FAMOUS COMPOSERS:
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi

VIVALDI BIOGRAPHY HISTORY LESSON

Directions:

Print the Antonio Lucio Vivaldi reading comprehension passage and questions (see below).

Students should read the passage silently, then answer the questions.  Teachers may also use the text as part of a classroom lesson plan.

Lesson Excerpt

During the Baroque period of music, a composer and violin player by the name of Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was famous all over Europe. Vivaldi knew kings and princes and even played violin for the pope. People would visit Venice, Italy, where Vivaldi lived and ask him to write a piece of music as a souvenir of their visit to Venice.

Vivaldi was born into a large Italian family in Venice on March 4, 1678. He had four brothers and four sisters. At the age of fifteen, Antonio began studying to become a priest. He became a priest in 1703, but he only said Mass a few times. He was known as the “red priest” because of his red hair. Throughout his life, Vivaldi lived with a health condition that he referred to as “tightening of the chest”. Today we know the condition as asthma. Vivaldi's asthma did not interfere with his ability to compose and play great music, though!

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