Friday, January 8, 8732

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) - Aesthetics


[Haydn - Thomas Hardy, 1792]



A life-long resident of Austria-Hungary, Franz Joseph Haydn (March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Austria [near the Hungarian border] – May 31, 1809) spent most of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Hungarian Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it, "forced to become original.

He was the brother of Michael Haydn, himself a highly regarded composer, and Johann Evangelist Haydn, a tenor.

Franz Joseph's father, Mathias Haydn, was a wheelwright who also served as Marktrichter, an office akin to village mayor. Haydn's mother, the former Maria Koller, had previously worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach, the presiding aristocrat of Rohrau. Neither parent could read music. However, Mathias was an enthusiastic folk musician, who during the journeyman period of his career had taught himself to play the harp. According to Haydn's later reminiscences, his childhood family was extremely musical, and frequently sang together and with their neighbors.



Haydn's parents noticed that their son was musically talented and knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain any serious musical training. It was for this reason that they accepted a proposal from their relative Johann Matthias Franck, the schoolmaster and choirmaster


in Hainburg, that Haydn be apprenticed to Franck in his home to train as a musician. Haydn, at 6, therefore went off with Franck to Hainburg (seven miles away) and never again lived with his parents.

Life in the Franck household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently hungry as well as constantly humiliated by the filthy state of his clothing.

However, he did begin his musical training there, and soon was able to play both harpsichord and violin. The people of Hainburg were soon hearing him sing treble parts in the church choir.


There is reason to think that Haydn's singing impressed those who heard him, because two years later (in 1740) he was brought to the attention of Georg von Reutter, the director of music in


St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, who was touring the provinces looking for talented choirboys. Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and soon moved off to Vienna, where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister, the last four in the company of his younger brother Michael.

Like Franck before him, Reutter did not always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed. The young Haydn greatly looked forward to performances before aristocratic audiences, where the singers sometimes had the opportunity to satisfy their hunger by devouring the refreshments.

Reutter also did little to further his choristers' musical education. However, St. Stephen's was at the time one of the leading musical centers in Europe, with many performances of new music by leading composers. Haydn was able to learn a great deal by observation, simply by serving as a professional musician there.

By 1749, Haydn had finally matured physically to the point that he was no longer able to sing high choral parts. On a weak pretext, he was summarily dismissed from his job. He was sent into the streets homeless but had the good fortune to be taken in by a friend, Johann Michael Spangler, who for a few months shared with Haydn his family's crowded garret room. Haydn was able to begin immediately his pursuit of a career as a freelance musician.

Tracing Haydn's work over the six decades in which it was produced (roughly, 1749 to 1802), one finds a gradual but steady increase in complexity and musical sophistication, which developed as Haydn learned from his own experience and that of his colleagues.



During this arduous time, Haydn worked at many different jobs: as a music teacher, as a street serenader, and eventually as valet–accompanist for the Italian composer Nicola Porpora, one year his junior (b. 1686), from whom he later said he learned "the true fundamentals of composition."


When he was a chorister, Haydn had not received serious training in music theory and composition, which he perceived as a serious gap. To fill it, he worked his way through the counterpoint exercises in the text Gradus ad Parnassum by Johann Joseph Fux,


and carefully studied the work of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, whom he later acknowledged as an important influence.

Haydn's early work dates from a period in which the compositional style of the late Baroque (seen in Bach and Handel) had gone out of fashion. This was a period of exploration and uncertainty, and Haydn, born 18 years before the death of Bach, was himself one of the musical explorers of this time.

As his skills increased, Haydn began to acquire a public reputation, first as the composer of an opera, Der Krumme Teufel (The Limping Devil), written for the comic actor Johann Joseph Felix Kurz, whose stage name was Bernardon. The work was premiered successfully in 1753, but was soon closed down by the censors. Haydn also noticed, apparently without annoyance, that works he had simply given away were being published and sold in local music shops.

With the increase in his reputation, Haydn eventually was able to obtain aristocratic patronage, crucial for the career of a composer in his day. Countess Thun, having seen one of Haydn's compositions, summoned him and engaged him as her singing and keyboard teacher.[

Baron Carl Josef Fürnberg employed Haydn at his country estate, Weinzierl, where the composer wrote his first string quartets. Fürnberg later recommended Haydn to Count Morzin, who in 1757 became his first full time employer.

Haydn was Kapellmeister (music director), directing the count's small orchestra and writing his first symphonies for this ensemble.

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Symphony No. 1 (1759) (Beginning)

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In 1760, with the security of a Kapellmeister position, Haydn married. His wife was the former Maria Anna Aloysia Apollonia Keller (1729–1800), the sister of Therese (b. 1733), with whom Haydn had previously been in love. Haydn and his wife had a completely unhappy marriage, from which the laws of the time permitted them no escape; and they produced no children. Both took lovers.

Count Morzin soon suffered financial reverses that forced him to dismiss his musical establishment, but Haydn was quickly offered a similar job (1761) as Vice Kapellmeister to the Esterházy family, one of the wealthiest and most important in the Austrian Empire.

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Symphony No. 6 ("Matin") ("Morning") (1761) (Bassoons)

Symphony No. 7 ("Midi") ("Mid-Day") (1761) (Flutes)

Symphony No. 8 ("Soir" ("Evening") (1761) (Finale)

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The Esterházy princes (first Paul Anton, then most importantly


Nikolaus I, ruling from 1762) were musical connoisseurs who appreciated his work and gave him daily access to his own small orchestra.

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Symphony No. 31 ("Hornsignal") (1765)

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When the old Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner, died in 1766, Haydn was elevated to full Kapellmeister.

As a "house officer" in the Esterházy establishment, Haydn wore livery and followed the family as they moved among their various palaces, most importantly the family's ancestral seat


Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt and later on


Eszterháza, a grand new palace built in rural Hungary in the 1766. Haydn had a huge range of responsibilities, including composition, running the orchestra, playing chamber music for and with his patrons, and eventually the mounting of operatic productions. Despite this workload, the job was in artistic terms a superb opportunity for Haydn.

A central characteristic of Haydn's music is the development of larger structures out of very short, simple musical motifs, often derived from standard accompanying figures. The music is often quite formally concentrated, and the important musical events of a movement can unfold rather quickly.

Haydn's work was central to the development of what came to be called sonata form. His practice, however, differed in some ways from that of Mozart and Beethoven, his younger contemporaries who likewise excelled in this form of composition. Haydn was particularly fond of the so-called "monothematic exposition", in which the music that establishes the dominant key is similar or identical to the opening theme. Haydn also differs from Mozart and Beethoven in his recapitulation sections, where he often rearranges the order of themes compared to the exposition and uses extensive thematic development.

Haydn was especially respected by the Eszterházy court musicians whom he supervised, as he maintained a cordial working atmosphere and effectively represented the musicians' interests with their employer.

Much of the music was written to please and delight a prince, and its emotional tone is correspondingly upbeat.

Haydn had a robust sense of humor, evident in his love of practical jokes and often apparent in his music; and he had many friends. Conversant to all this, perhaps more than any other composer's, Haydn's music is known for its humor, as witness in many examples below.

Several important landmarks have been observed in the evolution of Haydn's musical style. In the late 1760's and early 1770's Haydn bought into the stylistic period known as Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) -- the term taken from the contemporaneous literary movement, though it appears that the musical development actually preceded the literary one by a few years.

The musical language, while similar to what preceded, is deployed in a more intensely expressive manner, especially in the works in minor keys. Among the well-known compositions of this time are the "Farewell" Symphony No. 45 and the six string quartets of Op. 20 (the "Sun" Quartets), all from 1772. It was also around this time that Haydn became interested in writing fugues in the Baroque style, and three of the Op. 20 quartets end with such fugues.

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Symphony No. 45 in F-Sharp Minor ("Abschieds-Symphony" ["Farewell"]) (1772) -- for two oboes, bassoon, two horns, and strings -- was written for Nikolaus Esterházy, while he, Haydn, and the court orchestra were at the Prince's summer palace. The stay 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 is a turbulent affair in an unusual home key, opening in a manner typical of Haydn's Sturm und Drang (Storm and Strees) period, with descending minor arpeggios in the first violins against syncopated notes in the second violins and held chords in the winds. This section 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).

The second, slow, movement in A major 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. The music can be heard as programmatic, expressing the yearning for home.

The minuet is in the 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, 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 barriolage 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" -- essentially a second slow movement -- which is extremely unusual in Classical symphonies and probably sounded very 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. 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 25 minutes.

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Symphony No. 45 ("Farewell") (1772)

I. Allegro assai

II. Adagio

III. Menuet: Allegretto

IV. Finale: Presto - Adagio

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[Haydn - Ludwig Guttenbrunn, ca. 1770]

Following the climax of the Sturm und Drang, Haydn returned to a lighter, more overtly entertaining style. There are no quartets from this period, and the symphonies take on new features: the first movements now sometimes contain slow introductions, and the scoring often includes trumpets and timpani. These changes are often related to a major shift in Haydn's professional duties, which moved him away from "pure" music and toward the production of comic operas. Several of the operas were Haydn's own work; these are seldom performed today. Haydn sometimes recycled his opera music in symphonic works, which helped him continue his career as a symphonist during this hectic decade.

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Symphony No. 60 ("Il Distratto") (1774) (Excerpt)

Symphony No. 60 ("Il Distratto") (1774) is derived from the incidental music Haydn wrote in that same year for the comedy Der Zersteute (The Absent-Minded Man), a translation and adaptation of Jean-Francois Regnard's Le Distrait (The Distracted One).

The Pressburger Zeitung of June 30 declared:

"Connoisseurs consider it a masterpiece. One notices this time in music inded for a comedy, the same spirit tht elevates all of Heyden's [sic] work. His masterly variey excites the admiration of experts and is nothing short of delightful for the listener: he falls from the most affected pomposity directly into vulgarity, and H and Regnard content wih one anoher in capricious absent-mindedness."

The symphony, one of a whole series in Haydn's "ceremonial" key of C Major, is scored for two oboes, two trumpets (possibly a later addition since they only double the horn parts), two horns, timpani, and stirngs. rue to its subject, Il Distratto induges in all kinds of odd and unexpected effects. Ther is, for instance, much use of folk tunes -- a French one in the second movment, Balkan onces in the third and fourht, and a sad, Slavonic one in the sixth, -- while raucous fanfares interrupt the flow of the Andante, and the Adagio ends with a crazy accelerando. To cap it all, the violins being the finale with their G strings tuned down to F, and have to tune them up again during the course of a long glissando chord.

Symphony No. 61 (1776)

I. Adagio - Allegro di molto

II. Andante

III. Menuetto and Trio

IV. Presto

V. Adagio (di Lamentatione)

VI. Finale (Prestissimo)

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In 1779, an important change in Haydn's contract permitted him to publish his compositions without prior authorization from his employer. This may have encouraged Haydn to rekindle his career as a composer of "pure" music. The change made itself felt most dramatically in 1781, when Haydn published the six string quartets of Opus 33, announcing (in a letter to potential purchasers) that they were written in "a completely new and special way." The new techniques include a fluid form of phrasing, in which each motif emerges from the previous one without interruption, the practice of letting accompanying material evolve into melodic material, and a kind of "Classical counterpoint" in which each instrumental part maintains its own integrity. These traits continue in the many later quartets.

Haydn's minuets tend to have a strong downbeat and a clearly popular character. As early as the above string quartets, Haydn turned some of his minuets into "scherzi" which are much faster, at one beat to the bar.

The final movement of the second of these quartets shows another characteristic "stupid Haydn trick": a sly series of false endings....

String Quartet No. 30 ("Joke"), Op. 33 No. 2 (1781)

III.

IV.

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A friend in Vienna was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom Haydn met sometime around 1784. According to later testimony by Michael Kelly and others, the two composers occasionally played in string quartets together. Haydn was hugely impressed with Mozart's work and praised it unstintingly to others. Mozart evidently returned the esteem, as seen in his dedication of a set of six quartets, now called the "Haydn" Quartets, to his friend.

During the nearly thirty years that Haydn worked at the Esterházy court, he produced a flood of compositions, and his musical style continued to develop. His popularity in the outside world also increased. Gradually, Haydn came to write as much for publication as for his employer, and several important works of this period, such as the Paris Symphonies (1785–1786) and the original orchestral version of The Seven Last Words of Christ (1786), were commissions from abroad.

Haydn also gradually came to feel more isolated and lonely, particularly as the court came to spend most of the year at Esterháza, far from Vienna, rather than the closer-by Eisenstadt. Haydn particularly longed to visit Vienna because of his friendships there.

Of these, a particularly important one was with Maria Anna von Genzinger (1750–93), the wife of Prince Nikolaus's personal physician in Vienna, who began a close, platonic, relationship with the composer in 1789. Haydn wrote to Mrs. Genzinger often, expressing his loneliness at Eszterháza and his happiness for the few occasions on which he was able to visit her in Vienna; later on, Haydn wrote to her frequently from London. Her premature death in 1793 was a blow to Haydn, and his F minor variations for piano, Hob. XVII:6, may have been written in response to her death.

In 1790, Prince Nikolaus died and was succeeded by a thoroughly unmusical prince who dismissed the entire musical establishment and put Haydn on a pension.



Freed of his obligations, Haydn was able to accept a lucrative offer from Johann Peter Salomon, a German impresario, to visit England and conduct new symphonies with a large orchestra.

The visit (1791–1792), along with a repeat visit (1794–1795), was a huge success. Audiences flocked to Haydn's concerts; Haydn augmented his fame and made large profits, thus becoming financially secure. Charles Burney reviewed the first concert thus: "Haydn himself presided at the piano-forte; and the sight of that renowned composer so electrified the audience, as to excite an attention and a pleasure superior to any that had ever been caused by instrumental music in England."

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Symphony No. 93 (1791)

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Symphony No. 94 ("Surprise") (1791)

II Andante

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNwMXj0Y1_Y

Perhaps the e most famous example of Haydn's humor is the sudden loud chord in the theme of the Theme and Variations second movement above -- a gesture never again repeated in the piece.

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Symphony No. 100 ("Military") (1794): II

Symphony No. 101 ("Clock") (1794): II


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Haydn's early slow movements are usually not too slow in tempo, relaxed, and reflective. Later on, the emotional range of the slow movements increases, notably in the deeply felt slow movement of the Symphony No. 102 (1794).

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Symphony No. 103 ("Drum Roll") (1795): I

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Haydn's mostly positive, upbeat musical tone reflects, perhaps, the composer's fundamentally healthy and well-balanced personality. Occasional minor-key works, often deadly serious in character, form striking exceptions to the general rule. Haydn's fast movements tend to be rhythmically propulsive and often impart a great sense of energy, especially in the finales. Some characteristic examples of Haydn's "rollicking" finale type are found in the "London" symphony No. 104

Symphony No. 104 ("London") (1795)

I. Adagio; Allegro

II. Andante

III. Menuetto: Allegro - Trio

IV. Finale: Spiritoso

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Musically, the visits to England generated some of Haydn's best-known work. The only misstep in the venture was an opera, Orfeo ed Euridice, also called L'Anima del Filosofo, which Haydn was contracted to compose, but whose performance was blocked by intrigues.

Stimulated by the England journeys, Haydn developed a populist style: a way of composition that, with unprecedented success, created music having great popular appeal but retaining a learned and rigorous musical structure. An important element was the frequent use of folk or folk-like material. Haydn took care to deploy this material in appropriate locations, such as the endings of sonata expositions or the opening themes of finales. In such locations, the folk material serves as an element of stability, helping to anchor the larger structure

Haydn's populist style can be heard in virtually all of his later work, including the twelve London symphonies, the late quartets and piano trios, and the two late oratorios.

Between visits Haydn was for a time the teacher of Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven found Haydn unsatisfactory as a teacher and sought help from others; the relationship between the two was sometimes rather tense.


Haydn returned to Vienna in 1795, moved into a large house in the suburb of Gumpendorf, and turned to the composition of large religious works for chorus and orchestra. These include six masses and two oratorios for the Eszterházy family, which by this time was once again headed by a musically-inclined prince.

The return to Vienna in 1795 marked the last turning point in Haydn's career. Although his musical style evolved little, his intentions as a composer changed. While he had been a servant, and later a busy entrepreneur, Haydn wrote his works quickly and in profusion, with frequent deadlines. As a rich man, Haydn now felt he had the privilege of taking his time and writing for posterity. This is reflected in the subject matter of The Creation (1798) and The Seasons (1801), which address such weighty topics as the meaning of life and the purpose of humankind, and represent an attempt to render the sublime in music. Haydn's new intentions also meant that he was willing to spend much time on a single work: both oratorios took him over a year to complete. Haydn once remarked that he had worked on The Creation so long because he wanted it to last.

The change in Haydn's approach was important in the history of music, as other composers soon were following his lead. Notably, Beethoven adopted the practice of taking his time and aiming high.

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Missa Sancti Bernardi (1796)

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Missa in Tempore Belli ("Paukenmesse" [Timpani Mass]) (1796)

Kyrie

Credo

Agnus Dei

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Trumpet Concerto (1796): III

String Quartet No. 61 ("Fifths"), Op. 76, No. 2 (1797)
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Menuetto
IV. Vivace assai
 

String Quartet No. 62 ("Emperor"), Op. 76, No. 3 (1797): II









The Creation (1798)

Nelsonmesse (1798)

Theresienmesse (1799)

Schopfungsmesse (Creation Mass) (1801)

The Seasons (1801)

Harmoniemesse
(1802)

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Haydn also composed instrumental music, including the last nine in his long series of string quartets, featuring the Fifths, Emperor, and Sunrise Quartets.

In 1802, an illness from which Haydn had been suffering for some time had increased in severity to the point that he became physically unable to compose. This was doubtless very difficult for him because, as he acknowledged, the flow of fresh musical ideas waiting to be worked out as compositions did not cease. Haydn was well cared for by his servants, and he received many visitors and public honours during his last years, but they could not have been very happy years for him. During his illness, Haydn often found solace by sitting at the piano and playing Gott Erhalte Franz den Kaiser (God Save the Kaiser), which he had composed himself as a patriotic gesture in 1797, heard in the Emperor Quartet.

This melody later was used for the Austrian and German national anthems.


Haydn died at the end of May in 1809, shortly after an attack on Vienna by the French army under Napoleon. Among his last words was his attempt to calm and reassure his servants when cannon shot fell in the neighborhood .

Two weeks later, a memorial service was held in the Schottenkirche on June 15, 1809, at which W.A. Mozart’s Requiem K.626 was performed.

James Webster writes of Haydn's public character thus: "Haydn's public life exemplified the Enlightenment ideal of the honnête homme (honest man): the man whose good character and worldly success enable and justify each other. His modesty and probity were everywhere acknowledged. These traits were not only prerequisites to his success as Kapellmeister, entrepreneur and public figure, but also aided the favourable reception of his music."

For much of his life he benefited from a "happy and naturally cheerful temperament," but in his later life, there is evidence for periods of depression, notably in the correspondence with Mrs. Genzinger and in Dies's biography, based on visits made in Haydn's old age.

Haydn was a devout Catholic who often turned to his rosary when he had trouble composing, a practice that he usually found to be effective. He normally began the manuscript of each composition with "in nomine Domini" ("in the name of the Lord") and ended with "Laus Deo" ("praise be to God").

Haydn was short in stature, perhaps as a result of having been underfed throughout most of his youth. He was not handsome, and like many in his day he was a survivor of smallpox, his face being pitted with the scars of this disease. His early biographer Dies wrote, "he couldn't understand how it happened that in his life he had been loved by many a pretty woman. 'They couldn't have been led to it by my beauty.'"

Haydn also suffered from nasal polyposis for much of his adult life; this was an agonizing and debilitating disease in the 18th century, and at times it prevented him from writing music.

The treatment for this in early medicine lasted for days and was excruciating and bloody, prompting Haydn to say of his physician, "May he rot beneath the earth."

Haydn's formal inventiveness also led him to integrate the fugue into the classical style and to enrich the rondo form with more cohesive tonal logic. Haydn was also the principal exponent of the double variation form -- variations on two alternating themes, which are often major- and minor-mode versions of each other.

Haydn's works are listed in a comprehensive catalogue prepared by Anthony van Hoboken. This Hoboken catalogue provides each work with an identifying number, called its Hoboken number (abbreviation: H. or Hob.). The string quartets also have Hoboken numbers, but are usually identified instead by their opus numbers, which have the advantage of indicating the groups of six quartets that Haydn published together; thus for example the string quartet Opus 76, No. 3 is the third of the six quartets published in 1799 as Opus 76.

Further Reading:

Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin
Music in the Western World: A History in Documents

Haydn's Duties in the Service of Prince Esterhazy (Pages 298-300)

Haydn's Reception in London (Pages 313-316)

Sonata Form and the Symphony Described by a Contemporary of Haydn
[August Frederic Christopher Kollman (1756-1829),
born the same year as W.A. Mozart)
(Pages 316-319)

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Thomas Twining (January 8, 1735, London - August 6, 1804, Colchester) was a classical scholar.

Son of Daniel Twining, tea merchant of London, he was originally intended for a commercial life, but his distaste for it and his fondness for study decided his father to send him to the university. He entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in 1755, and became a fellow in 1760.

He took orders, and after his marriage in 1764 spent the remainder of his life at Fordham (Essex) and Colchester, where he died on the 6th of August 1804. His reputation as a classical scholar was established by his translation, with notes, of Aristotle's Poetics (1789). Twining was also an accomplished musician, and assisted Charles Burney in his History of Music.

Selections from his correspondence can be found in Recreations and Studies of a Country Clergyman of the Eighteenth Century (1882) and Selections from Papers of the Twining Family (1887) edited by his grand-nephew (Richard Twining).

Further Reading:

Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin
Music in the Western World: A History in Documents
Thomas Twining
On the Different Senses of the the Word Imitative,
as Applied by the Ancients, and by the Moderns (Pages 293-295)

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James Beattie (October 25, 1735, Laurencekirk, Scotland - August 18, 1803, Aberdeen, Scotland) was a Scottish scholar and writer.

He was born the son of a shopkeeper and small farmer, and educated at Aberdeen University. In 1760, he was appointed Professor of moral philosophy there as a result of the interest of his intimate friend, Robert Arbuthnot of Haddo. In the following year he published a volume of poems, The Judgment of Paris (1765), which attracted attention. The two works, however, which brought him most fame were:

His Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth (1770), intended as an answer to David Hume, which had great immediate success, and led to an introduction to the King, a pension of £200, and the degree of LL.D. from Oxford; and his poem of The Minstrel, of which the first book was published in 1771 and the second in 1774, winning him the praise of Samuel Johnson.

Beattie underwent much domestic sorrow in the death of his wife and two promising sons, which broke down his own health and spirits.

Further Reading:

Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin
Music in the Western World: A History in Documents
James Beattie
An Essay on Poetry and Music (Pages 291-293)

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