"Concerti Madrigalesch...
Vivaldi: Instrumental music
ex. 5-18a Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto for Four Violins Op. 3, no. 10, I, mm. 37–39
During his lifetime, the Concerto for Four Violins was one of Vivaldi's best known works, thanks to its publication in his earliest concerto collection, L'estro armonico (roughly, "Music Mania"), op. 3, issued in Amsterdam in 1711. This book, actually printed (like most ensemble publications of the time) as a set of partbooks without score, traveled far and wide, spreading Vivaldi's fame and making his music a model to many a farflung imitator (including J. S. Bach, who made a boisterous arrangement of the Concerto for Four Violins for four harpsichords). It was followed by several other partbook collections bearing fanciful promotional titles: La stravaganza, La cetra ("The lyre"), and the biggest seller of all, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (something like "The trial of musical skill and contrivance"), op. 8, a book of twelve concerti that came out in 1725 and made a sensation thanks to the first four items it contained.
Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 5 The Italian Concerto Style and the Rise of Tonality-driven Form." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2020. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-05008.xml>.
Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 5 The Italian Concerto Style and the Rise of Tonality-driven Form. In Oxford University Press, Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries. New York, USA. Retrieved 21 Jan. 2020, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-05008.xml
Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 5 The Italian Concerto Style and the Rise of Tonality-driven Form." In Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 21 Jan. 2020, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-05008.xml