Divertimento in G major, Hob.II:1 – Joseph Haydn
“Giraffe”
________
after looking everywhere on the Internet
for how many divertimenti Haydn had
written – since I’d given up counting them
individually from the only list I could find
there, a confounding one – I asked Siri,
the 21st Century’s Delphic Oracle, whom
I’d never yet consulted, apart from once
during a friendly demonstration of her
prowess
her reply about “divinity minty”, however,
didn’t lead me anywhere, though
“divertimento” eventually got me,
however unsatisfactory, somewhat more
pertinent answers
regardless, here is Haydn’s very first
divertimento
a divertimento is quite simply an
entertainment, an after dinner mint for
the aristocratic set, a place to digest
one’s fine culinary offerings in the
same, usually stratified, company
nowadays we have supper clubs
when Haydn called his early string
quartets “divertimenti a quatro”, he
wasn’t kidding, a divertimento could
be comprised of indeed even a small
orchestra, or, quite simply, one only
performer, the string quartet as a
form hadn’t yet been established as
such, Haydn pulled it, as it were, out
from under his hat, and gave it status
here’s the short, terse, Divertimento
in G major, for instance, for, originally,
harpsichord only, which is to say, just
one person, but this homemade piano
version will point out already Haydn’s
musical brilliance – you’ll love the
giraffe, I loved the coffee cup at the
bottom of the keyboard
incidentally, Haydn could’ve called
his Divertimento a piano sonata,
like Hoboken did, his bibliographer,
eventually, for the list he compiled
of the works of Haydn, we know it
now, therefore, as well, as Haydn’s
First Piano Sonata in G major,
Hob. XVl:8, same number as for
the corresponding Divertimento
new terms were popping up, and
being tested, then just as now,
like our app, interface, Siri, and
who says compact disc anymore,
or record
tempus, as we say in Latin, fugit,
time ever is on the wing
R ! chard
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