Imagine yourself traveling on a gondola in Venice, Italy. On a canal just off of the Grand Canal, you hear the strains of a string orchestra. As you navigate closer to the sound, you find yourself at the Ospedale della Pietà. This place housed many orphans. Forty to sixty of them were girls who played in orchestra. You can hear them practicing inside. You knock on the door. A nun answers. You ask if you can come and listen more. She lets you in but says you must listen only on the other side of a grate since these children are cloistered just like the nuns are.  You ask what they are playing and the nun says, "Spring" by Antonio Vivaldi. She hands you a leaflet which has poetry for the piece.

 

a Sonnet for Spring

Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
     and murmuring streams are
     softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar,
casting their dark mantle over heaven,
    Then they die away to silence,
    and the birds take up their charming songs once more.