|
Hob |
Key |
NC |
HRL |
Instruments |
|
28 |
A |
40 |
38 |
2 Oboes, 2 Horns & Strings |
I confess, I am horrible ranter. There, I've said it. I hunt and hunt for answers, then lose patience and complain they don't exist. Of course I'm wrong sometimes. I freely admit it doesn't happen often, but just once in a while….
A few times in these posts, and probably in the appendix pages with the symphony chronologies, I've mentioned the so-called New Chronology, and its irritating omission of any sort of documentary justification for the end result. Now, I'm not saying here I have finally got my hands on the goods, but if I had an extra several hundreds of dollars and a working knowledge of German, I could buy a book by a lady named Sonja Gerlach which establishes the basis for the New Chronology. Her book, Joseph Haydns Sinfonien bis 1774: Studien zur Chronologie (Joseph Haydn's Symphonies up to 1774: Studies of the Chronology), is, by all appearances, the Brass Ring on this subject.
Of course, this is all spelled out in easy to read plain language somewhere, don't you think? If so, you must have just gotten here! I purchased a Christmas present for myself, a book (The Symphonic Repertoire Vol. II) by musicologist A. Peter Brown which is, generally speaking, way over my head as far as applied music theory goes. There are many things in there which I will have to ask someone about some day! However, inextricably intertwined with all of that, the late Dr. Brown strews fine nuggets of historical information to go along with the theory. To make a short story long, as I was panning for gold the other evening I found Brown listing his idea of what the chronology of the first fifty or so symphonies might be, and then comparing it with his considered authority, Gerlach (whom he assumed I knew). Imagine my surprise when I noticed that the Gerlach list matched the New Chronology entry for entry! So, mystery solved. Well, to my satisfaction anyway.
The item that caught my eye here was his description of Gerlach's working method. She not only takes all the intrinsic evidence which all musicologists so far have taken, such as paper and watermark studies, handwriting analysis, known historical aspects (the Abbot was Haydn's best friend… etc.) and the like, but she also incorporated intensive stylistic analyses. The net result (according to Brown) is that she has reached an almost unnecessary level of precision with her dating. It goes without saying, but I will; I dispute that. There is never too great a level of precision when it comes to dating! Since I have read a few essays by Gerlach, and also have another book and several essays by Brown, I can now proceed forward with greater confidence than before when it comes to using the New Chronology. We'll all sleep better tonight, won't we? No more ranting on that subject, anyway!
So let us now look at (and especially listen to) our one and only symphony for the year. Apparently all of the extracurricular activity did finally affect Haydn somehow, in this case, giving him the lowest production year for symphonies since he began writing them. With that said, however, don't think this one isn't a sort of unique gem! The opening Allegro di molto is one of the most unusual characters which Haydn has produced to date. The opening bars provide the meat for the entire movement, which propels forward with alternating syncopations and modular phrases that sound as though they are in a time signature twice (or half!) or what they really are; that is, 6/8 instead of 3/4. The strings do this on one beat and the winds answer a beat later, and this takes us through the entire movement! Although it sounds simplistic in my description, it is actually a rather intricate procedure in performance, and I am hard-pressed to think of any subsequent work to compare it to. At some point in time we will take a look at rhetoric and its effect on Haydn's music (which is profound, by some accounts), but for now, it is safe to say the rhetorical 'argument' between those instruments playing in 6/8 and those in 3/4 governs this entire movement over any other consideration. The hyperkinetic rhythms here will stick with you well past the listening!
The second movement Poco adagio is longer than the rest of the work combined. I see it described as possibly being incidental music for a play of some sort, but I don't hear it when I listen. Brown goes so far as to suggest it is a funeral march for a play. While it is true that there are march rhythms embedded throughout, I just don't find any reason to think of this interesting movement as anything more than absolute music, to steal a useful term from the Romantics. The third movement minuet, however, is pretty unusual! The strings play a sort of call, possibly a horn call, and are answered by the winds, especially the horns. It is all in a most unusual rhythm for a minuet, in fact I would be hard put to it to identify it as such, out of context. Here we get to enjoy an early example of bariolage, with the violins switching back and forth on the same note between a stopped string and an open one, which produces a different tone color, a difficult thing to put ones' mental finger on when listening. It is a favorite effect of Haydn's, and he would use it rather more famously in a later string quartet, Op. 50 #6. In this case, rather than a frog croaking, it makes the sound resemble a horn call (in my opinion). Surprisingly enough, after all that has come before in this most unusual work, the finale is a straightforward Presto assai with some very nice parts for the two hard-working horn players. For reasons that I haven't been able to discern, period instrument bands have pretty much given this work a miss. The sole exception being the omnipresent savior of us lonesome aficionados of PI, Christopher Hogwood. His Academy of Ancient Music rendition is superb, giving a real sense of what a strange work this is. Listen to it with an ear for the oddity, you will be rewarded. You have to figure, any work that irked the German critics (which this one did!) has got to be worth a listen!
Next time, we will look at the earliest "Piano Concerto" still played today.
Thanks for reading!