Composition
Haydn composed The Creation (1798) after his visits to London in 1791-92 and 1794-95, during which he heard Handel's oratorios performed at Westminster Abbey with massive choral and orchestral forces. His own account was that he "was seized with a religious feeling" and resolved to write a large sacred work. The libretto, compiled by Gottfried van Swieten from a draft attributed to Lidley (possibly based on Milton's Paradise Lost and the Psalms), sets the six days of creation from Genesis 1 alongside texts from Psalms 19, 104, and 148.
Biblical Text
The pivotal moment of the oratorio - and one of the most celebrated in the entire choral repertoire - is the setting of Genesis 1:3: "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." Haydn prepares this with an extended orchestral introduction depicting chaos (Genesis 1:2: "the earth was without form and void") in ambiguous harmonies and darkened orchestration, then unleashes a blazing C-major full-orchestra chord on the word "Light." The effect - which never fails to startle audiences even when they know it is coming - is a musical enactment of the creatio ex nihilo.
Genesis 1:27 - "So God created mankind in his own image" - is set with particular tenderness in the duet for Adam and Eve, presenting the creation of humanity as the culmination and crown of the creative week.
Creator and Legacy
Haydn reportedly fell to his knees in tears when the "Light" chord was first heard at the work's private premiere in Vienna in April 1798. The Creation became the most-performed choral work in Europe for the next century and remains one of the cornerstones of the symphonic choral canon. Its influence on the oratorio tradition - particularly on Beethoven's approach to large-scale sacred works and on the German tradition of the symphony-oratorio - was immense. The work's combination of theological seriousness, musical brilliance, and emotional accessibility made it the model of what a large-scale sacred work could achieve.