Lesson 2 · List B · Classical
"Haydn's Appassionata" — his only C minor sonata, a stormy drama that refuses a happy ending.
Joseph Haydn spent most of his working life as the music director for one very rich family — the Esterházy princes — living in a grand palace far from any big city. Being cut off from the world was, he said, his secret weapon.
1732 born in Rohrau (a village in Austria) → choirboy in Vienna → years of odd jobs → 1761 joins the Esterházy court (full Kapellmeister 1766) → two famous trips to London (1791–92, 1794–95) → dies 1809.
① Called the "father of the symphony" and of the string quartet.
② A close friend of Mozart; Beethoven studied with him.
③ His works are numbered Hob. (Hoboken catalogue, grouped by type — XVI = keyboard sonatas).
About his lonely years at the Esterházy palace: "There was no one near me to confuse or torment me, and so I was forced to become original." Being alone made him invent.
This sonata has a lot of labels. Get them all right and you look very organised.
Hob. XVI:20 (Hoboken) = Landon 33 (chronological) = Op. 30 No. 6 (the old print). Always quote the Hoboken number — "Sonata No. 20" is ambiguous because under Landon it means a different piece.
Haydn wrote it in 1771 but waited nine years to publish it (Artaria, Vienna, 1780). The gap is contractual, not artistic: until 1779 his contract meant everything he wrote belonged to the Esterházy family.
It was the last (and hardest) of six sonatas dedicated to Katharina and Marianna von Auenbrugger — brilliant amateur players. Haydn called this one "the longest and most difficult" of the six.
The 1780 title page says "per il Clavicembalo o Forte Piano" — "for harpsichord or fortepiano". That's a snapshot of history: the piano was so new that publishers had to sell the same music to owners of both instruments.
Around 1768–72, Haydn's music got darker, bigger and more daring. This phase has a dramatic German name: Sturm und Drang — "storm and stress".
Minor keys, sudden loud–soft contrasts, dramatic silences, wide leaps, unexpected key changes — music that surprises and frightens instead of being politely neat. Your sonata is full of all of these.
Symphony No. 44 "Trauer" (Mourning), No. 45 "Farewell", No. 49 "La Passione", and the Op. 20 "Sun" string quartets — all around 1768–72.
The son of J. S. Bach, C. P. E. Bach, wrote in an emotional "sensitive style" (empfindsamer Stil) that Haydn loved. The abrupt gestures and speech-like "recitative" moments in this sonata point straight to him.
Fun scholarly fact: the label "Sturm und Drang" actually comes from a play by Klinger dated 1776 — after this music was written! So many scholars prefer empfindsamer Stil ("sensitive style") for the keyboard works. Mentioning that correction shows real understanding.
Examiners love this one, and the answer is not a single word. The scholars genuinely disagree — and explaining the disagreement is better than a slogan.
The sonata has detailed dynamics (f, p, crescendo) — including sudden f–p swaps on neighbouring notes around bars 13–14 — that a harpsichord physically cannot play (it can't change volume). So it needs a touch-sensitive instrument. Some say clavichord (a small, quiet, expressive instrument) in 1771, "touched up" for the fortepiano when published in 1780 (which is what the Auenbrugger sisters played). Others reserve "first fortepiano sonata" for a later work. The safest sentence: "the dynamic markings in the sources demand a touch-sensitive instrument." Notice: fortepianos weren't even being built in Vienna yet in 1771!
| Movement | Tempo | Key | Metre | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Moderato | C minor | 4/4 | Sonata form (continuous exposition) |
| II | Andante con moto | A♭ major | 3/4 | Aria-like, over a running bass |
| III | Finale: Allegro | C minor | 3/4 | Sonata form (NOT a minuet!) |
The first subject opens quietly, in parallel thirds and sixths, then falling semitones — cool on the surface, tense underneath. Then the music travels to the second subject in E♭ major — the relative major (the standard minor-key move, i → III).
Normally a sonata-form exposition has a clean stop in the middle (a "medial caesura"). This one doesn't — it flows without a break. There's an augmented sixth chord around bar 18 that pretends to be the stop, then slips away. That unusual design has a knock-on effect: nobody can agree where the recapitulation begins — bar 69 or bar 78 are both argued in print. Saying why it's ambiguous is worth more than picking a bar.
It drives to B♭ minor, then at bars 54–59 hits a chromatic high point — a fast chain of dominant sevenths touching E♭ minor → A♭ minor → G♭ major → E♭ major (G♭ is a truly remote key for 1771), plus some odd parallel six-four chords.
Movement I contains two "quasi-cadenzas" — passages Haydn wrote out in full, marked Adagio with fermatas, that sound like an improvised solo. They come straight from C. P. E. Bach's style (concerto rhetoric inside a sonata). The slow movement does the same before its final cadence. Point at one and explain it.
A♭ major — the flat submediant (♭VI) of C minor, a warm, distant key Beethoven later loved. A singing melody unfolds over a running bass, full of syncopation that keeps it restless even at a slow tempo.
The finale sounds like a minuet (3/4, graceful opening) — but it is not a minuet and trio: it's a full sonata-form movement that grows in intensity, with virtuosic hand-crossing where the left hand leaps between the extremes of the keyboard. And it ends in C minor — with no Picardy third, no happy major chord. For 1771, refusing to end happily was a striking, almost shocking choice. That bleak ending is the expressive point of the whole sonata.
The 18th-century default is a trill starting on the upper note, on the beat (C. P. E. Bach, Türk). But Haydn's own signs are inconsistent — his single "Haydn ornament" can mean a turn or a mordent. Say what you decided and why.
Play the f and p as sudden, terraced contrasts — like flipping a switch — not as smooth crescendos. Keep the pedal out of those f–p moments: they need a dry, clean attack.
Take the exposition repeat. For the second-half repeats, be ready to explain your choice in terms of proportion — how much drama can the music bear?
"The second subject arrives in E♭ major, the relative major — that's the standard minor-key Classical scheme, i to III rather than i to v. But Haydn gets there in an unusual way: the exposition is continuous, with no clean medial caesura, and an augmented sixth around bar 18 feints towards one and then evades it. That same feature is why the recapitulation is hard to pin down — analysts put it at bar 69 or bar 78. It all follows from the exposition's design, and it's what makes this movement feel so restless — which is exactly why I play the transition as one long, forward-pressing line."
Why was the sonata written in 1771 but not published until 1780?
Contractual reasons: under Haydn's 1761 Esterházy contract his music belonged to the family; the contract was revised in 1779 to let him publish freely, and the 1780 Artaria set was the immediate result.
Is the finale a minuet?
No — it sounds like one at the opening (3/4, graceful), but it's a full sonata-form movement that grows in intensity with virtuosic hand-crossing, and ends in the minor.
What key is the slow movement in, and what relationship is that?
A♭ major — the flat submediant (♭VI) of C minor, a warm, remote key Beethoven later loved.