A French traveler touring Italy in the early eighteenth century visited four orphanages in Vienna, and what he experienced will strengthen your faith in humanity. He didn't go to the orphanages to minister to the children's need, or to report on their want--he went there to hear the famous "transcending music" of a concert of Antonin Vivaldi's girls.
Writing back to the folks at home, Charles de Brosses reported,
"There are four [orphanages], all made up of illegitimate or orphaned girls or girls whose parents are not in a condition to raise them. They are reared at public expense and trained solely to excel in music. So they sing like angels and play the violin, the flute, the organ, the violoncello, the bassoon. In short no instrument is large enough to frighten them. They are cloistered in the manner of nuns. They alone perform, and each concert is given by about forty girls. I swear to you that there is nothing so charming as to see a young and pretty [woman] in her white robe, with a bouquet of pomegranate flowers over her ear, leading the orchestra and beating time with all the grace and precision imaginable. Their voices are adorable for their quality and lightness.
"The [orphanage] I go to most often is that of the Pieta', where one is best entertained. It is also first for the perfection of the instrumental pieces. What a precise performance!"
These four orphanages each had a small door the size of a baby, through which desperate mothers could deposit newborns anonymously and safely. Supported by noble families in Italy such as the Medici (whose patriarchs fathered some of the illegitimate children), these "foundling hospitals," went well beyond caring for their charges' basic needs. They had a higher purpose, that of making the girls suitable for a life in middle-class society, a life away from the gutter and the brothels. In the eighteenth century, that meant marriage, and to be suitable for marriage, one had to be cultured, graceful, and able to play a musical instrument and sing. These orphanages--more like boarding schools, actually--provided the girls with fine instruments and the finest instruction.
Antonin Vivaldi, a priest and violinist, famous for having red hair under that white wig, worked tirelessly as the teacher, composer and producer of music at the Pieta' for over 35 years. He taught the girls music, and as they grew, he composed concertos that he designed to help them develop specific abilities. During one six-year period, he composed two new concertos a month. Each concerto was written for a specific performance, to showcase a specific girl's skill. They were not used twice at the orphanage, however, many were printed and sold and these concertos became very popular throughout Europe, used both in public and private concerts, and played by amateurs at home. Johann Sebastian Bach had copies of Vivaldi's music in his home in Germany, and he borrowed Vivaldi's style to write his own orchestral works.
Vivaldi said he could compose a concerto faster than it could be written down, and he was probably accurate in that assessment because he perfected a clever compositional method that allowed him to create long movements from a small amount of material. Vivaldi's concerto format provided the pattern for concertos that is still used today, two hundred years later: three "movements" (individual pieces of music that are played together in order), each with flashy solo sections to show off the violinist's skill, alternating with orchestral sections. Most concertos today begin with a fast movement, then a slow one, and then the fastest one, designed after Vivaldi's form.
Public musical performances by women were not socially acceptable for the most part during the eighteenth century. At the Pieta', this problem was solved by large ornate screens which protected the young women from clear view. The graduates of the Pieta' had to sign a statement promising never to play in public. Their talents would only be for display in homes. And for catching respectable husbands.
Vivaldi still entertains us in the 21st century. Even if you don't go to the symphony, you can't escape Vivaldi's concertos. IMDb, the Internet Movie Database, lists 367 credits for Vivaldi's music in movie and television soundtracks, including "Spectre," "The Fault in Our Stars," "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl," "Arrow," "The Fantastic Four," "Grey's Anatomy," "The Simpsons," "The Adventures of TinTin," "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," "Warm Bodies," and "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," among hundreds more. Everywhere you go, there is Vivaldi. For sure you have heard, "The Four Seasons," one of his earliest compositions (opus 8, meaning the 8th musical work he wrote in his life). Now you know where it came from, and every time you hear it again, remember the Pio Ospedale Della Pieta' and the many orphan girls' lives that were changed by this ordinary man and gifted musician, Antonin Vivaldi.
Listen to "The Four Seasons," by Antonin Vivaldi
Sources:
J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout, Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 9th ed., W.W. Norton, New York, p. 411-421.
Harold C. Schoenberg, The Lives of the Great Composers, 3rd ed., W.W. Norton, New York, p. 46.
Dr. Christopher Scheer, associate professor of musicology, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, lecture, February 18, 2016.
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