The First Thematic Catalog of Haydn's Works

Abstract

The catalog of Haydn's works, on which I have been working for many years, is soon to be published. So many people have asked me about it, I have ventured to put together this short account of what it will contain. Basically, the catalog will offer a survey of the entire output of Joseph Haydn with each work identified by its themes. This will include not only the genuine works, but also those which have been attributed to himranging from those which research on Haydn has led scholars to regard as authentic, through those which can reasonably be considered as genuine, down to the supposititious and doubtful works. The themes will be presented on a single staff. This differs from the arrangements used for certain other composers, and yet there is no loss of clarity in the present method. The introductory phrases of all movements, including the trios of minuets, will be given, and in addition, for the vocal compositions, there will be incipits for all recitatives, arias, choruses from operas and cantatas, individual sections of masses, and so on. For the works merely ascribed to Haydn only the introductory theme of the first movement will be noted, but as many of these works have been listed as possible in order to forestall subsequent publications of and newly discovered compositions by Haydn. Naturally, whenever such compositons likewise bear the names of other composers, the alternate ascriptions are indicated. The musical works are divided into groups. Each group starts with the authentic works, and proceeds through those in the second and third rank to the doubtful compositions. These latter are numbered differently. Within each group an effort has been made to keep the compositions in chronological order in so far as existing data permits it. Perfect chronological order is not possible in the case of Haydn at present, and probably it will never be possible to establish such a succession with any definiteness, since Haydn, unlike Mozart, kept no accurate record of the dates of his compositions. On the comparatively small number of extant autographs, the year is given, but rarely a more specific date. In making this survey, I and a few co-workers during recent years have examined thoroughly all works by Haydn in well over one hundred public libraries and musical collections in Europe and America, and in the course of this research much hitherto unknown material has come to light. Moreover, countless periodicals in various languages have been