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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-andvariations 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.