|
Hob. # |
Genre |
Key |
Opus |
No. |
Instruments / Notes |
|
11:107 |
Trio |
D |
Book 5 |
Baryton, Viola & Cello |
|
|
11:108 |
Trio |
A |
Book 5 |
Baryton, Viola & Cello |
|
|
11:109 |
Trio |
C |
Book 5 |
Baryton, Viola & Cello |
|
|
11:110 |
Trio |
C |
Book 5 |
Baryton, Viola & Cello |
|
|
11:111 |
Trio |
G |
Book 5 |
Baryton, Viola & Cello |
|
|
16:27 |
Sonata |
G |
42 |
Keyboard solo |
|
|
16:28 |
Sonata |
Eb |
43 |
Keyboard solo |
|
|
16:29 |
Sonata |
F |
44 |
Keyboard solo |
I know you've been saying to yourselves here lately, 'Hey, Gurn, what happened to the Baryton Trios?'. And of course, my answer, dear reader, is 'wait for it!'. We have a stretch of six or seven years between the publication of Book 4 and the final book in 1778. What with Princes and Empresses coming to visit, it seemed reasonable to spread the final 30 trios out in the areas where we think not a lot else was happening. Date indications like "c.1771-8" will do that to you.
A great testament to Haydn's sense of duty to his art, perhaps even more than to his prince, is the quality of the baryton trios over the years. As you can see by the numbers, we are up to well over a hundred by now, in a relatively short stretch of time, and yet the quality continues to improve steadily right to the last. Prince Nicholas turned 60 years old in this year, and his interest in being a performing musician was waning in favor of being entertained by others. 1776 would mark the beginning of the virtually permanent opera season which continued until Nicholas' death in 1790. But in these sunset years of the baryton, Haydn was still composing some first-class chamber music for it, and as we will see next year, far more than trios!
Other than quality music, there are some points of interest among this year's attributions. One page of the autograph of #109 has a large water stain from top to bottom. Haydn wrote on it in Latin 'done on purpose' and 'nothing without a reason'. Hard to know exactly what this is about, although speculation has run as far as it having been done by an angry Mrs. Haydn. I'm not sure of the basis for this claim, but if true, it provides an interesting snapshot into an unhappy marriage. There are not enough views of the private Haydn, we know a lot about his public life, and so little about his private one.
Another interesting aspect here will be in #110, where Haydn recycled some themes from a divertimento, Hob 14:8 for keyboard, 2 violins and baßo, one of the last of those little "piano quartets", dating from as recently as 1770. I find it interesting to see a composer, any composer, as prolific as Haydn, and yet so little repetition in his music. He did recycle some things, but mostly from public music to private music, thus perhaps allowing particularly popular or personal themes to give pleasure yet another time. The baryton trios benefit particularly from this habit.
So, it's 1777 and you just stopped into your local music shop and found the latest set of Haydn sonatas, titled Anno 1776. Despite your natural assumptions, lo and behold, you discover half of them were composed in 1775, and the other half way back in 1774! Well, things moved a bit more slowly in those days, so maybe you are perfectly understanding of the situation. He wasn't able to upload the scores right off his Sibelius software…
We have a dated (1774) fragmentary manuscript for Hob 29, which includes the title 'Sonata for Clavicembalo', which leads us back to the essay which I commented on back in 1771 by Eva Badura-Skoda concerning the proper instrument for these works. For those who don't want to follow the link, and who don't recall the thrust of her idea, it simply presents the fact of the existence of the Hammerklavier in Austria far earlier than it was generally credited, and the name it was called by was deceptively the same as that used for the harpsichord. I think it is very reasonable to say by 1774 these works were written for a keyboard instrument which we will fairly call a fortepiano, no matter the Clavicembalo in the title. I have many versions of these works, predominantly on fortepiano but also several each on either harpsichord or clavichord, and when I listen intently, it seems as though the dynamic variety provided by the fortepiano is necessary to the overall presentation, or if not necessary, then at least a positive contribution.
Following on the heels of the 1773 works dedicated to Prince Nicholas, which were aimed at amateurs, these six sonatas were more likely composed for connoisseurs. One of the first differences we see from the Esterházy works is the presence of three full movements in each work. It seems like the time constraints which drove the composition of the dedicated set were not present in this one. A point of interest resides in the fact this set was given for distribution by Haydn himself, apparently in handwritten copies rather than printed. Certainly the Prince could not have been unaware of this, I wonder how it came in under the terms of his still extant contract. Maybe he gave permission, or possibly he had already come to terms with what would become reality in 1779; Haydn was more than ready to play before the world.
The most difficult dating issue of the three of 1774 is the first, Hob 27, which is thought to date back to the late '60's based on its style. I wouldn't have thought so, but I never argue with the pros…
Of these three works, the third, Hob 29 in F, is the most forward looking. It's opening movement advances the style of the sonata into a format which would be popular even thirty years hence. Brown states it is the beginning of an actual fortepiano idiom, and it is a clear break from previous works. I don't know, if you are well able to handle the terminology of Pax and Pay and "the retransition" etc… you will probably find some interesting reading in his Haydn's Keyboard Music book. As for me, I am quite content to listen to it and consider it sounds quite modern for 1774. Guess I am just a Liebhaber at heart!
So, you see Haydn has not got completely away from writing smaller works, and fine ones they are. I personally haven't come to terms with any declaration which posits Haydn's sonatas as less than excellent. They deserve to be explored!
Next time, the final grand work of the year, a look at the Italian oratorio and where it stood circa 1775.
Thanks for reading!