"Heil, O Sonne, Heil!": Schemata and Semiotics in Haydn's Oratorio Sunrises

Authors

• Michael D. Slattery, Indiana UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Both of Haydn’s late oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons, contain depictions of sunrises, a subject matter that Sisman (2013) has characterized as “Emergent Light,” in contrast with the famous “absolute” creation of light at the opening of The Creation. In addition to their shared object of representation, the four sunrise passages I identify in these two works all use a phrase-level schema Gjerdingen (2007) has christened the Do-Re-Mi. In this paper, I enrich our cultural understanding of Haydn’s sunrises by attending to nuanced semantic implications of the Do-Re-Mi, illustrating how phrase-level schemata can construct extramusical meaning.

Work on phrase-level schemata has emphasized the syntactic dimensions of patterns like the Do-Re-Mi. However, because schemata are enculturated cognitive structures, they are also cultural and therefore semantic. While previous work has explored schematic meaning in conjunction with topics (Byros 2014; Sánchez-Kisielewska 2016), I argue for a more capacious approach. I formalize this methodology in terms of Peirce’s (1903/1986) semiotic categories of legisign, sinsign, and qualisign, positing how a single schema can be a site for multiple musical signs.

After comparing the potential meanings of the Do-Re-Mi with those of another schema Rice (2018) calls Triadic Ascent, I analyze Haydn’s four oratorio sunrises in turn. Though all use the Do-Re-Mi, Haydn deploys different variants and emphasizes different affordances of the schema to semantic effect. I close by considering how the Do-Re-Mi can also enrich Haydn’s engagement with the sublime and the divine in The Creation.

Recommended Citation

Slattery, Michael D. (2026) ""Heil, O Sonne, Heil!": Schemata and Semiotics in Haydn's Oratorio Sunrises," HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America: Vol. 16: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://remix.berklee.edu/haydn-journal/vol16/iss1/5