Authors: Janice Shefelman
Anna Maria's Gift (7 page)
Now it was time for the two violins. Anna Maria could hear the maestro’s voice in her head.
Together now, let your violins sing the melody
.
She glanced at Paolina, and they began. Anna Maria forgot the audience. She let herself be carried along on the music.
When the galloping final movement ended, the audience began to make a racket. They scraped their feet on the floor and coughed. They blew their noses with loud snorts. Francesco swayed from side to side as he stomped his feet.
“Clapping is not allowed in the chapel,” Paolina told her. “So all that noise means they loved us.”
Anna Maria looked at Maestro Vivaldi.
“Brava
, dear girls,
brava!”
he said.
Anna Maria felt her heart swell.
Francesco was right
, she thought.
I can be happy in Venice. And Papa was right to send me to the Pietà. Here I can be a musician
.
No longer did it seem like a prison. It was a school and a home, with a mother, an aunt, many sisters … and a red-haired father.
basilica
[buh-SILL-ih-kuh]: early Christian church
brava
[BRAH-vah]: well done
doge
[dohj]: chief government official of Venice
don
[dohn]: title for a highly respected man
gondola
[GON-duh-luh]: long, narrow Venetian boat
gondolier
[gon-duh-LEER]: person who rows a gondola
illustrious
[ih-LUS-tree-us]: very famous
lagoon
[luh-GOON]: shallow body of water connected to a larger one
largo
[LAR-go]: slow part of a musical composition
lire
[LEE-reh]: monetary units of Italy
maestro
[MY-stroh]: title for a conductor,
composer, or teacher of music
Mass:
church service that celebrates Communion
Pietà
[pee-ay-TAH]: name of an orphanage in Venice
prioress
[PRY-uh-russ]: head nun
quill:
feather writing pen
sì
[see]: yes
signorle
[seen-YOHR/eh]: mister
signorina
[seen-yuh-REE-nuh]: miss
unfrock
[un-FRAHK]: take away one’s priestly duties
vespers
[VES-purz]: evening worship service
It may seem odd that an orphanage would also be a music school. Indeed, the Pietà was one of four orphanages in Venice. They competed with one another to have the best music teachers, students, and performances.
The Pietà began as a regular orphanage. There were classes in reading, writing, and arithmetic. The girls also learned embroidery, lace making, sewing, spinning, and weaving. Their work was sold to help support the orphanage.
Venice was a city of music lovers. Someone realized that the orphan girls who showed musical talent could become musicians. They could earn money for the orphanage by giving performances. Most of the girls had no family name. So each was given the
name of the instrument she played, such as Silvia of the Cello.
The Pietà was fortunate to have Antonio Vivaldi. He taught violin and other stringed instruments. He composed music for the girls and conducted the orchestra. Because of Vivaldi, this group of young musicians became famous. People, even kings, came from all over Europe to see and hear the orphan girls perform.
Although Anna Maria is a fictional girl, she could be real. The idea that her violin held her father’s soul and voice was inspired by the great violin maker Antonio Stradivari. He liked to keep each violin in his bedroom for a month before varnishing it. He believed his soul entered the violin while he slept. And he should know!
This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2010 by Janice Shefelman
Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Robert Papp
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shefelman, Janice Jordan.
Anna Maria’s gift / by Janice Shefelman ; illustrated by Robert Papp. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Stepping Stone Book.”
Summary: In 1715 Italy, nine-year-old Anna Maria Lombardini arrives at a Venice orphanage with little but the special violin her father made for her, but when her teacher, Antonio Vivaldi, favors her over a fellow student, the beloved instrument winds up in a canal. Includes glossary and historical note.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89828-0
[1. Violin—Fiction. 2. Orphans—Fiction. 3. Vivaldi, Antonio, 1678–1741—Fiction. 4. Conduct of life—Fiction. 5. Schools—Fiction. 6. Venice (Italy)—History—1508–1797—Fiction. 7. Italy—History—1559–1789—Fiction.]
I. Papp, Robert, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.S54115Ann 2010 [Fic]—dc22 2009004553
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