The Creation
Joseph Haydn
b. Rohrau, Lower Austria / March 31, 1732
d. Vienna, Austria / May 31, 1809
Haydn composed the last of his more than 100 symphonies during his second visit to London, in 1795-96. He then began casting about for another means of expression, one that he hoped would produce something more durable than his other music. “I want to write a work that will give permanent fame to my name in the world,” he declared.
Oratorios – choral works with orchestra – were extremely popular in England at the time, especially those of George Frederic Handel. Haydn heard several of them during his first visit to London in 1791-92, at one of the regular, massive Handel festivals that had been taking place there for nearly a decade. In particular, a performance of Messiah moved him to tears. It led him to praise Handel as “the master of us all.”
Accounts differ as to how he chose the Biblical account of the creation as the basis for an oratorio. According to one version, he asked the renowned French violinist François-Hippolyte Barthelemon for his opinion on the proper subject for such an undertaking. The soloist immediately reached for a Bible and said to Haydn, “There is the book; begin at the beginning!”
Another, probably more reliable account names Haydn’s London impresario, Johann Peter Salomon, as the source. He sensed that an oratorio by his partner would prove hugely successful with the English public. He was also aware of Haydn’s great respect for Handel. During Haydn’s second London visit, he passed on an unused English-language libretto, compiled from the Biblical book of Genesis and John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, by a little-known author named Lidley or Lindley. It had been prepared some years earlier, possibly for Handel’s consideration.
Haydn did nothing with it during his remaining time in England, citing its excessive length and his imperfect command of the language. However he did take it with him when he returned to Vienna in 1796. He showed it to the music-loving diplomat and librarian, Gottfried van Swieten. Van Swieten was a major player in Vienna’s musical circles, having been the patron of Mozart (it was for him that Mozart prepared his re-orchestrated version of Handel’s Messiah), and the dedicatee of Beethoven’s First Symphony.
In van Swieten’s own words, he “recognized at once that such an exalted subject would give Haydn the opportunity I had long desired, to show the whole compass of his exalted accomplishments and to express the full power of his inexhaustible genius; I therefore encouraged him to take the work in hand, and in order that our fatherland might be the first to enjoy it, I resolved to clothe the English poem in German garb. In this way my translation came about. It is true that I followed the plan of the original faithfully as a whole, but I diverged from it in details as often as musical progress and expression, of which I already had an ideal conception in my mind, seemed to demand.”
Van Swieten also helped secure the necessary funds to support Haydn during the time he spent composing the oratorio. These were provided by a group of Austro-Hungarian aristocrats. These patrons also ensured that the sizeable receipts for the first public performance, some 4,000 gulden, were paid fully and directly to the composer.
The period of composition turned out to be unusually lengthy by Haydn’s standards. He spent nearly two years on the oratorio, working and reworking his materials with great care. “Never was I so devout as when composing The Creation,” he stated. “I knelt down every day and prayed to God to strengthen me for my work.” He finished it during the spring of 1798.
The premiere was quickly arranged. A private affair sponsored by a musical society supervised by van Swieten, it took place on April 30, 1798, at the palace of Prince Schwarzenberg. Haydn himself conducted, with the Emperor’s Court Composer Antonio Salieri playing keyboard accompaniment to the recitatives. Poet Giuseppe Carpani attended it, writing, “I never witnessed such a scene. The flower of the literary and musical society of Vienna was assembled in the room. The most profound silence, the most scrupulous attention, a sentiment, I might almost say of religious respect prevailed when the first stroke of the bow was given.” The performance also affected the composer deeply: “One moment I was cold as ice, the next I seemed on fire. More than once I was afraid I should have a stroke.”
The Creation won overwhelming success, as witness this report from a Viennese newspaper: “Three days have gone since that enrapturing evening, and still the music sounds in my ears and in my heart; still the mere memory of all the flood of emotions then experienced constricts my chest.”
The first public performances followed a year later, given by some 180 musicians at the Burgtheater. They won an even more rapturous response. Following the publication of The Creation, it began to be heard frequently, from England to Russia. For as long as he was physically able to do so, Haydn conducted annual performances during Holy Week, in aid of various charities.
In March 1808, he attended a special production, staged in his honor at Vienna University. By then in quite poor health, he was carried into the hall on a chair, accompanied by joyful brass fanfares and cries of “Long live Haydn!” Following the marvelous passage describing the creation of light, the audience burst into applause. Haydn gestured upwards, stating, “It was not I, but a Power above who created that.” Overwhelmed by both the homage paid to him and the power of his own music, he left after the first part of the oratorio, but not before his former pupil Beethoven had kissed his hand and forehead. This was Haydn’s final public appearance.
The Creation was Haydn’s most beloved composition during his lifetime, regardless of the location and religion of its audiences. It continues to hold that status. It is a masterpiece by any standards. It embraces a great diversity of episodes, all of which Haydn sets with confidence and imagination. His love of nature is everywhere apparent. Most importantly, his deep religious faith illuminates every bar.
The score is divided into three parts, each of which ends with a triumphant chorus. Part One begins with what is for its period a strikingly advanced depiction of the chaos that preceded the existence of the universe. It must have struck its first audiences as exceedingly daring, sinister, and unpredictable. Then the music, narrated by the three Archangels Gabriel (soprano), Uriel (tenor), and Raphael (baritone), describes the first four days of Creation. Haydn provides marvelously imaginative passages for the appearances of heaven, earth, land, sea, plant life, and the celestial bodies. This part concludes with a glorious choral setting of The Heavens are Telling. Part Two covers days five and six, including the appearance of human beings. In Part Three, the text shifts from the Bible to Milton, and describes Adam and Eve’s blissful life in the Garden of Eden. For this section, Haydn adopts an appropriately less exalted style.
© 2008 Don Anderson. All rights reserved.
