Vivaldi, Concerto in D minor, Op.3 No.11

Question 1

What music period did Vivaldi live in?

Answer 1

Baroque period.

Question 2

What instruments was the concerto written for?

Answer 2

The Concerto in D minor Op. 3 No. 11 is written for a standard trio sonata group (two violins and cello), string orchestra and continuo.

Question 3

Do the two solo violins play

accompanied at the beginning of the piece?

Answer 3

No.

Question 4

What word can be used to describe the way the two solo violins play together at the start of the piece?

Answer 4

Canon.

Question 5

What two keys does the piece occasionally modulate to.

Answer 5

The music modulates briefly to closely related keys such as G minor (subdominant) and
A minor (dominant).

There are also occasional passages in more remote keys, such as F minor in the third
movement.

Question 6

Describe the texture at the beginning of the piece.

Answer 6

The concerto begins with two-part writing for the two solo violins. They are unaccompanied and contain a continuous tonic pedal D, shared between the
instruments. They play in two-part canon (exact imitation), first at a distance of a crotchet and later at the distance of a bar (bar 6).

Question 7

What key is the piece in?

Answer 7

D minor

Question 8

What is the time signature for the first movement?

Answer 8

The first movement is in simple triple time (3/4).