II Vivaldi’s Music: Style and Form NTIL the discovery some thirty years ago of the manu- scripts bequeathed to the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin by U the Foà and Giordano families, Vivaldi was con- sidered of importance only in the realm of instrumental music. As far as his dramatic music was concerned, of which the only available samples were a few isolated arias, old opinions pre- vailed that underestimated it outrageously. Finally, there was no awareness of his prolific output of sacred music, though several masterpieces in this category have since been popularized by records. However, it remains true that it is chiefly through his instru- mental music that Vivaldi’s role is decisive. It is appropriate to begin with this, establishing first of all an outline of its chronol- ogy. In the beginning of the eighteenth century when the symphony and the concerto were being evolved, a difference of a few years greatly alters the perspective. At the time when the Red Priest was just being discovered, Luigi Torchi, in an article in the Rivista Musicale Italiana (1899), dates the publication of L’Estro armonico as 1740–1750 (actually it dates from 1712); in so doing he made Vivaldi a follower of J. S. Bach, Handel, Tartini, Locatelli, and Leclair, all of whom were actually in his debt to some extent. On the other hand, Fausto Torrefranca in his article on Vivaldi in the Enciclopedia Italiana (1937) relies on a daring interpretation of the catalogues of the Dutch publishers Roger and Le Cène, and antedates Vivaldi’s first concertos by some ten years; this falsifies their relationship to the concertos of Torelli and Arcangelo Corelli among others, thus depriving these composers of a part of their originality. 64 HIS MUSIC: STYLE AND FORM 65 I have discussed these questions of chronology at length in my earlier book on Vivaldi. I confine myself here to the results. I shall discuss only the published works, since with two or three exceptions the manuscripts do not carry dates and Vivaldi’s hand- writing developed in too capricious a fashion for a classification to be risked. Here then is a list of the printed collections of his instrumental music: Opus 1: (12) Suonate da Camera a Tre, Due violini, e Violone o Cembalo Consacrate All’Illustrissimo et Eccelentissimo Signor Conte Annibale Gambara Nobile Veneto … , Da D. Antonio Vivaldi Musico di Violino Professore Veneto Opera Prima. In Venetia. Da Gioseppe Sala MDCCV (1705). Republished at Amsterdam by Estienne Roger ca. 1712–13, numbered 363. Opus 2: (12) Sonate A Violino, e Basso per il Cembalo Con- sagrate A Sua Maestà Il Re Federico Quarto di Danimarka … , Da D. Antonio Vivaldi Musico di Violino e Maestro de’ Con- certi … , (1709) Appresso Antonio Bortoli. Republished at Amsterdam by Roger ca. 1712–13 under the same title with the addition of the words opera Seconda, the publication being num- bered 2. Opus 3: L’Estro Armonico Concerti Consacrati All’Altezza Reale Di Ferdinando III Gran Prencipe di Toscana da Antonio Vivaldi … , Opera Terza Libro Primo A Amsterdam Aux dé- pens d’ Estienne Roger Marchand, Libraire No 50. (Libro Secondo under the same title is indicated as No. 51.) Beginning with this collection, the first editions of all Vivaldi’s printed works were published by Estienne Roger, his associates, or successors. The title of the collection may be taken to mean “the harmonic spirit” or, better, “harmonious inspiration” (compare the English word oestrus or the French oestre, which the dictionary defines as a vehement impulse or excitation). The work appeared in 1712 in two series of six concertos each, bound together. Opus 4: La Stravaganza Concerti Consacrati a Sua Eccellenza Il Sig. Vettor Delfino Nobile Veneto da Antonio Vivaldi … , Opera Quarta Libro Primo. Amsterdam, Roger, No. 399. (Libro Secondo under the same title is indicated as No. 400.) Ca. 1712–13. Walsh’s edition, which was undoubtedly put out a little after 66 VIVALDI 1720, comprises only six concertos instead of twelve, Nos. 1, 2, 4, 9, and 11 of the Amsterdam publication with, for the sixth and last concerto, a work that does not appear in the above Amsterdam edition. Opus 5: VI Sonate Quatro a Violino Solo e Basso e due a due Violini e Basso Continuo di Antonio Vivaldi Opera Quinta O Vero Parte Seconda del Opera Seconda A Amsterdam chez Jeanne Roger, No. 418, ca. 1716. These six sonatas are numbered 13 through 18, forming, as the title indicates, a continuation of the twelve sonatas of Opus 2. Opus 6: VI Concerti a Cinque Stromenti, Tre Violini Alto Viola e Basso Continuo di D. Antonio Vivaldi … , Opera Sesta A Amsterdam chez Jeanne Roger, No. 452, ca. 1716–1717. Opus 7: (12) Concerti a Cinque Stromenti, tre Violini, Alto Viola e Basso Continuo di D. Antonio Vivaldi … , Opera Set- tima. Libro Primo. Uno è con Oboe. A Amsterdam chez Jeanne Roger, No. 470 (Libro Secondo indicated as No. 471), ca. 1716– 1717. Opus 8: Il Cimento [cimento indicating a trial or venture] dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione Concerti a 4 e 5 Consacrati All’Il- lustrissimo Signore Il Signor Venceslao Conte di Martin. Da D. Antonio Vivaldi Maestro in Italia dell’Illustrissimo Conte Sudetto, Maestro de’ Concerti del Pio Ospitale della Pietà in Venetia, e Maestro di Cappella di S.A.S. il Signor Principe Filippo Lan- gravio d’Hassia Darmistath. Opera Ottawa. Libro Primo, Am- sterdam, Le Cène, No. 520 (Libro Secondo indicated as No. 521), ca. 1725. Opus 9: La Cetra [the lyre] Concerti Consacrati Alla Sacra, Cesarea, Cattolica, Real Maestà di Carlo VI Imperadore e Terzo Re delle Spagne di Bohemia di Ungaria … , da D. Antonio Vivaldi, Opera Nona Libro Primo, Amsterdam, Le Cène, No. 533 (Libro Secondo indicated as No. 534), 1728. Opus 10: VI Concerti a Flauto Traverso Violino Primo e Secondo Alto Viola Organo e Violoncello di D. Antonio Vi- valdi … , Opera Decima, Amsterdam, Le Cène, No. 544, ca. 1729–30 Opus 11: Sei Concerti a Violino Principale, Violino Primo e Secondo, Alto Viola, Organo e Violoncello di D. Antonio Vi- HIS MUSIC: STYLE AND FORM 67 valdi … , Opera Undecima, Amsterdam, Le Cène, No. 545, ca. 1729–30. Opus 12: Same title as the preceding except for the words Opera Duodecima, Amsterdam, Le Cène, No. 546, ca. 1729–30. Opus 13: Il Pastor Fido (6) Sonates, pour la Musette, Viele, Flûte, Hautbois, Violon avec la Basse Continüe Del Sigr Vivaldi. Opera XIIIe A Paris chez Me Boivin, Mde, rue St-Honoré à la Règle d’or, ca. 1737. Opus 14 (?): VI Sonates Violoncelle Solo col Basso da d’An- tonio Vivaldi Musico di Violino e Maestro de’ Concerti del Pio Ospidale della Pietà di Venezia gravé par Mlle Michelon, Paris, Le Clerc, Le Clerc the younger, and Madame Boivin, ca. 1740. This publication, of which the only example that I know of is to be found in the Henry Prunières collection, does not carry an opus number. But several Paris publishers had around 1740 asked for and obtained licenses to transcribe and publish an Opus 14 by Vivaldi. This, if I am not mistaken, ought to be identified with those cello sonatas whose announcement appeared in the Mercure de France in December, 1740. On the basis of the most thorough investigation, Vivaldi’s in- strumental work amounts to 554 pieces: 75 sonatas or trios (to the 74 listed in my Inventaire thématique1 there is added a flute sonata acquired in 1940 by the library of Cambridge University); 2 organ pieces, the existence of which G. F. Malipiero was kind enough to point out to me (he recently discovered them at the end of a manuscript containing some works of Pescetti); 23 sinfonie; and 454 concertos. Regarding the concertos, my Inventaire thématique lists 447. There is reason to subtract 2; one, P. 360, F. XII, 6, duplicates a sonata for five instruments that is found in the Dresden library, the other, P. 447, the attribution of which was conjectural, is actually by G. B. Sammartini and is found in the Blancheton collection of the Paris Conservatory. But 9 concertos are to be added: a concerto for violin and strings in E-flat discovered by 1 The Inventaire thématique is the second volume of Marc Pincherle, Antonio Vivaldi et la musique instrumentale, 1948. The present work designates Vivaldi’s works by numbers drawn from this Inventaire and from the Opere complete; see footnote, page 29 above. 68 VIVALDI Bence Szabolcsi in the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella in Naples (described by him along with two other concertos, which were already known) in Musica, Rome, 1947; and 7 concertos for cello and 1 for oboe, recently discovered in German libraries, for the description of which I am obliged to Dr. Kolneder, director of the Luxembourg Conservatory. Ninety-six of the concertos were printed in the eighteenth century. Of these, 71 are solo concertos for violin with string orchestra, 2 are for violin or oboe, 2 for violin scordatura, 4 for two violins, 4 for two violins and a solo cello, 2 for four violins, 2 for four violins and cello, 3 for oboe, and 6 for flute. The 454 concertos as a whole present an exceedingly wide variety of instrumentation. Nearly 300 are for one or more solo violins joined with various combinations of string instruments, sometimes with flutes, oboes, horns, or bassoons in addition. There are 7 concertqs for viola d’amore, 27 for cello, 22 for solo flute, two flutes, or piccolo, and 37 for bassoon. A dozen are for a real symphony orchestra which includes three or four desks of woodwinds by two, nearly always with a solo violin predominat- ing, while the concerti ripieni — some fifty of them — are, on the contrary, actually symphonies for strings such as were to appear a little later.