Gli Archi del Cherubino Workshop

On the 24th of November I attended ‘Gli Archi del Cherubino’s’ workshop on the
“Four seasons”, composed by Vivaldi (1678-1741) as the played through each
section they explained the context surrounding the pieces, and give us some
important details about what Vivaldi’s intentions for this piece were.
The workshop began by explaining when and where Vivaldi was composing. As
an Italian “Baroque” composer we were expecting to find certain techniques or
forms apparent in his music. For example the frequent use of Ritornello in
“autumn”. This information has helped me to look out for these features in other
pieces of music, improved my analytical skills, which will certainly be helpful in
my anaylsis exams, and given me ideas for the form and melodies of my acoustic
compositions. ’ Interestingly Vivaldi provided instructions such as "The barking
dog" in the second movement of "Spring", "Languor caused by the heat" in the
first movement of "Summer", and "the drunkards have fallen asleep" in the
second movement of "Autumn" This again gives an interesting perspective of
what Vivaldi intended for these pieces.
Furthermore after looking at the scores in my own time, my knowledge of string
part writing have definitely improved, as I have been able to see how Vivaldi
balances repetition and melodic variety to hold interest.
In addition, after further research into this piece in my own time, I decided to
compose my acoustic compositions to the same concept of 4 seasons, and looked
at how Vivaldi used certain features in his music to express common feelings or
emotions related to that season. I also tried to listen to as much of his other work
as possible, which led me to his ‘Concerto, for Lute and 2 Violins. After some brief
reading around this piece I found that the actual meaning of the word ‘Concerto’
has changed over the past 500 years. I believe this will not only be an interesting
point to discuss in my Classical studies exam, but also reminded me of the
importance of trying to understand music in the time that it was written.
Another important aspect of the workshop was the understanding that I gained
from being able to hear; how the different techniques, of producing sound from
the strings can best be applied. This information was vital in understanding how
to correctly orchestrate a melody for the strings section and in helping me to
properly compose my own pieces, by allowing me to access a full range of tones
and timbre.
We also looked at how all of the ‘Seasons’ follows the same structure of two
faster sections separated by a slow section, which may be described as concerto
form. This is useful knowledge to have as it is certainly relevant to my analysis
course, but also it has made me consider how each different section of my own
compositions could relate to each other, to form a more cohesive set of pieces.