Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 05/20/1993, uploaded on 12/05/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The year 1909 marked the 100th anniversary of Franz Joseph Haydn’s death.  As a homage to the great composer, the International Music Society invited several composers, including Debussy, Ravel, d’Indy, Dukas and Widor, to compose pieces for the occasion.  Debussy’s Hommage à Haydn, like d’Indy and Ravel, used Haydn’s own name to create the musical material of his piece in memory of the Austrian composer. The Hommage is a relatively little-known work compared to the composer’s grander works for the piano. Yet, it is none the less and curious and interesting tribute to “Papa Haydn.”

The idea of representing a name through the use musical pitches was by no means new.  J. S. Bach used his own name in some of his compositions by using the pitches B-flat, A, C and B (in Germany, B is used for B-flat and H for B-natural), thus spelling B-A-C-H.  Schumann used the name of the German town Asch as the main motivic material of Carnaval, translating it into the musical pitches A-flat, C and B (As being the German notation for A-flat). Brahms, in his Third Symphony, represented his personal motto “Frei aber froh” (Free but happy) with the pitches F, A-flat and F.  Messiaen also used musical pitches to represent the letters of the alphabet to create a hidden musical code in some of his works. To represent Haydn’s name, Debussy, Ravel and d’Indy created a table in which the letters of the alphabet starting with “I” correspond to a musical pitch. By their system, “Haydn” becomes the five-note motif: B-A-D-D-G.

Adopting the tempo of a waltz, Debussy’s Hommage begins in the key of G-flat, though the key signature indicates G major, with an expressive introductory melody in the bass. On its repeat, Debussy deftly sidesteps into G major and presents the Haydn motif in the upper voice. The motif is then transformed through three variations: the first, scherzo-like with the motif given in supple sixteenth-notes over sustained chords; the second, as a syncopated melody over an animated and energetic chromatic bass; and finally, with a touch of solemnity as the motif is given in broad tones over sustained, full-voiced chords. Following this last variation, the opening G-flat major introduction returns briefly, but gives way to a final statement of the Haydn motif in the manner of the first variation, closing the Hommage with a sense of wit and energy in the spirit of Haydn himself.      Joseph DuBose