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November / Month of the Sonata – 2

Joseph Haydn, 1791 - Thomas Hardy

     “Joseph Haydn (1791) 

 

           Thomas Hardy

 

               ________

 

 

Haydn, profoundly underrated, was the

other pillar of Classical music during that 

period, Beethoven, with half a foot only 

in that era, uses its elements to yank us, 

yelling and screaming, into the next, the 

Romantic Era, 1800 to 1870 more or less, 

more about which later

 

if Haydn sounds a lot like Mozart, it’s that

this piece was also written in 1789, both 

were catering to the aristocracy, courts, 

salons, music was therefore frivolous, 

meant to be entertaining, not inspirational,

trills, a lot of decoration, technical agility,

prestidigitation over profundity

 

Beethoven will change all that, stay tuned 

 

meanwhile, listen to, enjoy, Haydn’s Piano  

Sonata in A-flat major, no 31, Hob XVI-46,  

today’s prescribed apple

 

R ! chard

November / Month of the Sonata – 1

Still life with seven apples, 1878 - Paul Cezanne

      Still Life with Seven Apples (1878) 

 

               Paul Cézanne

 

                      _____

 

 

a sonata is to the concerto what an apple

is to an apple pie, its essential component, 

after which the rest is decoration, however 

inspired

 

sonatas existed before Mozart, but he’s 

the one, along with Haydn, as well as

early Beethoven, who put them on the 

musical map, 1750 to 1800, more or 

less

 

it seems to me appropriate, therefore, 

to start my Sonata Month then

 

here’s something by Mozart, 1789, his 

last piano sonata, No. 18, in D major,

K. 576

 

three movements, fast, slow, fast – allegro, 

adagio, allegretto – a perfect example of 

the sonata as it was establishing itself

then, a piece of music consisting of 

several distinct sections, movements, 

meant to highlight contrasts, musical 

agility in the artist, compositional 

imagination

 

listen, enjoy

 

R ! chard