Thinking about NaNoWriMo got me thinking about the opening of my Mega-novel got me thinking about Haydn's Die Schöpfung got me thinking about Haydn's Die Schöpfung v. Mozart's Requiem (be warned, previous link is one of Harnoncourt's "period-instrument" performances. See this if that's not your thing). It makes sense, I swear. If I ever get around to writing the thing maybe it'll be more apparent.
Anyhoo, soapbox: although it's considered one of Haydn's best, Die Schöpfung is criminally under-appreciated. This is an objective fact. The 8-minute "Chaos" sequence followed by the Fiat lux is handsdown the most hair-raising musical experience that exists. Flipside: Mozart's Requiem is criminally over- and mis-used by film directors everywhere, and it's still criminally under-appreciated.
Although they differ in technical genre (oratoria/mass), both Haydn's Creation and Mozart's Requiem speak the same language (and I don't mean they're both works for choir + super-sized orchestra w/ extended vocal solos). They're concerned w/ the same things. They're on the same wave-length. They're both massive gravity-wells of the universal Story. Flipside: they're opposite sides of same coin. Obviously, the subject/genre has a lot to do w/ this. Where Haydn's work has a lighter touch, Mozart's...not light. Heavy's not the right word. Dense perhaps? Nope. "Strong" is getting there. Anyhoo, both concerned w/ what I will spontaneously choose to refer to as the Perennial Monomythohistory, but reflect opposite sides of it: Haydn's piece (being the chummy Haydn) focuses on the jubilant, positive, creative aspect of creation), whereas Mozart's focuses on the tragic.
So, yeah.
This matters cuz my goal in life for the last seven-ish years has been to capture the experience of hearing the first ten minutes of Die Schöpfung in writing. A tad unattainable, granted, but one can dream. So many abandoned poems. I need to start writing writing rather than tossing letters around like a preschooler. Mhm. Must craft, hone, sculpt, try, try again.
Here's a Haydn freebie. An oldie but such a goodie.
