Download - Great Symphonies
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H A Y D N
poser who wrote real symphonies, he is the best
one for a start, if you want to know something
about this kind of music.
They cal led him "Papa Haydn," not because
he was the father of the sym pho ny (which was
not really known until later) , but because he
had a fatherly way with music and with every-
body who listened to it. (Pronounce his name
"hid e'n," as in "hide'n go seek.") H is pieces gen -
erally sounded happy and contented and cheer-
ful, and they were not hard to understand.
Haydn liked to play jokes, and many of these
are in his music.
H e once wrote a Toy Symphony, in which
most of the instruments are toys, like rattles and
cuckoo-calls and whistles and httle tin trumpets.
Almost any group can learn to play this sym-
phony, so long as there is one good pianist and
one good violinist to do the important parts.
Another famous musical joke of Papa Haydn
was his Farewell Symphony, in which he m ad e
each player blow out a candle and stop playing,
one at a time, until there were only two left, and
finally they blew out their candles too, and the
symphony was over.
HAYDN'S SURPRISE SYMPHONY
But the best known of all the Haydn jokes
is in the
Surprise Symphony,
which he w rote in
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G R E A T S Y M P H O N I E S
1792, nearly a hundred and fifty years ago. The
surprise comes in the second movement, and it
is a very loud chord, played suddenly after a
soft and peaceful melody. Haydn said that this
would wake up all the people who had fallen
asleep during the symphony. But i f you l is ten
to the first movement, you will find very little
reason to fall asleep, for it is hvely, joyful music
that anybody would l ike to hear .
There is a slow Introduction, which is itself a
sort of joke, for Haydn does not mean to be
serious at all . After seventeen measures, he sud-
denly starts a merry tune that could be fit ted
with words like this:
lif FIFPp^^P
fe^
t
c
Hay-dn ve-ri-ly Sang so mer-r i-ly. Yea caa
t^ag
m
l-ways laugh athisjokes
H e play s all sorts of musical tr icks with this
tune, until he has reached the eightieth measure,
when he brings in a second tune, a little softer,
a little sweeter, and a little gentler than the first.
They are both introduced by the s tr inged instru-
ments (violins, etc.) , and the second one might
have these words:
4,
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H A Y D K
^ g J ^ l J . J ) h J ) | h h h J
m
Tbis fame an-w ersthe ea r-B -e r straai, h
J. j i jU i | j> ju jn^ i j v | ; ; i ^ i ;
sooB hasUSall smi-ling a-guo. "Cheer np heernp Cheer
O J ji I J
j
up " Hat is its
-py re-frain
After this tune has been played once, it is
repeated, with the flute playing the same notes
as the first violins, and then going into a little
duet with the oboes, which sound like someone
singing through his nose.
T he developm ent or plot of this open ing move-
ment is mostly about the first tune, which goes
around in all sorts of disguises, till at last it
comes back very softly and timidly, as if it
wanted to be forgiven for running away. The
orchestra makes a lot of noise in welcoming it
back, and finally there is a contest, in which the
strings play the first tune again, and then the
wood-wind instruments (flute, oboes, bassoons)
play it their way. Then they all do the same sort
of thing with the second tune, as a reminder, for
it really has not had much attention, compared
with the first tune. Before anything more can
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G R E A T S Y M P H O N I E S
be done about it, the orchestra seems to say, in
unison, "Time's up " and pulls down the curtain
with a few closing chords.
Now comes the second act, or movement,
which contains the main surprise. It starts right
in with this tune, played slowly and softly by the
first violins, with the other players picking at the
strings instead of using the bow, for an accom-
paniment :*
S
^m
E
^ ^
^
M=M
h-0-
Papa Haydn vn-ote this tone. And a chord is coming soon,
W
Jij iJ iJ il^JJ l(?[y||J J lJ >^
IIwiUbe a big surprise, Op-en slee-pyeyes Bang
T h e "b an g" really comes after this l i t tle tun e has
ibeen played twice, the second time even softer
than the first, so that the loud chord would
ac tua lly be both a surp rise an d a shock, especially
to anyon e who mig ht have gone to sleep, as P a p a
Haydn said .
This is the only tune in the second movement
'of the Surprise Symphony, althou gh it run s a
little longer than just the few notes above. The
*Haydn used this same tune in The Seasons, to represent a
whistling ploughboy.
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H A Y D N
trick that Haydn plays is to write "variat ions,"
th a t is, ex tra notes and m usical decorations,
which dress up the tune in such ways that it
sounds different, although it is really always the
same tune. This happens eight times altogether,
and you never grow tired of the tune, because
the variations make each reminder seem fresh
and new.
The th i rd movement of Haydn 's
Surprise
Symphony
is a M inu et, which was originally
a
rather slow and stately dance, with three beats
to a measure, like a slow waltz. People danced
the Minuet in the powdered wigs and elaborate
costumes of what we call "colonial days," and it
was popular all over Europe, as well as in
America.
Haydn calls this movement Menuetto, by
which he means to show that it is faster than
a regular Minuet. It really is much too fast for
such a dance, and the very first tune makes this
quite clear:
^
In this
Men
n
ei
- to
th e
m u. sic i s
*
k
$
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
fast. Just Us-ten and findont how long it will lasL
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G R E A T S Y M P H O N I E S
Haydn wrote this melody one tone higher, which
would be a little too high to sing, and where we
have the words "fas t" and " las t" he had the vio-
lins play a chord, with its top note an octave
higher. H e w ent on a l i t t le further with the t u ne
too, but this is the most important par t .
The Minuet in a symphony general ly has a
reg ula r form, l ike thi s: T he first tu ne is repe ated,
note for note. Then comes a second tune, which
is also repeated, and then the first tune again.
After that there is a third tune, called the
Trio,
in two parts, each repeated. Finally the first and
second tunes are played through once more,
which finishes the Minuet. If you can remember
the first tune, especially in this
Menuetto,
that
is really enough.
By the time you reach the last movement, or
Finale, in the Surprise Symphony, you feel th at
you a lready know Ha y d n qui te well . H e s tar t s
ag ain with one of those jo lly tune s th at ma ke yo u
forget he was all of sixty years old when he w rote
this symphony. It might be called a good-bye
t une , but there is nothing of sadness in it.
This tune is played seven times, with slight
chan ges, in the Finale of theSurprise Symphony,
other and less important melodies interrupting.
Such a pattern is called a
Rondo,
which really
means a round dance, the same melody coming
back again and again, after others have tried to
push it aside. It is a gay, happy way to finish a
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H A Y D N
tfjji^ [T i I ji ji } p
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Il's
time BOW
to say
good-bye
To
y J'ppMMp^r u
oae we call a jol-ly firiend. Best thanks for a
i l^J^J^J^MppfJ^
1 ^ ^ ^
grandsurprise. Our sym-pho-ny is at an end.
symphony, and many other composers used
Rondos in their symphonies after Haydn's time.
In fact, they all took him as a model, and built
on the foundations that he created, making the
symphony gradually more and more elaborate,
like a cathedral that starts with a few simple
arches and becomes after many years a wonder-
ful piece of architecture.
H A Y D N ' S L O N D O N S Y M P H O N Y
I n 1791, when Ha yd n was already nearly
sixty years old, he came to London for the first
time, at the invitation of a concert manager
named Salomon. During his visit of a year and
a half in London, Haydn wrote six great sym-
phonies, as ordered by Salomon, including the
Surprise.
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