Vivaldi's Four Seasons is a Pessimistic Piece

A few weeks ago I had to get familiar with some classical tunes from the Baroque era and, of course, this famous piece was on the listening list.  Naturally, this piece is very well known for its first movement titled "Spring."  If you just click the play button below, you'll probably recognize it immediately.

But, have you ever listened to the other three movements in this piece?  Probably not unless if you are a classical music enthusiast.  I'm definitely not claiming to be a classical music enthusiast but I do enjoy some classical tunes every now and then.  So, I decided to listen to all four movements of this piece instead of actually listening to the other pieces on the listening list.  And, well, it left me sad and frantic at the end; leaving me to conclude that this piece has a pessimistic outlook on the cycle of life.

I don't really have much evidence to back my feelings but I'll try to explain the best I can.

The first movement "Spring" sounds very optimistic and innocent.  It literally sounds like nothing is going wrong and that nothing can go wrong.  It's a kind-hearted introduction to the hopes that life's beginning has in store.

The second movement "Summer" (starts at 10:31), we immediately notice a change in mood as minor chords dominate.  The mood is much more frantic but not helpless.  It's in this movement that the fight for survival has begun and it's generally going well.  The listener feels a sense of stress but also a sense of victory after every phrase, like there's a chain of battles being won.  There's a few, slower, hiccups that interrupt this chain but it is, ultimately, a triumphant movement.

The third movement "Autumn" (starts at 20:59) reverts back to a major chord driven theme in the beginning.  In fact, the listener should be able to recognize the variations of the theme from "Spring" in this movement.  It gives a sense of accomplishment from the trials endured in the second movement.  However, the use of minor chords still has a significant presence in-between the sections that contain major chord driven themes.  To me, it seems that the piece is making sure that the listener doesn't forget that even in times of triumph, the constant struggle for survival still goes on.  At 4 minutes to the end or so of "Autumn," it's at this moment that the piece becomes very adagio, pianissimo, and minor.  It has a very melancholy feel that I interpret as a realization of mortality.  However, the spirited ending of the movement reassures the listener that the trials endured over the past two movements have made us stronger than ever and that survival is not as difficult as it was at the beginning of the second movement.

The fourth movement "Winter" (starts at 32:48) gives us a lot of the frantic mood that we experienced at the beginning of the second movement.  The beginning is very melancholy though to signify the cold and bitterness of the season.  About halfway through the movement, we get a change from minor to major key where we feel a sense of reassurance that even in the harshest months, there's still some rest for those who so desperately need it.  But then that reassurance is lost when the piece slowly becomes depressive again and slowly works its way back to a more frantic mood.  The frantic part here though doesn't sound like the others.  It sounds like there's less fight than the other movements:  almost like we're just worn down and truly helpless.  There is a short burst of a reassurance phrase but the song almost immediately goes back into the helpless, frantic phrase and ends on that note.

Now, the end of this piece I interpreted in two different ways.  The first one was the inescapability of inevitable and immediate death.  The piece does end rather suddenly as there is no true build up to the last note.  It could be a commentary that being caught by a predator would be a pretty sudden and helpless death without much warning.  The death could also be due to the cold weather.  By the end we're fighting to survive but we don't have much fight left and before we realize it, we froze to death.

The other way that I interpreted it, which is a little less pessimistic, is that we made it to the end of winter which came rather suddenly because we got so wrapped up in the process of survival that we did not realize where the end was anymore.  We made it to spring, but we barely made it.  And the cycle goes on again.

It might be interesting to note here the chronological order of the movements as well.  Notice that the most pessimistic movement, "Winter," is the ending note of the seasonal cycle when in reality the piece could have, say for instance, started with "Winter" and ended with the joy of "Spring."  It almost gives the impression that "Spring" is where life begins and "Winter" is where life ends:  reverting the world to its clean slate to start the cycle of birth and death again.

Now, I know that this piece is based on a poem and that the actual intentions of the piece closely coincide with certain lines in the poem, but I don't really plan on reading the poem or listening to the piece while reading the poem so this is my interpretation of the piece, and overall, it has a pretty pessimistic outlook from my eyes.  A lot of the piece is about struggle and very little of it is about the celebration of life.  I'm not saying this is a good or bad outlook but I do think it is an interesting one to experience through song, especially since most of us are only familiar with the very optimistic and innocent sounds of the first movement.  It is all four movements listened in series that make this piece a true masterpiece.

So yeah, basically my take on the piece.  If you have any other notes or are a classical music elitist that feels like trolling, go ahead and ream my ass in the comments.  Otherwise, see ya!