Literally every time I\u2019ve gotten to know a work of his well enough to see some of the genius in it (we mortals never get wise enough to see all the genius in even one work of Haydn), there is a part of me that can\u2019t help but think \u201cthis is it. This is his masterpiece. Nobody could equal this, even him.\u201d But then you pull out any other of the 104 symphonies or the 83 string quartets or the 13 masses or the 126 baryton trios, and they\u2019re all miracles. Everyone tells me the operas are his great failure, but I can\u2019t believe it anymore. I\u2019m almost scared to look at them\u2026<\/p>\n
First, let me be clear- Haydn is, without doubt, the coolest of all the classical composers. Let\u2019s be clear- cool does not mean trendy, cool speaks to someone who is able to make the impossible look effortless, the terrifyingly dangerous look matter of fact. Cool is the assassin so smooth you don\u2019t feel the knife going in and you thank him for his time when he\u2019s done. Cool is the man who does it his way, no matter what anyone else thinks, knowing full well we\u2019ll be copying him next year.<\/p>\n
Go\u2026 listen to Symphony no. 92 (Oxford). If you don\u2019t know it, you might find it refreshing, playful, exciting. Maybe you\u2019ll find it a little low key after that Schnitke disc you were listening to earlier.<\/p>\n
Go ahead, put some Brahms or that Xenakis or that same Schnitke back on. Notice anything. Maybe you\u2019re a new music guy? Take four hours and pull out all your Boulez and Ferneyhough. Overdose on Messiaen. Indulge in Webern.<\/p>\n
Now play\u00a0the Haydn\u00a0again- notice the angular lines? The sudden, crazy shifts of mood and harmony? Hear the jokes.?<\/p>\n
Leave it alone for a day, then grab a score. Your library will have all the Haydn symphonies- they\u2019re the ones nobody checks out and nobody opens\u2026..<\/p>\n
It\u2019s so simple, even your rusty score reading is fine- look, it\u2019s a G major symphony and he starts out with a nice G major triad in closed, root position. No doublings- three notes, three sections, just root, third, fifth. Good old Papa Haydn. Three-four time, three times the G major chord. No inflection, no motion, no way of even telling what the meter is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI prefer Pops to Papa,\u201d the man says. \u00a0\u201cSounds cooler.\u201d Bars 2-4, five voices instead of three. Completely contrapuntal instead of homophonic. Unusual touches- a two bar swell up and down in the first violins- not typical Haydn\u2026..<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no typical Haydn,\u201d says Pops, \u201cpart of my genius is making you believe in the nice, fatherly classical Papa H who never existed. I\u2019m the Easter Bunny and the Grim Reaper all in one. I make you think you live in a safe, sane world, then play with you, purely for my own pleasure, and you thank me for the ride at the end, knowing full well you can never go back to your mundane rituals again\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Five voices and we don\u2019t know who\u2019s got the main line. Is it the firsts with their swell, the seconds with their descending line in the rhythm of dotted quarter and three eighth notes, the violas with their luscious octave leap and scale up (more or less the inversion of the 2nds), or the cellos with their majestic arpeggio?<\/p>\n
Suddenly, there\u2019s a half cadence and we\u2019ve had a nice, square four bar phrase. \u201dThis guy\u2019s not so bad, I can take him,\u201d you think.<\/p>\n
Pops just smiles.<\/p>\n
Second phrase. Same four bar construction in the dominant, but starting with the 7th<\/sup> on top, not that there\u2019s anything wrong with that. See, it\u2019s just like music history class- good old question and answer rhetoric. Eight bars. Nice and\u00a0square…<\/p>\n Now something new- something very new. We\u2019ve had perfectly homophonic writing and totally contrapuntal writing, now he gives the melody, not really even a melody- just an elegant turn, to the first violins while the rest of the string secion accompanies homophonically. That\u2019s texture number three, and it lasts only two bars.Bar 11- what\u2019s this? So far we\u2019ve had all three accidentals in the piece, in this bar nearly every note is chromatic. We\u2019ve moved from simple G major triads into something slippery, bizarre\u2026.. And it only lasts one bar…<\/p>\n Bar 12- the knife is already in and you can\u2019t feel it. Suddenly everyone drops out but the seconds. That\u2019s texture number four- a single note played by a single section. It\u2019s D, the dominant, and the first note of the first bar of the piece (do you think that\u2019s on purpose? Pops is inscrutable. He\u2019s not saying anything, yet)<\/p>\n You\u2019re sweating and Pops is just smiling at you. You start grabbing at straws- \u201cI know, it\u2019s the dominant! It\u2019s the dominant! You\u2019ve got to land there to set up the beginning of the exposition in the tonic. See, I was paying attention in analysis class. We\u2019re nearly ready for the exposition\u201d<\/p>\n The cold steel of the assassin\u2019s blade tickles the wall of your heart. Bar 13 and the 2nds land on the downbeat still on the D and the cellos enter below on E flat- it\u2019s the most shocking event in the symphony. That\u2019s texture number 5, and they\u2019re lasting less than a bar each time. An eighth note later the firsts are in on G, which would sound comforting but for the outrageous dissonance below them. They\u2019re playing the same rhythm as the seconds the bar before\u2026.\u201dMy god,\u201d you gasp, \u201cit\u2019s a point of imitation.\u201d Even as you recognize this, you see the 2nds falling slowing away from the D in half steps..\u201dOh Christ,\u201d you say, \u201cOh my sweet lord\u2026 it\u2019s the first violin melody from bar 11 in augmentation.\u201d How much can he do in one bar? Beethoven never made me feel this way.<\/p>\n Bar 14, and you\u2019re looking at\u00a0 big H- he\u2019s strangely beautiful, standing their so serene and still, smoking his cigar.<\/p>\n You have no idea what\u2019s coming. The cellos and basses fall off from their E-flat to D, good old, safe D, then on the second eight of the bar we hear what is surely yet another point of imitation of the second violin repeated pitches in the violas, but something\u2019s wrong. There\u2019s something new here. Woodwinds! He\u2019s held them back all this time, yet there they are, and what are they playing? E-flat in the flutes against the cello D. E-flat? E-flat?<\/p>\n \u201cI never knew,\u201d you plead, \u201cI never understood the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n Bar 15 and in come the horns, the bassoons- there is a subito forte in the middle of the bar, the first loud music in the piece, then, just a few beats later, a diminished chord and silence. You wait.<\/p>\n Piano again. First violins stroke a plaintive falling tritone, while beneath them cellos and basses are glowering on their e-flat, e-flat, e-flat. A descending chromatic scale- you\u2019re spent now, you can\u2019t imagine what\u2019s coming next, but you see the double bar ahead. One last falling diminished seventh, from b-flat to c-sharp. Everything is spiky, arid and static. It’s like a savage, arctic landscape.<\/p>\n “Jesus,\u201d you say, aware you can no longer feel your legs, \u201chow the f*ck is he getting to G major from this?\u201d<\/p>\n Silence. A fermata. We wait.<\/p>\n Double bar- Allegro spiritoso, and here we are in G major, wait, what\u2019s that? He\u2019s starting on a V7 chord!<\/p>\n Pops is laughing at you now- it\u2019s not an innocent laugh.<\/p>\n The first violins fall down the scale from the 7th<\/sup>, dotted quarter and three eighth notes. The second violin material from bar 2.<\/p>\n There\u2019s more, but you can\u2019t take it now. Go on, get your Mahler records out, listen to your Strauss. Maybe Gotterdammerung will calm your nerves. Pops can wait. Never in a hurry, but always right on time. When you get your breath back, there\u2019s more. Much more.<\/p>\n c. 2007 Kenneth Woods<\/p>\n![\"Haydn,](\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/2\/21\/Haydn_portrait_by_Thomas_Hardy_%28small%29.jpg\" "\\"Haydn,")
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