80th Symphony (Haydn)

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The Symphony in D minor, Hoboken directory I: 80 wrote Joseph Haydn probably in 1784 during his tenure as Kapellmeister to Prince Nikolaus I. Esterhazy .

Composition of the symphonies no.79, 80 and 81

Joseph Haydn (painting by Ludwig Guttenbrunn, around 1770)

For the origin of the symphonies No. 79 to 81, probably composed in 1784, see Symphony No. 79 .

To the music

Instrumentation: flute , two oboes , two bassoons , two horns , two violins , viola , cello , double bass . On the participation of a harpsichord - continuos are competing views in Haydn's symphonies.

Performance time: approx. 20 to 25 minutes (depending on compliance with the prescribed repetitions).

With regard to the sonata form used here, it should be noted that this scheme was drafted in the first half of the 19th century (see there) and can therefore only be transferred to Symphony No. 80 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 spiritoso

D minor / D major, 3/4 bars, 188 bars

Beginning of the Allegro spiritoso

The movement begins forte in a dramatic tremolo with a melody line that ascends and descends in the bass, with the first bar period being partly emphasized by accents. This six-bar opening thought is followed by a cadencing , three-bar piano appendix for the strings. Then the first “theme” is repeated as a variant, first with voice leading in the upper parts (initially with a countermovement between flute / oboes and violins), then similar to the beginning of the movement, but in the tonic parallel in F major. Two new accented motifs then follow in F major: first from bar 20 with the accent as syncope (on the second, normally unstressed bar time), then from bar 25 as a "second theme" (different perspectives are possible depending on the point of view), that takes up the head of the first theme and combines it with an accentuated, falling fifth . The falling fifth is repeated three times and then merges into a chain of falling second motifs. Haydn then controls for a short time with an ascending and descending, diminished seventh chord in F minor and then increases again in F major with tremolo and “without a concise theme” to brilliant passages. Haydn designed the final group (sometimes referred to as the second theme, depending on your point of view) in a strong, “almost grotesque contrast” by creating a seven-bar (that is not usually symmetrical as is usually the case) “comfortably swaying country melody in flute and strings "Most popular" invoice " can occur.

“[Without] any recognizable connection with the preceding one sounds, as it were as an appendix, a simple melody, seeming quite naive, in a very simple structure with a follow-up accompaniment. Their minuet-like or peasant-like character is unmistakable; The fact that it cannot be the eight-bar period of a dance movement is made clear to the listener by the ingenious metrical shortening of the subsequent clause to three bars: the initial impression that a dance is being inserted is thereby undermined and turns out to be wrong. The exposition closes with this seven-bar appendix (...). "

Also unusual is the beginning of the development with its two bars general pause "as if the piece was shocked by the break-off after seven instead of eight bars" and the subsequent take up of the final group theme in the harmoniously distant D flat major. With the ascending and descending seventh chord (as in bars 33/34), Haydn changes to E flat major, where the theme is repeated and then continues in dialogue with the winds. In both themed appearances, the accompaniment is varied compared to the final group, with the oboes taking over the quarter-turns of the 2nd violin and viola. In the contrasting Forteblock from bar 93, the head is processed from the first theme from G minor with a dramatic tremolo until bar 108/109 is reached in E major. In the last, now subsequent section of the development, the final group theme appears first in A major, then in F major, with the abrupt change of key as at the beginning of the development with a two-measure general rest.

In the recapitulation from bar 128, the first theme is varied, with the striding quarter movement dominating (the tremolo is left out) and finally ending on A above an organ point . With the “second theme” in measure 147, Haydn surprisingly changes to D major. The rest of the recapitulation is structured in a similar way to the exposition, the final group theme being extended to eight bars with an “appendix”. The exposition is repeated, but the development and recapitulation are not.

"But it is up to the listener whether he wants to see this enigmatic sentence as a joking game with an almost trivial foreign element or as an interesting experiment, as an attempt to put together completely heterogeneous elements to unite a sentence."

Second movement: Adagio

B flat major, 2/2 time (alla breve), 83 measures

The strings introduce the first theme piano with a solemn character. The second half of the "small-scale" theme in particular is characterized by falling seconds motifs, and the final turn by chromaticism. The theme is repeated: the first half of the theme forte by the whole orchestra ( tutti ), the second half , as before, on the string piano. The theme now closes in the tonic in B flat major (on the first appearance it ends in the dominant F major).

In bar 17, the tutti in the forte begins again with a contrasting section, which is characterized by the pause-interspersed figure in the upper parts, the continuous sextuplets of the middle voices and the even quarters in the bass. In this structure, the upper parts (flute and 1st violin) begin a melody in a sweeping gesture (second theme) in bar 19, which ends in bar 24 on the double dominant C major. The energetic, march-like passage that follows, with its dotted rhythm and the dialogue between violins and the other instruments, establishes F major and, from bar 30, leads to the dance-like final group with its suggested sixteenth-note pods that are repeated twice (the suggestions are reminiscent of the first theme). This “third theme” is processed twice in a row, first by the 1st violin and the basses, then by the two violins.

The development (from bar 39) begins with the first theme in B flat minor, but changes to the final group theme after four bars. This is processed in several voices until it comes to a standstill on two fermata chords, which cade with sixth fourth chords in G major. The sweeping melody of the second theme in G minor now follows without a transition, but also breaks off after four bars. Haydn designed the last section of the development with a relatively detailed design of the march passage (eight bars).

In the recapitulation (from bar 60) the first theme appears only once with a throbbing eighth note accompaniment in the bass (quarter at the beginning of the movement). The second topic is left out, instead the “March passage” as a variant and the final group immediately follow. The final group theme is spun out with ten bars "relatively broadly (...) and ends this movement, the peculiarity of which consists in the abundance of very different, strongly contrasting elements, which is quite untypical for a slow symphony movement."

Walter Lessing sees a reference to opera , especially in the beginning of the sentence with his sigh motifs, the chromaticism (first theme) and "in the dramatic breath of the melody over the lively accompaniment of the middle voices" (second theme):

"In the slow movement, an expressive, high-contrast Adagio, certain operatic features remind us that the symphonies No. 79 to 81 were written in the vicinity of Haydn's" Armida ", his last opera for Esterhaza."

Third movement: Menuetto

D minor, 3/4 time, with Trio 58

The main theme of the minuet is forte with a stepping quarter movement in staccato and partly in countermovement between upper and lower parts. Characteristic is the topic head with its three quarters and the following interval jump downwards (the topic head therefore reminds a bit of the beginning of the first movement). From bar 4, the action is enriched by upbeats (first in sixteenth notes, then as triplets), from bar 9 then by chromatics. The second part continues the theme in the string piano as an eighth note movement with pauses. The opening part is then not taken up literally, as is usually the case, but as a variant without the opening phrases.

In the trio (D major), the leading 1st oboe, 1st horn and 1st violin play "a narrow melody that persists on one note for no less than eight quarters" with cloudiness according to B minor, accompanied by triplet triad figures of the 2nd Violin and viola. Howard Chandler Robbins Landon suspects a varied quotation of the Gregorian melody of "Incipit lamentatio", which Haydn had already used in the slow movement of Symphony No. 26 (see there for details) and in the Trio of Symphony No. 45 . “The“ speaking ”style of this trio melody cannot be overheard.” The second part of the trio spins the melody with voice guidance in flute and 1st violin and then takes up the first part again.

Fourth movement: Finale. Presto

D major, 2/4 time, 266 bars

Beginning of Presto

The movement is largely characterized by the dominance of syncope, which is already evident in the first theme: The voice-leading 1st violin plays a simple theme, which is repeated in the first half by means of three tone repetitions (hereinafter: "syncope motif") in the second half is characterized by leaps in intervals, while the other strings give knocking interjections. The topic initially appears to the listener as in the accentuation of the regular 2/4 time (ie as an even sequence of quarters), although it is notated in syncopation. Only at the end of the theme (bars 11/12) is the "normal" meter reached for a short time. The twelve-bar theme is then repeated with flute and bassoon.

The forte block from bar 25 juxtaposes the syncope motif (as a descending variant in the bass) with a staccato figure in the violins similar to that of contradicting voices (“staccato motif”) and changes in bar 32 to virtuoso runs in the violins, which in turn are mixed with the syncope motif . From bar 55, the energetic syncope motif in fortissimo is subordinated to a striking bass figure, and the subsequent tremolo passage Haydn reaches the dominant A major.

The second theme (from bar 73, A major) is held in a dialogue between oboes and the interjections of the strings (similar to the first theme), at the end the staccato motif appears briefly. In the immediately following final group with its ascending triad motif, Haydn uses a variant of the staccato motif at the end.

The development begins with the first theme in D minor and then moves it to F major, now as a variant with wind participation, with the oboes and bassoons playing a stepping figure in the "normal" rhythm to the syncopation. From bar 123 there follows a long processing section with the syncope motif and the staccato motif, with Haydn touching on different keys (G minor, D minor, F sharp minor, C sharp minor, B major). The first theme now appears in the string piano as if it were a mock rework, but it is interrupted again by a short processing block with syncope and staccato motif.

The recapitulation from bar 186 begins with the first theme in D major as at the beginning of the movement and then goes without repetition into the forte block similar to bars 25 ff. The rest of the recapitulation is structured similarly to the exposition. The exposition, development and recapitulation are repeated.

“The finale, a sonata movement like the first, increases its tendency to forego outlined themes into the absurd: the main movement is a sycopated rhythm with minimal melodic movement, and the side movement, as in the first movement, only appears at the very end of the exposition and is like there a pointedly melodic and very simple structure. The implementation is only contested with the minimalist material of the main movement and is a true tour de force of thematic work. Haydn made such a radical attempt to put an entire final sentence on a single and even more bizarre idea and to sacrifice sensual pleasure so largely to intellectual pleasure. "

"One could see the presentation and testing of the syncope in all its possibilities as the actual content of this final movement, which is unprecedented in Haydn's work."

"This D major Presto (...) is a cabinet piece of bizarre humor and rhythmic delicacy, paired with surprising instrumental and harmonic effects (...)."

"As a suitable ending to a completely minor-toned work, this D major finale leaves several unanswered questions."

Individual references, comments

  1. ↑ Information page of the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, see under web links.
  2. ↑ 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).
  3. ↑ The appearance in the tonic parallel in F major speaks in favor of a regular second theme; on the other hand, it is unusually in the forte, is performed by the whole orchestra (ie little contrast to the first theme) and is also quite short. Klaus Schweizer & Arnold Werner-Jensen ( Reclam's concert guide orchestral music. 16th edition. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart, ISBN 3-15-010434-3 , p. 143) refer to the motif as “page set”, Ludwig Finscher (p. 318 ) as a "quasi-subordinate sentence" and Wolfgang Marggraf asks: "The function of this structure as a whole is difficult to determine: is it a surprisingly early and actually untypical sub-theme?"
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Wolfgang Marggraf: The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn. The symphonies of the years 1773–1784. Symphony No. 80 in D minor. http://www.haydn-sinfonien.de/ Accessed June 24, 2013.
  5. ^ A b c Howard Chandler Robbins Landon: The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn. Universal Edition & Rocklife, London 1955, pp. 392-393.
  6. ^ Antony Hodgson: The Music of Joseph Haydn. The Symphonies. The Tantivy Press, London 1976, ISBN 0-8386-1684-4 , p. 107.
  7. ↑ a b c d Ludwig Finscher: Joseph Haydn and his time . Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2000, ISBN 3-921518-94-6 , pp. 318-319.
  8. ↑ The omission of the repetition of the development and recapitulation occurred only rarely in the first movements of Haydn's earlier symphonies (Nos. 25, 50, 61).
  9. ^ A b c d e Walter Lessing: The Symphonies by Joseph Haydn, in addition: all masses. A series of broadcasts on Südwestfunk Baden-Baden 1987-89, published by Südwestfunk Baden-Baden in 3 volumes. Volume 2, Baden-Baden 1989, pp. 232-233.
  10. ↑ The repetitions of the parts of the sentence are not observed in some recordings.
  11. ↑ Antony Hodgson (1976, p. 107): "As a suitable conclusion to a strongly minor-keyed work, this D major Finale leaves several unanswered questions."

Web links, notes

See also