Autumn from ‘The Four Seasons’

Autumn from ‘The Four Seasons’ by Antonio Vivaldi

Arranged for Flute Quintet by Gudrun Hinze

Instrumentation: 3 flutes – flute 2 doubling piccolo, alto flute, bass flute

Score and parts

Antonio Vivaldi’s third concerto from “The Four Seasons,” Autumn, describes the harvesting time of year. The music is full of grateful happiness: Movement 1 (Allegro) is built after a drinking song of the peasants – you can find a festive “Ritornell”, happy dancing rhythms, even a “hiccup” of the drunk men and finally (Movement 2, Adagio molto) everybody is gently falling asleep. The 3rd movement (Allegro) describes another topic of the Autumn season – the hunt. Dotted rhythms imitate horn signals, accents symbolize gunshots, and fast scales and arpeggios remind of the wild animals, who escape running and jumping.