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Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, is one of the first known examples of programme music. Programme music is that of a narrative or descriptive kind. Liszt first introduced the term as: a preface added to a piece of instrumental music to direct attention to the poetical idea of the whole or to a particular part.(The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music) Although Vivaldi’s Four Seasons are probably the most well known example of programme music, they were not originally intended to be so. “The Four Seasons” that included the sonnets was sent to Count Venceslas von Morzin of Bohemia around 1724. In the letter that accompanies Vivaldi’s Op.8, he writes: “…I beg you not to be surprised if among these few and feeble concertos, You Illustrious Grace will find the Four Seasons, already long since under the indulgent and generous eye of you grace, but may you believe that I took great pride in publishing them, because they are in any case the same, but enlarged, apart from the Sonnets, with a detailed explanation of everything in them and I am sure they will seem new to you.” (Landon) It is obvious that the sonnets must have been written after the concertos because Vivaldi must not have thought