FREE ESSAY ON HAYDN

HAYDN

Among the influential composers of classical music, there have been few who have
contributed so much in both talent, creativity, and style as Joseph Haydn and Ludwig Van
Beethoven. Both extremely talented in the art of classical composition, Haydn and
Beethoven placed their heart, soul and ingenuity in their music as is clearly illustrated
in Haydn's The Creation and Beethoven's The Creatures of Prometheus. Both composers
display sheer genius in their very effective ways of displaying complex themes through
their musical works - in this case, the concept of creation is common to both pieces
under study. Haydn's connection to the concept of Genesis and its subtleties is quite
evident thought his entire composition. Looking at Haydn's religious piety and as some
would argue, unrealistic optimism, it is only fitting that Haydn expressed the concept of
creation as an oratoria, which is the biblical counterpart to opera; instead of the
various propounded themes of then-contemporary opera, the underlying theme is strictly of
biblical concepts and stories. The opening pitch and dynamic of the work are absolutely
equal. The overture is introduced in fortissimo and without vigor. The possible reason
for such a SLOW pace was to make it hard for the listener to ascertain a steady pulse. In
aiming for such ambiguity, Haydn intentionally fails to express a definite key, chord or
melody in the first few bars, and as a result the listener is met with a rather formless
initial introduction. Upon the completion of those initial bars of music, the listener is
thrown a stray of fragment! ed melodies with no cadence. The normal convention of
tonality is cleverly ignored by Haydn. It is quite interesting to note that the piece
ends in an unusual way; he lands it on C minor, an avant garde practice created only a
short time earlier by Mozart. The use of mutes throughout the entire beginning and of a
blank unison C without order seem to be in itself quite a chaotic move, but Haydn doesn't
stop there. He adds dissonance and doesn't allow the played keys to fully develop.
Although Haydn brings in solo instruments, they aren't allowed to blossom as is usually
expected in comparative music, and along with the above techniques, help formulate the
sense of chaos that Haydn believed was present prior to 'the creation'. Haydn's
expressive genius in conveying great feeling does not end with the overture of his work.
The first recitative is sung by Raphael, who is a bass - Haydn, I believe, chose Raphael
because of his low voice - after all the listener is still upon the darkness of chaos.
The choir enters in sotto voce. To connote a sense of transition, Haydn moves from the
ominous key of C minor to the more stable and majestic major of the same key. In
providing for the creative theme, Haydn analogizes the birth to light; The choir sings
let there be light, and there was while the instruments are played pizzicato. After such,
the instruments are given a beat of rest where the transition from muteness to
open-sounding occurs, and both the choir and the instruments are reintroduced on light
with a positive-feeling C major chord, played fortissimo. This event is much louder than
anything previous and is in stark contrast. the chorus represents and acts the heavenly
host to the li! stener, elaborating on each creation and accomplishments in
ever-increasingly excited tones. Later in the work, (3 Uriel & Chorus), Haydn, unlike
most composers, alternated between sharps & flats; He started in C minor but begins this
aria in A major. Divided into four parts, the second part plunges back into darkness with
the lowest part of the tenor range in c minor. The chorus then enters, still in chaos
with stark contrasts to the first part (loud, polyphonic). The fourth part brings forth
god's new creation again, with musically depicted order (A major). In these last two
line, Haydn reveals a subtle new chord that seems to signify an uplifting new world. In
the second part of the work, Haydn's most impressive musical illustrations are seen. The
melodic lines of the aria (Gabriel) are constantly rising, creating the majestic
uplifting we find so appealing. Haydn's wonderful musical manipulation to draw imagery of
animals is incredible. For the lark he uses a solo clarinet, and adds a bassoon to
reflect the dove and its cooing. With the dynamics constantly in rise, Haydn introduces a
whole cast of animals in Raphael's recitative: the contrabassoon for the roar of the
lion, upward leaps of the orchestra for the leap of the tiger, tempo changes for the
stag, triplets for the horse's hooves, flutes for the pastoral cattle and sheep, tremolos
in strings for the insects, and an adagio pace with low ranges of the orchestra for the
worm. Interestingly enough, Haydn introduces the cast through music first, only then
through language.Haydn, I believe, chose to do this because of his confidence in his
musical ability as well as th! e audience's imaginative ability. The Creatures of
Prometheus is the other work under our study and is equally as majestic in its purpose -
to convey and express the feeling and emotions that go along with the concept of
creation.The ballet is composed of sixteen scenes, most of which start slow and speed up
which makes sense when looking at the growth dynamics of life around us.The introduction
and overture are connected and there doesn't seem to be any indication of when Prometheus
brings forth his creatures.Like Haydn, Beethoven uses a large orchestra to convey
important moments, and is vividly seen in this introduction/overture. Perhaps most
indicative and unique to Beethoven is his use of extreme dynamics in his compositions,
often with no transitional queues between the contrasting dynamics. In addition to the
unbalanced dynamics, Beethoven incorporates multi-octave ranges and shocking changes in
tempos, as well as using much more repetition than his contemporaries. It seems to me
that Beethoven uses these devices to create an audible tension, all the while adding
rhythmic motions and instruments; The climactic moments of Beethoven's works are much
longer in comparison the those of other composers. In scene I, the creatures brought to
life sound very hesitant and unsure in their 'first steps'; this is achieved by unfluid
lines and the chords are very simplistic in nature. Prometheus on the other hand is
illustrated through beautiful, flowing lines and excited, prancy melody. In scene IV,
Prometheus shows his creatures to Apollo who was the god of the sun, music, the arts, and
medicine. Prometheus has a purpose for showing them; he wants Apollo to grant them reason
and emotions. This scene is in D major and is contrasted with simple lines, and plain
instruments without harmonies and still provide a feeling of definite hesitance; there
are long pauses throughout this time. The above techniques give rise to an image of
Prometheus pushing and cajoling the creatures forward towards the mighty Apollo - the
creatures have very little melodic shape and sophistication. Scene V-VI is by far the
largest scene of the ballet and depicts the immense power of music. The differe! nt god
are represented by different instruments: Orpheus and the harp, Euterpe and the flute,
Amphiou and the bassoon, Ariou and the clarinet., and Apollo in the cadenza with the
cello.Apollo feels that there is great power in music, and Beethoven revels this with
very delicate lines. He tries to demonstrate how music can transform the creatures.
Apollo is shown with cello, because of the inherent characteristics associated with
strings; they have been connected with reason, rationale, intellect, and balance - all of
which Beethoven tried to embody in Apollo. In an avant garde move comparable to Haydn,
Beethoven removes the winds in the final crescendo leading up to Apollo's entrance.
During Beethoven's time, the cello was only used in accompaniment and never as a solo
instrument. Furthermore, Beethoven correctly identifies Apollo as a young man by lifting
the cello solo into the tenor range, which was also hardly ever employed. Beethoven
wanted a unique instrument to represen! t Apollo, after all he represented the notion of
powerful music; Other stringed instruments like the violin were much too common for this
purpose. Beethoven continues to entertain the listener by using multiple combination of
instruments as if all the gods of Apollo's court are involved in the transformation. Upon
the god's collaboration, the creatures are definitely not the same. The same chords are
used as before but an important difference is seen - the chords this time are more
developed and full and break in to an allegro pace. Scene VIII brings on a military feel
in D major. The glory of war, and consequently the tragedy of such in D minor is
displayed. The music gleams with exotic scales and tremolos in strings which add to the
desired effect. In scene IX, Prometheus dies and the scene, which is unusually split into
two adagios progresses from an E flat to C minor denoting the feelings of tragedy. The
finale is back to happiness and triumphance as Prometheus is praised ! for his
achievements and his remarkable creatures. Though departing from the original story, it
is a wonderful end, and is conveyed as such (E flat major) through Beethoven's use of
themes from three of his other works, and display the success of Prometheus' actions and
his virtuosity. After having studied both works, it is apparent to me, that the only
major difference between the two composer's methods in which they display the concept
creation, is the fact that Haydn uses spoken language as an adjunct to his music, while
Beethoven relies solely on his musical prose. I feel that Beethoven's efforts were more
effective simply because by concentrating upon the music alone, he was able to hone the
imagery more precisely, not relying upon words to concretize his ideas. Haydn showed
remarkable insight when choosing instruments and other subtleties when trying to convey
his emotion. Beethoven's incredible crafting through the use of extremes, however, was
not excessive as one could superficially see but in fact intrinsic to displaying such
vivid imagery.