Haydn's Oratorio The Seasons

Choral Singing / Oratorio

Oratorio The Seasons ('Die Jahreszeiten') followed Haydn's earlier masterpiece, The Creation

Franz Joseph Haydn's oratorio 'The Seasons' ('Die Jahreszeiten): facts, the cast, brief history, and other Haydn-related information.

The Seasons followed Haydn's greatest work The Creation, both oratorios based after a Handel model instead of the traditional Italian oratorio. 

Facts about The Seasons:

Composer: (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), an Austrian composer born in Rohrau, Austria. 

Original Title: Die Jahreszeiten

Original Language: German

Text: Gottfried van Swieten (Baron von Swieten), Austrian patron of the Arts. The words are based on the English poem The Seasons by James Thomson.      

Form: Four parts: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter – a total of 44 musical numbers.

Date of Writing: 1799-1801.

First Performance: Vienna, in the palace of Prince Schwarzenberg, April 24, 1801.

Haydn's "The Seasons" performed by Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Howard Arman.   Felicitas Fuchs, soprano. Andrew Staples, tenor. Reinhard Hagen, bass.  MDR Radio Choir of Leipzig.




Here's another link:  With Herbert von Karajan conducting  the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra:  Haydn's "The Seasons" in German. Soloists: G. Janowitz, W. Hollweg. 

The Oratorio's Cast:

Simon, a tenant farmer (bass)

Hanne, his daughter (soprano)

Lucas, a young peasant (tenor)

The oratorio is a four-part mixed chorus

The Orchestra: Flutes, clarinets, bassoons, contrabassoons, oboes, horns, trumpets, trombones, timpani, strings, continuo with cello and harpsichord.

Brief History of The Seasons:

The Seasons followed the path of its predecessor, Haydn's most successful oratorio The Creation and therefore it can be deduced that whether van Swieten talked Haydn into producing this succeeding oratorio or not is immaterial. Haydn was enjoying extreme  respect and admiration from people after "The Creation." On the other hand, the maestro was now 67 years old.

Haydn's popularity as an instrumental composer went quickly far and wide. From all the great joy that "The Creation" brought him, "The Seasons" took on. One again, the text of the composition was arranged by Gottfried can Swieten, who also had great influence on the younger Mozart. A highly cultured Viennese patron of the arts, van Swieten once again produced a text to make the best use of Haydn's talents and make it another masterpiece.   

Prominent aristocrats guaranteed the best conditions, an honorarium at the same time oversee the production premiere.

The premiere on April 24, 1801 was an enormous success, and immediately two more performances followed on 29^th of April and 1^st of May. The audience was enrapt with the highest accolade for the wearying but elated composer. He gave his all for this oratorio and felt that it was his last.

Haydn said about the effect of "The Seasons" (The World of the Oratorio by Kurt Pahlen, Scolar Press, 1990):

"… I had to struggle for days at a time with the smallest details."       

Brief Synopsis of The Seasons:

The theme of the seasons is an obvious one, the normal season changes of the year – spring, summer, autumn, winter. Other composers have tried the idea including baroque composers Vivaldi and Telemann. Vivaldi's violin concerto cycle Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons) is extremely popular to date.

The oratorio has four parts:

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

with a total of 44 musical numbers.

The character Simon, the farmer, observes the stuggle between the elements – starting from spring (as when Hanne feels the first gentle winds of spring) to the harsh winter (destroying blossoms and sprouts.) – a symbol for the passing of life.  

Between the main melody and its repetition at the conclusion, a splendid and enchanting exchange between the voices (male and female) is used.

However, The Seasons doesn't end in melancholy, as expressed by the chorus and the soloists, but that of greatest and deepest joy, signifying an acceptance of the human life.

Other Famous Oratorios:

Bach's St Matthew Passion
Handel's Israel in Egypt

Handel's Messiah
Handel's Saul 

Haydn'sThe Creation

Mendelssohn's Elijah

Mendelssohn's St Paul 

Resource:

The World of Oratorio by Kurt Pahlen (1990)

Note:  I originally wrote this piece for Suite101.com, 10 October 2007.  This is a shorter piece. /Tel  

2007-2014.  Tel Asiado.  Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved. 

Franz Joseph Haydn

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: March 31
 

 

Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent of the Classical period. He was known as the 'Father of the Symphony.'

Franz Joseph Haydn was born on March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria. Along with that of Mozart, he epitomised the early Classical era. The son of a wheelwright, he went to St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna as a chorister. He was mainly self-taught in composition however gained maturity as a composer. Haydn was married to Maria Anna Aloysia Apollonia Keller (m. 1760–1800.) His younger brother, Michael Haydn was also a composer. He was known affectionately as "Papa" Haydn to his young friend Wolfgang Mozart. He was a tutor of Ludwig van Beethoven for a brief period.

In 1761, at the age of 29 (his young friend Mozart was then five years old), Haydn took employment with the Esterhazy family, a post he held for the rest of his life. On the death of Prince Nikolaus in 1790, he accepted an invitation to go to England from the impresario Salomon, where he composed many symphonies.

 

Joseph Haydn was a major exponent of sonata form in his numerous chamber and orchestral works having written more than 100 symphonies. He was also the first great master of the string quartet.  

Haydn is famous for his oratorio "The Creation" (German: Die Schöpfung) and "The Seasons" (German: Die Jahreszeiten). He wrote many symphonies and string quartets.  He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the piano trio. His contributions to musical form have earned him the epithets "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet". Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe.

Related Article: 

What "Papa" Haydn Taught Mozart
   

Listening pleasure:

Pianist Martha Argerich performing Haydn's Piano Concerto in D major, Hob. XVIII:11.  YouTube, uploaded by Roberto Carvalho de Magalhães. Accessed February 9, 2018.  (Added info from  Hyperion for those who want to know more about this concerto by Haydn - Here.)  

Haydn's Oratorio The Creation

Sacred Music / Oratorio

 

 

Oratorio 'Die Schöpfung' considered the greatest work of Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn's masterpiece, oratorio 'The Creation': facts, the cast, brief history, and other Haydn-related information. 

Haydn said of the time he was at work on this enormous composition, (The World of the Oratorio by Kurt Pahlen, Scolar Press, 1990):

"Never had I been so devout as when I was composing The Creation. Everyday I fell to my knees and prayed to God to give me strength for my work."      


"The heavens are telling the glory of God,
the wonder of his work displays the firmament.
To-day that is coming, speaks it the day,
the night that is gone, to following night.
The heavens are telling the glory of God,
the wonder of his work displays the firmament.
In all the lands resounds the word,
never unperceived, ever understood.
The heavens are telling the glory of God,
the wonder of his work displays the firmament."
~ The Heavens are Telling, from Haydn's "The Creation"~

Video: F.J. Haydn - "The heavens are telling"〈The Creation〉Oratorio / Christopher Hogwood. YouTube, uploaded by Protestant7 (Baroque music). Accessed April 30, 2013. 

In his last years, Franz Joseph Haydn created his masterpiece the oratorio The Creation. The Austrian classical composer expressed his vision of the creation, as told in the Holy Bible and John Milton's poem Paradise Lost.

 

The Creation is considered Joseph Haydn's greatest work. He spent relentlessly working on it just before the turn of the 19th century.

 

The CREATION (Franz Joseph Haydn) SD. Uploaded by LandsmannVideo. Accessed March 4, 2018.   (Gabriel · Eva Ida Falk Winland, Soprano. Uriel - Andrew Staples, Tenor. Raphael -  David Stout, Bass. Adam - Robert Davies, Bass. Musica Saeculorum. Konzertmeister: Matthew Truscott. Conductor: Philipp von Steinaecker)

Facts about The Creation:

Composer: (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), an Austrian composer born in Rohrau, Austria.  

Original Title: Die Schöpfung

Original Language: German

Text: Gottfried van Swieten (Baron von Swieten), Austrian patron of the Arts. The words are based on the Holy Bible's Book of Genesis and a poem by the Englishman Lidley (or Linley), who also based his work on Milton's Paradise Lost.      

Form: Three Parts, a total of 34 musical numbers. 

Date of Writing: 1796-1798.

First Performance: Vienna, in the palace of Prince Schwarzenberg, April 29 and 30, 1798.