NO.6 __LAMENTATIONE

SYMPHONY NO.30 IN C MAJOR HOB. I:30 ‘Alleluja’ (1765)

Allegro / Andante / Finale. Tempo di Menuet più tosto Allegretto

Christian Moritz-Bauer

Although we have only a few written testimonies to Haydn’s attitude towards the church and religious observance – after all, except for those years in which he was active as a choirboy in Hainburg and at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, he was to serve only secular princes throughout his life – his musical manuscripts, which are always headed ‘In nomine Domini’ and/or concluded by ‘Laus Deo’, betray a faithful Catholic, albeit one marked by the spirit of the Enlightenment and the reform measures of Joseph II. The fact that hardly any sacred works from Haydn’s pen have survived before 1766 is probably due primarily to the strict division of responsibilities between the first and second Kapellmeisters at the court of the Esterházy princes. Haydn’s contract of employment dated 1 May 1761, for example, stipulated that he ‘shall depend upon and be subordinated to Gregorius Werner, in [the latter’s] capacity as First Kapellmeister, in respect of choral music . . . But in all other matters, whenever music is to be performed, everything related to that music, in general and in particular, shall be under the responsibility of the said Vice-Kapellmeister’, that is, of Haydn.
No wonder, then, that the newly appointed ‘Vice-Kapellmeister’ and ‘House Officer’ soon roused the envy of the already long-serving Gregor Joseph Werner on account of the prominent position accorded to the newcomer, a feeling that eventually came to a head in an official reprimand to Haydn on the part of his employer, the Regulatio Chori Kiss-Martonensis (Regulation for the Kapelle of Eisenstadt) dated 3 November 1765. The ‘inventory of all the instruments and music to be found in the choir-loft’ ordered therein, coupled with the injunction to ‘apply himself to composition more diligently than heretofore’, led Haydn, among other things, to draw up the first catalogue of his works, the so-called Entwurf-Katalog, which he initially wrote in his own hand. A mere glance at the forty symphonies he had composed to date – including the eight or nine early works from his first post with Count Morzin – must have produced a well-nigh overwhelming impression. In any case, the relevant pages of the catalogue were soon to disappear mysteriously.

The series of symphonies from the year 1765 begins with a work of special quality which, moreover, is filled with religious allusions. The fact that the exposition of the Symphony in C major Hob. I:30 quotes the Gregorian Alleluia from the liturgy for Holy Saturday (in the sequence of notes G - C - D - E - C - D - C), but initially conceals it in barely perceptible fashion among the middle voices, may be regarded as a gesture of respect for Kapellmeister Werner’s only remaining sphere of influence. As the work progresses, however, the gesture seems increasingly to be forgotten. For, at the beginning of the recapitulation, the plainchant melody suddenly stands starkly revealed in the wind tutti with an all too sparse string accompaniment. A further, far less profane thought suggests itself – that of the miracle of the Easter Vigil . . .
Further proof of the composer’s skill is provided by the Andante, in which a flute renders itself conspicuous as a soloist. Although it begins by playing its part in a well-behaved manner, the instrument subsequently dares to break away from the movement’s dotted rhythms and short-breathed phrases and demonstrate its virtuosity with glittering semiquaver figuration.
Given that the ‘Alleluja’ Symphony ends with a dancelike Tempo di Menuet, it is a moot point whether the conjecture that it was once used in an ecclesiastical or liturgical setting is a plausible one. Yet, in spite or perhaps because of the temporary darkness that shrouds the second of the two Trio sections, we feel the notion should be treated generously.

VOL. 6 _LAMENTATIONE

Giovanni Antonini, Basel Chamber Orchestra

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SYMPHONY NO.3 IN G MAJOR HOB. I:3 (1761)

Allegro / Andante moderato / Menuet – Trio / Finale. Alla breve


Christian Moritz-Bauer

In the wake of his appointment as vice-Kapellmeister to the Esterházy princes – more precisely, between June and December 1761 – Haydn wrote his famous ‘Times of Day’ symphonies (Le Matin, Le Midi, Le Soir, nos. 6-8), with their concerto grosso-like solos for his orchestra’s first-desk players, but also, probably just before that, two more works in the genre, one in D major and one in G major. A defining moment of the latter, Hob. I:3, is its unusual concentration of contrapuntal techniques – a phenomenon that is prominent not only in the Alla breve fugue of the work’s Finale, but also in the opening Allegro, with its soggetto-like theme, and the two middle movements. One reason for this may well have been Haydn’s efforts to demonstrate his abilities in the field of polyphonic part-writing, on which Gregor Werner for one, then his hierarchical superior, saw himself as a certain authority.

When Haydn wrote contrapuntally, it was generally in ‘free counterpoint’, in which – unlike the so-called stile antico – it was permissible to observe the rules of dissonance and consonance in a more relaxed manner according to the tastes of the composer and his audience. For example, the steady stride of the violins and oboes, one note to a bar, at the beginning of the first movement resembles a cantus firmus, while the Menuet in canon between high and lower strings does full justice to its French name – in terms of melodic writing and timbral combinations, it is very reminiscent of the style of Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). So far, so good. However, the twenty-nine-year-old Haydn rises to top form and thoroughgoing independence in the finale, which James Webster considers to be an early masterpiece, since it ‘trumps’ all that has gone before ‘with a remarkable synthesis of fugue and sonata style’.¹ But equally worthy of mention is the dynamic structure of the fugal writing: the entire exposition is held down to pianissimo until the first orchestral tutti, before it moves towards the extremely effective conclusion of the work in an alternation of forte and piano blocks and with the aid of a short pedal point.

_{¹ James Webster, ‘From Vienna to Eszterháza, c.1760-63’, booklet note to the three-CD set ‘Haydn Symphonies, volume 2’ (London: Decca-L’Oiseau-Lyre, 436 592-2, 1993), p.20.} 

VOL. 6 _LAMENTATIONE

Giovanni Antonini, Basel Chamber Orchestra

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SYMPHONY NO.26 IN D MINOR HOB. I:26 «Lamentatione» (1768)

Allegro assai con spirito / Adagio / Menuet – Trio

Christian Moritz-Bauer

Whereas in the symphony that opened our programme it was an Alleluia belonging to the Holy Saturday liturgy that was interwoven into the orchestral texture, Haydn quotes not one but two plainchant melodies in the work under discussion here. In the Symphony Hob. I:26 – written about three years after that work, despite its numbering ten places earlier in the chronology of Haydn’s oeuvre – the melodies in question appear in both of the first two of the three movements. One of these reciting tones is linked with a performance of the Passion narrative in which the ‘roles’ are shared among several readers, while the other is associated with the Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae, the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, sung at the Nocturns of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

Because of its motivic references to the Passion of Christ, it has often been suggested that individual movements of Hob. I:26 (or even the whole work) were originally employed in an ecclesiastical setting, for example in the liturgy or in the context of devotional exercises. However, such conjectures have not yet been proven – at least not with regard to the situation in Eisenstadt. Elsewhere, surviving performance material strongly argues in favour of such a use. The source preserved at the Augustinian monastery of Herzogenburg, for example, is entitled ‘Passio et Lamentatio’. In the course of the second theme of the Allegro assai con spirito we meet several inscriptions in the second violin part (which carries the plainchant melody) redolent of the protagonists of a Passion play: ‘Evang:[elista]’ (bar 17, with a declamatory character), ‘Christ:[us]’ (bars 26-31, piano with striding minims) and ‘Jud:[aei]’, the Jews (bars 35-37, with hammering quaver figuration and a sudden first violin motif that rushes up the scale).

The nickname conventionally applied to the symphony today also occurs in several contemporary copies of Haydn’s now lost autograph, either in the Italian nominative form ‘La Lamentazione’ or in the Latin ablative singular form ‘Lamentatione’.

In terms of character, Hob: I:26 has been assigned to the canon of Haydn’s supposedly ‘Sturm und Drang’ works on the basis of its minor key, the intensity of the emotions expressed therein and, last but not least, the fact that its date of composition is (relatively) close to those of the ‘Trauer’ and ‘Farewell’ Symphonies (Hob. I:44 and 45), the Symphony in B major Hob. I:46 and ‘La Passione’ Hob. I:49.

The musical grieving process initiated by the Passion (semiquaver triplets in the first violins as an instrumental counterpart to the Lamentation tone in the solo oboe and violino secondo parts) continues in the ensuing Adagio, whose ‘special tone colour’ (with the woodwind tutti taking over the melodic line at the start of the recapitulation, further enriched harmonically by well-placed Neapolitan sixth chords), according to Ludwig Finscher, already seems to portend ‘the impending miracle of Easter’.¹

Even without plainchant quotations, the minuet finale has a special intensity. From the very beginning, its austere mood alternating between minor and major, its Neapolitan harmonies and its rhythmic ambiguities generate a mood that is still sombre yet also restores optimism.

_{¹ Vgl. Ludwig Finscher: Joseph Haydn und seine Zeit. Laaber Verlag, Laaber, 2000, S. 267.}

VOL. 6 _LAMENTATIONE

Giovanni Antonini, Basel Chamber Orchestra

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SYMPHONY NO.79 IN F MAJOR HOB. I:79 (1784)

Allegro con spirito / Adagio cantabile – Un poco allegro / Menuet. Allegretto – Trio / Finale. Vivace

Christian Moritz-Bauer

The Symphony in F major, the last of the trilogy written in 1784 along with nos. 81 and 80, has repeatedly had to endure more or less harsh criticisms in its reception history, especially with regard to the design of the two outer movements. For example, Ludwig Finscher speaks of ‘nothing but conventional, barely individualised formulas’¹ in the Allegro con spirito, while A. Peter Brown mentions ‘a touch of gypsy music’ and ‘something of a grinding organ’² in the inner sections of the rondo finale. Everything is ‘enjoyable, but no more than that’.³

By contrast, the British music journalist Anthony Hodgson penned a very eloquent defence speech for Hob I:79:

The most unusual feature of the first movement is a single downward phrase of pure Mozart; this apart, glowing melody is underpinned by a firm staccato bass. The Adagio Cantabile which follows is simple, touching and quietly optimistic. At length the gentle forward motion rests, and suddenly a delightful, quietly hastening section marked un poco allegro bustles in. Isolated from this movement it would be difficult to guess where else it might be used in a symphony – a Finale would perhaps be the place but even that would not quite be suited to such tension. One of those fine Menuetti follows, of the style in which the double bars leave a question mark in the air. The Trio is a country dance plain and simple, with inverted use of the main material and solo flute and oboe adding delicate touches of pastel colour. The Finale, in Haydn’s ‘homecoming’ style (it could never be mistaken for anything else), spins happily along to conclude a work typical of its composer, brightly entertaining in concept yet without a single shallow moment.⁴

One need only add to this description that probably not a single one of Haydn’s previous symphonic movements so clearly anticipates the tone of the future ‘London’ Symphonies as the Adagio cantabile, with its lucid combination of flute and violin timbres, and the Kehraus (‘last dance of the evening’) allegro that emerges from it, which awakens in its listeners the fleeting fear that the work and hence also the lovely concert might already be coming to an end.

_{¹ Ludwig Finscher, Joseph Haydn und seine Zeit (Lilienthal: Laaber, 2000), p.318.
² A. Peter Brown, The Symphonic Repertoire Vol. II – The First Golden Age of the Viennese Symphony: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002), p.203.
³ Finscher, ibid.
⁴ Anthony Hodgson: The Music of Joseph Haydn: The Symphonies. Tantivy Press: London, 1976, p. 106f.}

VOL. 6 _LAMENTATIONE

Giovanni Antonini, Basel Chamber Orchestra

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