Haydn's Contribution to Instrumental Music

by H. A. Clarke, Mus. Doc.

Haydn is generally, but not quite justly, called the "Father" of the symphony, a title which he himself would have been the last to claim, since he avowed his indebtedness to Carl Philipp Emannuel Bach for the "Form" in which his symphonic compositions are cast.

This "Form", the Sonata, was the great contribution to the art of music that C.P.E. Bach had the good fortune to make, but unfortunately for him, he was not gifted with the genius of his follower, Haydn, and his symphonies - he wrote eighteen - have passed into oblivion, while Haydn's still retain their hold on the affections of lovers of good music.

The advance that Haydn made in this, the highest, branch of musical construction was not so much in the elaboration of the "form" as in the "content" he put into it. The dogmas of the old school of contrapuntists sat very lightly on him. He brought to the work a freedom of harmonic structure that was unknown to his predecessors. Witness his reply to a pedant who found fault with his transgression of some law:

"Have I not as good a right to make a new law as he who made the old law?"

But his freedom of harmonic treatment is merely a means, not the end sought by Haydn. Scores of writers have pushed this harmonic freedom into intolerable license, yet have fallen far short of producing "music" worthy the name; consequently the charm of Haydn's symphonies must be sought for wlsewhere.

The first impression one gets from them is their geniality. Of a truth, in those days "Music, heavently maid, was young," and her youth had not yet been "sicklied o'er" by the pessimistic shadows of latter day "philosophies" - but revelled with the joyous abandon of youth, in her newly discovered means of expression.

Geniality and good humor are not feelings of great depth or intensity; hence to search for depth and intensity in the music of Haydn is a vain quest. But they are surely qualities that add mightily to the pleasure and "gaiety of nations", and are deservedly prized accordingly; especially when, as in the case, they are united with grace that is always captivating and a felicity of expression that never fails to charm. This felicity of expression is due to the consummate mastery Haydn always displays in the use of his material, the artistic fitness, the unerring skill which always knows when enough has been said and never adds a superfluous note; the good taste that never for a moment - or only for a moment sometimes - forgets that beauty is the chief raison d'etre of music, and therefore eschews the grotesque, the bizarre and the cacophonous as the mortal enemies of beauty.

It should never be forgotten in forming an estimate of Haydn's instrumental music that the orchestra of his day was a very different thing from the mighty power for expression with which we are so familiar in the modern orchestra, and that the skill of the instrumentalist was almost as nothing in comparison with the virtuosi who make up the modern orchestra. The orchestra for which he wrote, called the "chamber orchestra", was a small affair, wanting in trombones, and with horns and trumpets of very limited capacity, the players, as a rule, so unskilled that Haydn, himself, remarked that he had never heard a good orchestra until he visited London - an orchestra that made any attempt at careful shading.

As is well know, this visit to London resulted in the production of his most highly esteemed symphonies - the twelve known as the "Salomon Symphonies". Yet with the imperfect means at his disposal he produced effects in tone color that have never been surpassed, so that to this day there is not better school for the learner in instrumentation than is to be found in the symphonies of Haydn. That he pondered long and deeply on the possibilities of the orchestra is evidenced by his remark shortly before the end of his long life that, "It was a pity he had to go as he was just learning how to use the brass instruments."

It is not possible to sum up in a few sentences the contributions of Haydn to the development of the symphony, since they lie chiefly in that region where the indescribably thing we call genius rules. It was genius that created the beautiful themes, and guided its possessor in his development of them; that taught him to sake off the shackles that, having served a useful purpose, were now a hindrance, not a help to free expression. In a word, we are forced to say that Haydn's chief contribution to the growth of the symphony was - Haydn himself.

The two following quotations have practical value in this connection and are added to Dr. Clarke's article by the Editor of The Etude:

Mr. E. Pauer, the well known English writer says" "If Mozart's and, above all, Beethoven's wondrous symphonies and sonatas have overshadowed those of Haydn it must not be forgotten that the form bequeathed to them was, by him, from the vague and dim foreshadows of his predecessors, first shaped and brought to perfection. If, by the side of the richly developed and brilliant orchestral effects of our own day, Haydn's scoring seems, to the superficial listener, by tame, the student, on the other hand, will recognize that the modern use of the orchestra as a vehicle for "color" is due in a great measure to Haydn. He, more than any other, contributed to the popularization of high class instrumental music by the cheery nature of his themes and the spontaneous ease and grace with which his most complex contrapuntal passages seem to flow."

Dr. C.H.H. Parry, in his great work, "The Evolution of the Art of Music" says: "Both Haydn and Mozart immensely improved upon their predecessors in the power of finding characteristic subjects, and in deciding the type of subject which is best fitted for instrumental music. The difference in that respect between their early and later works is very marked. They improved the range of the symphonic cycle of movements by adding the minuet and trio to the old group of three movements, thereby introducing definite and undisguised dance movements to follow and contrast with the central cantabile slow movement. * * * Even in detail and character of music is altered in their hands; all phraseology is made articulate and definite; and the minutiae, which lend themselves to refined and artistic performance, are carefully considered, without in any way diminishing the breadth and freedom of the general effect. * * * If the world could be satisfied with the ideal of perfectly organized simplicity, without any great force of expression, instrumental art might well have stopped at the point to which they brought it."

The Etude Magazine January 1907