The same thing with the 3 rd and 4 th line.Īnother reason is that in the Baroque era, composers used what are called ‘ terraced dynamics’, or very abrupt shifts as opposed to long crescendos and diminuendos. One, if you look at the song structure, the first and second line are basically identical, so changing up the dynamics creates contrast where otherwise it might get boring. It goes to forte, piano, and back, and forth. In this song, we have very sudden dynamic shifts – in the violin version you’ll notice this as well. If you want to learn more information on why the composer would make that choice – just some harmony backstory, you can check out the video on harmony basics. Notice how this melody uses a ton of 3rds to harmonize the melody.

Not to mention the super happy tone of the piece – definitely no minor there.

But the first LH note is a D, and the first right hand notes are DF#, so we can pretty safely assume this is D major. Key signature: Two sharps, which means we’re in either the key of D major (see this video on D major scale), and if you remember how to tell major and minor keys apart ( major vs.

Even though it was composed for violin, I think the tune translates really nicely to keyboard. He was a wildly awesome violinist and wrote a ton of concertos, of which the collection ‘The Four Seasons’ is the most famous.įour Seasons is four violin concertos, one of which is La Primavera, today’s piece (Primavera = spring). This is but a fraction of the full piece, and Spring is 1/4 of Vivaldi’s full “The Four Seasons”, but it’s instantly recognizable and not too intense on piano, either.īe sure to check out the full version below, a la violin, to get a sense of the sound you’re going for! 🙂īackstory! Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian Baroque composer, which means he was active in the early 1700s. Here’s a fun one for you today – Spring by Vivaldi.

Spring vivaldi