Morzin Palace in the Czech Republic, where Haydn worked early in his career (see the Wikipedia bio). Public domain photo.
Part VI HAYDN AFTER THE DEATH OF MOZART
1. The Popular Style
By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger
On page 334 Rosen gives an example from Mozart's Symphony #39, K. 543. The example labels the first measure as 1, but the example starts with the 26th measure of the first movement of the symphony. Mozart wrote the slow adagio introduction to this movement in cut time (2/4). It switches to ¾ when the allegro starts. I puzzled over this excerpt yesterday, but today I figured it out. The same passage reappears on pg. 349 with four introductory measures in full score with the correct measure number at the beginning of the excerpt.
On page 332 Rosen mentions "Czechoslovakian folk songs." I don't know if these exist. Czech folk songs exist, and Slovak folk songs exist. Rosen, like many of us, grew up in a world with a country called Czechoslovakia. This shaped his world view (as it did mine). I love Rosen's writing, but I do disagree with a few small things in it. As I've mentioned before that he uses male pronouns to refer the generic human being. I know English (and many other languages) used this tradition for centuries, but I prefer gender neutral language.
Next week we come to the chapter on Haydn's piano trios. On page 354 Rosen writes, "In any case, the Haydn trios are doomed." I look forward to studying this chapter and these trios. Perhaps we can save this music, this world.
3 comments:
I greatly enjoyed the Magic Flute, even the singing. I wonder if maybe the Swedish language sounds better to me sung than the Italian of the previous 2 operas I tried? I'd like to see it live. A Bay area company called Pocket Opera says they'll present it next July; apparently sung in English. I plan to go.
Eric, in your final comment last week you mentioned playing the Queen of Night's aria at 45 rpm. Presumably it came from a 33 1/3rd rpm LP?
It mystifies me why anyone would do that as the faster speed raises the pitch and changes the key, no?
The Queen of Night reminds me of the 3 of Swords.
In this weeks chapter I enjoyed hearing about Hayden and others incorporating folk music into their compositions. I collect old folk music recordings and consider folk songs very important in the evolution of music. The genre known as World music simply presents the folk music of other cultures. Rosen says Bartok frequently incorporates folk music into his pieces – probably East European/Hungarian and gypsy songs, I'm guessing. I've listened to and loved Bartok's music for years. I didn't know the final movement of Beethoven's 9th, the Ode to Joy got inspiration from a folk song.
Rosen briefly looked at Hayden's 93rd symphony in this chapter. I listened to that one of all the examples given because the number has much significance to me; and RAW as well. He devotes an article to it in the forthcoming Maybe Magick. I love Hayden's extreme dynamics, but even though it seems relatively short at around 22 minutes, I fell asleep near the end. Admittedly, I had only a few hours rest the night before.
I was interested when Rosen wrote about the relative unpopularity of Haydn compared to Mozart and Beethoven. I really need to listen to more Haydn. I often listen to the late night classical music broadcast hosted by Peter Van de Graaff, and Van de Graaff has mentioned more than once that Haydn is his favorite composer. I was also interested when Rosen wrote that Haydn's use of orchestral color resembles that in 20th century music.
Thank you for the comments. Oz, you might enjoy hearing The Magic Flute in the original German. When I first saw the Bergman film in Munich in 1985, I saw it in Swedish with German subtitles. I sort of knew the plot, and I knew a little German, so I could kind of follow the story. I still loved it.
The Queen of the Night's aria has high, fast singing. Playing it twice as fast made it an octave higher. I enjoyed the absurdity.
Tom, Haydn has not entered the mainstream/popular culture as much as Mozart or Beethoven. No big movie bios or rock songs about him. I do love his music, though.
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