Midterm Exam: Essays

Please prepare these five topic areas; in the actual exam, I will select three for you to write about.

1) Discuss how Vivaldi's career fit within Venetian musical life in the early 18th century.  Relate his training, employment, and eventual compositional activity to the various Venetian sacred and secular institutions that made use of music.

2) Discuss the "problem" posed by Vivaldi's use of titles for both collections and individual works--what explanations have been given for this practice, and what aspects of it invite speculation?  Refer to collections and individual works to show how titles and programs can be used to explain or interpret the music itself.

3) Compare Vivaldi's use of first-movement form in the concertos of opp. 3 and 4.

4) Discuss Vivaldi's approach to slow-movement forms in opp. 3 through 6.

5) Trace the development of Vivaldi's approach to the writing of solo episodes in opp. 3-6, including such considerations as violin technique, motivic construction, texture, harmonic writing, etc. (please note that this is neither a comprehensive list, nor an obligatory one--you may choose to go outside of it if there are aspects that interest you that are not mentioned, and also to select from it those that seem to you most important).