H.C. Robbins Landon ... and Haydn
Nov. 25th, 2009 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacThe renowned musicologist with the rather peculiar-initialed name died last week at a fairly distinguished age.
Landon was the Haydn expert, and I learned a lot from reading his erudite but captivating liner notes on the Haydn symphonies in the endless series of Dorati/Philharmonia Hungarica box LP sets that came out in the 70s, and which I collected one-by-one. Landon wrote a lot else about Haydn, and other music of the era; it was he who discovered in the 1950s that the "Jena" Symphony was not, as originally attributed, by Beethoven.
Haydn, whom I have just reinstated as my music-topic userpic in a caricature I lifted from Alan Rich, is my favorite composer as he was Landon's. Like Landon, I heard one Haydn symphony and thought, "Wow, there's 103 others like this?"
Here's excerpts from two of my favorite Haydn symphonies, dark, minor-mode middle-period ones: the first movement of No. 39 in G Minor and the finale of No. 52 in C Minor, both prominently featuring that favorite Haydn effect, the elongated pause. Both from that Dorati/Philharmonic Hungarica set. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Landon was the Haydn expert, and I learned a lot from reading his erudite but captivating liner notes on the Haydn symphonies in the endless series of Dorati/Philharmonia Hungarica box LP sets that came out in the 70s, and which I collected one-by-one. Landon wrote a lot else about Haydn, and other music of the era; it was he who discovered in the 1950s that the "Jena" Symphony was not, as originally attributed, by Beethoven.
Haydn, whom I have just reinstated as my music-topic userpic in a caricature I lifted from Alan Rich, is my favorite composer as he was Landon's. Like Landon, I heard one Haydn symphony and thought, "Wow, there's 103 others like this?"
Here's excerpts from two of my favorite Haydn symphonies, dark, minor-mode middle-period ones: the first movement of No. 39 in G Minor and the finale of No. 52 in C Minor, both prominently featuring that favorite Haydn effect, the elongated pause. Both from that Dorati/Philharmonic Hungarica set. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-26 10:05 pm (UTC)oversensitive on the issue...but why is it that a 4:44 movement "in the
minor" spends roughly 3:00 of it in the major? The second excerpt is
a little better, but still spends about 50% of its span in the major.
I don't deny that Haydn was a great composer, and I did appreciate the
minor-key parts (the syncopations in the second excerpt were particularly
interesting), but as someone who has no patience for major key there's
really no point in my listening to Haydn (or Mozart) at all.
But Haydn's reputation will not stand or fall on whether I enjoy listening
to him; I'm glad he is still so popular with so many people.
Don Keller
no subject
Date: 2009-11-27 02:54 am (UTC)