Although Vivaldi is not universally acknowledged as a composer of fugues – indeed the historiographers tend to consider his style to be lacking in counterpoint – he left at least a hundred compositions containing fugues or elements referable to fugues. Since he shows a deep and unusual knowledge of fugue technique for a violinist-composer, we can surmise that he had received lessons in his youth, according to the maestro di cappella tradition. Despite the fact his interest in writing fugues would seemed to have developed in the fi eld of sacred vocal compositions and from his fondness for the genre of the four-part concerto with no soloist, he actually incorporated fugue elements in the most disparate musical structures, such as the two-part form, the refrain form and that of the aria with a da capo. Indeed there are very few musical genres in which he did not use fugue elements. Vivaldi’s interest in this technique reached a climax in the period from c.1725 – c.1735, before waning in the last years of his life. In addition to dealing with Vivaldi’s fugues, this monograph explores various aspects of terminology and practice linked to a compositional technique of interest to both the experts and lovers of the fugue in general.
The publication is the 200th work published by Italian Antonio Vivaldi Institute since 1978, when it became part of the Giorgio Cini Foundation.