12 Tremendous Composers 12 Composers    

Lesson 8: Divertimento in A-flat major

by Franz Joseph Haydn

Performer: Ivan Ilic

Directions

Study the musical selection for one week.

Over the week:

• Listen to the music daily.
• Read the synopsis.
• Review the vocabulary terms.
• Read about the composer.
• Complete the enrichment activities.
• Study the review questions.

Synopsis

The lesson recording incorporates the first two movements of Franz Joseph Haydn's 'Divertimento in A-flat major, Hob. XVI:46': 1) Allegro moderato and 2) Adagio. Listen for the shift in tempo during the transition from the first to the second movement. Joseph Haydn recorded this work circa 1767 and published it in 1788.

Vocabulary

Allegro: A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be played in a quick, lively tempo, faster than allegretto but slower than presto.
Moderato: A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be played at a moderate tempo.
Adagio: A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be played rather slowly, leisurely and gracefully.

Composer

1. It once happened that a drummer was needed in a procession in Hainburg. Frankh called Franz Joseph Haydn (Sepperl), and showed him how to make the stroke. But the boy was so small that someone had to carry the drum for him, Sepperl following up and beating it as he had been taught. Haydn was very fond of playing the drums, and even as a boy tried to learn how to play right.

2. But Joseph Haydn was to do other things. One day a man from Vienna visited the pastor of the Hainburg Church. He heard the little boy sing and liked his voice so much that he invited him to become a chorister in the huge Church of St. Stephen. He was eight years old when he arrived in the great city of Vienna, still a little farther away from home than he was at Hainburg.
3. This is St. Stephen's Church in the Austrian capital of Vienna.

4. There was much else to do in the great St. Stephen's church beside singing in the choir. There were music studies, of course, in singing, violin and piano playing. But there were also school studies to be learned every day. These were Religion, Latin, Writing and Arithmetic.
5. But one must not think that because Sepperl was a busy musician he did not love fun like other boys of eight. One day the choristers sang at the Royal Palace at Schönbrunn, just outside of Vienna. The scaffolding was still standing about the building, and Joseph climbed to the top. This is the Royal Palace in modern times.

6. The is the Empress Maria Theresa who caught Joseph Haydn at this mischief and gave an order that 'that blockhead should have a good spanking.'

7. Five years after Joseph Haydn entered St. Stephen's, his brother Michael joined the choir. It was just at that time that Joseph's voice began to change. One day when the Empress heard him, she said his voice sounded more like a rooster's crowing than anything else. The choirmaster, taking the hint, prepared to dismiss him.
8. But before Joseph said goodbye to his schoolmates his spirit of fun bubbled over again. Someone had left a pair of new scissors where he found them. What should he cut with them? Ah, he knew. He would cut off the pigtail of one of the choir boys. And he did.
9. Joseph Haydn was never lazy. His father and mother had taught him to love work. He was industrious, happy-hearted, and made friends easily. People loved him and he began to meet those who could help him. One of these was the great poet, Metastasio. Another was the singing master, Nicholas Porpora, who taught him music composition in return for which the boy brushed the master's clothes, polished his boots, did anything and everything, even to running errands. And all because he was so anxious to be taught how to compose music.
10. Then soon afterward Haydn met Christoph Gluck, the opera composer.

11. Another time Joseph Haydn met the famed composer Wolfgang Mozart and his father, Leopold Mozart. So you see he was getting on famously. This is Leopold Mozart.

12. One day Joseph Haydn was invited to become Music Director (or Vice-Capellmeister, as it was called) in the family of a great man who was known as Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy. Haydn's position in the Esterhazy home gave him just the opportunity he wanted. There was an orchestra, and for it he composed all sorts of music. This is Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy.

13. When the band was to play for the Prince's family and its guests, Haydn and the players were required to wear white stockings and white collars, and a pigtail or tie-wig. If you could have watched him conduct the players, you would have seen a very short man with short legs; his face pitted with the marks of small-pox. His nose was large, his eyes gray, but of the kindest expression. And here is a picture which shows exactly how the 'good-natured sort of fellow' looked.

14. A butcher in the town where Joseph was living wanted to celebrate his daughter's marriage with fitting music, and was bold enough to ask Joseph to compose a Minuet for the occasion. Joseph good-naturedly consented, and wrote the Oxen Minuet, and made the butcher and his daughter very happy. People say that soon after the wedding the butcher appeared at Joseph's door leading an ox all decorated with ribbons and with gilded horns.

Enrichment

Activity 1: Recite the Composition Information

• Recite the name of the composer and the composition.

Activity 2: Study the Music Timeline

Examine the music timeline to answer the following questions.

• What is the year of birth of the lesson composer?
• What is the year of death of the featured composer?
• How old was the composer upon death?
• Which composer (if any) directly precedes the studied composer by date of birth?
• Which composer (if any) directly succeeds the lesson composer by date of birth?
• Which other timeline composers were alive at the same time as the studied composer?

Activity 3: Map the Music

• Franz Joseph Haydn was born in Austria.
• Find Austria on the map of the world.

Activity 4: Write a One-Page Paper About Franz Joseph Haydn

Read these facts about Franz Joseph Haydn and write a one-page story out of them, using your own words.

• He was born at Rohrau, in Hungary, March 31, 1732.
• He was a few weeks younger than George Washington.
• As a little boy he loved to hear his father and mother sing.
• While they sang, he played on a 'make-believe' violin, of two sticks.
• He left home at the age of six and never lived there again.
• First he became a choir-boy at Hainburg.
• When he was eight years old, he entered St. Stephen's in Vienna as a chorister.
• After he left St. Stephen's he worked hard for many years. Many people whom he met in this time helped him.
• Among his friends of this period were: Metastasio, Porpora, Gluck, Mozart and his father, and Beethoven.
• For a time he was Beethoven's teacher.
• He spent a great part of his life in the Esterhazy family.
• Here he was Vice-Capellmeister and composer to the Prince.
• He was a short, stout man, with kindly gray eyes, and very dark hair.
• He went twice to England to conduct his symphonies.
• Haydn was called the father of the Symphony and of the String Quartette.
• He composed a song which will always be famous. It is called The Emperor's Song.
• He died in 1809, seventy-seven years of age.

Review

Question 1

What did Franz Joseph Haydn study at St. Stephen's?

1 / 3

Answer 1

Franz Joseph Haydn studied music such as singing, violin and piano playing. He also studied religion, Latin, writing and arithmetic.

1 / 3

Question 2

With what distinguished family did Franz Joseph Haydn live for many years?

2 / 3

Answer 2

Franz Joseph Haydn spent a great part of his life in the Esterhazy family.

2 / 3

Question 3

Give the names of some of the distinguished composers whom Franz Joseph Haydn knew.

3 / 3

Answer 3

Franz Joseph Haydn knew famous composers such as Christoph Gluck, Wolfgang Mozart, and Leopold Mozart.

3 / 3

❮ ❯

1. What did Franz Joseph Haydn study at St. Stephen's? Franz Joseph Haydn studied music such as singing, violin and piano playing. He also studied religion, Latin, writing and arithmetic.
2. With what distinguished family did Franz Joseph Haydn live for many years? Franz Joseph Haydn spent a great part of his life in the Esterhazy family.
3. Give the names of some of the distinguished composers whom Franz Joseph Haydn knew. Franz Joseph Haydn knew famous composers such as Christoph Gluck, Wolfgang Mozart, and Leopold Mozart.

References

Tapper, Thomas. Franz Joseph Haydn - The Story of the Choir Boy Who Became a Great Composer. Philadelphia, PA. Theodore Presser Co., 1917.

'Haydn Divertimento in A-flat major, Hob. XVI:46.' Musopen.org. musopen.org/music/5136-divertimento-in-a-flat-major-hob-xvi46/. n.p.