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The Seasons (German: Die Jahreszeiten) is an oratorio by Joseph Haydn (H. 21/3). An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, vocal soloists and chorus. ...
Portrait by Thomas Hardy, 1792 Franz[1] Joseph Haydn (March 31, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was one of the most prominent composers of the Classical period, and is called by some the Father of the Symphony and Father of the String Quartet. A life-long resident of Austria, Haydn spent...
Catalogue of works by by Joseph Haydn as compiled by Anthony van Hoboken. ...
Composition, premiere, and reception
Haydn was led to write The Seasons by the great success of his previous oratorio The Creation (1798), which had become very popular and was in the course of being performed all over Europe. The libretto for The Seasons was provided to Haydn, just as with The Creation, by Baron Gottfried van Swieten, a minor Austrian noble who had also exercised an important influence on the career of Mozart. Van Swieten's libretto was his own rendering into German of extracts from the long English poem of the same title by the James Thomson (1700-1748). The Creation (German: Die Schöpfung) is an oratorio written between 1796 and 1798 by Joseph Haydn, and considered by many to be his masterpiece. ...
A libretto is the complete body of words used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet. ...
Baron Gottfried van Swieten (1733-1803) was a minor aristocrat of the Austrian Empire during the eighteenth century. ...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (IPA: , baptized Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart) (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. ...
James Thomson (September 11, 1700 – August 27, 1748) was a Scottish poet. ...
The composition process was arduous for Haydn, in part because his health was gradually failing (soon after the premiere, he became too weak to compose) and partly because Haydn found van Swieten's libretto to be rather taxing. Haydn took two years to complete the work.
The premiere, in Vienna on April 24, 1801, was considered a clear success, but not a success comparable to that of The Creation. In fact, this has been the critical verdict on The Seasons ever since, and to this day it is performed considerably less often than the earlier oratorio.
It is widely felt that the blame lies not with Haydn, who remained at the height of his powers musically, but with the libretto. Oratorios typically are written on weighty subjects, such as episodes and characters from the Christian religion or heroes of classical mythology, but the libretto of The Seasons is mostly about the weather and about everyday life. Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ...
Classical or Greco-Roman mythology usually refers to the mythology, and the associated polytheistic rituals and practices, of Classical Antiquity. ...
The stirring final solo and chorus, which take up weightier matters (the meaning of life, the last trumpet, the eternal afterlife), might be taken to show what a remarkable work Haydn could have composed had he had access to a more serious libretto. Interestingly, these final passages are not from Thompson, but are original work by van Swieten.
Haydn himself complained bitterly about the libretto, calling it "French trash" to his friends. Word got back to van Swieten about Haydn's opinion, which led to something of a falling out between the two.
Forces The Seasons is written for a fairly large late-Classical orchestra, a chorus singing mostly in four parts, and three vocal soloists, representing archetypal country folk: Simon (bass), Lucas (tenor), and Hanne (soprano). The solo voices are thus the same three as in The Creation.
The orchestral parts are for 2 flutes (1 doubling a piccolo in one aria), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 French horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones and bass trombone, timpani, percussion, and the usual string section of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. ...
The piccolo is a small flute. ...
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. ...
Two soprano clarinets: a Bâ™ clarinet (left) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ...
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that plays in the tenor range and below. ...
This is a contrabassoon. ...
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of tubing wrapped into a coiled form. ...
The trumpet is the highest brass instrument in register, above the horn, trombone, baritone, euphonium and tuba. ...
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ...
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ...
A timpanist in the United States Air Forces in Europe Band. ...
The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. ...
The viola (in French, alto; in German Bratsche) is a string instrument played with a bow. ...
The violoncello, almost always abbreviated to cello, or cello (the c is pronounced as the ch in cheese), is a bowed stringed instrument, the lowest-sounding member of the violin family. ...
Side and front views of a modern double bass with a French bow. ...
In addition, a fortepiano usually plays in recitatives, with or without other instruments from the orchestra. Fortepiano designates the early version of the piano, as it existed from its invention by Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century. ...
Recitative, a form of composition often used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas (and occasionally in operettas and even musicals), is melodic speech set to music, or a descriptive narrative song in which the music follows the words. ...
Musical content The oratorio is divided into four parts, corresponding to Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, with the usual recitatives, arias, choruses, and ensemble numbers. Recitative, a form of composition often used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas (and occasionally in operettas and even musicals), is melodic speech set to music, or a descriptive narrative song in which the music follows the words. ...
This article is about the musical term aria. ...
Among the more rousing choruses are a hunting song with horn calls, a wine celebration with dancing peasants (foreshadowing the third movement of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony), a loud thunderstorm ( akin to Beethoven's fourth movement), and a stirring ode to toil (or to "industry" in some translations): 1820 portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler Beethoven redirects here. ...
Ludwig van Beethovens Symphony No. ...
The huts that shelter us, The wool that covers us, The food that nourishes us, All is thy grant, thy gift, O noble toil. Haydn remarked that while he had been industrious his whole life long, this was the first occasion he had ever been asked to write a chorus in praise of industry.
Some especially lyrical passages are the choral prayer for a bountiful harvest, "Sei nun gnädig, milder Himmel" (Be thou gracious, O kind heaven), the gentle nightfall that follows the storm, and Hanne's cavatina on Winter. For the piece of music known as Cavatina or Theme from The Deer Hunter, see Cavatina (song) Cavatina (Italian diminutive of cavata, the producing of tone from an instrument, plural cavatine) is a musical term, originally a short song of simple character, without a second strain or any repetition of...
The work is filled with the "tone-painting" that also characterized The Creation: a plowman whistles as he works (in fact, he whistles the well-known theme from Haydn's own Surprise Symphony), a bird shot by a hunter falls from the sky, there is a sunrise (evoking the one in The Creation), and so on. Joseph Haydns Symphony No. ...
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