Who has heard Vivaldis Concerto for Two Violins in A Minor?
For many centuries, composers copied manuscripts of other composers in order to gain knowledge and insight of different compositional styles. These copies led to different interpretations and arrangements of the originals, transcriptions. An ideal piece to transcribe would be a piece whose form was well defined. This happened to be the case when Bach transcribed the works of Vivaldi. During the seventeenth century, composer Antonio Vivaldi mastered the art of concerto form. Vivaldi’s concertos confirmed the scheme of three separate movements as standard for concerto repertoire. These concertos also pioneered ritornello form, which became the normal structure used for the fast movements of concertos, movements one and three. Johann Sebastian Bach’s solo organ transcription, BWV 593, of Vivaldi’s Concerto Grosso in A Minor was a successful attempt of gaining a mature understanding of Vivaldi’s compositional style as well as the Italian concerto and ritornello form. The purpose of music t
