Looking for trends in the slow movements of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons concertos.

• Look at the scores and listen to the recordings of these slow movements from The Four Seasons.

• Which of these characteristics go with which movement? (There are seven for each movement).
• Spring                Autumn              Winter

1. In D minor.
2. In Eb major.
3. In C# minor.
4. The solo violin part ends on a trill.
5. Ends on the dominant chord following a 15-bar dominant pedal.
6. The violas play long notes including a 5-bar dominant pedal at the end.
7. The soloist’s melody is in two parts, both starting the same way but proceeding differently after three bars.
8. There is much chromatic movement, particularly in the bass part.
9. The violin solo does not play, but all instruments of the orchestra are there.
10. Rhythmic ostinato in the viola throughout the movement.
11. The first half of the melody modulates to and ends in the dominant, with a perfect cadence in that key.
12. The solo violin has a melody which has two halves, both begin the same, but the first (8 bars) effects a modulation to the dominant and the second (10 bars) is slightly extended and decorated, and achieves a return from the dominant to the tonic.
13. The string parts are muted. The keyboard is instructed to play arpeggios
14. The orchestral violins play pizzicato triadic semiquaver patterns. The bass parts have repeated quavers
15. Dotted rhythms in the accompaniment.
16. The texture is reduced: only solo violin, orchestral violins and violas play.
17. All instruments play this slow movement.
18. The string parts enter one by one to produce a chord of Eb 7 in 3rd inversion.
19. 1-bar introduction before the solo violin enters.
20. There is no “melody” as such, instead there is a decorated harmonic progression which last the entire movement. There are many dominant 7th and diminished 7th chords.
21. The solo violin melody is lyrical and very singable.

• Here are the answers!