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Endless Self: Haydn, Cherubini, and the Sound of the Canon

Endless Self: Haydn, Cherubini, and the Sound of the Canon This article takes as its starting point the little-noted attempt of the composer Luigi Cherubini to become the new Esterházy Kapellmeister following Joseph Haydn's death. I use the episode as a prompt for a broad reconsideration of Haydn's reputation in the 1790s–1800s, and of what it meant to follow in such footsteps. Rather than just a matter of capitalizing on the celebrity of a widely respected composer, I discuss Haydn's image and legacy as entailing a god-like aura of immortality, which he shared with personalities such as Washington, Nelson, or Peter the Great of Russia, all hailed for abilities that transcended known standards and inspired multitudes. This turn-of-the-century cult of greatness centered, in Haydn's case, on what seemed an unlimited number of symphonies and unlimited variety of orchestral effects in his oratorios The Creation and The Seasons. Haydn's ceaseless creative vein was a spectacle in itself. It evoked the same sublime, overpowering feeling that Kant described in facing things too vast to be grasped, such as the number of stars in the universe or God's eternity. Remaining in awe of a sublime subject like Haydn brought masses of people together in the aesthetic experience of someone immeasurable, thus immeasurably above them. Sounds that signified to this kind of collective deferential behavior had, I argue, a key role in canon formation across genres (symphonies, masses, operatic overtures, occasional pieces etc.), one often overlooked in scholarship prioritizing genre-inspired purviews. Cherubini, Beethoven, and many others were keen to receive “from Haydn's hands” the gift of invoking a mass audience, even well beyond their death, prompting the communal, attentive and on-repeat listening that reveres great composers, generation after generation. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png 19th-Century Music University of California Press

Endless Self: Haydn, Cherubini, and the Sound of the Canon

Morabito, Fabio
19th-Century Music , Volume 46 (2): 34 – Nov 1, 2022
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Publisher
University of California Press
Copyright
© 2022 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Reprints and Permissions web page, https://www.ucpress.edu/journals/reprints-permissions.
ISSN
0148-2076
eISSN
1533-8606
DOI
10.1525/ncm.2022.46.2.91
Publisher site
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Abstract

This article takes as its starting point the little-noted attempt of the composer Luigi Cherubini to become the new Esterházy Kapellmeister following Joseph Haydn's death. I use the episode as a prompt for a broad reconsideration of Haydn's reputation in the 1790s–1800s, and of what it meant to follow in such footsteps. Rather than just a matter of capitalizing on the celebrity of a widely respected composer, I discuss Haydn's image and legacy as entailing a god-like aura of immortality, which he shared with personalities such as Washington, Nelson, or Peter the Great of Russia, all hailed for abilities that transcended known standards and inspired multitudes. This turn-of-the-century cult of greatness centered, in Haydn's case, on what seemed an unlimited number of symphonies and unlimited variety of orchestral effects in his oratorios The Creation and The Seasons. Haydn's ceaseless creative vein was a spectacle in itself. It evoked the same sublime, overpowering feeling that Kant described in facing things too vast to be grasped, such as the number of stars in the universe or God's eternity. Remaining in awe of a sublime subject like Haydn brought masses of people together in the aesthetic experience of someone immeasurable, thus immeasurably above them. Sounds that signified to this kind of collective deferential behavior had, I argue, a key role in canon formation across genres (symphonies, masses, operatic overtures, occasional pieces etc.), one often overlooked in scholarship prioritizing genre-inspired purviews. Cherubini, Beethoven, and many others were keen to receive “from Haydn's hands” the gift of invoking a mass audience, even well beyond their death, prompting the communal, attentive and on-repeat listening that reveres great composers, generation after generation.

Journal

19th-Century Music – University of California Press

Published: Nov 1, 2022

Keywords: Haydn; inexhaustible creativity; orchestral effects; attentive listening; immortality; Cherubini; sublime; canon formation

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