How are Vivaldi’s Four Seasons concerti connected to poems about the seasons?

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caricature of Antonio Vivaldi — concerto Caricature of Antonio Vivaldi, pen and ink on paper by Pier Leone Ghezzi, 1723; in the Codex Ottoboni, Vatican Library, Rome. The inscription below the drawing reads, “Il Prete rosso Compositore di Musica che fece L'opera a Capranica del 1723” (“The red priest, composer of music who made the opera at Capranica [College in Rome] of 1723”).

Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is a landmark example of program music, where the concerti are explicitly linked to accompanying sonnets that describe the natural world.1

Vivaldi meticulously translated the poetic imagery directly into his musical score. He structured each of the four concerti into three movements—fast, slow, and fast—to correspond precisely with the three sections of each poem. This allows the music to act as a narrative, illustrating specific events or moods described in the text. For instance, in the Spring concerto, the music mimics the sound of a barking dog in the viola section to represent the goatherd’s companion, while other passages evoke natural phenomena like thunderstorms, bird songs, or the gentle murmur of leaves.1

By embedding these poetic lines into the music, Vivaldi provided a detailed guide for listeners to understand the specific seasonal experiences he intended to evoke, ranging from the sweltering heat of summer to the shivering cold of winter.1