What do people think of Vivaldi? (classic, Violin)

Paul Smeenus · 02-23-2013, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burning Down

His music is not extremely radical for the period, and the arrangements are quite simple, compared to Bach's arrangements, for example. Don't get me wrong, I love Vivaldi's music, but I also think it is a little overrated. A lot of people tend to define Baroque music by citing Vivaldi, and in my opinion, that's not really apt. Sure, you can't talk about 17th century music without mentioning him in the slightest, but his music is certainly not definitive of the period.

I completely 100% agree with this assessment. I would like to demonstrate this, and while I agree with what BD posted about the over-played Four Seasons, I will nonetheless use it as an example of why I feel that JS Bach is so vastly superior.

Consider the most famous of the 4 movements, "Spring". In particular, pay close attention to the bass register:

It's just the E. Just the basic key note. All of the melodic features of the piece are in the upper register, the violins. Now juxtapose that to "Die Kunst Der Fuge"