Haydn’s Creation – Chaos (1797)
Haydn visited England during the 1790s and was inspired by the oratorios of Handel, especially Israel in Egypt with its fantastical word painting, to write his own.
In the words of Julie Andrews as Fraulein Maria, start at the beginning as it’s a very good place to start. Haydn chose the creation of all things, and to do that he combined Genesis (the book, not the band – they’re not that old), the book of Psalms, and Paradise Lost by Milton.
Think of Mozart and his Eine Kleine Nachtmusik with its dependence on tonic and dominant, of the Classical era’s dependence on balanced phrasing and order, and of (even now) a dependence on cadences to tell us where things start and stop.
In his representation of Chaos before Creation, albeit in sonata form, Haydn leaves out the chaos, which is Classical era terms is utter, total chaos. Throw in C minor, diminished 7ths, some loose dynamics and scoring to throw the listener off, and you have Chaos on late 18th century terms.
Yes, we’d probably compose it in a different way now, but from a contemporary audience’s viewpoint (which we must consider with all works as those of you who’ve experienced me evangelising about Raiders of the Lost Ark will know) this was chaos, particularly given the background of Napoleon’s wars, and of the Enlightenment.
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