The Seasons (Haydn) The Seasons (Haydn) The Seasons (German: "Die Jahreszeiten"), Hob. XXI:3), is an oratorio by Joseph Haydn, first performed in 1801. Haydn was led to write "The Seasons" by the great success of his previous oratorio "The Creation" (1798), which had become very popular and was in the course of being performed all over Europe. The libretto for "The Seasons" was prepared for Haydn, just as with "The Creation", by Baron Gottfried van Swieten, an Austrian nobleman who had also exercised an important influence on the career of Mozart (among other things commissioning Mozart's reorchestration of Handel's "Messiah"). Van Swieten's libretto
The Creation of the Violin The Creation of the Violin "The Creation of the Violin" is a Transylvanian Roma fairy tale. It was first written down by in 1890 and included in his German book, "About the Travelling Gypsy People: Scenes of the Life of the Transylvanian Gypsies". A poor couple wishes in vain to have a child, and the wife complains about her misery to an old woman she meets in a forest. The hag sends her home with the instruction, "Go home and cut open a pumpkin, pour milk into it and drink it. You will then give birth to a boy who