Notes to René Staar’s

Movimientos para Don José Haydn, Op. 8

Miguel had done it. For months he had listened to the same recording and had read the book the gringos call a score. It had been difficult, very difficult, for Miguel could hardly read music.

He remembered very well how astonished he had been when the stranger had handed him the record and the book at the hazienda, where Miguel was frequently invited by the patrón to sing his songs, accompanaying himself on the guitar. "Have you heard of Haydn ?" Miguel had suddenly been asked. Miguel had never heard of the composer whom he soon came to love, and whom he respectfully called "Don José". For months, almost a year, he worked on a score, and then he finished: his "Movimientos para Don José Haydn". He was proud of having done something like Haydn and of having put a few of the rhythms of his homeland into it. Don José was going to find out how much he revered on the other side of the globe. The parcel with the new score had already been sent. Miguel didn’t know the exact adress, but he was sure that "Don José Haydn, Vienna" would be enough. He didn’t know that Haydn had been dead for more than 150 years.

Shortly after the composer René Staar returned to Europe from a tour of Latin America in 1981 he was commissioned to write for the Vienna Chamber Orchestra for Joseph Haydn’s 250th birthday in 1982. A spontaneous vision of a Latin America folk musician without academic knowledge, but with a great deal of autodidactic ability and talent, led him to ceate "Miguel", who composed the "Movimientos" as René Staars intermediary.

The similarity to Haydn is restricted solely to the formal imitation of a Haydn symphony. The musical language (harmony, rhythm, melodic structure, etc.) is virtually not affected. Miguel’s efforts to emulate Haydn lead - naively in the best sense - to completely different results.

Just as Miguel sent his parcel to Haydn too late ( Haydn was no longer alive), the "Movimientos" were finished too late for the Haydn anniversary year. They were first performed in the year of Haydn’s 251st birthday.

World premiere of the first orchestral version:
8th of March 1983 in the "Brucknerhaus" in Linz, by the Vienna Chamber Orchstra conducted by Chihiro Hayahi.

The score is the definitive version, with revisions made by the composer for publication.
World premiere of the definitve version:
14th of december 1991 in the "Konzerthaus" in Vienna, by the Vienna Chamber Orchestra conducted by Philippe Entremont.