The Creation (Haydn) handywork of God".) The unusual intensity of the ending may be the result of Haydn's piling of coda upon coda, each occurring at a point where the music seems about to end. "End of the fourth day." Part II celebrates the creation of sea creatures, birds, animals, and lastly, man. No. 14. Und Gott sprach: Es bringe das Wasser in der Fülle hervor Recitative for soprano (Genesis 1:20), leading into: No. 15. Auf starkem Fittiche schwinget sich der Adler stolz Aria for soprano in F major, celebrating the creation of birds. The species mentioned are the eagle, the lark, the
The Seasons (Haydn) was based on extracts from the long English poem "The Seasons" by James Thomson (1700–1748), which had been published in 1730. Whereas in "The Creation" Swieten was able to limit himself to rendering an existing (anonymous) libretto into German, for "The Seasons" he had a much more demanding task. Olleson writes, "Even when Thomson's images were retained, they required abbreviation and adaptation to such an extent that usually no more than faint echoes of them can be discerned, and the libretto often loses all touch with the poem which was its starting point. Increasingly during the course of the oratorio,