Haydn's Symphony No. 95 In C Minor

Luke Bartels

Professor Copeland

MusH 101-04

10/13/14

Concert Essay I:

Haydn, Widmann, and Beethoven

Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 95 in C minor is a premier example of the Classical music. Written for his trip to London, it is the only one of the symphonies to be composed in a minor key for the trip. And although it begins in the minor, Haydn is quick to change to a major and dispel with the melancholy mood associated with a minor key at the time. It follows the traditional arrangement of four movements, Allegro, Andante, Menuetto, and the Finale –Vivace respectively. I believe that the allegro was in the sonata form, followed by the andante that was presented in a much slower fashion, giving it the typical theme-and-variation form. Proceeding this was the third

The third piece of the concert, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Minor, Op. 92 is a wonderful piece of Classical musical art. Comprised of four movements, the Poco sostenuto –

Vivace, Allgretto, Presto – Trio I and II: Assai meno presto, and the Allegro con brio, the symphony follows the traditional four movement form. The first movement, the Poco sostenuto –

Vivace, sets the stage for the rest of the performance with its lively rhythms as the result of a sonata form vivace and repetitive passages of the coda. The second movement is slightly slower than the rest of the movements. It features what I believe is an ostinato, frequently repeating a succession of notes. The entire movement is performed with different instrument sections playing two separate melodies and switching between the two if I am able to hear it correctly.

Beethoven’s symphony continues in the third movement with a scherzo and trio, a lively piece that occasionally and abruptly changes moods with little warning and quickly back again. This fast paced music is interrupted by the trio, what used to be an old pilgrim hymn or prayer. The final movement opens to a spirited sonata form that employs what I think is syncopation.