Concise History of Western Music
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Chapter Index Chapter 1: Music in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome Chapter 2: Chant and Secular Song in the Middle Ages, 400Ð1450 Chapter 3: Polyphonic Music from Its Beginnings through the Thirteenth Century Chapter 4: French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century Chapter 5: England and Burgundian Lands in the Fifteenth Century: The Beginnings of an International Style Chapter 6: The Age of the Renaissance: Music of the Low Countries Chapter 7: The Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century Chapter 8: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 9: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 10: Opera and Vocal Music in the Late Seventeenth Century Chapter 11: Instrumental Music in the Late Baroque Chapter 12: Music in the Early Eighteenth Century Chapter 13: The Early Classic Period: Opera and Instrumental Music in the Eighteenth Century Chapter 14: The Late Eighteenth Century: Haydn and Mozart Chapter 15: Ludwig van Beethoven Chapter 16: Romanticism and Nineteenth-Century Orchestral Music Chapter 17: Solo, Chamber, and Vocal Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 18: Opera, Music Drama, and Church Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 19: European Music from the 1870s to World War I Chapter 20: The European Mainstream in the Twentieth Century Chapter 21: Atonality, Serialism, and Recent Developments in Twentieth-Century Europe Chapter 22: The American Twentieth Century
 

Outlines:
  - Franz Joseph Haydn
  - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  Quiz
  Listening Guide
Chapter 14: The Late Eighteenth Century: Haydn and Mozart
Franz Joseph Haydn
  1. Biographical Background

    1. Born in Rohrau, Austria

    2. At the age of seven he went to Vienna to be a choirboy.

    3. After his voice changed he was a freelance musician and teacher.

    4. He learned composition from books and private lessons.

    5. 1762, hired by Prince Paul Anton Esterházy of Hungary; worked for him then for his brother Prince Nicholas from 1766 to 1790

  2. Haydn's Instrumental Music

    1. Haydn's symphonic form
      1. His early symphonies used a three-movement form derived from the Italian opera overture (sinfonia): Allegro—Andante (in parallel minor or subdominant)—Minuet or Gigue
      2. Some have four movements in the same key, derived form the sonata da chiesa (Andante—Allegro—Minuet—Presto).
      3. First movements (e.g., NAWM 94)
        1. Sometimes begin with a slow and harmonically unstable introduction.
        2. Symmetrical phrasing alternating stable and unstable phrases
        3. Thematic material presented in string and wind ensembles.
        4. Tutti passages for transitions and to punctuate phrasing
        5. Developments present themes in any order and are short in his early symphonies.
        6. Sometimes the arrival of the recapitulation is disguised.
      4. Minuet and trio movements
        1. Minuets in two-part form: ||: a ||: b (a') :||
        2. Trios
          1. In similar form
          2. In the same key as the minuet, sometimes with a change of mode
          3. Shorter than the minuet and with lighter orchestration
        3. The minuet returns da capo
      5. Second movements were calm and gentle, offering an antidote to the intellectually demanding first movement.
      6. Haydn's presto finales were better closing movements than minuets and trios.
        1. In his early symphonies the 3/8 and 6/8 finales were too light to close symphonies.
        2. In the 1760s he started composing whimsical final movements in fast-moving duple meter.

    2. The symphonies of 1768–74
      1. These symphonies represent his mature style.
      2. Haydn grew to consider the symphony a serious work that demanded close listening.
      3. Some of these symphonies have an intensity of feeling that suggests he was influenced by the Sturm und Drang movement.
      4. The scale of form is larger than in his earlier symphonies.
      5. Haydn interjected more dramatic elements, such as dynamic changes and more propulsive development sections.
      6. The slow movements are usually in sonata form, with romantically expressive warmth.
      7. Haydn sometimes manipulates standard forms.

    3. The symphonies of 1774–88
      1. Beginning in 1774 Haydn's symphonies are less expressive and less experimental.
      2. Serious yet appealing, in keeping with audiences' expectations, e.g., NAWM 94, Symphony No. 56
      3. The Paris Symphonies (Nos. 82–87)
        1. Commissioned for the Concerts de la Loge Olympique in Paris.
        2. Queen Marie Antoinette was fond of No. 85, "La Reine" (The Queen).
        3. Critics marveled at his ability to achieve variety with a single theme.
      4. Symphonies Nos. 88–92
        1. Four begin with slow introductions.
        2. Many of the slow movements close with introspective codas featuring winds (e.g., NAWM 95).
        3. Weightier final movements balance the symphonies.

  3. The London Symphonies

    1. Haydn was commissioned to compose and conduct six symphonies for London in 1790, and later six more.

    2. He adapted his style to suit the conditions of the performance.

    3. To live up to the reputation that preceded him in London, he composed symphonies designed to please the audience.
      1. Brilliant orchestration
      2. Daring harmonic conceptions
      3. Intensified rhythmic drive
      4. More memorable thematic inventions
      5. Dramatic situations, such as the sudden fortissimo on a weak beat in the Surprise Symphony (No. 94)
      6. Tunefulness, including folk melodies remembered from his youth (e.g., NAWM 104's imitation of a bagpipe)
      7. The orchestra for these symphonies includes instruments not used in earlier symphonies, or expanded use of traditional instruments.
        1. Trumpets more independent
        2. Wood winds have more independent roles than previously.

    4. Form and harmony in the London symphonies
      1. Slow introductions in the minor mode for a sense of expectation leading to a fast movement in major mode.
      2. Sonata form movements revolve around a primary subject that pervades the contrasting key area as well.
      3. Finales were often in rondo form.
        1. Some use ABACABA form.
        2. Some combined sonata form with rondo, with the C corresponding to a development section.

  4. Haydn's String Quartets

    1. To 1781 (Opp. 1, 2, 17, 20, 33)
      1. Haydn was the first great master of the string quartet.
      2. The first violin plays the most virtuosic part, but the cello gradually assumes a more melodic role.
      3. The four movements are the same as those of the symphony, except for a few quartets in which the slow movement and the minuet and trio are reversed.
      4. Some of the finales are fugal.
      5. Haydn claimed that the Opus 33 quartets, composed nine years after Op. 20, were written in a "new and special way."
        1. Lighthearted and witty
        2. Fun for the players.
        3. Minuets are titled "scherzo" (Italian for jest) and play with audiences' expectations.
        4. Finales are rondo or variation forms.
        5. Example: NAWM 97, "The Joke"
          1. Humor pervades the movement.
          2. Haydn wittily thwarts audiences' expectations in the coda especially.

    2. Later quartets
      1. In Op. 50 Haydn increasingly uses monothematic first movements, in which the second theme is actually the first theme transposed to dominant.
      2. Slow movements are often in theme and variations form.

    3. The last quartets (Opp. 71, 74, 76, 77)
      1. Sonata forms continue to be monothematic.
      2. Harmony is more expanded, with chromatic progressions and augmented sixth chords.
      3. Serious and jocular elements are juxtaposed.
      4. Minuets spoof the formality of the genre but are not as playful as the Op. 33 minuets.

  5. Keyboard Sonatas

    1. Early sonatas can be performed on harpsichords.

    2. His later sonatas call for dynamics that can only be done on a pianoforte.

    3. Early sonatas (to 1771) contain-emotionality of the empfindsam style.

    4. Late sonatas
      1. Show the influence of the latest musical fashions.
      2. Sonata No. 52 was composed in 1794 for virtuoso Therese Jensen Bartolozzi.
        1. Published as a "Grand Sonata for the Piano Forte"
        2. Exploits the possibilities of newly developed pianos
        3. Uses the Neapolitan-related key in the development section of the first movement and in the following movement (Adagio)

  6. Haydn's Vocal Works

    1. Operas
      1. Haydn's fifteen operas were successful in their day but were never revived.
      2. Haydn supervised the production of seventy-five operas by other composers at Esterháza.
      3. Most of his operas were high-spirited opera buffa works.
      4. Three serious operas, included the "heroic drama" Armida (1784)

    2. Haydn composed unpretentious songs in English for voice with keyboard and arranged Scottish and Welsh airs.

    3. Masses
      1. Haydn composed most of his Masses for Prince Nicholas II Esterházy between 1796 and 1802.
      2. Large-scale, using full orchestra, chorus, and four solo vocalists
      3. Cheerful large-scale works with similarities to the opera and symphony
      4. Expanded role for the orchestra, which included trumpet and timpani
      5. The best known are his Missa in angustiis (Mass for Troubled Times, 1798), also known as the Lord Nelson Mass or Imperial Mass and the Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War, 1796), also known as the Paukenmesse or Kettledrum Mass.

    4. Oratorios
      1. While in London Haydn became familiar with Handel's oratorios, including the Messiah.
      2. Enlightenment ideas influence the religious messages of Die Schöpfung (The Creation, 1798) and Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons, 1801).
        1. Loving depiction of nature and delight in the simple life
        2. Instrumental sections are programmatic, e.g., Depiction of Chaos at the beginning of The Creation.

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company | Credits