Haydn's Manuscripts make it to the Hairdresser

Josef Haydn (Yes, I know it was "Franz Josef Haydn," but he didn't know it) was irrepressibly optimistic. With sore difficulties wracking his childhood ("I received more floggings than food") he came out beaming with happiness in his demeanor, his conversation and of course in his music. He was socially successful because of this point. Constantly negative people drain so much energy it's depressing just to talk to them, But Haydn, the lighthearted prankster made friends right and left that helped him succeed in spite of coming out of low socioeconomic circumstances, which, I might add, may have been stacks harder to combat in that day.

But it wasn't all sunbeams for Haydn the adult either- He missed the mark big time in one respect: His wife. Oops. Haydn loved a girl who was unfortunately predestined by her family to a nunnery, so she was packed off to the nunnery, much to Haydn's disappointment. Her sister was available. So he went for her instead. After their marriage he found she had... not a lot of respect for music or composition or composers or manuscripts or any such thing which made things really hard for her musical, composing, manuscript writing husband because their living depended on his success and his success depended on his manuscripts that were too often taken from his writing desk and ending up lining her muffin tins and ending up as curl-papers for Mrs. Haydn's coiffure. I am Dead Serious. This really happened. This is one of those situations that would make even the most hardened marriage counselor's jaw drop. Well, needless to say, their relationship did not flourish because she was like this on a regular basis. They separated, whether amicably or not I cannot tell, but he supported her comfortably in her own home and regarded himself as a married man the rest of his life. This I really, really respect about him: Haydn wrote to a friend who was suggesting the beginning of a relationship between Haydn and one of his students, a rich, handsome widow who obviously preferred him: "I am not a free man." Haydn recognized that vows are forever.

Music as Sales Rep.

Have you ever thought about how manipulative and commercial music can be? Advertisers use it to try to get you to buy it, It gets piped into hospital elevators to try to make you relax and not think about your gown, just trying to make you think your hospital is a ritzy hotel, it gets piped into ritzy hotels to make you think you're in a ... ritzy hotel... Movie makers use it to cue you as to the moment of the leading lady's first glimmer of understanding that the new acquaintance she's dealing with is a blackguard. It is blasted through the loudspeakers of all the mall shops to go with the tone of the line of clothing they sell-- nothing is as simple as buying a shirt- it's not just an outfit you buy, it's a whole package, a way of life.

People use music to market themselves: convertible owners and souped-up "can't afford to buy a real engine so I amplified my muffler" car owners turn up the woofers on their gigantic speakers and vibrate their way down the boulevards in hopes that the rest of the world will think the whole party is in their car 24/7... "look at me... I'm just a fuzzy outline because I'm vibrating so much, but I want you to look at me anyway (if you can track me) because I'm so cool..."

Throughout history royalty has been quick to support the arts because of the advantage of dazzling your guests with the incredible sounds of your own personal orchestra. And young ladies were ever so much more eligible to suitors as accomplished singers or harpsichord or pianoforte players (but not so much violin players- that was too immodest- with all those arms lifting and playing about, and the cello- for a young lady- never!! Let us not speak of that!!)

Yes, music is a manipulator, an enhancer. Aaron Copland wrote the score to a movie and when it was reviewed for the first time, a moment that was supposed to be dark and gripping got a laughter response. The makers were horrified. This was not supposed to be funny! Copland quickly rewrote the music with severe dissonance instead. A second review of the film brought no laughter, instead, everyone felt the tension. Copland himself said he wishes the audience could see each film three times, once normally, with the music, once without the music, then once with the music turned back on. Then people would pay attention to the importance of the music.

Here is a tiny example: Music is what made this funny baby movie so successful. It's pretty cute already, but the clever musical accompaniment makes it irresistibly funny. Enjoy!

Favorite Moments

Sometimes there are just moments that are so memorable they become history. This respectful and talented student was working hard in a Placido Domingo masterclass, and came to a wonderful note in the aria he was singing, and when Domingo heard him, he stopped him to refer to the note by way of demonstration- and after singing it far and above the already stunning rendition of the student, began to continue his comment upon it, when the audience, student and pianist all react to its beauty and erupt in applause and the laughter of astonishment!

I also listen to it in admiration for what the pianist accomplishes, and how respectful and wonderful the tone of the lesson is. Domingo is so considerate.

Domenico Scarlatti was a famous Baroque harpsichordist (born in 1685: the same year as J.S. Bach and Handel!) who is famous for his five hundred fifty-five keyboard Sonatas. They are knows for their virtuosity and their sparkling energy. One of their particular technical demands is frequent hand crossovers which he employed liberally (…until his increasingly ample girth prevented him in old age.)

Scarlatti is so distinctive. He was an Italian living in Spain and Portugal, working for the nobility there. That’s a lot of energetic musical culture wrapped up into one guy! I have found that his music doesn’t play too well on a lot of upright pianos because of brilliant repeating notes. Grand pianos have gravity to help get that hammer back down in position to spring back fast enough, not like uprights, whose hammers travel horizontally. Scarlatti’s repeated notes are always obvious, as in his Sonata in D minor, K. 141 (see this unbelievable version by Martha Argerich)

Other things that happen often in Scarlatti’s music are sudden key changes to the parallel major or minor (like jumping from D major to D minor without a modulation) and those famous trills that often happen at the end notes of the two halves of the Sonatas. The most incredible performer of Scarlatti is Michelangeli. (I love that movie!)

It’s Not That Bad, Sergei

Rachmaninoff suffered bouts of abysmal depression and was haunted with feelings of insecurity. Often he thought his music was just junk. He was so busy trying to be a conductor, pianist and composer and teacher all at once: No wonder he felt inadequate- he was trying to fill a large order. OK, so I am not a conductor (yet,) but I can only say, knowing a tiny bit about the other occupations, I’d say if he also were trying to be a homeschool mom/home-keeper/piano mom for a week, surely he would have whistled his way to work thereafter. (Bet he didn’t bake, either.)

Prolific Scarlatti

Domenico Scarlatti was a famous Baroque harpsichordist (born in 1685: the same year as J.S. Bach and Handel!) who is famous for his five hundred fifty-five keyboard Sonatas. They are knows for their virtuosity and their sparkling energy. One of their particular technical demands is frequent hand crossovers which he employed liberally (…until his increasingly ample girth prevented him in old age.) Scarlatti is so distinctive. He was an Italian living in Spain and Portugal, working for the nobility there. That’s a lot of energetic musical culture wrapped up into one guy! I have found that his music doesn’t play too well on a lot of upright pianos because of brilliant repeating notes. Grand pianos have gravity to help get that hammer back down in position to spring back fast enough, not like uprights, whose hammers travel horizontally. Scarlatti’s repeated notes are always obvious, as in his Sonata in D minor, K. 141 (see this unbelievable version by Martha Argerich) Other things that happen often in Scarlatti’s music are sudden key changes to the parallel major or minor (like jumping from D major to D minor without a modulation) and those famous trills that often happen at the end notes of the two halves of the Sonatas.

Talkies Not In Yet

Heitor Villa-Lobos, (1887-1959: Brazilian pianist and composer) had a job playing the organ in a silent movie theater.

My husband’s grandfather remembered the silent movies first coming to his village in Belgium: This guy named Bucsan had the first reel in town set up in a room full of chairs. It was a western flick with no plot: a recycled affair of cowboys and Indians galloping in circles around a spinney of trees, put on repeat. Bucsan, poor man, was the proud owner of this new form of entertainment, and the ready-to-be-entertained public expected him to fill his shoes completely by narrating in detail the full of the drama. Bucsan delivered… at first. Then, as the Indians disappeared around the same corner for the sixth time and the repeatedly revived cowboys held their guns ready to shoot the (same) Indians dead for the seventh time, Bucsan wavered. The townspeople demanded he keep up with the story, but he was having a hard time maintaining his personal sense of drama and his imagination flagged. Finally things got ugly. “Bucsan, you lazy lout!!” they shouted. (That saying has since become a family proverb.)

That digression having been consummated, I will say, that Villa-Lobos’s job description would have included inventing dramatic music for the silver screen (or was it still brown?).

Uplifting Haydn

Click on this Lesson on Haydn (and Faure) by Lang Lang to a Japanese student Shion Ota- to see a perfect example of how when you are wondering how things could possibly improve, they do.

All Stories have Morals:

Franz Josef Haydn wanted to marry a lovely girl whose parents had destined for a nunnery. He made his proposal, and she was sent packing… to the nunnery. Her fine sister was still single and readily available, so he married her instead. She wasn’t very sympathetic toward his musical tendencies: She used his manuscripts to line her muffin tins and hair curlers. She was contumacious and sullen, and he was outgoing and lighthearted except regarding his relationship with her. They agreed to separate. He supported her financially. While in England, a rich and handsome widow became his student and was obviously attracted to him. “If I were a free man, this would have been a lovely thing,” he told a friend, “but I am not…” That is what I call being faithful in the face of adversity and temptation. I guess the moral of that story is, if you’re a really nice guy like Haydn, make sure to get what you really wanted in the first place... maybe even if it means breaking into the convent...