Final Exam: Essays

Please prepare these five topic areas; in the actual exam, I will select three for you to write about.  You may use class notes, the Talbot textbook, scores, the New Grove dictionary, and any other materials of your choice in preparing your essays.

1) Discuss Vivaldi's career as an opera composer, both in Venice and in other cities.

2) Discuss Vivaldi's approach to form in the "chamber" concertos and in his sonatas.  How does it differ from the concertos?

3) Choose several scenes from L'Olimpiade and Il Farnace to illustrate Vivaldi's approach to dramatic composition.

4) Compare Vivaldi's approach to sacred and secular vocal music.  How did he adapt to the conventions of the time, responding to the needs and constraints of the different texts?

5) Discuss the large-scale structure of the Gloria in D Major, RV 588 (see link to Variations in the Course Schedule).  How does Vivaldi divide the text, and what types of movements does he use to set the various sections?