In the late 1780s, four collections of vocal arrangements that borrowed from a number of Haydn's instrumental works were published in London. Each collection contained twelve songs, and nearly every movement had been previously published as a keyboard setting. Preston's Second Sett of Twelve Ballads (1786) borrows from several of Haydn's most recent compositions, but his Third Sett of Twelve Ballads (1786-87) uses a more diverse sampling of works. Longman and Broderip's Twelve English Ballads (1787) primarily draws upon keyboard sonatas and chamber works of the late 1770s and early 1780s. Thompson's Twelve Elegant and Familiar Canzonetts (1788) uses material from string quartets and overtures, but may also be influenced by Blundell's A Select Collection of Six Favorite Pieces . . . adapted for Harpsichord or Piano Forte (1778-80), which draws from Haydn's String Quartets Opp. 1, 2, 9, and 17. Because amateur vocal music needed to be metrically regular and symmetrical, as well as within a suitable range, these vocal arrangements often alter Haydn's original instrumental parts. In the four collections, nearly half of the arrangements are transposed and many melodies are stripped to their most diatonic, homophonic, and metrically regular elements. Several tempos are also manipulated in order to accommodate the more modest abilities of the average consumer. Integrity and fidelity to the source are clearly secondary to the promise of accessibility and marketability. Although the sources for vocal arrangements are quite diverse, there is one source, the Andante of Haydn's Symphony in D Major, No. 53, that already seemed particularly suited to the voice in its original form. In fact, due to its limited range, diatonic line, and regular phrasing, the melody of the Andante may be more remembered as a vocal arrangement than a symphonic movement.

Works: Samuel Arnold (arranger): Twelve English Ballads, No. 1, "Life, an Ode" (377), No. 3, "Hymn to Solitude" (377), No. 6 "Prayer for Indifference," (379-80), No. 4, "Colin and Lucy," (379, 381), No. 2, "Love Elegies VIII" (382, 384-85), No. 10, "Morning, A Pastoral" (389); John Preston (publisher): A Third Sett of Twelve Ballads, No. 10, "An Ode" (377-78), No. 11, "From the Sorrows of Werter" (385, 387); Thompson (publisher), Twelve Elegant and Familiar Canzonetts, No. 7, "The Nightingale" (385-86, 389), No. 12, "To Sleep" (388, 390).

Sources: Haydn: String Quartet in C Major, Op. 33, No. 3 (377), Keyboard Sonata in G Major, Hob. XVI: 39 (377), Keyboard Sonata in D Major, Hob. XVI: 37 (378), String Quartet in G Major, Op. 33, No. 5 (379), Violin and Viola Duo in B-flat Major, Hob. VI: 3 (379), String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 33, No. 2 (382, 386), Symphony No. 69 in C Major (385, 388), Symphony No. 47 in G Major (385-86, 389), Overture to L'isola disabitata (387, 390), Symphony No. 53 in D Major (389-95).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Laura B. Dallman