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Sounding Together #27: F.J. Haydn, Symphony #103 in E-flat major, “Drumroll” (1795)

Haydn was very much at the peak of his musical career in 1795. He was on his second tour of London, his music was a rousing success, and he was composing some of the symphonies he’d composed in the course of his entire career. As I’ve mentioned before when talking about his twelve “London” symphonies, Haydn was seeking to impress his London audience. They knew who he was, they knew what his music was like, and they knew what to expect from his symphonies. Haydn wanted to give them the Haydn they were expecting, while at the same time confounding their expectations. He wanted to Haydn at his Haydn-est.

This symphony, named for the drumroll that sounds at the beginning and at various points throughout the work, was designed with that purpose in mind. It was written to make the London audience sit up and take notice. Haydn was known for starting his symphonies off with a slow introduction to lend a weight and seriousness to the work . . . but a drumroll? Right away, that was new. A drumroll is the musical equivalent of saying “Wait for it . . .” It immediately gets your attention, makes you take notice of whatever comes after the drumroll. And in this case, what comes after the drumroll is . . . the symphony.

The introduction that follows the drumroll is very like a plainchant, and indeed the first four notes are based on a plainchant that Haydn favored. But the notes are such that the mode of the chant it unclear. The key of the symphony is E-flat major, of course, but the opening measures could just as easily be in C minor. In fact, the whole introduction is ambiguously keyed, as the opening bars are repeated, transposed up a fourth, and then embellished and built upon, never quite settling on a tonality, and finally ending on a unison G . . . the dominant of C minor or the median of E-flat major? We don’t know until the opening chord of the allegro. (Spoiler alert: it’s E-flat major.)

The strings take the opening theme of the exposition, a jaunty little melody in six-eight, playing it twice before the full orchestra joins in on the lengthy transition. Indeed, the transition takes up most of the exposition here, with both the first and second themes being relative brief. There’s a point where it seems the transition should be done, as we’ve moved into the dominant B-flat, but it keeps going, almost like a mini-development section of the opening notes of the first theme, playing around with key and style. When the second theme does come in, it’s very much a calming effect, a gentler theme with a quieter orchestration. But we’ve barely heard the theme before the exposition comes to an end.

The development section lives up to its name, first developing the first few notes of the opening theme, and then the next few. Then, a brief pause, and the notes of the adagio introduction begin to play, but faster this time, turning into an accompaniment figure for the next portion of the development section. There’s also one of Haydn’s recapitulation fake-outs, one of his favorite tricks, and some development of the second theme before the recapitulation begins again. This time, the transition ends where it ideally should have done last time, and the second theme begins in E-flat. But now, it’s the codetta that’s extended, carrying on for a bit before winding down into some long chords, and then . . . the drumroll returns, and with it the adagio introduction. This is now the third time we’ve heard this adagio in this symphony, and we typically only hear it once at the beginning and never again. After the first two phrases of the adagio, the allegro reasserts itself, with the coda finally wrapping things up.

The second movement recalls Haydn’s sturm und drang days with a double theme and variations: two themes alternating, one in C minor, the other in C major. Note that neither is in the dominant B-flat major, which is typical for second movements, but instead the relative minor and the subsequent parallel major. The two themes are both somewhat march or gavotte-like, and both similar sounding enough to almost pass as one theme in two modes. There are only two variations for each theme, and one of them includes a lengthy solo for the concertmaster over top of the theme. The fluctuating modes, especially in the coda, leave us wondering whether the movement will end in minor or major. (Spoiler alert: it’s minor.)

The third movement minuet and trio can’t quite decide what sort of tone it wants to set, at times loud and bombastic, at times quiet and gentle, and at times hesitant and almost apologetic, as in the first phrase where it repeats the last few notes before launching into the repeat. The trio sets a completely different tone altogether, a gentle lilting song with a certain air of refinement that the stomping minuet doesn’t quite manage.

And in the finale, Haydn builds an entire, exciting movement out of just a few short notes, starting with a four note horn call at the very beginning, which then comes back as accompaniment to the main theme throughout the movement. The movement is a sonata rondo, but with only the single theme in various guises. The theme is played against horn call, then launches into what will be the “home” theme for the rondo, before going into the transition, which is another sort of mini-development section for both the horn call and main theme, going back and forth with each other, until finally things calm down for the first episode, the second theme, which is really the first notes of the first theme, in the B-flat now, but taken in a different direction. Then the horn call and main theme again, a development with another occurrence of that episode version of the theme, now in D-flat, and then the “recapitulation,” with everything now in the home key of E-flat, before wrapping things up. A great deal of fun and excitement with just a few simple notes, a technique more famously used in Beethoven’s Fifth just a decade later.

At this point, Haydn knew how to capture an audience’s attention, and that’s exactly what he’s doing here. By this time, the forms Haydn is using are well-known and well-established: the sonata, the rondo, the theme and variations, the minuet and trio. It’s up to Haydn to make sure his audience doesn’t get so caught up in the predictability of the music that they forget to listen to the music itself. And from beginning to end, he delivers on this, his penultimate symphony.

#classical music #franz josef haydn #symphonies #symphony no. 103 #drumroll symphony