Studia Musicologica
Volume/Issue:
Volume 51: Issue 1-2
Haydn’s sensibility
Author:
James Webster Cornell University 104 Lincoln Hall Ithaca NY 14853-4101 USA

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Pages:
13–27
Online Publication Date:
17 Mar 2010
Publication Date:
01 Mar 2010
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/smus.51.2010.1-2.2
Keywords:
Haydn; sensibility; style; personality; persona
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Recent interpretations of both Haydn’s personality (as a man) and his musical style (or ‘persona’) have focused on the two opposed categories earnestness and wit . The present essay adds a third category on both sides of the equation: sensibility (German Empfindsamkeit ), and argues that it is equally important. The various meanings of sensibility are laid out and their applicability to Haydn discussed, including his rich and varied relationships with lovers and intimate friends. The problematics of the possible correlations between an artist’s personality and his style are discussed; it is argued that, contrary to recent theories of their separation into different domains, these are in fact closely related. Sensibility was a central aspect of mid- and late 18th-century aesthetics, both in ideas about ideal human behavior, and in prose fiction, opera and drama, etc. — as well as instrumental music (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach). In Haydn’s case, not surprisingly, it has so far been located in genres destined primarily for private use: keyboard music and lieder; this is illustrated by an analysis and interpretation of “Das Leben ist ein Traum” (Hob. XXVIa:21; published 1784). In such works we may imagine Haydn as ‘speaking to’ the dedicatee of the work, as well as the sympathetic listener. However, sensibility is also an important aspect of style in the string quartet and symphony, where it has almost never been considered relevant. Examples are discussed in the slow movements from the quartet op. 76 no. 5 and the symphonies nos. 75, 88, 92, 98, 99, and 102. It is argued that the old notion of ‘Classical style’ (fortunately now on the decline), with its rigid demarcation of ‘high’ instrumental genres from both vocal music (Haydn’s operas) and earlier instrumental Empfindsamkeit (Emanuel Bach), was the primary reason that scholars and listeners have until now remained unmoved by Haydn’s sensibility.

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Studia Musicologica
Print ISSN:
1788-6244
Online ISSN:
1789-2422

Senior editors

Editor(s)-in-Chief: Péter BOZÓ (Institute for Musicology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest, H)

Review Editor: Lynn HOOKER (Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA)

Assistant Editor(s):
Patrick DEVINE (Maynooth University, Maynooth, IRL)
Anna LASKAI (Institute for Musicology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest, H)

Editorial Board

  • Anja BUNZEL (Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences, CZ)
  • William A. EVERETT (Conservatory University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA)
  • Márta GRABÓCZ (University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, F)
  • Denis HERLIN (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, F)
  • Vjera KATALINIĆ (HR)
  • Katalin KOMLÓS (professor emerita, Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, H)
  • Valeria LUCENTINI (University of Bern, CH)
  • Tatjana MARKOVIĆ (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, A)
  • Pál RICHTER (Institute for Musicology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest, H)
  • László SOMFAI (Institute for Musicology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest, H)
  • László VIKÁRIUS (Institute for Musicology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest, H)

 

Editorial Secretary

  • István Csaba NÉMETH (Institute for Musicology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest, H)

STUDIA MUSICOLOGICA
Address: H–1250 Budapest, PO Box 9, Hungary
Fax: +36 1 375 9282
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2023  
Web of Science  
Journal Impact Factor 0.1
Rank by Impact Factor Q3 (Music)
Journal Citation Indicator 0.17
Scopus  
CiteScore 0.1
CiteScore rank Q4 (Music)
SNIP 0.626
Scimago  
SJR index 0.114
SJR Q rank Q3

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Studia Musicologica
Language English
French
German
Size B5
Year of
Foundation		 2007 (1961)
Volumes
per Year		 1
Issues
per Year		 4
Founder Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
Founder's
Address		 H-1051 Budapest, Hungary, Széchenyi István tér 9.
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Publisher's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Responsible
Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 1788-6244 (Print)
ISSN 1789-2422 (Online)

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