"Vivaldi: Four Seasons: Spring: 1" genre: Piano
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	CELEBRATORY & EXUBERANT, this is the most famous movement of the Four Seasons. In fact, the joyous introduction is one of the most quoted passages in all music. The main theme leads into some tone painting of birdcalls, breezes and brooks. Lightning and thunder darken the middle of piece, but the calmer sounds of nature come back slowly, and the infectious opening themes are reprised. (see Track Info for album notes)
	MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it! Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision
	Story Behind the Song *** About the Programmatic References *** Vivaldi published his Four Seasons accompanied by four descriptive sonnets, which functioned as musical aids to help the public in its listening experience. However, the music had been circulated for years without the verses. In my opinion they are useful for historical insights and trivia, but should be mostly forgotten after an initial reading. Here are the sonnet lines (translated from Italian) that Vivaldi attributes to the first movement of Spring. Numbers in brackets indicate the precise time in the music at which the words are associated. [0:00] Spring has come, [0:33] and birds greet it Festively with a cheerful song; [1:24] And with the breath of gentle breezes Springs trickle with a sweet murmur. [1:54] Lightning and thunder, elected to announce it, Come and cover the air with a black cloak. [2:30] Once they are quiet, the birds Return to their enchanted song. *** About the Album "Four Seasons Jazz" *** In 1725, Antonio Vivaldi published his Opus 8, which included four string concertos he called "The Four Seasons". Part of the enduring popularity of these works is surely due to the programmatic implications of the title. A cycle about something as visual as the change of seasons is an instant marketing vehicle in a post-MTV age where musical longevity is tied to personalities, events, movies and other extra-musical associations. As if the title demanded specific illustration, Vivaldi himself linked several sonnets about the seasons to his concertos, providing literal cues to the musical goings-on. Each of the Seasons consists of three movements, the two fast outer sections framing a slower inner one. The fast movements have repeating sections called ritornelli, from the Italian meaning "to return". The ritornello is usually the first section heard in these works, and bridges the other highly varied and virtuosic episodes for solo violin. The slow movements are quite ballad-like and typically present an exquisite melody and then restate it with elaboration. All these movements are far too short by modern standards. While the fast sections I rendered faithfully, with some allowances for pianistic rubato, the tunefulness of the slow movements begged for more treatment. As such, I play each slow movement twice, the first generally faithfully to Vivaldi's score, but the second in a more rhapsodic manner. The restyled second half of slow movement of Summer, for instance, gets a Moonlight Sonata make-over, while keeping the cantabile line and supporting harmonies in tact. Autumn's slow movement begins as a primordial wash of dark piano and gong, and morphs into a smooth walking bass line as per Vivaldi's notated basso continuo. The Seasons are quite light in texture, and I wanted to retain this buoyant quality rather than give in to thick piano chords. Only during the pastoral bare fifths of the best known sections of Spring do I reinforce supporting harmony. The many solo sequences for the most part remain as homophonic as they were scored, an unusual but captivating texture on piano. The one exception is in the second half of Winter's slow movement, where I embellish and harmonize the beautiful theme. On the other hand, in sections with long bass notes, a bass pulse is needed to keep the formerly bowed pedal drone from totally evaporating and leaving the upper registers exposed. The programmatic qualities of the Seasons posed many challenges. The chirpings of Spring, rumblings of Summer, stompings of Autumn, and shiverings of Winter all demanded creative solutions for articulation on the piano. Here, percussion proved to be especially helpful. Hi-hats, drums and cymbals provided a sparkling vocabulary to dress-up Vivaldi's many dramatic twists and turns. Bass and snare drum freely step in and out when required to drive motoric rhythms, of which there are many. Autumn's fast movements, in particular, have several unison chord passages that get sonic relief when a scintillating coating of percussion is superimposed on them. Crisp wind chimes sprinkle a little magic on Winter, and silvery cymbal splashes infuse mystery in the quieter parts of Spring and Summer. While these pieces are jazz-like, for the most part they stay away from improvisation and bluesy harmony. The bass and percussion function to accent forms and textures. They call very little attention onto themselves, and as such are more subdued than typical jazz recordings. There are no jazz solo passages here, which would be extraneous in such diaphanous music. Why not just a straight-forward piano transcription then? I will leave definitive piano transcriptions to masters of the piano. My goal was a version of the Seasons in tune with today's contemporary musical aesthetics. While the original string renditions are classically beautiful, chamber string instrumentation can be sentimental and rich for some contexts. Piano, bass and percussion help to create that "cool" ambiance so prevalent in a lot of modern music. It is my hope that Vivaldi's wonderfully colourful and engaging Seasons find renewed listening when filtered through the suave, urbane idioms of jazz.

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