Franz Joseph Haydn - Die Schöpfung

With its choice of text – in which original sin is barely mentioned - Die Schöpfung is a true child of the Enlightenment: the emphasis is no longer on atonement and guilt, but on belief in absolute goodness and God’s mercy, and how these find expression in the beauty of creation. For the enlightened mind the beauty of nature is proof of the Creator’s greatness: our world, our universe is quite simply the best version which a perfect God could have created.

The Enlightenment is characterized by philosophers such as Voltaire, Kant and Hume, who questioned the concept of an absolute God who was constantly exerting influence on the lives of human beings. New religious ideas such as Deism and Natural Theology, which emerged during the Enlightenment, saw God more as the Great Architect: a watchmaker who set the wheels in motion, but subsequently did not really interfere with the functioning of his creation. And thus at the end of the eighteenth century religious experience came to be concentrated more on wonderment at the beauty of creation and at how amazingly well all the little cogs fitted together. Traditional ecclesiastical ideas - original sin, life as atonement, striving towards a better life after death - formed a stark contrast with this innocent beauty, this new and positive view of life.

Joseph Haydn first set foot on English soil on New Year’s Day 1791, signalling the start of his first long period of residence in London. Having been in the service of Prince Nikolaus at the Esterhazy court for nearly thirty years, Haydn was ready for a change of air. Following the death of Nikolaus the new Prince Anton was not interested in maintaining a musical establishment at court any longer, and Haydn was allowed for the time being to come and go as he pleased – on full salary. At the invitation of violinist and concert organizer Johann Peter Salomon, Haydn set off for London, at that time one of the most cultural cities in the world. There he was absorbed into a circle of musicians and prosperous music-lovers, and during the dazzling London concert season spent evening after evening enjoying the finest music and most agreeable company. Performances of his symphonies and string quartets met with great success, and Haydn was commissioned to compose a new opera (L’anima del filosofo) and the famous six ‘London’ Symphonies. Haydn was most impressed by the vitality of London’s musical scene, but, being over sixty, the composer also found it very tiring. He did, however, love all the attention he was receiving.

In 1792 Haydn returned for a while to Vienna, where he attempted to take it a bit easy, and where he became the young Beethoven’s teacher. He travelled to London again in 1794 for the new concert season, armed with a stack of new compositions, including Symphonies 99 -101, which were given their premières in London. Up until this moment Haydn had had no concrete plans for an oratorio on the scale of Händel’s, but at the end of Haydn’s second stay in London Johann Peter Salomon thrust into his hands an old libretto, which had probably been meant originally for Händel, who had, however, never set it to music: ‘The Creation of the World’.

Once back in Vienna in 1795, Haydn was officially re-instated as Kapellmeister at the court of Esterhazy, which now, under the new Prince Nikolaus, had its residence more of the time in Vienna rather than far away in the country, which meant that Haydn could involve himself in the Viennese musical scene. Haydn was expected to compose a mass every year, and in general he wrote more vocal music at this time than previously. Haydn’s success in London caused his status in his own country to rise significantly. His qualities were finally recognised, and he got the chance to write new, grander compositions

Händel’s oratorios were written on a totally different scale from that to which Haydn was accustomed. Certainly until some time during the 1780s, oratorio in Vienna consisted mainly of cantata-like works, in Italian, and with a small cast, examples of which are Haydn’s Il Ritorno di Tobia (1775) and Mozart’s Davidde Penitente (1785.) In England the situation was similar before the arrival of Händel: forerunners of the oratorio were no more than dramatic dialogues with a religious text (albeit in English.)

Händel took the lead in developing the ‘modern’ 18th-century English oratorio, and in masterly fashion combined different elements from several European musical genres to create the kind of oratorio with which we now so closely associate him: some elements from Italian opera and from the English anthem, a taste of the German protestant oratorio, all served up with a soupçon of French tragedy. The size of orchestra and choir was also increased considerably, which contributed to the imposing grandness of the oratorio.

This new technique caught on in a big way in England, and Händel’s fame was established once and for all. And on the other side of the Channel his music also gradually began to reach the concert halls. Following the split between the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, the English had grown accustomed to church music being sung in their own language. German composers, such as Heinrich Schütz, had, thanks to Martin Luther, also been writing their oratorios in German since the end of the seventeenth century. But the use of the vernacular was still taboo in countries which were under strong papal influence, such as Italy and Austria, where Latin was therefore the language used in church, for both spoken and sung text.

This also meant that the influence of the Italian language and music was greatly felt in Roman Catholic Austria, both in sacred and secular music, and particularly in opera. Nevertheless voices were gradually starting to be raised in favour of writing music in the native language (German) – a language which up till then had actually been considered inferior to Italian. One of the first Viennese-German operas is Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Haydn’s vocal version of Die Sieben letzte Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze is one of the first sacred works written in German. Once Händel’s oratorios became well-known in continental Europe, they were also translated into German so that the audience could understand the text. Judas Maccabeus was translated and performed in 1779, and Mozart adapted Händel’s Messiah, which was also sung in German. This allowed German oratorio to become more generally accepted, and paved the way for the German language Schöpfung.

It was in London that Haydn first came into contact with the music of George Frideric Händel, who himself had moved in 1712 from Germany to England, where he had lived and worked until his death in 1759, and had written some of his most famous oratorios, such as The Messiah and Jephtha.

Nearly thirty years later Händel’s music was still much loved by the English. In 1784, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Händel’s death and (a year too early) the hundredth anniversary of his birth, a first ‘Händel Commemoration’ was held in Westminster Abbey (where he is buried.) This event not only saw performances of his music, but these involved a huge cast of several hundred musicians. During the years that followed it became a minor tradition to hold a similar commemoration almost every year, the last of which Haydn attended in 1791.

Haydn was very impressed by the grandness and power of expression of Händel’s music, but also by the affection the public still felt for him so many years after his death. Haydn had to confess that he too would like to write a great oratorio which would ensure that his name lived on among future generations.

In Vienna Haydn came into contact with the Dutch-born Baron Gottfried van Swieten. Van Swieten was a diplomat and librarian, an extremely cultured man, who worked virtually all his life in the service of Austria. He was an impassioned music-lover, and not a bad composer himself, but above all played an exceedingly important role in Viennese musical life as promoter, adviser and sponsor. He cultivated friendships with countless composers, including C.Ph.E. Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, and was often in a position to provide commissions for composers. Van Swieten was also founder and chairman of the Gesellschaft der Associirten Cavaliers, an association of art-loving aristocrats, which in effect functioned as a fund for the arts. The Gesellschaft had, for example, enabled Mozart to adapt Händel’s Messiah for private performances, and ultimately sponsored Haydn to write Die Sieben letzte Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze, Die Schöpfung and Die Jahreszeiten.

It was also Van Swieten to whom Haydn in 1795 showed the libretto he had been given in England: ‘The Creation of the World.’ Van Swieten was immediately enthusiastic and found the subject extremely suitable for a grand oratorio by Haydn, which would display his qualities and ‘inexhaustible genius’.

Because Haydn did not yet feel comfortable enough in the language to write this great work in English, Van Swieten translated the text into German. In doing so he took account of Haydn’s wish that the text be made as evocative as possible, in order that musically he should have many possibilities for expression. Van Swieten therefore adapted the text carefully, occasionally departing from the original if he thought that would promote musical expressivity, and he also abbreviated the text considerably. Van Swieten also gave Haydn some suggestions for how the various sections should be set to music: as an aria, duet or chorus. Haydn had written to him saying that he had need of that: “This makes the work of the composer easier and the poet is obliged to write musically, which happens so very seldom”.

Towards the end of 1796 Haydn began work in earnest on Die Schöpfung. He felt particularly inspired, prayed every morning before starting work, and enjoyed the composing itself. Furthermore, he felt responsible for the quality of his work since his reputation had grown so much. Haydn made more sketches for Die Schöpfung than for any other work. In the past he had worked out most of the music in his head. Baron van Swieten also remained closely involved in the process of composition. Haydn would consult him regularly when he needed to make minor changes to the text. “I often feel the need to speak to the Baron in order to make alterations to the text, and anyway it’s a pleasure for me to show him certain numbers, since he is a genuine connoisseur, and has written some good music himself,” Haydn wrote in 1797. The work progressed steadily, until in 1798 Die Schöpfung was finally completed.

Ultimately the church had a problem with that idea. Occasionally the criticism was voiced that the work was not ecclesiastical enough, and some churches even prohibited its performance in their buildings. Despite this the first performances of Die Schöpfung were a resounding success. Its première took place in the Burgtheater in Vienna on 19 March 1799. The piece came as a real bombshell: both the public attendance and receipts broke all records. Die Schöpfung made a triumphal tour throughout Europe, including performances in Paris, London and Amsterdam. Apparently the audience sat and listened to the music in total silence, which in those days was most unusual. It was Haydn’s great triumph, and his name will indeed never be forgotten.

The libretto (the name of its original creator has been lost in the mists of time) makes use of passages from the books of Genesis and Psalms, and of extracts from John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, an epic poem consisting of 10,000 verses. The libretto deals with the six days of creation – up to and including the arrival of Man, but ending before the Fall of Man. In this respect the libretto has much in common with other creation poems from the eighteenth century, which generally describe only the beauty of creation, leaving the Fall of Adam and Eve well alone. The original ‘Paradise Lost’ describes this latter aspect in detail, but those verses are not included in the libretto, any more than the relevant section of Genesis is.

With its use of no fewer than three narrators – the archangels – Die Schöpfung harks back to an older device used in the oratorio latino, where a witness (Testo) or evangelist tells the story. The best-known examples of this usage appear, of course, in Bach’s Passions and Händel’s Messiah. By using three voices with different ranges – a similarity, incidentally, to Händel’s Alexander’s Feast – Haydn takes advantage of the inherent possibilities for vocal colour: from the bright young green of the soprano, via the warm golden sunlight of the tenor to the deep sea-blue of the bass.

Haydn spent almost his entire life in the service of princes with decidedly feudal ideas, and furthermore remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church, although he did have a tolerant attitude towards other faiths. So he will certainly have been able to agree with the concept that the proof of God’s goodness is to be found in the beauty of nature. He himself enjoyed nature greatly, loved to go fishing and walking, and admired God’s creation with a pious optimism. But the ideas of Van Swieten, an enlightened soul from a North European, more freethinking environment, probably went a step further. The more secular elements of the text of Die Schöpfung will certainly have appealed to him.

The Enlightenment brought with it a view of the world different from that which the Roman Catholic Church had held for centuries, and the discoveries made by science also had an enormous influence on the eighteenth century’s weltanschauung. There had been a boom in developments and discoveries since the Renaissance: Isaac Newton had unravelled numerous laws of nature, which accounted for natural phenomena whose origins had from time immemorial been attributed to a more direct, divine source. Astronomers such as William Herschel (whom Haydn met in 1792) made discoveries about the size and composition of the universe and the insignificant position the Earth appeared to occupy in it. Doubts arose about whether our solar system formed the centre of the universe, and whether creation in its entirety was really designed for mankind alone, since so many stars and galaxies remained invisible to the human eye. At the same time there developed a great admiration for the ingenious way in which creation was constructed.

Biology was also an emerging science. It would take until 1859 before the pioneering ‘On the Origin of Species’ by Charles Darwin (who was born the year Haydn died) would appear, but since the publication in 1749 of the famous ‘Histoire Naturelle’ by biologist avant la lettre Count de Buffon it appeared increasingly improbable that the Earth, with all its tremendous richness and natural diversity, had been created in six days. The more that was learned about the working of natural laws, about how the Earth and all of life was systematically regulated, the further God, as a direct influence on life, seemed to disappear into the background.