Symphony No. 45 (Haydn)
Encyclopedia
Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor, known as the "Farewell" Symphony (in German
: Abschieds-Symphonie), was composed by Joseph Haydn
in 1772.
It was written for Haydn's patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy
, while he, Haydn and the court orchestra were at the Prince's summer palace in Eszterhaza
. The stay there had been longer than expected, and most of the musicians had been forced to leave their wives back at home in Eisenstadt
, so in the last movement of the symphony, Haydn subtly hinted to his patron that perhaps he might like to allow the musicians to return home: during the final adagio each musician stops playing, snuffs out the candle on his music stand, and leaves in turn, so that at the end, there are just two muted
violins left (played by Haydn himself and the concertmaster, Alois Luigi Tomasini). Esterházy seems to have understood the message: the court returned to Eisenstadt the day following the performance.
The first movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 85
includes a reference to this symphony.
s, a bassoon
, two horn
s, and strings
(violin
s divided into two, viola
s, cello
s and double bass
es).
The first movement of the work is a turbulent affair in F-sharp minor, an extremely unusual key to use at the time of the work. It opens in a manner typical of Haydn's Sturm und Drang
period, with descending minor arpeggio
s in the first violins against syncopated
notes in the second violins and held chords in the winds. The movement can be explained structurally in terms of sonata form
, but it departs from the standard model in a number of ways (just before the recapitulation, for example, new material is introduced, which might have been used as the second subject in the exposition in a more conventional work). Also, the exposition moves to C-sharp minor, the dominant minor, rather than the more usual relative major. Aside from these departures from the norm, the first movement is "hardly able to be perceived as revolutionary" and "is not at all that adventurous, containing a development that ventures only to the levels of IV, II, and VI in addition to the mediant and tonic."
The second, slow, movement in A major
and 3/8 time is also in sonata form. It begins with a relaxed melody played by muted violins, featuring a repeated "hiccuping" motif. The mood gradually becomes more somber and meditative with an alternation between major and minor modes, resembling many similar passages in the later work of Schubert
. There follows a series of dissonant suspensions carried across the bar line, which are extended to extraordinary lengths by Haydn when the same material appears in the recapitulation. James Webster hears this music as programmatic
, expressing the yearning for home.
The following minuet is in the key of F-sharp major; its main peculiarity is that the final cadence of each section is made very weak (falling on the third beat), creating a sense of incompleteness.
The last movement begins as a characteristic Haydn finale in fast tempo and cut time, written in sonata form in the home key of F-sharp minor. The rhythmic intensity is increased at one point through the use of unison bariolage
in the first violin part. The music eventually reaches the end of the recapitulation
in a passage that sounds very much as if it were the end of the symphony, but suddenly breaks off in a dominant cadence.
What follows is a long coda
-like section — in essence a second slow movement — which is highly unusual in Classical symphonies and was probably quite surprising to the Prince. This is written in 3/8 time
and modulates from A major to F-sharp major, during which time the musicians take their leave. As the number of remaining instruments dwindles, the sound emanating from the orchestra gradually becomes audibly thinner. The ending is a kind of deliberate anticlimax and is usually performed as a very soft pianissimo.
This final adagio includes a bit of stage business that may not be obvious to a listener hearing a recorded performance: several of the musicians are given little solos to play just before departing. The order of departure is: first oboe and second horn (solos), bassoon (no solo), second oboe and first horn (solos), double bass (solo), cello (no solo), orchestral violins (solos; first chair players silent), viola (no solo). The first chair violinists remain to complete the work.
A typical performance of the Farewell Symphony lasts around twenty-five minutes.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Abschieds-Symphonie), was composed by Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
in 1772.
It was written for Haydn's patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy
Nikolaus Esterházy
Nikolaus Esterházy was a Hungarian prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family. His building of palaces, extravagant clothing, and taste for opera and other grand musical productions led to his being given the title "the Magnificent"...
, while he, Haydn and the court orchestra were at the Prince's summer palace in Eszterhaza
Eszterháza
Esterháza is a palace in Fertőd, Hungary, built by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. Sometimes called the "Hungarian Versailles", it is Hungary's grandest Rococo edifice.-History:...
. The stay there had been longer than expected, and most of the musicians had been forced to leave their wives back at home in Eisenstadt
Eisenstadt
- Politics :The current mayor of Eisenstadt is Andrea Fraunschiel ÖVP.The district council is composed as follows :* ÖVP: 17 seats* SPÖ: 8 seats* Austrian Green Party: 2 seats* FPÖ: 2 seats- Castles and palaces :...
, so in the last movement of the symphony, Haydn subtly hinted to his patron that perhaps he might like to allow the musicians to return home: during the final adagio each musician stops playing, snuffs out the candle on his music stand, and leaves in turn, so that at the end, there are just two muted
Mute (music)
A mute is a device fitted to a musical instrument to alter the sound produced: by affecting the timbre, reducing the volume, or most commonly both.- Musical directions for muting :...
violins left (played by Haydn himself and the concertmaster, Alois Luigi Tomasini). Esterházy seems to have understood the message: the court returned to Eisenstadt the day following the performance.
The first movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 85
Symphony No. 85 (Haydn)
The Symphony No. 85 in B flat major, Hoboken 1/85, is the fourth of the six "Paris" symphonies written by Joseph Haydn. It is popularly known as La Reine .- Background :...
includes a reference to this symphony.
Movements
The piece is written for two oboeOboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s, a bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
, two horn
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
s, and strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
(violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
s divided into two, viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
s, cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
s and double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
es).
- Allegro assai, 3/4
- Adagio, 3/8
- MenuetMinuetA minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
: Allegretto, 3/4 - Finale: Presto, 2/2 - Adagio, 3/8
The first movement of the work is a turbulent affair in F-sharp minor, an extremely unusual key to use at the time of the work. It opens in a manner typical of Haydn's Sturm und Drang
Sturm und Drang
Sturm und Drang is a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s, in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism...
period, with descending minor arpeggio
Arpeggio
An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...
s in the first violins against syncopated
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
notes in the second violins and held chords in the winds. The movement can be explained structurally in terms of sonata form
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
, but it departs from the standard model in a number of ways (just before the recapitulation, for example, new material is introduced, which might have been used as the second subject in the exposition in a more conventional work). Also, the exposition moves to C-sharp minor, the dominant minor, rather than the more usual relative major. Aside from these departures from the norm, the first movement is "hardly able to be perceived as revolutionary" and "is not at all that adventurous, containing a development that ventures only to the levels of IV, II, and VI in addition to the mediant and tonic."
The second, slow, movement in A major
A major
A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...
and 3/8 time is also in sonata form. It begins with a relaxed melody played by muted violins, featuring a repeated "hiccuping" motif. The mood gradually becomes more somber and meditative with an alternation between major and minor modes, resembling many similar passages in the later work of Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
. There follows a series of dissonant suspensions carried across the bar line, which are extended to extraordinary lengths by Haydn when the same material appears in the recapitulation. James Webster hears this music as programmatic
Program music
Program music or programme music is a type of art music that attempts to musically render an extra-musical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience in the form of program notes, inviting imaginative correlations with the music...
, expressing the yearning for home.
The following minuet is in the key of F-sharp major; its main peculiarity is that the final cadence of each section is made very weak (falling on the third beat), creating a sense of incompleteness.
The last movement begins as a characteristic Haydn finale in fast tempo and cut time, written in sonata form in the home key of F-sharp minor. The rhythmic intensity is increased at one point through the use of unison bariolage
Bariolage
The bowed instrument musical technique known as bariolage involves quick alternation between a static note and changing notes, that form a melody either above or below the static note. This technique is common to Baroque violin music, where the static note is usually an open string note...
in the first violin part. The music eventually reaches the end of the recapitulation
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
in a passage that sounds very much as if it were the end of the symphony, but suddenly breaks off in a dominant cadence.
What follows is a long coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
-like section — in essence a second slow movement — which is highly unusual in Classical symphonies and was probably quite surprising to the Prince. This is written in 3/8 time
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
and modulates from A major to F-sharp major, during which time the musicians take their leave. As the number of remaining instruments dwindles, the sound emanating from the orchestra gradually becomes audibly thinner. The ending is a kind of deliberate anticlimax and is usually performed as a very soft pianissimo.
This final adagio includes a bit of stage business that may not be obvious to a listener hearing a recorded performance: several of the musicians are given little solos to play just before departing. The order of departure is: first oboe and second horn (solos), bassoon (no solo), second oboe and first horn (solos), double bass (solo), cello (no solo), orchestral violins (solos; first chair players silent), viola (no solo). The first chair violinists remain to complete the work.
A typical performance of the Farewell Symphony lasts around twenty-five minutes.