HAYDN: THE SEVEN LAST WORDS

The Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross by Joseph Haydn is one of the works which most closely related this season’s theme – mortality. From the second half of the 18th century onwards, Haydn’s popularity began to move across international frontiers. In 1786 the Congregation of Santa Cova, (the Holy Cave), in Cadiz commissioned a work for the Good Friday religious ceremony. Through seven ‘sonatas’, Haydn goes over, one by one, the last words that Christ uttered just before he was crucified. Aiming to be completely faithful to the words of the Gospels, Haydn musically captures very different moods: from the pain of the first word, to the consolation of the sixth; from the maternal companionship of the third to the bewildering loneliness of the fourth; from the transcendence of the second to the physical suffering of the fifth. In addition to the seven sonatas, Haydn added an introduction movement and a final “Earthquake” movement, which is considerably louder and more agitated than the rest of the work.