CHAPTER 45 Joseph Haydn: Instrumental Music
Born into humble circumstances in Rohrau, Austria, Joseph Haydn had a long career that spanned from the late Baroque to the early Romantic periods. He first studied the rudiments of composition as a choirboy at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. In 1761 he was engaged as director of music at the Esterházy court.
During his stay at the Esterházy court, Haydn composed primarily instrumental music: symphonies, string quartets, concertos, and keyboard sonatas. –Esterházy family: the richest and most influential among the German-speaking aristocrats of Hungary, with vast estates southeast of Vienna. –Baryton: a viola da gamba-like instrument with six strings. Haydn wrote 126 trios for the baryton, the instrument played by his patron Nikolaus Esterházy.
In the 1770s, Haydn increasingly turned his attention to opera, performed in the opera house of the Estherázy's new massive court complex called Esterháza.
Symphonies Haydn wrote 108 symphonies. While his first symphonies were in three movements, by the time he arrived at the Esterházy court his norm became a four-movement format: fast/slow/minuet and trio/fast. –Minuet: a triple-meter dance in rounded-binary form, usually coupled with a trio. –Trio: a rounded-binary movement, originally scored for three instruments.
Concertante: a concerto-like approach in which individual instruments regularly emerge from the orchestral texture to function as soloists. Haydn makes extensive use of concertante in his symphonies Nos. 6-8.
"Farewell" Symphony: Haydn's symphony No. 45, one of several later symphonies informed by extra-musical phenomena. The title "Farewell" derives from the anecdote according to which musicians were instructed to leave the stage, one by one, bidding farewell to prince Nikolaus. Sturm und Drang: ("Storm and Stress") at first a literary phenomenon, it suggests a mode of expression that sought to frighten, stun, and overcome with emotions. In musical terms, it indicates a group of compositions written around 1770 characterized by minor keys, angular themes, syncopation, string tremolos, sudden dynamic shifts, and violin lines racing up and down the scale.
String Quartets If Haydn was a principal figure in the development of the symphony, he was indispensable for the string quartet, which he invented single-handedly. His set of six quartets Opus 20 (c1772) was a landmark for the genre, featuring –an approximately equal-voiced texture, instead of the bottom-heavy Baroque trio texture –a more serious and learned tone and a four-movement structure, instead of the lighter five-movement divertimento of the 1750s Scherzo: it replaces the movement entitled "minuet" for the first time in Haydn's set of six string quartets Opus 33. It is called "scherzo" ("joke") for its playful tone, as Haydn often placed the downbeat of the dance out of sync with the minuet's triple meter.
"Bird" Quartet: Haydn's quartet Opus 33, No. 3 Its nickname refers to the bird-like chirping and pecking of the strings.
The Emperor's Hymn: Haydn's melody for the text God Preserve Emperor Franz, in honor of Emperor Franz II, written in response to Napoleon's invasion of the Austrian Empire. "Emperor" Quartet: Haydn's quartet Opus 76, No. 3. It derives its name from The Emperor's Hymn, which served as the basis of the theme-and- variations set in the second movement.
Keyboard Sonatas Haydn wrote more than sixty keyboard sonatas. A characteristic feature of his keyboard compositions are highly variegated rhythms.
Concertos Among Haydn's more than thirty concertos for various instruments, the best known today are the Cello Concerto in D Major and the Trumpet Concerto in Eb Major. The latter was the first concerto written for the keyed trumpet, a forerunner of the modern valve trumpet—unlike the earlier natural trumpet, the keyed trumpet could play all the notes of the scale rather than only those of the harmonic series.