Island Choral Society

Island Choral Society Island Choral Society is a classical mixed choir in Charlottetown. Directed by Margot Rejskind.

A big hit, right from the start The premier performance of The Creation in Vienna in 1798 was exclusive, by invitation ...
04/18/2026

A big hit, right from the start
The premier performance of The Creation in Vienna in 1798 was exclusive, by invitation only for the well-connected; however, the crowds of ordinary Haydn fans reportedly so packed the streets outside that 30 special police were called in to keep order.
The first public performance a few months later was sold out far in advance, and The Creation was performed nearly forty more times in Vienna during Haydn's life, frequently conducted by Haydn himself — often as a fund-raiser for a charitable organization for the support of widows and orphans of musicians.
It had its London premiere at Covent Garden in 1800, using the English text.
Napoleon, who admired Haydn enormously, was at its Paris premiere later that year; on the way there, he narrowly escaped a bomb intended to assassinate him.
The last performance Haydn attended was on March 27, 1808, a year before he died: aged and ill, he was carried in with great honour on an armchair. At the dramatic moment just after the beginning, when orchestra and chorus burst into the joyous exclamation “and there was Light”, the audience broke into spontaneous applause. Haydn, in a typical gesture, weakly pointed upwards and said: "Not from me—everything comes from up there!”
The Creation will be performed on Sunday afternoon, 26 April, at St. Paul’s church in Charlottetown. Information: [email protected]; 902-628-6778

Handel envy/flattery? We say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Franz Joseph Haydn certainly flattered ...
04/11/2026

Handel envy/flattery?
We say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Franz Joseph Haydn certainly flattered Georg Friedrich Handel.
In the early 1790s Haydn spent time in England. He was hugely popular, a real star — sort of like the Beatles coming to New York in 1964. In London he heard some of Handel’s grand oratorios, and apparently determined that he would create something of comparable weight.
And when he came to composing The Creation a few years later, he borrowed and enhanced a technique he had picked up from Handel’s Israel in Egypt. It’s called ‘tone painting’ — designing the music so that it actually reflects the meaning of the lyrics, ‘painting’ images to demonstrate the story elements.
For example, to represent the void or chaos before creation, the orchestra plays slow, unresolved chromatic harmonies that make for a sense of confusion and instability. And then, when God begins creation with light, those sounds of the primordial ooze suddenly erupt into a massive, fortissimo C major chord, painting that dramatic moment: “And there was LIGHT.” Later, as assorted creatures appear, we can imaginatively hear them: the buzzing of insects (violins), the leap of the tiger, the roar of the lion, the song of the nightingale.
To hear it: The Creation will be performed on Sunday afternoon, 26 April, at St. Paul’s church in Charlottetown. Information: [email protected]; 902-628-6778

Why “Papa” Haydn? Franz Joseph Haydn went from under-fed choir boy — who seized opportunities to sing for aristocrats w...
04/01/2026

Why “Papa” Haydn?
Franz Joseph Haydn went from under-fed choir boy — who seized opportunities to sing for aristocrats where refreshments were provided! … to becoming — despite a total lack of training in music theory — the most celebrated composer in Europe in the latter part of the 18th century and early 1800s.
He was a friend and mentor of Mozart and a teacher of Beethoven. Indeed not too long before he died, a performance of The Creation was organized in his honour, and as Haydn was brought into the hall on an armchair to the sound of trumpets and drums, it was Beethoven who greeted him.
In his long years of service at the court of the Esterhazy family, he became a sort of father-figure. His orchestra’s musicians took to calling him ‘Papa’ as a term of respect and endearment. Even Mozart called him ‘Papa.’
People subsequently called him ‘Papa’ in a sort of reverent sense because of his originating role in developing musical forms; he composed almost 70 string quartets and 104 symphonies … and so deserved the titles of "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String quartet.”
Through the later 1800s as Romanticism grew, though, the term took on a patronizing tone — a suggestion that Haydn’s music was comfortably old-fashioned. However, that somewhat derogatory implication subsequently faded, giving way to the original sense of affectionate respect for the great man.
One of Haydn’s outstanding works, the magnificent oratorio The Creation, will be performed on Sunday afternoon, 26 April, at St. Paul’s church in Charlottetown. Information: [email protected]; 902-628-6778

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