Haydn Symphony no. 45 mvt IV "Farewell"

Haydn Symphony no. 45 mvt IV "Farewell"

The movement starts out in minor with most motivic gestures occurring in the strings. Many sixteenth note runs, as well, as 8th-two 16th gestures. Many orchestrations are audible as the texuture of full strings and woodwinds are passed back and forth. Sometimes when I listen to the Haydn symphonies of his second compositional period I hear moments of Brahms. I know that Brahms was a very high respecter of Haydn's works, hence Haydn variations. Much repitition is used to continually bring back the main motivic gesture played by the strings at the beginning. As it is repeated more and more the accompaniment and texture changes slightly each time. For instance the horn is added. A second theme occurs after a very strong structural phenomanon of unison, triad, forte, and cadence. The second theme/section is played. All the rhythms are in triple divisions suggesting maybe a complex meter. The texture is much more deep now. The violins are playing in a lower register and the horns, oboes, and woodwinds are playing a large chordal role, lowering the overall tessatura of the section. This sounds very Brahms like to me. A development period takes place as a cello solo is playing the main rhythmic gesture as the violins develop the main progression. The beginning of the section is repeated but this time with less orchestration and density. The violins are playing in a chamber style. No woodwinds are playing. A violin solo then soars above the texture. As the mood continually gets more serene the listener can definately feel the sense of "farewell" to whom or whatever. The orchestration and instrumentation continually gets less and less as the violin solo is the last to play and finally dies off. This must have been CRAZY to do in Haydn's time period. Also what he did that probably caused massive riots, is that he ended both the second and third movements on IAC's. Pretty strange. Sorry for the double post...going from aim to blogger somtimes messes up my memory as to what button performs what function.