Sunday, 27 May 2012

Day 29: Haydn Military Symphony


Day 29: Haydn Military Symphony
Picture to follow shortly.
After listening to Stravinsky, would it be awfully rude of me to say how much I enjoyed listening to something simple, straightforward and tuneful?! Haydn would probably not appreciate this comment, but I did find his Military Symphony (no.100) nice and undemanding.

Haydn composed a series of symphonies known as the London symphonies, of which there were twelve, this being the eighth. The symphony was made up of the normal four movements and used the normal classical line-up of instruments (two each of flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, trumpets, standard percussion and strings.

The name Military Symphony seems to have come from the idea that the second movement contains trumpet fanfares and percussion that is reminiscent of the sound of war. Despite this, (meaning the reminder of war) the whole piece is a great piece of musical composition.

The rendition I was listening to was performed by the Philharmonia Classica, and was conducted by Andreas von Aubel.



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