49th Symphony (Haydn)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Symphony in F minor, Hoboken directory I: 49 wrote Joseph Haydn in 1768 during his tenure as Kapellmeister to Prince I. Nikolaus Esterházy . The work bears the title "La passione", which was not by Haydn.

General

Joseph Haydn (painting by Ludwig Guttenbrunn, around 1770)

Haydn composed Symphony No. 49 in 1768 while he was employed as Kapellmeister by Prince Nikolaus I Esterházy. The title “La passione” (Italian = passion, time of suffering) does not come from Haydn, but apparently goes back to an entry on the copy of a Leipzig copyist around 1790 and can also be found in a Leipzig performance report from 1811. The title has several Interpretations led. The Leipzig performance report claims that Haydn wrote the work "on a special, deeply wounding bereavement among his own". In the 1831 Haydn directory of the Züricher Neujahrsblätter the symphony is listed as “La Passione, or Mourning Symphony” . Another name appears later in a Viennese copy, but is also passed down in other places: "Il Quakero di bel'humore" ("The good-humored Quaker") . It is possible that Symphony No. 49 served as stage music for a corresponding performance.

“Moralizing Quakers were a popular theme in Central European dramas; it was assumed that the present symphony, like others by Haydn from this period, was perhaps played as music in a play or even composed for it. Certainly their intensity and their eccentricity evoke some extra-musical associations. "

Howard Chandler Robbins Landon (1955) praises the symphony as one of Haydn's most convincing minor symphonies to date. Karl Geiringer (1959) connects the title with the somber character of the symphony, especially that of the Adagio, and suspects a connection with Easter. Walter Lessing (1989) points out that “the deep impression that the symphony“ La Passione ”still leaves today” is also based on “the same basic mood captured by all movements” . The tone sequence c-des-b also contributes to this, with which the first sentence begins and on which the beginnings of the other sentences are based. Ludwig Finscher (2000) says: “The expression of the work is extremely dramatic, not religious; a very mediated reference to the ecclesiastical sphere arises only from the fact that the unusual form with an adagio as the first movement and a strongly contrapuntal allegro as the second movement seems to allude to the tradition of the sonata da chiesa. In all four movements there is extreme concentration of expression, at the same time extreme concentration of thematic material with extreme concentration of thematic development. ” Anton Gabmayer (2010), on the other hand, also uses Haydn's personal reasons for the gloom of the work (burning down his house in 1768, a death ) and sees in the symphony “a question of life set in music”.

Haydn himself only gave the symphony the title: “Sinfonia in F minore”.

The work has the following special features:

  • The sequence of movements slow - fast - dance movement (minuet) - fast is reminiscent of that of the late baroque church sonata and is also represented among Haydn's symphonies in No. 5 , No. 11 , No. 18 , No. 21 , No. 22 and No. 34 . In accordance with the church sonata, all movements in the symphonies are kept in the same key. However, in third place there is no slow movement, but a minuet (Symphony No. 18 is only in three movements).
  • It is Haydn's only symphony in the key of F minor, which was unusual for the time.
  • differentiated dynamics z. B. in the first movement: from pianissimo to fortissimo.
  • differentiated rhythm through syncope z. B. in the second sentence.
  • Enhancement of the winds through “splashes of color” and short solos in the third and fourth movements.
  • strong interval jumps, especially in the second movement.

To the music

Instrumentation: two oboes , two horns in F, two violins , viola , cello , double bass . To reinforce the bass voice was at that time also without separate listing bassoon and harpsichord - Continuo used, different on the participation of a harpsichord Disagreement exists.

Performance time: 20–30 minutes (depending on compliance with the prescribed repetitions).

With the terms used here for sonata form, it should be noted that this model was only designed at the beginning of the 19th century (see there) and can only be used with restrictions for a symphony from 1768. - 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: Adagio

F minor, 3/4 time, 91 bars

Beginning of the Adagio

The movement begins with the gloomy main theme in the piano, which is played by the violins in slow quarters, underlined by the sustained F of the horns. From bar 5 there is a short explanation with Fermata in C major, but the main theme in F minor starts again as a variant in bar 7. There now follows a section up to bar 25, which is characterized by a gradual increase in movement: stepped eighth movement (bars 10-14); Pendulum figure with a quarter and sixteenth notes (bars 15–24), continuous sixteenths (bars 25–32). The sixteenth-note motif from bar 25 is in the dominant A flat major and is performed forte. In bar 33 the movement comes to a halt due to pauses, but then breaks off again from bar 35 in forte / fortissimo with syncope. The final group up to the end of the exposition (bar 43) is marked by a separated sixteenth-note movement.

The development begins with the main theme in A flat major; As in the exposition, there now follows an increase in movement over quarter to sixteenth notes, which breaks off in bar 59 on C major. Overall, the implementation is more like a transition. It ends in two strongly chromatic , almost strange bars with slow quarter movements.

The recapitulation from bar 62 is structured in a similar way to the exposition, but the section with the eighth note movement is missing: the continuous sixteenth note figure (corresponding to bar 25) already begins in bar 70 in F minor and appears again in a variant in bars 87 ff. A last outbreak in fortissimo is provided by bar 90/91 before the final group begins. The exposition, development and recapitulation are repeated.

Ludwig Finscher emphasizes the expressiveness of the sentence: "... Haydn wrote few sentences that are rhetorically suggestive."

Second movement: Allegro di molto

F minor, 4/4 time, 140 bars

The wild character of the movement contrasts with the Adagio. It opens with a series of tremendous leaps in intervals in the violins leading the voice, underlaid by hard staccato eighth runs, which are continued in the strings (in dialogue) according to a syncopation motif (bars 4–5) and also a propulsive movement in the rest of the movement cause. The second theme (bars 14-22) in the tonic parallel A flat major is strong with its gently pendulous movement in the piano, the guidance in legato (instead of staccato) with small intervals, the reduction to the strings and the somewhat melancholic timbre Contrasted with the first topic. The following bars 23-27 take up the interval jumps from the beginning of the sentence, which are now underlaid by moving syncopation. Up to the end of the exposition in bar 51, four further motifs follow: a grinder motif with separated eighth notes (bar 28 ff.), A lead motif (bar 34 ff.), A rattle trill motif (bar 38 ff.) and a motif again with interval jumps (bars 46 ff.).

The “development” (bars 52-99) corresponds to a varied sequence of the exposition: It begins in A flat major, corresponding to the beginning of the movement. From bar 64 the bass leads with the interval jumps from the beginning before the movement in bar 71 comes to rest on the double dominant G major. Then the second theme has an appearance in E flat major, followed by the grinder and the rebound trill motif.

The recapitulation begins in bar 100 with the first theme in F minor. In contrast to the exposition, the second topic is left out. The exposition, development and recapitulation are repeated.

Third movement: minuet

F minor, 3/4 time, with trio 72 bars

The minuet has a dark timbre with its gloomy, slow main melody in F minor. With 34 bars, the second part of the minuet is almost twice as long as the first part with 18 bars. Ludwig Finscher rates the minuet as "an example of the serious character minuet that shows only a few features of the simple, let alone the dance minuet (...)." And emphasizes the "richness of harmony and the abundance of chromatic twists" .

The only “ray of hope” in the symphony is the trio in F major with its gently swaying, sometimes almost brightly shining atmosphere with the solo oboes and horns.

Fourth movement: Finale. Presto

F minor, a / a time (alla breve), 126 measures

Similar to the Allegro di molto, the Presto has an energetic character in which the continuously throbbing quarters of the viola, cello and double bass play a key role. The movement opens piano with a mysterious motif of the strings, repeated three times, accompanied by sustained octaves on F of the wind instruments. The subsequent, short forte breakout with an ascending chord brings a dramatic insert before another mysterious piano passage ends the first section in a relatively even quarter movement. The forte chord progression that now begins (A-A-A with a seventh - D-flat - E-flat with a seventh) leads to the tremolo section in the parallel tonic A flat major. From bar 37 to the end of the exposition in bar 50, a figure consisting of half notes with considerable leaps in intervals (partly over two octaves) dominates in addition to the eighth tremolo, which is also reminiscent of the second movement.

The “development” (bars 51–86) repeats the elements of the exposition (string motif, tremolo passage, intermittent jump motif) in a shortened sequence. The transition to the recapitulation takes place with the motif of the movement opening in the oboes in dialogue with the violins, underlaid by the sustained C of the horns (bars 79 ff.). The recapitulation (bars 87 ff.) Is structured in a similar way to the exposition, but the forte chord progression is left out. The exposition, development and recapitulation are repeated.

See also

Web links, notes

Individual references, comments

  1. ↑ Information page of the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, see under web links.
  2. ↑ a b Horst Walter: La passione / Passion Symphony. In Armin Raab, Christine Siegert, Wolfram Steinbeck (eds.): The Haydn Lexicon. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2010, ISBN 978-3-89007-557-0 , p. 575.
  3. ↑ James Webster: Hob.I: 49 Symphony in F minor ("La passione") . Information text on Symphony No. 49 of the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, see under web links.
  4. ^ Howard Chandler Robbins Landon: The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn. Universal Edition & Rocklife, London 1955, p. 294 ff.
  5. ^ Karl Geiringer: Joseph Haydn. The creative career of a master of the classics. B. Schott's sons, Mainz 1959.
  6. ^ Walter Lessing: The symphonies of Joseph Haydn, in addition: all masses. A series on Südwestfunk Baden-Baden 1987-89. Volume 2. Baden-Baden 1989, pp. 20-21.
  7. ↑ a b c Ludwig Finscher: Joseph Haydn and his time . Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2000, ISBN 3-921518-94-6 , pp. 267-268.
  8. ↑ Church sonata , see above
  9. ↑ Anton Gabmayer: Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 49 in F minor, Hob.I: 49 “La passione” . Information text on the performance of the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt on May 30, 2009 ( memento from December 4, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), as of April 12, 2013
  10. ↑ Howard Chandler Robbins Landon: Joseph Haydn: 'Symphony No. 49 F minor (La Passione). Ernst Eulenburg-Verlag No. 535, London / Zurich without a year (preface and revision report for the pocket score edition).
  11. ↑ 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).
  12. ↑ a b c The repetitions of the parts of the sentence are not kept in some recordings.