From Our Family to Yours

Haydn - St. Anthony Chorale
Musicians of the Skagit Symphony

Vivaldi - "La Folia"
Musicians of the Skagit Symphony

Haydn - Cello Concerto in Cmaj, Moderato
Jennifer Higgins Wagner, cello
Musicians of the Skagit Symphony

Composer and Program Notes

by Mandy Walters Whitaker

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
St. Anthony Chorale from Divertimento No. 1 Hob. II: 46 (ca 1782)

Franz Joseph Haydn was born in 1732 in a small village in Austria near the border with Hungary. He showed musical ability at a young age and his parents quickly realized that he would never realize his full potential if he stayed at home. When he was six, Haydn was sent to live with relatives where he could receive a better education; he never lived with his parents again. At the age of nine, Haydn gained the attention of the choir master at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. He became a choir boy there and remained at the cathedral for nine years until he was turned out of the program due to disciplinary issues. He worked for a while on his own, teaching himself theory and composition by studying the works of Johann Joseph Fux and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Eventually Haydn began to get jobs at court, leading to his job as music director for the Esterházy family, nobility who owned a large estate, called Esterháza, near the Hungarian border. Haydn’s career was spent serving the family as composer, conductor, and musical instructor.

The Esterházy estate was remote, which isolated Haydn from society at large. While this isolation inhibited his ability to hear new music by other composers, it allowed Haydn a huge amount of creative freedom since he was free to compose what he liked, without outside influences. Even though Haydn lived far from Vienna, his music was widely disseminated there and throughout the rest of Europe. At the time, he was the most celebrated composer on the continent and was influential in the modern development of the symphony and string quartet, earning the nickname “Papa Haydn,” as the father of the forms. Haydn’s influence was widespread; he was a friend and mentor to Mozart and a teacher for Beethoven. His works cemented standard musical forms and coalesced the Classical style.

In 1782 Breitkopf and Härtel published a set of six Divertimentos for winds attributed to Haydn. The original manuscript was found in the archives of the Gesellshaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music) in Vienna and the subsequent edition was credited to Haydn, although the original score had no mention of his name. If Haydn did write the works, they were most likely intended for a small group of wind musicians, called Feldmusiker (military musicians), and would have been performed at Esterháza. The works were originally intended for a group of two oboes, three bassoons, two horns, and a serpent, a bass cornet that was shaped like a snake, which is now obsolete. Publishers in the early nineteenth century often ascribed anonymous compositions or works by lesser-known composers to more famous names in order to sell more copies. Haydn was so famous that this phenomenon was a regular occurrence both during his lifetime and after his death. Most scholars now agree that Haydn did not write the Divertimentos, however there is not a consensus as to who did write the works. Some believe the St. Anthony Chorale tune was a folk melody of some kind, others think the works were written by a student of Haydn’s, Ignaz Pleyel.

Ignaz Pleyel was born in Austria in 1757 and began studying music at an early age. He began lessons with Haydn in 1772. The two had a close relationship and Haydn thought highly of Pleyel’s abilities. Pleyel’s first works were for the stage, including a puppet opera which was performed for the Esterházy family and an opera that was commissioned by the king of Naples. Pleyel moved to Strasbourg, France in 1783 where he became the assistant music director at the cathedral, working with the composer Franz Xaver Richter. Pleyel wrote more compositions during his first ten years in Strasbourg than at any other time of his life, utilizing the monetary and musical resources of the cathedral, which employed a full orchestra and choir. Pleyel fully settled into Strasbourg, marrying a local woman, Françoise-Gabrielle Lefebvre in 1788, with whom he later had four children. After Richter’s death the next year, Pleyel became the cathedral’s music director. The French Revolution caused a major disruption to Pleyel’s career when church musical performances and public concerts were banned in 1791.

Pleyel travelled to London where he took part in concert series, which often rivaled those of his teacher Haydn, who was in London at the same time. Pleyel earned a huge amount in London. Upon his return to Strasbourg, he bought a large, moated château south of town. His new-found and rather ostentatious wealth, foreign birth, and job at the cathedral brought scrutiny to Pleyel under the new regime. Pleyel was called in by the Committee of Public Safety seven times. He managed to avoid imprisonment and execution by writing new compositions for the republic including hymns in honor of reason and the revolution. Pleyel became a French citizen and often presented his revolutionary music both in Strasbourg and Paris.

Pleyel moved to Paris in 1795 and set up a publishing business in 1797. Over the next thirty-nine years, Pleyel published 4,000 works including a complete edition of Haydn’s string quartets and works by Beethoven, Clementi, and other notable composers. Pleyel started a piano manufacturing business in 1807. His son, Camille, became a partner in the business in 1815. The company made several technological developments, including adding a metal frame to the piano. Their instruments became the favorites of many composers including Chopin, Debussy, and Stravinsky. Pleyel retired in 1824 and moved to a country house outside of Paris. He died in 1831 and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Over the course of his career Pleyel completed 42 symphonies, 70 string quartets, and several operas, as well as his works in honor of the revolutionary government.

The tune for the St. Anthony Chorale comes from the second movement of the Divertimento No. 1. It is a lovely melody with an interesting quirk. Most music from the Classical period featured even phrases; usually a four-measure melody answered by another four-measure melody. However, in this movement, the phrases are five measures instead. Haydn was well-known for rhythmic jokes in his compositions, often using unexpected rhythms and phrase length throughout. This might have been a reason why the St. Anthony Chorale was originally attributed to Haydn. The opening melody is introduced then immediately repeated. The second melody is introduced before the first melody returns with a short coda to close out the tune. Whoever wrote this melody, whether it was Haydn, Pleyel, or a folk song, it is a beautiful addition to the canon.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Twelve Trio Sonatas, Op. 1, No. 12 “La Folia” (1705)

Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice during its republic period, the day after a strong earthquake. In thanksgiving for his safe delivery, his mother vowed that he would become a priest. His father was a professional violinist and taught young Antonio to play. He toured throughout the republic with his son. Most likely, Vivaldi also learned composition from his father and later from Giovanni Legrenzi, the chapel master at St. Mark’s Basilica. At fifteen, Vivaldi began studying for the priesthood and was ordained in 1703, at age twenty-five, fulfilling his mother’s promise. The next year, Vivaldi was given a special dispensation allowing him to withdraw from formal liturgical duties due to ill heath, most likely asthma.

Vivaldi spent much of his career employed by an orphanage for girls in Venice. The republic supported many orphanages throughout the city, which educated and cared for the children. Girls in the orphanages were expected to learn music and much of Vivaldi’s output was written for performance by the musicians at the Ospedale della Pietà. During his time at the orphanage, Vivaldi taught violin, viola, theory, and was the choir director. He was also expected to write instrumental and choral music, including an oratorio or concerto for every religious feast day. In 1716 Vivaldi was named music director and became responsible for all musical activities at the orphanage. Over the next decade, he began to travel more to perform and promote his music. According to many contemporary sources, Vivaldi was a fabulously talented performer. Despite often being away, he kept composing for the orphanage, completing 140 concerti in a decade.

Vivaldi also wrote many operas, the most popular musical entertainment of the day, for both the public stage and religious oratorios for the orphans. Vivaldi became one of the most popular composers in Europe, receiving commissions and invitations to perform at many noble and royal courts. Near the end of his life, Vivaldi chose to leave Venice for Vienna. He was not doing well financially and hoped to earn a better living by working for Emperor Charles VI. However, the emperor died shortly after Vivaldi’s arrival, leaving him without a patron or job. He soon took ill as well and died in Vienna in 1741. Vivaldi left a staggering output of music including more than 500 concerti. His music was innovative, often exuberant, and is still highly enjoyable today.

“La Folia” is one of the oldest and most used tunes in European music. There are two versions of the tune, the “early Folia” and the “late Folia.” The earlier version was not a tune per se, but rather was an improvisational process which could generate the sequence of chords that made up the tune. The later version, which is the more common and better known, features a set chord progression with a simple melody in triple meter in the form of a sarabande, a Spanish dance with hints of Arabic influence. As with all old tunes, it can be hard to find the first usage. Jean-Baptiste Lully, the French Baroque composer, is often credited with standardizing the chord progression and melody for the late Folia tune. However, further research has uncovered the chord progression appearing almost a century before in Italian and Spanish manuscripts dating to the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The tune was first published in the mid-17th century and was used regularly in Portuguese theater as a peasant or shepherd’s dance. Since its inception, the tune has been used by more than 150 composers ranging from the Baroque masters such as Corelli, Scarlatti, Handel, and Bach, to a brief quotation by Beethoven in his Fifth Symphony, to Liszt’s piano works, as well as to the 20th century in a work by Rachmaninoff.

Antonio Vivaldi used the late Folia tune in a set of sonatas for two violins and continuo written in 1705. The work features twelve sonatas, with the final one using the Folia theme as the basis for a set of variations. “La Folia” translates to madness or folly. In 1610 a Spanish dictionary described the tune as a noisy dance that is played at incredible speed so that the dancers “…all seem to be out of their mind.” Over the course of the short piece, Vivaldi creates nineteen variations on the theme. The variations start simply, but increase in complexity through ornamentation, syncopation, and imitation between the two violins. Although Vivaldi never changes key or time signature throughout the piece, he is able to create a variety of moods, including several sorrowful variations in the middle of the work. After this brief change in mood, Vivaldi increases the momentum in the work by adding incredibly difficult and ornate figures to the violin parts for the last two variations before the piece closes with a restatement of the main theme that highlights the sarabande rhythm. The piece is a fun and rollicking celebration of what some scholars consider to be the most enduring tune in music.

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Cello Concerto in C Major Hob. VIIb/1

Haydn, unlike many of his contemporaries, wrote concerti for a wide variety of instruments, including horn, oboe, flute, and trumpet, as well as the more traditional violin and piano. Throughout his long career at the Esterházy estate, Haydn wrote five cello concerti. Two have since become part of the standard cello repertoire. One concerto has been lost and the other two have dubious authorship and were most likely written by other composers. The Cello Concerto in C Major was written for Joseph Franz Weigl, the principal cellist in the orchestra at Esterháza. Most likely Haydn wrote the work between 1761-1765. The work was lost for two centuries until it was rediscovered by Oldřich Pulkert in the Prague National Museum in 1961. Although some scholars have doubted its authorship, the majority agree that the concerto was written by Haydn.

Although this piece was written within the timeframe of the Classical period, there are hallmarks of the Baroque as well. Throughout the first movement Haydn utilizes a ritornello form, where the same musical idea keeps returning. The score also calls for a basso continuo part, a lower line of accompaniment that would have often been played by a low string instrument and keyboard instrument to realize the chordal structure fully. However, there are new ideas as well. All three movements, which are presented in the typical fast-slow-fast configuration, use sonata form, the standard of the classical era, to organize the work. In this piece we see Haydn’s ability to move standard forms further to show off the abilities of his musicians.

The first movement begins with the main melody presented by the orchestra, which features strings, oboes, and horns. The cello then joins with chords that use all four strings on the instrument, followed by the main melody. The middle section allows the soloist to show off their technical ability through repeated notes and the rapid change of register. Near the end of the movement there is a cadenza for the soloist. Throughout the section Haydn allows the cello to show off with wonderfully well-written music.

Artist Bio

Jennifer Higgins Wagner - cello

Jennifer was 7 years old the first time she heard a cello and it was love at first sound... even at that young age, she knew Cello (with a capital "C") was exactly what she wanted to do. 5 years(and lots of reminding her parents of that fact) later, she finally had a cello placed in her hands. After just two years of study, she was accepted by audition to join the prestigious Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra under H. Teri Murai and began studies with the late Jack Kirstein, the founding cellist of the LaSalle String Quartet, becoming his last student. She continued her tutelage with Laura McClellan, and was invited to join the Starling Chamber Orchestra, with whom she toured Germany and performed at the opening concerts of the Aspen Music Festival two summers in a row. One year later, at the age of 17, she made her solo debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and went on to earn her Bachelor's Degree in Cello Performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. While at CCM, she studied with Yehuda Hanani and Lee Fiser, as well as performing in master classes with Janos Starker, Paul Katz and the Tokyo String Quartet. She was a founding member of the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and she continues to actively perform with local ensembles, including appearances as the featured soloist with the Seven Hills Sinfonietta and the Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra. Her summers have been spent studying and performing at the Kinhaven Music School with Wayne Foster Smith and at the Aspen Music Festival.

In 2007 Jennifer brought her passionate and energetic playing to Cincinnati’s coffee house music scene performing in a variety of crossover styles. With her folk/pop/blues duo, Lines and Spaces, she made a history-making appearance at the Eden Song Folk Music Festival as the only group to get a standing ovation in the 30 years the festival has existed, and in 2008Jennifer was invited to perform with Crosby Still Nash and Young at the Sundance Film Festival. Other projects have included performances in the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, as well as great deal of work in the recording studio for local artists and as a featured performer on independent film scores.

In addition to her performance schedule, Jennifer is a devoted teacher. She has managed her own private studio since 1997, and she has also taught for the Suzuki Co-operative of the Cincinnati Public Schools, the inner-city Let it Shine arts program in Covington, KY, the Wyoming City Schools, and was on the faculty of Earlham College from 2003-2018. She is currently Assistant Director of the Cincinnati Suzuki School and Head of the Suzuki Cello Program at the Wyoming Fine Arts Center. Her students have won many awards and been accepted to conservatories across the country. Jennifer plays on a petite cello made c. 1790 in Paris by Grosselet. She has named the instrument Napoleon, because it is little, but makes a big noise