Dhaliwal Noorinder Singh
Bettie Jo Basinger
Music 1010
15th April 2017.
Paper
Concerto – A concerto is a music composition that highlights a solo instrument against the background of a full orchestra. In a concerto, a piano, violin, flute, or other instrument plays solo parts that are backed up or highlighted by an orchestra. Most concertos have three sections or movements, and in the 19th century they were especially popular as a way to showcase virtuoso playing by the soloist. In Italian, concerto means “concert or harmony”.
Ritornello- The ritornello, Italian for ‘little return’, is one of the most frequently used compositional techniques and it involves a musical theme that returns repeatedly, with sections of different music in between …show more content…
I will be focusing on Winter, which is said to depict “the horrible wind”. Typical of the Baroque era, Vivaldi composed this concerto in ritornello form, with the mixture of a small string orchestra and one violin soloist in three movements.
First movement- It begins with the orchestra playing a somewhat dissonant chord to each beat of the music which builds up to a crescendo. The violin solo begins, and the orchestra is heard intermittently throughout this solo. The orchestra plays eight beats and subsides for four beats while the soloist interjects, and resumes playing again building off of the soloist passage. Each orchestral interjection is forte. Also, the presence of a ground bass not only sustains the harmony and texture of the orchestra, but it also helps keep the beat. The fact that the cello plays the same note on every beat, corresponding to the ground bass, gives this movement a pointed rhythm and a solid passage. A sequence played by the soloist goes higher and higher, and the first movement ends with the original theme played by the entire orchestra. After a long minor chord, a cadence ends the first …show more content…
This movement is much faster in tempo that the second, and even slightly faster than the first. The theme returns and there are many sections of fortissimo passages of the soloist and orchestra building off of each other’s sequences. This movement ends with the soloist playing a sequence higher and higher, as the orchestra joins in every other measure playing a downward sequence. Finally, the downward sequence that the orchestra has been playing brings the soloist down into their lower register, and the concerto ends on a low and forte minor
Bettie Jo Basinger
Music 1010
15th April 2017.
Paper
Concerto – A concerto is a music composition that highlights a solo instrument against the background of a full orchestra. In a concerto, a piano, violin, flute, or other instrument plays solo parts that are backed up or highlighted by an orchestra. Most concertos have three sections or movements, and in the 19th century they were especially popular as a way to showcase virtuoso playing by the soloist. In Italian, concerto means “concert or harmony”.
Ritornello- The ritornello, Italian for ‘little return’, is one of the most frequently used compositional techniques and it involves a musical theme that returns repeatedly, with sections of different music in between …show more content…
I will be focusing on Winter, which is said to depict “the horrible wind”. Typical of the Baroque era, Vivaldi composed this concerto in ritornello form, with the mixture of a small string orchestra and one violin soloist in three movements.
First movement- It begins with the orchestra playing a somewhat dissonant chord to each beat of the music which builds up to a crescendo. The violin solo begins, and the orchestra is heard intermittently throughout this solo. The orchestra plays eight beats and subsides for four beats while the soloist interjects, and resumes playing again building off of the soloist passage. Each orchestral interjection is forte. Also, the presence of a ground bass not only sustains the harmony and texture of the orchestra, but it also helps keep the beat. The fact that the cello plays the same note on every beat, corresponding to the ground bass, gives this movement a pointed rhythm and a solid passage. A sequence played by the soloist goes higher and higher, and the first movement ends with the original theme played by the entire orchestra. After a long minor chord, a cadence ends the first …show more content…
This movement is much faster in tempo that the second, and even slightly faster than the first. The theme returns and there are many sections of fortissimo passages of the soloist and orchestra building off of each other’s sequences. This movement ends with the soloist playing a sequence higher and higher, as the orchestra joins in every other measure playing a downward sequence. Finally, the downward sequence that the orchestra has been playing brings the soloist down into their lower register, and the concerto ends on a low and forte minor