Additional Haydn/Beethoven Connections
Martin F. Heyworth
Example 1: Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 46 in B major, first movement, bars 42-53. Staves (top-down): 2 Oboi; 2 Corni in H (B natural); Violino l; Violino ll; Viola; Violoncello, Basso e Fagotto. Tags of 3 eighth notes that include descending minor seconds are present in the violin II part of bars 45-9. From Joseph Haydn. Critical Edition of the Complete Symphonies, edited by Landon, H. C. R. Philharmonia. Universal Edition. © Copyright 1966 by Ludwig Doblinger (Bernhard Herzmansky) K.G., Wien, München. Used by permission.
As is well known, Haydn’s Symphony No. 46 in B major (1772) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor (1807-8)[1] both revisit their third movements during their finales. What may not have been documented previously is that there is a thematic similarity between Haydn 46 and another C minor work by Beethoven approximately contemporary with the Fifth Symphony, namely, the Overture Coriolan (Opus 62), dating from early 1807.[2] In the first movement of the Haydn Symphony No. 46, there is a repeated tag of three quavers (eighth notes), introduced in bars 6-10, which contributes to the sense of unease that permeates this movement. Examples include the minor-inflected second violin part later in the exposition (bars 45-9; Ex. 1), echoed in the other string parts up to and including bar 50, and most of bars 89-104 in the development section, leading up to the start of the recapitulation at bar 105. A similar sense of disquiet is engendered in much of the Coriolan overture by a pervasive undercurrent of eighth notes, which includes tags of three eighth notes akin to those in the first movement of Haydn 46 (Ex. 2).
[1] Lockwood, Lewis. Beethoven. The Music and the Life, 2003. W. W. Norton, New York, London, 218.
[2] Lockwood, 262.
In a paper published in 1961, LaRue articulated objective criteria for ‘structural similarity’ between different themes. These criteria comprise melodic contour, rhythmic function, and tonal and harmonic background.[3] Applying these criteria to Examples 1 and 2 yields the following conclusions:
The 3-note tags in the second violin part of Ex. 1 include a descending minor second. In Ex. 2, the 3-note tag in the viola part of bar 44 includes the same descending interval; in bars 42 and 43 of this example, the analogous interval in the viola part is a descending major second.
In bars 45-8 of Ex. 1, and bars 42-4 of Ex. 2, the rhythm of the tag is identical: an eighth-note rest followed by 3 eighth notes, in an overarching rhythm of 4/4.
Diminished 7th harmony is present in bars 45 and 47 of Ex. 1 and in bars 42-4 of Ex. 2.
Collectively, these results appear to make a plausible case for structural similarity, based on ‘LaRue criteria’. With that said, although there is a continued undercurrent of eighth notes in the Coriolan Overture, much of this undercurrent does not explicitly include an eighth-note rest followed by 3 eighth notes.
[3] LaRue, Jan. “Significant and Coincidental Resemblance Between Classical Themes.” Journal of the American Musicological Society, 1961. 14/2: 227.
Example 2: Beethoven CORIOLAN, Overture for Orchestra, Op. 62, Edited by Max Unger; bars 36-50 (not numbered), showing string parts only. Tags of 3 eighth notes that include descending major or minor seconds are present in the viola part of bars 42-4. Eulenburg Miniature Scores ETP 626. Used by permission of Ernst Eulenburg & Co. GmbH, London.
If similarities between Haydn 46 and the two C minor works by Beethoven are not coincidental (whether they are conscious or unconscious), they raise the question of how Beethoven would have become acquainted with the Haydn B major symphony. A possible answer to this question is present in Appendix I of Landon (1955).[4] Here, under ‘Additional MS. sources’ for the Symphony No. 46, Landon cites “score and parts from the Erzherzog Rudolf Coll., GdM Xlll, 8497, c. 1800-20” (i.e., present in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (GdM) in Vienna, at the time of Landon’s pertinent research).[5] One can speculate that Beethoven had access to the manuscript sources of Haydn 46 in the library of his aristocratic patron and composition pupil, Archduke Rudolf, and/or that Beethoven might have suggested works to include in that library (conceivably, specific Haydn symphonies with which he was already acquainted, or perhaps ‘any’ symphonies by his former mentor, Haydn). Appendix I of Landon (1955) lists the Archducal library as a repository of [copyists’] manuscripts of 58 Haydn symphonies (according to the present author’s count), whether scores, parts, or both. At the time of Landon’s work (mid-20th century), the holdings from the Archduke’s library were variously distributed between the GdM, the Austrian monasteries of Melk, Göttweig, and Zwettl, and the Mozarteum in Salzburg.[6]
[4] Landon, H. C. Robbins. The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn, 1955. Universal Edition and Rockliff, London.
[5] Landon (1955), 687.
[6] Landon (1955), Appendix I.
Do the Haydn symphonies in the Archducal library include any other works that might have been specific models for Beethoven? Haydn’s F major symphony, No. 40 (1763), is one such possible candidate, which, one can speculate, might have informed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, also in F major (1812).[7] In Appendix I, Landon cites, under ‘Additional MS. sources’ for Haydn’s Symphony No. 40, “GdM Xlll, 8482, score and pts. from Erzherzog Rudolf Collection (c. 1800 or later)” and “additional Erzherzog Rudolf parts, Melk lV, 84”.[8] On the face of it, this early Haydn symphony, which predates Beethoven’s birth by 7 years, might seem an unlikely candidate to have influenced Beethoven directly. With that said, there are specific points of similarity between the two F major works - namely, relatively fast second movements in B flat major (Andante più tosto Allegretto in the Haydn, and Allegretto scherzando in the Beethoven symphony), and prominent horn writing in the trio sections of both works’ third movements (which, in the Beethoven, is marked Tempo di Menuetto, and can be contrasted with fast Scherzo movements in his other symphonies). These similarities between Haydn 40 and Beethoven 8 are features compatible with specific Haydn-Beethoven influences (whether conscious or subliminal).
[7] Grove, George. Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies, 3rd edition, 1962. Dover, New York (reprint of original publication from 1898), 271.
[8] Landon (1955), 677.
Finally, what is one to make of the comment by Landon that the autograph [holograph] of Haydn’s Symphony No. 98 in B flat major (1792) [reached the former] Preussische Staatsbibliothek (Berlin) “from the Coll[ection]. of Ludwig van Beethoven”?[9] Did Haydn give this manuscript to Beethoven, by analogy with his donation of the holograph of the Symphony No. 49 in F minor (1768) to his pupil Paul Struck in around 1799[10] and that of the Symphony No. 103 in E flat major (1795) to Luigi Cherubini in 1806?[11]
[9] Landon (1955), 764.
[10] Landon, H. C. Robbins. Haydn: Chronicle and Works. Haydn: the Years of ‘The Creation’ 1796-1800, 1977. Thames and Hudson, London, 488.
[11] Landon, H. C. Robbins. Haydn: Chronicle and Works. Haydn: the Late Years 1801-1809, 1977. Thames and Hudson, London, 343.
Acknowledgments
The author is grateful to Professor Bruce MacIntyre for drawing attention to the LaRue paper, and to the University of California Press customer service staff for providing a copy of that article.
References
Grove, George. Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies, 3rd edition, 1962. Dover, New York (reprint of original publication from 1898).
Landon, H. C. Robbins. The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn, 1955. Universal Edition and Rockliff, London.
Landon, H. C. Robbins. Haydn: Chronicle and Works. Haydn: the Years of ‘The Creation’ 1796-1800, 1977. Thames and Hudson, London.
Landon, H. C. Robbins. Haydn: Chronicle and Works. Haydn: The Late Years 1801-1809, 1977. Thames and Hudson, London.
LaRue, Jan. “Significant and coincidental resemblance between Classical themes.” Journal of the American Musicological Society, 1961. 14/2: 224-34.
Lockwood, Lewis. Beethoven. The Music and the Life, 2003. W. W. Norton, New York, London.
Editions
Beethoven CORIOLAN, Overture for Orchestra, Op. 62. Edited by Max Unger. Eulenburg Miniature Scores ETP 626. Ernst Eulenburg & Co. GmbH, London.
Joseph Haydn. Critical Edition of the Complete Symphonies: Sinfonia No. 46, H-Dur/B major. Edited by H. C. Robbins Landon. Philharmonia No. 746. Philharmonia. Universal Edition. ©Copyright 1966 by Ludwig Doblinger (Bernhard Herzmansky) K.G., Wien, München.
About the Author
Martin F. Heyworth is a retired academic physician, whose professional career emphasized research in intestinal immunology, and health care administration. Biomedical publications by the author include papers and book chapters on intestinal parasites in the genus Giardia. A medical graduate of Cambridge University (1971), Dr. Heyworth was an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), and the Chief of Staff of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Heyworth has had a life-long engagement with music, focussing especially on composition, and an interest in the works of Joseph Haydn that started around 1959. A string quartet and two orchestral sinfonie written by Dr. Heyworth have been published by Universal Edition (Vienna). Entomology, particularly the classification of Coleoptera (beetles), is another of the author’s interests.
For a composer’s profile with Universal Edition, in Vienna, please click on this link.
HAYDN PAPERS at the 2020 AMS-SMT Annual Meeting: A Report
Written by Bruce C. MacIntyre (Prof. Emeritus in Music, Brooklyn College/CUNY)
Due to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 joint AMS-SMT Annual Meeting was held virtually on four days, over two weekends (Nov. 7-8 and Nov. 14-15). The presenters’ 20-minute papers were pre-recorded and made available starting on Friday, October 30, via the AMS Meeting “platform” produced by Pathable.co. Each of the assigned “live” session times had a chairperson and lasted just 50 minutes, allowing each presenter just 3-5 minutes to give a short summary of their pre-recorded paper, followed by 30-40 minutes of Q&A and discussion with registered attendees who were “in” the virtual room (via Pathable or, alternatively, Zoom). With both Pathable and the Zoom “Chat” boxes in operation, multi-tasking viewers could simultaneously read and hear additional comments/questions during these live sessions. All times were listed according to U.S. Central Time (CT) because the annual meeting had originally been scheduled to take place in Minneapolis, MN.
There were six papers relating to Haydn spread over the four days – three for AMS and three for SMT. Interesting was how the three SMT papers elucidated the ways in which Haydn’s music -- be it his piano sonatas, keyboard trios, or symphonies -- veered away from theoretical “norms” through inventive approaches to form, texture, harmony, and phrase rhythm. The three AMS musicological papers, on the other hand, offered new perspectives on Haydn’s music in terms of performance venue (i.e. London’s pleasure gardens in the 1780s and 1790s), Haydn’s reputation (i.e. reception of the cantata Arianna during his first visit to London in 1791), and disability studies (i.e. the elderly Haydn’s challenges in completing his last two oratorios).
The six papers will here be summarized, in the order of their chronological discussions. Abstracts of the papers are appended to this report.
[1] First, there was an SMT “Poster Session on Form,” where Joseph Chi Sing Siu (Lecturer in Music Theory at the University of Maryland Baltimore County) presented data from his 2020 University of Rochester Ph.D. dissertation entitled “Phrase-Rhythm Norms in Haydn’s and Mozart’s Piano Sonata Expositions.” In his corpus study, Dr. Siu closely analyzed the rhythmic phrasing and hypermeter in first movements of 59 sonatas: 41 by Haydn, 18 by Mozart (excluding movements not in sonata form or those that are spurious).
Dr. Siu focused upon phrase-rhythm because, for him, rhythm and meter were “two crucial parameters . . . not adequately recognized by [William E.] Caplin [1998] as among the possible criteria contributing to the tight or loose organization of Classical themes, or by Hepokoski and Darcy [2006] as among the background set of norms that inform Sonata Theory.” Dr. Siu has made a detailed statistical study of all the data parsed from the 59 sonata-form movements. The analyses were summarized in two statistical handout pages that showed: (a) the numbers of occurrences of regular and irregular phrase rhythm in the P, TR, S, and C (i.e. K) sections in Haydn and Mozart, and (b), using the Hepokoski/Darcy terminologies, the quantities of, and rhythmic placement of, various harmonic events (e.g., P-->TR; V-Lock, Medial Cadence, Medial Cadence to S theme, and the EEC or Essential Expositional Closure).
As Dr. Siu noted about his method: “The use of phrase-rhythmic loosening devices, such as non-quadruple hypermeasures (NQ), metrical reinterpretations (MR), and successive downbeats (SD), would create deviations from the norms and resulted in irregular phrase rhythm. These data were all presented as percentages, and some were also analyzed with chi-square tests to show statistical significance.” Interesting is Siu’s observation that in both Haydn and Mozart “the regularity in phrase rhythm decreased from primary themes [i.e. the P’s], to transitions [the TR’s], to secondary themes [the S’s], and then rebounded to a new form of regularity in closing zones [C or K sections].” In the comparative charts with their statistical analyses, the numbers then seem to reflect what our ears intuitively tell us about changes in phrase rhythm (e.g., when a “closing” section affirming the dominant key arrives, we all think “Aha” – breathing a knowing sigh of relief that the section’s end is indeed near).
This writer urged Dr. Siu to consider offering readers more specific musical examples and also to compare his 59 samples from Haydn and Mozart with the phrase-rhythm patterns in some sonatas by a few of their contemporaries in Vienna and Salzburg. In this way, Siu could perhaps deduce some hidden stylistic “fingerprints” that might assist future authenticity studies trying to verify an attribution to Haydn or another composer.
[2] Next, in an SMT session on Rotational Form (Hepokoski’s term), Carl Burdick (PhD candidate, Department of Music Theory, University of Cincinnati) gave a fascinating overview and analysis of Haydn’s use of the sonata-fugue hybrid in some dozen early symphonies, citing in particular the finales of Symphony nos. 3 and 40 (in G and F, of 1759/60 and 1763) in order to demonstrate how the continuous elements and imitative techniques of fugue work together with the regularly cadenced style of the “sonata form.” Among the things noted by Burdick talk were: a) Haydn regularly utilized the device of stretto at the moment of recapitulation; and b) the continuous one-theme approach of fugue was clearly a foundation for Haydn’s characteristic “monothematicism.”
As Burdick’s abstract notes: “The tension between fugue and sonata concerns expectations for formal continuity and the closing effect of cadences.” He adds: “The sonata-fugue hybrid finales of Haydn’s Symphonies no. 3 (G) and 40 (F) adopt fugal continuity by mitigating cadential closure, but also engage sonata form’s characteristic rotational patterns. These divergences fall outside the norms postulated by Hepokoski and Darcy (2006).” As the abstract also notes: “By integrating fugue into the sonata process, Haydn began to develop sonata-form procedures drawing on fugal techniques. Though some of these strategies fell into disuse, others became hallmarks of Haydn’s sonata style and deserve a more prominent role in our narrative of sonata form.”
[3] Then, in an AMS session on “Music and Class in London and Manchester,” Ashley Greathouse (Ph.D. candidate in Musicology at the College Conservatory of the University of Cincinnati) presented a fascinating paper “Aristocratic Pleasure or the ‘Middle Sort’: Franz Joseph Haydn’s ‘Hunt’ Symphony (Hob. I: 73) at London’s Vauxhall Gardens.” Her paper examined London’s eighteenth-century pleasure gardens and the ca. 6 performances of Haydn’s “Hunt” Symphony no. 73 in D (ca. 1781) that took place at Vauxhall Gardens from 1786 to 1795.
As Greathouse noted, the pleasure gardens offered Londoners of various classes some “rural pleasures” and “a pastoral escape” in the middle of that great city. She reported that the most performed composers at Vauxhall included the gardens’ music director James Hook, with 196 works performed, Handel with 167 works, and Haydn with 152 works programmed.
It is certainly amusing to think of Haydn’s Symphony no. 73 as, in Greathouse’s words, “a soundtrack” for the amorous pursuits (i.e. “hunts”) that often occurred among the myriad visitors to the gardens. Ashley also told us about the various rules for properly (and legally) hunting foxes and showed various notated hunting-horn calls from eighteenth-century printed sources, some of whose tunes resemble the hunting “topoi” in Symphony no. 73’s finale. Greathouse is building upon earlier repertoire studies and topics researches by
Raymond Monelle, Simon McVeigh, and others. (In June 2020 she had also presented on this topic at SECM’s online “dissertations-in-progress” online session.)
Among one of the more amusing and memorable factoids observed at the AMS virtual conference (where one could replay the talks and enlarge slides) was in a slide where Greathouse showed the penalties for breaking England’s strict laws of hunting. For one particularly grievous infraction in 1776 the penalty was: “transportation to America for 7 years.”
[4] Next, in an AMS session on “Music and Critical Disability,” Rena Roussin (doctoral candidate in musicology, University of Toronto) spoke in the online Q&A about her compelling and innovative paper “Cripping Haydn Studies: The Final Decade and Disabled Narrative in the Late Oratorios.” This was an engaging contribution to the “burgeoning field of music and disability studies” that entered musicology around 2004 and to which many have contributed (e.g., Joseph N. Strauss, Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, and others). Rena’s dissertation is currently titled “Intersecting Haydn: Disability, Gender, and the Late Oratorios." Following the challenges set forth by Sarah Day-O’Connell, Rena addresses a gap in scholarly discourse by “contextualizing Haydn’s biography and late oratorios through the lens and language of disability studies.”
Rena’s paper had three parts. She began with an introduction to critical disability studies and, attempting to “reclaim” what was once thought to be a derogatory term, she defined a “crip” as something which is not “normal” in a particular time period. She also clarified the distinction between “impairment” and “disability.”
In the second part of her paper, Rena focused upon Haydn’s final seven years and the increasing challenges he faced, including bouts of melancholy, a recurring nasal polyp, mobility impairments from continuing rheumatism, and leg swelling, along with periodic dizziness, fatigue, vertigo, and brain fever. Our standard, typical view of the elderly Haydn in his final years as a person of “modesty, religious fervor, and cheerfulness and good humor” is challenged by Roussin’s close-ups of Haydn’s infirmities of age and how they affected the amount and even quality of his musical output.
In the last part of the paper, Rena elucidated how a “disability narrative” of Haydn’s frail health in his final years connects with his music. According to Joseph Strauss, “narrative prosthesis” has a trajectory that includes four stages: 1) identifying the deviance; 2) marking the deviance as a problem; 3) bringing it from the periphery to the center; and 4) repairing it (e.g., by a cure or even death). Rena related such a narrative to both The Seasons (1801) and The Creation (1798). She explained the so-called inverted “narrative prosthesis” that we witness – with the “spiritual gain” and “accommodation” noted in The Seasons (especially in no. 38’s recitative “Erblikke hier, betörter Mensch” and the following aria) and the elements of “overcoming” and “erasure” in The Creation. As Rena notes, the “premature” ending of The Creation – stopping before the temptation and “fall” of Adam and Eve – “’cures’ the Christian concept of original sin.”
These, then, were just some of Rena’s ways of exploring and elucidating “how Haydn appears to have mediated both his compositional process and aspects of his public persona through his increasing age and impaired corporeal state.”
[5] For the fifth Haydn paper, Jan Miyake (Associate Professor of Music Theory at Oberlin College) spoke in an SMT session on “Sonata Problems.” Her presentation “Formal Problems as Opportune Inconveniences in Haydn’s Late Piano Trios” discussed the challenges of interpreting form in the trios’ final movements, which often exhibit the composer’s masterful inventiveness by means of their hybrid nature – mixing aspects of binary form, sonata rondo, or ternary ABA form. As Dr Miyake noted in her abstract: “About half (18) of [Haydn’s 39] final keyboard-trio movements are described best as a type of sonata form and the other half (18) by either an ABACA or ABA [sectional] form. Two of this latter group, however, also display striking aspects of sonata form, and the construction of the lone sonata rondo from the former group [Trio no. 32, Hob. XV: 18 in A major] is atypical enough to make its categorization quite Procrustean.” That trio’s final movement opens as a sonata-rondo (with Refrain 1, Episode 1, and Refrain 2, at mm. 1ff., 29ff., and 70ff., respectively; and “S” material at m. 37ff.) before leaving the sonata-rondo path via an “abandoned sentence” and deceptive cadence at the end of Refrain 2 (mm. 90-98), from which a “mixed” Episode 2 emerges (m. 99ff.) -- “adopting and interweaving development and recapitulation functions.” In addition to these formal “inconveniences,” Haydn’s playful duple contradictions of the triple meter enhance the overall thrilling effect of the movement.
As Miyake’s abstract also notes: “Trios no. 32 (Hob. XV: 18 [A major]), no. 41 (Hob. XV: 31 [Eb minor, “Jacob’s Dream”]), and no. 42 (Hob. XV: 30 [Eb major]) each offer opportunities to consider how the compositional processes of sonata form pervade Haydn’s music, making a formal designation of these movements somewhat inconvenient. Theorists [such as Hepokoski and Darcy] created the tools that led to this situation, but rather than seeing it as problematic, perhaps works that are inconvenient to categorize provide an opportunity for new ideas. This paper describes how Haydn’s penchant for sonata-form processes impacts these last-movement forms and offers initial thoughts on a new way to organize Haydn’s approach to form.”
[6] The sixth and final Haydn paper at the conference was also about late Haydn, in an AMS session entitled “Castrati in Context.” Katelyn Clark (Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver) presented an informative, well documented paper entitled “The Merit of Novelty: Castrato Pacchierotti as Haydn’s Princess Ariadne (London, 1791).” In February 1791, a month after Haydn had arrived in London, the immensely popular and highly regarded castrato Gasparo Pacchierotti [1740-1821] sang several performances of the composer’s highly expressive 1790 solo cantata Arianna a Naxos, (Hob. XXVIb: 2), with Haydn himself at the fortepiano. The first performance was at a Ladies’ Concert on 18 February 1791.
Dr. Clark reported on the terribly mixed reviews and pressure for “novel material” that Haydn had been receiving during the start of his first London visit in 1791, when there were critical comments like “no merit of novelty” and “very poor performer.” Dr. Clark then showed how Pacchierotti’s performances of Haydn’s Arianna were a positive turning point for Haydn and his reception in the British capital – leading to comments about Haydn’s Arianna such as its being so “exquisitely captivating in its larmoyant passages, that it touched and dissolved the audience.” In other words, the Arianna performances seem to have “helped revitalize Haydn’s positive reception in London.“ Another review (26 Feb. 1791) noted that Haydn’s “fancy and feeling are in a state of improved vigour” and also quoted Dr. Samuel Arnold as considering Haydn’s cantata “. . . one of the most learned, fanciful and delicious compositions that ever graced the harmonic sphere.” Dr. Clark’s paper thus showed the positive effect on Haydn’s reception because of his musical “alliance” with Pacchierotti, or as her abstract says, “the power of social networks to support – or dissolve – a musician’s success.”
† † †
It will be interesting to see how virtual conferences like AMS/SMT 2020 fare in future years. (A detailed survey about the conference was taken by AMS on November 18, 2020.) For sure, searching through the enormous, multifaceted program and abstracts in advance as well as hearing the pre-recorded papers and becoming accustomed to the online conference platforms do consume a lot of extra time. From this attendee’s perspective, however, virtual participants gain in several ways from such a conference format: a) people can read (and re-read) closely (even consulting additional relevant sources from home) and think about each paper in advance (several days before the discussion date), b) illustrations of music and charts can be viewed clearly and closely on one’s own computer screen, c) through advance “chat” comments, participants can be alerted beforehand about some of the outstanding aspects and approaches of the papers that will be discussed, and d) you can take advantage of the asynchronous nature of the conference platform and hear all papers (if you so wish) – including those that are scheduled to be discussed simultaneously.
As we have seen, more and more “business” of our eighteenth-century societies is already being conducted quite successfully through “Zoom” meetings. So why, then, will we not benefit from some more annual meetings occurring online, even after the pandemic subsides? Instead of time and money for the travel to the meetings, participants/attendees will just have to set aside more time in advance to hear the papers being read. As part of a “virtual enlightenment” ignited by the Covid-19 pandemic, then, well organized online meetings will probably continue to work well and benefit us all.
Bruce C. MacIntyre, Professor Emeritus of Music, Brooklyn College (CUNY) 30 December 2020
APPENDIX:
The six Haydn papers, in order of their appearance, were:
DAY 1, Saturday, November 7
[1] In an SMT POSTER SESSION on FORM: Joseph Chi-Sing Siu (University of Maryland, Baltimore County), “Phrase-Rhythm Norms in Classical Expositions: A Corpus Study of Haydn’s and Mozart’s Piano Sonatas.”
[2] In an SMT SESSION ON ROTATIONAL FORM: Carl Burdick, (Department of Music Theory, College-Conservatory, University of Cincinnati), “The Sonata-Fugue Hybrid in Haydn’s Early Symphonies.”
DAY 2, Sunday, November 8
[3] In an AMS session “Music and Class in London and Manchester’: Ashley A. Greathouse (College-Conservatory, University of Cincinnati), “Aristocratic Pleasure or the ‘Middle Sort’: Franz Joseph Haydn’s ‘Hunt’ Symphony (Hob. I: 73) at London’s Vauxhall Gardens.”
DAY 3, Saturday, November 14
[4] In the AMS session “Music and Critical Disability Theory”: Rena Roussin (University of Toronto), “Cripping Haydn Studies: The Final Decade and Disabled Narrative in the Late Oratorios.”
[5] In the SMT session on “Sonata Problems”: Jan Miyake (Oberlin College, Conservatory of Music), “Formal Problems as Opportune Inconveniences in Haydn’s Late Piano Trios.”
DAY 4, Sunday, November 15 – CASTRATI IN CONTEXT (Webinar 4):
[6] In the AMS session “Castrati in Context”: Katelyn Clark (University of British Columbia), “The Merit of Novelty: Castrato Pacchierotti as Haydn’s Princess Ariadne (London, 1791).”
ABSTRACTS of the six Haydn papers appear below:
[1] Joseph Chi-Sing Siu (University of Maryland Baltimore County). “Phrase-Rhythmic Norms in Classical Expositions: A Corpus Study of Haydn’s and Mozart’s Piano Sonatas.”
Recent research in phrase rhythm and hypermeter have found that some phrase-rhythmic patterns, such as the end-accented “closing-theme schema,” appear regularly in certain parts of the Classical sonata exposition. These phrase-rhythmic norms can, therefore, be regarded as the first-level defaults according to the compositional preference hierarchy in Sonata Theory. However, besides the closing theme schema, there has been no systematic study to examine the phrase-rhythmic norms in the other locations of the sonata exposition. Therefore, this study aims to fill that research gap by conducting a corpus analysis of phrase-rhythmic usage in all the first-movement expositions of piano sonatas composed by Haydn and Mozart. This corpus study can then inform our understanding of phrase rhythmic default levels in Classical sonata form as well as any individual differences in the compositional styles of Haydn and Mozart. In Haydn’s and Mozart’s piano sonatas, phrase rhythm in the primary themes are generally regular, while the secondary themes are mostly irregular. However, in the transitions, Haydn and Mozart have different first-level defaults: regular phrase rhythm occurs more often in Haydn’s sonatas, whereas irregular phrase rhythm is the norm in Mozart. When irregular phrase rhythms do occur, Haydn’s sonatas demonstrate a strong preference to focus on a single loosening device, non-quadruple hypermeasures, while Mozart’s sonatas tend to also include the use of metrical reinterpretations and end-accented phrases. This study also reports on the phrase-rhythmic norms at the boundaries of the sonata formal sections and the hypermetric placements for the MCs (medial caesuras), the dominant-locks (e.g., a VA) , and the EECs (essential expositional closings).
[2] Carl Burdick (University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music). “The Sonata-Fugue Hybrid in Haydn’s Early Symphonies.”
Among Joseph Haydn’s earliest symphonies are thirteen sonata-form movements that incorporate fugal techniques, including two finales that integrate sonata and fugue. I document three strategies Haydn devises in service of the sonata-fugue hybrid. The dialogue surrounding these strategies represents a formative stage for his most characteristic techniques. The tension between fugue and sonata concerns expectations for formal continuity and the closing effect of cadences. Sonata form is in two parts delineated by cadential closure. On the other hand, fugue is continuous and should avoid conveying rest during its course. Formal expectations for fugue are otherwise flexible and enable it to adhere to the rotational process of sonata form. The sonata-fugue hybrid finales of Haydn’s Symphonies no. 3 and 40 adopt fugal continuity by mitigating cadential closure, but also engage sonata form’s characteristic rotational patterns. These divergences fall outside the norms postulated by Hepokoski and Darcy (2006). Indeed, scholars have criticized their portrayal of sonata form for marginalizing Haydn’s music (Ludwig 2012, 2014; Miyake 2009). But the techniques Haydn employs in these hybrid movements are consistent with his contemporaneous works. These include strategies for starting the exposition and recapitulation. Additionally, the use of fugal techniques contributes to both monothematic and continuous expositional strategies and to recapitulatory revisions. By integrating fugue into the sonata process, Haydn began to develop sonata-form procedures drawing on fugal techniques. Though some of these strategies fell into disuse, others became hallmarks of Haydn’s sonata style and deserve a more prominent role in our narrative of sonata form.
[3] Ashley Greathouse (College-Conservatory, University of Cincinnati), “Aristocratic Pleasure for the “Middle Sort”: Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Hunt” Symphony (Hob. I:73) at London’s Vauxhall Gardens.”
Pleasure gardens first came to prominence in early eighteenth-century London as venues where visitors from diverse social strata could promenade about the walks, enjoy entertainments, and see and be seen. Writing in 1709, Daniel Defoe distinguishes seven social classes in England, including a group he describes as "the middle sort . . . who live the best, and consume the most . . . and with whom the general wealth of this nation is found." Recognizing the potential to profit from the newfound wealth of the "middle sort," entrepreneurs marketed new leisure activities to them, including trips to London's three chief pleasure gardens: Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Marylebone. Although garden refreshments were notoriously overpriced, the modest admission charge enabled even those from the poorer classes to attend at least occasionally. At the other end of the social spectrum, the attendance of royal family members enhanced the prestige of the gardens. Music presided over all, facilitating exchanges amongst the classes and providing unprecedented opportunities for social emulation--whereby the "middle sort" could imitate their social superiors, and could themselves be admired and imitated.
Per contemporary newspapers, Haydn was one of the most frequently featured composers in English pleasure garden performances during the second half of the eighteenth century. Although advertisements for instrumental pieces rarely referenced keys, titles, or other identifying characteristics, London's Vauxhall Gardens advertised performances of Haydn's Symphony "La Chasse" ("The Hunt") throughout the 1780s and 1790s. Taking Vauxhall performances of this symphony as its primary case study, this presentation will explore how sonic evocations of the hunt interfaced with the dynamic musical and social atmosphere of the pleasure gardens. While music on the continent functioned primarily as an instrument of the court and aristocracy, music in eighteenth-century England expressed and catered to the values of a broader public. Departing from extensive previous scholarship on the hunt as a musical and cultural topic on the continent, this presentation will consider the hunt's musical and cultural significance in an English context. Ultimately, Vauxhall performances of Haydn's symphony brought the hunt--an activity emblematic of social status--to the ears and minds of diverse audiences.
[4] Rena Roussin (University of Toronto), “Cripping Haydn Studies: The Final Decade and Disabled Narrative in the Late Oratorios.”
Since its inception in 2004, the burgeoning field of music and disability studies has led to numerous insights surrounding the lives, works, and social contexts of numerous composers. Recent paradigm shifting examples include Joseph N. Straus's work on modernism (2018) and Robin Wallace's revisiting of Beethoven's deafness and compositional practice (2018). Scholarship on Joseph Haydn has largely remained absent from this discourse, a surprising omission given that Haydn's rising international fame coincided with his increasing infirmity and physical impairment. While articles by Floyd Grave (2016) and Nancy November (2007) focus, respectively, on disabled narrative in the composer's late string quartets and melancholy in his English songs, scholarship has yet to fully engage with the ways disability characterized Haydn's life and oeuvre, as Sarah Day-O'Connell has noted (2019).
I address this gap in scholarly discourse by contextualizing Haydn's biography and late oratorios through the lens and language of disability studies. By analyzing primary documents, including Haydn's correspondence and Dies's and Griesinger's biographies, I demonstrate how Haydn appears to have mediated both his compositional process and aspects of his public persona through his increasing age and impaired corporeal state. Yet biographical studies from Haydn's lifetime through to the present show an ongoing trend of either overlooking or pathologizing his comments rather than critically evaluating them. This practice suggests the need for scholarship to reassess the role that disability played in his life and late works. In this presentation, I contribute to such a discussion by joining biographical research to a cripped reading of Haydn's late oratorios, noting how the two works' musical
and textual narratology shift from demonstrating a form of inverted narrative prosthesis in _The Creation_ (the premature ending of which 'cures' the Christian concept of original sin) to offering insights into disability gain in the "Winter" section of _The Seasons_. By considering Haydn's late
oratorios - works he knowingly wrote for posterity - alongside the composer's and his contemporaries' comments about his increasing impairment, we might glean stronger insight into how disability impacted Haydn's compositional work, and, in turn, how that compositional work reflects disability.
[5] Jan Miyake (Oberlin College, Conservatory of Music), “Formal Problems as Opportune Inconveniences in Haydn’s Late Piano Trios.”
In the last decade, our discipline has described how Haydn’s music is underserved by current theories of form (Burstein 2016; Duncan 2011; Fillion 2012; Korstvedt 2013; Ludwig 2012; Neuwirth 2011, 2013; Riley 2015). After analyzing final movements of the symphonies, keyboard sonatas, and keyboard trios, a group of trios stood out for the similarity of their formal ambiguities. About half (18) of the final keyboard trio movements are described best as a type of sonata form and the other half (18) by either an ABACA or ABA form. Two of this latter group, however, also display striking aspects of sonata form, and the construction of the lone sonata rondo from the former group is atypical enough to make its categorization quite Procrustean. Trios no. 32 (Hob. XV:18), no. 41 (Hob. XV:31), and no. 42 (Hob. XV:30) each offer opportunities to consider how the compositional processes of sonata form pervade Haydn’s music, making a formal designation of these movements somewhat inconvenient. Theorists created the tools that led to this situation, but rather than seeing it as problematic, perhaps works that are inconvenient to categorize provide an opportunity for new ideas. This paper describes how Haydn’s penchant for sonata-form processes impacts these last-movement forms and offers initial thoughts on a new way to organize Haydn’s approach to form.
[6] Katelyn Clark (University of British Columbia), “The Merit of Novelty: Castrato Pachierrotti as Haydn’s Princess Ariadne (London, 1791).”
Joseph Haydn arrived in England on 1 January 1791 and began the first of two London sojourns (1791– 92, 1794–95). Although fame garnered him a flattering entrée to the city, the musical world was quick to critique his skills. Reviews met Haydn with a mix of excitement and disenchantment; critics claimed that he "did not possess the merit of novelty" (_Morning Chronicle_) and that he was "but a poor performer" (_Gazetteer_). The strained reception itself was noted, and a reporter remarked on 13 January–less than two weeks into Haydn's visit–"Haydn, though a stranger and a sojourner, has become the butt of scurrility and detraction, and even his compositions, the object of a dashing _Critic's sport_" (_The World_). Evidently, Haydn was under some pressure to present novel material to maintain acceptance. This demand was met by a triumphant presentation of secular cantata _Arianna a Naxos_ (Hob XXVIb:2, Vienna 1789/90) on 18 February 1791 at the Ladies' Concert, performed by castrato Gaspere Pacchierotti as princess Ariadne, with Haydn himself accompanying at the pianoforte.
Pacchierotti was immensely popular in London, his unusual and delicate voice favoured by numerous members of the musical profession, including Charles and Susan Burney and violinist Giovanni Giornovichi. Pacchierotti's interpretation of Ariadne in Hob XXVIb:2 was highly affective, the cantata so "exquisitely captivating in its larmoyant passages, that it touched and dissolved the audience" (_Whitehall Evening Post_). His dramatic portrayal of the Cretan princess's abandonment on the island of Naxos helped to revitalize Haydn's positive reception in London, and is evidence of the castrato's popularity and
power in small and exclusive concert settings. In this paper, I examine the performance circumstances at the Ladies' Concert series in 1791 and offer a refreshed view of London's musical world through the success of Haydn's _Arianna_. Expanding upon work on the castrato (Feldman 2015; Freitas 2009) and on London concert life (McVeigh 2018; Brewer 2013), I consider the musical place of castrati in late eighteenth-century England, the political implications of opera and musical alliance for Haydn, and the power of social networks to support–or dissolve–a musician's success.
Haydn & Beethoven: on the occasion of Beethoven's 250th birthday (16 Dec 2020)
[Vienna, 23 Nov. 1793]
Haydn’s letter to Maximilian Franz, the Elector of Cologne, Bonn, Germany
“Serene Electoral Highness!
“I humbly take the liberty of sending Your Serene Electoral Highness some [five] musical works, viz., a Quintet, an eight-part Parthie, an oboe Concerto, Variations for the fortepiano, and a Fugue, compositions of my dear pupil Beethoven, with whose care I have been graciously entrusted. I flatter myself that these pieces, which I may recommend as evidence of his assiduity over and above his actual studies, may be graciously accepted by Your Serene Electoral Highness. Connoisseurs and non-connoisseurs must candidly admit, from these present pieces, that Beethoven will in time fill the position of one of Europe’s greatest composers, and I shall be proud to be able to speak of myself as his teacher; I only wish that he might remain with me a little while longer. . . .
“As for the extravagance [in the use of a monetary gift from the Elector] which one fears will tempt any young man who goes into the great world, I think I can answer for that to Your Serene Electoral Highness: for a hundred circumstances have confirmed me in my opinion that he is capable of sacrificing everything quite unconstrainedly for his art. In view of so many tempting occasions, this is most remarkable, and gives every security to Your Serene Electoral Highness – in view of the gracious kindness that we expect – that Your Highness will not be wasting any of your grace on usurers as far as Beethoven is concerned. In the hope that Your Serene Electoral Highness will continue his further patronage of my dear pupil by graciously acceding to this my request [for 500 fl. to support Beethoven], I am, with profound respect,
Your serene Electoral Highness’ most humble and obedient
Joseph Haydn
Capell Meister von Fürst Nicolas Esterházy” [sic]
Vienna, 23rd November 1793.
[As translated in H. C. Robbins Landon, Haydn: Chronicle and Works, vol. III: Haydn in England 1791-1795, (Indiana University Press, 1976), 222-23. This is letter no. 202 in Joseph Haydn: Gesammelte Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Dénes Bartha (Bärenreiter, 1965), 297-98. Another English translation appears in Thayer/Forbes, 144-45.]
***
Unfortunately, Elector Maximilian’s response to the above letter was rather rude and frigid, yet musically savvy because, in the music portfolio that accompanied Haydn’s letter, Beethoven had included (with the exception of the fugue) just earlier works that he had composed before leaving Bonn for Vienna in 1792. Nonetheless Haydn’s words can still strike us as incredibly prescient about Beethoven’s future in music.
Some Chronology Pertaining to Haydn and Beethoven
December 1790: Haydn and Johann Peter Salomon passed through Bonn on way to London. (Thayer/Forbes, 100-101; also Dies)
July 1792: On his return from England, Haydn stopped in Bonn to arrange for Beethoven’s studies with him in Vienna. Beethoven showed him a cantata he had composed and “which was noticed especially by Haydn and which made him urge Beethoven to continue his studies.” Beethoven returned to Vienna in November 1792. (Thayer/Forbes, 105-06, 142)
“Towards the end of July [1793?], Abbé Gelinek [in Vienna] informed me that he had made the acquaintance of a young man [Beethoven] who displayed extraordinary virtuosity on the pianoforte, such, indeed, as he had not observed since Mozart. . . . [Since Haydn was too busy with his own composing to really teach him,] I was now eagerly desirous to become the helper of the zealous student.” (Johann Schenk’s autobiography, as cited in Thayer/Forbes, 140-42)
29 Oct. 1792: Count Waldstein’s inscription in Beethoven’s autograph album: “The Genius of Mozart is mourning and weeping over the death of her pupil. . . With the help of assiduous labor you shall receive Mozart’s spirit from Haydn’s hands.” (Thayer/Forbes, 115)
ca. 10 Nov. 1792: Beethoven begins his studies with Haydn in Vienna.
19 January 1794: Haydn departs Vienna for his second trip to London, and J. G. Albrechtsberger became Beethoven’s teacher. (Thayer/Forbes, 143)
1794-95: Beethoven composes his op. 1 piano trios, whose publication by Artaria was announced in May 1795. At Prince Lichnowsky concert after Haydn’s return from England in August 1795, Haydn hears them and tells Beethoven not to publish the C minor one (per F. Ries, Notizen, 84; Thayer/Forbes, 164, 179). Haydn said “he had not believed that this Trio would be so quickly and easily understood and so favorably received by the public.”
Sept.-Oct. 1795: At a Prince Lichnowsky Friday-morning concert, Haydn hears Beethoven’s new sonatas (pub’d. by Artaria in 1796 as op. 2) that will be dedicated to him. (Thayer/Forbes, 175-76, 202).
22 Nov. 1795: Haydn attends Redoutensaal masked ball when Beethoven makes his debut as orchestral composer in Vienna.
18 Dec. 1795: Beethoven premieres his Piano Concerto in Bb (?) op. 19 in Redoutensaal “grand musical concert” given by Haydn, which also included the Vienna premiere of 3 London symphonies (incl. no. 100). (Thayer/Forbes, 177-78)
8 Jan. 1795: Beethoven (as accompanist on piano) and Haydn participate in Redoutensaal benefit concert for Signora Maria Bolla, a singer.
27 Oct. 1798: Michael Haydn and (probably) Joseph Haydn present at Beethoven’s performance of his Piano Concerto in C op. 15 (1795), Theater auf der Wieden.
5 April 1799: Concert (“grand musical soirée) at Count Fries’s palace, Vienna, where Haydn conducts his Sym. 102 and Beethoven has his Quintet op. 16 (1796) performed (cf. Landon, Chronicle & Works, IV: 461-62).
2 April 1800: Beethoven’s first benefit concert in Vienna, at the Burg-Theater – premiere of his Sym. no. 1 in C. The big concert also included a Mozart symphony, an aria and duet from Haydn’s The Creation, as well as Beethoven’s Piano Concerto (in C?) and Septet, op. 20 (Thayer/Forbes, 254-56). Beethoven also improvised at the pianoforte.
28 Mar. 1801: Haydn hears Beethoven’s ballet music Creatures of Prometheus at Vienna’s Burgtheater.
27 Mar. 1808: Haydn’s last public appearance at special performance of his The Creation conducted by Salieri at the Old University, Vienna. Beethoven was present; cf. watercolor by Balthasar Wigand on commemorative casket (destroyed at or stolen from Museum der Stadt Wien in 1945) created for Haydn by order of Princess Maria Josepha Esterházy. [László Somfai iconography, pp. 202-03, 216; Landon, Haydn: A Documentary Study (New York: Rizzoli, 1981), 168; cf. Thayer/Forbes, 430]
***
Interesting to note is that in November 1806 Beethoven took on the arrangement of folksongs for George Thomson (Edinburgh) after the elderly Haydn had become too weak to finish his own commissioned arrangements for Thomson. One assumes that Haydn and Beethoven discussed the Scottish publisher’s commissions, especially since Beethoven’s letter of 1 Nov. 1806 to Thomson notes that “it is well known to me that Mr. Haydn was paid one pound sterling for each song.” (cf. Thayer/Forbes, 403-06)
HAPPY 250th BIRTHDAY, Ludwig !!
____________
Above materials assembled by Bruce C. MacIntyre, Professor Emeritus, Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn College (CUNY). 16 December 2020.
Haydn and the Flute (by Stephen C. Fisher, orig. publ. 1/24/2016)
Haydn and the Flute
Stephen C. Fisher
Haydn contributed surprisingly little to the solo literature for the flute, or indeed for woodwinds in general. He knew the instruments well (though he is not known to have played any of them in public), used them skillfully in ensemble and orchestral writing, and gave them fine solo passages as well as featured roles in single movements or sections in larger pieces—but he composed few entire works for them. The flute was widely popular among the wealthy male amateurs who made up an important part of the musical public of the age, the best known of them being Frederick the Great of Prussia. Haydn’s neglect of the instrument is a matter of bad luck for flutists. Two of Haydn’s major patrons had chosen instruments well off the beaten path: his longtime employer Prince Nikolaus Esterhàzy played the baryton (a relative of the viola d’amore), and Ferdinand IV of Naples played the lira organizzata (a type of hurdy-gurdy). The effort Haydn devoted to these musical curiosities would have greatly enriched the literature of any instrument, and flutists in particular may curse the fact that they are not the ones to benefit from it.
In the early 1760s Haydn wrote a flute concerto in D major, Hob. VIIf:1, but, alas, it is known only from a theme he entered in a catalog, and our chances of finding a copy seem remote at this date. His only other woodwind concerto was a bassoon concerto that he recalled writing, but about which nothing else is known. None of the woodwind concertos published, performed, or recorded as Haydn’s is authentic: the D major flute concerto attributed to him, Hob. VIIf:D1, is by Leopold Hoffman, and the others, including the familiar oboe concerto Hob. VIIg:C1, are essentially anonymous works to which someone attached Haydn’s name with no justification.
Woodwinds, including the flute, fare slightly better in Haydn’s works featuring multiple solo instruments. He did not use a solo flute in the concertante that he wrote for London, Hob. I:105, with solo parts for oboe, bassoon, violin, and violoncello. However, in London Haydn also performed some of the notturni he composed for the King of Naples in the late 1780s (Hob. II:25–32) using two flutes or flute and oboe to replace the pair of lire organizzate, an idea that modern performers, particularly flutists, have taken up enthusiastically. (The lira concertos, Hob. VIIh:1–5, also work well on the flute.)
Haydn treats the flute differently from the other woodwinds in orchestral writing. The workhorses of his woodwind section are the double reeds, the oboe (occasionally replaced by English horn) and bassoon (in the earlier works often tacitly assumed to be doubling the bass line). The clarinet was still developing in Haydn’s day, and he rarely used it before the 1790s. Haydn’s conception of scoring derives from Baroque trio texture, with two melodic parts played by comparable instruments, and it took him a long time to integrate the flute into the scheme. During parts of his career he had no flutist available (many of his musicians could double on flute, but he rarely asked them to). He may have felt that the flute of his era could not hold its own in a full orchestral texture; he tends to use it in a more soloistic fashion. The wooden flute is most at home in the key of D major, and Haydn is particularly apt to use the instrument in that key and its close relatives.
A flutist named Franz Sigel played in Haydn’s orchestra for much of the 1760s. Probably most of Haydn’s earlier flute music was written for Sigel, including the lost concerto and parts in Symphonies no. 6–9, 13, 24, 30, 31, 41, and 72 (five of them in D major), as well as the so-called Scherzandi, Hob. II:33–38, and the fragment Hob. II:24. In the mid-1770s the orchestra expanded to support regular operatic seasons and Haydn again had flutists. In 1776 he composed a flute part in Symphony no. 61 (in D major), and about the same time added two flutes to Symphony no. 54 of 1774. Haydn also started using a pair of bassoons regularly in his symphonies. The departure of his first bassoonist in 1778 created a quandary; Haydn resolved it by pairing the remaining bassoon with the flute. This is especially evident in the first movement of Symphony no. 63. In its original form, as the overture to the 1777 opera Il mondo della luna, it had two bassoon parts; a year or so later, in the symphony, Haydn moved the first bassoon part up in register and gave it to the flute. In other symphonies of the period the two instruments have important duet passages. The new role of the flute may partially explain why five of the eight symphonies from 1778–81 (nos. 53, 62, 63, 70, 71, and 73–75) are in D major. After Haydn acquired another bassoonist he resumed writing for two bassoons, but by now the flute was an integral member of his orchestra. His symphonies and operas from 1778 onward all have at least one flute part.
Regarding music for smaller combinations, Haydn neglected several popular genres of his day that often featured the flute. He wrote at most one solo sonata for a melody instrument with continuo or keyboard, a work we know as the piano trio Hob. XV:32, which may have originally been a violin sonata. Haydn also wrote few chamber works for one woodwind with several strings. From the first thirty years of Haydn’s career as a composer, we have only three or four chamber works calling for the flute. Two of these, Hob. II:1 and 11, are sextets for flute, oboe, two violins, violoncello, and bass; the second of these bears the title “The Birthday,” and its second movement is called “Man and Wife” because of its alternation of high and low registers. The third work is a septet, Hob. II:8, for two flutes, two horns, two violins, and bass. In addition, the one-movement trio Hob. IV:G2, for flute, violin, and violoncello, was deemed sufficiently interesting musically to find its way into the Joseph Haydn Werke; it may be a fragment of a longer work, perhaps arranged from some other instrumentation.
Lacking authentic pieces by Haydn, publishers manufactured chamber works to sell under his name. Two sets of six quartets for flute, violin, viola, and violoncello are still in circulation. The so-called Op. 5 includes spurious arrangements of the two sextets just mentioned along with four pieces that have nothing to do with Haydn (Hob. II:D9–11 and G4). An even worse case is the set published as Op. 25 (Hob. II:G6, C8, A4, D16, and Es15 and XIV:F1, the sixth work being for flute, violin, violoncello, and keyboard). Joseph Aloys Schmittbaur had originally published the set as his Op. 1, with a second violin instead of a viola in the first five works. In 1777 a Parisian publisher reprinted the quartets with a viola part and Haydn’s name on the title page. While the forgery was exposed long ago, these pieces continue to be attributed to Haydn; a new edition under his name came out in 1999. Caveat emptor!
Haydn used the flute in several works composed for London. In 1784 he produced six divertimenti, Hob. IV:6–11 (also known as Op. 100), for flute (or violin), violin, and violoncello. The fourth of these is based on a baryton trio, Hob. XI:97, and the others incorporate numbers from Il mondo della luna, recycling music that would not otherwise have been known outside the Esterházy court. In London Haydn became friends with Willoughby Bertie, fourth Earl of Abingdon, flutist and dilettante composer. This led Haydn to write the charming “London trios” for two flutes and violoncello, Hoboken II:1–4, in 1794. The first of these is a three-movement work in C major; the others contain a total of five movements that Haydn never grouped in a definitive way, including a set of variations on the Earl’s catch “The Lady’s Mirror.”
Fortunately for flutists, in 1790, just before the first London visit, Haydn published three fine, substantial, original works for their instrument, the trios for flute, violoncello, and piano, Hob. XV:15–17. These are the Haydn works that belong in the repertory of every serious flutist. From them we may get an idea of what Haydn might have done for the flute had circumstances been just slightly different.
Author's Note: Hoboken’s numbering system can be confusing. His catalog inventories many works that are falsely attributed to Haydn, placing them after the ones in the same category that he considered authentic, grouped by key. If what follows the colon in the number is a key designation instead of a numeral, as in VIIf:D1 or VIIg:C1, it usually means that the piece is spurious—IV:G2 is one of the few possible exceptions. The New Grove and MGG work-lists for Haydn, the Haydn Lexikon, and the prefaces to the volumes of the Joseph Haydn Werke are good sources of information on questions of authenticity.
Edited 2/7/2016 to fix missing italicizations and other typographical errors.
The HSNA Newsletter would like to publish longer articles of interest on a monthly basis. If you have an essay geared toward a more general audience or that is otherwise not marked for peer-reviewed publication, please consider submitting it to the HSNA Newsletter editor. We welcome all Haydn-related topics. Please send your submission directly to Rebecca Marchand: rmarchand at bostonconservatory dot edu
Originally published in the HSNA online Newsletter January 24, 2016
Charles Sherman, 1929-2018
One final, sad note: on January 30 noted Michael Haydn scholar Prof. Charles Sherman passed away at the age of 88. Charles was the editor of most of the available music of Michael Haydn, and together with T. Donley Thomas, published Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806): A Chronological Thematic Catalogue of His Works in 1993. Charles was a fine scholar who dedicated his career to the dissemination of Michael Haydn's music, and its understanding. He was a very kind and generous man, a master teacher, and inspiring mentor. In his honor, I would like to suggest we dedicate the Spring 2019 issue (Vol. 9.1) to Michael Haydn studies. Please think about submitting items for this special issue, and other research you are working on for the Fall issue. Consult the submissions page for guidelines.
Michael E. Ruhling
Editorial Director
HSNA Newsletter (March 2017)
HAYDN CONCERT CALENDAR UPDATES
The Haydn Concert Calendar has been updated for March 2017!
If you are performing Haydn's music in a concert in North America, please send the information to Rebecca Marchand.
NEW HAYDN BIOGRAPHY WEBSITE
Wolfgang Oehmicke announces the launch of his German-language Joseph Haydn biography website: www.haydnbio.org
He writes: "My motivation for this site and the aims of my work are described in the preface. There has not been a website in this special form yet. With scientific accuracy it shall contribute to a description of Haydn’s life and work according to present-day Haydn scholarship and achieve new insights by own research. The present version 1.0 indeed needs additional work, especially in the field of chronology of Haydn’s oeuvre. So you are welcome to give your critical view of contents and form of this site in order to establish a Haydn community knowledge pool."
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Emily H. Green and Catherine Mayes, editors, Consuming Music: Individuals, Institutions, Communities, 1730-1830 (University of Rochester Press, 2017)
Beverly Jerold, Music Performance Issues: 1600-1900 (Pendragon Press, 2016)
Boyd Pomeroy, Review of Steven Vande Moortele, Julie Pedneault-Deslauriers, and Nathan John Martin, eds. Formal Functions in Perspective: Essays on Musical Form from Haydn to Adorno (University of Rochester Press, 2015) in Music Theory Online
A letter from Michael Ruhling (Past President, HSNA)
Dear Haydn Society of North America members,
I was sitting at a table at the Hotel Ohr in Eisenstadt in August 2005, having beer and wine with, among others, Michael and Kathleen Lamkin, Rebecca Marchand, and Walter Reicher, Intendant of the Haydn Festspiele. We were discussing the success of the conferences hosted by the Haydn Society of California at Scripps College, when someone floated the idea of expanding it into a national or continental organization. Those around the table believed I should be the one to move this idea forward. On November 4 of the following year, in Los Angeles, we held the inaugural meeting of the Haydn Society of North America, and I was appointed president.
It has been my sincere pleasure to serve as president of HSNA for over ten years. During that time HSNA has held several conferences, most notably the 2009 conference in Cambridge, MA, developed our own web site, printed newsletters, and created a unique online journal that will soon publish its twelfth issue. I think it is fair to say that HSNA has done a fair job of expanding Haydn scholarship here and abroad, and positively influencing the performance and pedagogy of his music. Our members are engaged in writing, performing, lecturing, and teaching all over the country and world. I am pleased about all of this, but even more honored to be associated with all of the fine and generous people I have worked with because of HSNA. My sincerest thanks to all of you, but especially to those of you who have been officers and directors-at-large!
As we begin this year with our new president Mary Sue Morrow, I trust all of us look forward to continuing our activities with the same enthusiasm, spirit, and charity, that you have displayed so often and so consistently. Among the most immediate initiatives in the coming months are:
- Increasing membership
- Continuing to expand the online journal in the number and quality of scholarly submissions, and in readership through institutional and individual subscriptions
- Planning conferences, both on our own and collaboratively with other groups
- Working with our sister societies (SECM, MSA, American Handel Society, etc.) to find mutually beneficial areas of cooperation
- Developing ways of supporting and encouraging younger scholars and performers
- Increasing the endowment
Please offer Mary Sue, Michael, Alex, and Bruce, along with the Board of Directors, any ideas you might have on these issues, and continue to energetically support the work of the Society.
With best wishes for the coming year, and years,
Yours Sincerely,
Michael E. Ruhling,
Past President, HSNA
Happy Birthday, Joseph Haydn (and a happy 200th to the Handel & Haydn Society!)
Originally posted March 31, 2015
Today we celebrate Haydn's 283rd birthday, a mere week after the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston kicked off its Bicentennial celebrations, complete with a mayorally-proclaimed "H & H Day" on March 24th. The Boston Public Library is hosting an exhibit about H & H through September 5th. You can read more about it via Teresa Neff's post over at Musicology Now.
As part of their Bicentennial year, the Handel & Haydn Society wiil be performing The Creation on May 1 and 3, 2015.
Publicity for an 1875 performance of The Creation by the Handel and Haydn Society