Symphony n° 96 of Joseph Haydn

The Symphony n° 96 in major D known as the miracle is one of the first, if not the first in the order of composition, of the London symphonies. It dates from the first voyage of Haydn to London. Its title comes from an incident which, in fact, occurred during the first hearing of the 102e symphony, on February 2nd, 1795. Whereas the spectators of the first rank had risen of their seat more closely to see the type-setter and leader, a candlestick fell from the ceiling on the empty left places. No spectator was wounded.

Situation of work: the first voyage to London (1791)

Prince Antoine Esterhazy, old of fifty-two years, heir to the title and the goods of his father, did not have any taste for the music. At once after the death of Nicolas, he laid off the orchestra and the Vault, kept only the military music. Haydn was free. It settled in Vienna where it received the visit of an unknown which was not other than the London organizer of concerts, Johann Peter Solomon. While returning from a voyage to Italy, this one had read in a newspaper of Cologne the advertisement of died of prince Nicolas Esterhazy. He did not hesitate to return over his steps, precipitated at Haydn to propose an agreement to him.

Haydn thus accepted the terms of the following contract: it is committed making the voyage to London to direct twenty concerts there, comprising each one the first hearing of a work of him. Moreover, it was to compose an opera for the Gallini business manager and six symphonies for the Solomon concerts. It would receive three hundred pounds sterling for the opera, as much for the six symphonies, two hundreds for the copyright, two hundreds for its participation in the twenty concerts and two hundreds of guarantee on the benefit.

Haydn left on December fifteen, his/her friends had vainly tried to dissuade it to undertake such a remote voyage, like Mozart itself: “ Dear dad, you are not made to run the world, and you speak languages not enough. ” “ the language that I speak is included/understood in the whole world ”, answered Haydn. The day of the departure, Mozart lengthily held the hands in his to him and, pushed by a presentiment which was to be carried out, says to him: “ I fear, my father, that we are bidding the last farewell to us. ”

Academy off ancient music, which Solomon directed was able to give on March 11th, the first of the twenty announced concerts: Haydn directed the first of the “London” symphonies there and the following concerts took place every Friday at 8 a.m. The public was composed of the best London company. The prince of Wales came there as of the second concert. The last had on June 3rd. One does not know exactly to which concert the Symphony n°96 was presented. Perhaps with the seventh (April 29th).

The success of Haydn to London and its international repercussion was in the middle of the great movement of evolution of the musical life, in particular in the field of the edition. At that time the middle-class forged a new social situation, and the musical profession followed the movement which appeared in other social spheres, increasingly penetrated by the released company, which supplied the growing market governs by the laws of supply and.

In the last quarter century, the role and the function of the patronage started to decline, and the changes of the economic position of the musician took shape with force. The rupture of the bonds of Haydn with Esterhazy and its departure for London thus had a range as much symbolic system that history. About 1790, England which, supported by its demographic situation and the structures of its agriculture, had begun well before the other countries (France and Germany) its takeoff, had entered the industrial era already well. Launched by the textile, the revolution of the techniques was relayed soon by that of coal and steel, with the assistance of the new steam engine. Powerful starting, at the world horizons: Great Britain was soon able to flood the world with its exports whose volume believes enormously between 1780 and 1800.

There thus existed in London a banking and industrial high bourgeoisie who created and controlled increasingly massive means of production. It had caused with boldness the industrial revolution and collected the advantages of them. It was renewed by constant osmosis with the average, the lower middle class or the old aristocracy of which it shared the taste for the symphonic concerts, the opera and chamber music. They are all these people who formed the public that Haydn at the time of the London concerts met.

With the creation of the symphony n° 104 at the time of the second voyage to London in 1795, Haydn foot-note in its notebooks: “ a new symphony in D, the twelfth and last of English… The audience was very satisfied, and me too. This evening brought back 4000 guilders to me. Such a thing is not possible that in England ”. As comparison, the annual pension that Haydn touched then of the Esterhazy family was of 1000 guilders.

Analyzes

First movement: Adagio and Allegro of sonata form

Adagio

Here, as in all symphonies London (except the 95e which is also the only one with being in minor tonality), the initial allegro is preceded by a slow introduction. The introduction establishes it tonic, here major D, your of the gandor and joy. From the start the recurring reason AA is stated, extremely and in unison.

This reason is at the origin of almost all the main themes of the symphony. What can one say some? It is made of three notes. Reversed, it gives a series of thirds. However the number three is everywhere in the symphony: it governs of them the proportions, the rate/rhythm, the structure of the topics and the reasons, and until the report/ratio of the movements metronomic between the various parts.

After the initial unison with all the orchestra, the reason AA immediately is reversed and decreased with the first violins. The melody takes then a gracious turn then it is the réexposition, this time as a minor (measurement 7). There is then an interesting dynamic detail: the oboes play, into full tutti, the note pedals D piano , then crescendo . Here the loneliness of the oboe, in conformity with its pastoral character, predicts big role which it will be destined for played some measurements further with the end of the introduction. The passage to the minor mode is the occasion to hear the soft harmonies of the second minor degree and the Neapolitan sixth. The pedal of the oboe is taken again by the horns, this time at dominant (measurement 12), then by the cords. At the end, the plaintive melody of the oboe is not other than the transposition and reduction in the recurring reason AA , and its variation leading to the point of organ.

Allegro

Exposure

The main theme, which one will call has , springs initially, piano , with the second violins, bassoons and violas (reason C ) then passes to the first violins.

It is remarkable that the reason has initially had the appearance of an accompaniment before aware is become that it was actually the principal element of the topic. This technique of a reason of accompaniment being imperceptibly transformed and without rupture into principal melody voice is a characteristic of phrased traditional. It had appeared for the first time at Haydn with the quartets opus 33 of 1781. Here the type-setter has of as much less need to accentuate the reason has that this one already appeared with the violins in the introduction (measurements 15 and 16), certainly three times more slowly but sufficiently clearly so that one has of it the memory in this beginning of the allegro. This first sentence makes seven measurement (and not eight as one would expect it) owing to the fact that the consequent one is amputee of its last measurement (reason D ). Haydn will remember it at the end the exposure since it “will make” measurement missing four times right before the bar of recovery! The second sentence consists of powerful brass bands (with reason has hammered with the drinking cup) and milked violins on pedal of tonic to low. A new exposure follows where the main theme is decorated of a gracious counterpoint of the oboe with the reason E heard measurement 25, and has . Even breadth of seven measurements, then new more powerful brass bands still, this time frays with the recurring reason AA . After this first set of themes group, the “bridge” starts with measurement 49. Initially strong and with all the orchestra, it is consisted of the reason C played this time legato (with the winds), of the reason has omnipresent, and of conventional formulas resulting from E which go by the third degree with the V of the V of V.

It appears a new topic then, call it B , played piano and staccato passage with dominant of the dominant one. Based on a chromatic range, it is immediately tailstock in increase and reversed, then the new tonality is established definitively with light and flexible melody of the violins resulting from B . The second set of themes group with dominant, relatively short, does not present a difference in character marked with the beginning of the exposure. On the contrary, it is about an alternative has' main theme (four measurements strong then four piano ); then forgotten” of the beginning, repeated measurement “four times in dialog antiphonic. The recovery comes then.

Development

The second part of the movement comprises eight sections quite distinct but uncompartmentalized, except between the fifth and the sixth (distorts réexposition). These eight parts are preceded by two transitional measures (reason has ) on the agreement from decreased seventh. One has from the start a new alternative has'' main theme in so minor follow-up of a kind of proliferation of the cell B which invades soon all the voices to modulate as a semi minor. Then, the reason bursts literally and is seen scattered between the cords and the wood which dialog piano. Here, Haydn has fun to disturb the perception of the measurement by subtle displacements of accent, while the breadths accelerate during the liquidation of B (six, four then two measurements). New section, in C, with the topic has' played vigorously on pedal of low (one notices, in background, the reason AA ). While modulating with the minor mode, the melody becomes still more solved (sforzando over each first time). The following section sees the appearance of a new topic, call it C , presenting a rather unusual broken profile since the beginning of the symphony, as well as a particular articulation (three detached dependant notes and three) overlapping the bar of measurement. This rhythmic curiosity is accentuated even then by a sforzando on the second eighth note, which leads to a first top, in Ground. The top is prolonged in a new section in so minor. It is carried out whereas the preceding Ground was in fact an appoggiatura of dominant the F sharp; this harmonic tension results here in powerful unisons with coppers, while the violins play fortissimo an alternative of B .

Two measurements of silence are necessary to take again breath. Then Haydn is devoted to a true musical joke of which it has the secrecy: it is about “false” a réexposition in G major. The feature of humor comes here owing to the fact that a passage of the development by the sub-dominant was then a commonplace of the traditional sonata, and this since the medium the XVIIIe century. However the public music lover and expert in the London concerts could not certainly let themselves misuse by such a process. The comic aspect of this false réexposition is accentuated by two measurements of silence which precede it.

It any more but does not remain to modulate to return to the dominant one, which makes a new episode strong filled of the formulas conventional virtuosos of ranges and arpeggios, the development finishes gently with the cords by a transition (with an echo of the passage on B with the second section).

Réexposition

It is obvious that the material of the allegro, fact of very short reasons combining at high speed, and without true “second topic” at the zone of dominant, did not require a textual recovery with symmetrical resolution with the tonic. Logically, the réexposition is thus appreciably shorter than the exposure (fifty measurements against sixty-six measurements). The main theme knows subtle modifications in the field of the orchestration: lining of the first violins to the oboe, counterpoint with the flute and - it is an innovation with the horns. But the principal event of the réexposition is the appearance in full light of the recurring reason AA with measurement 195 fortissimo , true climax of the first movement which takes along all the orchestra towards the triumphal conclusion of this brilliance piece.

Second movement: Ternary andante of form (Lied) ABA with coded, in G major

First part has

The main theme has is resulting from the inversion of the recurring reason AA . With its gracious character, it seems initially completely in conformity with the affects related to the tonality of G major: gently merry, tender and merry. But there is something of haletant in its pointed rate/rhythm (measurements three and four) which makes think of a kind of a little anxious walk. This latent concern at the beginning will burst with force in the fugato of the part B which precedes the central episode of the slow movement of the Symphonie n° 3 of Beethoven, another walk - but this funeral time, and in minor C! After a strong brass band in unison, the sentence B module gently towards the dominant one (beautiful harmonies of sixth and decreased fifth). Then the initial reason for the Allegro makes short but remarkable appearance with the drinking cup (measurement twelve, strong nuance). This recurrence of a reason through the various movements of a symphony is rather remarkable at that time to be noted, and will be a characteristic of the style of maturity of Beethoven, a few years later. The return of the tonic and has decorates soft ringings of horns and bassoons imitating the horns; then suddenly, right in the middle of measurement twenty-five, the strong extraordinary one of the fugato in minor ground bursts

Second part B'

The surprise of strong the subito as a minor is large, and the effect is seizing, but - as one saw there was in the first topic the germ of this severe and dramatic episode. One is thus here in the presence of true a fugato, of a mini running away if one wants with exposure, entertainment and strette. Its subject is not other than the amplification of the main theme, than the minor mode and its harmonies of decreased seventh make much more painful and unstable. The writing for the winds is particularly splendid with its dissonances (second minor), its many crossings and its great expressive intervals. She inevitably makes think of Bach (fugato of the Kyrie of the Mass in If, beginning of the Passion according to saint Matthieu). An entertainment in B flat brings a break with its nuance piano and its pizzicatos of the serious cords, then it is the return strong of the subject as a minor. The great agreements and trilles of the cords, additions, with the return of the drinking cup form a first top in this movement, just before the pedal of dominant does not lead at the end of this section, true storm of a great concentration, that only a long silence can dissipate finally (measurement forty five). Third part A'

It is about the quasi textual resumption of the first part, with the difference which the first sentence is state only once, and with lining of the flute solo. The third sentence is a variation with the first violins. A transition leads to a rate with the agreement of sixth and quad surmounted of a point of organ.

Coded

The episode in fugato had such a force that long coded is made necessary in order to solve the tension generated by the dissonance with large scales of a dramatic topic as a minor. It is at the same time by the constant reiteration of the topic running away, but this time piano into major, and by the extreme smoothness of its orchestral texture, that coded it reaches that point. It takes the form of a concerto grosso (concerto with several soloists and ripieno) where the business manager in the London concerts Solomon held certainly part of solo violin during creation. There is, with measurement soixante-douze, a very beautiful modulation with the lower third E flat, almost schubertienne. With its subtle orchestration mixing pizzicatos and held of bows, and its rare nuances pianissimos, this passage constitutes the true climax of the second movement. The Andante finishes peacefully and gently after a long point of organ on the agreement of dominant decorated of a delicate trille.

Third movement: Menuetto

The structure of this movement marries the traditional form of the minuet with three sentences with recoveries, trio and minuet da capo.

Menuetto

First part

Once more, the main theme is derived from the recurring reason AA . In addition it presents the same basic rate/rhythm as the initial reason for the Allegro (three short notes and long), also present one saw with the drinking cup in the Andante. Generally, all these recurrences give a very strong unit to the various elements of the symphony. This topic (let us call it has ) presents itself a ternary structure: reason for ascending arpeggio, rising scale, reason for downward arpeggio. It is accompanied by brass bands to coppers and the drinking cup, which accentuate its majestic and almost pompeux character. With measurement five, on a pedal of dominant, one discovers a new topic B which contrasts by its subtle orchestration (flutes and horns with the cords), its nuance piano and its articulation of two in two. Here, it is necessary well to insist on the difference in character because, at Haydn, the fact of finding a second topic soft and singing which contrasts with a first martial topic (in other words, a structure corresponding to the standard 19th century of the sonata form) is enough rare to be underlined. After this first and short exposure, the topic has takes in its return the way of one modulation to the dominant one, and the topic B confirms the new tonality by a rate supported in. Between the two, one notices the oboe which is distinguished once again while entering a measurement “too early” with measurement fourteen.

Second part

The second period of the minuet presents a new topic C which, by its character and its brass bands, approaches the main theme. It is very briefly developed, then a half-cadence announces the third period and the return of has , identical to its first appearance. On the other hand, the topic B presents an interesting development: a kind of proliferation of its cell of two notes related on a pedal of dominant to the horns and syncopes of the serious cords, piano . Here time like is suspended, the minuet loses its dancing pace and it is the most original passage of the piece, its climax. Then, the merry tutti and the brass bands take along the minuet towards its quiet and solemn conclusion.

Trio

The trio presents the same form to three periods with recoveries, but in shorter (thirty-two measurements against fifty-two for the minuet) and with only one topic. It resembles much the trio of the Quintet K. 614 of Mozart made up in April of the same year: even melody nonchalante of Ländler , same low of accordion music evoking the barrel organ or the hurdy-gurdy with wheel. Did Haydn know it? One can suppose it because it was interested of very close with the music of Mozart and, at that time, the diffusion of the printed music already was very developed in all Europe. A thing is sure: the piece of Haydn is about contemporary of that of Mozart, and the reciprocal homages that the two geniuses of the classical music Viennese went are numerous. The trio of Haydn is thus typically Austrian, but rather popular and provincial whereas the minuet was Viennese and aristocratic. Towards the end, the resumption of the main theme (measurement 69) colors soft ringings of horns; and there is an astonishing passage where the oboe seems to hesitate, before awaking suddenly after a long silence (arpeggio of thirty-second notes), for finally quietly playing the end of its sentence. With its elegance, its false simplicity and its irresistible charm, this trio precedes the Schubert dances for piano: many the waltz , ländler and others deutsche of the years 1820.

The minuet is taken again completely with its recoveries.

Finale: Long-lived (assai) of form Rondo or Rondo-sonata

It is not impossible, like does it Marc Vignal in the Guide of the symphonic music, to see in this fourth movement “a rondo monothematic with two verses (of which the first as a minor) and coded”. However, the proportions are not strictly those of a traditional rondo: the first appearance of the refrain has is abnormally long (almost one the third of the piece); its return is very short, seventeen measurement only; the first verse B , dramatic, in minor D presents a new topic characterized well in F (relative key of minor D); the second verse C clearly has a texture of the development type with fragmentation of the topics, modulations and fast entries in imitation.

The first refrain has , with its topic based on the recurring reason AA , presents itself a structure of monothematic the sonata type: a first section completely taken again energy of the tonic to dominant (exposure), a second (development) passing by the sub-dominant, followed by a “bridge” bringing back the main theme to the tonic (réexposition).

Admittedly, this refrain presents well a character of rondo and the movement as a whole sounds indeed like a rondo. But one sees well how the technique sonata, i.e. the dramatic polarization around the tonic and of dominant (or the minor and its relative) is omnipresent here. Like says it C. Rosen, “the rondo sonata is thus a version distinct from the final sonata form, perhaps most effective of the diagrams developped at the point in this intention. It does not result from the fusion of two preexistent independent forms, but from the stylistic inflection and the transformation of only one the preexistent, rondo, remarkable form for the ease with which it meets the needs for the conclusive movement at the end of the XVIIIe century”.

Coded, exactly as in the second movement of the symphony, has as a role to dissipate and solve the tension generated by the second dramatic topic as a minor. Its character jubilatoire and even triumphal is thus with the measurement of the roughness of the first verse. Thus one can see in coded, after a first top placed classically at the end of the development right before the return of the refrain, the true climax of the Finale, and even perhaps of all the symphony.

References

Selective discography

Franz Brüggen, off Orchestrated the 18th century, Philips
Antal Dorati, Philharmonia Hungarica, Decca
Nicolaus Harnoncourt, Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Teldec
Christopher Hogwood, Academy off ancient music, Decca
Eugen Jochum, London Philarmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon
Neville Marriner, Academy off St Martin-in-tea-Fields, Philips
Georges Szell, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, CBS

Bibliographical sources

Pierre Barbaud, Haydn , Threshold
Naji Hakim, Handy guide of musical analysis , Combre
Andre Hodeir, forms of the music , PUF
Brigitte Massin, History of the Western music , Beech
Jean-Pierre Rioux, the industrial revolution , Threshold
Charles Rosen, traditional style , Gallimard
Charles Rosen, Sonata forms , southern Acts
François Sabatier, Mirrors of the music , Beech
François-Rene Tranchefort, Guide of the symphonic music , Beech

Edition

Joseph Haydn, Sinfonia n° 96

The Solomon-Symphonies edited for the first time from the autographs, authentic copies and early editions by H.C. Robbins Landon

Haydn- Mozart Presses

Universal Edition

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