Joseph Haydn's Surprise Symphony

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“There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to be original”(Haydn). Joseph Haydn was a world renowned composer that lived during the Classical Period, growing up in Vienna, Austria. As a child, he was a choir boy in his hometown and could hardly support himself financially. His father raised him to be the extraordinary composer and musician he was, he taught him how to read music when he was young (Deverich). Through his undeniably compelling style of music, Joseph Haydn molded Classical music to recreate the way it was to be written and played. In his Surprise Symphony, Joseph Haydn uses several recurring themes in order to shape Classical music. In this symphony, he uses a theme of drastic and rapid crescendos and decrescendos…show more content…
Haydn he used this amount of players in his chamber orchestras, but he expanded his full orchestra up to sixty members by the end of his career (Deverich). Through these adjustments Haydn made to music and orchestral form, he began to transform the way music would be seen and created. Haydn had a very free spirited sense of structure and content in music that dramatically influenced the way that Classical music would be written and viewed. Haydn was often in solitude, away from other composers and musicians, limiting the amount of inspiration he could receive. Due to his distance from inspiration, Joseph Haydn was forced to be completely original without any help from fellow composers. This gave his style of music a very different tone compared to other music of the Classical Period. Although he based his music on idealizing beauty, clarity, simplicity, and balance, he had a original stance and perspective on these themes. Through his interpretation of these characteristics he formed a symphony that had a simple, beautiful melody that repeated itself several times but changed slightly every repetition through key shifts and note changes (Binary). Deverich wrote, “ An aggressive little minuet follows, with a graceful middle section for strings joined by a solo bassoon. The symphony concludes with a sparkling Allegro di molto finale; this, and other finales in the 12 "London" symphonies, calls for truly virtuosic playing from the strings — Salomon's players…show more content…
Haydn is known today for his elegant yet surprising twists throughout his masterpieces. Many composers were inspired by this new style of music and began adopting it for their own music. Haydn also taught many well known Classical composers such as Beethoven. He was a tremendous influence on him and his works, and created a chain of inspiration that molded Classical music into what it is today. Because he was in solitude for a large part of his career, he was never confused by what other composers were writing and doing, he was forced to beat to his own drum and be creative without inspiration. When other composers heard his music and saw his success, they began to incorporate similar themes into their style of music. Haydn wrote over three hundred forty hours of music, and every minute inspired several other musicians and people in the Classical Era. Throughout the thirty years of his life he dedicated to writing these masterpieces that would shape music into something entirely new and different. Without Joseph Haydn, Classical music would be entirely different and possibly not as effective and compelling as it is today
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