Franz Joseph Haydn - Father of the Symphony

Where is Papa Haydn?

Papa Haydn. The Father of the Symphony. Then why don’t we hear him more often in the concert hall? So I actually did a bit (emphasis on the bit. A small portion. A short amount of time. And effort.) of research on this.

Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

Let me backup - I really enjoy listening to Haydn Symphonies. He wrote 104 of them and they are delightful. His music is light and cheerful. Really easy on the ears. And there is so much variety in his symphonies. How he did that I don’t know. Sometimes I’m schlepping ideas after a couple rounds, you know?

Anyway, I did have musicians tell me that Haydn is hard to program personnel-wise in today’s orchestra scene. Side note - this is funny to me because, as an education person, we are often cutting back the orchestra size. His orchestras are smaller and use mostly strings. This leaves other players out of the concert and orchestras like to use everyone they can. 

But the father of the symphony! What possible explanation could we have for leaving him out of the regular rotation? Give the winds and brass and percussion a teeny break and pop a Haydn on the concert! Then I read this article which offers an unusual but completely believeable reason for not inviting Papa to the party more often in this day and age:

The Music World Needs Haydn offers several possible reasons to exclude Haydn, but this one stood out to me:

“while Haydn faced difficulties of his own, he nevertheless lived a long life and gained wide respect while still alive, was charming and cheerful, a savvy and successful businessman, a devout Catholic whose faith was very important to him, a man who respected rather than challenged his aristocratic employers and benefactors.”

Ahhhhhh. Haydn is not interesting enough. He was, by all accounts, a nice guy. People liked him. There was minimal drama in his life. He worked hard, lived long, wrote great music, and went about his day. Yawn. 

I can relate, Papa Haydn. Who hasn’t felt ordinary sometimes. Like, if I just had bright orange hair, could do a backbend, drove a nicer car, could calculate big numbers in my head, was a bungee-jumper, had a cat that played piano…

Apparently the drama and angst of Mozart and Beethoven, and composers like them, has overshadowed the grace and solidity of Haydn. So, not only is he hard to program because the orchestra is smaller but he is not as interesting in the program notes. 

Lots of classical music has associated stories. Some are sad, some are funny, some are thought-provoking, some are highly improbable. I don’t know if the stories I know are 100% true or mostly true or just true enough to make a good story. What I do know is that the stories help me connect with the music and the composer.

So here are three of my favorite Haydn stories AS I REMEMBER THEM! I would like to reiterate, these may or may not be historically accurate as expressed by this author. But Lunch with Mozart finds them funny and they add to my personal enjoyment of the music. 

Farewell Symphony This group does one of the best jobs of expressing this particular adventure. Everything looks normal until about 3:20 when the plot thickens. If you never click on another link, this one is worth the watch!

The story here is that the musicians were not getting paid enough, didn’t have any time off, and were not treated well in general. In order to address the situation musically, Haydn wrote this symphony. In the last movement musicians pack up for vacation and leave the stage a little at a time until there is no one left. How much music can you make without musicians? Funny to watch and a great way to get your point across, Papa Haydn!

Photo by Mantas Hesthaven on Unsplash

Surprise Symphony - the “surprise” actually happens about 42 seconds in. Now, if you are used to superheroes, giant dinosaurs, croco-gator-raptors and the like it might not really surprise you that much. But I can definitely see the overly stuffed, handsomely gilded, supremely privileged, please-lift-my-glass-for-me crowd of the 18th century having their collective wigs blown off by such a shock.

Probably my favorite of the favorites story. In this instance, the audience was falling asleep. Now, I’ve talked about sleeping at the symphony and how it is not always a bad thing. And I stand by that. This was the rude kind of sleeping. The sitting in the front row, snoring, why-is-this-music-so-boring kind of sleeping. The kind of sleeping that insults the composer, the musicians, the staff, and the universe in general. 

Anyway, Haydn created this symphony with an unexpected chord that was designed to wake up the holy sleepers and knock them out of their chairs. I heard that it did it’s job marvelously. Beware all who do the rude sleep thing around the great Papa Haydn!

Bassoon farts

Yes, I know. So immature of me. I can’t help it. I’ve never hidden the fact that I find farts and fart jokes funny. 

Because they are.

Anyway, I came across this gem when searching for “funny classical music” for a potential program. While it didn’t make the cut (but did it cut the cheese?), you have to appreciate a composer who has the sense of humor and confidence to actually write a raspberry for the bassoons in his music. That will likely live forever. That is commitment.

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

Symphony No. 93 This is just the clip, the “event” is about 15 second in but totally worth listening to the full movement…no pun intended😇

I mean, he wrote a FART in his music! Teen-agers anyone? 

I propose that Haydn is brilliant and we should play him more and more and more. Let’s tell the funny, feel-good stories and celebrate this artist who essentially created much of the ways we express orchestral music today. Let’s celebrate one ordinary guy who did extraordinary things.

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STAY TUNED-Next week is kind of a big dealio!

You won’t want to miss Lunch with Mozart next week! I have an interview/conversation with a 100%, honest-to-goodness Opera Star! Ben Gulley did me a favor and sat down with me to help me on my opera journey. Even though I only asked one of me pre-planned questions and our convo strolled from opera to chemistry to cold fusion to Italy to meta-physics and back again, it got me fired up to see opera in person! 

“You need permission to like opera.”

“You need great storytellers.”

“The whole room takes the breath with you. Opera requires that audience energy.”

I can’t wait!!!