In describing his concept of “rituals “; Confucius explains that rituals,being a person’s everyday thoughts and actions; helped in creating hierarchical categories in people in the usual realms of father/son vis-a-vis the prince/ and the ruled dimension. Though hierarchical, the relationships were grounded on mutual respect. 

In his discussions, Confucius however, exempted music from this rule, terming it as transcendent of such distinctions among people as it ” unifies the hearts”.

Potrait of Beethoven as a young man by Carl Taugott Riedel (1769-1832) : Image via Wikipedia

Moving away from Confucius, I have this ritual that I perform now and then. It is not religious in anyway, but the intensity of the new experience each time, makes it worth a repeat every other time.

A short Journey: K’naan, Eminem & Damian Marley’s music Trip

Damain Marley Performing at the Smile Jamaica 2008 Concert : Image via Wikipedia

In the recent past, I have travelled from Somalia to New York City and again back south of the equator  to the World Cup in South Africa through K’naan’s ”waving flag” . The best selling artist of the 2000′s, Eminem, or simply Em; has taken me to space with “Space bound” , walked me through broken relationships in his collaboration with Rihanna ” love the way you lie” and reveled his inner thoughts to me with the introspective track ” Talking to myself”; all by listening to  his new album aptly titled “Recovery”. An album that Eminem aims to rediscover and reveal his alter ego slim shady; all in retribution to his fans for his self-confessed poor show in his last album “Relapse” .

Damian Marley, the son of reggae icon Bob Marley, in the rhythmically hypnotic Caribbean style has also graced my living room. He may not be as famous as his father, nor sell 700, 000 records in a week as Eminem’sRecovery, but as Confucius quipped, it is Music; and there is a power in it.

K’NAAN’s ’Waving Flag’

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxmEd9lcn0k]

The Power of Music

 A van dedicated to Eminem ( Slim Shady) Image via Wikipedia

Napoleon Bonaparte, the assimilated French ultra military general and strategist, during his conquest of Europe, met a revered man at the time. He had heard a lot of him, by him and about him.

Despite his acclaim as a composer of music, the frail old man was nearing his dawn, with sickness weighing him down.

You would think that for a man hardened by battle and under the high of glory following victory in the battle fields would care less; but Napoleon in respect to the music composer, did what was less expected of a war general. Napoleon ordered an armed guard to be stationed around this sick old man’s abode as the great music composer lay ill in his death bed.

The name of this composer who conquered Napoleon’s heart was Franz Joseph Hayden.

Discovering Music

The account of my discovery of Joseph Hayden, is invariably less dramatic than Napoleon’s.

Adventure may be a running theme in both scenarios, but mine was in search of a new musical experience.

I had never, in all my forays into the world of music, delved much into symphony. This was not because of any bias or lack of its recognition as a genre of music but rather as a consequence of a fault in design.

Normally, I usually “discover” a genre, then slowly and meticulously comb through the different artists, sampling their compositions over a period of time.

As you would imagine, this could mean a temporary “blackout” for some genres in the short term.

Recently, I decided to employ a change of tact, I decided to make a platter of music by sampling composers and artists from different music genres. To help me with this, I asked a friend with a taste of music that was distinct from mine, to recommend something that they enjoyed. So I contacted my friend.

And to Joseph Hayden she sent me.

However before or as I indulge in ’new’ music, I have to abide to a rule I consider golden in the discovery of music:-

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The process of Discovering Music, is only deemed complete, when a little of the artist/composer’s life, influences, time in history and their contribution (or lack of) to that genre and music in its entirety is appreciated.

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At this juncture,  (Mr.) Google comes in; a few clicks and you have something to work on.

Joseph Hayden: Father of symphony Music

Born in 1732 in Rohrau, Austria; during the time of Johann Sebastian Bach, who together with the works of his sons, heralded the dawn of the Baroque Period.

Joseph Hayden at a young age started out with the harp, he was a good singer as a boy before with adolescence, his voice broke ending that aspect of his musical career.

As a young man, he embarked on a musical journey discovering music along the way, scrapping a living as a  music teacher, composer and at one point a musical director. The major part of his development as a composer happened as the reigns of the church on the classical period begun to weaken as composers of the time abandoned rigid forms of art,  instead choosing to apply the rules differently, by bending them at will but only for the purposes of imparting their own genius.

This freedom was partly so because the loosening grip of the church afforded new players some room.

A large part of Joseph Hayden’s musical genius is credited to his own doing when he was afforded the freedom to do so as assistant Kappellmeister in Prince Paul Anton’s orchestra in Eisenstadt.

Prince Nicholas the successor to Prince Paul Anton built a palace in Esterhaza and sharing his predecessor’s love of music allowed Joseph Hayden to explore his musical genius through composing, performing camber music and guiding other musicians.

Of Music, Mozart, Beethoven and Joseph Hayden

Mozart Drawing in Silverpoint made by Dora Stock during Mozart’s visit to Dresden :Image via Wikipedia

Though of conflicting characters, a fact which eventually pulled them apart; Joseph Hayden on meeting the young Ludwig Van Beethoven, in Vienna embarked on mutual musically influencing friendship with Beethoven. The two musical geniuses influenced each other a great deal though as alluded above, they were soon to part ways.

However, despite the break, Joseph Hayden had only kind words to say of the first of his illustrious pupils,  Beethoven, by proclaiming that Beethoven would be one of Europe’s greatest composers, adding that he had pride in being one of his teachers.

The younger Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart meet Joseph Hayden in Vienna in 1781, a decade before Beethoven was taken under the tutelage of Joseph Hayden.

In discovering each other as a friends, their musical styles also bears hints of this friendship. Mozart and Beethoven were to eventually claim for fame than Joseph Hayden. This is no sup rise considering Hayden’s remarks about his contemporary Mozart, “the greatest composer known to me either in person or by reputation.” and his similarly kind words for Beethoven mentioned above.

Joseph Hayden music

In 1809, as Napoleon’s men stood guard outside, Joseph Hayden took his last breath. Behind he left us treasures in the excess of 100 symphony compositions mostly as instrumental music ranging from chamber to orchestral works with a spattering of choral works.

Joseph Hayden’s : Symphony No. 94, Surprise , 2nd Movement

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