Haydn

Haydn's Creation is one of the great masterpieces of the classical period. This absorbing and original account of the work provides an indispensable guide for the concert-goer, performer and student alike. The author places the work within the oratorio tradition, and contrasts the theological and literary character of the English libretto with the Viennese milieu of the first performances. The complete text is provided in both German and English versions as a useful reference point for discussion of the design of the work, the musical treatment of the words, including questions of Haydn's pictorialism, and a detailed examination of the different movement types employed. The book also contains a brief history of the reception of the work with appendices of notes on the changing performance traditions and selected extracts from critical accounts from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Nicholas Temperley also discusses the changing performance traditions of this work and surveys the critical reception throughout its history. In a useful appendix he quotes from the most significant critical literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.