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Tune of the Day: Autumn
This is the third of four violin concertos that make up Antonio Vivaldi's popular cycle known as The Four Seasons. Like the other concertos, “Autumn” is made up of three movements, with the usual fast-slow-fast scheme. Its music was written to depict pastoral scenes and events described in a sonnet that accompanies the original score.
Celebrates the peasant, with songs and dances,
The pleasure of a bountiful harvest.
And fired up by Bacchus' liquor, many
End their revelry in sleep.
Everyone is made to forget their cares and 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, 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.