Activity 1: Discuss summer weather changes. For example:
- The weather turns hot.
- The trees are full and green.
- The animals raise their young and eat and store food for the next winter.
Activity 2: Describe the Music
After listening to the music, describe and discuss what you heard.
Read the list of adjectives below. Select those that describe the music or think up additional adjectives.
- Happy
- Sad
- Quiet
- Loud
- Fast
- Slow
- Scary
- Dreamy
- Magical
- Rhythmic
- Dignified
Activity 3: Study the Painting
Examine the painting below while listening to the music.
- Narrate the scene shown in the painting aloud using your own words.
- Describe how the painting relates to the music.
Find the following items in the painting:
- House
- Girl
- Tree
- Path
- Trees
- Grass
- Blue Sky
Activity 4: For each movement, listen to the movement, pause the playback, and read the associated lines of Vivaldi's poem
(0:00) Allegro Non Molto Movement (Allegro non molto means not very quick)
- Under a hard Season, fired up by the Sun
- Languishes man, languishes the flock and burns the pine
- We hear the cuckoo's voice;
- then sweet songs of the turtledove and finch are heard.
- Soft breezes stir the air, but threatening
- the North Wind sweeps them suddenly aside.
- The shepherd trembles,
- fearing violent storms and his fate.
(4:50) Adagio e Piano - Presto e Forte Movement (Means slow at ease and soft - quick tempo and loud)
- The fear of lightning and fierce thunder
- Robs his tired limbs of rest
- As gnats and flies buzz furiously around.
(7:00) Presto Movement (Presto means a quick tempo)
- Alas, his fears were justified
- The Heavens thunders and roar and with hail
- Cuts the head off the wheat and damages the grain.