3. Music of Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)

Born in 1732, Joseph Haydn grew up in a small village that was located about a six-hour coach ride east of Vienna (today the two are about an hour apart by car). His family loved to sing together and, perceiving that their son had musical talent, apprenticed six-year-old Joseph Haydn to a relative who was a schoolmaster and choirmaster. As an apprentice, Haydn learned harpsichord and violin, and sang in the church. So distinct was Haydn’s voice that he was recommended to the music director of Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral and he became a student of the Cathedral in 1740. He sang with the St. Stephen’s Cathedral boys’ choir for almost ten years, until his voice broke (changed). After searching, he found a job as valet to the Italian opera composer Nicola Porpora and most likely started studying music theory and music composition in a systematic way at that time. He composed a comic musical and eventually became the chapel master for a Czech nobleman. When this noble family fell into hard times, they released Haydn. In 1761, he became the Vice-Chapel Master for an even wealthier nobleman, the Hungarian Prince Esterházy. He was considered a skilled servant and soon became their head Chapel Master and was highly prized, especially by the second and most musical of the Esterházy princes for whom Haydn worked. Haydn spent almost thirty years working for the family.

The Esterházys kept Haydn very busy: he wrote music, which he played both for and with his patrons, ran the orchestra, and staged operas. In 1779, Haydn’s contract was renegotiated, allowing him to write and sell music outside of the Esterházy family. Within a decade, he was the most famous composer in Europe. In 1790, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy died and his son Anton downsized the family’s musical activities. This shift allowed Haydn to accept an offer to give a concert in London, England, where his music was very popular. Haydn left Vienna for London in December. For the concerts there, he composed an opera, symphonies, and chamber music, all of which were extremely popular. Haydn revisited London twice in the following years (1791-1795), earning—after expenses—as much as he had in twenty years of employment with the Esterházys. Nonetheless, a new Esterházy prince decided to reestablish the family’s musical foothold, so Haydn returned to their service in 1796. In the last years of his life, he wrote two important oratorios (he had been much impressed by performances of Handel’s oratorios while in London) as well as more chamber music.

Overview of Haydn’s Music

Like his younger contemporaries Mozart and Beethoven, Joseph Haydn composed in all the genres of his day. From a historical perspective, his contributions to the string quartet and the symphony are particularly significant: in fact, he is often called the Father of the Symphony. His music is also known for its motivic construction, use of folk tunes, and musical wit. Central to Haydn’s compositional process was his ability to take small numbers of short musical motives and vary them in enough ways so as to provide interesting music for movements that were several minutes long. Folk-like as well as popular tunes of the day can be heard in many of his compositions for piano, string quartet, and orchestra. Contemporary audiences and critics seemed to appreciate this mixing of musical complexity and the familiar. Ernst Ludwig Gerber (1746-1819), an important 18th-century musical connoisseur, wrote that Haydn “possessed the great art of appearing familiar in his themes” (Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler, 1790–1792). Additionally, many of his contemporaries remarked on Haydn’s musical wit, or humor. Several of his music compositions play on the listeners’ expectations, especially through the use of surprise rests, held out notes, and sudden dynamic changes.

Focus Composition: String Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4

The string quartet was one of the important performing forces and genres of the Classical period, and Haydn was one of the most important string quartet composers. Over the course of his life, Haydn wrote sixty-eight quartets, many of which were played by Haydn’s aristocratic patrons and published, and available for amateur musicians to purchase and play. Many late 18th-century writers (including the famous German poet Goethe) referred to the string quartet as “a conversation between four intelligent people.”

The string quartet by Haydn which we will study is one of six quartets that he wrote in 1772 and published as opus 20 in 1774 (roughly speaking, the “20” meant that this was Haydn’s 20th publication to date). In many ways, this follows the norms of other string quartets of the day. It is in four movements, with a fast first movement in sonata form, a slow second movement in theme and variations form, a moderate-tempo third movement that is like a minuet, and a fast fourth movement in sonata form. As we will see, the third movement is subtitled “alla zingarese,” or “in the style of the Hungarians” (a good example of Haydn being “folky”). The entire quartet comprises a little over twenty minutes of music.

First, we will listen to the first movement, which is marked allegro di molto (very fast) and is in D major. It is in sonata form. In the exposition, the home key and musical themes of the movement are introduced, or “exposed.” In the development, those themes are broken apart and combined in new and different ways, or “developed.” In the recapitulation, the home key and original musical themes return; in other words, they are “recapitulated” or “recapped.”

Within the exposition, development, and recapitulation, there are sub-sections (different themes and transitions) to correspond to modulations in keys and the presentation of new and different themes. For the time being, simply listen for the main sections of sonata form in the first movement of Haydn’s string quartet. You might also listen for Haydn’s motivic style. In the first musical theme, you’ll hear three motives. The first motive, for example, repeats the same pitch three times. The second motive consists of an arched musical phrase that ascends and descends, and outlines the pitches of an important chord of the movement. The final motive that Haydn packs into his opening musical theme is a “turn” (a type of musical ornament). Each of these motives is heard repeatedly through the rest of the movement.

Keeping with the popular culture of the day, a great number of Haydn’s compositions included minuet movements. The third movement of Haydn’s String Quartet, Op. 20, No. 4, is in a moderate tempo (marked allegretto) and a form of minuet and trio. Here, however, Haydn played on our expectations for the minuet and wrote a movement that is also alla zingarese (in the style of the Hungarians). A minuet was not a Hungarian dance, so the listener’s experience and expectations are altered when the third movement sounds more like a lively Hungarian folk dance than the stately western-European minuet. (For comparison, you can listen to the second movement of Haydn’s String Quartet in E flat, Op. 20, No. 1, which is a much more traditional-sounding minuet.) Haydn retains the form of the stylized minuet, which consisted of a minuet and a trio. The trio consists of musical phrases that contrast with what was heard in the minuet. The minuet returns after the trio, resulting in an A B A form. As was the custom, Haydn did not write out the minuet music at its return—remember paper was much more expensive 200 years ago than it is today. Instead, Haydn wrote da capo at the end of the trio, to bring it back to the beginning of the movement. The repeated minuet is then performed without the initial repeats that are marked on the music and should be observed the first time it is played.

Focus composition: Symphony No. 94 in G Major, “Surprise”

Haydn is also often called the Father of the Symphony because he wrote over 100 symphonies, which, like his string quartets, span most of his compositional career. The Classical orchestra featured primarily strings, with flutes and oboes (and, with Haydn’s last symphonies, clarinets) for woodwinds, trumpets and horns for brass, and timpani (and occasionally another drum, cymbals, or triangle) for percussion. The symphony gradually took on the four-movement form that was a norm for over a century, although as we will see, composers sometimes relished departing from the norm.

Haydn wrote some of his most successful symphonies for his times in London. His Symphony No. 94 in G Major, which premiered in London in 1792, is a good example of Haydn’s thwarting musical expectations for witty ends. The first movement of the symphony is in sonata form, with a brief and slow introduction added before the exposition. Haydn’s sense of humor is most evident in the moderately slow (andante) second movement, which starts as a typical theme-and-variations movement consisting of a musical theme that the composer then varies several times. Each variation retains enough of the original theme to be recognizable but adds other elements to provide interest. The themes used for a theme-and-variations movement tend to be simple, tuneful melody lines. In this case, the theme consists of an eight-measure musical phrase that is repeated. This movement, like many movements of Classical symphonies and string quartets, ends with a coda.

Why did Haydn write such a loud chord at the end of the second statement of the phrase A of the theme? Commentators have long speculated that Haydn may have noticed that audience members tended to drift off to sleep in slow and often quietly lyrical middle movements of symphonies and decided to give them an abrupt wakeup. Haydn himself said nothing of the sort, although his letters, as well as his music, do suggest that he was attentive to his audience’s opinions and attempted at every juncture to give them music that was new and interesting: for Haydn, that clearly meant playing upon his listener’s expectations in ways that might even be considered humorous.

The third movement of Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony is a rather traditional minuet-and-trio movement. The fourth movement is equally traditional; it is written in the light-hearted rondo form. In a rondo, a musical refrain, labeled as “A,” alternates with other sections called B, C, D, etc. See if you can hear the recurrence of the A section as you listen to this joyful conclusion to the symphony.

Haydn’s symphonies greatly influenced the musical style of both Mozart and Beethoven, who learned how to develop motives from Haydn’s earlier symphonies. Works such as the Surprise Symphony were especially shaping for the young Beethoven, who, as we will later discuss, was taking music composition lessons from Haydn about the same time that Haydn was composing his Symphony No. 94 before his trip to London.