{"id":2012,"date":"2025-10-16T17:57:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicalchristian.org\/classis\/?p=2012"},"modified":"2025-10-21T14:36:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T14:36:39","slug":"miltons-paradise-lost-in-haydns-creation-the-apologetic-oratorio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalchristian.org\/classis\/miltons-paradise-lost-in-haydns-creation-the-apologetic-oratorio\/","title":{"rendered":"Milton\u2019s Paradise Lost in Haydn\u2019s Creation: The Apologetic Oratorio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since its introduction to Dublin audiences in 1742, George Frideric Handel\u2019s famous oratorio Messiah<\/em> has been heard annually across the world. While no other musical composition can boast its auspicious record, an oratorio of comparable accomplishment debuted a half century later in 1799: Franz Joseph Haydn\u2019s Creation<\/em> (Die Sch\u00f6pfung). Musicians widely view Creation<\/em> as Haydn\u2019s crowning achievement, and a work justly described as \u201csome of the most lovable and life-affirming music ever composed.\u201d1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Both oratorios share much in common, despite the fact that neither followed the typical pattern of portraying victorious Old Testament or Apocryphal heroes. For instance, while the hero of an oratorio must sing, Christ, the subject in Messiah<\/em>, never sings a single note. Also, neither Messiah<\/em> nor Creation<\/em> has that strong sense of conflict and resolution that English audiences expected. Messiah<\/em> is composed primarily of biblical references to Jesus, and Creation<\/em> is essentially a series of self-contained tableaux depicting the primordial chaos, the fall of demons, the six days of creation, and the first couple\u2019s marital bliss.<\/p>\n

In addition to the oratorios\u2019 musical connections, these two great works shared a similar function that explains their formal distinctions within their genre. That is, their librettos had a noble theological purpose: both Messiah<\/em> and Creation<\/em> were most likely apologetic in nature. Their mid-eighteenth century, English origin situates them in a time when the Anglican church was engaged in an intense theological battle with Deism. The librettists responded to this conflict with texts designed to undergird their audience\u2019s understanding of two significant theological doctrines: Christology and creation.<\/p>\n

Messiah<\/em> remains well known to this day, but Creation<\/em> is less familiar. This oratorio, a musical counterpart to Michelangelo\u2019s \u201cThe Creation of Adam” in the Sistine Chapel, is Western Classical music\u2019s greatest declaration of biblical creationism. Given the modern rejection of the doctrine of creation, the apologetic nature of Creation\u2019s<\/em> libretto makes it as valuable for contemporary audiences as for its original audience.<\/p>\n

Creation<\/em>\u2019s Unknown Librettist<\/h3>\n

By the eighteenth-century, the rise of Deism challenged orthodox Christianity by subtracting from the divinity of Christ and discounting the presence of divine intervention in the human experience. Thus, a rigorous defense of orthodox Christology was paramount to faithful clergy.2<\/a><\/sup> No less so to Handel\u2019s librettist, Charles Jennens. Jennens, a devout Anglican, meticulously compiled and organized biblical texts that affirmed the full divinity and full humanity of the second person of the Trinity. These declarations in Messiah<\/em> were unequivocal.<\/p>\n

The origins of Creation<\/em>\u2019s carefully curated libretto are not so well established. Written in Georgian England from 1733 to 1752, it originated during the same period as Messiah.3<\/a><\/sup> While possible that Jennens also compiled Creation<\/em>\u2019s text, scholars are uncertain. Handel apparently declined to set this text, perhaps for its unusual structure and its dissimilarity to the more sensationally biblical heroes that he preferred such as Moses, Samson, or Esther. In fact, the narrative and dramatic structure are so distant from typical, lucrative oratorios of Handel\u2019s time that a plausible explanation is warranted; contextually, the Anglican response to Deism is the most logical reason.<\/p>\n

Haydn visited London in the 1790s and acquired the libretto during his travels. After being enraptured by Handel\u2019s Israel in Egypt<\/em> and Messiah<\/em>, Haydn began studying large-scale oratorios\u2013a genre he never fully explored at the provincial Esterhazy estate where he was employed for a large part of his career. An impresario in London, Johann Peter Saloman, likely acquired the Creation<\/em> libretto in its original form from a musician named Thomas Linley, Sr., and provided a copy to Haydn.<\/p>\n

The libretto excerpted passages from Milton\u2019s epic and interspersed them with biblical texts including much of Genesis 1 and sections from Psalm 19. The final version known today employs an effective structure: a recitative from Genesis followed by a corresponding passage adapted from Milton\u2019s Paradise Lost<\/em>. In keeping with traditional operatic procedures, the passages from Genesis comprise the recitations, followed by a corresponding interpretation\u2013a Milton-inspired accompanied recitative, aria, ensemble, or choral piece.<\/p>\n

What we know for certain is that an important figure in 18th-century Viennese musical culture, Gottfried van Swieten, collaborated with Haydn to create the final version. A government figure and patron of the arts, van Swieten translated the English text into German and highlighted certain Enlightenment ideals in conjunction with a musical journey of each day of creation. He translated the German back into English\u2013German for Austrian audiences, and English for the oratorio-loving English. Haydn composed with both languages in front of him, and this process afforded Creation<\/em> the distinction as the first major musical work in history to be published in bilingual format.<\/p>\n

As one might imagine, van Swieten faltered in his retranslation of the German text into English. He retained the King James Version of Scripture in the recitatives, but the Miltonian text suffered in the retranslation phase. H. C. Landon Robbins noted the \u201cinfelicities of syntax\u201d in van Swieten\u2019s translation.4<\/a><\/sup> An unsigned review from 1834 at the Royal Musical Festival in Westminster Abbey spoke of the text as \u201cludicrous and vulgar\u2026so stupid, so monstrous.\u201d5<\/a><\/sup> While many phrases from Milton can still be detected, many awkward expressions weaken the text: \u201cThe heavens declare the firmament,\u201d or, \u201cThe large and arched front sublime of wisdom deep declares the seat.\u201d English choirs either opt to perform in German or doctor the text, as in Robert Shaw\u2019s edition. Nevertheless, the music\u2019s high quality typically overcomes these issues.<\/p>\n

One cannot overlook an important fact about Haydn\u2019s own faith in relation to his composing Creation<\/em>. Haydn composed Creation<\/em> from the perspective of a proselyte, a Roman Catholic. As he progressed in age, so also did his faith. By the time Haydn composed this oratorio, he was at the peak of his craft,coupled with an established faith in God. The eminent Haydn scholar H. C. Robbins Landon explains:<\/p>\n

Overlaying the content of both oratorios [Creation<\/em> and The Seasons<\/em>], and of paramount importance to Haydn, was the element of rapturous wonder at the workings of the universe. To a man who habitually prefaced his scores \u2018In nomine Domine<\/em>\u2019 and concluded them \u2018Laus Deo<\/em>,\u2019 and who found easy and unconscious stimulus in the repeatedly setting the text of the mass, the attraction of the two oratorio librettos, larger and less constricting than that of the mass, was without precedent.6<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus Haydn\u2019s music arose from his own faith, shaped by a craft at the height of its compositional power.<\/p>\n

Deism and the Anglican Response<\/h3>\n

The organization and content in Creation<\/em>\u2019s libretto suggests that the original librettist combated Deism7<\/a><\/sup> while celebrating the biblical view of creation by wielding two magnificent weapons in the English-speaking world, the King James Bible and the definitive English-language epic poem, Milton\u2019s Paradise Lost<\/em>. No other texts would have the rhetorical gravitas needed in the battle against Deism.<\/p>\n

Even with Enlightenment and natural law influences in Anglicanism, the Church was staunchly committed to its historically orthodox Christology and creationism. The debate was nowhere more evident than in Joseph Butler\u2019s The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature<\/em>. This 1736 text, preceding Messiah by five years, proved to be a compelling and enduring apologetic against Deism and general disbelief. The opening advertisement assures any \u201creasonable man\u201d that his spiritual doubts can be assuaged:<\/p>\n

It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted, by many Persons, that Christianity is not so much as a Subject of Inquiry; but that it is, now at length, discovered to be fictitious\u2026 On the contrary, thus much, at least, will be here found, not taken for granted, but proved, that any reasonable Man, who will thoroughly consider the Matter, may be as much assured, as he is of his own Being, that, however, it is not so clear a Case, that there is nothing in it.8<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though Haydn was only four years old when Butler published The Analogy of Religion<\/em>, the debate about creation persisted. Philosophers such as David Hume challenged many accepted notions about creation as they questioned the epistemological foundation \u2013 the testimony of Scripture \u2013 that the Church had embraced for centuries. Founding Father Thomas Jefferson famously excised all of Christ\u2019s miracles from his own controversial translation of the Bible.<\/p>\n

Tracts and books against skeptical Deists continued. Only two years after British audiences first heard Creation<\/em>, William Paley\u2019s influential Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity<\/em> appeared. This monograph popularized the watchmaker analogy, a teleological argument for creation that presupposes a creator, a book with which Charles Darwin himself wrestled.<\/p>\n

It may be surprising that the late 18th-century Sitz im Leben<\/em> actually assumed the necessity of a creator. This is due to the Enlightenment\u2019s emphasis on scientific method, combined with Greek aesthetic principles that governed successful artistic expressions, specifically balance and order. Stephen Waldman issued this correction against any misconceptions: \u201cMost of the Enlightenment leaders \u2026 argued that the laws of science actually proved the existence of God, if one knew how to look at it the right way.\u201d9<\/a><\/sup> In this context, Creation<\/em> seems well situated.<\/p>\n

J Haydn\u2019s Setting of Creation<\/em><\/h3>\n

The opening movement, \u201cRepresentation of Chaos,\u201d captures the instability of the primordial world, yet it has unmistakable structural unity in its harmony, motives, and ethos. Few composers could so successfully depict chaos within the constraints of classicism.<\/p>\n

The subsequent Miltonian picture of the falling angels is appropriately marked by a dramatic fugue \u2013 the most learned musical technique \u2013 marked by a descending, chromatic motive imbued with relentless intensity. The program notes from a Handel and Haydn Society performance captures its essence:<\/p>\n

The fateful angels describe, in a fugued passage, the rage of Satan and his accomplices, precipitated into an abyss of torment by the hand of Him whom they hate. Here Milton has a rival. Here Haydn employs profusely all that is disagreeable in the enharmonic genus; horrible discords, strange modulations; while the harshness of the words further increases the horror of the chorus.10<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The music\u2019s complexity, affirming the demonic spiritual forces, contradicts the Deistic doubts about the spiritual realm. The gravity of Haydn\u2019s setting corresponds with the reality of Satan\u2019s fall.<\/p>\n

Much later in the oratorio, on Day 6, God creates Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:26-27). Uriel\u2019s aria, taken from Paradise Lost, depicts the first couple using well defined gender roles that also typified the Enlightenment period. This modified strophic aria, in the noble key of C major, celebrates man and woman:<\/p>\n

In native worth and honor clad,
\nWith beauty, courage, strength adorn’d,
\nTo heav’n erect and tall,
\nHe stands a man, the Lord and King of nature all.<\/p>\n

The large and arched front sublime,
\nOf wisdom deep declares the seat.
\nAnd in his eyes with brightness shines
\nThe soul, the breath and image of his God.<\/p>\n

With fondness leans upon his breast
\nA partner for him form’d,
\nA woman fair and graceful spouse.<\/p>\n

Her softly smiling virgin looks,
\nOf flow’ry spring the mirror,
\nBespeak him love,
\nlove, and joy, and bliss.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like Milton\u2019s poem, Haydn\u2019s musical text is generous in the sources from which he draws for inspiration. The musical text always employs the Greek topoi (rhetorical conventions or styles) that corresponds with natural phenomena. And it is with these types of Classical aesthetic principles in play, a vociferous Anglican movement against Deism, and certain favorable Enlightenment ideals, that Haydn seized upon the opportunity for a compelling musical expression of Creation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Darwin and the Need for Contemporary Apologetics<\/h3>\n

Chorales regularly performed the oratorio throughout the nineteenth century, but its meaning has changed. As Romantic, nineteenth-century artists evolved into Promethean figures charged with bringing divine revelation, religious musical works became more like museum pieces curating the religious life of yesteryear rather than vibrant expressions of faith. This development even occurred despite the Mendelssohnian Bach revival during the 1840s and Handel\u2019s sustained popularity in England.<\/p>\n

But one cannot wonder whether another seismic historical event began to affect Haydn\u2019s reception: Darwin\u2019s On the Origin of Species<\/em>. This work that introduces evolutionary theory appeared sixty years after Haydn\u2019s Creation<\/em>. Its influence, particularly in academic and scientific circles, is now pervasive. The majority of scientists now affirm a Darwinian explanation to life rather than a biblical one.<\/p>\n

Perhaps such a disposition makes performing Creation<\/em> more politically incorrect than Messiah<\/em>\u2013particularly upon college campuses, where large choral works are often performed. For centuries, artists of all types have (wrongly) reinterpreted Jesus in their own image, but re-interpreting creation without denying it altogether is more difficult. Perhaps in Darwin\u2019s wake, the content may seem too mythological, too passe. Thus the question arises whenever Creation<\/em> is performed: Is this oratorio an expression of faith, or a museum piece?<\/p>\n

For the classical Christian student, Milton\u2019s, and subsequently Haydn\u2019s, views of creation are useful for engaging modern echoes of Deism. An anemic view of God\u2019s providence and omniscience in popular Christianity is somewhat akin to Deism, though it probably originates from a place of biblical illiteracy rather than theological conviction.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more importantly, thoughtful students can use Creation<\/em> to augment a Miltonian imagination about the creation to reinforce the biblical narrative, and thus combat Darwinism. The emphasis on God\u2019s word bringing forth life, imbuing creation with purpose, and celebrating man and woman contradicts a Darwinian worldview.<\/p>\n

No longer an apologetic for Deism exclusively, Haydn\u2019s Creation<\/em> reinforces the notion that God speaks all things into existence. That creation was dramatic and exhilarating. That the animals did not evolve from an amoeba. That man and woman were created specifically by God with certain attributes that both crowned them and distinguished them from one another. That the God who created this world loves it, delights in it, and still takes pleasure in it to this day.<\/p>\n

Philosophers since Plato have treated music as an innately powerful agent to affect moral change. In Haydn\u2019s hands, the story of creation possesses this capacity. With Milton\u2019s imagination and God\u2019s Word, together in the musical cosmos of Franz Joseph Haydn, modern audiences still have a potent apologetic to proclaim, catechise, and persuade others of our good, created world, one that is imbued with meaning from its creator.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Notes<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
    \n
  1. \u201cThe story of Haydn’s Creation<\/em>: How Haydn came to write his great oratorio, The Creation<\/em>,\u201d BBC Music Magazine<\/em>, April 29, 2016. www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/story-haydns-creation\/\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. See Laudable Practice<\/em>, \u201c\u2018Sober Delight and Rational Exaltation\u2019: Why 18th Century Anglicanism Matters,\u201d The North American Anglican<\/em>, June 5, 2020. northamanglican.com\/sober-delight-and-rational-exaltation-why-18th-century-anglicanism-matters\/<\/a>. Practice writes, \u201cThe Trinity and the Incarnation, Revelation and Sacraments, were at the heart of the orthodoxy which defined Anglicanism across the century, an orthodoxy robustly maintained in the face of theological and philosophical assault.\u201d\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. See Nicholas Temperley, Haydn: The Creation<\/em> (Cambridge University Press, 1991), 19-20. \u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. H. C. Robbins Landon, Haydn: His Life and Music<\/em>. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press (1988): 316.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. From Musical Library: Monthly Supplement I <\/em>(1834), quoted in Temperley, Haydn: The Creation,<\/em> 95.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Landon, Haydn<\/em>, 319.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. This claim may be controversial since some accuse Milton himself of entertaining Deism. However, the Creation<\/em> librettist\u2019s carefully chosen texts do not flirt with Deist ideas. For a discussion of Milton\u2019s alleged Deism, see \u201cJohn Milton\u2019s Movement Toward Deism\u201d in Journal of British Studies<\/em> 1, No. 1 (Nov., 1961); 38-51.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. Joseph Butler, \u201cAdvertisement,\u201d in The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature<\/em> (London, 1736), no page number.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Steven Waldman, \u201cThe Pious Infidel,\u201d First Things<\/em>, March 19, 2008. https:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/web-exclusives\/2008\/03\/the-pious-infidel.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. \u201cLibretto of Haydn’s Oratorio of the Creation: as Performed by the Handel and Haydn Society of Philadelphia, for the benefit of the U.S. Christian Commission, at the Academy of Music, Saturday evening, February 13, 1864.\u201d Program notes (Philadelphia: Henry B. Ashmead, 1864), 4. http:\/\/reader.library.cornell.edu\/docviewer\/digital?id=may904707#mode\/1up.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Since its introduction to Dublin audiences in 1742, George Frideric Handel\u2019s famous oratorio Messiah has been heard annually across the world. While no other musical composition can boast its auspicious record, an oratorio of comparable accomplishment debuted a half century later in 1799: Franz Joseph Haydn\u2019s Creation (Die Sch\u00f6pfung). 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