. Me: What made you get interested in the arts at a young age?
Vivaldi: My dad realized that I was very musical and he taught me the violin from a young age.   I was so talented that I sometimes took the place of my father at his job. I learned the violin from my father and if the report from Francesco Cafe(Venetian Historian) is true, I played as an extra violinist in the orchestra of St. Marks or as my father's deputy.            My dad, who was already a professional violinist, was my first violin teacher, but many believe I also studied with Giovanni Legrenzi, a composer.  When I was a teenager, I composed a piece of music for the church.  When I grew up, I composed more music for the church and other businesses.

3. Me: Who helped you develop the interests and talents you have as an artist?
Vivaldi: My dad inspired me for the most part being a professional violinist.   When I was young, because of his career, he taught me how to play the violin.  We even got to play violin duos together around Venice providing entertainment for others to enjoy.  

            A very important person who inspired me was Johann Georg Pisendel, a violin virtuoso who studied with Giuseppe Torelli, an Italian composer and musician, at Ansbach.  Pisendel first came to Venice as part of a group of four elite musicians(who's names are unknown) in 1716.  He was a friend and I dedicated to him the scores of five sonatas and six concertos. 

 4. Me: What was the world of music like before your time and then how did you change it?

Vivaldi: The world of music wasn’t nearly as developed as it was during and after my time.  For the most part, it was kind of boring compared to the music I introduced to the world.  I introduced a new musical style because my music was "challenging to perform and thrilling to hear . . .passages that would show off a players skills . . .full of dramatic contrasts in mood and sound" (Vernon 1996). I wrote my music with simple melodies and made wide intervals, "made notes skip back and fourth between adjacent [strings next to each other] and non-adjacent [strings separated by another string] strings and were now beginning to move with greater freedom up and down the fingerboard" (Talbot 2000).
            I surprised my audiences with music sometimes with one of my made-up styles when I would `tease the listener` and unexpectingly freeze music.  Once the ear was adjusted to the slower melody, I would break out into a fast series of chords.  This tempo change was unlike that of Bach or Handel's music (Talbot 2000).

5. Me: How did cultural, economic, and political situations of the time impact your work?
Vivaldi: Going to church every Sunday was very important to nearly everybody during my time.  There was a lot of music in the churches and few composers to write it.  I decided to write the music and subsequently became very popular and famous.

            Also, back in my day, there were no televisions, computers, film, or electronics to entertain other people, so we had live performances of opera and symphonies.  I took advantage of the opportunity to write opera music.

Another time, Venice went to war with Turkey over one of our islands Corfu.  The war lasted 22 years and thousands died.  We the people of Venice "saw the war as an opportunity to restore their empire to its former glory"(Vernon 1996).  I wrote Juditha Triumphants to "stir up patriotism in the city by comparing the conflict to the story of Judith and Holofernes in the Bible" (Vernon 1996).

6. Me: What methods did you use in your art and what are your major accomplishments?
Vivaldi: I wrote some 5-finger exercises for violinists to warm up their fingers for playing long violin concertos.  I also wrote The Four Seasons, one of the most famous symphonies enjoyed worldwide.  I wrote many operas as well.  Tito Manila was an opera I wrote in 5 days because since so much was going on at the theater, "composers had to write them [their operas] extremely quickly and in large quantities" (Vernon 1996).  I wrote 94 operas total, but about half of them were lost after I died.
I wrote my music with simple melodies and made wide intervals.  Notes were separated by full octaves (an interval that is separated by 7 notes) to make things more exciting but keep things in tune.  (Talbot 2000).
            Some of my operas are "Orlando fin to pazzo(1714), Orlando furioso(1714), Nerone Fatto cesarean(1715), La Costanza trio Fante de gl'amori ede glodil(1716), Arsild, Regina di panto(1716), L'incoronazione di pario(1717), Teuzzone(1718), Tito Manlio(1719), La Candace, o siano liveries amici(1720), Gusting(1724)"(Green).  

7. Me:  What were some key opportunities that helped you accomplish your

 goals as a composer/musician?

Vivaldi: I was hired as a violin teacher at an orphanage for girls, called the Ospedale Della Pieta after I quit being a priest.  I composed music for the girls to perform at recitals as well as taught them how to play the violin.  The girls had to perform behind a curtain because they were girls and not boys, and "beautiful music flooded out, but the performers remained a mystery" (Vernon 1996).  The king of Denmark and Norway came to listen to a concert in which musicians performed music I wrote and the king greatly enjoyed it.  I then decided to "dedicate a set of violin sonatas to him, which were soon published" (Vernon 1996).  I also wrote a lot of church music that was greatly enjoyed.  I returned to Pieta in 1711 to be a violin teacher.  I worked there for nearly 40 years.  From time to time, my job got taken away because other coworkers didn’t like the way I went from poverty to fame in a short period of time, or I asked for a raise too often. (Vernon 1996).

            I was offered a job in Mantua, an Australian city ruled by Prince Philip of Hesse Darmstadt.  I was hired to write music for his court musicians for three years, but in 1720, I left Mantua, but continued writing music for him, and sending it by post.  My fame started to grow to other cities beyond Venice: Florence, Milan, and Munich. I traveled to these cities as often as he could to make sure my works were being performed as I had written them.    I was invited to the Vatican twice to play for the Pope, and felt especially honored performing for the head of the church.  The Pope asked me "to come and play the violin for him at a private audience" (Sartorius 2012).

            I was then asked to be in charge of composing music that was to be performed in the church.  I was asked to write "two masses and two vespers every year . . .also had to produce two motets(a vocal composition, usually for use in a church survice) every month" (Vernon 1996).  Then after that, I began composing music that was becoming very fashionable in Venice, called opera.

8. Me: What hardships did you have to overcome in order to reach your goals as a composer/musician?

Vivaldi: I had been a weak and sickly child barely surviving and was lucky enough that I lived to be 63 years old.  I suffered from several "chest pains, breathlessness, and general tiredness" (Vernon 1996). Back then, technology wasn't nearly as advanced as it is in 2012.  We did not have nearly as good sanitation, hospitals, or cures for diseases.  I had to battle asthma throughout my life since there were no cures for it.  I was unable to play wind instruments due to chronic asthma that was not able to be treated in the manner that it is today (Kay 2008).  I was very lucky that I did not die young even if I was a weak and sickly child.  I barely survived and although I was not in perfect health, I lived a fairly long life.  I was also lucky to survive because rich children who’s parents could pay doctors usually had the highest chance of surviving because they lived in the most sanitary homes.  My family was poor and my siblings and I went to Christian school because it was free.  I couldn't say mass and used my asthma as an excuse to get out of services to write music.
              Later, I began writing operas, but singers and performers "changed a composers music to suite themselves and please the audience" (Vernon 1996).  I was not happy with this and traveled to where the operas were performed and made sure they were performed my way.  Once, in 1737, one of my operas was to be performed in the city of Ferrara but they wouldn't let me in simply because I was in a relationship with Anna Giraud, one of my friends who usually got the lead role in most of my operas.

            I also couldn't play wind instruments due to the asthma that I battled throughout my life.  I also had to quit being a priest due to my asthma because I couldn't say mass.

9. Me: Who are the people you admired and that inspired you to be the artist you have become?
Vivaldi: My father, Giovanni Batista Vivaldi, was well respected being a professional violinist.  He inspired me for the most part being an experienced violinist himself and having a job in music at St. Marks.  He had a job that I dreamt of having when I was young, and my dream came true when I became a musician just like he was. Due to the asthma, I couldn't play wind instruments.

J.S. Bach is another composer of the Baroque Period and Enlightenment era.  He was a German composer and we both inspired each other.  Although we lived in different countries, we were both in Europe.  Bach inspired me to compose my keyboard work totaling 17 concertos for solo harpsichord, four for solo organ and one for four harpsichords and string orchestra (Talbot 2000).

10. Me: Would you please share any anecdotes that best illustrate how you became successful in reaching your goals as an artist?
Vivaldi: Grimani was another famous composer at the time that I was asking a job from.  "He looked at me with a compassionate smile and picked up a libretto.  `Here you are, ` he said, `this is the drama to be adapted.  Sit down here at this desk: here is the paper, the inkwell and the libretto; take your time. `  Then I read the scene carefully; I size up for the feeling of the cantabile aria, and write one expressing action, passion, and movement.  I bring it and show it to him . . .having finished reading, he throws the breviary in a corner, gets up, embraces me, rushes to the door, and calls Miss Annina.  Miss Annina comes with her sister Paolina; he reads them the aria, shouting loudly: 'He did it here, he did it here, here he did it!' again he embraces me and congratulates me, and I became his dear friend . . .the opera was performed and met with success" (Talbot 2000).

Bibliography

Green, Aaron. "Biography." http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/classicalcomposers/p/antoniovivaldi.htm. N.p., 4 Apr 2012.

Heller, Karl. Biography. Portland: Amadeus Press, 1997. Print.

Kay, Olivia. "Biography: Antonio Vivaldi." http://www.helium.com/items/1247683-antonio-vivaldi. N.p., n.d. 4 Apr 2012.

Oron, Aryeh. "Antonio Vivaldi (Composer)." http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Vivaldi.htm. N.p., October 2008. Web. 4 Apr 2012.

Sartorius, Michael. "Welcome to the Wonderful World of Baroque Music." http://baroquemusic.org/. Internet Arton Publications, Jan 2012. Web. 5 Apr 2012.

Talbot, Michael. Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.

Vernon, Roland. Biography. Parsippany: Silver Burdett Press, 1996. Print.

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Tu-We/Vivaldi-Antonio.html

http://www.baroquemusic.org/vivaldi.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0113187/en/html/composers/vivaldi.shtml