Symphony No. 94 in G “Surprise”

The music piece that I listened to was Symphony No. 94 in G “Surprise” by Joseph Hayden. This classical piece of music takes place in the classical period and starts off with a very slow tempo. The rhythm is a contagious pulsating rhythm which appears to have a metered beat that one can follow. It sounds like it would be 2 beats which is in duple meter. The main melody seems very short, defined and to the point. It is definitely staccato which seems short and separate where legato is smooth and together. The piece begins to get softer and softer when “surprise” loud chord pops up and then the theme and rhythm continue. I hear some violins in the piece with a flute sounding like a homophonic texture. Then as the music plays on, it appears to switch to a polyphonic texture with a second melody added playing with the main melody. The pitch seems to fluctuate between high and low as it hits different parts of the piece. The overall theme seems the same with just different variations of it. The form sounds like it is binary with an ab form.

The tone color starts off very peaceful and calm at the beginning. As the piece continues, it gets more lively and energetic with a very strong presence as the loud notes of strings play. The tone color continues to switch between calm, peaceful and vibrant to strong and brilliant especially when the orchestra comes in together. As it reaches the end, it seems very climatic and energetic until it slows down and ends like it began, peaceful and calm. The overall dynamics of this piece starts out soft to very loud continuing back and forth. The main melody can be heard along with parts of contrast from the second melody as it hits the higher points in the piece. The harmony appeared to be tonal with a number of tones and chords all following each other creating a consonance.