Haydn, Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp-minor, “Farewell” « earsense blog Haydn, Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp-minor, “Farewell” Joseph Haydn, 1732-1809 Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp-minor, “Farewell”, 1772 During the thirty years Haydn served the Esterházy family, he almost singlehandedly evolved and perfected two extraordinary genres of which he is generally known as the father: the symphony and the string quartet. In the case of the symphony, he was not the originator nor hardly the only practitioner, but his prodigiousness, originality and excellence place Haydn far ahead of any predecessors or contemporaries save Mozart who was, chronologically and historical second after Haydn. Of his 104 symphonies, so many are well-known and beloved that they bear popular nicknames: “Surprise”, “Drum Roll”, “Miracle”, “Clock”, “Queen”, “Bear” and so on.

The so-called “Farewell” symphony derives its name from its unique finale and the story, possibly apocryphal, that lead Haydn to compose it. Prince Nikolaus built an elaborate castle at Esterháza near the Austro-Hungarian border some distance from Vienna and his normal residence at Eisenstadt. The prince grew fond of this second Versailles so that the part of the year in which he and his retinue stayed there grew long and longer. The musicians naturally traveled with the prince but were not permitted to bring their families; they felt isolated at Esterháza, which was situated on a vast, isolated marshland. After a particularly long sojourn seemed interminable, the musicians asked Haydn to interceded on their behalf. At the next musical performance before the price, Haydn presented his new symphony in the dark and rare key of F-sharp-minor with an apparent message in the last movement. On the tails of a brisk presto finale, the music abruptly stops, starting afresh with a new adagio, an odd surprise disarming the expected conclusion.

A simple, charming promenade tune plays while, one by one, the musicians extinguish their candles and exit until there are but two violinists left to finish the symphony with an intimate, lonely little chamber duo. Nikolaus was supposed to have said, “Well, if they all leave I suppose we had better leave too,” and the next day they all returned to Vienna. Whether this really happened, the music really works that way in one of the several creative formal experiments Haydn conducted during his “Sturm und drang” period. The opening movement is turbulent with a restless urgency characteristic of the “Storm and Stress” movement that swept all the European arts in the 1760’s and 1770’s. Here, Haydn provided a prototype for the shadowy angst eventually associated with Mozart. The second movement adagio (the real one) moves at a moderate pace in a brighter major mode, but the muted strings and the brief flickering of minor tonalities create a slightly unsettling effect. The third movement minuet offers a point of repose (despite a loud, unexpected diminished chord) including a trio highlighting the warm open intervals of mellow horns (slightly stained with still more flashes of something disturbing).

The last movement confirms these uneasy hints with a suitably driven and stormy finale until, of course, the legendary “farewell” sweetens the final impression with a delicately whispered “goodbye.” It may simply be, cute story aside, that Haydn could only risk the queer, alien effects of F-sharp-minor by cancelling its gloom with an unforgettably ingenious antidote as a conclusion. This entry was posted on Friday, March 1st, 2013 at 1:47 am and is filed under Program Notes . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. Haydn's 'Farewell' Symphony and the Idea of Classical Style: Through-Composition and Cyclic Integration in his Instrumental Music (Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and Analysis): James Webster: 9780521612012: Amazon.com: Books Editorial Reviews Review This volume offers a new view of Joseph Haydn's instrumental music. It argues that many of Haydn's greatest and most characteristic instrumental works are "through-composed" in the sense that their several movements are bound together into a cycle.

Professor Webster challenges the concept of "classical style" which, he argues, has distorted our understanding of Haydn's development, and he stresses the need for a greater appreciation of Haydn's early music and of his stature as Beethoven's equal. -- Book Description --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Classical Archives: Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony : March 26, 2012 On March 31, we’ll celebrate the 280th birthday of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), among the most important composers of the Classical era, and called “Papa” Haydn by virtue of his key role in introducing the working principles of “sonata form” and the conventions of such genres as the symphony, the sonata, and the string quartet. In honor of this anniversary, we are pleased to present a charming and unusual video of among Haydn’s most famous movements: the Finale of his Symphony No.45 in F#-.

This symphony is subtitled “Farewell”, by virtue of the famous story whereby Haydn slyly convinced his patron, Prince Nicolas Esterházy, to end his extended summer stay at the remote summer palace Esterháza, in Fertöd (modern day Hungary) – thereby keeping the musicians away from their families: for the Finale, Haydn wrote in such a manner that toward the end, the musicians would one-by-one stop playing, snuff out their candles, and walk off stage, leaving only Haydn and his concertmaster playing at the work’s conclusion. Apparently, Esterházy got the hint, and ordered his retinue to return to Vienna the next day! In this video, we see a performance not unlike the original – taking place in same beautiful and ornate hall at Esterháza, where the musicians indeed get up and walk away one-by-one. Here Adam Fischer leads the Haydnphilarmonie. Enjoy, and Happy Birthday, Papa Haydn! Haydn’s “Farewell Symphony” at the Esterháza Palace advertisement Haydn : Symphony No. 94, 'Surprise', 2nd movement - YouTube Haydn : Symphony No.

94, 'Surprise', 2nd movement Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Jun 18, 2008 Title: Haydn- Symphony No. 94, 'Surprise', 2nd movement Date:1791 Haydn — Symphony No. 45, “Farewell” | Columbus Indiana Philharmonic Haydn — Symphony No. 45, “Farewell” 0 Comment Haydn — Symphony No. 45, “Farewell” His given name was Franz Joseph; but to generations of classical music devotees, he is known as Papa. It was a nickname that came into favor during Franz Joseph Haydn’s lifetime in the late 1700s, in the long period when he served as Kapellmeister for the Hungarian Court of Eszterházy.

At the time, ‘Papa’ was simply a term of endearment for the composer and orchestra leader, who often served as a kind of father-figure to his younger musicians. Yet the name stuck for centuries, for a symbolic reason: When it comes to the core musical form of the orchestral canon, all roads lead back to Haydn and his brilliant innovation known as the symphony. Actually, the origins of the symphony dated back far prior to Haydn’s birth in 1732. Derived from an ancient Greek word that referred to harmonious or concordant sound, ‘symphony’ was originally a term that referenced various instruments, particularly those that could produce more than one tone at the same time. As a term referencing a musical form, ‘symphony’ began appearing widely among the works of 16th and 17th century composers, who seemed to use it loosely and interchangeably with other words; most often it referenced collections of sacred vocal works. By the time Haydn appeared on the musical landscape of Austria, the word ‘symphony’ most often applied to a three-movement instrumental work in which two fast movements sandwiched a central, slow movement.

In 1759, Haydn himself penned his First Symphony in this form; his Second Symphony, written sometime within the following three years, also plays out in three movements. But with his Third Symphony, Haydn introduced what probably seemed, at the time, a minor innovation: the inclusion of an additional middle movement in the form of a Minuet. Then highly popular as a courtly social dance form, the minuet had already made its way into the music of other classical composers such as Bach and Handel. But in adding a bit of dance music to his symphonies (and also, later, his innovations in what would become known as sonata form), Haydn established what would eventually become the primary long-form structure of orchestral music for more than two centuries. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he left behind plenty of examples. In his lifetime, Haydn penned 104 “numbered” symphonies and an actual total of 108 symphonies – a far cry from Beethoven’s nine or Brahms’ four. Perhaps not surprisingly, a relatively small handful of those many symphonies have endured as staples of the orchestral repertoire.

Among those, one of the earliest is the 45th, written in 1772. Haydn spent much of his career working as the court composer for Nikolaus Esterházy, a Hungarian prince who allowed the composer considerable creative freedom, demanding only that he produce new music regularly. Nonetheless, the relationship wasn’t always entirely carefree. Haydn and his orchestra had spent that summer at the prince’s remote countryside castle, and as the weeks dragged on, the musicians began to grumble about getting home to their families. Haydn dealt with the issue by writing this symphony. In the first three movements, the composer employs his signature techniques to exquisite form. But it is the final movement that provides the work’s clever raison d’être. After a vigorous opening typical of Haydn’s finales, the music suddenly shifts to a slow adagio. One by one, the musicians stop playing and exit the stage quietly, leaving just two violinists. If the legends are true, the prince got the message: It is written that the very next day, the entire court returned to civilization.

Program notes provided by Joe Nickell About the Author Joseph Haydn - Father of the Symphony and String Quartet Joseph Haydn - Father of the Symphony and String Quartet Hi guest "Young people can learn from my example that something can come from nothing. What I have become is the result of my hard efforts." Haydn, Joseph (1732-1809) Joseph Haydn was one of the most prominent composers of the classical period, and is called by some the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet". A life-long resident of Austria, Haydn spent most of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Hungarian Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Although Haydn is still often called "Franz Joseph Haydn", the composer did not use the name "Franz" during his lifetime and this misnomer is avoided by modern scholars and historians. Joseph Haydn was the brother of Michael Haydn, himself a highly regarded composer, and Johann Evangelist Haydn, a tenor.

Childhood Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Archduchy of Austria, a village near the border with the Kingdom of Hungary. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who also served as "Marktrichter", an office akin to village mayor. Haydn's mother, the former Maria Koller, had previously worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach, the presiding aristocrat of Rohrau. Neither parent could read music; however, Mathias was an enthusiastic folk musician, who during the journeyman period of his career had taught himself to play the harp. According to Haydn's later reminiscences, his childhood family was extremely musical, and frequently sang together and with their neighbors. Haydn's parents had noticed that their son was musically talented and knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain any serious musical training. It was for this reason that they accepted a proposal from their relative Johann Matthias Franck, the schoolmaster and choirmaster in Hainburg, that Haydn be apprenticed to Franck in his home to train as a musician.

Haydn therefore went off with Franck to Hainburg (seven miles away) and never again lived with his parents. He was six years old. Life in the Franck household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently hungry as well as constantly humiliated by the filthy state of his clothing. However, he did begin his musical training there, and soon was able to play both harpsichord and violin. The people of Hainburg were soon hearing him sing treble parts in the church choir. There is reason to think that Haydn's singing impressed those who heard him, because two years later (in 1740) he was brought to the attention of Georg von Reutter, the director of music in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, who was touring the provinces looking for talented choirboys. Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and soon moved off to Vienna, where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister, the last four in the company of his younger brother Michael. Like Franck before him, Reutter did not always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed.

The young Haydn greatly looked forward to performances before aristocratic audiences, where the singers sometimes had the opportunity to satisfy their hunger by devouring the refreshments. Reutter also did little to further his choristers' musical education. However, St. Stephen's was at the time one of the leading musical centers in Europe, with many performances of new music by leading composers. Haydn was able to learn a great deal by observation, simply by serving as a professional musician there. Struggles as a freelancer By 1749, Haydn had finally matured physically to the point that he was no longer able to sing high choral parts. On a weak pretext, he was summarily dismissed from his job. He was sent into the streets with no home to go to. However, he had the good fortune to be taken in by a friend, Johann Michael Spangler, who for a few months shared with Haydn his family's crowded garret room. Haydn was able to begin immediately his pursuit of a career as a freelance musician.

During this arduous time, Haydn worked at many different jobs: as a music teacher, as a street serenader, and eventually as valet–accompanist for the Italian composer Nicola Porpora, from whom he later said he learned "the true fundamentals of composition". When he was a chorister, Haydn had not received serious training in music theory and composition, which he perceived as a serious gap. To fill it, he worked his way through the counterpoint exercises in the text Gradus ad Parnassum by Johann Joseph Fux, and carefully studied the work of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, whom he later acknowledged as an important influence. As his skills increased, Haydn began to acquire a public reputation, first as the composer of an opera, Der krumme Teufel "The Limping Devil", written for the comic actor Johann Joseph Felix Kurz, whose stage name was "Bernardon". The work was premiered successfully in 1753, but was soon closed down by the censors. Haydn also noticed, apparently without annoyance, that works he had simply given away were being published and sold in local music shops.

With the increase in his reputation, Haydn eventually was able to obtain aristocratic patronage, crucial for the career of a composer in his day. Countess Thun, having seen one of Haydn's compositions, summoned him and engaged him as her singing and keyboard teacher. Baron Carl Josef Fürnberg employed Haydn at his country estate, Weinzierl, where the composer wrote his first string quartets. Fürnberg later recommended Haydn to Count Morzin, who in 1757 became his first full time employer. The years as Kapellmeister Haydn's job title under Count Morzin was Kapellmeister, that is, music director. He led the count's small orchestra and wrote his first symphonies for this ensemble. In 1760, with the security of a Kapellmeister position, Haydn married. His wife was the former Maria Anna Aloysia Apollonia Keller (1729–1800), the sister of Therese (b. 1733), with whom Haydn had previously been in love. Haydn and his wife had a completely unhappy marriage, from which the laws of the time permitted them no escape; and they produced no children.

Both took lovers. Count Morzin soon suffered financial reverses that forced him to dismiss his musical establishment, but Haydn was quickly offered a similar job (1761) as Vice Kapellmeister to the Esterházy family, one of the wealthiest and most important in the Austrian Empire. When the old Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner, died in 1766, Haydn was elevated to full Kapellmeister. As a "house officer" in the Esterházy establishment, Haydn wore livery and followed the family as they moved among their various palaces, most importantly the family's ancestral seat Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt and later on Eszterháza, a grand new palace built in rural Hungary in the 1760s. Haydn had a huge range of responsibilities, including composition, running the orchestra, playing chamber music for and with his patrons, and eventually the mounting of operatic productions. Despite this workload, the job was in artistic terms a superb opportunity for Haydn.

The Esterházy princes (first Paul Anton, then most importantly Nikolaus I) were musical connoisseurs who appreciated his work and gave him daily access to his own small orchestra. During the nearly thirty years that Haydn worked at the Esterházy court, he produced a flood of compositions, and his musical style continued to develop. His popularity in the outside world also increased. Gradually, Haydn came to write as much for publication as for his employer, and several important works of this period, such as the Paris symphonies (1785–1786) and the original orchestral version of The Seven Last Words of Christ (1786), were commissions from abroad. Haydn also gradually came to feel more isolated and lonely, particularly as the court came to spend most of the year at Esterháza, far from Vienna, rather than the closer-by Eisenstadt (Geiringer 1982, p. 60). Haydn particularly longed to visit Vienna because of his friendships there.

Of these, a particularly important one was with Maria Anna von Genzinger (1750–93), the wife of Prince Nikolaus's personal physician in Vienna, who began a close, platonic, relationship with the composer in 1789. Haydn wrote to Mrs. Genzinger often, expressing his loneliness at Eszterháza and his happiness for the few occasions on which he was able to visit her in Vienna; later on, Haydn wrote to her frequently from London. Her premature death in 1793 was a blow to Haydn, and his F minor variations for piano, Hob. XVII:6, may have been written in response to her death. Another friend in Vienna was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom Haydn met sometime around 1784. According to later testimony by Michael Kelly and others, the two composers occasionally played in string quartets together. Haydn was hugely impressed with Mozart's work and praised it unstintingly to others. Mozart evidently returned the esteem, as seen in his dedication of a set of six quartets, now called the "Haydn" quartets, to his friend. For further details see Haydn and Mozart.

The London journeys In 1790, Prince Nikolaus died and was succeeded by a thoroughly unmusical prince who dismissed the entire musical establishment and put Haydn on a pension. Freed of his obligations, Haydn was able to accept a lucrative offer from Johann Peter Salomon, a German impresario, to visit England and conduct new symphonies with a large orchestra. The visit (1791–1792), along with a repeat visit (1794–1795), was a huge success. Audiences flocked to Haydn's concerts; Haydn augmented his fame and made large profits, thus becoming financially secure. Charles Burney reviewed the first concert thus: "Haydn himself presided at the piano-forte; and the sight of that renowned composer so electrified the audience, as to excite an attention and a pleasure superior to any that had ever been caused by instrumental music in England." Musically, the visits to England generated some of Haydn's best-known work, including the Surprise, Military, Drumroll, and London symphonies, the Rider quartet, and the "Gypsy Rondo" piano trio.

The only misstep in the venture was an opera, Orfeo ed Euridice, also called L'Anima del Filosofo, which Haydn was contracted to compose, but whose performance was blocked by intrigues. Between visits, Haydn taught Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven found him unsatisfactory as a teacher and sought help from others; the relationship between the two was sometimes rather tense. For discussion of their relationship, see Beethoven and his contemporaries. Final years in Vienna Haydn returned to Vienna in 1795, moved into a large house in the suburb of Gumpendorf, and turned to the composition of large religious works for chorus and orchestra. These include his two great oratorios (The Creation and The Seasons) and six masses for the Eszterházy family, which by this time was once again headed by a musically-inclined prince. Haydn also composed instrumental music: the popular Trumpet Concerto and the last nine in his long series of string quartets, including the Fifths, Emperor, and Sunrise quartets.

In 1802, an illness from which Haydn had been suffering for some time had increased in severity to the point that he became physically unable to compose. This was doubtless very difficult for him because, as he acknowledged, the flow of fresh musical ideas waiting to be worked out as compositions did not cease. Haydn was well cared for by his servants, and he received many visitors and public honours during his last years, but they could not have been very happy years for him. During his illness, Haydn often found solace by sitting at the piano and playing Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, which he had composed himself as a patriotic gesture in 1797 (Geiringer 1982, pp. 161–2). This melody later was used for the Austrian and German national anthems. Haydn died at the end of May in 1809, shortly after an attack on Vienna by the French army under Napoleon. He was 77. Among his last words was his attempt to calm and reassure his servants when cannon shot fell in the neighborhood (Geiringer 1982, p. 189).

"My children, have no fear, for where Haydn is, no harm can fall." Two weeks later, a memorial service was held in the Schottenkirche on June 15, 1809, at which W.A. Mozart’s Requiem K.626 was performed. Character and appearance James Webster writes of Haydn's public character thus: "Haydn's public life exemplified the Enlightenment ideal of the honnête homme (honest man): the man whose good character and worldly success enable and justify each other. His modesty and probity were everywhere acknowledged. These traits were not only prerequisites to his success as Kapellmeister, entrepreneur and public figure, but also aided the favourable reception of his music." Haydn was especially respected by the Eszterházy court musicians whom he supervised, as he maintained a cordial working atmosphere and effectively represented the musicians' interests with their employer; see Papa Haydn and the tale of the "Farewell" Symphony. Haydn had a robust sense of humour, evident in his love of practical jokes and often apparent in his music, and he had many friends.

For much of his life he benefited from a "happy and naturally cheerful temperament" (Dies 1810, 91), but in his later life, there is evidence for periods of depression, notably in the correspondence with Mrs. Genzinger and in Dies's biography, based on visits made in Haydn's old age. Haydn was a devout Catholic who often turned to his rosary when he had trouble composing, a practice that he usually found to be effective. He normally began the manuscript of each composition with "in nomine Domini" ("in the name of the Lord") and ended with "Laus Deo" ("praise be to God"). Haydn was short in stature, perhaps as a result of having been underfed throughout most of his youth. He was not handsome, and like many in his day he was a survivor of smallpox, his face being pitted with the scars of this disease. His early biographer Dies wrote, "he couldn't understand how it happened that in his life he had been loved by many a pretty woman. 'They couldn't have been led to it by my beauty'".

Haydn also suffered from nasal polyposis for much of his adult life; this was an agonizing and debilitating disease in the 18th century, and at times it prevented him from writing music. The treatment for nasal polyps in early medicine lasted for days and was excruciating and bloody, prompting Haydn to say of his physician, "May he rot beneath the earth." Works James Webster summarizes Haydn's role in the history of classical music as follows: "He excelled in every musical genre... He is familiarly known as the 'father of the symphony' and could with greater justice be thus regarded for the string quartet; no other composer approaches his combination of productivity, quality and historical importance in these genres." Structure and character of the music A central characteristic of Haydn's music is the development of larger structures out of very short, simple musical motifs, often derived from standard accompanying figures. The music is often quite formally concentrated, and the important musical events of a movement can unfold rather quickly. Haydn's work was central to the development of what came to be called sonata form.

His practice, however, differed in some ways from that of Mozart and Beethoven, his younger contemporaries who likewise excelled in this form of composition. Haydn was particularly fond of the so-called "monothematic exposition", in which the music that establishes the dominant key is similar or identical to the opening theme. Haydn also differs from Mozart and Beethoven in his recapitulation sections, where he often rearranges the order of themes compared to the exposition and uses extensive thematic development. Haydn's formal inventiveness also led him to integrate the fugue into the classical style and to enrich the rondo form with more cohesive tonal logic (see sonata rondo form). Haydn was also the principal exponent of the double variation form – variations on two alternating themes, which are often major- and minor-mode versions of each other. Perhaps more than any other composer's, Haydn's music is known for its humour. The most famous example is the sudden loud chord in the slow movement of his "Surprise" symphony; Haydn's many other musical jokes include numerous false endings (e.g., in the quartets Op. 33 No. 2 and Op. 50 No.

3), and the remarkable rhythmic illusion placed in the trio section of the third movement of Op. 50 No. 1. Much of the music was written to please and delight a prince, and its emotional tone is correspondingly upbeat. This tone also reflects, perhaps, Haydn's fundamentally healthy and well-balanced personality. Occasional minor-key works, often deadly serious in character, form striking exceptions to the general rule. Haydn's fast movements tend to be rhythmically propulsive and often impart a great sense of energy, especially in the finales. Some characteristic examples of Haydn's "rollicking" finale type are found in the "London" symphony No. 104, the string quartet Op. 50 No. 1, and the piano trio Hob XV: 27. Haydn's early slow movements are usually not too slow in tempo, relaxed, and reflective. Later on, the emotional range of the slow movements increases, notably in the deeply felt slow movements of the quartets Op. 76 Nos. 3 and 5, symphony No. 102, and piano trio Hob XV: 23. The minuets tend to have a strong downbeat and a clearly popular character.

As early as Op. 33 (1781) Haydn turned some of his minuets into "scherzi" which are much faster, at one beat to the bar. Evolution of Haydn's style Haydn's early work dates from a period in which the compositional style of the High Baroque (seen in Bach and Handel) had gone out of fashion. This was a period of exploration and uncertainty, and Haydn, born 18 years before the death of Bach, was himself one of the musical explorers of this time. An older contemporary whose work Haydn acknowledged as an important influence was Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Tracing Haydn's work over the six decades in which it was produced (roughly, 1749 to 1802), one finds a gradual but steady increase in complexity and musical sophistication, which developed as Haydn learned from his own experience and that of his colleagues. Several important landmarks have been observed in the evolution of Haydn's musical style. In the late 1760s and early 1770s Haydn entered a stylistic period known as "Sturm und Drang" (storm and stress).

This term is taken from a literary movement of about the same time, though it appears that the musical development actually preceded the literary one by a few years. The musical language of this period is similar to what went before, but it is deployed in work that is more intensely expressive, especially in the works in minor keys. James Webster describes the works of this period as "longer, more passionate, and more daring." Some of the most famous compositions of this time are the "Farewell" Symphony No. 45, the piano sonata in C minor (Hob. XVI/20, L. 33), and the six string quartets of Op. 20 (the "Sun" quartets), all from 1772. It was also around this time that Haydn became interested in writing fugues in the Baroque style, and three of the Op. 20 quartets end with such fugues. Following the climax of the "Sturm und Drang", Haydn returned to a lighter, more overtly entertaining style.

There are no quartets from this period, and the symphonies take on new features: the first movements now sometimes contain slow introductions, and the scoring often includes trumpets and timpani. These changes are often related to a major shift in Haydn's professional duties, which moved him away from "pure" music and toward the production of comic operas, which were very popular in 18th Century Italy. Several of the operas were Haydn's own work (see List of operas by Joseph Haydn); these are seldom performed today. Haydn sometimes recycled his opera music in symphonic works, which helped him continue his career as a symphonist during this hectic decade. In 1779, an important change in Haydn's contract permitted him to publish his compositions without prior authorization from his employer. This may have encouraged Haydn to rekindle his career as a composer of "pure" music. The change made itself felt most dramatically in 1781, when Haydn published the six string quartets of Opus 33, announcing (in a letter to potential purchasers) that they were written in "a completely new and special way".

Charles Rosen has argued that this assertion on Haydn's part was not just sales talk, but meant quite seriously; and he points out a number of important advances in Haydn's compositional technique that appear in these quartets, advances that mark the advent of the Classical style in full flower. These include a fluid form of phrasing, in which each motif emerges from the previous one without interruption, the practice of letting accompanying material evolve into melodic material, and a kind of "Classical counterpoint" in which each instrumental part maintains its own integrity. These traits continue in the many quartets that Haydn wrote after Opus 33. In the 1790s, stimulated by his England journeys, Haydn developed what Rosen calls his "popular style", a way of composition that, with unprecedented success, created music having great popular appeal but retaining a learned and rigorous musical structure. An important element of the popular style was the frequent use of folk or folk-like material, as discussed in the article Haydn and folk music. Haydn took care to deploy this material in appropriate locations, such as the endings of sonata expositions or the opening themes of finales.

In such locations, the folk material serves as an element of stability, helping to anchor the larger structure. Haydn's popular style can be heard in virtually all of his later work, including the twelve London symphonies, the late quartets and piano trios, and the two late oratorios. The return to Vienna in 1795 marked the last turning point in Haydn's career. Although his musical style evolved little, his intentions as a composer changed. While he had been a servant, and later a busy entrepreneur, Haydn wrote his works quickly and in profusion, with frequent deadlines. As a rich man, Haydn now felt he had the privilege of taking his time and writing for posterity. This is reflected in the subject matter of The Creation (1798) and The Seasons (1801), which address such weighty topics as the meaning of life and the purpose of humankind, and represent an attempt to render the sublime in music. Haydn's new intentions also meant that he was willing to spend much time on a single work: both oratorios took him over a year to complete. Haydn once remarked that he had worked on The Creation so long because he wanted it to last.

The change in Haydn's approach was important in the history of music, as other composers soon were following his lead. Notably, Beethoven adopted the practice of taking his time and aiming high. For me Haydn's music is less sophisticated than Beethoven's music, but I also find it to be very high quality and particularly good and useful to listen when I need something simple and relaxing, something not demanding however energetic and motivating. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License . It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Joseph Haydn" . Products The Symphonies of Haydn The Symphonies of Haydn The Early Years It is now generally agreed that Haydn had written several symphonies before he composed what is usually called No. 1 (Hob. I:1). That work consists of three movements: Presto in D; Andante in G; and Finale, Presto in D. Not until his third symphony does Haydn include a minuet. Two oboes and two horns are added to the strings, but the wind parts show nothing unexpected: the oboes double the strings from time to time and the horns are restricted to playing fanfare-like figures.

The melodic material is divided between the violins, which are often treated as if the work were a trio sonata , although in many places they play in unison. The lower strings are bound together almost entirely. Their function is to provide harmony (the harpsichord continuo is not indicated but possibly would have been used) and, with their reiterated, scrubbing eighth notes, provide a forward-driving rhythm. The First Esterházy Years: to 1770 For Haydn, the decade of the 1760s was particularly rich in the production of symphonies (approximately forty). No other single genre in his output brings the past and the present together more effectively. The four-movement symphony, opening and concluding with fast movements which enclose an Adagio or Andante as second movement and a Minuet and Trio in the third place, accounts for more than half the total. The next most common format is the three-movement configuration in which a fast first movement is followed by a slow one, concluding with another fast movement or a Minuet and Trio.

Throughout the decade, he also wrote symphonies in church-sonata form, Slow / Fast / Minuet and Trio / Fast, with all movements in the same key. Very occasionally, a Minuet and Trio will be used as a second movement, or you will encounter a slow introduction to a fast first movement. First movements, except for those in the church-sonata symphonies, are invariably brisk, and carry the marking Allegro or Presto or Vivace. The material is fundamentally different from that which Haydn finds suitable for sonatas or quartets . Unison passages, the alternation of tonic and dominant harmony, cadential figures, and simple melodic motives all help create a sense of verve and motion in a texture in which musical events are spread very thin, in contrast to the compression, concentration, and pregnant density of the average sonata or quartet. The structure of the fast first movements is almost invariably tripartite, with exposition, development, and recapitulation clearly defined. The exposition is usually the longest section, and two-thirds of the first movements have recapitulations somewhat longer than the developments.

Within the broad structural outline, however, the small-scale variations, the exploration of novel relationships between different parts of the melodic material, the variety and the extent of contrast, all these exceed in invention and workmanship anything else in symphonic music at this time. Haydn's appointment to the Esterházy family engendered the richest response to the symphony genre of the decade. Symphonies Nos. 6, 7, and 8, which carry the programmatic titles "Le Matin," "Le Midi," and "Le Soir," were written, it is said, at the suggestion of Prince Anton, and in them Haydn united a variety of stylistic influences. Perhaps the most evident quality of these works is their sonorous richness, which arises not from the use of novel or unexpected instruments, but from utilizing the concerto principle within the symphonic framework. In some movements the strings are scored as ripieno with concertino of two violins and cello. In almost all movements the wind players depart from their customary role of sustaining harmonies to become soloists.

In all three symphonies, the trio of the minuet movement contains a prominent solo part for the double bass recalling Baroque practices in the concerto grosso ; yet Haydn, using the standard combination of flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, and string, creates a modern orchestration, many of the features of which are retained and used by him in his later symphonies. The Stylistic Break: 1770-79 Haydn's symphonic production in the seventies is only slightly smaller than in the sixties. The twenty-odd works from this decade tend to be more uniform in structure. The church-sonata symphony disappears, and its most important feature, the slow first movement, is perpetuated by Haydn as the slow introduction to the first Allegro movement, a practice which reached its peak in the last symphonies. The pervasive uniformity tends to make Haydn's exceptional procedures, his experiments with form, the more striking. The so-called "Sturm und Drang" symphonies, Nos. 44 in E minor, 45 in F# minor, and 52 in C minor, are each distinguished by thematic material of unusual potency.

Symphonies from this "Sturm und Drang" period are on a larger scale than the symphonies of the previous decade. Themes are more broadly laid out, those of the fast movements often beginning with a bold unison proclamation followed immediately by a contrasting idea, with the whole theme then restated. Development sections which use motives from the themes, become more propulsive and dramatic. Dramatic also are the unexpected changes from forte to piano, the crescendos and sforzati that are part of this style. Counterpoint appears, not as a foreign element contrasting with homophonic texture, but as a natural concomitant of the musical ideas. The harmonic palette is richer than in the early symphonies; modulations range more widely and the harmonic arches are broader. The most exceptional symphony is perhaps No. 60 in C of 1774, subtitled "Il distratto" (The Absent-minded Man). Its based on the music Haydn wrote for a play by Regnard. It is in six distinct movements, not counting the slow introduction to the first movement, and is built like an ordinary symphony with an extra Adagio and Presto tacked onto the end.

The most individual, the most important, and the most artistically successful of the symphonies of the seventies is No. 45 in F# minor, known as the "Farewell." It stands as evidence of the way Haydn chose to make a point with his patron -- to allow the musicians to go back to town to see their wives and families after having been at the summer palace for six months. The final Presto breaks off into an Adagio, in the course of which one group of instruments after another concludes its part and the players get up and leave, until only the first violin is left to play the closing measures. The "Farewell" Symphony is unusual in several other respects: the first movement introduces a long new them in the course of the development section -- an experiment which Haydn never repeated; both the second movement and the final Adagio use the extended harmonic vocabulary characteristic of Haydn's works in this period. The key of this symphony, F# minor, is exceptional for the 18th century, but such remote tonalities are one of the marks of Haydn's style at this time. His use of key relationships in the "Farewell" is also significant.

He departs from the minor mode in the Adagio, going to A major, and in the Minuet to F# major. Even though the final Presto is in F# minor, the closing Adagio begins in A major and ends in F# major. The Last Years at Esterháza: 1780-90 Haydn composed approximately twenty symphonies during this decade, by the end of which his most mature style was established. All of them are four-movement works with a fast first movement, a slow movement, a Minuet and Trio, and a fast Finale. Increasingly, Haydn's symphonies result from foreign commissions and commitments, and are composed with a specific audience in mind. From the earlier part of the decade, the 77th Symphony is remarkable in that its fourth movement is a rigorously monothematic sonata form, exemplifying Haydn's tendency to use folksong-like themes in extremely contrasting ways -- with the barest accompaniment, or as a subject for complex imitative or Fuxian counterpoint.

In 1784 Haydn received a commission to write six symphonies from the directors of the "Concert de la Loge Olympique," the largest concert-giving organization in Paris. In the Symphonies Nos. 82-87, known ever since as the "Paris" Symphonies, one senses a greater depth and breadth of musical substance. First movements have all the crash and bustle of earlier symphonies, but in addition to the usual chords and arpeggios there is stronger melodic material. The number of Adagio movements of serious, quasi-religious quality gradually increases, replacing variation movements built on folksongs in Andante tempo or faster. Minuets show less change, while more Finales are based on popular tunes, rather than those tags and scraps of melody that lend themselves to contrapuntal treatment. After the Paris Symphonies, there were five more completed by the end of the decade. Nos. 88 and 89 were written for Johann Tost, who took them to Paris and sold them to a publisher there. The Symphony No. 88 has always been recognized as one of Haydn's finest.

Perhaps more than any other, it demonstrates the fact that the modern symphony could no longer rely upon stock gestures of unison chords, or rapid scales, or tremolos, or any of the other standard devices from which the symphony had, until now, been constructed. The three Symphonies Nos. 90-92 were probably commissioned by the Comte d'Ogny, a Parisian aristocrat. They demonstrate Haydn's most advanced orchestration, particularly in his use of woodwinds. No. 92 was nicknamed "The Oxford" because Haydn chose this work to be played on the occasion of his being awarded an honorary doctorate by the university in that city. Freedom / London In September of 1790, Haydn's patron and old friend, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, died. His son, Paul Anton, the new Prince, had no use for music and dismissed all the musical and theatrical staff. Haydn had been left a pension in Prince Nikolaus' will and Prince Anton kept him on with no duties and a nominal salary. Haydn accepted an invitation from the violinist and impresario, Johann Peter Salomon, to come to London to compose and conduct concerts.

With the twelve symphonies composed for his two London visits, Haydn reaches a personal pinnacle, setting a standard of excellence by which every symphony of the late 18th century is measured. Each visit was the occasion for six new symphonies. Franz Josef Haydn biography - 8notes.com Franz Josef Haydn biography March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Austria Died: May 31, 1809, Vienna Summary: Franz Joseph Haydn, (March 31, 1732 - May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of the Classical period, called the 'Father of the Symphony' and 'Father of the String Quartet'. Popular Sheet Music: View All Franz Josef Haydn Biography Franz Joseph Haydn, (March 31, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of the Classical period, called the 'Father of the Symphony' and 'Father of the String Quartet'. He used his second name, spelled in German 'Josef'.

He was the brother of Michael Haydn , himself a highly regarded composer, and Johann Evangelist Haydn , a tenor singer . A life-long resident of Austria , Haydn spent most of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Eszterh�zy family, though very often the non-Hungarian spelling Esterhazy is used, on their remote estate. Being isolated from other composers and trends in music, he was, as he put it, 'forced to become original'. Portrait by Thomas Hardy, 1792 Contents Life Childhood Haydn was born in 1732 in the Austrian village of Rohrau near the border with Hungary . His father was Matthias Haydn, a wheelwright who also served as 'Marktrichter', an office somewhat akin to village mayor. Haydn's mother, the former Maria Koller, had previously worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach, the presiding aristocrat of Rohrau. Haydn himself was nicknamed Sepperl as a child. Neither parent could read music. However, Matthias was an enthusiastic folk musician , who during the journeyman period of his career had taught himself to play the harp .

According to Haydn's later reminiscences, his childhood family was extremely musical, and frequently sang together and with their neighbors. Haydn's parents were perceptive enough to notice that their little son had musical talent, and they also knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain any serious musical training. It was for this reason that they accepted a proposal from their relative Johann Matthias Franck, the schoolmaster and choirmaster in Hainburg , that Haydn be apprenticed to Franck in his home to train as a musician. Haydn thus went off with Franck to Hainburg (ten miles away) and never again lived with his parents. At the time he was not quite six. Life in the Franck household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently hungry as well as constantly humiliated by the filthy state of his clothing. However, he did begin his musical training there, and soon was able to play both harpsichord and violin . The people of Hainburg were soon hearing him sing soprano parts in the church choir.

There is reason to think that Haydn's singing impressed those who heard him, because two years later (1740), he was brought to the attention of Georg von Reutter , the director of music in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna , who was touring the provinces looking for talented choirboys . Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and soon moved off to Vienna, where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister, the last four in the company of his younger brother Michael . Like Franck before him, Reutter didn't always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed. The young Haydn greatly looked forward to performances before aristocratic audiences, where the singers sometimes had the opportunity to satisfy their hunger by devouring the refreshments. Reutter also did little to further his choristers' musical education. However, St. Stephen's was at the time one of the leading musical centers in Europe, where new music by leading composers was constantly being performed. Haydn was able to learn a great deal by osmosis simply by serving as a professional musician there.

Struggles as a freelancer In 1749, Haydn had matured physically to the point that he was no longer able to sing high choral parts. On a weak pretext, he was summarily dismissed from his job. He evidently spent one night homeless on a park bench, but was taken in by friends and began to pursue a career as a freelance musician. During this arduous period, which lasted ten years, Haydn worked many different jobs, including valet–accompanist for the Italian composer Nicola Porpora , from whom he later said he learned 'the true fundamentals of composition'. He labored to fill the gaps in his training, and eventually wrote his first string quartets and his first opera. During this time Haydn's professional reputation gradually increased. The years as Kapellmeister Portrait by Ludwig Guttenbrunn, ca. 1770 In 1759, or 1757 according to the New Grove Encyclopedia, Haydn received his first important position, that of Kapellmeister (music director) for Count Karl von Morzin. In this capacity, he directed the count's small orchestra, and for this ensemble wrote his first symphonies.

Count Morzin soon suffered financial reverses that forced him to dismiss his musical establishment, but Haydn was quickly offered a similar job (1761) as assistant Kapellmeister to the Eszterh�zy family, one of the wealthiest and most important in the Austrian Empire. When the old Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner , finally died in 1766, Haydn was elevated to full Kapellmeister. As a liveried servant of the Eszterh�zys, Haydn followed them as they moved among their three main residences: the family seat in Eisenstadt , their winter palace in Vienna, and Eszterh�za , a grand new palace built in rural Hungary in the 1760s . Haydn had a huge range of responsibilities, including composition, running the orchestra, playing chamber music for and with his patrons, and eventually the mounting of operatic productions. Despite the backbreaking workload, Haydn considered himself fortunate to have his job.

The Eszterh�zy princes (first Paul Anton, then most importantly Nikolaus I) were musical connoisseurs who appreciated his work and gave him the conditions needed for his artistic development, including daily access to his own small orchestra. In 1760, with the security of a Kapellmeister position, Haydn married. He and his wife, the former Maria Anna Keller, did not get along, and they produced no children. Haydn may have had one or more children with Luigia Polzelli, a singer in the Eszterh�zy establishment with whom he carried on a long-term love affair, and often wrote to on his travels. During the nearly thirty years that Haydn worked in the Eszterh�zy household, he produced a flood of compositions, and his musical style became ever more developed. His popularity in the outside world also increased. Gradually, Haydn came to write as much for publication as for his employer, and several important works of this period, such as the Paris symphonies ( 1785 – 6 ) and the original orchestral version of The Seven Last Words of Christ ( 1786 ), were commissions from abroad.

Around 1781 Haydn established a close friendship with Mozart , whose work he had already been influencing by example for many years. The two composers enjoyed playing in string quartets together. Haydn was hugely impressed with Mozart's work; it has been noted by Mozart scholars that after this time Haydn largely ceased to compose operas and concertos &ndash: two of the genres where Mozart was at his strongest. Mozart spent the better part of three years from 1782 to 1785 to produce a set of six string quartets that he would dedicate to the older man. The London journeys In 1790, Prince Nikolaus died and was succeeded by a thoroughly unmusical prince who dismissed the entire musical establishment and put Haydn on a pension. Thus freed of his obligations, Haydn was able to accept a lucrative offer from Johann Peter Salomon , a German impresario, to visit England and conduct new symphonies with a large orchestra. The visit (1791- 2 ), along with a repeat visit (1794- 5 ), was a huge success.

Audiences flocked to Haydn's concerts, and he quickly achieved wealth and fame: one review called him 'incomparable', and many were filled with gushing language which reflected the acclaim his work received in London. Musically, the visits to England generated some of Haydn's best-known work, including the ' Surprise ', ' Military ', ' Drumroll ', and ' London ' symphonies, the ' Rider ' quartet, and the ' Gypsy Rondo ' piano trio. The only misstep in the venture was an opera which Haydn was contracted to compose, and paid a substantial sum of money for. Only one aria was sung at the time, and 11 numbers were published, the entire opera was not performed until 1950. Final years in Vienna Haydn actually considered becoming an English citizen and settling permanently, but eventually took a different course. He returned to Vienna, had a large house built for himself, and turned to the composition of large religious works for chorus and orchestra. These include his two great oratorios The Creation and The Seasons and six masses for the Eszterh�zy family, which by this time was once again headed by a musically-inclined prince.

Haydn also composed the last nine in his long series of string quartets, including the ' Emperor ', ' Sunrise ', and ' Fifths ' quartets. Despite his increasing age, Haydn looked to the future, exclaiming once in a letter, 'how much remains to be done in this glorious art!' In 1802, Haydn found that an illness from which he had been suffering for some time had increased greatly in severity, to the point that he became physically unable to compose. This was doubtless very difficult for him, because, as he acknowledged, the flow of fresh musical ideas waiting to be worked out as compositions did not cease. Haydn was well cared for by his servants, and he received many visitors and public honors during his last years, but they cannot have been very happy years for him. During his illness, Haydn often found solace by sitting at the piano and playing Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser , which he had composed himself as a patriotic gesture in 1797. This melody later became used for the Austrian and German national anthems . Haydn died in 1809, following an attack on Vienna by the French army under Napoleon .

Among his last words was his attempt to calm and reassure his servants as cannon shots fell on the neighborhood. Character and appearance Haydn was known among his contemporaries for his kindly, optimistic, and congenial personality. He had a robust sense of humor, evident in his love of practical jokes and often apparent in his music. He was particularly respected by the Eszterh�zy court musicians whom he supervised, as he maintained a cordial working atmosphere and effectively represented the musicians' interests with their employer. Haydn was a devout Catholic , who often turned to his rosary when he got stuck in composing, a practice that he usually found to be effective. When he finished a composition, he would write 'Laus deo' ('praise be to God') or some similar expression at the end of the manuscript. His favorite hobbies were hunting and fishing. Haydn was short in stature, perhaps as a result of having been underfed throughout most of his youth. Like many in his day, he was a survivor of smallpox , and his face was pitted with the scars of this disease. He was not handsome, and was quite surprised when women flocked to him during his London visits.

The various portraitists who drew or painted Haydn during his lifetime each took a different path in attempting to portray the attractive personality instead of the ugly face; hence no two surviving portraits of Haydn are alike. Portion of an original manuscript by Haydn, in the British Museum , from a biography of Haydn available from Project Gutenberg Works Haydn is credited as the 'father' of the classical symphony and string quartet , and also wrote many piano sonatas , piano trios , divertmenti and masses , which became the foundation for the Classical style in these compositional types. He also wrote other types of chamber music , as well as operas and concerti , although such compositions are now less known. Although other composers were prominent in the earlier Classical period, notably C.P.E. Bach in the field of the keyboard sonata (the harpsichord and clavichord were equally popular with the piano in this era) and J.C. Bach and Leopold Mozart in the symphony, Haydn was undoubtedly the strongest overall influence on musical style in this era.

The development of sonata form into a subtle and flexible mode of musical expression, which became the dominant force in Classical musical thought, was based foremost on Haydn and those who followed his ideas. His sense of formal inventiveness also lead him to integrate the fugue into the classical style, and to enrich the rondo form with more cohesive tonal logic, (see sonata rondo form ). Another example of Haydn's inventiveness was his creation of the double variation form , that is variations on two alternating themes. Structure and character of the music A central characteristic of Haydn's music is the development of larger structures out of very short, simple musical motifs , usually devised from standard accompanying figures. The music is often quite formally concentrated, and the important musical events of a movement can unfold rather quickly. Haydn's musical practice formed the basis of much of what was to follow in the development of tonality and musical form. He took genres such as the symphony , which were, at that time, shorter and subsidiary to more important vocal music, and slowly expanded their length, weight and complexity.

Haydn's compositional practice was rooted in a study of the modal counterpoint of Fux , and the tonal homophonic styles which had become more and more popular, particularly the work of Gluck and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , of the later Haydn wrote 'without him, we know nothing'. He believed that the search for an appropriate melody was essential to the creation of good music, and carefully constructed his around countrapunctal devices, so that it could be overlayed with itself in a variety of ways, and the fragments could be worked with individually, and still retain some degree of unique character. Haydn's work became central to what was later described as the sonata form , and his work was central to taking the binary schematic of what was then called a 'melodie'. It was a form divided into sections, joined by important moments in the harmony which signalled the change. One of Haydn's important innovations, one which was adopted by Mozart and Beethoven, was to make the moment of transition the focus of tremendous creativity, instead of using stock devices to make the transition, Haydn would often find inventive ways to make the move between two expected keys.

Later musical theorists would codify the formal organization in the following way: Introduction : If present in an extended form, a slower section in the dominant, often with material not directly related to the main themes, which would then rapidly transition to the Exposition : Presentation of thematic material, including a progression of tonality away from the home key. Unlike Mozart and Beethoven , Haydn often wrote expositions where the music that establishes the new key is similar or identical to the opening theme: this is called monothematic sonata form. Development : The thematic material is led through a rapidly-shifting sequence of keys, transformed, fragmented, or combined with new material. If not present, the work is termed a 'sonatina'. Haydn's developments tend to be longer and more elaborate than those of Mozart, for example. Recapitulation : Return to the home key, where the material of the exposition is re-presented. Haydn, unlike Mozart and Beethoven, often rearranges the order of themes compared to the exposition: he also frequently omits passages that appeared in the exposition (particularly in the monothematic case) and adds codas .

Coda : After the close of the recapitulation on the tonic , there may be an additional section which works through more of the possibilities of the thematic material. During this period the written music was structured by tonality , and the sections of a work of the Classical era were marked by tonal cadences. The most important transitions between sections were from the exposition to the development, and from the development to the recapitulation. Haydn focused on creating witty and often dramatic ways to make these transitions, by delaying them, or by having the occur so subtly that it takes some time before it is established that the transition has, in fact happened. Perhaps paradoxically one of the ways in which Haydn did this was by reducing the number of different devices for harmonic transitions between, so that he could explore and develop the possibilities he found in the ones he regarded as most interesting. This is perhaps why more than any other composer, Haydn is known for the jokes that he put into his music. The most famous example is the sudden loud chord in his 'Surprise symphony|Surprise' symphony, No. 94, but others are perhaps funnier: the fake endings in the quartets Op. 33 No. 2 and Op.

50 No. 3, or the remarkable rhythmic illusion placed in the trio section of Op. 50 No. 1. Haydn's compositional practice influenced both Mozart and Beethoven. Beethoven began his career writing rather discursive, loosely organized sonata expositions; but with the onset of his 'Middle period', he revived and intensified Haydn's practice, joining the musical structure to tight small motifs, often by gradually reshaping both the work and the motifs so that they fit quite carefully. The emotional content of Haydn's music cannot accurately be summarized in words, but one may attempt an approximate description. Much of the music was written to please and delight a prince, and its emotional tone is correspondingly upbeat; this tone also reflects, perhaps, Haydn's fundamentally healthy and well-balanced personality. Occasional minor-key works, often deadly serious in character, form striking exceptions to the general rule. Haydn's fast movements tend to be rhythmically propulsive, and often impart a great sense of energy, especially so in the finales. Some characteristic examples of Haydn's 'rollicking' finale type are found in the 'London' symphony No. 104, the string quartet Op. 50 No.

1, and the piano trio Hob XV: 27. Haydn's slow movements, early in his career, are usually not too slow in tempo, relaxed, and reflective. Later on, the emotional range of the slow movements increases, notably in the deeply felt slow movements of the quartets Op. 76 Nos. 3 and 5, the Symphony No. 102 , and the piano trio Hob XV: 23. The minuets tend to have a strong downbeat (and upbeat!) and a clearly popular character. Late in his career, perhaps inspired by the young Beethoven (who was briefly his student), Haydn began to write scherzi instead of minuets, with a much faster tempo, felt as one beat to the measure. Evolution of Haydn's Style Haydn's early work dates from a period in which the compositional style of the High Baroque (seen in Bach and Handel ) had gone out of fashion. This was a period of exploration and uncertainty, and Haydn, born 18 years before the death of Bach, was himself one of the musical explorers of this time.

An older contemporary whose work Haydn acknowledged as an important influence was Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , the third son of Johann Sebastian. Tracing Haydn's work over the five decades in which it was produced (roughly, 1749 to 1802), one finds a gradual but ever increasing complexity and musical sophistication, which developed as Haydn learned from his own experience and that of his colleagues. Several important landmarks have been observed in the evolution of Haydn's musical style. In the late 1760s and early 1770s Haydn entered a stylistic period known as 'Sturm und Drang' (storm and stress). This term is taken from a literary movement of about the same time, though some scholars believe that Haydn was unaware of this literary development and that the change in his compositional style was entirely of his own making. The musical language of this period is similar to what went before, but it is deployed in work that is more intensely expressive, especially in the works written in minor keys. Some of the most famous compositions of this period are the 'Farewell' Symphony No. 45, the Piano Sonata No.

20 in C minor, and the six string quartets of Op. 20 (the 'Sun' quartets), all dating from 1772. It was also around this time that Haydn became interested in writing fugues in the Baroque style, and three of the Op. 20 quartets end with such fugues. Following the climax of the 'Sturm und Drang', Haydn returned to a lighter, more overtly entertaining style. There are no quartets from this period, and the symphonies take on new features: the first movements now sometimes contain slow introductions, and the scoring often includes trumpets and timpani . These changes are often related to a major shift in Haydn's professional duties, which moved him away from 'pure' music and toward the production of comic operas . Several of the operas, such as Il Mondo della luna (The World of the Moon), were Haydn's own work; these are seldom performed today. Haydn sometimes recycled their overtures as symphony movements, which helped him continue his career as a symphonist during this hectic decade.

In 1779, an important change in Haydn's contract permitted him to publish his compositions without prior authorization from his employer. This may have encouraged Haydn to rekindle his career as a composer of 'pure' music. The change made itself felt most dramatically in 1781, when Haydn published the six string quartets of Opus 33, announcing (in a letter to potential purchasers) that they were written in 'a completely new and special way'. Charles Rosen has argued that this assertion on Haydn's part was not just sales talk, but meant quite seriously; and he points out a number of important advances in Haydn's compositional technique that appear in these quartets, advances that mark the advent of the Classical style in full flower. (See above , for their influence on Mozart.) These include a fluid form of phrasing, in which each motif emerges from the previous one without interruption, the practice of letting accompanying material evolve into melodic material, and a kind of 'Classical counterpoint ' in which each instrumental part maintains its own integrity. These traits continue in the many quartets that Haydn wrote after Opus 33.

In the 1790s, stimulated by his England journeys, Haydn developed what Rosen calls his 'popular style', a way of composition that, with unprecedented success, created music having great popular appeal but retaining a learned and rigorous musical structure. An important element of the popular style was the frequent use of folk or folk-like material, as discussed in the article Haydn and folk music . Haydn took care to deploy this material in appropriate locations, such as the endings of sonata expositions or the opening themes of finales. In such locations, the folk material serves as an element of stability, helping to anchor the larger structure. Haydn's popular style can be heard in virtually all of his later work, including the twelve London symphonies , the late quartets and piano trios, and the two late oratorios . The return to Vienna in 1795 marked the last turning-point in Haydn's career. Although his musical style evolved little, his intentions as a composer changed. While he had been a servant, and later a busy entrepreneur, Haydn wrote his works quickly and in profusion, with frequent deadlines.

As a rich man, Haydn now felt he had the privilege of taking his time and writing for posterity. This is reflected in the subject matter of The Creation (1798) and The Seasons (1801), which address such weighty topics as the meaning of life and the purpose of humankind, and represent an attempt to render the sublime in music. Haydn's new intentions also meant that he was willing to spend much time on a single work: both oratorios took him over a year to complete. Haydn once remarked that he had worked on The Creation so long because he wanted it to last. The change in Haydn's approach was important in the history of music, as other composers soon were following his lead. Notably, Beethoven adopted the practice of taking his time and aiming high. As composers were gradually liberated from dependence on the aristocracy, Haydn's late mode of work became the norm in Classical composition. Books about Haydn Biography: Haydn by Rosemary Hughes (New York: Farrar Strauss and Giroux 1970, out of print) gives a sympathetic and witty account of Haydn's life, along with a survey of the music.

Another biography, based on the most recent scholarship, is James Webster and Georg Feder's contribution to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (New York: Grove, 2001). This article was published separately as a book: The New Grove Haydn (New York: Macmillan 2002, ISBN 0195169042 ). Haydn: Chronicle and Works, by H. C. Robbins Landon (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1976-1980), is a near-exhaustive compilation of the information we have about Haydn's life. Criticism and analysis: The Classical Style by Charles Rosen (2nd ed., New York: Norton 1997; ISBN 0393317129 ) is the essential work, covering much of Haydn's output, and explicating Haydn's central role in the creation of the classical style. Catalogs Some of Haydn's works are referred to by opus numbers , but Hob or Hoboken numbers, after Anthony van Hoboken 's 1957 classification, are also frequently used. See also

Question: Whose Symphony #45 is called 'The Farewell'?
Answer: JOSEPH HAYDN