9th Symphony (Haydn)

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The Symphony in C major Hoboken directory I: 9 composed Joseph Haydn in 1762 shortly after his appointment as Vice-Kapellmeister to Prince Anton Esterházy . The three-movement work unusually has a minuet as the final movement.

General

Joseph Haydn (painting by Ludwig Guttenbrunn, around 1770)

In the year when the symphony was composed, 1762 - one year after his appointment as vice-conductor to Prince Anton Esterhazy - Haydn wrote several pieces of music for the theater: For Anton's brother Nikolaus Esterhazy (Anton Esterhazy had died) moving in on May 17, 1762, a piece of music for the comedy “La Marchesa Nespola "And for a princely wedding his first opera" Acide e Galatea "and the cantata" Vivan gl 'illustri sposi ". In addition, an Italian theater group made a guest appearance in Eisenstadt in the spring, “so that Haydn could for the first time get a taste of the theater in terms of both composition and organization” .

The 9th symphony has three movements and ends with a minuet instead of the usual fast movement. Howard Chandler Robbins Landon assumes that the symphony is based on an overture to an opera or a prelude to a cantata that has been lost. It could be one of the lost Italian comedies from 1762. Robbins Landon also refers to structural features that speak in favor of a reference to the drama: The first movement lacks pronounced thematic material, instead fanfares and runs dominate. Furthermore, according to Robbins Landon, there are similarities to the overture to the opera "Acide e Galatea", which, like the symphony, was apparently written in a hurry.

James Webster and Harold Haslmayr counter this assessment with the repetitions of the sections of the movement in Symphony No. 9, which are typically missing in overtures. Furthermore, Haydn's other three-movement symphonies that close with a minuet (Nos. 18, 26 and 30) also have no origin as overtures, and there are also some other first movements in Haydn's early C major symphonies that are similarly compact , loud and in 2/4 time like that of the symphony No. 9, "so that there seems to be little more than an atmospheric relationship to genuine theater music."

The autograph of the symphony was formerly in the possession of the publisher Artaria and was then considered lost. In the meantime, the retrieval of the autograph has made it clear that the symphony is not based on an overture.

To the music

Instrumentation: two transverse flutes (only in movement 2), two oboes (movements 1 and 3 instead of the flutes), two horns , two violins , viola , cello , double bass . At that time, a bassoon was used to reinforce the bass voice, even without separate notation . On the participation of a harpsichord - continuos are competing views in Haydn's symphonies.

Performance time: approx. 12 minutes.

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 from 1762 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 molto

C major, 2/4 time, 137 bars

Beginning of the Allegro molto

The opening sequence (bars 1 to 10) consists of three powerful C major chords from the whole orchestra, rapid scale runs in unison and the final turn with trills. After a short caesura, a tremolo passage follows, which picks up on the running motif in the bass. A fanfare for oboes and winds leads to the motif with suggestions and an ascending G major chord in oboes and violins. After a scale inset, another motif follows, in which a trill reversal of the strings with an alternation of forte and piano is in dialogue with a phrase from the oboes (trill motif). The final group, again with graduations, ends the exposure.

The development processes the motifs of the exposition with the exception of the wind fanfare. The scale runs of the opening sequence are enriched with syncopations and a minor opacity. The variant of the suggestion motif is followed by the trill motif, from bar 75 in pianissimo even without the oboe intervening.

The recapitulation from bar 89 is structured like the exposition. The exposition, development and recapitulation are repeated.

  • "The Allegro molto renounces strongly profiled themes in favor of" hammer blows "consisting of three chords, wind fanfares, uninterrupted busyness and rhythmic surprises."
  • (A relationship to theater music) “is most clearly expressed in the 2/4 Allegro molto, whose exuberant rhythmic élan makes us forget that there is no real musical theme in this movement, one has the impression of being close to a late baroque -Early classic sound machine to be advised. "

Second movement: Andante

G major, 2/4 time, 57 bars

As in some later symphonies, Haydn replaced the oboes with flutes in the slow movement (the horns are silent). The leading parts are the flutes and the 1st violin (mostly also the 2nd violin), with the flutes playing an octave higher than the violins. The calm, singing movement has a pastoral character. It is made up of several, mostly two-bar and once repeated motifs.

The first “theme” (motif 1) is based on an ascending and descending G major triad with a triplet ending. The head of the theme is repeated and changes to the dominant D major (bar 9). This is followed by motif 2 with its trill, followed by motif 3 with an upbeat and dotted rhythm, motif 4 with lead and double tone repetition, and motif 5 with fourfold tone repetition over an ascending bass figure and a falling, closing triplet turn.

The second part of the sentence begins with motive 1 in D major and repeats this immediately in the tonic in G major, which when listening can initially be interpreted as the “beginning of the reprise”. The following motif 2 changes to the subdominant C major and continues the material with a new suggestion. Motif 2 begins again in measure 42 - now in G major, so that the beginning of the reprise can also be heard here. The rest of the course corresponds with motifs 3, 4 and 5 to that of the first part. Both parts are repeated.

Third movement: Menuetto. Allegretto

C major, 3/4 time, with trio 52 bars

The main motif of the minuet consists of a steady, upbeat eighth note movement of the oboes and flutes alternating with striding staccato quarters of the entire orchestra. The motif has three bars, is repeated and given a final turn. This results in a structure of 3 + 3 + 2 bars in the first part and not, as is usually the case, a structure based on 4 + 4 bars. At the beginning of the second part of the minuet, however, Haydn expands the structure to 4 + 4 bars, continuing the regular eighth note movement (bars 9 to 16). When the first part (bars 17 to 28) is taken up again, the phrase from bar 7 is repeated. Its rhythm (half note and two eighth notes) already appeared in measure 4 and plays a dominant role in the trio.

The trio is also in C major and is one of the first examples of a waltz in Haydn's symphonies. In the first part, the solo oboe plays the waltz melody over looking-up quarters of the string accompaniment. At the beginning of the second part, Haydn uses a special sound effect in that the solo oboes and horns continue the waltz melody - only accompanied by the bassoon, which is only notated separately in this passage (bars 37 to 44) of the score and until then with the other bass instruments ( Cello, double bass) played in parallel. Then the first part is taken up again with the solo oboe.

Robbins Landon (1955) describes the minuet and trio as the best movement in the symphony.

See also

Web links, notes

Individual references, comments

  1. ^ Website of the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, see under web links.
  2. ↑ a b c d Harold Haslmayr: Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 9 in C major, Hob.I: 9. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
  3. ^ A b c d e Howard Chandler Robbins Landon: The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn. Universal Edition & Rocklife, London 1955, pp. 225-227.
  4. ↑ a b James Webster: Hob.I: 9 Symphony in C major . Information text on Symphony No. 9 by Joseph Haydn of the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, see under web links.
  5. ^ Anthony van Hoboken: Joseph Haydn. Thematically-bibliographical works, Volume I. Schott-Verlag, Mainz 1957, p. 13
  6. ^ Michael Walter: Symphonies. In Armin Raab, Christine Siegert, Wolfram Steinbeck (eds.): The Haydn Lexicon. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2010, ISBN 978-3-89007-557-0 , p. 696 with reference to an article by Sonja Gerlach
  7. ↑ 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).
  8. ↑ a b The repetitions of the parts of the sentence are not kept in some recordings.
  9. ↑ z. B. also in Symphony No. 24 .
  10. ↑ "The minuet as a whole is by far the most attractive movement of the symphony." (Robbins Landon 1955, p 227).