# Haydn, 7 Last Words



## AlanGlasby (Feb 18, 2020)

Hello - just signed up and glad to be here. I'm currently trying to get my head around Haydn's "7 Last Words from the Cross" which I have available in orchestral, quartet and piano versions. I wonder if anyone can recommend an analysis the music (NB I'm a music enthusiast although not a musicologist, so it doesn't want to be over technical!). Things available via Google seem to be mainly programme notes, and I could use something a bit more comprehensive. I'd be very grateful for advice please.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

This website is generally worth reading on Haydn, though it's very much work in progress and I'm not sure how much he has dealt with all the different versions of the 7 Last Words. The author, Gurn Blanston, is generally friendly and I'm sure he won't mind if you drop him an email asking for advice about what to read.

https://www.fjhaydn.com/my-blog/2015/05/1786-the-music-part-4-.html
https://www.fjhaydn.com/my-blog/2015/06/1787-the-music-part-5-.html

This may also be of interest

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jensla...-joseph-haydns-seven-last-words/#6bf12c0835db


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## AlanGlasby (Feb 18, 2020)

Thanks very much Mandryka - a brief glance suggests that might well be very useful - I'll give it a proper look tomorrow!


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

It is a religious work with 8 slow movements and ending in a piece Haydn called the earthquake -- emblematic of the earthquake that occurred 3 p.m. the day Christ died on the cross. It is said to be God's anger and mourning seeing his son die.

I don't know that the orchestral or string quartet versions transmit the religious nature of the work as well as the choral rendition.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Of the two non-choral arrangements I for one prefer the intimacy of the quartet version.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I must say I like the choral arrangement most too, though I haven't explored it much. I remember there was a recording by Scherchen which really impressed me. 

I have never got on with the quartet version, less so the keyboard one, and I've never heard the one for orchestra. 

You have to wonder at the chutzpah of the man, putting seven slow movements one after the other. I don't know if it was madness or genius.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

There was a keyboard version as well? I wasn't aware of that - not that it would interest me much.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I admire Hakkinen and I like clavichord, but I haven't enjoyed this. I'm not really a great Haydnist.


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## AlanGlasby (Feb 18, 2020)

That's a very interesting set of responses. It's very subjective of course, but I'm finding that as I listen repeatedly and try to get my slow moving head around the music, the piano version has a sharpness and clarity while the orchestral version is expressive in many different ways with the range of instrumental timbres, while the vocals in the choral version are in an odd way something of a distraction. I think that perhaps it's enough to know the words inspiring the individual sonatas and then look for their reflections in the music -does that make any kind of sense????


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## AlanGlasby (Feb 18, 2020)

I tried to post this response a little while ago and ended up with error messages and then it disappearing - so one more go! Very interesting train of responses - it's obviously all very subjective, but I'm finding the orchestral version most helpful. The piano version has a clarity from being a single albeit very expressive voice ( that clarity often has a harshness about it which isn't altogether inappropriate to the theme), while the orchestra with its multiplicity of voices seems to have a much greater range of expression. The vocals .... I know the biblical text reasonably well and anyway it's brief enough to hold in the mind while listening, and I find the voices somewhat of a distraction. I'm trying to listen carefully and indeed repeatedly in an attempt to hear how he reflects these powerful ideas in music and find that easier in the instrumental versions. I find the music profound, and the experience very rewarding.


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