Choir choral works, though not as numerous as his works for other media, stand out as some of his greatest (such as the "Great" Mass in C minor and Requiem in D minor, the latter of which is often considered the greatest Requiem Mass of all time). Haydn became more interested in choral music near the end of his life following his visits to England in the 1790s, when he heard various Handel oratorios performed by large forces; he wrote a series of masses beginning in 1797 and his two great oratorios "The Creation" and "The Seasons". Beethoven wrote only two
The Seasons (Cage) The Seasons (Cage) The Seasons is a ballet with music by John Cage and choreography by Merce Cunningham, first performed in 1947. It was Cage's first piece for orchestra and also the first to use what Cage later called the "gamut" technique, albeit in an early form. Cage composed the music in early 1947, in the midst of working on "Sonatas and Interludes". A piano version was first completed, and an orchestral arrangement followed. Cage dedicated "The Seasons" to Lincoln Kirstein. The ballet was premiered on May 17, 1947 by the Ballet Society (by which the work was commissioned) at