1768 – The music part 2 - Something for those long evenings at home

Hob. #	Genre	Key	Instruments / Notes
10:10	Quintet	D	Baryton, 2 Horns, Viola & Bass
11:53 - 72	Trio	G, D, G, D, A, D, G, A, D, G, D, D, G, A, A, A, D, G, A, D	Baryton, Viola & Cello – Volume 3
16:46	Sonata # 31	Ab	Keyboard
26a:37	Lied	E	Solo voice & Keyboard - Beim Schmerz, der dieses Herz durchwühlt  (When pain ransacked this heart)

Those of you who are not especially fond of baryton music must think I am a bit over the top with my great fondness for it. I am the first to admit it is an acquired taste, but once you have done so there is no turning back. However, the first piece we are looking at here, Hob 10:10 the Quintetto (or Divertimento) in D for Baryton, 2 Horns, Viola and Baßo (probably cello) doesn't require any special license for the baryton, it is a fine work for anyone who appreciates the music of this era. Landon speculates it is actually a piece which was composed earlier times for the Princely Grenadiers, in other words, a wind band work. I wouldn't argue with him (this time) because I can say it is equally ideal for either combination. In addition, the horn writing is as virtuosic as we have seen in the earlier works since the advent of the Carl Franz era in 1763. If you will note the instrumentation for a moment, you will see a standard 'Baryton Trio' with two horns added. This is highly reminiscent of other chamber group reinforcements of the era, most particularly the addition of two horns to a string quartet. Among other points of interest in this work, we see the first ever surviving employment of mutes in the horns for the entire duration of the work. The viola is muted as well. Clearly no one will step on the Prince's lines! The first horn is the star of the show, however, with truly difficult and beautiful parts throughout. We are very fortunate today to have several recorded performances to choose from since it is nearly always recorded along with the much later divertimento/octets of 1775. So if you have any recordings of those works, give an ear to this little orphan. It is a delight!

Once again, of course, we have a new crop of Baryton Trios to enjoy. Haydn's ability to be so prolific is difficult to grasp. Along with the final four trios from last year, the remaining twenty were ready for the bookbinder by July of this year. Twenty-four new baryton trio works between September last and this July. Which doesn't take into account everything else he wrote in this time period. As always, despite the overall high quality of the group, certain ones catch the ear. #57 has a lovely opening Adagio, and overall it is enough a standout to have been specially bound (along with a trio by Purksteiner, a band member cum composer) in gold silk on special paper for 16 florins as a gift for the Prince, reason unknown. Another fine trio is #59, with another fine Adagio first movement and a brisk, entertaining Allegro inner movement. There are plenty of other highlights to be heard here too. This is true Hausmusik, if you happened to have a Baryton laying around loose, that is. So we see three volumes totaling 72 trios from late 1765 to mid-1768. After this burst of activity, there will be only two more volumes and they will be stretched out over the next seven years. This slowdown in baryton trio activity will allow for a new treasure beginning next year; the beginnings of our first new string quartets since 1760!

The lone keyboard survivor of the house fire from this year appears to be Hob 46/Landon 31 in Ab. Since I am not an expert at such things, either analyzing nor conveying my thoughts, I am forced to limit my discussion by avoiding the 'why's?'. So I will make a few statements here which, if you are a knowledgeable keyboardist, you can verify for yourself. It seems as though Haydn has made a great leap forward with this piece, abandoning the galant style of earlier times and composing the most modern-sounding work which I have heard in any genre from the 1760's! At first I thought this might be because the version I prefer is performed by Paul Badura-Skoda on a later model fortepiano, so I listened to it on a harpsichord (a wonderful performance by Robert Hill) and noted the same phenomenon, in fact it sounds as though the music has outclassed the instrument! There is a lot of (mis)information about Haydn, the keyboardist. If we listen to his own words, spoken years later to Griesinger; "I was a wizard on no instrument, but I knew the workings of all…", we are struck by the humility of a superb musician probably being nothing more than frank. But then if we compare this self-assessment with the fact that the Prince was suddenly very fond of Haydn's keyboard playing, and the additional fact that Haydn was the only keyboardist in the Prince's employ except for the one who played organ continuo at the Eisenstadt chapel, we come up with an anomaly. While most of these works don't require a true virtuoso, neither are they simplistic. True, many were composed for students, but an equal number were written for performance in the music room, for a 'mini-concert' as it were. So while Haydn may not have been a 'wizard', he was clearly a very fine player indeed. All of this makes me mourn for the six contemporaneous works which went up in smoke with Haydn's house this year. The whole set would be a fine addition to the 18^th century keyboard literature.

Our final small piece of this year is Haydn's earliest surviving Lied, Hob 26a:37 in E major for Solo voice & Keyboard, Beim Schmerz, der dieses Herz durchwühlt (When pain ransacked this heart). It's origins and purpose are entirely unknown, only the study of the paper it was written on has yielded a date. So we resort to speculation, which amounts to only a couple of possibilities; it was either composed for insertion into one of the many spoken plays for which Haydn provided music, perhaps a scene with our hapless heroine crying out her anguish, or it was written for some special occasion at Das Schloss where it was either sung by Barbara Dichtler the Prince's soprano, or possibly it was a vehicle to allow a visiting young lady to show off her stuff. No matter, it is an attractive little song which fits right in with an evening of Hausmusik.

Despite the quantity of music which we have surveyed so far, we still haven't touched the half of it! Next time we will look at the sacred music for the year, followed by the large cantata and a delightful opera. Lo speziale makes you wish Haydn always had a Goldoni to write his librettos!

Thanks for reading!