Start with this: It is one of the most delightful 3 minutes of music I’ve ever heard in my life. When I heard it I started smiling, and then I laughed, because it is in every way something I would expect right now, not 243 years ago.
Fascinating mixed meter:
Instead of being in 3/4, which every minuet was, you would have be a professional dancer for this because it keeps switching to 4/4. And yet Haydn wrote the whole thing in 3/4, so that four of his 3/4 measure sound like three in 4/4, and by looking at his score you can see that this is exactly what he had in mind. This is call a hemiola, and it’s amazingly effective. Today those bars would be written in 4/4 time. Listen to this. Try to count in 3.
You won’t be able to do it. That’s the trick, and that’s what makes this so cool.
Adam Fischer:
Instruments:
- two oboes
- two horns
- strings
Nickname:
This symphony has none, and why some symphonies have nicknames and others do not is a mystery. But since I remember things better with a “tag”, I gave it one – Mixed Meter. I could also have used: weird rhythm, tricky rhythm, hemiola, and so on. But this gives me something to use in the future, because I will not remember that this is #65, or that the key is A major.
There is something so natural to the rhythm that the mixed meter is both not noticeable but it is. Above all, I needed and enjoyed the cheeriness on this day.