26th Symphony (Haydn)

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The Symphony in D minor Hoboken Directory I: 26 was composed by Joseph Haydn in 1768. It is entitled "Lamentatione". In the first two movements, Haydn refers to melodies from a passion play.

General

Joseph Haydn (painting by Ludwig Guttenbrunn, around 1770)

Joseph Haydn composed the symphony Hob. I: 26 in 1768. The autograph is no longer available. The title "Lamentatione" in use today refers to the liturgical melodies in the first and second movements from a Gregorian passion play based on the Gospel of Mark, dating back to the late Middle Ages. This was apparently widespread in Austria at that time with regular performances during Easter (Holy Week), with the lamentations being sung on the chorale melodies. The epithet is not without a doubt authentic, but it is proven as a name for the entire symphony during Haydn's lifetime.

In the copy from Herzogenburg Abbey, HC Robbins Landon found entries in the exposition of the first movement in the 2nd violin part, which he interpreted as references to characters in the Easter drama. Robbins Landon was able to use a print in St. Florian Monastery from 1763 that contains this Passion to show the quotations that Haydn uses in the first movement of Symphony No. 26. He therefore suspects that the first two movements may have served as an illustration of the Easter Passion Play performed at the time and suggests e.g. B. the figure from measure 37 of the first movement as a programmatic "crucify" call.

Other authors consider using sentences 1 and 2 in church services or Holy Week as an occasion for composition, but point out that there is no chorale adaptation in the narrower sense and that Haydn is also “far from composing an instrumental passion drama . ” Wolfgang Marggraf also counters the programmatic interpretation of Howard Chandler Robbins Landon that the quotations from the Passion were chosen“ obviously arbitrarily and perhaps for musical reasons, according to their suitability as building material for the movement ” . Because of this, and because of the brevity of the quotations, the listener cannot hear any musical representation of the Passion that can be relived, as this was hardly intended by Haydn. Furthermore, "even the contemporaries who were familiar with the Passion from the annual performances [...] were hardly able to identify the little-profiled melody quotations." Howard Chandler Robbins Landon and Michael Walter, on the other hand, are of the opinion that the Passions were well known to the audience at the time.

The title "Christmas Symphony", which appeared in the first complete edition of the Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house (1908 to 1933), cannot be found on copies. Robbins Landon suspects that this title is related to the fact that the actual Easter reference was not known among the earlier Haydn researchers. Robbins Landon praises the symphony: Of all the other Haydn symphonies, none is more effective in their incredibly powerful expression, none more tragic, none more emotional (and therefore more romantic) in their conception.

An Easter reference can also be found in Symphony No. 30, composed in 1765 . Symphony No. 26 is Haydn's last three-movement symphony, the later ones are all four-movement.

To the music

Instrumentation: two oboes , two horns , two violins , viola , cello , double bass . To reinforce the bass voice, the bassoon and harpsichord (if available in the orchestra) were also used without a separate notation , although there are different opinions about the involvement of the harpsichord in the literature.

Performance time: approx. 20 minutes (depending on compliance with the prescribed repetitions)

With the terms of the sonata form used here, it should be noted that this scheme was designed in the first half of the 19th century (see there) and can therefore only be transferred to a work composed in 1768 with restrictions. The description and structure of the sentences given here is to be understood as a suggestion. Depending on the point of view, other delimitations and interpretations are also possible.

First movement: Allegro assai con spirito

D minor / D major, 4/4 time, 133 bars

Haydn begins the movement with a gloomy, energetic passage that “has no thematic contour” , but only consists of urgent syncopation chains with tone repetition and falling line. Separated by quarter breaks, two contrasting piano four-beats follow in a block-like manner. The first is characterized by the four-fold repetition of a falling fourth in the horn and by sighs from the violins, the second takes up the moving syncopated figure at the beginning of the sentence, whereby the falling line is more clearly emphasized.

Bars 17 to 21 with the quotation from the evangelist

Without modulation, there is again a block-like lightening to the parallel key in F major with the use of the entire orchestra in forte / fortissimo and the first liturgical “quotation” of the evangelist in bar 17 with a declamatory character. Similar to the beginning of the Allegro of Symphony No. 30, here too the Gregorian melody is somewhat “hidden”, as the 1st violin frames the melody of the 1st oboe and 2nd violin with continuous staccato eighth figures. Now the other three quotations follow without a caesura and with similar instrumentation: The "Christ" (bars 26 to 31) in the piano with voice leading in stepping half notes, a short, again declamatory forte interjection by the evangelist (bars 32 to 34 ) and the section entitled “Jud.” from bar 35, which is like the evangelist section and ends the exposition with a “hammering” unison. The exposure is repeated.

The development begins with the “theme” from the beginning of the movement in F major, with the intervals between the tone repetitions being larger and the bass also participating in the falling line. The first four piano bars corresponding to the exposure change to G minor. Now, picking up the downward trend from the beginning of the development, “falling scales in the range of an octave and with consistently syncopated rhythms break in, which determine the musical sequence over eight bars and then merge into a somewhat less urgent section in which the oboes in held halves Notes remind of the “Christu” quote from the exposition. ”Meanwhile, the 1st violin, as the middle part, maintains the impulse with its staccato eighth note chains. From bar 74, the movement is reduced with a change to piano and bar-wise descending bass, the eighth note movement continues as an interval jump motif in the 1st violin.

The recapitulation from bar 80 begins as at the beginning of the movement in D minor, but after the two piano three bars Haydn changes to A major, where the movement comes to rest and briefly breaks off completely with a general pause. Then the first quotation starts, now in D major and with the participation of the 1st horn in the voice guidance. The further course largely corresponds to that of the exposure. From bar 115 (the second evangelist passage), the 1st horn again separates from the leading of the 1st oboe and 2nd violin. The final group is extended towards the exposure with its pounding unison. The development and recapitulation are not repeated.

There are different opinions about the tonal effect of the key change after D major: While Howard Chandler Robbins Landon speaks of an intensification of the wild, bitter mood and a horn part that “bites into” the orchestra, Ludwig Finscher and Michael Walter describe D major as “radiant ". According to Finscher, the listener is "invited to think beyond the Passion and to think about Easter Sunday."

Second movement: Adagio

F major, 2/4 time, 80 bars

Beginning of the Adagio

In the Adagio, too, Haydn draws on a chorale melody, namely the lesson for the lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah sung in Matutin from Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday. This comes from an alphabetically arranged collection of melodies (“aleph”, “beth” etc.), which is contained in the same print from which Haydn also took the Passion quotes in the first movement. As in the first movement, the 1st oboe and 2nd violin lead the part, while the 1st violin plays countervoice-like figurations and the bass accompanies it in a steady, sweeping eighth note movement. Antony Hodgson points out that Haydn also used the theme in several other works (including in the Trio of Symphony No. 80  - as well as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in his Maurerischen Trauermusik KV 477).

The sustained melody consists of three parts: the head motif with movement in seconds (bars 1 to 3), a plaintive, monotonous tone repetition motif (introduced from one second up with a short change to B flat major and G minor, bars 4 to 10) and a final turn that corresponds to the head motif except for the beginning bar shifted by a third (bars 11 to 13). After the theme has been presented, the three-bar theme is repeated before a passage with sixteenth triplets of the 1st violin that changes to the dominant C major begins in bar 17. This is characterized by tone repetitions and scale runs. It is only accompanied by viola and bass. From bar 24 the theme is repeated in C major, with the 1st violin continuing its triplet chains.

The middle section ("development") brings the theme three times, interrupted by the interludes with the sixteenth triplets of the 1st violin: first in the dominant C major, then in the subdominant parallel in G minor and finally again in the tonic in F major. The action then accumulates to a “rhetorical colon” ​​on a dominant seventh chord, which heralds the recapitulation.

The recapitulation begins with the chorale theme as at the beginning of the movement, but the instrumentation has been changed: the wind instruments lead the parts (the horns, which were previously silent, now join them, similarly in the first movement), while the strings accompany the violins with sixteenth triplets. The theme appears only once in the recapitulation, but the middle section with the plaintive note repetition motif is expanded and harmoniously changed: first with a change of harmony to E minor and A major, then in an even quieter movement (full bar notes) with harmony changes between D minor and A major. The Adagio ends with the final turn of the theme in pianissimo. Both parts of the sentence are repeated.

Ludwig Finscher thinks that the recapitulation "in its special timbre [...] beyond mourning [seems] to point to the coming Easter miracle."

Third movement: Menuet

D minor, 3/4 time, with trio 80 bars

The unusual minuet is characterized by sharp dynamic contrasts, irregular metrics and key changes. It begins piano with a passage of upbeat repetition of notes that sounds like a search for the right key: In the first bar, F major and D minor are veiled, then Haydn changes over to G minor to a pendulum between A major and D minor . Only after a long general break does the music start again, now forte in the decided F major unison. But after just four bars the mood changes again abruptly with a switch to the piano, in which the strings play folk-dance-like staccato quarters with suggestions that are reminiscent of the style of Franz Schubert .

Again with an abrupt change in the keys, the second part is followed by a contrasting motif with an energetic unison phrase in forte and a piano answer from the strings. In measure 32, the viola and bass begin to revisit the opening theme, but the upper parts do not follow until one measure later. An emerging canon emerges, “which seems to rise up towards the sky” , but breaks off on a dissonant second chord. After another long general pause, the movement ends with the dancing staccato passage.

Ludwig Finscher points out similarities to the minuet in Haydn's string quartet opus 9 No. 4.

The trio "in the style of a solemn round dance" is in D major, the change in key is reminiscent of the sound effect from the recapitulation of the first movement. Its dancing melody is repeatedly interrupted by chord strokes on the third, unstressed beat of the measure, to which the 1st violin alone answers (in the first part by a descending scale of two octaves).

The sentence is described differently in the literature: According to Howard Chandler Robbins Landon, the third sentence as "anticlimax" cannot keep up with its predecessors. The Allegro and Adagio were among the best symphonic movements that Haydn had composed up to that point, but together with the minuet the result for the symphony as a whole is at best a great torso.

"In the final minuet, neither the structural principles nor the musical content of the preceding movements are taken up [...]."

"In the meantime, this minuet in D minor is so far removed from the cheerful, boyish attitude that is otherwise characteristic of such movements by Haydn that it fits into the work at least in terms of its general mood."

“[…] This strictly concentrated sentence [is] the most intense of all in several respects. Right from the start, the non-fixed beginning, the rhythmically unstable motifs, the Neapolitan harmony and the ambiguous phrase rhythm create a depressed mood. No fixed tonic appears until the recapitulation - and even that is unstable. "

“The concluding minuet is a defiantly obscured sweepstakes, a kind of surrealistic dance overpainting in the style of Arnulf Rainer, and even in the trio, stubborn forte chords on the third bar provide the energetic suspension of any dance movement - the gloomy passionate atmosphere of the beginning comes at the end back on the scene. "

Individual references, comments

  1. ↑ Information page of the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, see under web links.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Howard Chandler Robbins Landon: The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn. Universal Edition & Rocklife, London 1955, pp. 285-292.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Wolfgang Marggraf : The symphonies of the years 1766–1772. Individual symphonies: Symphony 26, D minor ("Lamentatione"). Accessed April 1, 2013.
  4. ^ A b Anthony van Hoboken: Joseph Haydn. Thematic-bibliographical catalog raisonné, Volume I. Schott-Verlag, Mainz 1957, p. 30.
  5. ^ Andreas Friesenhagen, Christin Heitmann (editor): Joseph Haydn symphonies around 1766 - 1769. G. Henle Verlag, Munich 2008, ISMN M-2018-5041-2, page X.
  6. ↑ "Evang." At bar 17, "Christ." At bar 26, "Evang." At bar 32, "Jud." At bar 35
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g Ludwig Finscher: Joseph Haydn and his time . Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2000, ISBN 3-921518-94-6 , pp. 266-267.
  8. ↑ a b c d Michael Walter: Haydn's symphonies. A musical factory guide. CH Beck-Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-44813-3 , pp. 45-47.
  9. ↑ Finscher (2000, p. 266): “[…] the work is far removed from a chorale arrangement. The chorales are only quoted in fragments, and only performed in the 1st oboe and the 2nd violins, in unison or in octaves, and especially in the first movement they are surrounded by very intense chorale-free sections; in the literal as well as in the figurative sense, they form only one level of the work that serves the semantic clarification. Conversely, however, they also semantize the chorale-free formulations, so that reading related to the Passion is possible without violence. "
  10. ↑ Robbins Landon (1955, p. 287): "These Passions were well known to Haydn's audience, and the purpose of the symphony must have been immediately apparent to everyvone."
  11. ↑ Robbins Landon (1955), p. 285: "Of all the hundred odd Haydn symphonies, none is more telling in its incredibly violent expression, none more deeply tragic, none more fundamentally emotional (and therefore romantic) in conception."
  12. ↑ Examples: a) James Webster: On the Absence of Keyboard Continuo in Haydn's Symphonies. In: Early Music Volume 18 No. 4, 1990, pp. 599-608); b) Hartmut Haenchen : Haydn, Joseph: Haydn's orchestra and the harpsichord question in the early symphonies. Booklet text for the recordings of the early Haydn symphonies. , online (accessed June 26, 2019), to: H. Haenchen: Early Haydn Symphonies , Berlin Classics, 1988–1990, cassette with 18 symphonies; c) Jamie James: He'd Rather Fight Than Use Keyboard In His Haydn Series . In: New York Times , October 2, 1994 (accessed June 25, 2019; showing various positions by Roy Goodman , Christopher Hogwood , HC Robbins Landon and James Webster). Most orchestras with modern instruments currently (as of 2019) do not use a harpsichord continuo. Recordings with harpsichord continuo exist. a. by: Trevor Pinnock ( Sturm und Drang symphonies , archive, 1989/90); Nikolaus Harnoncourt (No. 6-8, Das Alte Werk, 1990); Sigiswald Kuijken (including Paris and London symphonies ; Virgin, 1988-1995); Roy Goodman (e.g. Nos. 1-25, 70-78; Hyperion, 2002).
  13. ↑ Robbins Landon interprets these three parts as the prelude to the passion drama that follows.
  14. ↑ a b c d James Webster: Hob.I: 26 Symphony in D minor ("Lamentatione"). Information text on Symphony No. 26 of the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, see under web links.
  15. ↑ In Robbins Landon's interpretation of the Easter drama, a crucifixion could not be repeated: "It is to be expected that the second part of the movement contains no indication for repetition: the drama at the Cross cannot be repeated." (Robbins Landon 1955, p. 289).
  16. ^ Robbins Landon (1955, p. 289): "[...] instead of the triumphant effect that one might expect, the result is quite the contrary, and the wild, bitter mood only becomes more intensified. The horn now bites into the orchestral structure… “.
  17. ^ Horst Walter: Lamentatione (Lamentatio, Lamentazione.) In Armin Raab, Christine Siegert, Wolfram Steinbeck (ed.): The Haydn Lexicon. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2010, ISBN 978-3-89007-557-0 , p. 448.
  18. ↑ The text begins with “Aleph. Incipit lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae. ”(Robbins Landon 1955, p. 290).
  19. ↑ James Webster considers the figure of a pilgrim for bass.
  20. ^ Antony Hodgson: The Music of Joseph Haydn. The Symphonies. The Tantivy Press, London 1976, ISBN 0-8386-1684-4 , pp. 64-65.
  21. ↑ Robbins Landon (1955, p. 292) sees here similarities to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Adagio and Fugue in C minor KV 546.
  22. ↑ Walter Lessing ( The symphonies of Joseph Haydn, see: all masses. A series of broadcasts on Südwestfunk Baden-Baden 1987-89. Volume 2. Baden-Baden 1989, p. 8) “[...] an idiosyncrasy that reminded Beethoven [... ]. "
  23. ↑ Joseph Haydn: Symphony No.26 in D minor, Hob.I: 26 "Lamentatione". Haydn Festival Eisenstadt: Information text on the performance of Symphony No. 26 on May 30, 2009, accessed March 29, 2013.

Web links, notes

See also