2 - Instability

Summary

The first three movements of the Farewell Symphony are unstable throughout. This instability is heard in almost every aspect of the music: weak and problematical articulations of keys and cadences, the violence of the minor mode itself (which also troubles the major-mode movements), a lack of coherent stepwise melody, and ambiguities of form and structural voice leading. Tonal and rhetorical coherence, which ordinarily governs Haydn's music even at his wittiest and most original, seems at times almost to break down.

ALLEGRO ASSAI

The Exposition

The Allegro assai in particular is remarkably unstable. Most of its keys are not prepared by root-position dominants; most emphasize first-inversion tonics at the expense of the root position. Almost every full cadence is harmonically weak or rhythmically subverted. The rhythm is mechanically, almost obsessively regular. The only contrast, the only melody worthy of the name, is the D-major interlude; but this passage is not only formally problematic, it is not nearly as stable or lyrical as it seems to be.

The Main Theme The violent opening theme (shown in Example 2.1), with its syncopations, chromaticism, slashing descending triadic motives, unison tremolos, and the rest, has often been described. Unlike most of Haydn's opening themes in this period (those of Symphonies Nos. 44 in E minor and 46 in B, for example), it has no overt internal contrast and is almost entirely triadic. This alone is significant: the lack of clear stepwise melody will prove to be a central “problem” in the work. A more immediate difficulty, however, is the relation of the theme to its cadence. The first three phrases, all 4 (2 + 2) bars, are continuous, harmonically explicit, and full in texture.