Dale Carr | The Wanderer, by Joseph Haydn, performed by James Fankhauser, tenor, and Barbara Shearer, piano @dalecarr6361 | Uploaded April 2024 | Updated October 2024, 41 minutes ago.
The Wanderer, Canzonetta, by Joseph Haydn, Hob.XXVIa:32, composed 1794-5, text by Anne Hunter ; performed by James Fankhauser, tenor, and Barbara Shearer, piano, in 1967 in Hertz Hall, University of California, Berkeley
Haydn's Canzonettas were published in 2 volumes in 1794-5, intended apparently for well-to-do English musical amateurs. The texts range from the light-hearted to the spooky, the music is masterful.
The Wanderer falls easily into the spooky category; maybe even depressed or neurotic, at least as far as the text is concerned. The music seems perhaps a bit undercooled by comparison; but this is a collection of canzonettas, after all. Nevertheless, the chromatic harmonies and melodic turns and the diminished chords emphasize the desperate character of the text, within a wonderfully simple design : there are two more or less identical musical verses, the biggest difference between them being that the accompaniment is harmonically slightly more explicit in the 2nd verse.
About the harmonies: the basic movement from minor tonic to relative major is normal; but what Haydn does after that is really totally saturated chromaticism, involving diminished-7th chords and their simultaneous chromatic vocal lines, and also the 'Neapolitan 6th' chord, in this case a triad c-eflat-aflat, which adds substantially to the spookiness and indeed the harmonic color.
Jim & Barbara were fellow-students at UC Berkeley in the 60s. I enjoyed their friendship immensely & learned a lot from their musicality.
The Wanderer, Canzonetta, by Joseph Haydn, Hob.XXVIa:32, composed 1794-5, text by Anne Hunter ; performed by James Fankhauser, tenor, and Barbara Shearer, piano, in 1967 in Hertz Hall, University of California, Berkeley
Haydn's Canzonettas were published in 2 volumes in 1794-5, intended apparently for well-to-do English musical amateurs. The texts range from the light-hearted to the spooky, the music is masterful.
The Wanderer falls easily into the spooky category; maybe even depressed or neurotic, at least as far as the text is concerned. The music seems perhaps a bit undercooled by comparison; but this is a collection of canzonettas, after all. Nevertheless, the chromatic harmonies and melodic turns and the diminished chords emphasize the desperate character of the text, within a wonderfully simple design : there are two more or less identical musical verses, the biggest difference between them being that the accompaniment is harmonically slightly more explicit in the 2nd verse.
About the harmonies: the basic movement from minor tonic to relative major is normal; but what Haydn does after that is really totally saturated chromaticism, involving diminished-7th chords and their simultaneous chromatic vocal lines, and also the 'Neapolitan 6th' chord, in this case a triad c-eflat-aflat, which adds substantially to the spookiness and indeed the harmonic color.
Jim & Barbara were fellow-students at UC Berkeley in the 60s. I enjoyed their friendship immensely & learned a lot from their musicality.
