Issue 22 - Autumn

Autumn is, by far, my favorite season... that unforgettable sound of leaves crunching beneath my feet, the smell of pumpkin seeds crisping in the oven, the glow of candles from within hollowed pumpkins... I'm lucky that I now have a daughter to drag along on pumpkin and apple picking expeditions! This Sunday, September 23rd, marks the Autumn equinox - a great weekend to premiere my transcription for organ of Antonio Vivaldi's programmatic "Autumn" from The Four Seasons.

While program music seems to be something that originated in the Romantic Era, in truth, it only blossomed then. Composers put forth music that was programmatic in nature in the earliest of times - I've played many Renaissance pieces on harpsichord that are such. Of the Baroque period, The Four Seasons stands out as the most well-known and most obviously programmatic piece composed.

What exactly is program music?

"The underlying theory of program music, as described by the man who coined the term, the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (1811–1886), is that the composer must allow the program to determine the actual form of the piece. The introduction and unfolding of the various musical elements, in other words, must reflect the unfolding of the story or the progression of images." (Miles Hoffman, The NPR Classical Music Companion)

The "program" for Autumn is found in the sonnet that Vivaldi wrote to accompany the concerto and is listed below. Each paragraph paints the image for a movement from the concerto. The text-painting is vivid and if the performer weren't exactly sure of how each word is portrayed in the composition, Vivaldi actually put matching letters in the sonnet and score to show where the text is being played out through the music. In several other instances, he actually writes words in the score to accentuate the program, such as "guns and dogs barking" or "the fleeing beast".

AUTUMN by Antonio Vivaldi

Celebrates the peasant, with songs and dances,
The pleasure of a bountiful harvest.
And fired by Bacchus' liquor,
Many end their revelry in sleep.

Everyone is made to forget their cares to sing and dance
By the air which is tempered with pleasure
And by the season that invites so many,
Out of their sweetest slumber to fine enjoyment.

The hunters emerge at the new dawn,
And with horns and dogs and guns depart upon their hunting
The beast flees and they follow its trail;
Terrified and tired of the great noise
Of guns and dogs, the beast, wounded, threatens
Languidly to flee, but harried, dies.

The first movement will be played as prelude music (about 4 minutes long if you want to make it in to listen in time), the second movement will be played during communion and the third movement will be played as the postlude. Enjoy!

For information about the genesis of the transcription for organ, click here.
(Image: Autumn at Wildcat Mountain State Park, WI.)