Haydn Symphony No 45 "Farewell"

About the composer:

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical era, often called the "Father of the Symphony" and the "Father of the String Quartet" for his pioneering contributions to these genres. Born on March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria, Haydn showed early musical talent and joined the choir of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna as a boy.

After years of freelance work and study, he became Kapellmeister(literally Master of the Chapel Choir, but generally stood for the leader of a group of musicians. We would say Musical Director now...) for the wealthy Esterházy family in 1761, where he composed most of his works over nearly three decades. His vast output includes 104 symphonies , 68 string quartets, 52 piano sonatas, and the oratorios The Creation and The Seasons.

Haydn's music is celebrated for its wit, structural innovation, and melodic charm. In his later years, he became internationally famous, traveling to London for successful concert tours. He mentored young composers, including Mozart and Beethoven. Haydn died in Vienna on May 31, 1809.

Portrait of Haydn c.1770

Artistic Director's Notes

There are two stories I want to share about this piece. The first is musicological, and the other...well certainly unique in the annals of Classical music.

To start with the musicological: Musicians and composers live in real time, and their work can reflect, or ignore, the socio-political movements of their time (Interestingly, both stories reflect this statement in different ways...) Throughout most of Art music history, composers have been aware of the philosophical movements of their day, and their work and their compositions definitely show that influence. This reflection and awareness, can be seen quite clearly in the music of Haydn, and especially the relationship(s) between this Symphony, written in 1772 and the German philosophical movement Sturm und drang (German for Storm and stress) that existed between 1760s and the 1780s. This movement was a reaction towards Rationalism, and basically it promoted extreme shifts of emotion, and especially emotional responses that were not based on rational thought processes (think revenge or greed, for example). For a modern audience, used to a wide variety of emotional displays, the idea that these extreme display (or at least extreme for the day) were shocking is perhaps hard to comprehend.

Obviously, it is hard to depict specific emotions within music, these extreme changes can be displayed, and this symphony is often used a prime example. This is the only known symphony by any composer in the Classical period in this key - F# minor reflecting an overall sad patina. The melodies are more angular that one would find in other example works of the time, and there are often quick changes of mood and a use of dissonance over longer periods of time, than one would normally expect. This makes this work a major and important example of the interplay between a composer, and the philosophical, and literary modes of his time.

And then there is the other story about this work. Why is it called Farewell? It is not, by a large number, the last of Haydn's work. To whom is it bidding farewell? This story is well known within the musical community, but is perhaps not known to others outside that clique. Scholarship confirms almost all of the details, so we basically can take it as truth.

Haydn was Kapellmeister to Prince Esterházy and the court was spending the summer in the Prince's favourite summer palace. However, the Prince was enjoying his time a little too much and the summer court was lasting longer than agreed, and the musician and other servants were getting home sick. Some of the musicians approached Haydn, and asked if he could perhaps do something about this. In reponse, Haydn wrote this Symphony that has an unusual final movement (a very rare 5th movement in this case). In the final movement, in the original performance and in our's tonight, various individual orchestra members play a solo phrase, and then quietly leave the stage. This continues throughout the movement, until all the orchestra have left the stage other than the two lead violins (In the original, Haydn was the lead First violinist. There was no conductor at this time usually - they would not appear regularly until the 1830s). This effect would have been greater in the 18th Century, as the musicians would have blown out their candles that were used to light up their music - unfortunately we did not have the budget, nor the clearance from the Fire Department, to do this this evening.

Perhaps surprisingly to a modern audience, the Prince got the point that Haydn was making, and the court packed up and returned home the day after the performance.