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Haydn was inspired to write a large oratorio during his visits to England in 1791- 1792 and 1794- 1795, when he heard oratorios of Handel performed by large forces. It is likely that Haydn wanted to try to achieve results of comparable weight, using the musical language of the mature classical style.
The work on the oratorio lasted from October 1796 to April 1798. Haydn found his topic to be inspirational, and from his own testimony it appears that the composition of The Creation was for him a profoundly religious experience. He worked on the project to the point of exhaustion, and indeed collapsed into a period of illness after he had finally conducted the premiere performance.
The Creation was first performed in Vienna (in Prince Schwarzenberg's palace, April and May 1798) before private audiences consisting of the noblemen who had commissioned the work and their guests. These performances permitted Haydn to make adjustments in preparation for the public premiere, which took place in the Burgtheater in Vienna in March 1799Events March 1 Federalist James Ross becomes President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate. March 7 Napoleon captures Jaffa in Palestine and his troops proceed to kill more than 2,000 Albanian captives. March 29 New York passes a law aimed at graduall. This premiere was extremely successful, and the work was often performed in Vienna in the remainder of Haydn's lifetime ( 1732Events February 23 First performance of Handel's Orlando in London June 9 James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of Georgia. December 7 The original Covent Garden Theatre Royal (now the Royal Opera House) is opened Genoa regains Corsic- 1809Events January 16 Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of Corunna. February 3 Illinois Territory was created. February 11 Robert Fulton patents the steamboat. February 20 A decision by the Supreme Court of the United States states t).
Following translation into English, The Creation was performed in LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri (Covent Garden, 1800) and then, with further translations authorized by the composer, throughout EuropeFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Se. The work has been part of the classical repertory continuously since its premiere and is widely performed and recorded today.
A typical performance lasts about one hour and 45 minutes.
The text of The Creation has a long history. The three sources are Genesis, the Biblical book of PsalmsPsalms Tehilim , in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Because the book consists of songs or chants, a psalm can be used to mean any religious chant or poem of praise. This article, however, d, and John MiltonJohn Milton ( December 9, 1608— November 8, 1674) was an English poet, most famous for his blank verse epic Paradise Lost''. His father, John Milton Sr. was a well-off scrivener, and his grandfather a wealthy landowner in Oxfordshire who, hewing to the ol's Genesis epic Paradise LostFor the UK Goth metal band, see Paradise Lost (band . Paradise Lost (published 1667) is an epic poem, originally in 10 books, later revised in 12, of blank verse by the 17th century English poet John Milton. It narrates the Christian story of the Fall of. This material was fashioned into an oratorio libretto by one Lidley (possibly Linley). Lidley may have intended the libretto for the use of Handel; if so, Handel never set it to music. Haydn's host in England, Johann Peter Salomon, somehow obtained a copy of Lidley's libretto and gave it to Haydn. When Haydn returned to Vienna, he gave it to his friend and sponsor Baron Gottfried van Swieten, who produced a German version as well as a metrically-matched English retranslation. The work was published bilingually ( 1800) and is still performed in both languages today.
Van Swieten was evidently not a fully-fluent speaker of English, and the English version of the libretto has given rise to criticism and various attempts at improvement. Indeed, the English version is sufficiently awkward that the work is sometimes performed in German even in English-speaking countries. The discussion below quotes the German text as representing van Swieten's best efforts, with fairly literal renderings of the German into English; for the full versions of both texts see the Links at the end of this article.