March 4th: Birth of Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi, The composer of The Four Seasons, was born in Venice on 4 March 1678.

1. Vivaldi began studying to become a priest at the age of 15, and was ordained 10 years later. Although his life's work turned out to be music rather than priestly duties, he always remained a priest.
2. His nickname was il Prete Rosso (The Red Priest) because he had red hair.
3. Vivaldi composed his first liturgical work Laetatus sum, at the age of thirteen.
4. He was an accomplished violinist as well as a composer.
5. Vivaldi became maestro di violino (master of violin) at an orphanage in Venice. He also held the position of maestro di coro, for which he had to compose an oratorio or concerto for every feast, and teach the orphans music theory and how to play instruments.
6. As a teacher, he was not always popular with his employers, the board of the orphanage. The board voted every year as to whether or not to keep each teacher on for a further year. The vote on Vivaldi was usually split, and in 1709 they voted to dismiss him. He worked as a freelance musician until 1711, when the board of the orphanage voted unanimously to bring him back, having realised in his absence how much good work he did!
7. Vivaldi may have written as many as 94 operas. In a letter to his patron Marchese Bentivoglio in 1737, Vivaldi refers to his "94 operas". However, only around 50 have ever been discovered.
8. One of his operas, Arsilda, regina di Ponto was banned by the state censor. In it, the main character, Arsilda, falls in love with another woman, Lisea, who is pretending to be a man. Vivaldi tried again a year later, and this time the censor passed it. It was a big hit.
9. When Vivaldi met Emperor Charles VI. In 1728, Charles admired the music of the Red Priest so much that he is said to have spoken more with the composer during their one meeting than he spoke to his ministers in over two years. He gave Vivaldi the title of knight, a gold medal and an invitation to Vienna.
10. The inspiration for his most famous work, The Four Seasons, was probably the countryside around Mantua. It was an innovative work for the time: in it, Vivaldi represented musically the sounds which might have been heard at the appropriate times of the year: flowing creeks, singing birds, barking dogs, buzzing mosquitoes, the cries of shepherds, storms, drunken dancers, hunting parties from both the hunters' and the prey's point of view, frozen landscapes, ice-skating children, and winter fires. Each concerto is associated with a sonnet, possibly by Vivaldi himself, describing the scenes depicted in the music.