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The Seasons
work by Haydn
Also known as: “Die Jahreszeiten”
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characteristics of oratorio
- In oratorio: Oratorio after 1750
Haydn called Die Jahreszeiten (1801; The Seasons) an oratorio, though its content is secular and its form a loosely articulated series of evocative pieces. Ludwig van Beethoven’s single oratorio, Christus am Ölberg (1803; Christ on the Mount of Olives), does not succeed, nor do most of those occasioned by the…
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discussed in biography
- In Joseph Haydn: The late Esterházy and Viennese period
…thus encouraged to produce another oratorio, which absorbed him until 1801. An extended poem, The Seasons, by James Thomson, was chosen as the basis for the (much shorter) libretto, again adapted and translated—if somewhat awkwardly—by van Swieten so as to enable performance in either German or English. The libretto allowed…
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