Because I arose later than usual today, I couldn’t get my usual table (which, actually, is a booth) at my usual morning hangout, Panera Bread.

The table at which I sit this morning, munching on an Asiago bagel (toasted with light cream cheese) and sipping a Light Roast coffee (colored with Half & Half to a just-so golden-brown color) is a round table that faces into the restaurant in such a way that allows me to watch people talking to one another. I can’t hear them (Duh! I’m listening to Haydn). But I can see them. (Admittedly, I am in control of which way the table faces. The photo below indicates I could just as easily have sat in the other chair, facing the window. But I chose to sit with my back to the window so that I could see into the restaurant.)

I’ve forgotten how much fun that is – watching people while listening to music, so that it’s like I’m scoring a private movie in my head. Their actions take on more dramatic, or even comedic, meaning when I replace the “score” of ambient sounds one typically finds in a restaurant in the morning with music of my own choosing.

I feel like I should join ASCAP or something.

In this particular Panera, the talk is often about the Bible. Before I stuck earbuds in my, well, ears and replaced people’s voices with Haydn’s, I heard “…we’ll have to read the scriptures for references to leadership” and “let’s pray about that.” Also, I see Bibles on table tops, as well as books by Christian authors.

I also, pre buds in ears, heard job interviews being conducted here and there.

Welcome to West Michigan, where jobs and Bibles often go hand in hand.

Another thing I noticed: I’m listening to Haydn’s Symphony “A” in B Flat and all of the people are still here, still talking, still gesturing, still being — unbeknownst to them — scored by Haydn. They’ve stayed nearly as long as the CD has been playing.

Oh, no. I typed too soon.

The two older women sitting in the booth directly in front of me just got up to leave.

Now I’m mentally scoring an empty booth, or the Panera workers behind the counter.

Either way, it’s a lot less fun, I’ll grant you.

But it’s still Haydn. So even if I’m scoring an empty restaurant it’s still a classier score than most restaurants get.

CD 10 opens with Symphony No. 38 in C “Echo” is terrific. According to its entry on Wikipedia,

…is an early and festive symphony by Joseph Haydn. The symphony was composed some time between 1765 and 1769. Because of the virtuosic oboe parts in the final two movements, its been suggested that the work’s composition may have coincided with the employ of the oboist Vittorino Colombazzo in the fall of 1768.The symphony is popularly called the Echo Symphony, a nickname that, like all other named Haydn symphonies, did not originate with the composer.

It is typically referred to as the “Echo” Symphony because of the use of mimicry motif (or echo) in the cadential phrasing of the second movement. The echo effect is created by scoring the leading line for unmuted first violins and the response from muted second violins.

This innovation in scoring expands upon an earlier common baroque practice of cadential phrase-repetition.

Interesting.

Symphony No. 38 is lively and fun. Love the oboe.

Haydn composed this one when he was to 33 to 37 years of age.

Symphony No. 39 in G Minor was composed in 1767 or 1768. Haydn was 35 or 36 years old.

According to its entry on Wiki,

It is the earliest of Haydn’s minor key symphonies associated with his Sturm und Drang period works (such as the Symphony No. 45). The work was influential and inspired later G minor symphonies by Johann Christian Bach (Op. 6, No. 6) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (No. 25).

A job interview is being conducted in the booth directly in front of me, the aforementioned once-occupied both. I hope he gets the job.

The next symphony on CD 10 doesn’t have a Hoboken number. It is called Symphony “A” in B Flat. Why? Because, according to WIki,

It is not in the usual numbering scheme for Haydn symphonies because it was originally thought to be a string quartet (Op. 1/5) and was catalogued as Hob. III/5.

That’s why.

Symphony “A,” written between 1757 and 1760 (Haydn was 25 to 28), is fairly interesting. But it’s not wowing me.

Symphony “B” in B Flat, also written between 1757 and 1760, “…does not fall into the usual numbering scheme of Haydn’s symphonies because it had later been published without its wind parts as a ‘Partita’,” according to Wikipedia.

I like Symphony “B” more than Symphony “A.” It sounds livelier and more compelling. But it’s not one I’d likely listen to on repeat while I’m writing. It doesn’t inspire me in that way.

With that, I’m done for today.

Oh, the chap did get the job. He starts soon after his orientation. Congratulations.