Classical Music for the Seasons Music for the Seasons    

Lesson 29: The Four Seasons - Spring

by Antonio Vivaldi

Performer: European Archive

Directions

Study the musical selection for one week.

Over the week:

• Each day, listen to the musical selection.
• Practice reciting the title of the composition and the composer's name.
• Read the synopsis.
• Complete the enrichment activities.
• Study the review questions.

Synopsis

Birds singing, leaves budding, and baby animals frolicking, for the next four weeks, you'll listen to selections that embody the bloom of spring. Get outside or throw open some windows. Listen to this music and enjoy the renewing sunshine and refreshing breezes of spring. Vivaldi wrote 'The Four Seasons' in 1723. The four concertos celebrate the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Vivaldi published sonnets to accompany each season's concerto. He may have written these poems himself. The spring piece is fresh and rejuvenating, like the renewal of life after a long winter of hibernation.

Enrichment

Activity 1: Discuss spring weather changes. For example:

• The air turns warmer.
• The trees and bushes grow fuzzy buds which will bloom into leaves and flowers.
• The days become longer. It gets light earlier in the morning and stays light later in the day.
• Animals awaken from hibernation or migrate in preparation for summer.

Activity 2: Describe the Music

After listening to the music, describe and discuss what you heard.

Read the list of adjectives below. Select those that describe the music or think up additional adjectives.

• Happy
• Sad
• Quiet
• Loud
• Fast
• Slow
• Scary
• Dreamy
• Magical
• Rhythmic
• Dignified

Activity 3: Act Out the Music

• Act out the events of the music.
• As the music plays, make a burrow or a den out of blankets and a table or couch.
• Pretend to hibernate in the burrow until spring comes and you awaken.

Activity 4: Study the Painting

Examine the painting below while listening to the music.

• Narrate the scene shown in the painting aloud using your own words.
• Describe how the painting relates to the music.

Find the following items in the painting:

• Flowers
• Basket
• Glove
• Hat
• Tree
• Grass
• Path
• Parasol
• Buildings
• Awnings (Canvas coverings over doors or windows)
• Crowd
• Blue Sky

Activity 5: For each movement, listen to the movement, pause the playback, and read the associated lines of Vivaldi's poem

(0:00) Allegro Movement (Allegro means brisk tempo)

• 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.

(3:45) Largo Movement (Largo means slow tempo and dignified)

• On the flower-strewn meadow, with leafy branches
• rustling overhead, the goat-herd sleeps,
• his faithful dog beside him.

(6:24) Allegro Movement (Allegro means brisk tempo)

• Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes,
• nymphs and shepherds lightly dance
• beneath the brilliant canopy of spring.

Review

Question 1

What is the title of the music?

1 / 3

Answer 1

The title is 'The Four Seasons - Spring.'

1 / 3

Question 2

Who composed the music?

2 / 3

Answer 2

The composer is Antonio Vivaldi.

2 / 3

Question 3

What happens to the weather, the trees, and the animals during the spring season?

3 / 3

Answer 3

During spring, the weather turns warmer, the trees bud and bloom, and the animals wake up from hibernation or migrate in preparation for summer.

3 / 3

❮ ❯

1. What is the title of the music? The title is 'The Four Seasons - Spring.'
2. Who composed the music? The composer is Antonio Vivaldi.
3. What happens to the weather, the trees, and the animals during the spring season? During spring, the weather turns warmer, the trees bud and bloom, and the animals wake up from hibernation or migrate in preparation for summer.

References

'The Four Seasons (Vivaldi).' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.

'The Four Seasons Sonnets.' Wikisource. Wikisource.org. n.p.