Haydn: Die Schöpfung

The Creation, German Die Schöpfung, oratorio by Austrian composer Joseph Haydn dating from April 1798. It was inspired by Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt, which Haydn had heard while visiting England.

In the 1790s Haydn made two extended concert tours to London. Returning from the second of those trips in 1795, he brought with him a libretto telling the Judeo-Christian Creation story as related in John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). Haydn agreed with the proposal of his patron, Gottfried, Freiherr (baron) van Swieten, that the piece should be reset in German, a task that the baron undertook personally. Haydn conducted the oratorio’s premiere at Schwarzenberg Palace in Vienna.

The first of the oratorio’s three parts begins with “Representation of Chaos,” an orchestral prelude that uses stark chords and shifting harmonies to portray the formlessness and disorder that preceded the Creation. The six days of creation occupy the remainder of the first and all of the second part, with each day introduced in recitative by the archangels Raphael (bass), Uriel (tenor), and Gabriel (soprano). Each new creation—light, water, landscapes, plants, and beasts of land and sea and air—is depicted with lavish tone painting. The story of Adam and Eve begins in the third part, with the role of Adam sung by the bass soloist who sang the role of Raphael in the first two parts and the role of Eve sung by the soprano who sang the role of Gabriel. The oratorio focuses on the happy union between Adam and Eve, culminating in a tender marriage duet; the temptation of Eve and expulsion from the Garden of Eden are only indirectly hinted at in the libretto.