MUSI 4350/4360: Haydn and the Symphony

1. Haydn's [1732-1809] early years

   1. Haydn's father recognized Joseph's musical gifts at an early age and arranged for his schooling in Hamburg. At age seven, the Imperial Kapellmeister Georg Ruetter, jr. heard him singing and accepted him into the Kapellhaus in Vienna, where he had instruction in piano, violin, and various other academic subjects.

   2. Haydn's voice eventually began to change. An apocryphal story suggests that Haydn's father arrived at St. Steven's just in time to prevent the operation that would prevent it (Castrati = #%$&*!!). Parental permission may have been refused. In any case, the seventeen-year-old Haydn was turned out of St. Steven's in November 1749.

2. Vienna offered many opportunities for Haydn (although most were low-paying). Also during this period, Haydn purchased and studied Emmanuel Bach's Versuch, which (along with the "Prussian" sonatas) was influential in Haydn's musical development.

3. In 1759 Haydn was appointed Kapellmeister to the court of Count Morzin. Little is known about the period; at some point, however, Haydn managed to impress Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy. When Count Morzin fell on hard times and was forced to disband his orchestra, Haydn was appointed Assistant Kapellmeister to the Esterhazy court.

4. The Esterhazy family

   Haydn's years (and contract) as a "hausoffizier" in the Esterhazy court is available at   

1. Symphony No. 6 "Le Matin"

   1. Symphonies 6-8, "Le matin," La midi," and "Le soir" are the first to be written at Esterhaza.

   2. For more information, see Stedman pp. 33-36.

2. Symphony No. 45 "The Farewell"

   1. The circumstances surrounding the performance of this piece - the orchestra was impatient to go back home after the Prince's lengthy stay at Esterhaza - is well documented.

   2. For more information see Downes pp, 398-400.

    

(These notes 1-33) are a condensation from Homer Ulrich's  book Symphonic Music, Columbia Press, 1952.)

1. We may begin our discussion of the symphonies of Haydn at the point he began his employment with the Court of the Esterhazy (1761).

2. The court orchestra, at first sixteen strong and then enlarged to twenty-two, was an excellent and fully capable professional orchestra despite its modest size.

3. The symphonies of his first eleven years in this Princely household (nos. 3-42) seldom used more than two oboes, two horns and strings.  It was still customary to add bassoon to string bass parts in the old continuo manner.  Trumpets and timpani (most often reserved for outdoor, festive occasions) were usually used in loud, fast movements, and were not always identified in the score - separate parts being written, even as late as Mozart.

4. These early works show that he was familiar with Italian practices and the Sinfonia, however, from the time of his employment in 1761 his entire career became a striving for originality.

5. His most important 'problem' of the early years was that of unifying his material.  Out of this effort grew his innovative procedures of monothematicism.  (When a new theme appears it is generally derived from the first theme.)

6. In general a bright, busy, sunny mood prevails through the early symphonies and the highly contrastive thematic situations to be found later in Mozart and Beethoven are in evidence.

7. In the 1760's, and to a greater degree in those of the following decade, a new subjective attitude took the place of objective writing-to-a-formula; the symphony became a personal expression of Haydn's aims, abilities, and emotional constitution.  One evidence of this is provided by the concertante elements that are introduced in a few of these works.  After the 1780's, however, when he had accomplished the separation of quartet style and symphony style, solo passages hold a decidedly minor place.

8. Prominent throughout his career is the importance of Austrian Folk Music in Haydn's work.  His melodies are triadic, finding chromaticism during the Sturm und  Drang  of the mid century decades, and occasionally after Mozart's music began to exert its influence upon him.  They  exhibit the tunefulness of folk-music, the narrow range, and their easy recollection.

9. About Symphony No.20 the minuet finds a permanent place in the symphony form.  This movement throughout the music of Haydn will be the most stable and resistant to influence due to its very origin and nature. Only in the choice of key for the Trio do they show experimentation beginning, about 1765, to appear in the tonic minor, subdominant, subdominant minor or dominant minor.

10. The nine year period from 1772 to 1781 is a time of experimentation culminating in the quartets Op.33 of 1782.  These years mark the time frame during which the evolution of classical style, as revealed and expressed by Haydn made great strides.

11. About 1782, with the new manner, he formulated another principle of melodic construction.

12.The chord patterns and scale lines were subordinated to a variety of distinctive intervals and a more diverse rhythmic scheme.

13.The intervals and mixed rhythmic patterns were more loosely held together, and in fact constituted many short motives.

14. As we noted in the quartets, he discovered a way of combining polyphonic textures and homophonic melodies - that is, melodies which are entities in themselves and require no contrapuntal associates to complete their significance.

15. It is this new principle of thematic development that separates haydn's post-1782 instrumental works from those which lie before that date.

16. Mozart's influence is found chiefly in the use of chromatic melodies (i.e. the "Haydn"Quartets) which are not to be found in earlier H symphonies, and an enhanced lyric quality.

17. The 14 symphonies of 82-86 show broader contrast between the first and second themes (dynamic, lyric - respectively), slow movements take on a nobler more song-like content, become more thoughtful.  The wind instruments play a greater part in thematic manipulation, with a consequent beneficial effect upon the color and the texture of the music.

18. The Paris Symphonies, written for a musical society in Paris contains great variety in emotional content, and ranges from the light and almost superficial #87 to the heavy and somber #83.

19. These are his finest since his sturm und drang of the 70's, blending an approachable, popular style with a broad emotional range and an incentive mastery of form that represents an important step in the genre's development.

20. As the Parisian orchestras were large in comparison to Esterhaza's the symphonies are scored for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns and strings, with trumpets and drums added  to 82 and 86.

21. These Paris works bring to the fore a characteristic that had played a small part only in Haydn's earlier music.  From #82 of 1786 on the chromatic melody-fragment became an important factor in deepening the melodic aspects of the music. They contribute an air of poignancy and provide a degree of concentrated emotion that Haydn had seldom revealed.

22. The many nicknames that Haydn's symphonies bear are sometimes contributed by the composer, more often by the publicist and even more often by the audience. It is particularly a French notion.

23. By 1786 Mozart's influence is beginning to be seen more freely…the façade like introductions that H had so favored now give way to the more contrasting mood and content strength that Mozart had given his intros…ironically, M had first learned from H the importance that can be attached to the intro.

24. The symphonies from 93 to 104 are among his great works.  These London symphonies 1791-1795.  They treat the sonata allegro not as a form into which one pours concrete, but as a living, flowing organism.  They adhere to the essentials  of thematic manipulation, harmonic contrasts, and symmetrical and proportioned forms but exercise the greatest possible freedom.

25. These works, written at the behest of Johann Salomon (1745-1815), violinist and impresario are to the greatest degree the works which H's fame rests largely upon.

26. They overshadow in proportion and craft all but a few of the pre1791 symphonies.

27. They, along with a half dozen of Mozart's stand as virtually the only surviving representatives of the Classical period's symphonic efforts before Beethoven.

28. They reveal a composer whose skill, imagination, and artistry were at their highest point. 

29. Increasing age had not adversely affected the quality of Haydn's writing.

30. Nowhere else in his symphonies  did Haydn  reveal greater freedom and mastery of form problems. 

31. New combos of phrases emerge in unending streams, everything is alive, flowing, and captivating.  There is great confidence.  Rondo and sonata form are combined, as in the finale of 93 and the andante of no101.  Episodes in the rondos are often full developments.

32. Masterful use is made of variation, and his considerably more developmental concern with the second theme is forward looking into Romanticism.

33. The slow intros, and all have them except 95 take on new dimensions and embrace a greater emotional range.  Mysterious tonal realms are explored as daring modulation increase the scope of these slow sections.