“The Creation”
by Franz Josef Haydn
Artistic Director: Priscilla Stevens French
Accompanist: Fred MacArthur
17-piece orchestra
See below to read Priscilla’s notes and to get to know our soloists.
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Tickets for the April 23 concert are no longer available for advance purchase. Please buy them at the door.
PROGRAM NOTES “The Creation” – April 2023
Franz Joseph Haydn, born in the same year as George Washington (1732), had his first involvement with music by virtue of his beautiful singing voice as a young boy. He was employed in the boy choir at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna for nine years beginning at age 8. Haydn was unique as being one of a handful of composers in music history who enjoyed comfort and wealth. He served the famed Austrian Esterhazy princes for 30 years as court music director and composer. With the death of Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy in 1790 Haydn moved from Eisenstadt to Vienna and met Gottfried van Swieten, his future patron and librettist. From composing 106 symphonies, 68 string quartets and the Austrian national anthem, Haydn turned late in life to composing three oratorios based on the English model. The Creation is considered the crowning achievement of his compositional career.
In 1794 J.P. Salomon, concert promoter and producer, brought Haydn to London for the third time not to compose more symphonies but to write an oratorio in the tradition of G.F Handel. (Handel had given birth to this sacred art form in English in the 1740s during the season of Lent when opera was forbidden in London; Messiah is the best-known). Salomon handed The Creation libretto of Linley to Haydn and asked him to set it to music. The libretto was an old one which had been prepared for Handel but never used. But Haydn neither read nor spoke English!
Haydn returned to Vienna and passed the libretto to Swieten who offered to translate it into German. It was this German libretto that Haydn set. A private premiere took place at the palace of Count Schwarzenberg in 1798. The first public performance in Vienna in the next year (with 180 singers and players) was a huge success. But at the same time, Haydn’s intention was that the work be sung in the native language of the country where it was performed. Thus, Swieten re-translated the libretto back into English, making The Creation the first major bilingual choral work. The work was published in both German and English in 1800. Haydn’s second grand oratorio The Seasons, with texts compiled by Swieten, followed in 1801.
The texts in The Creation are derived from the Book of Genesis, the Psalms and Book VII of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost, narrating the seven days of creation. There has been confusion amongst musicologists as to the cohesiveness of the libretto. Text sources are not always clear, and there are missing sources. Poetry of 18th century Scottish poet James Thomson is included. There is even evidence of Shakespearean vocabulary in The Creation libretto that is not found in Milton: “achieved” “ flaming” “ celebrate” “ utter” etc. One can conclude that the original librettist Linley was well-read and able to draw on a large repertoire of colorful and descriptive language. Swieten’s knowledge of English language and grammar was limited, and he admitted to making some changes in the re-translation. Nonetheless, recent research has shown the authentic English libretto is derived from those parts of the Linley libretto which survived in their original form and which Haydn brought with him when he returned from England.
How do we understand Haydn’s genius, and why is The Creation worthy of performances by choral societies year after year? I think the answers lie in the composer’s imaginative depiction of the narrative. The “Representation of Chaos” overture begins the story with a portrayal of the dark and mysterious universe. Shortly afterwards the choir declaims, “Let there be light!” In
an explosion of radiance, the first of many dynamic contrasts in the score. The design of the oratorio follows a clear three-part structure: Biblical narrative (recitative)/poetic commentary (aria)/words of praise (chorus). Parts One and Two relate the six days of creation from the King James Bible (1611) in Genesis 1:1-31 as follows:
Day One – heaven and earth
Day Two – the parting of the waters above and below the firmament plus natural phenomena of storm, lightning, thunder, rain and snow
Day Three – water and land are separated; seas, rocks, mountains, rivers, grasses, flowers and herbs
Day Four – stars and sunrise
Day Five – animals in the water (whale) and on land (lion, tiger, cattle, insects, worm)
Day Six – man and woman
Part Three opens in the new key of E Major, portraying dawnbreak of Day Seven. Here we meet two human beings, Adam and Eve. But there is no snake, forbidden fruit or original sin in the Garden of Eden. Instead the “happy pair” sing of companionship in a sublime long love duet. This is capped by the final grand chorus “Sing the Lord Ye Voices All”.
There are endless examples of tone painting, a device used by composers to reflect textual imagery in the orchestration. The woodwinds add color in multiple passages: the cooing of the dove (bassoon) in “On Mighty Pens” (Part Two/Scene 1 Aria); the overflowing stream (bassoon), chirping birds (flute) and rapid swimming of fish (violins) in “Most Beautiful Appear” (Part Two/Scene 1 Trio and Chorus); the roar of the lion, the nimble tiger, the steed, the cattle, bleating sheep (violins) and the sinuous worm in “Strait Opening her Fertile Womb” (Part Two/Scene 2 Recitative). The result is a choral/orchestral work that is full of charm, surprise, humor and lyricism, making it deeply satisfying to sing.
Finally, some history of The Creation in the U.S. The oldest music organization in the U.S. was the founding of the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston in 1815. Its inaugural concert on Christmas Day, 1815, consisted of Part One of Haydn’s Creation at King’s Chapel! The chorus of 80 men and 10 women was accompanied by 13 players, and 1,000 people were in attendance. Four years later (April 1819) H&H gave the first full US premiere with all three parts of the oratorio. One of the largest choruses was comprised of 750 singers in 1868! By 1989 H&H had evolved into a period – instrument ensemble.
PSF
Notes:
- www.neiljenkins.info/documents/thecreationnewsources.pdf (Olleson, E. “The origin and libretto of Haydn’s ‘Creation’ Haydn Yearbook 4, 1968)
- Wolfgang Gersthofer notes – Leipzig, October 2011 (translated by Earl Rosenbaum in Carus Verlag full score)
- Www.handelandhaydn.org
Our Soloists
Brigette Dumont (soprano, “Gabriel”), a classically trained soprano, has a passion for chamber music and choral singing. Brigette currently sings with Portsmouth Pro Musica in Portsmouth, NH, and was the featured soloist in their performances of Arnesen’s Wound in the Water, Barnett’s The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass, and Berstein’s Chichester Psalms. She has also performed with the SeaGlass Chorale in Kennebunk, Maine, The Chicago Chorale, and the BYU Singers, and is active in local church music. Brigette is the founding director of the Children’s Chorus of Sanford, Maine. She received a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Brigham Young University and pursued further vocal studies at the Chicago School of Performing Arts.
Paul Max Tipton (bass-baritone, “Raphael”) was described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a dignified and beautiful singer. He has soloed under such notable figures as Leonard Slatkin, Matthias Pintscher, Helmuth Rilling, Nicholas McGegan, Paul Hillier, Craig Hella Johnson, and Martin Katz. Recent collaborations include Haydn’s Creation with Pacific Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem with Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, Christus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Spoleto Festival USA, Plutone in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Göteborg Baroque, a Grammy-nominated recording of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with Seraphic Fire, and a recording for the BIS label of Nicolaus Bruhns’ solo cantatas for bass with Masaaki Suzuki. This season he covers the title role in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Handel & Haydn Society, makes his solo debut in Tokyo with Bach Collegium Japan in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and records the Bach Mass in B-Minor with Nicholas McGegan & Cantata Collective. He studied on full-fellowship at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Yale University. www.paulmaxtipton.com
Jason McStoots (tenor, “Uriel”) Reviewers describe him as having an “alluring tenor voice” (ArtsFuse) and as “the consummate artist, wielding not just a sweet tone but also incredible technique and impeccable pronunciation.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) A respected interpreter of music from the 15th to the 21st centuries, he has been an integral part of the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF)since 2005 and appears on 8 of their 14 recordings.) In 2015 he was a featured soloist on the GRAMMY award winning opera recording of the music of Charpentier with BEMF. His recent opera performances include Le Jeu in Les plaisirs de Versailles by Charpentier, Apollo in Orfeo, Eumete and Giove in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria both by Monteverd, and the Prince in the baroque pastiche The White Cat with Les Délices. Other performances include evangelist in Bach’s St. Mark Passion (Emmanuel Music), evangelist and soloist for Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Bach Collegium San Diego), and soloist for Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (Green Mountain Project NYC.) He works regularly with Pacific MusicWorks in Seattle, Piffaro in Philadelphia, Les Délices in Cleveland and with Bach Collegium San Diego. He is a core member of Blue Heron and can be heard on all their recordings. Additionally, McStoots is an experienced stage director and dedicated educator; directing operas with the Boston Early Music Festival, Les Délices, the Connecticut Early Music Festival, Amherst Early Music Festival, and Brandeis University. Since 2017 he has been the Associate Director of the BEMF Young Artist Training Program.