Haydn and the Enlightenment

Book excerpt: This book challenges the widely held view of Haydn as an inspired instrumental musician who composed in isolation from eighteenth-century enlightened thinking. Schroeder presents Haydn as a culturally and politically sensitive representative of the Age of Enlightenment, arguing that Haydn's awareness of contemporary aesthetic opinion and the tenets of the Enlightenment are reflected by the transformation in his compositional style. He explores Haydn's relationship with his audience, and suggests that Haydn was well acquainted with the contemporary view that works of art should serve a moral function, pointing to numerous instances in the late symphonies where this end is effectively pursued.