200 Years, Anniversary Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
haydnmania: the 2009 anniversaryArchive for Kaiserhymne
Destiny of an anthem
Soon the Haydn Year 2009 begins! On this occasion the Austrian National Library in Vienna shows in a very interesting exhibition the story of Joseph Haydn’s “Kaiserhymne” (imperial anthem). Title: “Gott erhalte. Schicksal einer Hymne” (destiny of an anthem).
One of my earlier articles about the Haydn-anthem here
Some examples of the exhibits:
the clean copy of Joseph Haydn’s “Kaiserhymne”
Kaiser Franz II./I. (1768-1835),
Lithografie by Josef Axmann
the 1st print of the anthem
early printing of „Gott erhalte“, Wien o.J.
first sketch of the anthem, from Joseph Haydn
All pictures from © Austrian National Library. Exhibition: nov 28, 2008 – february 1, 2009-
…our “stolen” Haydn-anthem…
…is now used by the Germans as their “official anthem”:
Joseph Haydn composed the “Kaiserhymne” (Emperor’s Hymn) “Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser” (“God Save Emperor Francis”) as an anthem to Francis II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire which he reigned from Vienna, Austria. Lorenz Leopold Haschka (1749-1827) wrote the lyrics – Joseph Haydn composed the melody.
The melody is also the second movement of one of Haydn’s most famous string quartets, nicknamed the “Emperor Quartet” (german/original name: “Das Kaiserquartett”). The melody was later used in “Das Lied der Deutschen” (translation: “the song of the germans” – tztztz….), which is still Germany’s national anthem.
Sometimes I’d like to change our actually (and – at least – boring) austrian anthem against the Haydn anthem melody, that really belongs to us! It was written by a person who lived here (not in Germany!).
There’ not much possibilities, but among the less I found one “touching” version of Haydn’s anthem, the 2nd movement of the “string quartet op.76, popularly known as the “Emperor” Quartet (1797), on youtube:
200 Years, Anniversary Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) 