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Symphony No. 103 in
E major E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equiva ...
( H. 1/103) is the eleventh of the twelve London symphonies written by
Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have le ...
. This symphony is nicknamed The Drumroll after the long roll on the
timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
with which it begins. It is from 1795, and his second-to-last symphony.


Composition and premiere

The symphony was the eleventh of twelve that were composed for performance in England during Haydn's two journeys there (1791–1792, 1794–1795), arranged and organized by the great impresario, Johann Peter Salomon. Haydn's music was well known in England well before the composer traveled there, and members of the British musical public had long expressed the wish that Haydn would visit. The composer's reception in England was in fact very enthusiastic, and the English visits were one of the most fruitful and happy periods of the composer's life. Haydn composed the "Drumroll" Symphony while living in London during the winter of 1794–1795. It was premiered on March 2, 1795 as part of a concert series called the "Opera Concerts" at the King's Theatre. The orchestra was unusually large for the time, consisting of about 60 players. The task of directing the work was divided between the concertmaster, the violinist
Giovanni Battista Viotti Giovanni Battista Viotti (12 May 1755 – 3 March 1824) was an Italian violinist whose virtuosity was famed and whose work as a composer featured a prominent violin and an appealing lyrical tunefulness. He was also a director of French and Italia ...
, and Haydn, who sat at a
fortepiano A fortepiano , sometimes referred to as a pianoforte, is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1698 up to the early 19th century. M ...
. The premiere was evidently a success, and ''
The Morning Chronicle ''The Morning Chronicle'' was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London. It was notable for having been the first steady employer of essayist William Hazlitt as a political reporter and the first steady employer of Charles Dickens as a journalist. It ...
'''s reviewer wrote: The ''Sun'' wrote: Haydn later performed the work in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
, and for this purpose made a small cut in the final movement, which is usually respected by conductors today. Since its premiere, the "Drumroll" Symphony has been a favorite among Haydn's symphonies, and it is frequently performed and recorded today. In 1831,
Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
arranged it for piano. The symphony takes about 30 minutes to perform.


Scoring

The work is scored for 2
flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...
s, 2
oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...
s, 2
clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...
s, 2
bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuos ...
s, 2
horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...
, 2
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
s,
timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
, and strings.


Movements

The work is in standard four- movement form.


I. Adagio – Allegro con spirito

After the opening drum roll, the bass instruments play a somber opening theme: : As commentators have pointed out, the first four notes of which match the Dies Irae chant, part of the Latin mass for the dead: :
H. C. Robbins Landon Howard Chandler Robbins Landon (March 6, 1926November 20, 2009) was an American musicologist, journalist, historian and broadcaster, best known for his work in rediscovering the huge body of neglected music by Haydn and in correcting misundersta ...
has remarked that at the start the theme is ambiguous between duple and triple time and between the keys of C minor and (what ultimately proves the case) E major. The sprightly ''Allegro con spirito'' that follows this introduction is in
sonata form Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th c ...
and time with an extended transition to the secondary theme. In a number of places, it restates the theme of the introduction in much faster tempo. Haydn restates part of the opening introduction in the coda, a formal procedure previously adopted by
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
in his String Quintet K. 593 (1790).
Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
was to do the same in his "Pathétique" piano sonata, published four years after the "Drumroll" Symphony in 1799.


II. Andante più tosto allegretto

In
double variation The double variation (also known as alternating variations) is a musical form used in classical music. It is a type of theme and variations that employs two themes. In a double variation set, a first theme (to be called A here) is followed by a ...
form, with alternating themes in C minor and C major plus coda. The double variations had been a favorite musical form of the composer for about 20 years. Along with the Piano Trio H. XV:23 from the same year, this was the last set he wrote. The themes are said to have been developed by Haydn from Croatian folk songs he knew – for discussion, see
Haydn and folk music This article discusses the influence of folk music on the work of the composer Joseph Haydn (1732–1809). Background Haydn was of humble family, perhaps unusually so for a famous composer. His parents were working people (his mother Anna Maria was ...
. Some different features in this movement include a long violin solo, as well as the lack of clarinets.


III. Menuetto

The
minuet A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. The term also describes the musical form that accomp ...
is in the home key of E major.
Charles Rosen Charles Welles Rosen (May 5, 1927December 9, 2012) was an American pianist and writer on music. He is remembered for his career as a concert pianist, for his recordings, and for his many writings, notable among them the book ''The Classical Sty ...
, in ''
The Classical Style ''The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven'' is a book by the American pianist and author Charles Rosen. The book analyses the evolution of style during the Classical period of classical music as it was developed through the works of Joseph ...
'', chose this minuet to illustrate the point that Classical-era minuets often have very strong first beats, in contrast to the more flowing rhythm of the
Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...
minuet.


IV. Finale: Allegro con spirito

The finale is in fast tempo, has a monothematic exposition, and is in
sonata rondo form Sonata rondo form is a musical form often used during the Classical music era. As the name implies, it is a blend of sonata and rondo forms. Structure Sonata and rondo forms Rondo form involves the repeated use of a theme (sometimes calle ...
. Like the first movement, it begins with a quasi-ritual gesture – in this case, a horn call: : The horn call is followed by a pause, then repeated as accompaniment to the main theme, and indeed echoed throughout the movement. Like the themes of the second movement, the opening melody was claimed by Franjo Kuhač to be taken by Haydn from Croatian folk song, in this case a tune called "Divojčica potok gazi" ("A little girl treads on a brook"). Robbins Landon notes that this finale is one of the longest in the London Symphonies. He calls it "one of the great ''tours-de-force'', formally speaking, of Haydn's career: the creation of a long movement on a single theme in which our interest never flags; on the contrary, it is a Finale of unusual tension and strength." Rather unusually for Haydn, he altered the fourth movement after it was completed, removing 13 bars fairly close to the end. The original autograph score preserves this music; it modulates to the key of C major and includes a two-measure rest; with the dynamic markings and . Robbins Landon suggests that Haydn removed the passage because it "would hold up the course of the movement."Robbins Landon (1976:602) The symphony is occasionally performed with the deleted passage included; e.g. in recorded versions by
Antal Doráti Antal Doráti (, , ; 9 April 1906 – 13 November 1988) was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1943. Biography Antal Doráti was born in Budapest, where his father Alexander Doráti was a vi ...
and Frans Brüggen.


See also

*
List of symphonies by name While most symphonies have a ''number'', many symphonies are known by their ''(nick)name''. This article lists symphonies that are numbered and have an additional nickname, and symphonies that are primarily known by their name and/or key. Also v ...


Notes


References

*Robbins Landon, H. C. (1976) ''Haydn: Chronicle and Works'', Indiana University Press, Bloomington. *Rosen, Charles (1971, 2nd ed. 1997) ''The Classical Style''. New York: Norton. *Schroeder, David P. (1985) "Audience Reception and Haydn's London Symphonies," ''International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music'', Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 57–72.


External links

*
Program notes written by James M. Keller for the San Francisco Symphony
{{Authority control Symphony 103 Compositions in E-flat major 1795 compositions