Topic > Analysis of the Piano Sonatas of Franz Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn was an Austrian who was one of the most important classical composers of the 18th century. He was born on March 31, 1732 and died on May 31, 1809. He wrote 104 symphonies, 32 piano trios, 62 piano sonatas and more than 90 string quartets. His contributions to the musical form earned him the epithets "father of the symphony" and "father of the string quartet". When he was young, he was sent to study music when his musical talent was discovered by his parents. He grew up to become a very talented singer and instrumentalist. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family on their remote estate. In 1761 he began to serve the Esterházy family for almost three decades. Haydn composed symphonies, string quartets, chamber music and works for the court. He often traveled to Vienna to work and met Mozart during the trip. The men developed a close relationship and found inspiration in each other's work. Haydn was the most natural and lovable man. His legendary humor was combined with a sense of the reality of life as a true countryman. His optimistic character allowed him to accept without bitterness the obstacles and frustrations of his life as a livery servant. In his later life, he accepted the honors bestowed upon him with undiminished pleasure and without a trace of vanity. Haydn wrote 62 piano sonatas. Most of these were written in his early years. He was not a pianist, only three of his piano sonatas were written in the last 20 years of his life. Most of his sonatas followed a strict three-movement structure. He also wrote 9 sonatas with only two movements and 2 sonatas with four movements. Most of these were written in major keys and only 7 were in minor keys. The melodic development is magnificent. However, only a small number of sonatas contained virtuosic passages, and some of them instead sound relatively simple. This does not detract from their musicality, but it may explain why Haydn's piano sonatas are not performed very often. In his first sonatas some passages were inspired by the violin technique, inside there are some imitations of stringed instruments. It has been argued that Haydn may have conceived his early works in the context of a string ensemble and later adapted his ideas to the keyboard. The “typical” first movement of Haydn does not exist. In each he embarks on a new adventure in structure and style, embracing every imaginable variety of mood, from the challenge of No.40 in E-flat major and No.47 in B minor, to refinement and grace expressive of n.54 in G major. The mood usually changed wildly almost from bar to bar, between exuberance, pathos and grandeur, as in the 1st movement of No.60 in C major. His summaries are rarely mere reformulations, but they demonstrate his compelling need to keep "working" his material. Again, he used the formality of the minuet as a vehicle for all sorts of textual experiments, and his minor trios are often finely tuned. expressive Bailie (1989) discussed Haydn's origins, the possibility that Haydn was of Croatian rather than German origin, and the popular influences he naturally absorbed from the mixed races and cultures of his native region near the Austro-Hungarian border influences are perhaps most evident in his endings, which are typically full of spark and often boisterous "country" humor, abounding in his typically irregular phrase lengths,stomping, swirling, or "bubbling" dance-like. There are some issues of style for Haydn in writing his sonatas. In his early sonatas, as in the harpsichord era, there are no dynamic signs. The first use of dynamic signs appears in Hob. XVI: 35-39 and XVI: 20 in C published in 1780, which were influenced by the fortepiano. Later, when he had become accustomed to the capabilities of the new instruments, gradations of sound such as crescendo or decrescendo were implicated in the phrase form in the sonata. The sudden forte or the piano are in fact Haydn's characteristics. Haydn's frequent forzatos must be treated with a lively forte passage, a sharp, firm or even biting accent. Effortful syncopates sometimes appear in the later Sonatas with Beethovenian persistence. For example, this was found in the first movement of no. 60 in C major, bars 76-80. Furthermore, a forzato over the course of a melodic line in a piano context is more likely to indicate a gentle emphasis, a “leaning” or a slight “holding” of certain notes, important for the formative and expressive sense of the phrase. For example, in the slow movement of the Sonata no. 60 in C major in bars 9-10, the unusual semiquavers accented in the left hand, in the right hand and again in the left hand. Haydn's rhythmic figuration is complex. Airy marching rhythms and vigorous figures abound are his styles. He preferred the use of dotted rhythms in solemnity, or in passages of high dramatic tension. Triplets are used liberally especially in some of the first minuets. For example in the Sonata no. 1 in G major, the dotted rhythm and triplets alternate throughout the first movement. To play Haydn's rhythm we have to walk, dance, wave our arms and do anything that has a physical rhythm to feel the right beat. Haydn used the minuet structure to wonderfully expressive effect. It is important to remember that a minuet is a dance rhythm, regardless of whether the minuet or trio was vigorous, even with a heavy character as in Sonata No. 47 in B minor. Haydn was innovative and unconstrained, often using sentences of irregular lengths. The rule for understanding phrase length is to sing out loud. Then we will know how and when they begin and end, and how they are formed. It is also important to perceive the forward movement in the subdivision of sentences. For example at the beginning of the first movement of the Sonata no. 2 in C major, the 3 opening chords are played in a vigorous, rhythmic and "continuous" way, without feeling "still" on the chord on the 1st movement of measure 2. The Sonata no. 62 in E flat major (Hob.XVI/52) is the most impressive and virtuosic of all Haydn's sonatas. The first movement, imaginative in the range of its rhythmic and pianistic figuration, of such grandeur and immutability of design. The dotted rhythm existed at the beginning of the first movement and can be found throughout the movement. To perform this dotted rhythm in the style of eighteenth-century music, the dotted eighth note should be lengthened beyond its notated value while the sixteenth note should be shortened. The practical strategy for this dotted rhythm is to practice slowly, counting the dotted rhythm accurately, instead of doting twice and "tripletizing" to create a livelier rhythm. After playing the dotted quarter, lift your hand slightly and let it bounce forward and up on the sixteenth notes. We can imagine that a stone skipped and “went” forward on the water. In measure 19, while playing the Schneller, the practical strategy is to use hand and wrist motion for a two-note tie. The second movement is in Adagio. Bailie (1989) suggested that his effusions of figurations and.