Haydn style.

To understand and really grasp the symphony orchestra, you have to go back to its roots.

Haydn united the construction of the orchestra with form and concert dramaturgy, and the way he did it has been decisive for the composers who came after him. Traces of the way Haydn builds his orchestral sound can be found in Mahler, in Bruckner and in Debussy. In a sense, the Haydn style is the modern orchestra in condensed form.

Most students who begin with Haydn have not really listened to his music, and they know little of it. We are used to far larger orchestras, and a forte in Haydn’s orchestra does not, at first, strike us as overwhelming. Yet after only a few weeks of working with Haydn, it is clear that they have become fascinated by the power and intensity of his music, the clarity of his form and his dramatic expression.

Haydn is also an ideal model of original creativity, in his instrumentation as much as in his tonality and his form. Working with him gives an insight into the early orchestra, and at the same time it lifts the student’s creative understanding of symphonic music, and of the basics behind musical energy, to a higher level.

Later, when we work with Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Debussy, we keep drawing threads back to what we learned in those first classes with Haydn.

Starting with Haydn and moving through my model gives an exceptional understanding of the symphony orchestra, and a refined craft that serves most kinds of composition students.