Status
Available
Publication
Vienna: Artaria, 1800. Musical score with libretto in German and English. Also published 1800 in London (John Ashley). First performed 1798 (from ms).
Original language
English
Local notes
Haydn's oratorio, composed 1796-98. Haydn received an English libretto (author unknown) that had been offered to Handel ca 1745, which Haydn gave to van Swieten, a Viennese diplomat and impresario, who wrote his German libretto based on it. He then wrote an English version, and published the oratorio in 1800 in a bilingual version. The text is taken from Genesis (KJV), Milton's Paradise Lost, and the Psalms, and bits of Thomson's The Seasons (1730).
The oratorio begins with an extended musical depiction of "Chaos" prior to any words. Then, archangels Raphael and Uriel narrate God's creative acts, dispelling Chaos and its satanic demons (allusions to Milton's pre-Adamic reign of Satan), with the chorus praising God's glory and benevolent creation: “affrighted fled hell’s spirits, black, in throngs; Down they sink, in the deep abyss, to endless night.
Despairing, cursing rage attends their rapid fall: [Chorus:] A new-created world springs up at God’s command." Haydn's pre-creation Chaos may have been influenced by his 1792 visit to astronomer William Herschel, who speculated about cosmic evolution. Creation itself is Miltonic: immediate and fully-formed. The libretto, which celebrates nature (creation) throughout, is amenable to both an Anglican and a Deist interpretation.
The oratorio begins with an extended musical depiction of "Chaos" prior to any words. Then, archangels Raphael and Uriel narrate God's creative acts, dispelling Chaos and its satanic demons (allusions to Milton's pre-Adamic reign of Satan), with the chorus praising God's glory and benevolent creation: “affrighted fled hell’s spirits, black, in throngs; Down they sink, in the deep abyss, to endless night.
Despairing, cursing rage attends their rapid fall: [Chorus:] A new-created world springs up at God’s command." Haydn's pre-creation Chaos may have been influenced by his 1792 visit to astronomer William Herschel, who speculated about cosmic evolution. Creation itself is Miltonic: immediate and fully-formed. The libretto, which celebrates nature (creation) throughout, is amenable to both an Anglican and a Deist interpretation.