Haydn: Symphony No.

88 (4th Movement)/Gottschalk: Souvenir de Puerto Rico

Grant Eagleson

Music History

This Louis Moreau Gottschalk work is extremely symptomatic of the Romantic

era, incorporating many elements that one would expect of the time period. It is

composed for solo piano, aimed at the new middle-class audience that were interested

in chamber music. With large contrasts of soft and loud, even those who were not

serious musicians could recognize its emotional power. It is built on a simple melody,

and even after a single listening one could easily sing it from memory. The middle of the

piece has strong forays into chromatic harmony, drawing the listener away from the

tonic center before returning at the end. The most appealing part of this work is the

incorporation of Afro-Caribbean rhythms; Gottschalk was familiar the folk music of

Puerto Rico and surrounding islands. These moments of exoticism, contrasted with

passages exemplary of virtuosic European music, create a fascinating hybrid.

The Haydn symphony, however, is quintessentially Classical era music; scored

for a small orchestra of strings and winds typical of the time. The fourth movement has a

light melody, not exactly singable, but simple and well suited to the strings.

Harmonically, this work exemplifies the classical style, modulating to closely related

keys such as the dominant. We start and end in the same key, with clearly defined

cadences marking any modulations. It is also rhythmically simple, with no syncopation

or unusual subdivisions of the beat. Steady eighth notes create a sense of drive and
perpetual motion while maintaining stability. The form of this finale is a rondo, with many

of the sections containing rounded binary form (as expected). Overall, it is gentle and

playful music, not making any grand emotional gestures or pushing the listener into

anything other than a sense of joy.

Despite their differences, Romantic composers borrowed heavily from the greats

of the Classical era. Most of them would have intensely studied this music, either at

conservatories or individually, and its forms became the basis of their own writing. The

Gottschalk piece is essentially a theme and variations, although it becomes more dense

and complex than a work in the same form would have been in the Classical period.

However, it all remains in functional harmony, and both Gottschalk and Haydn use

melodies that are simple and memorable; there is no radical departure from tonality, or

music that is “unsingable”. Each of them would have been attractive to broad

audiences in their day, and are still extremely approachable now. Composers of these

eras were not writing “art” music, they were writing to get the public into concert halls, or

in music stores to purchase their works, hopefully becoming artistically successful along

the way.