Notes researched & written by Joan Olsson
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN
1732 – 1809
SYMPHONY NO. 98 in B MAJOR 1792
Franz Joseph Haydn was born in the village of Rohrau in Austria in 1732. The 6-year-old child’s musicality became evident, and he was sent to live with a relative who was a professional musician. The young student was put through a rigorous study schedule of harmony, composition, solfeggio, vocal exercises, violin, and harpsichord playing as a paying boarder in an unfriendly, harsh family environment. The intensive study resulted in the 8-year-old being chosen to be a chorister in Vienna, where he was treated to an equally demanding program.
When the 17-year-old’s voice changed, Haydn was "fired." Survival now depended on teaching, performing, working at petty tasks, playing on a broken-down clavier, and singing in the streets. Additionally, the composer made time for the self-study of counterpoint and the minute dissection of the innovative music of C.P.E. Bach. Through a job as accompanist and valet for a well-known singing teacher, Haydn made the connections that led to the dream job as Kappelmeister of Vienna’s greatest music patrons, the Hungarian Esterhazy family. It was the year 1761 when he thus embarked on 30 years of a financially secure, full-scale musical life centered at the Prince’s country estate. Musical opportunities were diverse but controlled; he composed, arranged, and conducted religious, operatic, celebratory and theatrical music.
Haydn was pensioned off in l790 and made his way back to a cosmopolitan life in Vienna. Offered a generous sum of money for six symphonies, an opera, and twenty miscellaneous pieces, Haydn packed his bags, traveled by stagecoach and ships to live in London. The largest inducement for accepting the arrangement in a foreign, far-away land was a ìcarte blancheî situation; he was now, for the first time, free from the ears, eyes, personal tastes, and direction of employer nobility. He could compose as he pleased, and as a result, brilliant ideas flowed from head to pen.
Eighteen months of London life were full of recognition before huge, enthusiastic audiences and resulted in a second visit for the creation of six more symphonies (numbers 99-104). Upon completing the twelve London symphonies, the 62-year-old rich and famous Haydn returned to Vienna and retired. He gradually lost his good health, and made his last public appearance in 1808 on a stretcher lifted high for all, including young Beethoven, to see. As he lay ill, the invading Napoleon put a friendly, protective guard around his house. Death followed in 1809, and a pomp and circumstance funeral was held. It included a performance of dear friend Mozart’s Requiem, in recognition of the ties that so strongly bound the two geniuses.
Symphony No. 98
First Movement: The symphony begins with the immediate introduction of a slow, hymn-like theme in a somber minor key. Considered the seed of this symphony, the theme grows, develops and stretches in much the same way as a seed becomes a stem which grows higher and wider with shoots. The mood turns gay and fast, but the theme remains recognizably intact. The second theme introduced sounds like another variation of the first theme — another shoot from the plant. The composer includes interruptions of the theme by loud, surprising blasts from horns and tympani; their participation might be considered the flowering part of the plant.
The Second Movement is recognizable for its playing of fragments from "God Save the Queen" in recognition of being on British soil. The music has several measures of dramatic starts and stops, with strings filling in some space between the phrases. This movement also consists of a light, sweet elegy, composed in memory of his deceased younger friend, Mozart.
With the Third Movement comes a contrasting, vigorous minuet with trumpets, drums and horns emphasizing the aggressive tempo. This is far from that of the usual, slow, courtly minuet.
The Fourth Movement conjures up a mood of mischievous humor, in keeping with the composer’s love of fun and surprises. The first surprise is the introduction of a solo violin playing high above orchestral accompaniment. As the movement appears to be ending, another surprise occurs. Out of nowhere come ten measures of fast, shimmering arpeggios on a harpsichord as an accompaniment to the orchestral melody. Haydn wrote the measures into the score in order to participate musically in this symphony’s performance as both conductor and orchestra member. The ten measures are just an embellishment; sometimes they are included, sometimes not.