Violin Concerto in E Minor

Violin Concerto in E minor, RV 281

Composer: Antonio Vivaldi

Date of publication: not too clear, but sometime after 1717

To be honest, there is little to no literature on this particular violin concerto, so I will mostly focus on the score. Vivaldi's RV281 (RV standing for Ryom-Verzeichnis, a catalogue for Vivaldi's compositions, created by Peter Ryom around the 1970s) is one of Vivaldi's 261 violin concertos, and in particular, one of his 3 violin concertos in E minor.

Much like his other violin concertos, RV281 was written for violin and strings + bass*. Also, given the time period, it is no surprise that this particular violin concerto was undoubtedly baroque, with 5 clear voices, written in common time. At first, the piece starts in G major, with the 4 upper voices holding down a tonic chord until it inevitably progresses into e minor around the introduction of the soli violin voice. Throughout the entire piece, Vivali frequents using measures of 4 sixteenth-note motifs, with 3 being the same note, and the stress being placed on the different note. The different note appears mainly on the 1st and 3rd notes of the 16th note motif. Vivaldi also employs a variety of airy sixteenth note runs for the solo violin and arpeggiated triplet sixteenths or eighth-sixteenths. Often-times, the 4th voice pairs up with the 2nd or 3rd voice to play the same rhythmic and melodic voice as well. Whilst this piece isn't actually very fast like other baroque pieces, an illusion of a presto is created through the use of polyrhythms and many grace notes/trills. The largo is much more cantabile, with a more usual form of concerto (that being the solo violin's melody accompanied by the orchestra, instead of them all playing in voices). Of course, the concerto eventually returns to a baroque counterpoint in the recapitulation and 3rd movement.

*however this particular recording is played with a harpsichord.

Movements:

I. Allegro

II. Largo

III. Allegro