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John Frederick Nims, Clock Symphony

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Sounding Together #25: F.J. Haydn, Symphony #101 in D major, “Clock” (1794)

London audiences and critics were, by this time, beginning to wonder if Haydn would ever get to a point where he wouldn’t surprise them, where he would compose a symphony so brilliant and entertaining that he would never be able to surpass it. The Military symphony was quite an ambitious project, and audiences loved it. And when this symphony premiered, the reviews read that Haydn had done it again.

This symphony starts in ambiguously. The slow intro starts in minor, though the home key of the symphony is major, and through a number of suspensions and dissonances, the key is left ambiguous and somewhat clouded. The first movement is a lively presto, like one might expect as a finale, starting with an ascending scale which actually turns a four-measure phrase into a somewhat lopsided five-measure one. The first subject ends in a fermata, and then the transition comes off of that ascending scale again. The second subject thins out the orchestra playing a quieter theme, with the full orchestra coming in for the codetta. The development builds on the second theme and codetta, shifting through some different tonalities, before coming to a stop and launching into the opening theme again for the recapitulation. The recapitulation continues in the usual way, with the second theme in the home key of D, and then an extensive coda which ends with another statement of the first theme, passed from the strings to the winds before the full orchestra brings the movement to a close.

Unlike previous symphonies, the first movement actually carries relatively little weight in this symphony compared to the other three. We’ve seen symphony finales carry increasing weight under Mozart, but the middle movements are generally lighter. However this symphony, as well as the last two nicknamed symphonies (”Surprise” and “Military”) derives its nickname--and thus the most memorable thing about it--from its second movement. The bassoons and plucked lower strings introduce a ticking motif that continues in various forms throughout the movement. The movement is in the expanded three-part song form Haydn has been favoring, with a dramatic middle section in the parallel minor, but this one has a little theme and variations sprinkled in as well. After the opening theme plays through in rounded binary, and the middle section plays in minor, a faster ticking continues in the violins leading into a repeat of the first theme, this time with a thinner orchestration, the winds providing the ticking motif. Then, as the movement seems to be over, after a couple measures silence, a new statement of the theme begins in E-flat, leading into a final variation of the theme with a great deal of orchestral development, but with the ticking still very much present, as though we are hearing the ticking of many different clocks throughout the playing of the movement.

The third movement minuet and trio also carries much more weight, being unusually long, the longest Haydn ever wrote at over seven minutes. The length comes both from the minuet being a bit more extravagant than usual, as well as the trio section, which features a complete switch in style from pompous ballroom to humorously mediocre village band, featuring a lot of elements that don’t quite fit together: an odd, meandering flute solo, a harmonic backing that doesn’t always quite fit the melody, and a weird gap of silence at the end of an unfinished phrase, as though someone missed an entrance at the worst possible time.

The finale, however, is where Haydn reserved his full musical resources. Just as the opening movement sounded like a finale, this finale has all the hallmarks of an opening movement, with the exception of the form, which is a sonata rondo with a little theme and variations thrown in, instead of a full sonata. The opening theme is simple and elegant, with the full orchestra coming in for the transition, carrying us to the dominant key. The second subject uses similar thematic material, as well as some extensive syncopation, eventually making its way back to the original theme, but with the first couple measures disguised in some extra non-chord tone embellishment. Once the theme has played again, the development begins suddenly, bringing the movement into the parallel minor, a familiar trick of Haydn’s by this time, making use of transitional material, as well as the material from the main theme, before pausing at the end, preparing for the recapitulation. In this recap, rather than a literal playing of the exposition, Haydn places the theme into a double fugue along with a complementary theme, and though not as complex as the fugue from Mozart’s final symphony, it’s still a thrilling and unexpected juxtaposition of musical styles and eras. The second subject is briefly touched upon before one last playing of the end of the theme, and a brief coda to the end of the symphony.

Haydn was clearly enjoying a good challenge in London, and was trying his best to outdo himself with every symphony he wrote for his audience. There’s a reason why most lists of Haydn symphony recommendations feature the London symphonies--and this one in particular--in a prominent place. And Haydn still had three more symphonies to go.

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