Since the dawn of time music has been used to accompany dance and storytelling, so it comes as no surprise that composers started producing what we know as ‘program music’, music written to depict various activities, or even certain moods and emotions. Pastoral scenes were a particular favourite, as were storms and birdlife. And so it was with Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, a set of four concerti written 300 years ago this year.
But did you know that these famous and popular concerti had words to them?
Not in the sense that they were designed to be sung along with the music, but to act as a descriptive base for each of the movements. The words themselves came from four sonnets published alongside the music by Estienne Roger in Amsterdam in 1725, but no name was attributed to them. Musicologists have now concluded that it was Vivaldi himself who wrote them, making him as much a wordsmith as he was a musician. And though the sonnets may not be quite up to the standard set by William Shakespeare, they run a close second.

Take, for example, the opening of the Concerto No 2 in G minor, ‘Summer’: “Beneath the blazing sun’s relentless heat men and flocks are sweltering, pines are scorched. We hear the cuckoo’s voice; then sweet songs of the turtle dove and finch. Soft breezes stir the air, but threatening north wind sweeps them suddenly aside. The shepherd trembles, fearful of violent storm and what may lie ahead.”

I particularly like the words on which the second movement is based – they could be describing a scene in Australia: “His limbs are now awakened from their repose by fear of lightning’s flash and thunder’s roar, as gnats and flies buzz furiously around.” The sonnets suffer somewhat in translation, but in the original Italian they fairly sing.

Concerto No 1 in E major, ‘Spring’, begins: “Springtime is upon us. The birds celebrate her return with festive song, and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes. Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven, then they die away to silence and the birds take up their charming songs once more.”

Concerto No 3 in F major, which celebrates Autumn, begins, as do all the others, with an allegro. The words record that “the peasant celebrates with song and dance the harvest safely gathered in. The cup of Bacchus flows freely, and many find their relief in deep slumber.”

And finally, Concerto No 4 in F minor, ‘Winter’: “Shivering, frozen mid the frosty snow in biting, stinging winds; running to and from to stamp one’s icy feet, teeth chattering in the bitter chill.”
Each of the four concerti follows the same pattern – three movements: an opening allegro followed by an adagio or largo and ending with another allegro. It’s well worth trying to get hold of a copy of the sonnets and follow them along with the music. Many composers through the ages, among them Gregor Werner and Johann Caspar Fischer in the 17th century and Tchaikovsky and Glazunov in the 19th, have used the four seasons as inspiration for their work, but Vivaldi’s four violin concerti remain top of the class.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons can be heard on demand on Sunday Special (23 February broadcast).

– Michael Mortons-Evans