MusiLLection

The original text of “Gott, erhalte den Kaiser!”, the Imperial Hymn by Joseph Haydn, with lyrics by Lorenz Leopold Haschka.  During the winter of 1797–1798 , Joseph Haydn composed a set of six string quartets, later published as Op. 76 , which he dedicated to the Hungarian Count Joseph Georg von Erdődy . These quartets belong to the summit of Haydn’s chamber music and reveal a master at the height of his creative powers. The String Quartet No. 62 in C major , Op. 76, No. 3, is universally known by the nickname “Emperor” ( Kaiserquartett ). The title derives from the second movement, which consists of a set of variations on “Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser” (“God Save Emperor Francis”), a hymn Haydn composed in 1797 in honor of Francis II . The melody later became the national anthem of Austria-Hungary and is also familiar today as the tune of the German national anthem, Das Lied der Deutschen . Μovements : Ι. Allegro The opening movement begins with a deceptively simple five-note...

Despite childhood poverty and hardship, Haydn rose to become the most prolific and influential composer of his generation. Franz Joseph Haydn  , known in his childhood as “Little Joseph,” was born on March 31, 1732, in the small Austrian village of Rohrau, near the Hungarian border. His beginnings offered little promise. His father, Mathias Haydn, a poor wheelwright, was unable to provide his gifted son with formal education and watched helplessly as the boy’s obvious musical talent risked being lost. Haydn’s birthplace in Rohrau, near the Austro-Hungarian border. Fortune intervened in 1738, when a relative, Johann Matthias Frankh , schoolmaster and choirmaster in Hainburg, took the six-year-old Joseph into his care. There, Haydn learned the rudiments of music and sang in the choir. Yet this opportunity came at a high cost: his childhood was marked by deprivation and harsh discipline—“more beating than eating,” as Haydn later recalled.,  A Happy Getaway In 1739, Haydn’s circu...

Joseph Haydn, the composer who shaped the symphony and founded the classical string quartet. The evolution of the art of sound would undoubtedly have followed a different path had eighteenth-century Austria not given rise to Joseph Haydn . Modest, generous, and quietly devoted to his craft, Haydn was at once an innovator and a legislator—an architect of musical form whose task was not to overturn tradition, but to shape it into lasting order. Few figures in the history of music have contributed as profoundly to the development of orchestral music as he did. Although he was not the inventor of the symphony, as is sometimes claimed, Haydn was the composer who recognized its definitive shape. He established the principles governing its structure, refined its internal balance, and perfected it both formally and expressively to the highest degree permitted by the musical means of his time. These achievements became the foundation upon which subsequent composers built. Wolfgang Amadeus Moz...

Composed in 1796, the Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major stands among Joseph Haydn ’s most enduring works and remains one of the very few trumpet concertos to secure a permanent place in the orchestral repertoire. Its significance extends beyond its musical charm: the concerto was written for Anton Weidinger’s newly invented keyed trumpet , an instrument that dramatically expanded the technical and chromatic possibilities of the traditional natural trumpet. This innovation allowed Haydn to treat the trumpet not merely as a vehicle of brilliance and ceremonial splendor, but as a genuinely melodic and expressive voice , capable of chromatic inflection and lyrical nuance. The concerto thus marks a historical transition—from the harmonic limitations of eighteenth-century brass writing to a more flexible and cantabile conception of the instrument. The traditional fast–slow–fast layout reflects the structural clarity of late Classical concerto form, yet Haydn’s handling of the solo instrume...

Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s “The Chase” reflects the playful sense of surprise that made Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 instantly famous. Joseph Haydn 's two triumphant visits to London (1791–1792 and 1794–1795), organized by the German-born violinist and impresario Johann Peter Salomon, mark the culmination of his symphonic career. For each stay he composed six symphonies—the celebrated “Salomon Symphonies”—works that combine mature structural command with theatrical wit. Symphony No. 94 in G major belongs to the first London set and quickly captivated audiences with a single unexpected gesture that earned it the enduring nickname “Surprise.” Behind that famous moment, however, lies a masterfully conceived symphonic architecture . Movements : I. Adagio cantabile - Vivace assai The opening movement, Adagio cantabile – Vivace assai , begins with a dignified slow introduction in which woodwinds and strings alternate in poised exchanges, establishing tonal authority. The ensuing Vivace, in 6/8, ...