Some of the important historical events of this period include Benjamin Franklin’s discoveries of electricity, the emergence of factories using water and steam powered machinery, Napoleon’s ultimate defeat at Waterloo, the first steamship crossing of the Atlantic, the discovery of medical vaccination, and the invention of the cotton gin. Classical Period music was the “swan song” of autocratic powers among most European nobles, and it was the era that gave birth to the great democracies of the New World. During this time three great revolutions took place: the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. The Classical Era was the final historical period of the “patronage system” in which musicians worked as servants to powerful noblemen. But the Classical Period (1750-1825) was just such a time. Mozart remarked: “ Haydn alone has the secret both of making me smile and touching my innermost soul.It is ironic that art music in the royal courts of Europe reached a peak of creative expression during the final period in which monarchs in many European countries wielded absolute power. Beethoven would attempt something similar in his Pastoral Symphony Mendelssohn would master this technique some decades on. But, perhaps the most important development here is how Haydn effectively uses music to convey through sound a world that is visual. Haydn also uses unsettling harmonics to evoke emotional responses in his audience. Haydn amplifies the drama, especially with a massive C-major chord, delivered at maximum volume, to signifiy the creation of light (at 7:15 in the below). Ever the happy optimist, Haydn ends the story there, with a chorus of praise for God–leaving Satan’s corruption, the explusion from Eden, and Abel’s murder for another day. Starting in Chaos, Haydn’s score works its way through the six days of Creation, followed by the emergence of Adam and Eve. It is widely considered to be Haydn’s crowning achievement. The first of these works was The Creation, a massive oratorio that reveived its first public performance in 1799. It is entirely likely that Haydn’s late turn to choral music was inspired by his trip to London, one of his few foreign adventures, where he attended multiple performances of Handel’s works. Instead, he turned his larger scale ambitions to choral works–two massive oratorios and six masses would be completed before his death in 1809. In 1795, Haydn abruptly stopped composing symphonies. Here are two of his best: the finale of his 49 th (“The Passion”) and first movement of his 104 th (“The London”).įranz Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. Let his music provide the counterargument. He’s important–no question–but, in the end, not really for me. And his development of musical forms opened doors for his students to march through. Yes, we can hear the first strains of romantic sturm und drang in some of Haydn’s work. Schumann, Wagner and Brahms all held Haydn in great regard–perhaps more so than his now more celebrated contemporaries. Through these smaller orchestras, Haydn weaved compositions that became among the most sought after of the age. It is important to recall that Haydn’s orchestras were much closer to the proto-orchestras of the Baroque than the massive bands unleashed by Mahler at the dawn of the 20th century. And yes, some poor soul has ranked all of them: In between, he wrote more than 100 symphonies–again, more than Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, combined. Haydn was already well-established when Mozart came on the scene he died six decades later during his student Beethoven’s second period. But it could equally refer to his status as the Father of the Symphony and the Father of the String Quartet. “Papa” Haydn earned his sobriquet for his generousity with his students.
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