An article for "Maestro", the newsletter of the Mensa Classical Music Special Interest Group (SIG).

Among the delightful nooks and crannies of Haydn’s vast output, we find a set of works written for a bizarre Neapolitan instrument, the lyra organizzata. The favored instrument of King Ferdinand IV of Naples, it was an advanced hurdy-gurdy into which had been built a miniature organ,. Unfortunately there is no restored example of an ‘organized lyre’, nor is there anyone alive who knows how to play one (even assuming that a playable instrument could be obtained.)

However, Haydn’s writing for the instrument makes it clear enough that it had about the same range as the oboe, and that it was fairly limited in terms of the keys it could play in—C, F, and G majors. It appears to have been limited in expression, probably along the lines of a portative organ.

Haydn’s first works in this vein were a series of concerti for a pair of the instruments, which so delighted the Neapolitan monarch that another commission was not long in coming.

The “Notturni” of 1788-1790 (Hob. II:25-32) are fascinating, mature Haydn works written for a deliciously wacky combination of instruments: two of the aforesaid lyra organizzate, combined with two clarinets, two violas, two horns, and string bass. (!!!) One wonders if Haydn’s tongue might not have been just a bit in his cheek in selecting such a combination. Modern recordings of the works tend to favor either oboe in place of the lyre, or as in the most recent recording, a portative organ with precisely the kind of miniature-steam-calliope toot-toot I myself rather imagine the organized lyre to have produced.

A 1974 recording from the Consortium Classicum, conducted by Dieter Klöcker, has been reissued in a digital mastering by CPO (cpo 999 741-2) and contains the first six of the Notturni, employing the aforementioned delectably tooty portative organ for the lyres. It is a rare treat, both in its occasional comedy, and sometimes for the astonishment at the wonderful music Haydn was able to draw from such unlikely instruments. In 1790 Haydn was at his peak as a composer; in all likelihood he was incapable of writing anything even remotely second-rate. So while the Notturni might be minor Haydn, they aren’t bad Haydn.

I draw your attention specifically to Notturno No. 2 in F, H II:26—which contains an utterly perfect, enchanting slow movement worthy of Haydn’s finest utterances in the quartet or symphonic medium. Or the first Notturno (No. 1 in C, H II:25), which opens with a wonderfully silly march; in this I hear Haydn chuckling a bit at the whimsical, wacky combination of instruments he had chosen. Certainly he thought highly enough of these works to present some of them during his English concerts, reorchestrated of course.

The King of Naples was so taken with Haydn’s compositions that he offered Haydn the post of Kapellmeister after the death of Haydn’s employer, Prince Nicholas Esterházy in 1790. Wisely, however, Haydn chose Johann Peter Salomon’s offer of an English concert tour instead—and thus posterity received the great London symphonies and not more works for lyra organizzate, delightful though the latter might be.

I can guarantee, I think, that you haven’t heard anything quite like these from a composer of the Classical era!