The Lute Concerto in D major, RV 93, is one of four works featuring the solo lute 2 Violins & Basso continuo written by Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi wrote the piece in the 1730s, a period in which he wrote two of his other works featuring the lute: the trios for

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

and lute in

G minor G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major. According to Paolo Pietropaolo, it is the con ...

and C major.

Analysis

The concerto is in three

movements Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

: # Allegro giusto # Largo #Allegro The first movement is in a fast tempo and begins with a

ritornello A ritornello (Italian; "little return") is a recurring passage in Baroque music for orchestra or chorus. Early history The earliest use of the term "ritornello" in music referred to the final lines of a fourteenth-century madrigal, which were usu ...

played by the violins and then repeated by the solo lute. According to

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

critic Brian Robins, the ritornello "contrasts a tuneful opening theme with a more lyrical motif in the minor mode." During the movement, the solo lute plays melodies in contrast to the ritornello. The movement consists of several sections, almost all of which incorporate a portion of the ritornello melody. The second movement also consists of several sections. Robins describes this movement as a "reflective meditation by the soloist" against accompaniment by the violins and

pizzicato Pizzicato (, ; translated as "pinched", and sometimes roughly as "plucked") is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of instrument : * On bowe ...

bass. Robins praises the movement's "exquisitely simple shift from

triple Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row * ...

duple meter Duple metre (or Am. duple meter, also known as duple time) is a musical metre characterized by a ''primary'' division of 2 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 2 and multiples (simple) or 6 and multiples (compound) in the upper figure of the tim ...

." The third and final movement is another fast movement in a 6/8

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note va ...

which Robins describes as having "a bit of

tarantella () is a group of various southern Italian folk dances originating in the regions of Calabria, Campania and Puglia. It is characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in time (sometimes or ), accompanied by tambourines. It is among the mo ...

-like feel." The soloist also has the option of playing the

half note ''Half Note'' is a live album by saxophonist Clifford Jordan which was recorded in 1974 and first released on the SteepleChase label in 1985.

s in the movement using a more vigorous 12/8 time signature.

Performance

The concerto uses the lute primarily in a high register. The lute parts are written primarily as

chords Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

, and the lute player is intended to play arpeggios based on these chords. The piece also includes important parts for the violins. Today,

Ben Salfield Benjamin Dieter Salfield (born 11 December 1971) is an English lutenist, guitarist, composer, teacher, promoter and politician. Early life Ben Salfield was born in Barton-under-Needwood, Staffordshire, UK. His father, a German Jewish refugee, ...

is one of the few lutenists to perform the concerto regularly in European concerts. The concerto is usually played on

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

. Yes guitarist

Steve Howe Stephen James Howe (born 8 April 1947) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist in the progressive rock band Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, North London, Howe developed an interest in the guitar and began to le ...

performed the second movement on guitar on the band's 2002 live album '' Symphonic Live'', into which he incorporated a number of improvisations. It has also been performed on guitar by more classical soloists, such as John Williams. The piece is also sometimes played on mandolin. The concerto is played on the Ontario Parliament Network and is performed by Canadian guitarists

Liona Boyd Liona Maria Carolynne Boyd, (born 11 July 1949) is a classical guitarist often referred to as the First Lady of the Guitar. Music career Early years Boyd was born in London and grew up in Toronto. Her father grew up in Bilbao, Spain, and her ...

and

Norbert Kraft Norbert Kraft (born 21 August 1950) is a Canadian guitarist, music teacher, producer and arranger. Life Born in Linz, Austria, Kraft's family emigrated to Canada in 1954. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music at Toronto with Carl van Feggel ...

. It has become the channel's classical staple.

Legacy

In 2014, Vivaldi's lute concerto ranked #78 on the ABC Classic FM Classic 100 Baroque and Before countdown. In 2007 it had ranked #75 on the station's Classic 100 concerto countdown. The

autograph An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Inter ...

manuscript of Vivaldi's lute concerto is currently at the

Turin National University Library The National University Library (''Biblioteca nazionale universitaria'' in Italian) in Turin, Italy, is one of the country's main libraries. It was founded in 1720 as the Royal University Library by Victor Amadeus II, who unified collections from ...

in Turin, Italy. The 2nd movement, Largo, was incorporated into

Georges Delerue Georges Delerue (12 March 1925 – 20 March 1992) was a French composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television. Delerue won numerous important film music awards, including an Academy Award for '' A Little Romance'' (1980), three C ...

's Oscar-winning score for the 1979 film

A Little Romance ''A Little Romance'' is a 1979 American romantic comedy film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Laurence Olivier, Thelonious Bernard, and Diane Lane in her film debut. The screenplay was written by Allan Burns and George Roy Hill, based on ...

References

External links

* {{authoritycontrol Concertos by Antonio Vivaldi 1730s works Compositions for lute Compositions in D major

Analysis

Performance

Legacy

See also

References

External links