Day 23: Ennui

HaydnCD23It was bound to happen sooner or later.

I just feel blah today.

Out of sorts.

Maybe it’s the weather. It’s getting colder here, feeling more like late November than late October.

Our trees are almost at peak for color and, in fact, are already starting to lose their leaves. That, plus a temperature only in the upper 30s tells me winter is on its way.

RiversideParkIf that’s not enough to bring on a case of ennui, I don’t know what is.

Symphony No. 76 in E Flat, composed in 1782. Haydn was 50. According to its entry on Wiki:

In 1782, almost a decade before Haydn composed the first of his famous London symphonies, he composed a trio of symphonies – 76, 77, 78 – for a trip to London which fell through. Haydn wrote the following to his Paris music publisher Boyer on 15 July 1783:

Last year I composed 3 beautiful, magnificent and by no means over-lengthy Symphonies, scored for 2 violins, viola, basso, 2 horns, 2 oboes, 1 flute and 1 bassoon – but they are all very easy, and without too much concertante – for the English gentlemen, and I intended to bring them over myself and produce them there: but a certain circumstance hindered that plan, and so I am willing to hand over these 3 Symphonies.

Symphony No. 77 in B Flat was also composed in 1782.

Symphony No. 78 in C Minor was also composed in 1782.

All three of these symphonies — which I listened to for over two hours — sound about the same to me. None stood out. None was spectacular.

And none was able to drag me from my ennui.