'The Classical Style' reading group, week nine

Haydn around 1792 (John Hoppner painting).

III  HAYDN FROM 1770 TO THE DEATH OF MOZART 

2. Symphony 

By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger

“It’s all about the bass.” When I played in the Arizona State Chamber Orchestra in the 1981-1982 school year, we played Haydn’s Military Symphony and Mozart’s Symphony #31. The orchestra only had two basses, whereas the ASU Symphony Orchestra had eight basses. I played in Beethoven’s Seventh with the Symphony Orchestra. The music of Mozart and Haydn usually gets played with a smaller orchestra with fewer players for each of the string parts. I find Rosen’s discussion of this interesting, especially Mozart’s desire for more bass. 

Haydn wrote 104 symphonies. I’ve listened to some of these for over fifty years, but I’ve only scratched the surface. It occurred to me this morning that one might spend two years focusing on one Haydn symphony each week. Of course, the later symphonies seem worthy of greater scrutiny. 

Page 162 mentions the painter Poussin whose The Shepherds of Arcadia shows up in Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Widow’s Son, and the Marquis de Sade shows up on pg. 163. This music emerged from a world that included Adam Weishaupt and other odd ducks. This aspect of the musical world of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven doesn’t particularly interest Rosen. So many different ways to approach this music exist. Part of me wants to linger on this chapter, but I fear falling behind. We have a schedule, and the massive Mozart piano concerto chapter lurks just ahead. Beware!