Poetic imagery
Video Group 3 (V3) Vivaldi The Four Seasons
The musical 'painting' applied in the performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons provides the performer with a similar challenge to the gestures in Don Quichotte and the dance movements in Les Caractères de la danse. The expressive body movements, although being visually communicative, must be channelled into performance on the instrument. In V3 the challenge of merging the expressive movements into sound producing movements has a specific implication. While the technical demands in the previous case studies are moderate, and the application of expressive movements fairly straightforward, The Four Seasons are virtuoso concertos where the focused and coordinated application of sound producing movements is crucial. ‘These works, indeed, are almost as highly regarded for their remarkable technical feats as for their imagery and narrative’ (Everret, 1996, p. 68).
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The musical notation of the ritornello in the Summer concerto’s first movement suggests a light and folky character. The time signature is 3/8, the tempo designation says Allegro non molto, and the rhythmical structure is based on an off-beat motif; all of these structural features point towards a fast triple dance, such as the Menuet. But the flow of the phrases is constantly halted, the tonic G minor and dominant seventh oscillate ominously, increasing the tension in ‘a set of disarmingly ‘slow’ gestures, metrically dislocated, [representing] the lethargy of an anxious man [and] the oppressive heat of an airless day’ (Everett, 1996, p. 83).
The caption 'Languidezza per il caldo' and the accompanying Sonnet (‘Sotto dura staggion dal sole accesa, Langue l’huom, langue ‘l gregge, ed arde il Pino’) [1] corroborate the intuitively conceived contradictory character of the opening ritornello with a strongly suggestive imagery. In the video essay V3a I explore ways of expressing this contradiction in body movements. How do I employ a body movement hindered by an impenetrable wall of heat? How will the languid movements influence sound production? Will the languidness be audible in the resulting sound?
[1] ‘Beneath the harsh season inflamed by the sun,
Man languishes, the flock languishes, and the pine tree burns’ (Everett, 1996, pp. 72-73).
LINK to the video essay
In this section, I will analyse my performances of the famous Lament in the first movement in the Summer concerto bb. 116-154 (Vivaldi, 1725). Here, I examine the Soundist and Gesturist strategies from the perspectives of technical skills and gestural expressivity. How important is the sound quality for a gesture to be communicative?
In the first video, I examine the expressivity of the lament passage as a Soundist, i.e. with the priority of 'sounding good' (V3b Part1 'Lamenting gesture as sound'). In the second video, the same passage is evaluated from the standpoint of a Gesturist, i.e. prioritizing expressive timing based on body movements (V3b Part2 Lamenting gesture as body movement).
LINK to the video essay
The bariolage passage in the third movement of the Summer concerto, representing lightning (bb. 41-48), is one of the most technically demanding solo passages.
While practicing in the studio, I focussed on the precision of technical movements in order to enhance the representation of lightning in energetic sound. It appears crucial that the downbow strokes on the E string prepare and mark the descending top-notes in a ‘catch-and-release manner’ (Zukerman, 2014), with a well-coordinated string-crossing bow action.
When performing this passage in a concert situation, I attempt to combine this technical focus with expressive mimetic gestures. Compared with the body movements of the throwing gesture in V1a, representing Sancho’s punishment and drawing on the actual embodied experience of throwing, the assimilation of lightning in body movement is not so self-evident. How can body movements contribute to the expression of a poetic image drawn from a natural phenomenon? Will the technical demands of the passage limit the expressivity of gestures, and bring focus towards the sound producing movements?
LINK to the video essay
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In 2016, Concerto Copenhagen commissioned a new set of concertos based on Vivaldi's Four Seasons, by the Danish composer K. Å. Rasmussen. In his 'new version' of the famous concertos, Rasmussen retained Vivaldi's basic structure and, in his own words, ‘strengthened and revitalized Vivaldi's rhythms and harmony for our modern ears’ (Rasmussen in an interview, 2016) by adding extra rhythmic and melodic layers. In my analysis of the score I examine the intentions and effects of Rasmussen's changes and their impact on the body movement strategy in a performance interpretation.
One crucial difference in the performance of Rasmussen is the presence of a traditional conductor. This was necessary due to the more rhythmically complex passages which needed to be coordinated. The presence of a conductor introduces a new gestural agent in the interplay between the performers, also influencing the communicative function of body movement within the ensemble.
LINK to the video essay
This section describes the analytical procedure behind the video essays in this study.
LINK Analytical approach (V3)
Gestural Explorations
in The Four Seasons
Hindered movements (V3a)
From Gesture to Sound
The Projects