Download Joseph Haydn - Dayton Performing Arts Alliance

W ELCOME
After twelve and a half years you’d
think there was nothing new under
the sun at Classical Connections. But
you’d be wrong!
So far, each of our 42 programs
has been linked to a concert on our
Classical Series. We’d take a piece from
that program and focus our attention
on that piece for an entire evening.
Now, in program number 43
everything’s the same except that
this Dayton Daily News Classical
Connections program is linked not
to a Classical Series concert but to a
concert on the Demirjian Chamber
Explorations series.
The chamber series is one of the
lesser-known offerings on the DPO
calendar. But these are some of our
most fun, most unusual programs.
They’re shorter than usual—about
an hour and a quarter with no
intermission. And they’re smaller than
usual—using anywhere from a handful
of musicians to about 35 players. But
they pack a punch! (And tickets are
cheaper than usual, too!)
The Demirjian Chamber
Explorations Series is devoted to the
wide-ranging repertoire for smalland medium-sized ensembles. That
includes everything from Bach to the
avant-garde, string quartet to chamber
orchestra. Concerts take place on
Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm and
Thursday mornings at 10 am. And
there’s free food! Pizza appetizers in
the evening. Coffee and doughnuts in
the morning.
Haydn’s fine Drum Roll
Symphony will be performed on three
dates: both Chamber concerts (March
4 and 5) and, of course, with additional
commentary and musical examples for
the Classical Connections concert on
March 6. See you at the Schuster!
Classical Connections
Listener’s Guide
Portrait: Joseph Haydn
with support from
classical 88.1 wdpr and
Neal Gittleman
Music Director
Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra
engage. enjoy. emerge!
Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Colours Season 2008-2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Portrait: Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 1
Symphony No. 103, Drum Roll
Portrait
Joseph Haydn
by Neal Gittleman Music Director
Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra
Symphony
Man
Where would we be without symphonies?
It’s hard to find an orchestra concert
anywhere that doesn’t include a symphony.
We’d be the “Dayton Symphony Orchestra”
if DPO founder Paul Katz hadn’t preferred
the word “Philharmonic”. Symphony here.
Symphony there. Symphony everywhere.

None of that would be possible
without Haydn, who made the
symphony the dominant musical
form of the Classical Era of music
history.
So what is a symphony,
anyway?
The word comes from the
Greek: sym- (together) plus –phonía
(sound). Things that sound together
make a symphony. Doesn’t tell us
much!
St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Italy
The first symphonies I can
think of were composed by the
Italian Renaissance composer
Giovanni Gabrieli: his Sacræ
Symphonæ (Sacred Symphonies)
of 1579 and 1615. Composed
for St. Mark’s in Venice, these
pieces were the Greek etymology
come to life: music for mixed
groupings of instruments, voices,
and organ all sounding together in
the vast reverberant space of that
magnificent cathedral.
In the Baroque Era
composers used the term sinfonia
to mean any piece of introductory
music: the overture to an opera
or suite, or the instrumental
introduction to a choral work. It
wasn’t until the late 17th century
that something resembling our
notion of a symphony appeared:
a multi-movement instrumental
composition. Composers of early
Italian operas usually prefaced their
dramas with a three-movement
orchestral introduction: a fast
movement to start, a slow movement
for contrast, and another fast
movement to get the audience ready
for the show. They called these
overtures sinfonias.
Antonio Vivaldi weaned the
three-movement Italian sinfonia
away from the opera house in
the early 18th century when he
composed literally hundreds of
sinfonias—without taking the
trouble of writing operas to follow!
Vivaldi’s sinfonias (which, much
to our confusion, he also called
concertos) are the direct precursors
of the symphonies of Haydn,
Mozart, and Beethoven.
Antonio Vivaldi
As the baroque style went
out of fashion in the middle of the
18th century, a new wave swept
from Italy into the rest of Europe:
a simpler, straight-ahead, tuneoriented type of music that we
now call the Classical Style. A new,
souped-up version of the old Italian
sinfonia became one of the hot new
musical forms, making stars of a new
generation of composers: Giovanni
Sammartini in Italy, Bach’s sons
Johann Christian and Carl Phillipp
Emmanuel in Germany, François
Gossec in France, William Boyce
in England.
The capital of the early classical
symphony was the German city
of Mannheim, an inland port on
the Rhine, where the Elector of
Pfalzbayern assembled the first great
orchestra of Europe, an ensemble
of the finest players available. The
Elector also supported a stable
of composers who wrote for his
orchestra, including Johann Stamitz,
Iganz Holzbauer, and Johann
Christian Cannabich—forgotten
names now, but important
symphonic pioneers.
The Mannheim composers
filled their symphonies with
novel musical effects that excited
audiences looking for new thrills.
These included the “Mannheim
Rocket” (an upward-leaping
arpeggio) and the “Mannheim
Crescendo”. (We take crescendos
for granted now, but they weren’t
generally used in baroque music,
and the first time audiences heard
the Mannheim orchestra start softly
and gradually grow to a powerful
fortissimo, they went wild!)
Mannheim Palace
The Mannheim symphonies
were revolutionary, but they weren’t
great music. It’s hard to tell the
difference between Holzbauer and
Cannabich or between Johann
Stamitz and his brother Karl. The
effects were cool, but the music was
formulaic. Or, as Paul Simon sang
hundreds of years later, “all right in a
limited sort of a way.”
The symphony needed
someone to really make it into
something. That someone was
Joseph Haydn. (Current scholarship
argues that Haydn never used
“Franz” as his first name, only
“Joseph”. This is new for me, so
please forgive me any time I slip up
and refer to him as “Franz Joseph
Haydn”!)
Prince Paul Anton Esterházy
Joseph Haydn
Just as the extraordinary
talents of the Mannheim Orchestra
musicians powered the Mannheim
School, it was the musicians of the
Esterházy Orchestra who made
Haydn’s symphonic revolution
possible. In 1761 Haydn was
appointed Kapellmeister (Chief
Court Musician) to Prince Paul
Anton Esterházy, a Hungarian
nobleman and a prominent member
of Viennese society. The Prince
wanted to have the best orchestra
in Europe, even better than what
the Elector had had in Mannheim.
Bankrolled by the deep pockets
of Prince Paul Anton, then of his
successor, Prince Nikolaus, Haydn
assembled an “army of generals”—
every player a first-rate soloist. With
this orchestra as his laboratory,
Haydn, who had previously written
only a handful of Italian-style
sinfonias, embarked on a 30-year
binge of symphony writing that
changed the course of music history.
All the symphonies that
followed—from Mozart’s to
Corigliano’s—flowed from what
Haydn created for the Esterházys.
At our March concert we’ll explore
some of the incredible innovations
in Haydn’s early and middle
symphonies, then take an in-depth
look at the amazing “Drum Roll
Symphony”, that thrilled London
audiences in 1795 and helped make
Joseph (“Don’t Call Me Franz!”)
Haydn the world’s first superstar
composer.
A S TAT E A GE NC Y
T H AT S UP P OR T S P UBL IC
P ROGR A MS IN T HE A R T S
Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Colours Season 2008-2009
A Not-So-Fond Farewell
During his three decades as
Kapellmeister to the Esterházy family,
Joseph Haydn occupied a position
of respect. He was responsible for
all the music at the
Esterházy court. He
assembled and directed
the court orchestra,
composed music for the
entertainment of the
prince and his guests,
and was in charge of all
things musical, both at
the family’s palace in
Vienna and at Esterháza,
the summer palace on the
traditional family lands
in Hungary. Haydn’s
duties also included
Baryton
giving lessons to family
members and composing music for
Prince Nikolaus to play on his baryton,
a now-extinct string instrument. Haydn
obliged by writing 126 trios for baryton,
violin, and cello.
It was a good job. Haydn was wellhoused, well-fed, and well-paid. But for
all his access to nobles and all the honors
he was accorded, Haydn was still just a
servant. A trusted, respected servant, to
be sure. But a servant nonetheless.
As Kapellmeister, Haydn was the
liaison between the prince and his
musicians. In the summer of 1772 that
role landed him in the middle of a labor
dispute. Each summer the prince moved
his entire household to Esterháza. The
musicians went too, but had to leave their
families behind in Vienna. So when the
summer of 1772 dragged on into the
autumn with no sign of an imminent
return to the city, Haydn faced an angry,
restless orchestra.
Esterháza and Gardens
He couldn’t go to the prince and
say, “Time to pack up and split!” Not in
so many words. But he said it in music
with Symphony No. 45, the “Farewell
Symphony”. You’ll hear how he said it
at the close of the first half of our
March 6 concert…
concert tickets: daytonphilharmonic.com or (888) 228-3630
A r o un d
The Wo r l d
&
Joseph
H ay dn
Birth of George Washington.
Covent Garden Opera House opens
in London. Benjamin Franklin
publishes first issue of Poor
Richard’s Almanack.
1732
March 31, Haydn is born in Rohrau,
Lower Austria, to Mathias Haydn, a
wheelwright and the former Anna
Maria Koller, a cook.
Frederick the Great declares
war on Austria. University of
Pennsylvania founded.
1740
Becomes a choir boy at St.
Stephen’s cathedral, Vienna.
Death of J.S. Bach. Baal Shem
founds Chassidic sect of Judaism.
1750
Leaves the choir school and
supports himself by giving private
music lessons.
Birth of William Blake.
1757
Composes Symphony No. 1.
Ieharu becomes Japanese Shogun.
Completion of Bridgewater Canal
between Liverpool and Leeds.
Lomonosov discovers atmosphere
of Venus.
1761
Hired as chief court musician to
Hungarian Prince Paul Anton
Esterházy. Haydn remains in the
Esterházy family’s employ for the
next 30 years.
U.S. Bill of Rights ratified. Death
of Mozart. William Wilberforce
introduces bill to ban the slave
trade throughout the British Empire.
1791
Impresario Johann Peter Salomon
presents Haydn in a triumphant
season of concerts in London
featuring symphonies No. 93-98.
Reign of Terror in France.
Construction begins on U.S.
Capitol. Eli Whitney invents the
cotton gin.
1793
Second London tour, built around
symphonies No. 99-104.
John Adams elected second U.S.
President. Jenner uses vaccination
to fight smallpox. Napoleon
marries Josephine.
1796
Inspired by “God Save the King”,
Haydn composes a national anthem
for Austria. His melody is still used
for the German national anthem.
Ohio statehood. Louisiana
Purchase. Robert Fulton’s first
steam boat.
1803
Final public performance,
conducing his oratorio The Seven
Last Words of Christ.
James Madison becomes fourth
U.S. President. Washington Irving
writes Rip van Winkle.
1809
May 31, dies of heart disease
during Napoleon’s bombardment
of Vienna.