| Saturday,
November 13th, 2004 8:00
p.m., Bel
Aire Presbyterian Church
Special
Concert Preview by Alan Chapman at 7:00 P.M.
Haydn
witnessed many radical changes in music during the course
of his long life. He was eighteen when Bach died in 1750,
signalling the end of the Baroque era, and seventy-two
when Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony
was first performed in 1804, ushering in the Romantic
period. Old forms of music were superseded by the symphony,
sonata and string quartet, patronage moved from the church
to the royal court, and public concerts were rapidly
becoming immensely popular. Throughout all these changes,
Haydn remained a pioneering figure. Other composers had
written symphonies, sonatas and string quartets before
him, but it was Haydn who first exploited the untapped
potential of these forms, expanding and developing them
to a hitherto unimagined degree.
The almost childlike cheerfulness of Haydn’s music, its inexhaustible inventiveness
and its perfection of design conceal a considerable inner strength. This fusion
of classical elegance and intellectual power explains to a large extent the compelling
appeal of his music. These are the qualities, together with his irrepressible
spirit, that placed Haydn far and away above the level of his contemporaries
and kept him at the forefront of music during most of the eighteenth century.
No wonder he was hailed as a genius throughout Europe, admired and revered by
the public and by his peers. Mozart said, ‘Haydn alone has the secret both
of making me smile and of touching my innermost soul’. Even Napoleon, on
capturing Vienna, immediately ordered a guard of honour to be placed round Haydn’s
house.
For much of his life Haydn’s energies were devoted primarily to composing
orchestral and instrumental music. The supreme choral masterpieces of his old
age – The Creation, The Seasons and the six great Masses,
including the well-known Nelson Mass – were all composed during
the last fifteen years of his life.
The oratorio as a musical form appeared briefly in seventeenth century Italy,
but was soon eclipsed by the much more popular operas. It was Handel who resurrected
the oratorio from obscurity, transforming it from little more than an extended
cantata into a powerful choral music-drama that was soon to dominate public music-making
in eighteenth and nineteenth century England. The succession of masterpieces
that Handel wrote inspired many later composers, notably Haydn and Mendelssohn.
During his first visit to London, Haydn attended one of the great Handel festivals
held in Westminster Abbey and was completely overwhelmed by the experience, as
a result of which he resolved to write an oratorio himself that would be worthy
of Handel’s supreme examples. In 1796, inspired by what he had heard whilst
in London, Haydn set to work on the score, which was not completed until 1798,
by which time he was sixty-six. ‘I was never so devout as during that time
when I was working on The Creation,’ he observed. The work received its
first public performance in 1799 and was immediately recognised as a supreme
masterpiece, receiving many performances all over Europe.
In common with opera, and like most oratorios – though not Messiah - The
Creation has named characters and is divided into acts and scenes. These
consist of sequences of choruses, recitatives and arias. The work begins with
an extended orchestral introduction, ‘Representation of Chaos.’ Parts
One and Two then describe the six days of Creation, each of which follows a threefold
pattern comprising biblical narrative, descriptive central section and hymn of
praise. The three soloists represent the archangels Gabriel (soprano), Uriel
(tenor) and Raphael (bass), with the chorus fulfilling an important role portraying
angels glorifying their maker. Part Three is devoted entirely to the appearance
of Adam and Eve (bass and soprano) who sing of the wonder and perfection of God’s
newly created world and of their happiness together. Soloists and choir combine
for the final uplifting chorus of praise.
The Creation represents a considerable dramatic
development over its Handelian predecessors. Haydn’s
bold use of orchestral colour, his adventurous harmony,
exceptional rhythmic and melodic inventiveness, and the
work’s strong overall unity bring the subject to
life with an almost operatic vividness and power. The
opening is a good illustration of Haydn’s innovative
approach. The extended orchestral introduction, itself
a departure from the conventional overture, is entitled ‘Representation
of Chaos’ and immediately arrests the listener’s
attention with its shifting, ambiguous harmonies on muted
strings, brass and timpani. In the ensuing recitative
Raphael tells us that ‘the earth was without form,
and void’ and this is reflected in the sparse emptiness
of the orchestral accompaniment. The choir continues
in a mood of hushed stillness, until ‘and there
was light’, at which point there is a sudden, massive fortissimo chord
of C major from the now unmuted full orchestra. Even
after two hundred years the effect is still immensely
powerful. It was evidently totally overwhelming at the
time, judging by the following account from one of Haydn’s
friends. ‘. . . and at that moment when light broke
out for the first time, one would have said that rays
darted from the composer’s burning eyes. The enchantment
of the electrified Viennese was so general that the orchestra
could not proceed for some minutes,’ he wrote.
This is perhaps the most startling dramatic gesture of the whole work, but there
are plenty of other equally effective instances of musical word-painting, such
as the storm scenes, the wonderful sunrise music and the colourful depiction
of various animals and birds. It is also worth drawing attention to Haydn’s
musical characterisation. For the angels he adopts a somewhat florid, lofty style,
whilst for Adam and Eve the writing is simpler and more folk-like. In fact the
whole work sparkles with the vitality and unfailing inspiration so characteristic
of this remarkable composer, who was still experimenting and still surprising
his delighted audiences right up to the end of his life.
Notes courtesy of:
John Bawden MMus, LTCL
Musical Director
Fareham Philharmonic Choir, UK
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