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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3788-h.zip b/3788-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0a04b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/3788-h.zip diff --git a/3788-h/3788-h.htm b/3788-h/3788-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d53c87 --- /dev/null +++ b/3788-h/3788-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7895 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Haydn, by J. Cuthbert Hadden + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Haydn, by J. Cuthbert Hadden + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Haydn + +Author: J. Cuthbert Hadden + +Release Date: January 5, 2010 [EBook #3788] +Last Updated: February 4, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAYDN *** + + + + +Produced by John Mamoun, Charles Franks, Andrew Sly, David Widger and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto" cellpadding="4" border="3"> +<tr> +<td> +THERE IS AN IMPROVED EDITION OF THIS TITLE WITH IMAGES AND LINKED CONTENTS WHICH MAY VIEWED AT EBOOK <big><b><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13504"> +[# 13504 ]</a></b></big> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + HAYDN + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By J. Cuthbert Hadden + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <h5> + <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> + <b>HAYDN</b> </a><br /> + </h5> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> + </td> + <td> + BIRTH—ANCESTRY—EARLY YEARS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> + </td> + <td> + VIENNA—1750-1760 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> + </td> + <td> + EISENSTADT—1761-1766 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> + </td> + <td> + ESTERHAZ—1766-1790 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> + </td> + <td> + FIRST LONDON VISIT—1791-1792 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a> + </td> + <td> + SECOND LONDON VISIT—1794-1795 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> + </td> + <td> + "THE CREATION" AND "THE SEASONS" + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a> + </td> + <td> + LAST YEARS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a> + </td> + <td> + HAYDN: THE MAN + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a> + </td> + <td> + HAYDN: THE COMPOSER + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_APPEa"> APPENDIX A. </a> + </td> + <td> + HAYDN'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_APPEb"> APPENDIX B. </a> + </td> + <td> + CATALOGUE OF WORKS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_APPEc"> APPENDIX C. </a> + </td> + <td> + BIBLIOGRAPHY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_APPEd"> APPENDIX D. </a> + </td> + <td> + HAYDN'S BROTHERS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_APPEe"> APPENDIX E. </a> + </td> + <td> + A SELECTION OF HAYDN LETTERS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> DEDICATION To The Rev. Robert Blair, D.D. In Grateful + Acknowledgment of<br /> Many Kindnesses and Much Pleasant Intercourse <br /> + <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PREFACE + </h2> + <p> + The authority for Haydn's life is the biography begun by the late Dr Pohl, + and completed after his death by E.V. Mandyczewski. To this work, as yet + untranslated, every subsequent writer is necessarily indebted, and the + present volume, which I may fairly claim to be the fullest life of Haydn + that has so far appeared in English, is largely based upon Pohl. I am also + under obligations to Miss Pauline D. Townsend, the author of the monograph + in the "Great Musicians" series. For the rest, I trust I have acquainted + myself with all the more important references made to Haydn in + contemporary records and in the writings of those who knew him. Finally, I + have endeavoured to tell the story of his career simply and directly, to + give a clear picture of the man, and to discuss the composer without + trenching on the ground of the formalist. + </p> + <p> + J.C.H. + </p> + <p> + EDINBURGH, September 1902. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + HAYDN + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. BIRTH—ANCESTRY—EARLY YEARS + </h2> + <p> + <i>Introductory—Rohrau—A Poor Home—Genealogy—Haydn's + Parents—His Birth—His Precocity—Informal Music-making—His + First Teacher—Hainburg—"A Regular Little Urchin"—Attacks + the Drum—A Piece of Good Luck—A Musical Examination—Goes + to Vienna—Choir School of St Stephen's—A House of Suffering—Lessons + at the Cathedral—A Sixteen-Part Mass—Juvenile Escapades—"Sang + like a Crow"—Dismissed from the Choir.</i> + </p> + <p> + Haydn's position, alike in music and in musical biography, is almost + unique. With the doubtful exception of Sebastian Bach, no composer of the + first rank ever enjoyed a more tranquil career. Bach was not once outside + his native Germany; Haydn left Austria only to make those visits to + England which had so important an influence on the later manifestations of + his genius: His was a long, sane, sound, and on the whole, fortunate + existence. For many years he was poor and obscure, but if he had his time + of trial, he never experienced a time of failure. With practical wisdom he + conquered the Fates and became eminent. A hard, struggling youth merged + into an easy middle-age, and late years found him in comfortable + circumstances, with a solid reputation as an artist, and a solid + retiring-allowance from a princely patron, whose house he had served for + the better part of his working career. Like Goethe and Wordsworth, he + lived out all his life. He was no Marcellus, shown for one brief moment + and "withdrawn before his springtime had brought forth the fruits of + summer." His great contemporary, Mozart, cut off while yet his light was + crescent, is known to posterity only by the products of his early manhood. + Haydn's sun set at the end of a long day, crowning his career with a + golden splendour whose effulgence still brightens the ever-widening realm + of music. + </p> + <p> + Voltaire once said of Dante that his reputation was becoming greater and + greater because no one ever read him. Haydn's reputation is not of that + kind. It is true that he may not appeal to what has been called the + "fevered modern soul," but there is an old-world charm about him which is + specially grateful in our bustling, nerve-destroying, bilious age. He is + still known as "Papa Haydn," and the name, to use Carlyle's phrase, is + "significant of much." In the history of the art his position is of the + first importance. He was the father of instrumental music. He laid the + foundations of the modern symphony and sonata, and established the basis + of the modern orchestra. Without him, artistically speaking, Beethoven + would have been impossible. He seems to us now a figure of a very remote + past, so great have been the changes in the world of music since he lived. + But his name will always be read in the golden book of classical music; + and whatever the evolutionary processes of the art may bring, the time can + hardly come when he will be forgotten, his works unheard. + </p> + <p> + Rohrau + </p> + <p> + Franz Joseph Haydn was born at the little market-town of Rohrau, near + Prugg, on the confines of Austria and Hungary, some two-and-a-half hours' + railway journey from Vienna. The Leitha, which flows along the frontier of + Lower Austria and Hungary on its way to the Danube, runs near, and the + district + </p> + <p> + [Figure: Haydn's birth-house at Rohrau] + </p> + <p> + is flat and marshy. The house in which the composer was born had been + built by his father. Situated at the end of the market-place, it was in + frequent danger from inundation; and although it stood in Haydn's time + with nothing worse befalling it than a flooding now and again, it has + twice since been swept away, first in 1813, fours years after Haydn's + death, and again in 1833. It was carefully rebuilt on each occasion, and + still stands for the curious to see—a low-roofed cottage, very much + as it was when the composer of "The Creation" first began to be "that + various thing called man." A fire unhappily did some damage to the + building in 1899. But excepting that the picturesque thatched roof has + given place to a covering of less inflammable material, the "Zum Haydn" + presents its extensive frontage to the road, just as it did of yore. Our + illustration shows it exactly as it is to-day. [See an interesting account + of a visit to the cottage after the fire, in The Musical Times for July + 1899.] Schindler relates that when Beethoven, shortly before his death, + was shown a print of the cottage, sent to him by Diabelli, he remarked: + "Strange that so great a man should have been born in so poor a home!" + Beethoven's relations with Haydn, as we shall see later on, were at one + time somewhat strained; but the years had softened his asperity, and this + indirect tribute to his brother composer may readily be accepted as a + set-off to some things that the biographer of the greater genius would + willingly forget. + </p> + <p> + A Poor Home + </p> + <p> + It was indeed a poor home into which Haydn had been born; but tenderness, + piety, thrift and orderliness were there, and probably the happiest part + of his career was that which he spent in the tiny, dim-lighted rooms + within sound of Leitha's waters. + </p> + <p> + In later life, when his name had been inscribed on the roll of fame, he + looked back to the cottage at Rohrau, "sweet through strange years," with + a kind of mingled pride and pathetic regret. Flattered by the great and + acclaimed by the devotees of his art, he never felt ashamed of his lowly + origin. On the contrary, he boasted of it. He was proud, as he said, of + having "made something out of nothing." He does not seem to have been + often at Rohrau after he was launched into the world, a stripling not yet + in his teens. But he retained a fond memory of his birthplace. When in + 1795 he was invited to inspect a monument erected to his honour in the + grounds of Castle Rohrau, he knelt down on the threshold of the old home + by the market-place and kissed the ground his feet had trod in the + far-away days of youth. When he came to make his will, his thoughts went + back to Rohrau, and one of his bequests provided for two of its poorest + orphans. + </p> + <p> + Genealogy + </p> + <p> + Modern theories of heredity and the origin of genius find but scanty + illustration in the case of Haydn. Unlike the ancestors of Bach and + Beethoven and Mozart, his family, so far as the pedigrees show, had as + little of genius, musical or other, in their composition, as the families + of Shakespeare and Cervantes. In the male line they were hard-working, + honest tradesmen, totally undistinguished even in their sober walk in + life. They came originally from Hainburg, where Haydn's great-grandfather, + Kaspar, had been among the few to escape massacre when the town was + stormed by the Turks in July 1683. The composer's father, Matthias Haydn, + was, like most of his brothers, a wheelwright, combining with his trade + the office of parish sexton. He belonged to the better peasant class, and, + though ignorant as we should now regard him, was yet not without a + tincture of artistic taste. He had been to Frankfort during his + "travelling years," and had there picked up some little information of a + miscellaneous kind. "He was a great lover of music by nature," says his + famous son, "and played the harp without knowing a note of music." He had + a fine tenor voice, and when the day's toil was over he would gather his + household around him and set them singing to his well-meant accompaniment. + </p> + <p> + Haydn's Mother + </p> + <p> + It is rather a pretty picture that the imagination here conjures up, but + it does not help us very much in trying to account for the musical genius + of the composer. Even the popular idea that genius is derived from the + mother does not hold in Haydn's case. If Frau Haydn had a genius for + anything it was merely for moral excellence and religion and the good + management of her household. Like Leigh Hunt's mother, however, she was + "fond of music, and a gentle singer in her way"; and more than one + intimate of Haydn in his old age declared that he still knew by heart all + the simple airs which she had been wont to lilt about the house. The + maiden name of this estimable woman was Marie Koller. She was a daughter + of the Marktrichter (market judge), and had been a cook in the family of + Count Harrach, one of the local magnates. Eight years younger than her + husband, she was just twenty-one at her marriage, and bore him twelve + children. Haydn's regard for her was deep and sincere; and it was one of + the tricks of destiny that she was not spared to witness more of his + rising fame, being cut off in 1754, when she was only forty-six. Matthias + Haydn promptly married again, and had a second family of five children, + all of whom died in infancy. The stepmother survived her husband—who + died, as the result of an accident, in 1763—and then she too entered + a second time into the wedded state. Haydn can never have been very + intimate with her, and he appears to have lost sight of her entirely in + her later years. But he bequeathed a small sum to her in his will, "to be + transferred to her children should she be no longer alive." + </p> + <p> + Birth + </p> + <p> + Joseph Haydn, to give the composer the name which he now usually bears, + was the second of the twelve children born to the Rohrau wheelwright. The + exact date of his birth is uncertain, but it was either the 31st of March + or the 1st of April 1732. Haydn himself gave the latter as the correct + date, alleging that his brother Michael had fixed upon the previous day to + save him from being called an April fool! Probably we shall not be far off + the mark if we assume with Pohl that Haydn was born in the night between + the 31st of March and the 1st of April. + </p> + <p> + His Precocity + </p> + <p> + Very few details have come down to us in regard to his earlier years; and + such details as we have refer almost wholly to his musical precocity. It + was not such a precocity as that of Mozart, who was playing minuets at the + age of four, and writing concertos when he was five; but just on that + account it is all the more credible. One's sympathies are with the frank + Philistine who pooh-poohs the tales told of baby composers, and hints that + they must have been a trial to their friends. Precocious they no doubt + were; but precocity often evaporates before it can become genius, leaving + a sediment of disappointed hopes and vain ambitions. In literature, as Mr + Andrew Lang has well observed, genius may show itself chiefly in + acquisition, as in Sir Walter Scott, who, as a boy, was packing all sorts + of lore into a singularly capacious mind, while doing next to nothing that + was noticeable. In music it is different. Various learning is not so + important as a keenly sensitive organism. The principal thing is emotion, + duly ordered by the intellect, not intellect touched by emotion. Haydn's + precocity at any rate was of this sort. It proclaimed itself in a quick + impressionableness to sound, a delicately-strung ear, and an acute + perception of rhythm. + </p> + <p> + Informal Music-Making + </p> + <p> + We have seen how the father had his musical evenings with his harp and the + voices of wife and children. These informal rehearsals were young Haydn's + delight. We hear more particularly of his attempts at music-making by + sawing away upon a piece of stick at his father's side, pretending to play + the violin like the village schoolmaster under whom he was now learning + his rudiments. The parent was hugely pleased at these manifestations of + musical talent in his son. He had none of the absurd, old-world ideas of + Surgeon Handel as to the degrading character of the divine art, but + encouraged the youngster in every possible way. Already he dreamt—what + father of a clever boy has not done the same?—that Joseph would in + some way or other make the family name famous; and although it is said + that like his wife, he had notions of the boy becoming a priest, he took + the view that his progress towards holy orders would be helped rather than + hindered by the judicious cultivation of his undoubted taste for music. + </p> + <p> + His First Teacher + </p> + <p> + While these thoughts were passing through his head, the chance visit of a + relation practically decided young Haydn's future. His grandmother, being + left a widow, had married a journeyman wheelwright, Matthias Seefranz, and + one of their children married a schoolmaster, Johann Matthias Frankh. + Frankh combined with the post of pedagogue that of choir-regent at + Hainburg, the ancestral home of the Haydns, some four leagues from Rohrau. + He came occasionally to Rohrau to see his relatives, and one day he + surprised Haydn keeping strict time to the family music on his improvised + fiddle. Some discussion following about the boy's unmistakable talent, the + schoolmaster generously offered to take him to Hainburg that he might + learn "the first elements of music and other juvenile acquirements." The + father was pleased; the mother, hesitating at first, gave her reluctant + approval, and Haydn left the family home never to return, except on a + flying visit. This was in 1738, when he was six years of age. + </p> + <p> + Hainburg + </p> + <p> + The town of Hainburg lies close to the Danube, and looks very picturesque + with its old walls and towers. According to the Nibelungen Lied, King + Attila once spent a night in the place, and a stone figure of that + "scourge of God" forms a feature of the Hainburg Wiener Thor, a rock + rising abruptly from the river, crowned with the ruined Castle of + Rottenstein. The town cannot be very different from what it was in Haydn's + time, except perhaps that there is now a tobacco manufactory, which gives + employment to some 2000 hands. + </p> + <p> + It is affecting to think of the little fellow of six dragged away from his + home and his mother's watchful care to be planted down here among strange + surroundings and a strange people. That he was not very happy we might + have assumed in any case. But there were, unfortunately, some things to + render him more unhappy than he need have been. Frankh's intentions were + no doubt excellent; but neither in temper nor in character was he a fit + guardian and instructor of youth. He got into trouble with the authorities + more than once for neglect of his duties, and had to answer a charge of + gambling with loaded dice. As a teacher he was of that stern + disciplinarian kind which believes in lashing instruction into the pupil + with the "tingling rod." Haydn says he owed him more cuffs than + gingerbread. + </p> + <p> + "A Regular Little Urchin" + </p> + <p> + What he owed to the schoolmaster's wife may be inferred from the fact that + she compelled him to wear a wig "for the sake of cleanliness." All his + life through Haydn was most particular about his personal appearance, and + when quite an old man it pained him greatly to recall the way in which he + was neglected by Frau Frankh. "I could not help perceiving," he remarked + to Dies, "much to my distress, that I was gradually getting very dirty, + and though I thought a good deal of my little person, was not always able + to avoid spots of dirt on my clothes, of which I was dreadfully ashamed. + In fact, I was a regular little urchin." Perhaps we should not be wrong in + surmising that the old man was here reading into his childhood the habits + and sentiments of his later years. Young boys of his class are not usually + deeply concerned about grease spots or disheveled hair. + </p> + <p> + Attacks the Drum + </p> + <p> + At all events, if deplorably neglected in these personal matters, he was + really making progress with his art. Under Frankh's tuition he attained to + some proficiency on the violin and the harpsichord, and his voice was so + improved that, as an early biographer puts it, he was able to "sing at the + parish desk in a style which spread his reputation through the canton." + Haydn himself, going back upon these days in a letter of 1779, says: "Our + Almighty Father (to whom above all I owe the most profound gratitude) had + endowed me with so much facility in music that even in my sixth year I was + bold enough to sing some masses in the choir." He was bold enough to + attempt something vastly more ponderous. A drummer being wanted for a + local procession, Haydn undertook to play the part. Unluckily, he was so + small of stature that the instrument had to be carried before him on the + back of a colleague! That the colleague happened to be a hunchback only + made the incident more ludicrous. But Haydn had rather a partiality for + the drum—a satisfying instrument, as Mr George Meredith says, + because of its rotundity—and, as we shall learn when we come to his + visits to London, he could handle the instrument well enough to astonish + the members of Salomon's orchestra. According to Pohl, the particular + instrument upon which he performed on the occasion of the Hainburg + procession is still preserved in the choir of the church there. + </p> + <p> + Hard as these early years must have been, Haydn recognized in after-life + that good had mingled with the ill. His master's harshness had taught him + patience and self-reliance. "I shall be grateful to Frankh as long as I + live," he said to Griesinger, "for keeping me so hard at work." He always + referred to Frankh as "my first instructor," and, like Handel with Zachau, + he acknowledged his indebtedness in a practical way by bequeathing to + Frankh's daughter, then married, 100 florins and a portrait of her father—a + bequest which she missed by dying four years before the composer himself. + </p> + <p> + A Piece of Good Fortune + </p> + <p> + Haydn had been two years with Frankh when an important piece of good + fortune befell him. At the time of which we are writing the Court + Capellmeister at Vienna was George Reutter, an inexhaustible composer of + church music, whose works, now completely forgotten, once had a great + vogue in all the choirs of the Imperial States. Even in 1823 Beethoven, + who was to write a mass for the Emperor Francis, was recommended to adopt + the style of this frilled and periwigged pedant! Reutter's father had been + for many years Capellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, and on his + death, in 1738, the son succeeded to the post. He had not been long + established in the office when he started on a tour of search for + choristers. Arriving at Hainburg, he heard from the local pastor of + Haydn's "weak but pleasing voice," and immediately had the young singer + before him. + </p> + <p> + A Musical Examination + </p> + <p> + The story of the examination is rather amusing. Reutter gave the little + fellow a canon to sing at first sight. The boy went though the thing + triumphantly, and the delighted Reutter cried "Bravo!" as he flung a + handful of cherries into Haydn's cap. But there was one point on which + Reutter was not quite satisfied. "How is it, my little man," he said, + "that you cannot shake?" "How can you expect me to shake," replied the + enfant terrible, "when Herr Frankh himself cannot shake?" The great man + was immensely tickled by the ready retort, and, drawing the child towards + him, he taught him how to make the vibrations in his throat required to + produce the ornament. The boy picked up the trick at once. It was the + final decision of his fate. Reutter saw that here was a recruit worth + having, and he lost no time in getting the parents' sanction to carry him + off to Vienna. In the father's case this was easily managed, but the + mother only yielded when it was pointed out that her son's singing in the + cathedral choir did not necessarily mean the frustration of her hopes of + seeing him made a priest. + </p> + <p> + Goes to Vienna + </p> + <p> + Thus, some time in the year 1740, Reutter marched away from Hainburg with + the little Joseph, and Hainburg knew the little Joseph no more. Vienna was + now to be his home for ten long years of dreary pupilage and genteel + starvation. In those days, and for long after, St Stephen's Cathedral was + described as "the first church in the empire," and it is still, with its + magnificent spire, the most important edifice in Vienna. Erected in 1258 + and 1276 on the site of a church dating from 1144, it was not finally + completed until 1446. It is in the form of a Latin cross, and is 355 feet + long. The roof is covered with coloured tiles, and the rich groined + vaulting is borne by eighteen massive pillars, adorned with more than a + hundred statuettes. Since 1852 the building has been thoroughly restored, + but in all essentials it remains as it was when Haydn sang in it as a + choir-boy. + </p> + <p> + The Choir School of St Stephen's + </p> + <p> + Many interesting details have been printed regarding the Choir School of + St Stephen's and its routine in Haydn's time. They have been well + summarized by one of his biographers. [See Miss Townsend's Haydn, p. 9.] + The Cantorei was of very ancient foundation. Mention is made of it as + early as 1441, and its constitution may be gathered from directions given + regarding it about the period 1558-1571. It was newly constituted in 1663, + and many alterations were made then and afterwards, but in Haydn's day it + was still practically what it had been for nearly a century before. The + school consisted of a cantor (made Capellmeister in 1663), a sub-cantor, + two ushers and six scholars. They all resided together, and had meals in + common; and although ample allowance had originally been made for the + board, lodging and clothing of the scholars, the increased cost of living + resulted in the boys of Haydn's time being poorly fed and scantily clad. + They were instructed in "religion and Latin, together with the ordinary + subjects of school education, and in music, the violin, clavier, and + singing." The younger scholars were taken in hand by those more advanced. + The routine would seem to us now to be somewhat severe. There were two + full choral services daily in the cathedral. Special Te Deums were + constantly sung, and the boys had to take part in the numerous solemn + processions of religious brotherhoods through the city, as well as in the + services for royal birthdays and other such occasions. During Holy Week + the labours of the choir were continuous. Children's processions were very + frequent, and Haydn's delight in after years at the performance of the + charity children in St Paul's may have been partly owing to the + reminiscences of early days which it awakened. + </p> + <p> + A House of Suffering + </p> + <p> + But these details are aside from our main theme. The chapel-house of St + Stephen's was now the home of our little Joseph. It ought to have been a + happy home of instruction, but it was, alas! a house of suffering. Reutter + did not devote even ordinary care to his pupil, and from casual lessons in + musical theory he drifted into complete neglect. Haydn afterwards declared + that he had never had more than two lessons in composition from Reutter, + who was, moreover, harsh and cruel and unfeeling, laughing at his pupil's + groping attempts, and chastising him on the slightest pretext. It has been + hinted that the Capellmeister was jealous of his young charge—that + he was "afraid of finding a rival in the pupil." But this is highly + improbable. Haydn had not as yet shown any unusual gifts likely to excite + the envy of his superior. There is more probability in the other + suggestion that Reutter was piqued at not having been allowed by Haydn's + father to perpetuate the boy's fine voice by the ancient method of + emasculation. The point, in any case, is not of very much importance. It + is sufficient to observe that Reutter's name survives mainly in virtue of + the fact that he tempted Haydn to Vienna with the promise of special + instruction, and gave him practically nothing of that, but a great deal of + ill-usage. + </p> + <p> + Lessons at St Stephen's + </p> + <p> + Haydn was supposed to have lessons from two undistinguished professors + named Gegenbauer and Finsterbusch. But it all amounted to very little. + There was the regular drilling for the church services, to be sure: + solfeggi and psalms, psalms and solfeggi—always apt to degenerate, + under a pedant, into the dreariest of mechanical routine. How many a + sweet-voiced chorister, even in our own days, reaches manhood with a love + for music? It needs music in his soul. Haydn's soul withstood the numbing + influence of pedantry. He realized that it lay with himself to develop and + nurture the powers within his breast of which he was conscious. "The + talent was in me," he remarked, "and by dint of hard work I managed to get + on." Shortly before his death, when he happened to be in Vienna for some + church festival, he had an opportunity of speaking to the choir-boys of + that time. "I was once a singing boy," he said. "Reutter brought me from + Hainburg to Vienna. I was industrious when my companions were at play. I + used to take my little clavier under my arm, and go off to practice + undisturbed. When I sang a solo, the baker near St Stephen's yonder always + gave me a cake as a present. Be good and industrious, and serve God + continually." + </p> + <p> + A Sixteen-Part Mass! + </p> + <p> + It is pathetic to think of the boy assiduously scratching innumerable + notes on scraps of music paper, striving with yet imperfect knowledge to + express himself, and hoping that by some miracle of inspiration something + like music might come out of it. "I thought it must be all right if the + paper was nice and full," he said. He even went the length of trying to + write a mass in sixteen parts—an effort which Reutter rewarded with + a shrug and a sneer, and the sarcastic suggestion that for the present two + parts might be deemed sufficient, and that he had better perfect his + copying of music before trying to compose it. But Haydn was not to be + snubbed and snuffed out in this way. He appealed to his father for money + to buy some theory books. There was not too much money at Rohrau, we may + be sure, for the family was always increasing, and petty economies were + necessary. But the wheelwright managed to send the boy six florins, and + that sum was immediately expended on Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum and + Mattheson's Volkommener Capellmeister—heavy, dry treatises both, + which have long since gone to the musical antiquary's top shelf among the + dust and the cobwebs. These "dull and verbose dampers to enthusiasm" Haydn + made his constant companions, in default of a living instructor, and, like + Longfellow's "great men," toiled upwards in the night, while less + industrious mortals snored. + </p> + <p> + Juvenile Escapades + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile his native exuberance and cheerfulness of soul were + irrepressible. Several stories are told of the schoolboy escapades he + enjoyed with his fellow choristers. One will suffice here. He used to + boast that he had sung with success at Court as well as in St Stephen's. + This meant that he had made one of the choir when visits were paid to the + Palace of Schonbrunn, where the Empress Maria and her Court resided. On + the occasion of one of these visits the palace was in the hands of the + builders, and the scaffolding presented the usual temptation to the + youngsters. "The empress," to quote Pohl, "had caught them climbing it + many a time, but her threats and prohibitions had no effect. One day when + Haydn was balancing himself aloft, far above his schoolfellows, the + empress saw him from the windows, and requested her Hofcompositor to take + care that 'that fair-headed blockhead,' the ringleader of them all, got + 'einen recenten Schilling' (slang for 'a good hiding')." The command was + only too willingly obeyed by the obsequious Reutter, who by this time had + been ennobled, and rejoiced in the addition of "von" to his name. Many + years afterwards, when the empress was on a visit to Prince Esterhazy, the + "fair-headed blockhead" took the cruel delight of thanking her for this + rather questionable mark of Imperial favour! + </p> + <p> + "Sang like a Crow" + </p> + <p> + As a matter of fact, the empress, however she may have thought of Haydn + the man, showed herself anything but considerate to Haydn the choir-boy. + The future composer's younger brother, Michael, had now arrived in Vienna, + and had been admitted to the St Stephen's choir. His voice is said to have + been "stronger and of better quality" than Joseph's, which had almost + reached the "breaking" stage; and the empress, complaining to Reutter that + Joseph "sang like a crow," the complacent choirmaster put Michael in his + place. The empress was so pleased with the change that she personally + complimented Michael, and made him a present of 24 ducats. + </p> + <p> + Dismissed from St Stephen's + </p> + <p> + One thing leads to another. Reutter, it is obvious, did not like Haydn, + and any opportunity of playing toady to the empress was too good to be + lost. Unfortunately Haydn himself provided the opportunity. Having become + possessed of a new pair of scissors, he was itching to try their quality. + The pig-tail of the chorister sitting before him offered an irresistible + attraction; one snip and lo! the plaited hair lay at his feet. Discipline + must be maintained; and Reutter sentenced the culprit to be caned on the + hand. This was too great an indignity for poor Joseph, by this time a + youth of seventeen—old enough, one would have thought, to have + forsworn such boyish mischief. He declared that he would rather leave the + cathedral service than submit. "You shall certainly leave," retorted the + Capellmeister, "but you must be caned first." And so, having received his + caning, Haydn was sent adrift on the streets of Vienna, a broken-voiced + chorister, without a coin in his pocket, and with only poverty staring him + in the face. This was in November 1749. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. VIENNA—1750-1760 + </h2> + <p> + <i>Vienna—The Forlorn Ex-Chorister—A Good Samaritan—Haydn + Enskied—Street Serenades—Joins a Pilgrim Party—An + Unconditional Loan—"Attic" Studies—An Early Composition—Metastasio—A + Noble Pupil—Porpora—Menial Duties—Emanuel Bach—Haydn + his Disciple—Violin Studies—Attempts at "Programme" Music—First + Opera—An Aristocratic Appointment—Taken for an Impostor—A + Count's Capellmeister—Falls in Love—Marries—His Wife.</i> + </p> + <p> + Vienna + </p> + <p> + The Vienna into which Haydn was thus cast, a friendless and forlorn youth + of seventeen, was not materially different from the Vienna of to-day. + While the composer was still living, one who had made his acquaintance + wrote of the city: "Represent to yourself an assemblage of palaces and + very neat houses, inhabited by the most opulent families of one of the + greatest monarchies in Europe—by the only noblemen to whom that + title may still be with justice applied. The women here are attractive; a + brilliant complexion adorns an elegant form; the natural but sometimes + languishing and tiresome air of the ladies of the north of Germany is + mingled with a little coquetry and address, the effect of the presence of + a numerous Court...In a word, pleasure has taken possession of every + heart." This was written when Haydn was old and famous; it might have been + written when his name was yet unknown. + </p> + <p> + Vienna was essentially a city of pleasure—a city inhabited by "a + proud and wealthy nobility, a prosperous middle class, and a silent, if + not contented, lower class." In 1768, Leopold Mozart, the father of the + composer, declared that the Viennese public had no love of anything + serious or sensible; "they cannot even understand it, and their theatres + furnish abundant proof that nothing but utter trash, such as dances, + burlesques, harlequinades, ghost tricks, and devils' antics will go down + with them." There is, no doubt, a touch of exaggeration in all this, but + it is sufficiently near the truth to let us understand the kind of + attention which the disgraced chorister of St Stephen's was likely to + receive from the musical world of Vienna. It was Vienna, we may recall, + which dumped Mozart into a pauper's grave, and omitted even to mark the + spot. + </p> + <p> + The Forlorn Ex-Chorister + </p> + <p> + Young Haydn, then, was wandering, weary and perplexed, through its + streets, with threadbare clothes on his back and nothing in his purse. + There was absolutely no one to whom he could think of turning. He might, + indeed, have taken the road to Rohrau and been sure of a warm welcome from + his humble parents there. But there were good reasons why he should not + make himself a burden on them; and, moreover, he probably feared that at + home he would run some risk of being tempted to abandon his cherished + profession. Frau Haydn had not yet given up the hope of seeing her boy + made a priest, and though we have no definite information that Haydn + himself felt a decided aversion to taking orders, it is evident that he + was disinclined to hazard the danger of domestic pressure. He had now + finally made up his mind that he would be a composer; but he saw clearly + enough that, for the present, he must work, and work, too, not for fame, + but for bread. + </p> + <p> + A Good Samaritan + </p> + <p> + Musing on these things while still parading the streets, tired and hungry, + he met one Spangler, a tenor singer of his acquaintance, who earned a + pittance at the Church of St Michael. Spangler was a poor man—but it + is ever the poor who are most helpful to each other—and, taking pity + on the dejected outcast, he invited Haydn to share his garret rooms along + with his wife and child. It is regrettable that nothing more is known of + this good Samaritan—one of those obscure benefactors who go through + the world doing little acts of kindness, never perhaps even suspecting how + far-reaching will be the results. He must have died before Haydn, + otherwise his name would certainly have appeared in his will. + </p> + <p> + Haydn Enskied + </p> + <p> + Haydn remained with Spangler in that "ghastly garret" all through the + winter of 1749-1750. He has been commiserated on the garret—needlessly, + to be sure. Garrets are famous, in literary annals at any rate; and is it + not Leigh Hunt who reminds us that the top story is healthier than the + basement? The poor poet in Pope, who lay high in Drury Lane, "lull'd by + soft zephyrs through the broken pane," found profit, doubtless, in his + "neighbourhood with the stars." However that may be, there, in Spangler's + attic, was Haydn enskied, eager for work—work of any kind, so long + as it had fellowship with music and brought him the bare means of + subsistence. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Scanning his whole horizon + In quest of what he could clap eyes on," +</pre> + <p> + he sought any and every means of making money. He tried to get teaching, + with what success has not been recorded. He sang in choirs, played at + balls and weddings and baptisms, made "arrangements" for anybody who would + employ him, and in short drudged very much as Wagner did at the outset of + his tempestuous career. + </p> + <p> + Street Serenades + </p> + <p> + He even took part in street serenades by playing the violin. This last was + not a very dignified occupation; but it is important to remember that + serenading in Vienna was not the lover's business of Italy and Spain, + where the singer is accompanied by guitar or mandoline. It was a much more + serious entertainment. It dated from the seventeenth century, if we are to + trust Praetorius, and consisted of solos and concerted vocal music in + various forms, accompanied sometimes by full orchestra and sometimes by + wind instruments alone. Great composers occasionally honoured their + patrons and friends with the serenade; and composers who hoped to be great + found it advantageous as a means of gaining a hearing for their works. It + proved of some real service to Haydn later on, but in the meantime it does + not appear to have swelled his lean purse. With all his industry he fell + into the direst straits now and again, and was more than once driven into + wild projects by sheer stress of hunger. + </p> + <p> + Joins a Pilgrim Party + </p> + <p> + One curious story is told of a journey to Mariazell, in Styria. This + picturesquely-situated village has been for many years the most frequented + shrine in Austria. To-day it is said to be visited by something like + 100,000 pilgrims every year. The object of adoration is the miraculous + image of the Madonna and Child, twenty inches high, carved in lime-wood, + which was presented to the Mother Church of Mariazell in 1157 by a + Benedictine priest. Haydn was a devout Catholic, and not improbably knew + all about Mariazell and its Madonna. At any rate, he joined a company of + pilgrims, and on arrival presented himself to the local choirmaster for + admission, showing the official some of his compositions, and telling of + his eight years' training at St Stephen's. The choirmaster was not + impressed. "I have had enough of lazy rascals from Vienna," said he. "Be + off!" But Haydn, after coming so far, was not to be dismissed so + unceremoniously. He smuggled himself into the choir, pleaded with the solo + singer of the day to be allowed to act as his deputy, and, when this was + refused, snatched the music from the singer's hand, and took up the solo + at the right moment with such success that "all the choir held their + breath to listen." At the close of the service the choirmaster sent for + him, and, apologizing for his previous rude behaviour, invited him to his + house for the day. The invitation extended to a week, and Haydn returned + to Vienna with money enough—the result of a subscription among the + choir—to serve his immediate needs. + </p> + <p> + An Unconditional Loan + </p> + <p> + But it would have been strange if, in a musical city like Vienna, a youth + of Haydn's gifts had been allowed to starve. Slowly but surely he made his + way, and people who could help began to hear of him. The most notable of + his benefactors at this time was a worthy tradesman named Buchholz, who + made him an unconditional loan of 150 florins. An echo of this unexpected + favour is heard long years after in the composer's will, where we read: + "To Fraulein Anna Buchholz, 100 florins, inasmuch as in my youth her + grandfather lent me 150 florins when I greatly needed them, which, + however, I repaid fifty years ago." + </p> + <p> + "Attic" Studies + </p> + <p> + One hundred and fifty florins was no great sum assuredly, but at this time + it was a small fortune to Haydn. He was able to do a good many things with + it. First of all, he took a lodging for himself—another attic! + Spangler had been very kind, but he could not give the young musician the + privacy needed for study. It chanced that there was a room vacant, "nigh + to the gods and the clouds," in the old Michaelerhaus in the Kohlmarkt, + and Haydn rented it. It was not a very comfortable room—just big + enough to allow the poor composer to turn about. It was dimly lighted. It + "contained no stove, and the roof was in such bad repair that the rain and + the snow made unceremonious entry and drenched the young artist in his + bed. In winter the water in his jug froze so hard during the night that he + had to go and draw direct from the well." For neighbours he had + successively a journeyman printer, a footman and a cook. These were not + likely to respect his desire for quiet, but the mere fact of his having a + room all to himself made him oblivious of external annoyances. As he + expressed it, he was "too happy to envy the lot of kings." He had his old, + worm-eaten spinet, and his health and his good spirits; and although he + was still poor and unknown, he was "making himself all the time," like Sir + Walter Scott in Liddesdale. + </p> + <p> + An Early Composition + </p> + <p> + Needless to say, he was composing a great deal. Much of his manuscript + was, of course, torn up or consigned to the flames, but one piece of work + survived. This was his first Mass in F (No. 11 in Novello's edition), + erroneously dated by some writers 1742. It shows signs of immaturity and + inexperience, but when Haydn in his old age came upon the long-forgotten + score he was so far from being displeased with it that he rearranged the + music, inserting additional wind parts. One biographer sees in this + procedure "a striking testimony to the genius of the lad of eighteen." We + need not read it in that way. It rather shows a natural human tenderness + for his first work, a weakness, some might call it, but even so, more + pardonable than the weakness—well illustrated by some later + instances—of hunting out early productions and publishing them + without a touch of revision. + </p> + <p> + Metastasio + </p> + <p> + It was presumably by mere chance that in that same rickety Michaelerhaus + there lived at this date not only the future composer of "The Creation," + but the Scribe of the eighteenth century, the poet and opera librettist, + Metastasio. Born in 1698, the son of humble parents, this distinguished + writer had, like Haydn, suffered from "the eternal want of pence." A + precocious boy, he had improvised verses and recited them on the street, + and fame came to him only after long and weary years of waiting. In 1729 + he was appointed Court poet to the theatre at Vienna, for which he wrote + several of his best pieces, and when he made Haydn's acquaintance his + reputation was high throughout the whole of Europe. Naturally, he did not + live so near the clouds as Haydn—his rooms were on the third story—but + he heard somehow of the friendless, penniless youth in the attic, and + immediately resolved to do what he could to further his interests. This, + as events proved, was by no means inconsiderable. + </p> + <p> + A Noble Pupil + </p> + <p> + Metastasio had been entrusted with the education of Marianne von Martinez, + the daughter of a Spanish gentleman who was Master of the Ceremonies to + the Apostolic Nuncio. The young lady required a musicmaster, and the poet + engaged Haydn to teach her the harpsichord, in return for which service he + was to receive free board. Fraulein Martinez became something of a musical + celebrity. When she was only seventeen she had a mass performed at St + Michael's Church, Vienna. She was a favourite of the Empress Maria + Theresa, and is extolled by Burney—who speaks of her "marvelous + accuracy" in the writing of English—as a singer and a player, almost + as highly as Gluck's niece. Her name finds a place in the biographies of + Mozart, who, at her musical receptions, used to take part with her in + duets of her own composition. Several of her manuscripts are still in the + possession of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Something of her musical + distinction ought certainly to be attributed to Haydn, who gave her daily + lessons for three years, during which time he was comfortably housed with + the family. + </p> + <p> + Porpora + </p> + <p> + It was through Metastasio, too, that he was introduced to Niccolo Porpora, + the famous singing-master who taught the great Farinelli, and whose name + is sufficiently familiar from its connection with an undertaking set on + foot by Handel's enemies in London. Porpora seems at this time to have + ruled Vienna as a sort of musical director and privileged censor, to have + been, in fact, what Rossini was for many years in Paris. He was giving + lessons to the mistress of Correr, the Venetian ambassador—a "rare + musical enthusiast"—and he employed Haydn to act as accompanist + during the lessons. + </p> + <p> + Menial Duties + </p> + <p> + We get a curious insight into the social conditions of the musicians of + this time in the bearing of Haydn towards Porpora and his pupil. That + Haydn should become the instructor of Fraulein Martinez in no way + compromised his dignity; nor can any reasonable objection be raised + against his filling the post of, accompanist to the ambassador's mistress. + But what shall be said of his being transported to the ambassador's summer + quarters at Mannersdorf, and doing duty there for six ducats a month and + his board—at the servants' table? The reverend author of Music and + Morals answers by reminding us that in those days musicians were not the + confidential advisers of kings like Wagner, rich banker's sons like + Meyerbeer, private gentlemen like Mendelssohn, and members of the Imperial + Parliament like Verdi. They were "poor devils" like Haydn. Porpora was a + great man, no doubt, in his own metier. But it is surely odd to hear of + Haydn acting the part of very humble servant to the singing-master; + blackening his boots and trimming his wig, and brushing his coat, and + running his errands, and playing his accompaniments! Let us, however, + remember Haydn's position and circumstances. He was a poor man. He had + never received any regular tuition such as Handel received from Zachau, + Mozart from his father, and Mendelssohn from Zelter. He had to pick up his + instruction as he went along; and if he felt constrained to play the + lackey to Porpora, it was only with the object of receiving in return + something which would help to fit him for his profession. As he naively + said, "I improved greatly in singing, composition, and Italian." [The + relations of Haydn and Porpora are sketched in George Sand's "Consuelo."] + </p> + <p> + Emanuel Bach + </p> + <p> + In the meantime he was carrying on his private studies with the greatest + assiduity. His Fux and his Mattheson had served their turn, and he had now + supplemented them by the first six Clavier Sonatas of Philipp Emanuel + Bach, the third son of the great composer. The choice may seem curious + when we remember that Haydn had at his hand all the music of Handel and + Bach, and the masters of the old contrapuntal school. But it was wisely + made. The simple, well-balanced form of Emanuel Bach's works "acted as + well as a master's guidance upon him, and led him to the first steps in + that style of writing which was afterwards one of his greatest glories." + The point is admirably put by Sir Hubert Parry. He says, in effect, that + what Haydn had to build upon, and what was most congenial to him, through + his origin and circumstances, was the popular songs and dances of his + native land, which, in the matter of structure, belong to the same order + of art as symphonies and sonatas; and how this kind of music could be made + on a grander scale was what he wanted to discover. The music of Handel and + Bach leaned too much towards the style of the choral music and organ music + of the church to serve him as a model. For their art was essentially + contrapuntal—the combination of several parts each of equal + importance with the rest, each in a sense pursuing its own course. In + modern music the essential principle is harmonic: the chords formed by the + combination of parts are derived and developed in reference to roots and + keys. In national dances few harmonies are used, but they are arranged on + the same principles as the harmonies of a sonata or a symphony; and "what + had to be found out in order to make grand instrumental works was how to + arrange more harmonies with the same effect of unity as is obtained on a + small scale in dances and national songs." Haydn, whose music contains + many reminiscences of popular folk-song, had in him the instinct for this + kind of art; and the study of Philipp Emanuel's works taught him how to + direct his energies in the way that was most agreeable to him. + </p> + <p> + A Disciple of Emanuel Bach + </p> + <p> + Although much has been written about Emanuel Bach, it is probable that the + full extent of his genius remains yet to be recognized. He was the + greatest clavier player, teacher and accompanist of his day; a master of + form, and the pioneer of a style which was a complete departure from that + of his father. Haydn's enthusiasm for him can easily be explained. "I did + not leave the clavier till I had mastered all his six sonatas," he says, + "and those who know me well must be aware that I owe very much to Emanuel + Bach, whose works I understand and have thoroughly studied. Emanuel Bach + himself once complimented me on this fact." When Haydn began to make a + name Bach hailed him with delight as a disciple, and took occasion to send + him word that, "he alone had thoroughly comprehended his works and made a + proper use of them." + </p> + <p> + This is a sufficient answer to the absurd statement which has been made, + and is still sometimes repeated, that Bach was jealous of the young + composer and abused him to his friends. A writer in the European Magazine + for October 1784, says that Bach was "amongst the number of professors who + wrote against our rising author." He mentions others as doing the same + thing, and then continues: "The only notice Haydn took of their scurrility + and abuse was to publish lessons written in imitation of the several + styles of his enemies, in which their peculiarities were so closely copied + and their extraneous passages (particularly those of Bach of Hamburg) so + inimitably burlesqued, that they all felt the poignancy of his musical + wit, confessed its truth, and were silent." Further on we read that the + sonatas of Ops. 13 and 14 were "expressly composed in order to ridicule + Bach of Hamburg." All this is manifestly a pure invention. Many of the + peculiarities of Emanuel Bach's style are certainly to be found in Haydn's + works—notes wide apart, pause bars, surprise modulations, etc., etc.—but + if every young composer who adopts the tricks of his model is to be + charged with caricature, few can hope to escape. The truth is, of course, + that every man's style, whether in music or in writing, is a "mingled + yarn" of many strands, and it serves no good purpose to unravel it, even + if we could. + </p> + <p> + Violin Studies + </p> + <p> + Haydn's chief instrument was the clavier, but in addition to that he + diligently practiced the violin. It was at this date that he took lessons + on the latter instrument from "a celebrated virtuoso." The name is not + mentioned, but the general opinion is that Dittersdorf was the instructor. + This eminent musician obtained a situation as violinist in the Court + Orchestra at Vienna in 1760; and, curiously enough, after many years of + professional activity, succeeded Haydn's brother, Michael, as + Capellmeister to the Bishop of Groswardein in Hungary. He wrote an + incredible amount of music, and his opera, "Doctor and Apotheker," by + which he eclipsed Mozart at one time, has survived up to the present. + Whether or not he gave Haydn lessons on the violin, it is certain that the + pair became intimate friends, and had many happy days and some practical + jokes together. One story connected with their names sounds apocryphal, + but there is no harm in quoting it. Haydn and Dittersdorf were strolling + down a back street when they heard a fiddler scraping away in a little + beer cellar. Haydn, entering, inquired, "Whose minuet is that you are + playing?" "Haydn's," answered the fiddler. "It's a—bad minuet," + replied Haydn, whereupon the enraged player turned upon him and would have + broken his head with the fiddle had not Dittersdorf dragged him away. + </p> + <p> + Attempts at Programme Music + </p> + <p> + It seems to have been about this time—the date, in fact, was 1751—that + Haydn, still pursuing his serenading practices, directed a performance of + a quintet of his own composition under the windows of Felix Kurz, a + well-known Viennese comedian and theatrical manager. According to an old + writer, Kurz amused the public by his puns, and drew crowds to his theatre + by his originality and by good opera-buffas. He had, moreover, a handsome + wife, and "this was an additional reason for our nocturnal adventurers to + go and perform their serenades under the harlequin's windows." The + comedian was naturally flattered by Haydn's attention. He heard the music, + and, liking it, called the composer into the house to show his skill on + the clavier. Kurz appears to have been an admirer of what we would call + "programme" music. At all events he demanded that Haydn should give him a + musical representation of a storm at sea. Unfortunately, Haydn had never + set eyes on the "mighty monster," and was hard put to it to describe what + he knew nothing about. He made several attempts to satisfy Kurz, but + without success. At last, out of all patience, he extended his hands to + the two ends of the harpsichord, and, bringing them rapidly together, + exclaimed, as he rose from the instrument, "The devil take the tempest." + "That's it! That's it!" cried the harlequin, springing upon his neck and + almost suffocating him. Haydn used to say that when he crossed the Straits + of Dover in bad weather, many years afterwards, he often smiled to himself + as he thought of the juvenile trick which so delighted the Viennese + comedian. + </p> + <p> + His First Opera + </p> + <p> + But the comedian wanted more from Haydn than a tempest on the keyboard. He + had written the libretto of an opera, "Der Neue Krumme Teufel," and + desired that Haydn should set it to music. The chance was too good to be + thrown away, and Haydn proceeded to execute the commission with alacrity, + not a little stimulated, doubtless, by the promise of 24 ducats for the + work. There is a playfulness and buoyancy about much of Haydn's music + which seems to suggest that he might have succeeded admirably in comic + opera, and it is really to be regretted that while the words of "Der Neue + Krumme Teufel" have been preserved, the music has been lost. It would have + been interesting to see what the young composer had made of a subject + which—from Le Sage's "Le Diable Boiteux" onwards—has engaged + the attention of so many playwrights and musicians. The opera was produced + at the Stadt Theatre in the spring of 1752, and was frequently repeated + not only in Vienna, but in Berlin, Prague, Saxony and the Breisgau. + </p> + <p> + An Aristocratic Appointment + </p> + <p> + An event of this kind must have done something for Haydn's reputation, + which was now rapidly extending. Porpora seems also to have been of no + small service to him in the way of introducing him to aristocratic + acquaintances. At any rate, in 1755, a wealthy musical amateur, the Baron + von Furnberg, who frequently gave concerts at his country house at + Weinzierl, near Vienna, invited him to take the direction of these + performances and compose for their programmes. It was for this nobleman + that he wrote his first string quartet, the one in B flat beginning— + </p> + <p> + [figure: a musical score excerpt] + </p> + <p> + This composition was rapidly followed by seventeen other works of the same + class, all written between 1755 and 1756. + </p> + <p> + Taken for an Impostor + </p> + <p> + Haydn's connection with Furnberg and the success of his compositions for + that nobleman at once gave him a distinction among the musicians and + dilettanti of Vienna. He now felt justified in increasing his fees, and + charged from 2 to 5 florins for a month's lessons. Remembering the legend + of his unboylike fastidiousness, and the undoubted nattiness of his later + years, it is curious to come upon an incident of directly opposite + tendency. A certain Countess von Thun, whose name is associated with + Beethoven, Mozart and Gluck, met with one of his clavier sonatas in + manuscript, and expressed a desire to see him. When Haydn presented + himself, the countess was so struck by his shabby appearance and uncouth + manners that it occurred to her he must be an impostor! But Haydn soon + removed her doubts by the pathetic and realistic account which he gave of + his lowly origin and his struggles with poverty, and the countess ended by + becoming his pupil and one of his warmest friends. + </p> + <p> + A Count's Capellmeister + </p> + <p> + Haydn is said to have held for a time the post of organist to the Count + Haugwitz; but his first authenticated fixed engagement dates from 1759, + when, through the influence of Baron Furnberg, he was appointed + Capellmeister to the Bohemian Count Morzin. This nobleman, whose country + house was at Lukavec, near Pilsen, was a great lover of music, and + maintained a small, well-chosen orchestra of some sixteen or eighteen + performers. It was for him that Haydn wrote his first Symphony in D— + </p> + <p> + [Figure: a musical score excerpt] + </p> + <p> + Falls in Love + </p> + <p> + We now approach an interesting event in Haydn's career. In the course of + some banter at the house of Rogers, Campbell the poet once remarked that + marriage in nine cases out of ten looks like madness. Haydn's case was not + the tenth. His salary from Count Morzin was only 20 pounds with board and + lodging; he was not making anything substantial by his compositions; and + his teaching could not have brought him a large return. Yet, with the + proverbial rashness of his class, he must needs take a wife, and that, + too, in spite, of the fact that Count Morzin never kept a married man in + his service! "To my mind," said Mozart, "a bachelor lives only half a + life." It is true enough; but Mozart had little reason to bless the + "better half," while Haydn had less. The lady with whom he originally + proposed to brave the future was one of his own pupils—the younger + of the two daughters of Barber Keller, to whom he had been introduced when + he was a chorister at St Stephen's. According to Dies, Haydn had lodged + with the Kellers at one time. The statement is doubtful, but in any case + his good stars were not in the ascendant when it was ordained that he + should marry into this family. + </p> + <p> + Marries + </p> + <p> + It was, as we have said, with the younger of the two daughters that he + fell in love. Unfortunately, for some unexplained reason, she took the + veil, and said good-bye to a wicked world. Like the hero in "Locksley + Hall," Haydn may have asked himself, "What is that which I should do?" But + Keller soon solved the problem for him. "Barbers are not the most + diffident people of the world," as one of the race remarks in "Gil Blas," + and Keller was assuredly not diffident. "Never mind," he said to Haydn, + "you shall have the other." Haydn very likely did not want the other, but, + recognizing with Dr Holmes's fashionable lady that "getting married is + like jumping overboard anyway you look at it," he resolved to risk it and + take Anna Maria Keller for better or worse. + </p> + <p> + His Wife + </p> + <p> + The marriage was solemnized at St Stephen's on November 26, 1760, when the + bridegroom was twenty-nine and the bride thirty-two. There does not seem + to have been much affection on either side to start with; but Haydn + declared that he had really begun to "like" his wife, and would have come + to entertain a stronger feeling for her if she had behaved in a reasonable + way. It was, however, not in Anna Maria's nature to behave in a reasonable + way. The diverting Marville says that the majority of women married to men + of genius are so vain of the abilities of their husbands that they are + frequently insufferable. Frau Haydn was not a woman of that kind. As Haydn + himself sadly remarked, it did not matter to her whether he were a cobbler + or an artist. She used his manuscript scores for curling papers and + underlays for the pastry, and wrote to him when he was in England for + money to buy a "widow's home." He was even driven to pitifully undignified + expedients to protect his hard-earned cash from her extravagant hands. + </p> + <p> + There are not many details of Anna Maria's behaviour, for Haydn was + discreetly reticent about his domestic affairs; and only two references + can be found in all his published correspondence to the woman who had + rendered his life miserable. But these anecdotes tell us enough. For a + long time he tried making the best of it; but making the best of it is a + poor affair when it comes to a man and woman living together, and the day + arrived when the composer realized that to live entirely apart was the + only way of ending a union that had proved anything but a foretaste of + heaven. Frau Haydn looked to spend her last years in a "widow's home" + provided for her by the generosity of her husband, but she predeceased him + by nine years, dying at Baden, near Vienna, on the 20th of March 1800. + With this simple statement of facts we may finally dismiss a matter that + is best left to silence—to where "beyond these voices there is + peace." + </p> + <p> + Whether Count Morzin would have retained the services of Haydn in spite of + his marriage is uncertain. The question was not put to the test, for the + count fell into financial embarrassments and had to discharge his musical + establishment. A short time before this, Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy had + heard some of Haydn's compositions when on a visit to Morzin, and, being + favourably impressed thereby, he resolved to engage Haydn should an + opportunity ever present itself. The opportunity had come, and Haydn + entered the service of a family who were practically his life-long + patrons, and with whom his name must always be intimately associated. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. EISENSTADT—1761-1766 + </h2> + <p> + <i>The Esterhazy Family—Haydn's Agreement—An "Upper Servant"?—Dependence + in the Order of Nature—Material and Artistic Advantages of the + Esterhazy Appointment—Some Disadvantages—Capellmeister Werner—A + Posthumous Tribute—Esterhazy "The Magnificent"—Compositions + for Baryton—A Reproval—Operettas and other Occasional Works—First + Symphonies.</i> + </p> + <p> + The Esterhazy Family + </p> + <p> + As Haydn served the Esterhazys uninterruptedly for the long period of + thirty years, a word or two about this distinguished family will not be + out of place. At the present time the Esterhazy estates include + twenty-nine lordships, with twenty-one castles, sixty market towns, and + 414 villages in Hungary, besides lordships in Lower Austria and a county + in Bavaria. This alone will give some idea of the power and importance of + the house to which Haydn was attached. The family was divided into three + main branches, but it is with the Frakno or Forchtenstein line that we are + more immediately concerned. Count Paul Esterhazy of Frakno (1635-1713) + served in the Austrian army with such distinction as to gain a + field-marshal's baton at the age of thirty. He was the first prince of the + name, having been ennobled in 1687 for his successes against the Turks and + his support of the House of Hapsburg. He was a musical amateur and a + performer of some ability, and it was to him that the family owed the + existence of the Esterhazy private chapel, with its solo singers, its + chorus, and its orchestra. Indeed, it was this prince who, in 1683, built + the splendid Palace of Eisenstadt, at the foot of the Leitha mountains, in + Hungary, where Haydn was to spend so many and such momentous years. + </p> + <p> + When Prince Paul died in 1713, he was succeeded by his son, Joseph Anton, + who acquired "enormous wealth," and raised the Esterhazy family to "the + height of its glory." This nobleman's son, Paul Anton, was the reigning + prince when Haydn was called to Eisenstadt in 1761. He was a man of fifty, + and had already a brilliant career behind him. Twice in the course of the + Seven Years' War he had "equipped and maintained during a whole campaign a + complete regiment of hussars for the service of his royal mistress," and, + like his distinguished ancestor, he had been elevated to the dignity of + field-marshal. He was passionately devoted to the fine arts, more + particularly to music, and played the violin with eminent skill. Under his + reign the musical establishment at Eisenstadt enjoyed a prosperity unknown + at any other period of its history. + </p> + <p> + Haydn's Agreement + </p> + <p> + As there will be something to say about the terms and nature of Haydn's + engagement with Prince Paul Anton, it may be well to quote the text of the + agreement which he was required to sign. It was in these terms: + </p> + <p> + FORM OF AGREEMENT AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE VICE-CAPELLMEISTER + </p> + <p> + "This day (according to the date hereto appended) Joseph Heyden [sic] + native of Rohrau, in Austria, is accepted and appointed Vice-Capellmeister + in the service of his Serene Highness, Paul Anton, Prince of the Holy + Roman Empire, of Esterhazy and Galantha, etc., etc., with the conditions + here following: + </p> + <p> + "1st. Seeing that the Capellmeister at Eisenstadt, by name Gregorius + Werner, having devoted many years of true and faithful service to the + princely house, is now, on account of his great age and infirmities, unfit + to perform the duties incumbent on him, therefore the said Gregorious + Werner, in consideration of his long services, shall retain the post of + Capellmeister, and the said Joseph Heyden as Vice-Capellmeister shall, as + far as regards the music of the choir, be subordinate to the Capellmeister + and receive his instructions. But in everything else relating to musical + performances, and in all that concerns the orchestra, the + Vice-Capellmeister shall have the sole direction. + </p> + <p> + "2nd. The said Joseph Heyden shall be considered and treated as a member + of the household. Therefore his Serene Highness is graciously pleased to + place confidence in his conducting himself as becomes an honourable + official of a princely house. He must be temperate, not showing himself + overbearing towards his musicians, but mild and lenient, straightforward + and composed. It is especially to be observed that when the orchestra + shall be summoned to perform before company, the Vice-Capellmeister and + all the musicians shall appear in uniform, and the said Joseph Heyden + shall take care that he and all members of his orchestra do follow the + instructions given, and appear in white stockings, white linen, powdered, + and either with a pig-tail or a tie-wig. + </p> + <p> + "3rd. Seeing that the other musicians are referred for directions to the + said Vice-Capellmeister, therefore he should take the more care to conduct + himself in an exemplary manner, abstaining from undue familiarity, and + from vulgarity in eating, drinking and conversation, not dispensing with + the respect due to him, but acting uprightly and influencing his + subordinates to preserve such harmony as is becoming in them, remembering + how displeasing the consequences of any discord or dispute would be to his + Serene Highness. + </p> + <p> + "4th. The said Vice-Capellmeister shall be under an obligation to compose + such music as his Serene Highness may command, and neither to communicate + such compositions to any other person, nor to allow them to be copied, but + to retain them for the absolute use of his Highness, and not to compose + anything for any other person without the knowledge and permission of his + Highness. + </p> + <p> + "5th. The said Joseph Heyden shall appear in the ante-chamber daily, + before and after mid-day, and inquire whether his Highness is pleased to + order a performance of the orchestra. After receipt of his orders be shall + communicate them to the other musicians and shall take care to be punctual + at the appointed time, and to ensure punctuality in his subordinates, + making a note of those who arrive late or absent themselves altogether. + </p> + <p> + "6th. Should any quarrel or cause of complaint arise, the + Vice-Capellmeister shall endeavour to arrange it, in order that his Serene + Highness may not be incommoded with trifling disputes; but should any more + serious difficulty occur, which the said Joseph Heyden is unable to set + right, his Serene Highness must then be respectfully called upon to decide + the matter. + </p> + <p> + "7th. The said Vice-Capellmeister shall take careful charge of all music + and musical instruments, and shall be responsible for any injury that may + occur to them from carelessness or neglect. + </p> + <p> + "8th. The said Joseph Heyden shall be obliged to instruct the female + vocalists, in order that they may not forget in the country what they had + been taught with much trouble and expense in Vienna, and, as the said + Vice-Capellmeister is proficient on various instruments, he shall take + care to practice himself on all that he is acquainted with. + </p> + <p> + "9th. A copy of this agreement and instructions shall be given to the said + Vice-Capellmeister and to his subordinates, in order that he may be able + to hold them to their obligations therein laid down. + </p> + <p> + "10th. It is considered unnecessary to detail the services required of the + said Joseph Heyden more particularly, since his Serene Highness is pleased + to hope that he will of his own free will strictly observe not only these + regulations, but all others that may from time to time be made by his + Highness, and that he will place the orchestra on such a footing, and in + such good order, that he may bring honour upon himself, and deserve the + further favour of the Prince, his master, who thus confides in his zeal + and discretion. + </p> + <p> + "11th. A salary of four hundred florins to be received quarterly is hereby + bestowed upon the said Vice-Capellmeister by his Serene Highness. + </p> + <p> + "12th. In addition, the said Joseph Heyden shall have board at the + officers' table, or half a gulden a day in lieu thereof. + </p> + <p> + "13th. Finally, this agreement shall hold good for at least three years + from May 1st, 1761, with the further condition that if at the conclusion + of this term the said Joseph Heyden shall desire to leave the service, he + shall notify his intention to his Highness half-a-year beforehand. + </p> + <p> + "14th. His Serene Highness undertakes to keep Joseph Heyden in his service + during this time, and should he be satisfied with him, he may look forward + to being appointed Capellmeister. This, however, must not be understood to + deprive his Serene Highness of the freedom to dismiss the said Joseph + Heyden at the expiration of the term, should he see fit to do so. + </p> + <p> + "Duplicate copies of this document shall be executed and exchanged. + </p> + <p> + "Given at Vienna this 1st day of May 1761, + </p> + <p> + "Ad mandatum Celsissimi Principis. + </p> + <p> + "JOHANN STIFFTELL, Secretary." + </p> + <p> + An "Upper Servant"? + </p> + <p> + The situation indicated by this lengthy document has afforded matter for a + good deal of comment, and not a little foolish writing. With some it is + the old case of Porpora and the blacking of the boots. Thus Miss Townsend + remarks: "Our indignation is roused at finding a great artist placed in + the position of an upper servant, and required to perform duties almost + menial in their nature." That is essentially a modern view. These things + have to be judged in relation to the ideas of the age. It was only a few + years before this that Johnson had contemptuously thrown away a pair of + boots which some pitying soul had placed at the door of his rooms at + Pembroke. The British mind likes to think of the sturdy independence of + the man who struck the death-blow at patronage in literature. But Johnson + himself had the meanest opinion of fiddlers. + </p> + <p> + Dependence in the Order of Nature + </p> + <p> + There was no talk in Haydn's native country of the dignity of art, at any + rate so far as musicians were concerned. When Mozart first arrived in + Vienna in 1781, he had to live with the archbishop's household, and dine + at the servants' table. Nay, he was known as "the villain, the low + fellow." And is it altogether certain even now, in free Britain, that the + parish organist is very clearly distinguished in the squire's mind from + the peripatetic organ-grinder? Public opinion does not seem to have + commiserated Haydn on his position of dependence; and, as for Haydn + himself, he was no doubt only too glad to have an assured income and a + comfortable home. We may be certain that he did not find the yoke + unbearably galling. He was of humble birth; of a family which must always + have looked up to their "betters" as unspeakably and immeasurably above + them. Dependence was in the order of nature, and a man of Haydn's good + sense was the last in the world to starve and fret because his freedom to + practice his art and develop his powers was complicated with a sort of + feudal service. Some strong souls may find an empty purse the truest + source of inspiration, as Mr Russell Lowell declares it to be; but it is + very much to be doubted whether a careful investigation would show that a + great man's best work was done with the wolf at the door. + </p> + <p> + Material Advantages + </p> + <p> + Haydn had no self-pity: why should we pity him? He had free quarters at + the palace, with liberty to enjoy the company of his wife when she chose + to favour him—an event of rare occurrence. His salary was raised + from time to time. The old prince, his first employer, paid him 400 + florins; his successor increased the amount first to 600 and then to 782 + florins (78 pounds); and finally he had 1400 florins, which last sum was + continued to him as a pension when he left the Esterhazy service. Although + money had a much higher purchasing value in those days, the figures here + quoted do not seem princely when we consider the extent and nature of + Haydn's duties, but to a man of Haydn's simple tastes they would appear + ample enough. At least, they would save him from lying on straw and + drinking bad whisky, which Wagner regarded as among the things that are + inimical to the creative genius. + </p> + <p> + Artistic Advantages + </p> + <p> + These were the material advantages of the Eisenstadt appointment. The + artistic advantages were even more important, especially to a young and + inexperienced artist who, so far, had not enjoyed many opportunities of + practically testing his own work. Haydn had a very good band always at his + disposal, the members of which were devoted to him. If he wrote part of a + symphony over-night he could try it in the morning, prune, revise, accept, + reject. Many a young composer of to-day would rejoice at such an + opportunity, as indeed Haydn himself rejoiced at it. "I not only had the + encouragement of constant approval," he says, speaking of this period of + his career, "but as conductor of an orchestra I could make experiments, + observe what produced an effect and what weakened it, and was thus in a + position to improve, alter, make additions and omissions, and be as bold + as I pleased." + </p> + <p> + Some Disadvantages + </p> + <p> + No doubt there were some disadvantages in counterpoise. After the gay life + of Vienna, Eisenstadt must have been dull enough, and there is plenty of + evidence to show that the young artist occasionally fell into the dumps. + In one letter he complains that he "never can obtain leave, even for + four-and-twenty hours, to go to Vienna." In another he writes: "I am + doomed to stay at home. What I lose by so doing you can well imagine. It + is indeed sad always to be a slave, but Providence wills it so. I am a + poor creature, plagued perpetually by hard work, and with few hours for + recreation." Haydn clearly recognized the necessities of the artist. A + quiet life is all very well, but no man ever yet greatly touched the + hearts of men if he kept himself too strictly segregated from his kind. + Music, like every other art, would perish in a hot-house. Reckon up to-day + the composers who are really a force in the emotional life of the people, + and ask which of them was reared in the serene, cold air of the academies. + A composer to be great must live with his fellows, and open his soul to + human affluences. "I was cut off from the world," says Haydn. "There was + no one to confuse or torment me, and I was forced to become original." But + his originality was that of an active mind working upon material already + stored, and the store had to be replenished in occasional excursions, all + too few, from the palace. + </p> + <p> + The Eisenstadt appointment, then, provided for Haydn's material wants, and + gave him opportunities for the peaceful pursuit of his studies, for + experiment and self-criticism. He was treated with great consideration by + the Esterhazys, and, menial or not, he lived on their bounty and in the + friendliest relations with them. + </p> + <p> + Capellmeister Werner + </p> + <p> + From his agreement with Prince Esterhazy it will have been gathered that, + though virtually entrusted with the direction of the Eisenstadt musical + establishment, Haydn was really under the control of an old official. Such + arrangements seldom work well. The retention of Joseph Werner was + presumably due to the thoughtful kindness of his noble patron, but it was + bound to lead to awkward situations. Werner had served the Esterhazys for + thirty-two years, and could not be expected to placidly accept his + supersession by a young and as yet almost unknown musician. True, he was + not a very distinguished man himself. He had composed a large amount of + music, chiefly sacred, including thirty-nine masses and twelve "Oratorios + for Good Friday," besides some grotesque pieces intended as burlesques of + the musical life of Vienna. Not one of his works has any real musical + value; but, as is usually the case with the talent which stops short of + genius, he thought a great deal of himself, and was inclined to look down + upon Haydn as an interloper, unskilled in that rigid counterpoint which + was the "heaven's law" of the old-time composer. Indeed, he described his + associate as "a mere fop" and "a scribbler of songs." + </p> + <p> + A Posthumous Tribute + </p> + <p> + It is but fair to Haydn to say that, if he did not suffer his nominal + superior gladly, he at least treated him with respect and a certain + deference. He did more. Werner died in 1766, having thus seen only five + years of the new order of things, but Haydn's regard for his memory was + such that, so late as 1804, he published six of his fugues arranged as + string quartets, "out of sincere esteem for this celebrated master." A + kindness of heart and a total absence of professional jealousy + characterized Haydn throughout his whole career, and never more than in + this action. + </p> + <p> + Esterhazy "the Magnificent" + </p> + <p> + The composer had been rather less than a twelvemonth in his service when + Prince Paul Anton died on the 18th of March 1762. He was succeeded by his + brother Nicolaus, a sort of glorified "Grand Duke" of Chandos, who + rejoiced in the soubriquet of "The Magnificent." He loved ostentation and + glitter above all things, wearing at times a uniform bedecked with + diamonds. But he loved music as well. More, he was a performer himself, + and played the baryton, a stringed instrument not unlike the + viola-da-gamba, in general use up to the end of the eighteenth century. + Haydn naturally desired to please his prince, and being perpetually + pestered to provide new works for the noble baryton player, he thought it + would flatter him if he himself learnt to handle the baryton. This proved + an unfortunate misreading of "The Magnificent's" character, for when Haydn + at length made his debut with the instrument, the prince lost no time in + letting him understand that he disapproved of such rivalry. An amusing + story is told of Kraft, the Eisenstadt 'cellist, at this time, who + occasionally played the second baryton. Kraft presented the prince with a + composition into which he had introduced a solo for himself as second + baryton. The prince asked to see the part, and proceeded to try it over. + Coming to a difficult passage, he exclaimed indignantly: "For the future, + write solos only for my part; it is no credit to you to play better than + I; it is your duty." + </p> + <p> + Compositions for Baryton + </p> + <p> + Haydn, so far as we can make out, never essayed the baryton again, but he + wrote a surprising amount of music for it, considering its complicated + mechanism and the weakness of its tone. In the catalogue of his works + there are no fewer than 175 compositions for the instrument—namely, + six duets for two barytons, twelve sonatas for baryton and violoncello, + twelve divertimenti for two barytons and bass, and 125 divertimenti for + baryton, viola and violoncello; seventeen so-called "cassations"; and + three concertos for baryton, with accompaniment of two violins and bass. + There is no need to say anything about these compositions, inasmuch as + they have gone to oblivion with the instrument which called them into + being. At the best they can never have been of much artistic importance. + </p> + <p> + A Reproval + </p> + <p> + A new epoch began at Eisenstadt with the rule of Prince Nicolaus. He was a + man of unbounded energy himself, and he expected everybody in his service + to be energetic too. There is nothing to suggest that Haydn neglected any + of his routine duties, which certainly gave him abundant opportunity to + "break the legs of time," but once, at least—in 1765—his + employer taxed him with lack of diligence in composition, as well as for + failing to maintain the necessary discipline among the musicians under his + charge. It is likely enough that Haydn was not a rigid disciplinarian; but + it must have been a mere whim on the part of Prince Nicolaus to reprove + him on the score of laziness in composing. In any case, it seems to have + been only a solitary reproof. There is no evidence of its having been + repeated, and we may assume that even now it was not regarded as a very + serious matter, from the fact that three weeks after the prince was + requesting his steward to pay Haydn 12 ducats for three new pieces, with + which he was "very much pleased." + </p> + <p> + Operettas + </p> + <p> + Life at Eisenstadt moved on in "calm peace and quiet," but now and again + it was stirred into special activity, when Haydn had to put forth his + efforts in various new directions. Such an occasion came very early in his + service of Prince Nicolaus, when that pompous person made triumphant entry + into Eisenstadt. The festivities were on a regal scale and continued for a + whole month. A company of foreign players had been engaged to perform on a + stage erected in the large conservatory, and Haydn was required to provide + them with operettas. He wrote several works of the kind, one of which, "La + Marchesa Nepola," survives in the autograph score. Later on, for the + marriage of Count Anton, the eldest son of Prince Nicolaus, in 1763, he + provided a setting of the story which Handel had already used for his + "Acis and Galatea." This work, which was performed by the Eisenstadt + Capelle, with the orchestra clad in a new uniform of crimson and gold, + bore the name of "Acide e Galatea." Portions of the score still exist—a + section of the overture, four arias, and a finale quartet. The overture is + described as being "in his own style, fresh and cheerful, foreshadowing + his symphonies. The songs are in the Italian manner, very inferior in + originality and expression to Handel's music; the quartet is crude in form + and uninteresting in substance." [See Miss Townsend's Haydn, p. 44.] + </p> + <p> + It would seem rather ungracious, as it would certainly be redundant to + discuss these "occasional" works in detail. For one thing, the material + necessary to enable us to form a correct estimate of Haydn's powers as a + dramatic composer is wanting. The original autograph of "Armida," first + performed in 1783, is, indeed, preserved. "Orfeo ed Euridice," written for + the King's Theatre in the Haymarket in 1791, but never staged, was printed + at Leipzig in 1806, and a fair idea of the general style of the work may + be obtained from the beautiful air, "Il pensier sta negli oggetti," + included in a collection entitled "Gemme d'Antichita." But beyond these + and the fragments previously mentioned, there is little left to represent + Haydn as a composer of opera, the scores of most of the works written + expressly for Prince Esterhazy having been destroyed when the prince's + private theatre was burned down in 1779. What Haydn would have done for + opera if he had devoted his serious attention to it at any of the larger + theatres it is, of course, impossible to say. Judging from what has + survived of his work in this department, he was notable for refinement + rather than for dramatic power. We must, however, remember the conditions + under which he worked. He confessed himself that his operas were fitted + only for the small stage at Esterhaz and "could never produce the proper + effect elsewhere." If he had written with a large stage in view, it may + reasonably be assumed that he would have written somewhat differently. + </p> + <p> + Occasional Works + </p> + <p> + In 1764 Prince Nicolaus made a journey to Frankfort for the coronation of + the Archduke Joseph as King of the Romans. After the festivities connected + with that imposing function were over he extended his journey to Paris, + where he created some sensation by his extravagant displays of wealth and + circumstance. During the Prince's absence Haydn busied himself on a couple + of compositions intended to celebrate his home-coming. One was a Te Deum, + the other a cantata. The latter work is the more worthy of remark, not + because of its music, but because of the fulsomely obsequious manner in + which it celebrates the graces and virtues of Nicolaus the Magnificent. + The cantata is made up of choruses and duets, a recitative and two arias. + Parts of it were afterwards employed in church services. The Te Deum is in + C major, and is for four voices with orchestra. It is interesting as an + early work, especially if we compare it with the greater Te Deum in the + same key composed in the year 1800. + </p> + <p> + First Symphonies + </p> + <p> + At this point a summary may perhaps be made of the compositions written by + Haydn during these five years a Eisenstadt. The list, as given by Pohl, + comprises, in addition to the works already named, about thirty symphonies + six string trios, a few divertimenti in five parts, a piece for four + violins and two 'celli, entitled "Echo," twelve minuets for orchestra, + concertos, trios, sonatas and variations for clavier, and, in vocal music, + a "Salve Regina" for soprano and alto, two violins and organ. It would + serve no useful purpose to deal with these works in detail. The symphonies + are, of course, the most important feature in the list, but of these we + shall speak generally when treating of Haydn as the father of instrumental + music. The first Symphony in C Major, usually called "Le Midi," is of + special interest. + </p> + <p> + [Figure: a musical score excerpt] + </p> + <p> + The autograph score, dated 1761, and preserved at Eisenstadt, is + superscribed, "In Nomine Domini," and closes with Haydn's customary "Laus + Deo" after the final signature The work is in the usual four movements. + The symphonies of this date included also those known in England as "Le + Matin" and "Le Soir," the one beginning— + </p> + <p> + [Figure: a musical score excerpt] and the other— + </p> + <p> + [figure: a musical score excerpt] + </p> + <p> + Of the string quartets and other instrumental compositions of the period + nothing need be said. In all these the composer was simply feeling his way + towards a more perfect expression, and as few of them are now performed, + their interest for us is almost entirely antiquarian. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. ESTERHAZ—1766-1790 + </h2> + <p> + <i>Haydn's Fame extending—Haydn and Mozart compared—Esterhaz—Its + Puppet Theatre—A Busy Life—Opera at Esterhaz—First + Oratorio—Opponents and Intriguers—"L'Isola Disabitata"—A + Love Episode—Correspondence with Artaria and Forster—Royal + Dedicatees—The "Seven Words"—The "Toy" and "Farewell" + Symphonies.</i> + </p> + <p> + To crowd the details of a professional career covering close upon a + quarter of a century into a single chapter would, in the case of most of + the great composers, be an altogether impossible task. In Haydn's case the + difficulty is to find the material for even so slight a record. His life + went on smoothly, almost sleepily, as we should now think, in the service + of his prince, without personal incident and with next to no disturbance + from the outside world. If he had not been a genius of the first rank the + outside world would, in all probability, never have heard of his + existence. + </p> + <p> + Haydn's Fame extending + </p> + <p> + As it was, his fame was now manifestly spreading. Thus the Wiener Diarum + for 1766 includes him among the most distinguished musicians of Vienna, + and describes him as "the darling of our nation." His amiable disposition, + says the panegyrist, "speaks through every one of his works. His music has + beauty, purity, and a delicate and noble simplicity which commends it to + every hearer. His cassations, quartets and trios may be compared to a + pure, clear stream of water, the surface now rippled by a gentle breeze + from the south, and anon breaking into agitated billows, but without ever + leaving its proper channel and appointed course. His symphonies are full + of force and delicate sympathy. In his cantatas he shows himself at once + captivating and caressing, and in his minuets he is delightful and full of + humour. In short, Haydn is in music what Gellert is in poetry." This + comparison with Gellert, who died three years later, was at that date, as + Dr Pohl remarks, the most flattering that could well be made. The + simplicity and naturalness of Gellert's style were the very antithesis of + the pedantries and frigid formalities of the older school; and just as he + pioneered the way for the resuscitation of German poetry under Goethe and + Schiller, so Haydn may be said to have prepared the path for Beethoven and + the modern school. + </p> + <p> + Haydn and Mozart compared + </p> + <p> + Very likely it was this comparison of the magazine writer that suggested + Dittersdorf's remark to Joseph II in 1786, when the emperor requested him + to draw an analogy between Haydn's and Mozart's chamber music. Dittersdorf + shrewdly replied by asking the emperor in his turn to draw a parallel + between Gellert and Klopstock; whereupon Joseph made answer by saying that + both were great poets, but that Klopstock's works required attentive + study, while Gellert's beauties were open to the first glance. The + analogy, Dittersdorf tells us, "pleased the emperor very much." Its point + is, however, not very clear—that is to say, it is not very clear + whether the emperor meant to compare Klopstock with Haydn and Gellert with + Mozart or vice versa, and whether, again, he regarded it as more of a + merit that the poet and the composer should require study or be "open to + the first glance." Joseph was certainly friendly towards Mozart, but by + all accounts he had no great love for Haydn, to whose "tricks and + nonsense" he made frequent sneering reference. + </p> + <p> + The first noteworthy event of 1766 was the death of Werner, which took + place on March 5. It made no real difference to Haydn, who, as we have + seen, had been from the first, in effect, if not in name, chief of the + musical establishment; but it at least freed him from sundry petty + annoyances, and left him absolutely master of the musical situation. + Shortly after Werner's death, the entire musical establishment at + Eisenstadt was removed to the prince's new palace of Esterhaz, with which + Haydn was now to be connected for practically the whole of his remaining + professional career. + </p> + <p> + Esterhaz + </p> + <p> + A great deal has been written about Esterhaz, but it is not necessary that + we should occupy much space with a description of the castle and its + surroundings. The palace probably owed its inception to the prince's visit + to Paris in 1764. At any rate, it is in the French Renaissance style, and + there is some significance in the fact that a French traveller who saw it + about 1782 described it as having no place but Versailles to compare with + it for magnificence. The situation—about three and a half miles from + Eisenstadt—was anything but suitable for an erection of the kind, + being in an unhealthy marsh and "quite out of the world." But Prince + Nicolaus had set his heart upon the scheme, as Scott set his heart upon + Abbotsford; and just as "Clarty Hole" came in time to be "parked about and + gated grandly," so Esterhaz, after something like 11,000,000 gulden had + been spent upon it, emerged a veritable Versailles, with groves and + grottoes, hermitages and temples, summer-houses and hot-houses, and deer + parks and flower gardens. There were two theatres in the grounds: one for + operas and dramatic performances generally; the other "brilliantly + ornamented and furnished with large artistic marionettes, excellent + scenery and appliances." + </p> + <p> + A Puppet Theatre + </p> + <p> + It is upon the entertainments connected with the latter house that the + French traveller just mentioned chiefly dwells. "The prince," he says, + "has a puppet theatre which is certainly unique in character. Here the + grandest operas are produced. One knows not whether to be amazed or to + laugh at seeing 'Alceste,' 'Alcides,' etc., put on the stage with all due + solemnity, and played by puppets. His orchestra is one of the best I ever + heard, and the great Haydn is his court and theatre composer. He employs a + poet for his singular theatre, whose humour and skill in suiting the + grandest subjects for the stage, and in parodying the gravest effects, are + often exceedingly happy. He often engages a troupe of wandering players + for a month at a time, and he himself and his retinue form the entire + audience. They are allowed to come on the stage uncombed, drunk, their + parts not half learned, and half-dressed. The prince is not for the + serious and tragic, and he enjoys it when the players, like Sancho Panza, + give loose reins to their humour." + </p> + <p> + Prince Nicolaus became so much attached to this superb creation of his + own, that he seldom cared to leave it. A small portion of the Capelle + remained at Eisenstadt to carry on the church service there, but the + prince seldom went to Eisenstadt, and more seldom still to Vienna. Most of + the Hungarian grandees liked nothing better than to display their wealth + in the Imperial city during the winter season; but to Haydn's employer + there was literally "no place like home." When he did go to Vienna, he + would often cut short his visits in the most abrupt manner, to the great + confusion of his musicians and other dependants. These eccentricities must + have given some annoyance to Haydn, who, notwithstanding his love of quiet + and seclusion, often longed for the change and variety of city life. It is + said that he was specially anxious to make a tour in Italy about this + time, but that ambition had, of necessity, to be abandoned. + </p> + <p> + A Busy Life + </p> + <p> + There was certainly plenty for him to do at Esterhaz—more than he + had ever been required to do at Eisenstadt. Royalties, nobles and + aristocrats were constantly at the palace; and music was one of the chief + diversions provided for them. The prince was very proud of his musical + establishment, and desired to have it considered the best of its kind in + Europe. The orchestra of the opera was formed of members of the Capelle; + "the singers were Italian for the most part, engaged for one, two, or more + years, and the books of the words were printed. Numerous strolling + companies were engaged for shorter terms; travelling virtuosi often played + with the members of the band. Special days and hours were fixed for + chamber music, and for orchestral works; and in the interval the singers, + musicians and actors met at the cafe, and formed, so to speak, one + family." Something more than creative genius was obviously required to + direct the music of an establishment of this kind. A talent for + organization, an eye for detail, tact in the management of players and + singers—these qualities were all indispensable for the performance + of duties such as Haydn had undertaken. That he possessed them we may + fairly assume from more than one circumstance. In the first place, his + employer was satisfied with him. He raised his salary, listened + attentively to all his suggestions, and did everything that he could to + retain his services. In the second place, his band and singers were + sincerely attached to him. They saw that he had their interests, personal + and professional, at heart, and they "loved him like a father." The prince + paid them well, and several of them were sufficiently capable to receive + appointments afterwards in the Imperial Chapel. Pohl gives a list of the + names about this time, but, with one or two exceptions, they are quite + unfamiliar. J. B. Krumpholtz, the harpist, was engaged from 1773 to 1776, + and Andreas Lidl, who played in London soon after leaving the band, was in + the service of the prince from 1769 to 1774. + </p> + <p> + The sum paid to Haydn at this date was not large as we should now consider + it, but it was sufficient to free him from financial worry had it not been + for the extravagance and bad management of his wife. The prince gave him + about 78 pounds, in addition to which he had certain allowances in kind, + and, as we have already said, free quarters for himself and his wife when + she thought fit to stay with him. Probably, too, he was now making + something substantial by his compositions. Griesinger declares that he had + saved about 200 pounds before 1790, the year when he started for London. + If that be true, he must have been very economical. His wife, we must + remember, was making constant calls upon him for money, and in addition he + had to meet the pressing demands of various poor relations. His + correspondence certainly does not tend to show that he was saving, and we + know that when he set out for London he had not only to draw upon the + generosity of his prince for the costs of the journey, but had to sell his + house to provide for his wife until his return. + </p> + <p> + Opera at Esterhaz + </p> + <p> + It is time, however, to speak of some of Haydn's compositions during this + period. At Esterhaz he "wrote nearly all his operas, most of his arias and + songs, the music for the marionette theatre—of which he was + particularly fond—and the greater part of his orchestral and chamber + works." The dramatic works bulk rather largely during the earlier part of + the period. In 1769, for example, when the whole musical establishment of + Esterhaz visited Vienna, a performance of his opera, "Lo Speciale," was + given at the house of Freiherr von Sommerau, and was repeated in the form + of a concert. Other works of the kind were performed at intervals, + particularly on festival occasions, but as most of them have perished, and + all of them are essentially pieces d'occasion, it is unnecessary even to + recall their names. In 1771 Haydn wrote a "Stabat Mater" and a "Salve + Regina," and in 1773 followed the Symphony in C which bears the name of + the Empress Maria Theresa, having been written for the empress's visit to + Esterhaz in September of that year. In the course of the visit Haydn was + naturally introduced to Her Majesty, when, as we have stated, he took + occasion to remind her of the "good hiding" she had ordered him to have at + Schonbrunn during the old chorister days at St Stephen's. "Well, you see, + my dear Haydn," was the reply, "the hiding has borne good fruit." + </p> + <p> + First Oratorio + </p> + <p> + In 1775 came his first oratorio, "Il Ritorno di Tobia." This is an + exceedingly interesting work. It was first performed under Haydn's + direction by the Tonkunstler Societat, with solo singers from Esterbaz, at + Vienna, on April 2, 1775. In 1784 Haydn added two choruses, one a "Storm + Chorus," which is sometimes confused with the "Storm Chorus" (in the same + key, but in triple time) composed during his sojourn in London. It is from + "Il Ritorno di Tobia" that the so-called motet, "Insanae et Vanae Curae," + is adapted, and the "Storm Chorus" immediately follows a fine soprano air + in F minor and major, sung by Anna in the original work, a portion of + which forms the beautiful second subject (in F) of the "Insanae." The + original words of this chorus—"Svanisce in un momento"—are to + the effect that the soul threatens to yield to the fury of its enemies, + yet trust in God keeps one steadfast. The music admirably reflects these + contrasting sentiments, first in the tumultuous D minor section, and then + in the tranquillity of the F major portion which follows, no less than in + the trustful quietude of the D major conclusion. Latin words were adapted + to three of the original choruses, but nothing seems to be known as to the + origin of the "Insanae" adaptation. A full score of the motet, published + by Breitkopf & Hartel in 1809, was reviewed in the Allgemeine + Musikalische Zeitung of August 15, 1810, as if it were an entirely + original work. The source of the Latin words also remains a mystery. They + were presumably put together to fit Haydn's music, but by whom we have no + means of ascertaining. + </p> + <p> + It is interesting to know that Haydn brought the score of his "Il Ritorno + di Tobia" with him to England on the occasion of his first visit in 1791, + probably with a view to its performance here. Messrs Novello's private + library contains an oblong volume in the handwriting of Vincent Novello, + in which he has copied some numbers from "Tobia," including the air of + Anna already mentioned, but not the "Insanae" chorus. The inside cover of + the book bears the following note in Novello's hand, written, not later + than 1820, under the contents of the volume: + </p> + <p> + "The whole of the above are unpublished manuscripts, and were copied from + an extremely rare volume, containing the full orchestral score of the + entire oratorio, kindly lent to me for the purpose by my friend, Mr + Shield, who had obtained it from Haydn himself during the visit of the + latter to England in the year 1791.—VINCENT NOVELLO, 240 Oxford St." + </p> + <p> + [See an interesting account of "Il Ritorno di Tobia" in The Musical Times + for September 1901, p. 600.] + </p> + <p> + Some of our musical societies in search of novelties might do worse than + revive this almost completely forgotten oratorio. The airs are exceedingly + melodious, and the choruses bold and tuneful, with well-developed fugue + subjects. The "Insanae" already referred to is frequently performed. + </p> + <p> + Opponents + </p> + <p> + In 1776 Haydn composed "La Vera Costanza" for the Court Theatre of Vienna, + but owing to certain intrigues it was declined by the management and + produced at Esterhaz instead. The opera was subsequently staged at Vienna + in 1790, and six of its airs and a duet were published by Artaria. This + incident makes it sufficiently plain that Haydn had his opponents among + the musicians and critics of Vienna as well as elsewhere. Burney says a + friend in Hamburg wrote him in 1772 that "the genius, fine ideas and fancy + of Haydn, Ditters and Filitz were praised, but their mixture of serious + and comic was disliked, particularly as there is more of the latter than + the former in their works; and as for rules, they knew but little of + them." If we substitute "humorous" for "comic," this may be allowed to + fully represent the views of the critics and amateurs of Vienna in regard + to Haydn's music. + </p> + <p> + And, unfortunately, the incident just mentioned was not a solitary one. In + 1778 Haydn applied for membership to the Tonkunstler Societat, for whom he + had in reality written his "Il Ritorno di Tobia." One would have expected + such a body to receive him with open arms, but instead of that they + exacted a sum of 300 florins on the ground of his non-residence in Vienna! + Not only so, but they would fain have brought him under a promise to + compose for them whenever they chose to ask him. This latter condition + Haydn felt to be impossible in view of his engagement at Esterhaz, and he + withdrew his admission fee. That the society were not ashamed of + themselves is obvious from a further episode. Some years after this they + desired Haydn to rearrange his "Tobia" for a special performance, and when + he demanded payment for his trouble they promptly decided to produce + Hasse's "Elena" instead. Everything comes to the man who waits. After his + second visit to London the Tonkunstler Societat welcomed Haydn at a + special meeting, and with one voice appointed him "Assessor Senior" for + life. In return for this distinction he presented the society with "The + Creation" and "The Seasons," to which gifts, according to Pohl, its + prosperity is mainly owing. + </p> + <p> + "L'Isola Disabitata" + </p> + <p> + If Haydn was thus less highly appreciated at home than he deserved to be, + there were others who knew his sterling worth. In 1779 he composed one of + his best operas, "L'Isola Disabitata," the libretto of which was by his + old benefactor Metastasio, and this work procured his nomination as a + member of the Philharmonic Society of Modena. The following extract of a + letter written to Artaria in May 1781 is interesting in this connection. + He says: "M. le Gros, director of the 'Concerts Spirituels' [in Paris], + wrote me a great many fine things about my Stabat Mater, which had been + given there four times with great applause; so this gentleman asked + permission to have it engraved. They made me an offer to engrave all my + future works on very advantageous terms, and are much surprised that my + compositions for the voice are so singularly pleasing. I, however, am not + in the least surprised, for, as yet, they have heard nothing. If they + could only hear my operetta, 'L'Isola Disabitata,' and my last Shrove-tide + opera, 'La Fedelta Premiata,' I do assure you that no such work has + hitherto been heard in Paris, nor, perhaps, in Vienna either. My great + misfortune is living in the country." It will be seen from this what he + thought of "L'Isola," which was not heard in Vienna until its performance + at a concert given at the Court Theatre by Willmann the 'cellist in 1785. + Haydn sent the score to the King of Spain, who showed his sense of the + honour by the gift of a gold snuff-box, set in brilliants. Other marks of + royal attention were bestowed upon him about this time. Thus, in 1784, + Prince Henry of Prussia sent him a gold medal and his portrait in return + for the dedication of six new quartets, while in 1787 King Frederick + William II gave him the famous gold ring which he afterwards always wore + when composing. + </p> + <p> + A Love Episode + </p> + <p> + But we have passed somewhat out of our chronological order. The absence of + love at home, as we all know, often encourages love abroad. Haydn liked to + have an occasional flirtation, as ardent as might be within the bounds of + decorum. Sometimes, indeed, according to our insular ideas of such things, + he exceeded the bounds of decorum, as in the case of which we are now + compelled to speak. Among the musicians who had been engaged for the + Esterhazy service in 1779 were a couple named Polzelli—the husband a + violinist, the wife a second-rate vocalist. Luigia Polzelli was a lively + Italian girl of nineteen. She does not seem to have been happy with + Polzelli, and Haydn's pity was roused for her, much as Shelley's pity was + roused for "my unfortunate friend," Harriet Westbrook. The pity, as often + happens in such cases, ultimately ripened into a violent passion. + </p> + <p> + We are not concerned to adopt an apologetic tone towards Haydn. But + Signora Polzelli was clearly an unscrupulous woman. She first got her + admirer into her power, and then used her position to dun him for money. + She had two sons, and the popular belief of the time that Haydn was the + father of the younger is perpetuated in several of the biographies. Haydn + had certainly a great regard for the boy, made him a pupil of his own, and + left him a small sum in his first will, which, however, he revoked in the + second. Signora Polzelli's conduct was probably natural enough in the + circumstances, but it must have been rather embarrassing to Haydn. After + the death of her husband, she wheedled him into signing a paper promising + to marry her in the event of his becoming a widower. This promise he + subsequently repudiated, but he cared for her well enough to leave her an + annuity in his will, notwithstanding that she had married again. She + survived him for twenty-three years, and her two daughters were still + living at Pesth in 1878. + </p> + <p> + Returning to 1779, an untoward event of that year was the destruction by + fire of the theatre at Esterhaz. The re-building of the house was set + about at once, the prince having meanwhile gone to Paris, and the + re-opening took place on October 15, 1780, when Haydn's "La Fedelta + Premiata," already mentioned, was staged. + </p> + <p> + Correspondence + </p> + <p> + It was about this time that he began to correspond with Artaria, the + Vienna music-publisher, with whom he had business dealings for many years. + A large number of his letters is given in an English translation by Lady + Wallace. [See Letters of Distinguished Musicians. Translated from the + German by Lady Wallace. London, 1867]. They treat principally of business + matters, but are not unimportant as fixing the chronological dates of some + of his works. They exhibit in a striking way the simple, honest, + unassuming nature of the composer; and if they also show him "rather eager + after gain, and even particular to a groschen," we must not forget the + ever-pressing necessity for economy under which he laboured, and his + almost lavish benevolence to straitened relatives and friends. In one + letter requesting an advance he writes: "I am unwilling to be in debt to + tradesmen, and, thank God! I am free from this burden; but as great people + keep me so long waiting for payments, I have got rather into difficulty. + This letter, however, will be your security...I will pay off the interest + with my notes." There is no real ground for charging Haydn with avarice, + as some writers have done. "Even philosophers," as he remarked himself, + "occasionally stand in need of money"; and, as Beethoven said to George + Thomson, when haggling about prices, there is no reason why the "true + artist" should not be "honourably paid." + </p> + <p> + A London Publisher + </p> + <p> + It was about this time too that Haydn opened a correspondence with William + Forster of London, who had added to his business of violin-maker that of a + music-seller and publisher. Forster entered into an agreement with him for + the English copyright of his compositions, and between 1781 and 1787 he + published eighty-two symphonies, twenty-four quartets, twenty-four solos, + duets and trios, and the "Seven Last Words," of which we have yet to + speak. Nothing of the Forster correspondence seems to have survived. + </p> + <p> + Royal Dedicatees + </p> + <p> + Among the events of 1781-1782 should be noted the entertainments given in + connection with two visits which the Emperor Joseph II received from the + Grand Duke Paul and his wife. The Grand Duchess was musical, and had just + been present at the famous combat between Clementi and Mozart, a + suggestion of the Emperor. She had some of Haydn's quartets played at her + house and liked them so well that she gave him a diamond snuff-box and + took lessons from him. It was to her that he afterwards—in 1802—dedicated + his part-songs for three and four voices, while the Grand Duke was + honoured by the dedication of the six so-called "Russian" quartets. It had + been arranged that the Duke and Duchess should accompany the Emperor to + Eisenstadt, but the arrangement fell through, and an opera which Haydn had + written for the occasion was only produced at Esterhaz in the autumn of + 1782. This was his "Orlando Paladino," better known in its German form as + "Ritter Roland." Another work of this year (1782) was the "Mariazell" Mass + in C major (Novello, No. 15), which derives its name from the shrine of + the Virgin in Styria, the scene of an incident already related. The mass + was written to the order of a certain Herr Liebe de Kreutzner, and the + composer is said to have taken special pains with it, perhaps because it + reminded him of his early struggling days as a chorister in Vienna. It was + the eighth mass Haydn had written, one being the long and difficult + "Cecilia" Mass in C major, now heard only in a curtailed form. No other + work of the kind was composed until 1796, between which year and 1802 the + best of his masses were produced. To the year 1783 belongs the opera + "Armida," performed in 1784 and again in 1797 at Schickaneder's Theatre in + Vienna. Haydn writes to Artaria in March 1784 to say that "Armida" had + been given at Esterhaz with "universal applause," adding that "it is + thought the best work I have yet written." The autograph score was sent to + London to make up, in a manner, for the non-performance of his "Orfeo" + there in 1791. + </p> + <p> + The "Seven Words" + </p> + <p> + But the most interesting work of this period was the "Seven Words of our + Saviour on the Cross," written in 1785. The circumstances attending its + composition are best told in Haydn's own words. In Breitkopf & + Hartel's edition of 1801, he writes: + </p> + <p> + About fifteen years ago I was requested by a Canon of Cadiz to compose + instrumental music on the Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross. It was the + custom of the Cathedral of Cadiz to produce an oratorio every year during + Lent, the effect of the performance being not a little enhanced by the + following circumstances. The walls, windows and pillars of the Church were + hung with black cloth, and only one large lamp, hanging from the centre of + the roof, broke the solemn obscurity. At mid-day the doors were closed and + the ceremony began. After a short service the bishop ascended the pulpit, + pronounced one of the Seven Words (or sentences) and delivered a discourse + thereon. This ended, he left the pulpit and knelt prostrate before the + altar. The pause was filled by the music. The bishop then in like manner + pronounced the second word, then the third, and so on, the orchestra + falling in at the conclusion of each discourse. My composition was to be + subject to these conditions, and it was no easy matter to compose seven + adagios to last ten minutes each, and follow one after the other without + fatiguing the listeners; indeed I found it quite impossible to confine + myself within the appointed limits. + </p> + <p> + This commission may be taken as a further evidence of the growing extent + of Haydn's fame. He appears to have been already well known in Spain. + Boccherini carried on a friendly correspondence with him from Madrid, and + he was actually made the hero of a poem called "The Art of Music," + published there in 1779. The "Seven Words" created a profound impression + when performed under the circumstances just detailed, but the work was not + allowed to remain in its original form, though it was printed in that form + by Artaria and by Forster. Haydn divided it into two parts, and added + choruses and solos, in which form it was given for the first time at + Eisenstadt in October, 1797, and published in 1801. The "Seven Words" was + a special favourite of the composer himself, who indeed is declared by + some to have preferred it to all his other compositions. + </p> + <p> + The "Toy" Symphony + </p> + <p> + The remaining years of the period covered by this chapter being almost + totally devoid of incident, we may pause to notice briefly two of the + better-known symphonies of the time—the "Toy" Symphony and the more + famous "Farewell." The former is a mere jeu d'esprit, in which, with an + orchestral basis of two violins and a bass, the solo instruments are all + of a burlesque character. Mozart attempted something of a kindred nature + in his "Musical joke," where instruments come in at wrong places, execute + inappropriate phrases, and play abominably out of tune. This kind of thing + does not require serious notice, especially in the case of Haydn, to whom + humour in music was a very different matter from the handling of rattles + and penny trumpets and toy drums. + </p> + <p> + The "Farewell" Symphony + </p> + <p> + The "Farewell" Symphony has often been described, though the circumstances + of its origin are generally mis-stated. It has been asserted, for example, + that Haydn intended it as an appeal to the prince against the dismissal of + the Capelle. But this, as Pohl has conclusively shown, is incorrect. The + real design of the "Farewell" was to persuade the prince to shorten his + stay at Esterhaz, and so enable the musicians to rejoin their wives and + families. Fortunately, the prince was quick-witted enough to see the point + of the joke. As one after another ceased playing and left the orchestra, + until only two violinists remained, he quietly observed, "If all go, we + may as well go too." Thus Haydn's object was attained—for the time + being! The "Farewell" is perfectly complete as a work of art, but its + fitness for ordinary occasions is often minimized by the persistent way in + which its original purpose is pointed out to the listener. + </p> + <p> + Free from Esterhaz + </p> + <p> + Haydn's active career at Esterhaz may be said to have closed with the + death, on September 28, 1790, of Prince Nicolaus. The event was of great + importance to his future. Had the prince lived, Haydn would doubtless have + continued in his service, for he "absolutely adored him." But Prince + Anton, who now succeeded, dismissed the whole Capelle, retaining only the + few members necessary for the carrying on of the church service, and + Haydn's occupation was practically gone. The new prince nominally held the + right to his services, but there was no reason for his remaining longer at + the castle, and he accordingly took up his residence in Vienna. Thus free + to employ his time as he considered best, Haydn embraced the opportunity + to carry out a long-meditated project, and paid the first of his two + visits to London. With these we enter upon a new epoch in the composer's + life, and one of great interest to the student and lover of music. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. FIRST LONDON VISIT—1791-1792 + </h2> + <p> + <i>English Music about 1791—Salomon—Mozart and Haydn—Terms + for London—Bonn and Beethoven—Haydn Sea-Sick—Arrives in + London—An Enthusiastic Welcome—Ideas of the Metropolis—At + Court—Unreasoning Rivalries—Temporarily eclipsed—Band + and Baton—A Rehearsal Incident—Hanover Square Rooms—Hoops + and Swords—The "Surprise" Symphony—Gallic Excitement—New + Compositions—Benefit and Other Concerts—Haydn on Handel—Oxford + Doctor of Music—The "Oxford" Symphony—Relaxations—Royalty + again—Pleyel—Close of Season—Herschel—Haydn at St + Paul's—London Acquaintances—Another Romance—Mistress + Schroeter—Love-Letters—Haydn's Note-Book.</i> + </p> + <p> + English Music about 1791 + </p> + <p> + Haydn came to England in 1791. It may occur to the reader to ask what + England was doing in music at that time, and who were the foremost + representatives of the art. The first question may be partially answered + from the literature of the period. Thus Jackson, in his Present State of + Music in London, published the year after Haydn's arrival, remarks that + "instrumental music has been of late carried to such perfection in London + by the consummate skill of the performers that any attempt to beat the + time would be justly considered as entirely needless." Burney, again, in + his last volume, published in 1789, says that the great improvement in + taste during the previous twenty years was "as different as civilized + people from savages"; while Stafford Smith, writing in 1779, tells that + music was then "thought to be in greater perfection than among even the + Italians themselves." There is a characteristic John Bull complacency + about these statements which is hardly borne out by a study of the lives + of the leading contemporary musicians. Even Mr Henry Davey, the applauding + historian of English music, has to admit the evanescent character of the + larger works which came from the composers of that "bankrupt century." Not + one of these composers—not even Arne—is a real personality to + us like Handel, or Bach, or Haydn, or Mozart. The great merit of English + music was melody, which seems to have been a common gift, but "the only + strong feeling was patriotic enthusiasm, and the compositions that survive + are almost all short ballads expressing this sentiment or connected with + it by their nautical subjects." When Haydn arrived, there was, in short, + no native composer of real genius, and our "tardy, apish nation" was ready + to welcome with special cordiality an artist whose gifts were of a higher + order. + </p> + <p> + Salomon + </p> + <p> + We have spoken of Haydn's visit as a long-meditated project. In 1787 + Cramer, the violinist, had offered to engage him on his own terms for the + Professional Concerts; and Gallini, the director of the King's Theatre in + Drury Lane, pressed him to write an opera for that house. Nothing came of + these proposals, mainly because Haydn was too much attached to his prince + to think of leaving him, even temporarily. But the time arrived and the + man with it. The man was Johann Peter Salomon, a violinist, who, having + fallen out with the directors of the professional concerts, had started + concerts on his own account. Salomon was a native of Bonn, and had been a + member of the Electoral Orchestra there. He had travelled about the + Continent a good deal, and no one was better fitted to organize and direct + a series of concerts on a large scale. In 1790 he had gone abroad in + search of singers, and, hearing of the death of Prince Esterhazy, he set + off at once for Vienna, resolved to secure Haydn at any cost. "My name is + Salomon," he bluntly announced to the composer, as he was shown into his + room one morning. "I have come from London to fetch you; we will settle + terms to-morrow." + </p> + <p> + The question of terms was, we may be sure, important enough for Haydn. But + it was not the only question. The "heavy years" were beginning to weigh + upon him. He was bordering on threescore, and a long journey in those days + was not to be lightly undertaken. Moreover, he was still, nominally at + least, the servant of Prince Anton, whose consent would have to be + obtained; and, besides all this, he was engaged on various commissions, + notably some for the King of Naples, which were probably a burden on his + conscience. His friends, again, do not appear to have been very + enthusiastic about the projected visit. There were Dittersdorf and + Albrechtsberger, and Dr Leopold von Genzinger, the prince's physician, and + Frau von Genzinger, whose tea and coffee he so much appreciated, and who + sent him such excellent cream. Above all, there was Mozart—"a man + very dear to me," as Haydn himself said. + </p> + <p> + Mozart and Haydn + </p> + <p> + He had always greatly revered Mozart. Three years before this he wrote: "I + only wish I could impress upon every friend of mine, and on great men in + particular, the same deep musical sympathy and profound appreciation which + I myself feel for Mozart's inimitable music; then nations would vie with + each other to possess such a jewel within their frontiers. It enrages me + to think that the unparalleled Mozart is not yet engaged at any Imperial + Court! Forgive my excitement; I love the man so dearly." The regard was + reciprocal. "Oh, Papa," exclaimed Mozart, when he heard of Haydn's + intention to travel, "you have had no education for the wide, wide world, + and you speak too few languages." It was feelingly said, and Haydn knew + it. "My language," he replied, with a smile, "is understood all over the + world." Mozart was really concerned at the thought of parting with his + brother composer, to whom he stood almost in the relation of a son. When + it came to the actual farewell, the tears sprang to his eyes, and he said + affectingly: "This is good-bye; we shall never meet again." The words + proved prophetic. A year later, Mozart was thrown with a number of paupers + into a grave which is now as unknown as the grave of Moliere. Haydn deeply + lamented his loss; and when his thoughts came to be turned homewards + towards the close of his English visit his saddest reflection was that + there would be no Mozart to meet him. His wretched wife had tried to + poison his mind against his friend by writing that Mozart had been + disparaging his genius. "I cannot believe it," he cried; "if it is true, I + will forgive him." It was not true, and Haydn never believed it. As late + as 1807 he burst into tears when Mozart's name was mentioned, and then, + recovering himself, remarked: "Forgive me! I must ever weep at the name of + my Mozart." + </p> + <p> + Terms for London + </p> + <p> + But to return. Salomon at length carried the day, and everything was + arranged for the London visit. Haydn was to have 300 pounds for six + symphonies and 200 pounds for the copyright of them; 200 pounds for twenty + new compositions to be produced by himself at the same number of concerts; + and 200 pounds from a benefit concert. The composer paid his travelling + expenses himself, being assisted in that matter by an advance of 450 + florins from the prince, which he refunded within the year. In order to + provide for his wife during his absence he sold his house at Eisenstadt, + the gift of Prince Nicolaus, which had been twice rebuilt after being + destroyed by fire. + </p> + <p> + Salomon sent advance notices of the engagement to London, and on the 30th + of December the public were informed through the Morning Chronicle that, + immediately on his arrival with his distinguished guest, "Mr Salomon would + have the honour of submitting to all lovers of music his programme for a + series of subscription concerts, the success of which would depend upon + their support and approbation." Before leaving for London Haydn had a tiff + with the King of Naples, Ferdinand IV, who was then in Vienna. The + composer had taken him some of the works which he had been commissioned to + write, and His Majesty, thanking him for the favour, remarked that "We + will rehearse them the day after to-morrow." "The day after to-morrow," + replied Haydn, "I shall be on my way to England." "What!" exclaimed the + King, "and you promised to come to Naples!" With which observation he + turned on his heel and indignantly left the room. Before Haydn had time to + recover from his astonishment Ferdinand was back with a letter of + introduction to Prince Castelcicala, the Neapolitan Ambassador in London; + and to show further that the misunderstanding was merely a passing affair + he sent the composer later in the day a valuable tabatiere as a token of + esteem and regard. + </p> + <p> + Bonn and Beethoven + </p> + <p> + The journey to London was begun by Haydn and Salomon on the 15th of + December 1790, and the travellers arrived at Bonn on Christmas Day. It is + supposed, with good reason, that Haydn here met Beethoven, then a youth of + twenty, for the first time. Beethoven was a member of the Electoral + Chapel, and we know that Haydn, after having one of his masses performed + and being complimented by the Elector, the musical brother of Joseph II, + entertained the chief musicians at dinner at his lodgings. An amusing + description of the regale may be read in Thayer's biography of Beethoven. + From Bonn the journey was resumed by way of Brussels to Calais, which was + reached in a violent storm and an incessant downpour of rain. "I am very + well, thank God!" writes the composer to Frau Genzinger, "although + somewhat thinner, owing to fatigue, irregular sleep, and eating and + drinking so many different things." + </p> + <p> + Haydn Sea-Sick + </p> + <p> + Next morning, after attending early mass, he embarked at 7:30, and landed + at Dover at five o'clock in the afternoon. It was his first acquaintance + with the sea, and, as the weather was rather rough, he makes no little of + it in letters written from London. "I remained on deck during the whole + passage," he says, "in order to gaze my full at that huge monster—the + ocean. So long as there was a calm I had no fears, but when at length a + violent wind began to blow, rising every minute, and I saw the boisterous + high waves running on, I was seized with a little alarm and a little + indisposition likewise." Thus delicately does he allude to a painful + episode. + </p> + <p> + Arrives in London + </p> + <p> + Haydn reached London in the opening days of 1791. He passed his first + night at the house of Bland, the music-publisher, at 45 High Holborn, + which now, rebuilt, forms part of the First Avenue Hotel. Bland, it should + have been mentioned before, had been sent over to Vienna by Salomon to + coax Haydn into an engagement in 1787. When he was admitted on that + occasion to Haydn's room, he found the composer in the act of shaving, + complaining the while of the bluntness of his razor. "I would give my best + quartet for a good razor," he exclaimed testily. The hint was enough for + Bland, who immediately hurried off to his lodgings and fetched a more + serviceable tool. Haydn was as good as his word: he presented Bland with + his latest quartet, and the work is still familiarly known as the + "Rasirmesser" (razor) Quartet. The incident was, no doubt, recalled when + Haydn renewed his acquaintance with the music-publisher. + </p> + <p> + But Haydn did not remain the guest of Bland. Next day he went to live with + Salomon, at 18 Great Pulteney Street, Golden Square, which—also + rebuilt—is now the warehouse of Messrs Chatto & Windus, the + publishers. [See Musical Haunts in London, by F.G. Edwards, London, 1895] + He described it in one of his letters as "a neat, comfortable lodging," + and extolled the cooking of his Italian landlord, "who gives us four + excellent dishes." But his frugal mind was staggered at the charges. + "Everything is terribly dear here," he wrote. "We each pay 1 florin 30 + kreuzers [about 2s. 8d.] a day, exclusive of wine and beer." This was bad + enough. + </p> + <p> + An Enthusiastic Welcome + </p> + <p> + But London made up for it all by the flattering way in which it received + the visitor. People of the highest rank called on him; ambassadors left + cards; the leading musical societies vied with each other in their zeal to + do him honour. Even the poetasters began to twang their lyres in his + praise. Thus Burney, who had been for some time in correspondence with + him, saluted him with an effusion, of which it will suffice to quote the + following lines: + </p> + <p> + Welcome, great master! to our favoured isle, Already partial to thy name + and style; Long may thy fountain of invention run In streams as rapid as + it first begun; While skill for each fantastic whim provides, And certain + science ev'ry current guides! Oh, may thy days, from human suff'rings, + free, Be blest with glory and felicity, With full fruition, to a distant + hour, Of all thy magic and creative pow'r! Blest in thyself, with + rectitude of mind, And blessing, with thy talents, all mankind! + </p> + <p> + Like "the man Sterne" after the publication of Tristram Shandy, he was + soon deep in social engagements for weeks ahead. "I could dine out every + day," he informs his friends in Germany. Shortly after his arrival he was + conducted by the Academy of Ancient Music into a "very handsome room" + adjoining the Freemasons' Hall, and placed at a table where covers were + laid for 200. "It was proposed that I should take a seat near the top, but + as it so happened that I had dined out that very day, and ate more than + usual, I declined the honour, excusing myself under the pretext of not + being very well; but in spite of this, I could not get off drinking the + health, in Burgundy, of the harmonious gentlemen present. All responded to + it, but at last allowed me to go home." This sort of thing strangely + contrasted with the quiet, drowsy life of Esterhaz; and although Haydn + evidently felt flattered by so much attention, he often expressed a wish + that he might escape in order to have more peace for work. + </p> + <p> + Ideas of London + </p> + <p> + His ideas about London were mixed and hesitating. He was chiefly impressed + by the size of the city, a fact which the Londoner of to-day can only + fully appreciate when he remembers that in Haydn's time Regent Street had + not been built and Lisson Grove was a country lane. Mendelssohn described + the metropolis as "that smoky nest which is fated to be now and ever my + favourite residence." But Haydn's regard was less for the place itself + than for the people and the music. The fogs brought him an uncommonly + severe attack of rheumatism, which he naively describes as "English," and + obliged him to wrap up in flannel from head to foot. The street noises + proved a great distraction—almost as much as they proved to Wagner + in 1839, when the composer of "Lohengrin" had to contend with an + organ-grinder at each end of the street! He exclaimed in particular + against "the cries of the common people selling their wares." It was very + distracting, no doubt, for, as a cynic has said, one cannot compose operas + or write books or paint pictures in the midst of a row. Haydn desired + above all things quiet for his work, and so by-and-by, as a solace for the + evils which afflicted his ear, he removed himself from Great Pulteney + Street to Lisson Grove—"in the country amid lovely scenery, where I + live as if I were in a monastery." + </p> + <p> + Haydn at Court + </p> + <p> + For the present the dining and the entertaining went on. The 12th of + January found him at the "Crown and Anchor" in the Strand, where the + Anacreonatic Society expressed their respect and admiration in the usual + fashion. The 18th of the same month was the Queen's birthday, and Haydn + was invited to a Court ball in the evening. This was quite an exceptional + distinction, for he had not yet been "presented" at Court. Probably he + owed it to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. The Prince was a + musical amateur, like his father and his grandfather, whose enthusiasm for + Handel it is hardly necessary to recall. He played the 'cello—"not + badly for a Prince," to parody Boccherini's answer to his royal master—and + liked to take his part in glees and catches. Haydn was charmed by his + affability. "He is the handsomest man on God's earth," wrote the composer. + "He has an extraordinary love for music, and a great deal of feeling, but + very little money." These courtesies to Haydn may perhaps be allowed to + balance the apparent incivility shown to Beethoven and Weber, who sent + compositions to the same royal amateur that were never so much as + acknowledged. + </p> + <p> + But even the attentions of princes may become irksome and unprofitable. + Haydn soon found that his health and his work were suffering from the + flood of social engagements which London poured upon him. The dinner hour + at this time was six o'clock. He complained that the hour was too late, + and made a resolve to dine at home at four. He wanted his mornings for + composition, and if visitors must see him they would have to wait till + afternoon. Obviously he was beginning to tire of "the trivial round." + </p> + <p> + Unreasoning Rivalries + </p> + <p> + The Salomon concerts should have begun in January, but London, as it + happened, was suffering from one of those unreasoning rivalries which made + a part of Handel's career so miserable, and helped to immortalize the + names of Gluck and Piccini. It is hardly worth reviving the details of + such ephemeral contests now. In the present case the factionists were to + some extent swayed by financial interests; to a still greater extent by + professional jealousies. The trouble seems to have arisen originally in + connection with Gallini's preparations for the opening of a new Opera + House in the Haymarket. Salomon had engaged Cappelletti and David as his + principal vocalists; but these, it appeared, were under contract not to + sing in public before the opening of the Opera House. One faction did not + want to have the Opera House opened at all. They were interested in the + old Pantheon, and contended that a second Italian Opera House was + altogether unnecessary. + </p> + <p> + Temporarily eclipsed + </p> + <p> + Salomon's first concert, already postponed to February 25, had been fixed + for the 11th of March, on which date David, by special permission, was to + appear "whether the Opera house was open or not." The delay was extremely + awkward for both Haydn and Salomon, particularly for Haydn. He had been + brought to London with beat of drum, and here he was compelled to hide his + light while the directors of the professional concerts shot ahead of him + and gained the ear of the public before he could assert his superiority. + By this time also the element of professional jealousy had come into free + play. Depreciatory paragraphs appeared in the public prints "sneering at + the composer as 'a nine days' wonder,' whom closer acquaintance would + prove to be inferior to either Cramer or Clementi; and alluding to the + 'proverbial avarice' of the Germans as tempting so many artists, who met + with scanty recognition from their own countrymen to herald their arrival + in England with such a flourish of trumpets as should charm the money out + of the pockets of easily-gulled John Bull." These pleasantries were + continued on rather different lines, when at length Haydn was in a + position to justify the claims made for him. + </p> + <p> + Band and Baton + </p> + <p> + Haydn, meanwhile, had been rehearsing the symphony for his opening + concert. Two points are perhaps worth noting here: First, the size and + strength of the Salomon Orchestra; and second, the fact that Haydn did + not, as every conductor does now, direct his forces, baton in hand. The + orchestra numbered between thirty-five and forty performers—a very + small company compared with our Handel Festival and Richter Orchestras, + but in Haydn's time regarded as quite sufficiently strong. There were + sixteen violins, four tenors, three 'celli, four double basses, flutes, + oboes, bassoons, trumpets and drums. + </p> + <p> + Salomon played the first violin and led the orchestra, and Haydn sat at + the harpsichord, keeping the band together by an occasional chord or two, + as the practice then was. Great composers have not always been great + conductors, but Haydn had a winning way with his band, and generally + succeeded in getting what he wanted. + </p> + <p> + A Rehersal Incident + </p> + <p> + An interesting anecdote is told by Dies of his first experience with the + Salomon Orchestra. The symphony began with three single notes, which the + orchestra played much too loudly; Haydn called for less tone a second and + a third time, and still was dissatisfied. He was growing impatient. At + this point he overheard a German player whisper to a neighbour in his own + language: "If the first three notes don't please him, how shall we get + through all the rest?" Thereupon, calling for the loan of a violin, he + illustrated his meaning to such purpose that the band answered to his + requirements in the first attempt. Haydn was naturally at a great + disadvantage with an English orchestra by reason of his ignorance of the + language. It may be true, as he said, that the language of music "is + understood all over the world," but one cannot talk to an orchestra in + crotchets and semi-breves. + </p> + <p> + The Hanover Square Rooms + </p> + <p> + At length the date of the first concert arrived, and a brilliant audience + rewarded the enterprise, completely filling the Hanover Square Rooms, at + that time the principal concert hall in London. It had been opened in 1775 + by J. C. Bach, the eleventh son of the great Sebastian, when the + advertisements announced that "the ladies' tickets are red and the + gentlemen's black." It was there that, two years after the date of which + we are writing, "Master Hummel, from Vienna," gave his first benefit; + Liszt appeared in 1840, when the now familiar term "recital" was first + used; Rubinstein made his English debut in 1842; and in the same year + Mendelssohn conducted his Scotch Symphony for the first time in England. + In 1844 the "wonderful little Joachim," then a youth of thirteen in a + short jacket, made the first of his many subsequent visits to London, and + played in the old "Rooms." + </p> + <p> + Hoops and Swords + </p> + <p> + So much for the associations of the concert hall in which Haydn directed + some of his finest symphonies. And what about the audiences of Haydn's + time? It was the day of the Sedan chair, when women waddled in hoops, like + that of the lady mentioned in the Spectator, who appeared "as if she stood + in a large drum." Even the royal princesses were, in Pope's phrase, "armed + in ribs of steel" so wide that the Court attendants had to assist their + ungainly figures through the doorways. Swords were still being worn as a + regulation part of full dress, and special weapons were always provided at + a grand concert for the use of the instrumental solo performers, who, when + about to appear on the platform, were girt for the occasion by an + attendant, known as the "sword-bearer." [See Musical Haunts in London, F. + G. Edwards, quoting Dr W. H. Cummings.] + </p> + <p> + Haydn's first concert, we have said, was an immense success. Burney + records that his appearance in the orchestra "seemed to have an electrical + effect on all present, and he never remembered a performance where greater + enthusiasm was displayed." A wave of musical excitement appears to have + been passing through London, for on this very evening both Covent Garden + and Drury Lane Theatres were packed with audiences drawn together by the + oratorio performances there. Haydn was vastly pleased at having the slow + movement of his symphony encored—an unusual occurrence in those days—and + he spoke of it afterwards as worthy of mention in his biography. Fresh + from the dinner-table, the audience generally fell asleep during the slow + movements! When the novelty of the Salomon concerts had worn off, many of + the listeners lapsed into their usual somnolence. Most men in Haydn's + position would have resented such inattention by an outburst of temper. + Haydn took it good-humouredly, and resolved to have his little joke. + </p> + <p> + The "Surprise" Symphony + </p> + <p> + He wrote the well-known "Surprise" Symphony. The slow movement of this + work opens and proceeds in the most subdued manner, and at the moment when + the audience may be imagined to have comfortably settled for their nap a + sudden explosive fortissimo chord is introduced. "There all the women will + scream," said Haydn, with twinkling eyes. A contemporary critic read quite + a different "programme" into it. "The 'Surprise,'" he wrote, "might not be + inaptly likened to the situation of a beautiful shepherdess who, lulled to + slumber by the murmur of a distant waterfall, starts alarmed by the + unexpected firing of a fowling-piece." One can fancy the composer's + amusement at this highly-imaginative interpretation of his harmless bit of + waggery. + </p> + <p> + Gallic Excitement + </p> + <p> + The same success which attended Haydn's first concert marked the rest of + the series. The Prince of Wales's presence at the second concert no doubt + gave a certain "lead" to the musical public. We read in one of the Gallic + newspapers: "It is truly wonderful what sublime and august thoughts this + master weaves into his works. Passages often occur which it is impossible + to listen to without becoming excited—we are carried away by + admiration, and are forced to applaud with hand and mouth. The Frenchmen + here cannot restrain their transports in soft adagios; they will clap + their hands in loud applause and thus mar the effect." + </p> + <p> + In the midst of all this enthusiasm the factionists were keeping up their + controversy about the opening of Gallini's Theatre. Gallini had already + engaged the services of Haydn, together with an orchestra led by Salomon, + but nothing could be done without the Lord Chamberlain's license for the + performance of operas. To prevent the issue of that license was the avowed + object of the Pantheon management and their friends. The fight was + rendered all the more lively when the Court divided itself between the + opposing interests. "The rival theatre," wrote Horace Walpole, "is said to + be magnificent and lofty, but it is doubtful whether it will be suffered + to come to light; in short the contest will grow political; 'Dieu et mon + Droit' (the King) supporting the Pantheon, and 'Ich dien' (the Prince of + Wales) countenancing the Haymarket. It is unlucky that the amplest + receptacle is to hold the minority." + </p> + <p> + Cantatas, Catches and Choruses + </p> + <p> + That was how it turned out. The Lord Chamberlain finally refused his + license for operatic performances, and Gallini had to be content with a + license for "entertainments of music and dancing." He opened his house on + the 20th of March, and continued during the season to give mixed + entertainments twice a week. Various works of Haydn's were performed at + these entertainments, including a cantata composed for David, an Italian + catch for seven voices, and the chorus known as "The Storm," a setting of + Peter Pindar's "Hark, the wild uproar of the waves." An opera, "Orfeo ed + Euridice," to which we have already referred, was almost completed, but + its production had necessarily to be abandoned, a circumstance which must + have occasioned him considerable regret in view of the store he set upon + his dramatic work. + </p> + <p> + Benefit and Other Concerts + </p> + <p> + On the 16th of May he had a benefit concert, when the receipts exceeded by + 150 pounds the 200 pounds which had been guaranteed. A second benefit was + given on May 30, when "La Passione Instrumentale" (the "Seven Words" + written for Cadiz) was performed. This work was given again on June 10, at + the benefit concert of the "little" Clement, a boy violinist who grew into + the famous artist for whom Beethoven wrote his Violin Concerto. On this + occasion Haydn conducted for Clement, and it is interesting to observe + that Clement took the first violin at the last concert Haydn ever + attended, in March 1808. + </p> + <p> + Haydn on Handel + </p> + <p> + In the note-book he kept while in London, one of the entries reads: "Anno + 1791, the last great concert, with 885 persons, was held in Westminster, + Anno 1792, it was transferred to St Margaret's Chapel, with 200 + performers. This evoked criticism." Haydn here refers to the Handel + Commemoration Festival, the sixth and last of the century. He attended + that of 1791, and was much impressed with the grandeur of the + performances. A place had been reserved for him near the King's box, and + when the "Hallelujah Chorus" was sung, and the whole audience rose to + their feet, he wept like a child. "Handel is the master of us all," he + sobbed. No one knew the value of Handel's choral work better than Haydn. + After listening at the Concert of Antient Music to the chorus, "The + Nations tremble," from "Joshua," he told Shield that "he had long been + acquainted with music, but never knew half its powers before he heard it, + as he was perfectly certain that only one inspired author ever did, or + ever would, pen so sublime a composition." [See the Appendix to Shield's + Introduction to Harmony.] + </p> + <p> + Oxford Doctor of Music + </p> + <p> + Haydn was no Handel, either as man or artist. Handel declined the Doctor + of Music degree with the characteristic remark: "What the devil I throw my + money away for that the blockhead wish?" Haydn did not decline it, though + probably enough he rated the distinction no higher than Handel did. In the + month of July he went down to the Oxford Commemoration, and was then + invested with the degree. Handel's latest biographer, Mr W. S. Rockstro, + says that the Oxford fees would have cost Handel 100 pounds. Haydn's note + of the expense is not so alarming: "I had to pay one and a half guineas + for the bell peals at Oxforth [sic] when I received the doctor's degree, + and half a guinea for the robe." He seems to have found the ceremonies a + little trying, and not unlikely he imagined himself cutting rather a + ridiculous figure in his gorgeous robe of cherry and cream-coloured silk. + At the concert following the investiture he seized the gown, and, raising + it in the air, exclaimed in English, "I thank you." "I had to walk about + for three days in this guise," he afterwards wrote, "and only wish my + Vienna friends could have seen me." Haydn's "exercise" for the degree was + the following "Canon cancrizans, a tre," set to the words, "Thy voice, O + harmony, is divine." + </p> + <p> + [figure: a musical score excerpt] + </p> + <p> + This was subsequently used for the first of the Ten Commandments, the + whole of which he set to canons during his stay in London. Three grand + concerts formed a feature of the Oxford Commemoration. + </p> + <p> + The "Oxford" Symphony + </p> + <p> + At the second of these a symphony in G, written in 1787 or 1788, and since + known as the "Oxford," was performed, with the composer at the organ. He + had taken a new symphony with him for the occasion, but owing to lack of + time for rehearsals, the earlier work was substituted. Of this latter, the + Morning Chronicle wrote that "a more wonderful composition never was + heard. The applause given to Haydn was enthusiastic; but the merit of the + work, in the opinion of all the musicians present, exceeded all praise." + </p> + <p> + Holiday Relaxations + </p> + <p> + The London season having now come to an end, Haydn proceeded to recruit + his energies by paying visits to distinguished people at their country + quarters, taking part in river excursions, picnics, and the like. Prince + Esterhazy had sent him a pressing summons to return for a great fete which + was being organized in honour of the Emperor, but having entered into new + engagements with Salomon and others, he found it impossible to comply. A + less indulgent employer would have requited him with instant dismissal, + but all that the prince said when they afterwards met was, "Ah, Haydn! you + might have saved me 40,000 florins." His longest visit at this time was + spent with Mr Brassey, a Lombard Street banker, and ancestor of the + present peer. "The banker," he says, "once cursed because he enjoyed too + much happiness in this world." He gave lessons to Miss Brassey, and + "enjoyed the repose of country life in the midst of a family circle all + cordially devoted to him." In November he was the guest at two Guildhall + banquets—that of the outgoing Lord Mayor on the 5th and that of his + successor on the 9th. Of these entertainments he has left a curious + account, and as the memorandum is in English it may, perhaps, be + reproduced here. It runs as follows in Lady Wallace's translation of the + letters: + </p> + <p> + I was invited to the Lord Mayor's banquet on November 5. At the first + table, No. 1, the new Lord Mayor and his wife dined, the Lord Chancellor, + the two sheriffs, the Duke of Lids [Leeds], the minister Pitt, and others + of the highest rank in the Cabinet. I was seated at No. 2 with Mr + Sylvester, the most celebrated advocate and first King's counsel in + London. In this hall, called the Geld Hall [Guildhall], were six tables, + besides others in the adjoining room. About twelve hundred persons + altogether dined, and everything was in the greatest splendour. The dishes + were very nice and well dressed. Wines of every kind in abundance. We sat + down to dinner at six o'clock and rose from table at eight. The guests + accompanied the Lord Mayor both before and after dinner in their order of + precedence. There were various ceremonies, sword bearing, and a kind of + golden crown, all attended by a band of wind instruments. After dinner, + the whole of the aristocratic guests of No. 1 withdrew into a private room + prepared for them, to have tea and coffee, while the rest of the company + were conducted into another room. At nine o'clock No. 1 repaired to a + small saloon, when the ball began. There was a raised platform in this + room, reserved for the highest nobility, where the Lord Mayor and his wife + were seated on a throne. Dancing then commenced in due order of + precedence, but only one couple at a time, just as on January 6, the + King's birthday. There were raised benches on both sides of this room with + four steps, where the fair sex chiefly prevailed. Nothing but minuets were + danced in this saloon, but I could only remain for a quarter of an hour, + first, because the heat of so many people assembled in such a narrow space + was so oppressive, and, secondly, on account of the bad music for dancing, + the whole orchestra consisting of two violins and a violoncello; the + minuets were more in the Polish style than in our own, or that of the + Italians. I proceeded into another room, which really was more like a + subterranean cave than anything else; they were dancing English dances, + and the music here was a degree better, as a drum was played by one of the + violinists! [This might be effected by the violin player having the + drumstick tied to his right foot, which was sometimes done.] + </p> + <p> + I went on to the large hall, where we had dined, and there the orchestra + was more numerous, and the music more tolerable. They were also dancing + English dances, but only opposite the raised platform where the four first + sets had dined with the Lord Mayor. The other tables were all filled + afresh with gentlemen, who as usual drank freely the whole night. The + strangest thing of all was that one part of the company went on dancing + without hearing a single note of the music, for first at one table, and + then at another, songs were shouted, or toasts given, amidst the most + crazy uproar and clinking of glasses and hurrahs. This hall and all the + other rooms were lighted with lamps, of which the effluvia was most + disagreeable, especially in the small ballroom. It was remarkable that the + Lord Mayor had no need of a carving-knife, as a man in the centre of the + table carved everything for him. One man stood before the Lord Mayor and + another behind him, shouting out vociferously all the toasts in their + order according to etiquette, and after each toast came a flourish of + kettledrums and trumpets. No health was more applauded than that of Mr + Pitt. There seemed to be no order. The dinner cost 6,000 pounds, one-half + of which is paid by the Lord Mayor, and the other half by the two + sheriffs. + </p> + <p> + Royalty Again + </p> + <p> + In this same month—November—he visited the Marionettes at the + Fantoccini Theatre in Saville Row, prompted, no doubt, by old associations + with Esterhaz. On the 24th he went to Oatlands to visit the Duke of York, + who had just married the Princess of Prussia. "I remained two days," he + says, "and enjoyed many marks of graciousness and honour... On the third + day the Duke had me taken twelve miles towards town with his own horses. + The Prince of Wales asked for my portrait. For two days we made music for + four hours each evening, i.e., from ten o'clock till two hours after + midnight. Then we had supper, and at three o'clock went to bed." After + this he proceeded to Cambridge to see the university, thence to Sir. + Patrick Blake's at Langham. Of the Cambridge visit he writes: "Each + university has behind it a very roomy and beautiful garden, besides stone + bridges, in order to afford passage over the stream which winds past. The + King's Chapel is famous for its carving. It is all of stone, but so + delicate that nothing more beautiful could have been made of wood. It has + already stood for 400 years, and everybody judges its age at about ten + years, because of the firmness and peculiar whiteness of the stone. The + students bear themselves like those at Oxford, but it is said they have + better instructors. There are in all 800 students." + </p> + <p> + From Langham he went to the house of a Mr Shaw, to find in his hostess the + "most beautiful woman I ever saw." Haydn, it may be remarked in passing, + was always meeting the "most beautiful woman." At one time she was a Mrs + Hodges, another of his London admirers. When quite an old man he still + preserved a ribbon which Mrs Shaw had worn during his visit, and on which + his name was embroidered in gold. + </p> + <p> + Pleyel in Opposition + </p> + <p> + But other matters now engaged his attention. The directors of the + Professional Concerts, desiring to take advantage of his popularity, + endeavoured to make him cancel his engagements with Salomon and Gallini. + In this they failed. "I will not," said Haydn, "break my word to Gallini + and Salomon, nor shall any desire for dirty gain induce me to do them an + injury. They have run so great a risk and gone to so much expense on my + account that it is only fair they should be the gainers by it." Thus + defeated in their object, the Professionals decided to bring over Haydn's + own pupil, Ignaz Pleyel, to beat the German on his own ground. It was not + easy to upset Haydn's equanimity in an affair of this kind; his gentle + nature, coupled with past experiences, enabled him to take it all very + calmly. "From my youth upwards," he wrote, "I have been exposed to envy, + so it does not surprise me when any attempt is made wholly to crush my + poor talents, but the Almighty above is my support.... There is no doubt + that I find many who are envious of me in London also, and I know them + almost all. Most of them are Italians. But they can do me no harm, for my + credit with this nation has been established far too many years." As a + rule, he was forbearing enough with his rivals. At first he wrote of + Pleyel: "He behaves himself with great modesty." Later on he remarked that + "Pleyel's presumption is everywhere criticized." Nevertheless, "I go to + all his concerts, for I love him." It is very pleasant to read all this. + But how far Haydn's feelings towards Pleyel were influenced by patriotic + considerations it is impossible to say. + </p> + <p> + The defeated Professionals had a certain advantage by being first in the + field in 1792. But Haydn was only a few days behind them with his opening + concert, and the success of the entire series was in no way affected by + the ridiculous rivalry. Symphonies, divertimenti for concerted + instruments, string quartets, a clavier trio, airs, a cantata, and other + works were all produced at these concerts, and with almost invariable + applause. Nor were Haydn's services entirely confined to the Salomon + concerts. He conducted for various artists, including Barthelemon, the + violinist; Haesler, the pianist; and Madam Mara, of whom he tells that she + was hissed at Oxford for not rising during the "Hallelujah" Chorus. + </p> + <p> + Close of the Season + </p> + <p> + The last concert was given on June 6 "by desire," when Haydn's + compositions were received with "an extasy of admiration." Thus Salomon's + season ended, as the Morning Chronicle put it, with the greatest eclat. + Haydn's subsequent movements need not detain us long. He made excursions + to Windsor Castle and to Ascot "to see the races," of which he has given + an account in his note-book. + </p> + <p> + Herschel and Haydn + </p> + <p> + From Ascot he went to Slough, where he was introduced to Herschel. In this + case there was something like real community of tastes, for the astronomer + was musical, having once played the oboe, and later on acted as organist, + first at Halifax Parish Church, and then at the Octagon Chapel Bath. The + big telescope with which he discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 was an + object of great interest to Haydn, who was evidently amazed at the idea of + a man sitting out of doors "in the most intense cold for five or six hours + at a time." + </p> + <p> + Visits were also paid to Vauxhall Gardens, where "the music is fairly + good" and "coffee and milk cost nothing." "The place and its diversions," + adds Haydn, "have no equal in the world." + </p> + <p> + At St Paul's + </p> + <p> + But the most interesting event of this time to Haydn was the meeting of + the Charity Children in St Paul's Cathedral, when something like 4000 + juveniles took part. "I was more touched," he says in his diary, "by this + innocent and reverent music than by any I ever heard in my life!" And then + he notes the following chant by John Jones: [Jones was organist of St + Paul's Cathedral at this time. His chant, which was really in the key of + D, has since been supplanted. Haydn made an error in bar 12.] + </p> + <p> + [Figure: a musical score excerpt] + </p> + <p> + Curiously enough Berlioz was impressed exactly in the same way when he + heard the Charity Children in 1851. He was in London as a juror at the + Great Exhibition; and along with his friend, the late G. A. Osborne, he + donned a surplice and sang bass in the select choir. He was so moved by + the children's singing that he hid his face behind his music and wept. "It + was," he says, "the realization of one part of my dreams, and a proof that + the powerful effect of musical masses is still absolutely unknown." [See + Berlioz's Life and Letters, English edition, Vol. I., p. 281.] + </p> + <p> + London Acquaintances + </p> + <p> + Haydn made many interesting acquaintances during this London visit. + Besides those already mentioned, there was Bartolozzi, the famous + engraver, to whose wife he dedicated three clavier trios and a sonata in E + flat (Op. 78), which, so far unprinted in Germany, is given by Sterndale + Bennett in his Classical Practice. There was also John Hunter, described + by Haydn as "the greatest and most celebrated chyrurgus in London," who + vainly tried to persuade him to have a polypus removed from his nose. It + was Mrs Hunter who wrote the words for most of his English canzonets, + including the charming "My mother bids me bind my hair." And then there + was Mrs Billington, the famous singer, whom Michael Kelly describes as "an + angel of beauty and the Saint Cecilia of song." There is no more familiar + anecdote than that which connects Haydn with Sir Joshua Reynolds's + portrait of this notorious character. Carpani is responsible for the tale. + He says that Haydn one day found Mrs Billington sitting to Reynolds, who + was painting her as St Cecilia listening to the angels. "It is like," said + Haydn, "but there is a strange mistake." "What is that?" asked Reynolds. + "You have painted her listening to the angels. You ought to have + represented the angels listening to her." It is a very pretty story, but + it cannot possibly be true. Reynolds's portrait of Mrs Billington was + painted in 1789, two years before Haydn's arrival, and was actually shown + in the Academy Exhibition of 1790, the last to which Sir Joshua + contributed. [The portrait, a whole length, was sold in 1798 for 325 + pounds, 10s., and again at Christie's, in 1845, for 505 guineas—to + an American, as usual.] Of course Haydn may have made the witty remark + here attributed to him, but it cannot have been at the time of the + painting of the portrait. That he was an enthusiastic admirer of Mrs + Billington there can be no doubt. + </p> + <p> + Another Romance + </p> + <p> + There was another intimacy of more import, about which it is necessary to + speak at some length. When Dies published his biography of Haydn in 1810 + he referred to a batch of love-letters written to the composer during this + visit to London. The existence of the letters was known to Pohl, who + devotes a part of his Haydn in London to them, and prints certain + extracts; but the letters themselves do not appear to have been printed + either in the original English or in a German translation until Mr Henry + E. Krehbiel, the well-known American musical critic, gave them to the + world through the columns of the New York Tribune. Mr Krehbiel was enabled + to do this by coming into possession of a transcript of Haydn's London + note-book, with which we will deal presently. Haydn, as he informs us, had + copied all the letters out in full, "a proceeding which tells its own + story touching his feelings towards the missives and their fair author." + He preserved them most carefully among the souvenirs of his visit, and + when Dies asked him about them, he replied: "They are letters from an + English widow in London who loved me. Though sixty years old, she was + still lovely and amiable, and I should in all likelihood have married her + if I had been single." Who was the lady thus celebrated? In Haydn's + note-book the following entry occurs: "Mistress Schroeter, No. 6 James + Street, Buckingham Gate." The inquiry is here answered: Mistress Schroeter + was the lady. + </p> + <p> + Mistress Schroeter + </p> + <p> + Haydn, it will be seen, describes her as a widow of sixty. According to + Goldsmith, women and music should never be dated; but in the present case, + there is a not unnatural curiosity to discover the lady's age. Mr Krehbiel + gives good grounds for doubting Haydn's statement that Mistress Schroeter + was sixty when he met her. She had been married to Johann Samuel + Schroeter, an excellent German musician, who settled in London in 1772. + Schroeter died in 1788, three years before the date of Haydn's visit, when + he was just thirty-eight. Now Dr Burney, who must have known the family, + says that Schroeter "married a young lady of considerable fortune, who was + his scholar, and was in easy circumstances." If, therefore, Mrs Schroeter + was sixty years old when Haydn made her acquaintance, she must have been + nineteen years her husband's senior, and could not very well be described + as a "young" lady at the time of her marriage. + </p> + <p> + It is, however, unnecessary to dwell upon the matter of age. The + interesting point is that Haydn fell under the spell of the charming + widow. There is no account of their first meeting; but it was probably of + a purely professional nature. Towards the end of June 1791 the lady + writes: "Mrs Schroeter presents her compliments to Mr Haydn, and informs + him she is just returned to town, and will be very happy to see him + whenever it is convenient to him to give her a lesson." A woman of sixty + should hardly have been requiring lessons, especially after having been + the wife of a professor who succeeded the "English Bach" as music-master + to the Queen. But lessons sometimes cover a good deal of love-making, and + that was clearly the case with Haydn and Mrs Schroeter. + </p> + <p> + Love Letters + </p> + <p> + There is indeed some reason to doubt if the lessons were continued. At any + rate, by February 1792, the affair had ripened so far as to allow the lady + to address the composer as "my dear," and disclose her tender solicitude + for his health. On the 7th of the following month she writes that she was + "extremely sorry" to part with him so suddenly the previous night. "Our + conversation was particularly interesting, and I had a thousand + affectionate things to say to you. My heart was and is full of tenderness + for you, but no language can express half the love and affection I feel + for you. You are dearer to me every day of my life." + </p> + <p> + This was pretty warm, considering that Haydn was still in the bonds of + wedlock. We cannot tell how far he reciprocated the feeling, his letters, + if he wrote any, not having been preserved; but it may be safely inferred + that a lady who was to be "happy to see you both in the morning and the + evening" did not do all the love-making. On the 4th of April the composer + gets a present of soap, and is the "ever dear Haydn" of the "invariable + and truly affectionate" Mistress Schroeter. He had been working too hard + about this particular date (he notes that he was "bled in London" on the + 17th of March), and on the 12th the "loveress," to use Marjorie Fleming's + term, is "truly anxious" about her "dear love," for whom her regard is + "stronger every day." An extract from the letter of April 19 may be quoted + as it stands: + </p> + <p> + I was extremely sorry to hear this morning that you were indisposed. I am + told you were five hours at your studies yesterday. Indeed, my dear love, + I am afraid it will hurt you. Why should you, who have already produced so + many wonderful and charming compositions, still fatigue yourself with such + close application? I almost tremble for your health. Let me prevail on + you, my much-loved Haydn, not to keep to your studies so long at one time. + My dear love, if you could know how very precious your welfare is to me, I + flatter myself you would endeavour to preserve it for my sake as well as + your own. + </p> + <p> + Come Early + </p> + <p> + The next letter shows that Haydn had been deriving some profit from + Mistress Schroeter's affections by setting her to work as an amanuensis. + She has been copying out a march, and is sorry that she has not done it + better. "If my Haydn would employ me oftener to write music, I hope I + should improve; and I know I should delight in the occupation." + Invitations to dine at St James's Street are repeatedly being sent, for + Mistress Schroeter wishes "to have as much of your company as possible." + When others are expected, Haydn is to come early, so that they may have + some time together "before the rest of our friends come." Does the adored + Schroeter go to one of her "dearest love's" concerts, she thanks him a + thousand times for the entertainment. "Where your sweet compositions and + your excellent performance combine," she writes, "it cannot fail of being + the most charming concert; but, apart from that, the pleasure of seeing + you must ever give me infinite satisfaction." As the time drew near for + Haydn's departure, "every moment of your company is more and more precious + to me." She begs to assure him with "heart-felt affection" that she will + ever consider the acquaintance with him as one of the chief blessings of + her life. Nay, she entertains for her "dearest Haydn" "the fondest and + tenderest affection the human heart is capable of." And so on. + </p> + <p> + An Innocent Amourette + </p> + <p> + One feels almost brutally rude in breaking in upon the privacy of this + little romance. No doubt the flirtation was inexcusable enough on certain + grounds. But taking the whole circumstances into account—above all, + the loveless, childless home of the composer—the biographer is + disposed to see in the episode merely that human yearning after affection + and sympathy which had been denied to Haydn where he had most right to + expect them. He admitted that he was apt to be fascinated by pretty and + amiable women, and the woman to whom he had given his name was neither + pretty nor amiable. An ancient philosopher has said that a man should + never marry a plain woman, since his affections would always be in danger + of straying when he met a beauty. This incident in Haydn's career would + seem to support the philosopher's contention. For the rest, it was + probably harmless enough, for there is nothing to show that the severer + codes of morality were infringed. + </p> + <p> + The biographers of Haydn have not succeeded in discovering how the + Schroeter amourette ended. The letters printed by Mr Krehbiel are all + confined to the year 1792, and mention is nowhere made of any of later + date. When Haydn returned to London in 1794, he occupied rooms at No. 1 + Bury Street, St James', and Pohl suggests that he may have owed the more + pleasant quarters to his old admirer, who would naturally be anxious to + have him as near her as possible. A short walk of ten minutes through St + James' Park and the Mall would bring him to Buckingham Palace, and from + that to Mrs Schroeter's was only a stone-throw. Whether the old + affectionate relations were resumed it is impossible to say. If there were + any letters of the second London visit, it is curious that Haydn should + not have preserved them with the rest. There is no ground for supposing + that any disagreement came between the pair: the facts point rather the + other way. When Haydn finally said farewell to London, he left the scores + of his six last symphonies "in the hands of a lady." Pohl thinks the lady + was Mrs Schroeter, and doubtless he is right. At any rate Haydn's esteem + for her, to use no stronger term, is sufficiently emphasized by his having + inscribed to her the three trios numbered 1, 2 and 6 in the Breitkopf + & Hartel list. + </p> + <p> + Haydn's Note-Book + </p> + <p> + Reference has already been made to the diary or note-book kept by Haydn + during his visit. The original manuscript of this curious document came + into the hands of his friend, Joseph Weigl, whose father had been 'cellist + to Prince Esterhazy. A similar diary was kept during the second visit, but + this was lost; and indeed the first note-book narrowly escaped destruction + at the hands of a careless domestic. Haydn's autograph was at one time in + the possession of Dr Pohl. A copy of it made by A. W. Thayer, the + biographer of Beethoven, in 1862, became, as previously stated, the + property of Mr Krehbiel, who has printed the entries, with running + comment, in his "Music and Manners in the Classical Period" (London, + 1898). Mr Krehbiel rightly describes some of the entries as mere "vague + mnemonic hints," and adds that one entry which descants in epigrammatic + fashion on the comparative morals of the women of France, Holland and + England is unfit for publication. Looking over the diary, it is + instructive to observe how little reference is made to music. One or two + of the entries are plainly memoranda of purchases to be made for friends. + There is one note about the National Debt of England, another about the + trial of Warren Hastings. London, we learn, has 4000 carts for cleaning + the streets, and consumes annually 800,000 cartloads of coals. That + scandalous book, the Memoirs of Mrs Billington, which had just been + published, forms the subject of a long entry. "It is said that her [Mrs + Billington's] character is very faulty, but nevertheless she is a great + genius, and all the women hate her because she is so beautiful." + </p> + <p> + Prince of Wale's Punch + </p> + <p> + A note is made of the constituents of the Prince of Wales's punch—"One + bottle champagne, one bottle Burgundy, one bottle rum, ten lemons, two + oranges, pound and a half of sugar." A process for preserving milk "for a + long time" is also described. We read that on the 5th of November (1791) + "there was a fog so thick that one might have spread it on bread. In order + to write I had to light a candle as early as eleven o'clock." Here is a + curious item—"In the month of June 1792 a chicken, 7s.; an Indian [a + kind of bittern found in North America] 9s.; a dozen larks, 1 coron [? + crown]. N.B.—If plucked, a duck, 5s." + </p> + <p> + Haydn liked a good story, and when he heard one made a note of it. The + diary contains two such stories. One is headed "Anectod," and runs: "At a + grand concert, as the director was about to begin the first number, the + kettledrummer called loudly to him, asking him to wait a moment, because + his two drums were not in tune. The leader could not and would not wait + any longer, and told the drummer to transpose for the present." The second + story is equally good. "An Archbishop of London, having asked Parliament + to silence a preacher of the Moravian religion who preached in public, the + Vice-President answered that could easily be done: only make him a Bishop, + and he would keep silent all his life." + </p> + <p> + On the whole the note-book cannot be described as of strong biographical + interest, but a reading of its contents as translated by Mr Krehbiel will + certainly help towards an appreciation of the personal character of the + composer. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. SECOND LONDON VISIT—1794-1795 + </h2> + <p> + <i>Beethoven—Takes Lessons from Haydn—The Relations of the Two + Composers—The Haydn Museum—Haydn starts for London—His + Servant Elssler—The Salomon Concerts—A "Smart" Drummer—New + Acquaintances—Haydn at Bath—Opera Concerts—Kingly + Courtesies—A Valuable Parrot—Rohrau Reminiscences—Esterhaz + once more—The "Austrian Hymn"—Haydn's Love for It—A + Charge of Plagiarism.</i> + </p> + <p> + Haydn left London some time towards the end of June 1792. He had intended + to visit Berlin, in response to an invitation from King Frederick William + II., but he altered his route in order to meet Prince Anton Esterhazy, who + was at Frankfort for the coronation of the Emperor Francis II. + </p> + <p> + Beethoven + </p> + <p> + A more interesting meeting took place at Bonn. Beethoven, then a young man + of twenty-two, was still living with his people in the Wenzegasse, but + already arrangements had been made by the Elector for his paying a + somewhat lengthened visit to Vienna in order to prosecute his studies + there. Since the death of Mozart, Haydn had become the most brilliant star + in the musical firmament, and it was only natural that the rising genius + should look to him for practical help and encouragement. It so happened + that the Elector's Band, of which Beethoven was a member, gave a dinner to + Haydn at Godesberg. The occasion was opportune. Beethoven submitted a + cantata to the guest of the evening which Haydn "greatly praised, warmly + encouraging the composer to proceed with his studies." The name of the + cantata has not been ascertained, though Thayer conjectures it to have + been on the death of the Emperor Leopold II. + </p> + <p> + Whatever it was, the fact of Haydn's approval would make it an easy matter + to discuss the subject of lessons, whether now or later. Beethoven did not + start for Vienna until November, and it appears that immediately before + that date some formal communication had been made with Haydn in reference + to his studies. On the 29th of October Count Waldstein wrote: + </p> + <p> + "DEAR BEETHOVEN,—You are travelling to Vienna in fulfillment of your + long-cherished wish. The genius of Mozart is still weeping and bewailing + the death of her favourite. With the inexhaustible Haydn she found a + refuge, but no occupation, and is now waiting to leave him and join + herself to someone else. Labour assiduously, and receive Mozart's spirit + from the hands of Haydn." + </p> + <p> + This was not exactly complimentary to Haydn, but Beethoven doubtless had + the good sense not to repeat the count's words. When the young artist + arrived in Vienna, he found Haydn living at the Hamberger Haus, No. 992 + (since demolished), and thither he went for his lessons. From Beethoven's + own notes of expenses we find that his first payment was made to Haydn on + December 12. The sum entered is 8 groschen (about 9 1/2 d.), which shows + at least that Haydn was not extravagant in his charges. + </p> + <p> + Master and Pupil + </p> + <p> + Beethoven's studies were in strict counterpoint, and the text-book was + that same "Gradus ad Parnassum" of Fux which Haydn had himself contended + with in the old days at St Stephen's. How many exercises Beethoven wrote + cannot be said, but 245 have been preserved, of which, according to + Nottebohm, Haydn corrected only forty-two. Much ink has been wasted in + discussing the relations of these distinguished composers. There is no + denying that Haydn neglected his young pupil, but one may find another + excuse for the neglect besides that of his increasing age and his + engrossing occupations. Beethoven was already a musical revolutionist: + Haydn was content to walk in the old ways. The two men belonged almost to + different centuries, and the disposition which the younger artist had for + "splendid experiments" must have seemed to the mature musician little + better than madness and licentious irregularity. "He will never do + anything in decent style," was Albrechtsberger's dictum after giving + Beethoven a series of lessons. + </p> + <p> + Haydn's opinion of Beethoven's future was not so dogmatically expressed; + but he must have been sorely puzzled by a pupil who looked upon even + consecutive fifths as an open question, and thought it a good thing to + "learn occasionally what is according to rule that one may hereafter come + to what is contrary to rule." It is said that Haydn persisted in regarding + Beethoven, not as a composer at all but as a pianoforte player; and + certainly Beethoven regarded Haydn as being behind the age. That he was + unjust to Haydn cannot be gainsaid. He even went so far as to suspect + Haydn of willfully trying to retard him in his studies, a proceeding of + which Haydn was altogether incapable. For many years he continued to + discharge splenetic remarks about his music, and he was always annoyed at + being called his pupil. "I never learned anything from Haydn," he would + say; "he never would correct my mistakes." When, the day after the + production of his ballet music to Prometheus, he met Haydn in the street, + the old man observed to him: "I heard your music last night; I liked it + very well." To which Beethoven, alluding to Haydn's oratorio, replied: + "Oh! dear master, it is far from being a CREATION." The doubtful sincerity + of this remark may be inferred from an anecdote quoted by Moscheles. Haydn + had been told that Beethoven was speaking depreciatingly of "The + Creation." "That is wrong of him," he said. "What has HE written, then? + His Septet? Certainly that is beautiful; nay, splendid." + </p> + <p> + Beethoven on Haydn + </p> + <p> + It is hardly necessary to say who comes out best in these passages at + arms. Yet we must not be too hard on Beethoven. That he recognized Haydn's + genius as a composer no careful reader of his biography can fail to see. + As Pohl takes pains to point out, he spoke highly of Haydn whenever + opportunity offered, often chose one of his themes when improvising in + public, scored one of his quartets for his own use, and lovingly preserved + the autograph of one of the English symphonies. That he came in the end to + realize his true greatness is amply proved by the story already related + which represents him as exclaiming on his death-bed upon the fact of Haydn + having been born in a common peasant's cottage. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime, although Beethoven was dissatisfied with his progress + under Haydn, there was no open breach between the two. It is true that the + young musician sought another teacher—one Schenck, a well-known + Viennese composer—but this was done without Haydn's knowledge, out + of consideration, we may assume, for his feelings. That master and pupil + were still on the best of terms may be gathered from their having been at + Eisenstadt together during the summer of 1793. In the January of the + following year Haydn set out on his second visit to England, and Beethoven + transferred himself to Albrechtsberger. + </p> + <p> + The Haydn Museum + </p> + <p> + Haydn's life in Vienna during the eighteen months which intervened between + the two London visits was almost totally devoid of incident. His wife, it + will be remembered, had written to him in England, asking for money to buy + a certain house which she fancied for a "widow's home." Haydn was astute + enough not to send the money, but on his return to Vienna, finding the + house in every way to his liking, he bought it himself. Frau Haydn died + seven years later, "and now," said the composer, speaking in 1806, "I am + living in it as a widower." The house is situated in the suburb of Vienna + known as Gumpendorf. It is No. 19 of the Haydngasse and bears a marble + memorial tablet, affixed to it in 1840. The pious care of the composer's + admirers has preserved it almost exactly as it was in Haydn's day, and has + turned it into a kind of museum containing portraits and mementoes of the + master, the original manuscript of "The Creation," and other interesting + relics. + </p> + <p> + Starts for London + </p> + <p> + Haydn started on his journey to England on January 19, 1794, Salomon + having brought him, under a promise to return with six new symphonies + which he was to conduct in person. This time he travelled down the Rhine, + and he had not been many days on the way when news reached him of the + death of Prince Anton Esterhazy, who had very reluctantly given him leave + of absence. On the occasion of the first London visit Salomon had been his + travelling companion; now, feeling doubtless the encumbrance of increasing + years, Haydn took his servant and copyist, Johann Elssler, along with him. + </p> + <p> + Honest Elssler + </p> + <p> + It may be noted in passing that he entertained a very warm regard for + Elssler, whose father had been music copyist to Prince Esterhazy. He was + born at Eisenstadt in 1769, and, according to Pohl, lived the whole of his + life with Haydn, first as copyist, and then as general servant and + factotum. It was Elssler who tended the composer in his last years, a + service recompensed by the handsome bequest of 6000 florins, which he + lived to enjoy until 1843. No man, it has been said, is a hero to his + valet, but "Haydn was to Elssler a constant subject of veneration, which + he carried so far that when he thought himself unobserved he would stop + with the censer before his master's portrait as if it were the altar." + This "true and honest servant" copied a large amount of Haydn's music, + partly in score, partly in separate parts, much of which is now treasured + as the autograph of Haydn, though the handwritings of the two are + essentially different. It is a pity that none of the earlier writers on + Haydn thought of applying to Elssler for particulars of the private life + of the composer. He could have given information on many obscure points, + and could have amplified the details of this second London visit, about + which we know much less than we know about the former visit. + </p> + <p> + The Salomon Concerts + </p> + <p> + Salomon's first concert had been arranged for the 3rd of February, but + Haydn did not arrive until the 4th, and the series accordingly began upon + the 10th. Twelve concerts were given in all, and with the most brilliant + success. The six new symphonies commissioned by Salomon were performed, + and the previous set were also repeated, along with some new quartets. Of + the many contemporary notices of the period, perhaps the most interesting + is that which appears in the Journal of Luxury and Fashion, published at + Weimar in July 1794. It is in the form of a London letter, written on + March 25, under the heading of "On the Present State and Fashion of Music + in England." After speaking of Salomon's efforts on behalf of classical + music and of the praise due to him for his performance of the quartets of + "our old favourite, Haydn," the writer continues: "But what would you now + say to his new symphonies composed expressly for these concerts, and + directed by himself at the piano? It is truly wonderful what sublime and + august thoughts this master weaves into his works. Passages often occur + which render it impossible to listen to them without becoming excited. We + are altogether carried away by admiration, and forced to applaud with hand + and mouth. This is especially the case with Frenchmen, of whom we have so + many here that all public places are filled with them. You know that they + have great sensibility, and cannot restrain their transports, so that in + the midst of the finest passages in soft adagios they clap their hands in + loud applause and thus mar the effect. In every symphony of Haydn the + adagio or andante is sure to be repeated each time, after the most + vehement encores. The worthy Haydn, whose personal acquaintance I highly + value, conducts himself on these occasions in the most modest manner. He + is indeed a good-hearted, candid, honest man, esteemed and beloved by + all." + </p> + <p> + Several notable incidents occurred at the Salomon Concerts. It has been + remarked, as "an event of some interest in musical history," that Haydn + and Wilhelm Cramer appeared together at one concert, Cramer as leader of + the orchestra, Haydn conducting from the pianoforte. But Cramer was not a + genius of the first rank—his compositions are of the slightest + importance—and there was nothing singular about his appearing along + with Haydn. He had been leader at the Handel Festivals at Westminster + Abbey in 1784 and 1787, and was just the man to be engaged for an + enterprise like that of Salomon's. + </p> + <p> + A "Smart" Drummer + </p> + <p> + An anecdote told of Haydn in connection with one of the rehearsals is + better worth noting. The drummer was found to be absent. "Can anyone here + play the drum?" inquired Haydn, looking round from his seat at the piano. + "I can," promptly replied young George (afterwards Sir George) Smart, who + was sitting among the violinists. Smart, who lived to become the doyen of + the musical profession in England, had never handled a drumstick before, + and naturally failed to satisfy the conductor. Haydn took the drumstick + from him and "showed to the astonished orchestra a new and unexpected + attitude in their leader." Then, turning to Smart, he remarked: "That is + how we use the drumsticks in Germany." "Oh, very well," replied the + unabashed youth, "if you like it better in that way we can also do it so + in London." + </p> + <p> + New Acquaintances + </p> + <p> + Haydn made several new acquaintances during this visit, the most notable + being, perhaps, Dragonetti, the famous double-bass player, who had + accompanied Banti, the eminent prima donna, to London in 1794. Banti had + been discovered as a chanteuse in a Paris cafe, and afterwards attracted + much notice by her fine voice both in Paris and London. "She is the first + singer in Italy, and drinks a bottle of wine every day," said one who knew + her. In her journeys through Germany, Austria and Italy she won many + triumphs. Haydn composed for her an air, "Non Partir," in E, which she + sang at his benefit. As for "Old Drag," the familiar designation of the + distinguished bassist, his eccentricities must have provided Haydn with no + little amusement. He always took his dog Carlo with him into the + orchestra, and Henry Phillips tells us that, having a strange weakness for + dolls, he often carried one of them to the festivals as his wife! On his + way to Italy in 1798 Dragonetti visited Haydn in Vienna, and was much + delighted with the score of "The Creation," just completed. Several + eminent violinists were in London at the time of Haydn's visit. The most + distinguished of them was perhaps Felice de Giardini, who, at the age of + fourscore, produced an oratorio at Ranelagh Gardens, and even played a + concerto. He had a perfectly volcanic temper, and hated Haydn as the devil + is said to hate holy water. "I don't wish to see the German dog," he + remarked in the composer's hearing, when urged to pay him a visit. Haydn, + as a rule, was kindly disposed to all brother artists, but to be called a + dog was too much, He went to hear Giardini, and then got even with him by + noting in his diary that he "played like a pig." + </p> + <p> + The accounts preserved of Haydn's second visit to England are, as already + remarked, far less full than those of the first visit. Unconnected + memoranda appear in his diary, some of which are given by Griesinger and + Dies; but they are of comparatively little interest. During the summer of + 1794 he moved about the country a good deal. Thus, about the 26th of + August, he paid a visit to Waverley Abbey, whose "Annales Waverliensis" + suggested to Scott the name of his first romance. The ruined condition of + the venerable pile—it dates from 1128—set Haydn moralizing on + the "Protestant heresy" which led the "rascal mob" to tear down "what had + once been a stronghold of his own religion." + </p> + <p> + Haydn at Bath + </p> + <p> + In the following month he spent three days in Bath with Dr Burney, and + Rauzzini, the famous tenor, who had retired to the fashionable + watering-place after a successful career of thirteen years as a singer and + teacher in London. Rauzzini is little more than a name now, but for + Haydn's sake it is worth recalling his memory. Born at Rome in 1747, his + striking beauty of face and figure had drawn him into certain + entanglements which made it expedient for him to leave his native land. He + was as fond of animals as Dragonetti was of dolls, and had erected a + memorial tablet in his garden to his "best friend," otherwise his dog. + "Turk was a faithful dog and not a man," ran the inscription, which + reminds one of Schopenhauer's cynical observation that if it were not for + the honest faces of dogs, we should forget the very existence of + sincerity. When Haydn read the inscription he immediately proceeded to + make use of the words for a four-part canon. It was presumably at this + time that he became acquainted with Dr Henry Harington, the musician and + author, who had removed to Bath in 1771, where he had founded the Harmonic + Society. Haydn dedicated one of his songs to him in return for certain + music and verses, which explains the following otherwise cryptic note of + Clementi's, published for the first time recently by Mr J. S. Shedlock: + "The first Dr [Harington] having bestowed much praise on the second Dr + [Haydn], the said second Dr, out of doctorial gratitude, returns the 1st + Dr thanks for all favours recd., and praises in his turn the said 1st Dr + most handsomely." The title of Haydn's song was "Dr Harington's + Compliments." + </p> + <p> + Opera Concerts + </p> + <p> + The composer returned to London at the beginning of October for the winter + season's concerts. These began, as before, in February, and were continued + once a week up to the month of May. This time they took the form of opera + concerts, and were given at the "National School of Music" in the new + concert-room of the King's Theatre. No fresh symphonies were contributed + by Haydn for this series, though some of the old ones always found a place + in the programmes. Two extra concerts were given on May 21 and June 1, at + both of which Haydn appeared; but the composer's last benefit concert was + held on May 4. On this occasion the programme was entirely confined to his + own compositions, with the exception of concertos by Viotti, the + violinist, and Ferlendis, the oboist. Banti sang the aria already + mentioned as having been written expressly for her, but, according to the + composer, "sang very scanty." The main thing, however, was that the + concert proved a financial success, the net receipts amounting to 400 + pounds. "It is only in England," said Haydn, "that one can make 4000 + gulden in one evening." + </p> + <p> + Haydn did indeed remarkably well in London. As Pohl says, "he returned + from it with increased powers, unlimited fame, and a competence for life. + By concerts, lessons, and symphonies, not counting his other compositions, + he had again made 1200 pounds, enough to relieve him from all anxiety as + to the future. He often said afterwards that it was not till he had been + to England that he became famous in Germany; by which he meant that + although his reputation was high at home, the English were the first to + give him public homage and liberal remuneration." + </p> + <p> + Kingly Courtesies + </p> + <p> + It is superfluous to say that Haydn was as much of a "lion" in London + society during his second visit as he had been on the previous occasion. + The attention bestowed on him in royal circles made that certain, for + "society" are sheep, and royalty is their bell-wether. The Prince of Wales + had rather a fancy for him, and commanded his attendance at Carlton House + no fewer than twenty-six times. At one concert at York House the programme + was entirely devoted to his music. George III and Queen Caroline were + present, and Haydn was presented to the King by the Prince. "You have + written a great deal, Dr Haydn," said the King. "Yes, sire," was the + reply; "more than is good for me." "Certainly not," rejoined His Majesty. + He was then presented to the Queen, and asked to sing some German songs. + "My voice," he said, pointing to the tip of his little finger, "is now no + bigger than that"; but he sat down to the pianoforte and sang his song, + "Ich bin der Verliebteste." He was repeatedly invited by the Queen to + Buckingham Palace, and she tried to persuade him to settle in England. + "You shall have a house at Windsor during the summer months," she said, + and then, looking towards the King, added, "We can sometimes make music + tete-a-tete." "Oh! I am not jealous of Haydn," interposed the King; "he is + a good, honourable German." "To preserve that reputation," replied Haydn, + "is my greatest pride." + </p> + <p> + Most of Haydn's appearances were made at the concerts regularly organized + for the entertainment of royalty at Carlton House and Buckingham Palace, + and Haydn looked to be paid for his services. Whether the King and the + Prince expected him to give these services in return for the supposed + honour they had conferred upon him does not appear. At all events, Haydn + sent in a bill for 100 guineas sometime after his return to Vienna, and + the amount was promptly paid by Parliament. + </p> + <p> + A Valuable Parrot + </p> + <p> + Among the other attentions bestowed upon him while in London, mention + should be made of the present of a talking parrot. Haydn took the bird + with him, and it was sold for 140 pounds after his death. Another gift + followed him to Vienna. A Leicester manufacturer named Gardiner—he + wrote a book on The Music of Nature, and other works—sent him half a + dozen pairs of cotton stockings, into which were woven the notes of the + Austrian Hymn, "My mother bids me bind my hair," the Andante from the + "Surprise" Symphony, and other thematic material. These musical stockings, + as a wit has observed, must have come as a REAL surprise to Haydn. It was + this same Leicester manufacturer, we may remark parenthetically, who + annotated the translation of Bombet's Life of Haydn, made by his + fellow-townsman, Robert Brewin, in 1817. + </p> + <p> + Haydn's return from London was hastened by the receipt of a communication + from Esterhaz. Prince Anton had been succeeded by his son Nicolaus, who + was as fond of music as the rest of his family, and desired to keep his + musical establishment up to the old standard. During the summer of 1794 he + had written to Haydn, asking if the composer would care to retain his + appointment as director. Haydn was only too glad to assent; and now that + his London engagements were fulfilled, he saw no reason for remaining + longer in England. Accordingly he started for home on the 15th of August + 1795, travelling by way of Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden, and arriving at + Vienna in the early days of September. + </p> + <p> + Rohrau Reminiscences + </p> + <p> + Soon after his return he was surprised to receive an invitation to visit + his native Rohrau. When he arrived there he found that a monument, with a + marble bust of himself, had been erected to his honour in a park near his + birthplace. This interesting memorial consists of a square pillar + surmounting three stone steps, with an inscription on each side. The visit + was productive of mingled feelings to Haydn. He took his friends to see + the old thatch-roofed cottage, and, pointing to the familiar stove, still + in its place, modestly remarked that there his career as a musician began—a + reminiscence of the now far-away time when he sat by his father's side and + sawed away on his improvised fiddle. + </p> + <p> + Esterhaz once more + </p> + <p> + There is little to say about Haydn's labours as Capellmeister of the + Esterhazy household at this time. Apparently he was only at Eisenstadt for + the summer and autumn. Down to 1802, however, he always had a mass ready + for Princess Esterhazy's name-day in September. These compositions are + Nos. 2, 1, 3, 16, 4 and 6 of the Novello edition. No. 2, Pohl tells us, + was composed in 1796, and called the "Paukenmesse," from the fact of the + drums being used in the Agnus. No. 3 was written in 1797. It is known in + England as the Imperial Mass, but in Germany as "Die Nelsonmesse," on + account of its having been performed during Nelson's visit to Eisenstadt + in 1800. On that occasion Nelson asked Haydn for his pen, and gave him his + own gold watch in exchange. + </p> + <p> + The Austrian Hymn + </p> + <p> + It was shortly after his return to Vienna—in January 1797, to be + precise—that he composed his favourite air, "God preserve the + Emperor," better known as the Austrian Hymn. The story of this celebrated + composition is worth telling with some minuteness. Its inception was due + to Count von Saurau, Imperial High Chancellor and Minister of the + Interior. Writing in 1820, the count said: + </p> + <p> + I often regretted that we had not, like the English, a national air + calculated to display to all the world the loyal devotion of our people to + the kind and upright ruler of our Fatherland, and to awaken within the + hearts of all good Austrians that noble national pride so indispensable to + the energetic fulfillment of all the beneficial measures of the sovereign. + This seemed to me more urgent at a period when the French Revolution was + raging most furiously, and when the Jacobins cherished the idle hope of + finding among the worthy Viennese partisans and participators in their + criminal designs. [The scandalous Jacobin persecutions and executions in + Austria and Hungary took place in 1796]. I caused that meritorious poet + Haschka to write the words, and applied to our immortal countryman Haydn + to set them to music, for I considered him alone capable of writing + anything approaching in merit to the English "God save the King." Such was + the origin of our national hymn. + </p> + <p> + It would not have been difficult to match "God save the King," the + mediocrity of which, especially as regards the words, has been the butt of + countless satirists. Beethoven wrote in his diary that he "must show the + English what a blessing they have" in that "national disgrace." If Haydn + regarded it as a "blessing," he certainly did not take it as a model. He + produced an air which, looking at it from a purely artistic point of view, + is the best thing of the national anthem kind that has ever been written. + The Emperor was enchanted with it when sung on his birthday, February 12, + 1797, at the National Theatre in Vienna, and through Count Saurau sent the + composer a gold box adorned with a facsimile of the royal features. "Such + a surprise and such a mark of favour, especially as regards the portrait + of my beloved monarch," wrote Haydn, "I never before received in + acknowledgment of my poor talents." + </p> + <p> + Haydn's Love for It + </p> + <p> + We have several indications of Haydn's predilection for this fine air, + which has long been popular as a hymn tune in all the churches. He wrote a + set of variations for it as the Andante of his "Kaiser Quartet." + Griesinger tells us, too, that as often as the warm weather and his + strength permitted, during the last few years of his life, he used to be + led into his back room that he might play it on the piano. It is further + related by Dies that, during the bombardment of Vienna in May 1809, Haydn + seated himself at his instrument every forenoon to give forth the sound of + the favourite song. Indeed, on May 26, only five days before his death, he + played it over three times in succession, and "with a degree of expression + that astonished himself." As one writer puts it, the air "seemed to have + acquired a certain sacredness in his eyes in an age when kings were + beheaded and their crowns tossed to the rabble." + </p> + <p> + Haydn's first sketch of the melody was found among his papers after his + death. We reproduce it here, with an improvement shown in small notes. + There are, it will be observed, some slight differences between the draft + and the published version of the air: + </p> + <p> + [figure: a musical score excerpt from the draft] + </p> + <p> + [figure: a musical score excerpt from the published version] + </p> + <p> + The collecting of what Tennyson called "the chips of the workshop" is not + as a rule an edifying business, but the evolution of a great national air + must always be interesting. + </p> + <p> + Plagiarism or Coincidence? + </p> + <p> + It might perhaps be added that Dr Kuhac, the highest authority on Croatian + folk-song, asserted in an article contributed to the Croatian Review + (1893) that the Austrian National Hymn was based on a Croatian popular + air. In reviewing Kuhac's collection of Croatian melodies, a work in four + volumes, containing 1600 examples, Dr Reimann signifies his agreement with + Kuhac, and adds that Haydn employed Croatian themes not only in "God + preserve the Emperor," but in many passages of his other works. These + statements must not be taken too seriously. Handel purloined wholesale + from brother composers and said nothing about it. The artistic morality of + Haydn's age was different, and, knowing his character as we do, we may be + perfectly sure that if he had of set purpose introduced into any of his + compositions music which was not his own he would, in some way or other, + have acknowledged the debt. This hunting for plagiarisms which are not + plagiarisms at all but mere coincidences—coincidences which are and + must be inevitable—is fast becoming a nuisance, and it is the duty + of every serious writer to discredit the practice. The composer of "The + Creation" had no need to borrow his melodies from any source. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. "THE CREATION" AND "THE SEASONS" + </h2> + <p> + <i>Haydn's Crowning Achievement—"The Creation" suggested—The + "Unintelligible Jargon" of the Libretto—The Stimulating Effect of + London—Haydn's Self-Criticism—First Performance of "The + Creation"—London Performances—French Enthusiasm—The + Oratorio criticized—"The Seasons."</i> + </p> + <p> + Haydn's Crowning Achievement + </p> + <p> + Haydn rounded his life with "The Creation" and "The Seasons." They were + the summit of his achievement, as little to be expected from him, + considering his years, as "Falstaff" was to be expected from the + octogenarian Verdi. Some geniuses flower late. It was only now, by his + London symphonies and his "Creation," that Haydn's genius blossomed so + luxuriantly as to place him with almost amazing suddenness among the very + first of composers. There is hardly anything more certain than this, that + if he had not come to London he would not have stood where he stands + to-day. The best of his symphonies were written for London; and it was + London, in effect, that set him to work in what was for him practically a + new direction, leading to the production of an oratorio which at once took + its place by the side of Handel's master-pieces, and rose to a popularity + second only to that of "The Messiah" itself. + </p> + <p> + "The Creation" suggested + </p> + <p> + The connection thus established between the names of Handel and Haydn is + interesting, for there can be little question that Haydn was led to think + of writing a large choral work chiefly as the result of frequently hearing + Handel's oratorios during his visits to the metropolis. The credit of + suggesting "The Creation" to Haydn is indeed assigned to Salomon, but it + is more than probable that the matter had already been occupying his + thoughts. It has been explicitly stated [See note by C.H. Purday in + Leisure Hour for 1880, p. 528.] that, being greatly impressed with the + effect produced by "The Messiah," Haydn intimated to his friend + Barthelemon his desire to compose a work of the same kind. He asked + Barthelemon what subject he would advise for such a purpose, and + Barthelemon, pointing to a copy of the Bible, replied: "There! take that, + and begin at the beginning." This story is told on apparently good + authority. But it hardly fits in with the statements of biographers. + According to the biographers, Salomon handed the composer a libretto + originally selected for Handel from Genesis and Paradise Lost by Mr Lidley + or Liddell. That this was the libretto used by Haydn is certain, and we + may therefore accept it as a fact that Haydn's most notable achievement in + choral music was due in great measure to the man who had brought him to + London, and had drawn from him the finest of his instrumental works. + </p> + <p> + "The Creation" Libretto + </p> + <p> + Before proceeding further we may deal finally with the libretto of "The + Creation." The "unintelligible jargon" which disfigures Haydn's immortal + work has often formed the subject of comment; and assuredly nothing that + can be said of it can well be too severe. "The Creation" libretto stands + to the present day as an example of all that is jejune and incongruous in + words for music. The theme has in itself so many elements of inspiration + that it is a matter for wonder how, for more than a century, + English-speaking audiences have listened to the arrant nonsense with which + Haydn's music is associated. As has been well observed, "the suburban + love-making of our first parents, and the lengthy references to the habits + of the worm and the leviathan are almost more than modern flesh and blood + can endure." Many years ago a leading musical critic wrote that there + ought to be enough value, monetarily speaking, in "The Creation" to make + it worth while preparing a fresh libretto; for, said he, "the present one + seems only fit for the nursery, to use in connection with Noah's ark." At + the Norwich Festival performance of the oratorio in 1872, the words were, + in fact, altered, but in all the published editions of the work the text + remains as it was. It is usual to credit the composer's friend, Baron van + Swieten, with the "unintelligible jargon." The baron certainly had a + considerable hand in the adaptation of the text. But in reality it owes + its very uncouth verbiage largely to the circumstance that it was first + translated from English into German, and then re-translated back into + English; the words, with the exception of the first chorus, being adapted + to the music. Considering the ways of translators, the best libretto in + the world could not but have suffered under such transformations, and it + is doing a real injustice to the memory of Baron Swieten, the good friend + of more than one composer, to hold him up needlessly to ridicule. [In one + of George Thomson's letters to Mrs Hunter we read: "It it is not the first + time that your muse and Haydn's have met, as we see from the beautiful + canzonets. Would he had been directed by you about the words to 'The + Creation'! It is lamentable to see such divine music joined with such + miserable broken English. He (Haydn) wrote me lately that in three years, + by the performance of 'The Creation' and 'The Seasons' at Vienna, 40,000 + florins had been raised for the poor families of musicians."] + </p> + <p> + The Stimulus of London + </p> + <p> + Haydn set to work on "The Creation" with all the ardour of a first love. + Naumann suggests that his high spirits were due to the "enthusiastic + plaudits of the English people," and that the birth of both "The Creation" + and "The Seasons" was "unquestionably owing to the new man he felt within + himself after his visit to England." There was now, in short, burning + within his breast, "a spirit of conscious strength which he knew not he + possessed, or knowing, was unaware of its true worth." This is somewhat + exaggerated. Handel wrote "The Messiah" in twenty-four days; it took Haydn + the best part of eighteen months to complete "The Creation," from which we + may infer that "the sad laws of time" had not stopped their operation + simply because he had been to London. No doubt, as we have already more + than hinted, he was roused and stimulated by the new scenes and the + unfamiliar modes of life which he saw and experienced in England. His + temporary release from the fetters of official life had also an + exhilarating influence. So much we learn indeed from himself. Thus, + writing from London to Frau von Genzinger, he says: "Oh, my dear, good + lady, how sweet is some degree of liberty! I had a kind prince, but was + obliged at times to be dependent on base souls. I often sighed for + freedom, and now I have it in some measure. I am quite sensible of this + benefit, though my mind is burdened with more work. The consciousness of + being no longer a bond-servant sweetens all my toils." If this liberty, + this contact with new people and new forms of existence, had come to Haydn + twenty years earlier, it might have altered the whole current of his + career. But it did not help him much in the actual composition of "The + Creation," which he found rather a tax, alike on his inspiration and his + physical powers. Writing to Breitkopf & Hartel on June 12, 1799, he + says: "The world daily pays me many compliments, even on the fire of my + last works; but no one could believe the strain and effort it costs me to + produce these, inasmuch as many a day my feeble memory and the unstrung + state of my nerves so completely crush me to the earth, that I fall into + the most melancholy condition, so much so that for days afterwards I am + incapable of finding one single idea, till at length my heart is revived + by Providence, when I seat myself at the piano and begin once more to + hammer away at it. Then all goes well again, God be praised!" + </p> + <p> + Self-Criticism + </p> + <p> + In the same letter he remarks that, "as for myself, now an old man, I hope + the critics may not handle my 'Creation' with too great severity, and be + too hard on it. They may perhaps find the musical orthography faulty in + various passages, and perhaps other things also which I have for so many + years been accustomed to consider as minor points; but the genuine + connoisseur will see the real cause as readily as I do, and will willingly + cast aside such stumbling blocks." It is impossible to miss the + significance of all this. + </p> + <p> + [At this point in the original book, a facsimile of a letter regarding + "The Creation" takes up the entire next page.] + </p> + <p> + Certainly it ought to be taken into account in any critical estimate of + "The Creation"; for when a man admits his own shortcomings it is + ungracious, to say the least, for an outsider to insist upon them. It is + obvious at any rate that Haydn undertook the composition of the oratorio + in no light-hearted spirit. "Never was I so pious," he says, "as when + composing 'The Creation.' I felt myself so penetrated with religious + feeling that before I sat down to the pianoforte I prayed to God with + earnestness that He would enable me to praise Him worthily." In the lives + of the great composers there is only one parallel to this frame of mind—the + religious fervour in which Handel composed "The Messiah." + </p> + <p> + First Performance of the Oratorio + </p> + <p> + The first performance of "The Creation" was of a purely private nature. It + took place at the Schwartzenburg Palace, Vienna, on the 29th of April + 1798, the performers being a body of dilettanti, with Haydn presiding over + the orchestra. Van Swieten had been exerting himself to raise a guarantee + fund for the composer, and the entire proceeds of the performance, + amounting to 350 pounds, were paid over to him. Haydn was unable to + describe his sensations during the progress of the work. "One moment," he + says, "I was as cold as ice, the next I seemed on fire; more than once I + thought I should have a fit." A year later, on the 19th of March 1799, to + give the exact date, the oratorio was first heard publicly at the National + Theatre in Vienna, when it produced the greatest effect. The play-bill + announcing the performance (see next page) had a very ornamental border, + and was, of course, in German. + </p> + <p> + [At this point in the original book, a facsimile of the first play-bill + for "The Creation" takes up the entire next page.] + </p> + <p> + Next year the score was published by Breitkopf & Hartel, and no fewer + than 510 copies, nearly half the number subscribed for, came to England. + The title-page was printed both in German and English, the latter reading + as follows: "The Creation: an Oratorio composed by Joseph Haydn, Doctor of + Musik, and member of the Royal Society of Musik, in Sweden, in actuel + (sic) service of His Highness the Prince of Esterhazy, Vienna, 1800." + Clementi had just set up a musical establishment in London, and on August + 22, 1800, we find Haydn writing to his publishers to complain that he was + in some danger of losing 2000 gulden by Clementi's non-receipt of a + consignment of copies. + </p> + <p> + London Performances + </p> + <p> + Salomon, strangely enough, had threatened Haydn with penalties for + pirating his text, but he thought better of the matter, and now wrote to + the composer for a copy of the score, so that he might produce the + oratorio in London. He was, however, forestalled by Ashley, who was at + that time giving performances of oratorio at Covent Garden Theatre, and + who brought forward the new work on the 28th of March (1800). An amusing + anecdote is told in this connection. The score arrived by a King's + messenger from Vienna on Saturday, March 22, at nine o'clock in the + evening. It was handed to Thomas Goodwin, the copyist of the theatre, who + immediately had the parts copied out for 120 performers. The performance + was on the Friday evening following, and when Mr Harris, the proprietor of + the theatre, complimented all parties concerned on their expedition, + Goodwin, with ready wit, replied: "Sir, we have humbly emulated a great + example; it is not the first time that the Creation has been completed in + six days." Salomon followed on the 21st of April with a performance at the + King's Theatre, Mara and Dussek taking the principal parts. Mara remarked + that it was the first time she had accompanied an orchestra! + </p> + <p> + French Enthusiasm + </p> + <p> + Strange to say—for oratorio has never been much at home in France—"The + Creation" was received with immense enthusiasm in Paris when it was first + performed there in the summer of this same year. Indeed, the applause was + so great that the artists, in a fit of transport, and to show their + personal regard for the composer, resolved to present him with a large + gold medal. The medal was designed by the famous engraver, Gateaux. It was + adorned on one side with a likeness of Haydn, and on the other side with + an ancient lyre, over which a flame flickered in the midst of a circle of + stars. The inscription ran: "Homage a Haydn par les Musiciens qui ont + execute l'oratorio de la Creation du Monde au Theatre des Arts l'au ix de + la Republique Francais ou MDCCC." The medal was accompanied by a + eulogistic address, to which the recipient duly replied in a rather + flowery epistle. "I have often," he wrote, "doubted whether my name would + survive me, but your goodness inspires me with confidence, and the token + of esteem with which you have honoured me perhaps justifies my hope that I + shall not wholly die. Yes, gentlemen, you have crowned my gray hairs, and + strewn flowers on the brink of my grave." Seven years after this Haydn + received another medal from Paris—from the Societe Academique des + Enfants d'Apollon, who had elected him an honorary member. + </p> + <p> + A second performance of "The Creation" took place in the French capital on + December 24, 1800, when Napoleon I. escaped the infernal machine in the + Rue Nicaise. It was, however, in England, the home of oratorio, that the + work naturally took firmest root. It was performed at the Worcester + Festival of 1800, at the Hereford Festival of the following year, and at + Gloucester in 1802. Within a few years it had taken its place by the side + of Handel's best works of the kind, and its popularity remained untouched + until Mendelssohn's "Elijah" was heard at Birmingham in 1847. Even now, + although it has lost something of its old-time vogue, it is still to be + found in the repertory of our leading choral societies. It is said that + when a friend urged Haydn to hurry the completion of the oratorio, he + replied: "I spend much time over it because I intend it to last a long + time." How delighted he would have been could he have foreseen that it + would still be sung and listened to with pleasure in the early years of + the twentieth century. + </p> + <p> + "The Creation" criticized + </p> + <p> + No one thinks of dealing critically with the music of "The Messiah"; and + it seems almost as thankless a task to take the music of "The Creation" to + pieces. Schiller called it a "meaningless hotch-potch"; and even + Beethoven, though he was not quite innocent of the same thing himself, had + his sardonic laugh over its imitations of beasts and birds. Critics of the + oratorio seldom fail to point out these "natural history effects"—to + remark on "the sinuous motion of the worm," "the graceful gamboling of the + leviathan," the orchestral imitations of the bellowing of the "heavy + beasts," and such like. It is probably indefensible on purely artistic + grounds. But Handel did it in "Israel in Egypt" and elsewhere. And is + there not a crowing cock in Bach's "St Matthew Passion"? Haydn only + followed the example of his predecessors. + </p> + <p> + Of course, the dispassionate critic cannot help observing that there is in + "The Creation" a good deal of music which is finicking and something which + is trumpery. But there is also much that is first-rate. The instrumental + representation of chaos, for example, is excellent, and nothing in all the + range of oratorio produces a finer effect than the soft voices at the + words, "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Even the + fortissimo C major chord on the word "light," coming abruptly after the + piano and mezzoforte minor chords, is as dazzling to-day as it was when + first sung. It has been said that the work is singularly deficient in + sustained choruses. That is true, if we are comparing it with the choruses + of Handel's oratorios. But Haydn's style is entirely different from that + of Handel. His choruses are designed on a much less imposing scale. They + are more reflective or descriptive, much less dramatic. It was not in his + way "to strike like a thunderbolt," as Mozart said of Handel. The + descriptive effects which he desired to introduce into his orchestration + made it necessary that he should throw the vocal element into a simpler + mould. Allowance must be made for these differences. Haydn could never + have written "The Messiah," but, on the other hand, Handel could never + have written "The Creation." + </p> + <p> + The chief beauty of Haydn's work lies in its airs for the solo voices. + While never giving consummate expression to real and deep emotion, much + less sustained thought, they are never wanting in sincerity, and the + melody and the style are as pure and good as those of the best Italian + writing for the stage. With all our advance it is impossible to resist the + freshness of "With verdure clad," and the tender charm of such settings as + that of "Softly purling, glides on, thro' silent vales, the limpid brook." + On the whole, however, it is difficult to sum up a work like "The + Creation," unless, as has been cynically remarked, one is prepared to call + it great and never go to hear it. It is not sublime, but neither is it + dull. In another fifty years, perhaps, the critic will be able to say that + its main interest is largely historic and literary. [See J. F. Runciman's + Old Scores and New Readings, where an admirably just and concise + appreciation of Haydn and "The Creation" may be read.] + </p> + <p> + A New Work + </p> + <p> + After such an unexpected success as that of "The Creation," it was only in + the nature of things that Haydn's friends should persuade him to undertake + the composition of a second work of the kind. Van Swieten was insistent, + and the outcome of his importunity was "The Seasons." This work is + generally classed as an oratorio, but it ought more properly to be called + a cantata, being essentially secular as regards its text, though the form + and style are practically the same as those of "The Creation." The + libretto was again due to Swieten, who, of course, adapted the text from + James Thomson's well-known poem. + </p> + <p> + "The Seasons" + </p> + <p> + It would certainly have been a pity to lose such a fresh, melodious little + work as "The Seasons"; but it is only too apparent that while there was no + appreciable failure of Haydn's creative force, his physical strength was + not equal to the strain involved by a composition of such length. In 1806, + when Dies found him rather weaker than usual, he dolorously remarked: "You + see it is all over with me. Eight years ago it was different, but 'The + Seasons' brought on this weakness. I ought never to have undertaken that + work. It gave me the finishing stroke." He appears to have started on the + work with great reluctance and with considerable distrust of his own + powers, but once fairly committed to the undertaking he entered into it + with something of his old animation, disputing so manfully with his + librettist over certain points in the text that a serious rupture between + the two was at one time imminent. The subject was probably not very + congenial to Haydn, who, as the years advanced, was more and more inclined + towards devotional themes. That at least seems to be the inference to be + drawn from the remark which he made to the Emperor Francis on being asked + which of his two oratorios he himself preferred. "'The Creation,'" + answered Haydn. "In 'The Creation' angels speak and their talk is of God; + in 'The Seasons' no one higher speaks than Farmer Simon." + </p> + <p> + "The Seasons" criticized + </p> + <p> + But whether he liked the theme or not, in the end he produced a work as + fresh and genial and melodious as if it had been the work of his prime. If + anyone sees in it an evidence of weakness, he is seeing only what he had + expected to see. As Mr Rockstro remarks, not a trace of the "failing + power" of which the grand old man complained is to be found in any part of + it. It is a model of descriptive, contemplative work, and must please by + its thoughtful beauty and illustrative power. True to Nature in its + minutest details, it yet never insults her by trivial attempts at outward + imitation where artistic suggestion of the hidden truth was, possible. The + "delicious softness" of the opening chorus, and the perfection of rustic + happiness portrayed in the song which describes the joy of the "impatient + husbandman" are alone sufficient to prove that, whatever he may have + thought about it himself, Haydn's genius was not appreciably waning. + </p> + <p> + The first performance of "The Seasons" took place at the Schwartzenburg + Palace on the 24th of April 1801. It was repeated twice within a week; and + on the 29th of May the composer conducted a grand public performance at + the Redoutensaal. The work proved almost as successful as "The Creation." + Haydn was enraptured with it, but he was never really himself again. As he + said, it gave him the finishing stroke. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. LAST YEARS + </h2> + <p> + <i>Failing Strength—Last Works—A Scottish Admirer—Song + Accompaniments—Correspondence with George Thomson—Mrs Jordan—A + Hitch—A "Previous" Letter of Condolence—Eventide—Last + Public Appearance—The End—Funeral Honours—Desecration of + Remains.</i> + </p> + <p> + Failing Strength + </p> + <p> + Little is left to be told of the years which followed the production of + "The Seasons." Haydn never really recovered from the strain which that + last great effort of his genius had entailed. From his letters and the + reminiscences of his friends we can read only too plainly the story of his + growing infirmity. Even in 1799 he spoke of the diminution of his mental + powers, and exclaimed: "Oh, God! how much yet remains to be done in this + splendid art, even by a man like myself!" In 1802 he wrote of himself as + "a gradually decaying veteran," enjoying only the feeble health which is + "the inseparable companion of a gray-haired man of seventy." In December + 1803 he made his last public exertion by conducting the "Seven Words" for + the hospital fund at the Redoutensaal, and shortly afterwards wrote sadly + of his "very great weakness." In 1804 he was asked to direct a performance + of "The Creation," but declined on the score of failing strength. + Gradually he withdrew himself almost entirely from the outside world, his + general languor broken only by the visits of friends and by moods of + passing cheerfulness. Cherubini, the Abbe Vogler, Pleyel, the Weber + family, Hummel, Reichardt, and many others came to see him. Visits from + members of the Esterhazy family gave him much pleasure. Mozart's widow + also brought her son Wolfgang, to beg his blessing on the occasion of his + first public concert in April 1805, for which he had composed a cantata in + honour of Haydn's seventy-third birthday. But the homage of friends and + admirers could not strengthen the weak hands or confirm the feeble knees. + In 1806 Dies notes that his once-gleaming eye has become dull and heavy + and his complexion sallow, while he suffers from "headache, deafness, + forgetfulness and other pains." His old gaiety has completely gone, and + even his friends have become a bore to him. "My remaining days," he said + to Dies, "must all be spent in this lonely fashion.... I have many + visitors, but it confuses me so much to talk to them that at last I + scarcely know what I am saying and only long to be left in peace." The + condition of a man of naturally genial and optimistic temperament can + easily be imagined from all this—perhaps even more from the fact of + his having a card printed to hand to inquirers who called, bearing the + words: + </p> + <p> + Hin ist alle meine Kraft; Alt and schwach bin ich. + </p> + <p> + [Fled for ever is my strength; Old and weak am I.] + </p> + <p> + Last Works + </p> + <p> + But while Haydn was thus suffering from the natural disabilities of his + years, he was not wholly divorced from his art. It is true that nothing of + any real importance came from his pen after "The Seasons," but a good deal + of work of various kinds was done, some of which it is impossible for the + biographer to ignore. One rather novel undertaking carries us back to the + end of 1799, about which time he was first asked by George Thomson, the + friend of Burns, to write accompaniments for certain Scottish songs to be + published in Thomson's well-known national collections. The correspondence + which followed is interesting in many ways, and as it is not noticed in + any other biography of Haydn, we propose to deal with it here. [The + letters passed through the present writer's hands some five years ago, + when he was preparing his Life of George Thomson(1898). They are now in + the British Museum with the other Thomson correspondence.] + </p> + <p> + A Scottish Admirer + </p> + <p> + George Thomson engaged at one time or other the services of Beethoven, + Pleyel, Weber, Hummel, Bishop and Kozeluch. But Haydn was his first love. + A genius of the kind, he writes in 1811 "never before existed and probably + never will be surpassed." He is "the inimitable Haydn," the "delectable," + the "father of us all," and so on. On the other hand, Haydn was proud of + what he did for Thomson. "I boast of this work," he said, "and by it I + flatter myself my name will live in Scotland many years after my death." + Nay, if we may trust an authority cited by Thomson, so highly did he think + of "the symphonies and accompaniments which he composed for my melodies as + to have the original score of each framed and hung all over the walls of + his bedroom." Little wonder that Thomson "loved the dear old man" and + regretted that his worldly circumstances did not allow him to erect a + statue to the composer at his own expense! + </p> + <p> + We have called this writing of symphonies and accompaniments for George + Thomson a novel undertaking. It was, however, only novel in the sense of + being rather out of Haydn's special "line." He had already been employed + on work of the kind for the collection of William Napier, to which he + contributed the accompaniments of 150 songs. Later on, too (in 1802-1803), + he harmonized and wrote accompaniments for sixty-five airs, for which he + received 500 florins from Whyte of Edinburgh. The extent of his labours + for George Thomson we shall now proceed to show. + </p> + <p> + Song Accompaniments + </p> + <p> + Thomson addressed his first letter to Haydn in October 1799. There is no + copy of it, but there is a copy of a letter to Mr Straton, a friend of + Thomson's, who was at this time Secretary to the Legation at Vienna. + Straton was to deliver the letter to Haydn, and negotiate with him on + Thomson's behalf. He was authorized to "say whatever you conceive is + likely to produce compliance," and if necessary to "offer a few more + ducats for each air." The only stipulation was that Haydn "must not speak + of what he gets." Thomson does not expect that he will do the + accompaniments better than Kozeluch—"that is scarcely possible"(!); + but in the symphonies he will be "great and original." Thomson, as we now + learn from Straton, had offered 2 ducats for each air (say 20s.); Haydn + "seemed desirous of having rather more than 2 ducats, but did not + precisely insist upon the point." Apparently he did not insist, for the + next intimation of the correspondence is to the effect that thirty-two + airs which he had just finished had been forwarded to Thomson on June 19, + 1800. They would have been done sooner, says Straton, but "poor Haydn + laboured under so severe an illness during the course of this spring that + we were not altogether devoid of alarm in regard to his recovery." + Thomson, thus encouraged, sent sixteen more airs; and Straton writes + (April 30, 1801) that Haydn at first refused to touch them because the + price paid was too low. But in the course of conversation Straton learnt + that Haydn was writing to Thomson to ask him to procure a dozen India + handkerchiefs, and it struck him that "your making him a present of them + might mollify the veteran into compliance respecting the sixteen airs." + Straton therefore took upon himself to promise in Thomson's name that the + handkerchiefs would be forthcoming, and "this had the desired effect to + such a degree that Haydn immediately put the sixteen airs in his pocket, + and is to compose the accompaniments as soon as possible on the same terms + as the former." + </p> + <p> + Mrs Jordan + </p> + <p> + The handkerchiefs duly arrived—"nice and large"—and Haydn made + his acknowledgments in appropriate terms. At the same time (in January + 1802) he wrote: "I send you with this the favourite air 'The Blue Bells of + Scotland,' and I should like that this little air should be engraved all + alone and dedicated in my name as a little complimentary gift to the + renowned Mrs Jordan, whom, without having the honour of knowing, I esteem + extremely for her great virtue and reputation." Mrs Jordan has been + credited with the air of "The Blue Bells of Scotland." She certainly + popularized the song, whether it was her own or not. In the note just + quoted Haydn must have used the term "virtue" in the Italian sense. + </p> + <p> + A Hitch + </p> + <p> + After this a little hitch occurred in the Thomson correspondence. Haydn, + being asked by Whyte, the publisher of a rival collection, to do something + for his work, at once agreed. Thomson, not unnaturally, perhaps, felt + hurt. He made his complaint through Mr Straton's successor at the Embassy, + Mr Charles Stuart; and in August 1803 Stuart writes to say that he had + broached the matter to Haydn "in as delicate terms as possible for fear he + might take offence." Haydn frankly admitted that he had done the + accompaniments for Whyte, but said the airs were different from those he + had done for Thomson. After "a long conversation, he informed me," says Mr + Stuart, "that being now seventy-four years of age and extremely infirm, he + found himself wholly incapable of further application to study; that he + must therefore beg leave to decline all offers, whether on your part or + from any other person whatsoever. He even declared that notwithstanding + the repeated requests of Prince Esterhazy, he felt himself utterly + incapable of finishing several pieces of music he had undertaken, and + being possessed of a competency he desired nothing so much as to pass the + short time he has yet to live in repose and quiet." From this letter we + learn that Thomson had unluckily sent a present of a handkerchief for Frau + Haydn, who had now been dead for three years! + </p> + <p> + A "Previous" Letter of Condolence + </p> + <p> + In spite of the little misunderstanding just referred to Haydn was brought + round once more, and on the 20th of December 1803 Thomson sends + twenty-four airs, "which will most certainly be the last." Haydn's work + delights him so much that he "really cannot bear the idea of seeking an + inferior composer to finish a work already so nearly finished by you." He + would pay 4 ducats for each air rather than have the mortification of a + refusal. After this there is little of interest to note in the + correspondence, unless it be a very "previous" letter of condolence which + Thomson sent to Vienna. A false rumour had reached him that Haydn was + dead. The following extract from a note which Haydn dictated to be sent to + the friend who received Thomson's letter will explain the matter: + </p> + <p> + Kindly say to Mr Thomson that Haydn is very sensible of the distress that + the news of his alleged death has caused him, and that this sign of + affection has added, if that were possible, to the esteem and friendship + he will always entertain for Mr Thomson. You will notice that he has put + his name and the date on the sheet of music to give better proof that he + is still on this nether world. He begs you at the same time to be kind + enough to have Mr Thomson's letter of condolence copied and to send him + the copy. + </p> + <p> + Haydn's experience in this way was perhaps unique. Burney says he was + reported dead in 1778; and the false rumour which reached Thomson in 1805 + led Cherubini to compose a sacred cantata for three voices and orchestra, + which was duly performed in Paris when his death actually occurred. + </p> + <p> + Haydn furnished in all some 250 airs with symphonies and accompaniments + for Thomson. In the packet of letters from the composer, docketed by + Thomson himself, the latter has placed a slip of paper indicating the + various payments he had made. According to this statement Haydn had 291 + pounds, 18s. for his work from first to last—not by any means an + insignificant sum to make out of a side branch of his art. + </p> + <p> + Eventide + </p> + <p> + This interesting correspondence takes us up to the year 1806, by which + time Haydn's work was entirely over. His eventide, alas! was darkened by + the clouds of war. The wave of the French Revolution had cast its bloody + spray upon the surrounding nations, and 1805 saw the composer's beloved + Vienna occupied by the French. Haydn was no politician, but love of + country lay deep down in his heart, and he watched the course of events, + from his little cottage, with the saddest forebodings. + </p> + <p> + The Last Public Appearance + </p> + <p> + Once only was he drawn from his seclusion. This was on the 27th of March + 1808, when he appeared in public for the last time at a performance of + "The Creation" at the University. The scene on this remarkable occasion + has been described by many pens. Naumann, writing of it, says that "such + an apotheosis of the master was witnessed as has but few parallels," and + this is no exaggeration. The performance, which was under the direction of + Salieri, had been arranged in honour of his approaching seventy-sixth + birthday. All the great artists of Vienna were present, among them + Beethoven and Hummel. Prince Esterhazy had sent his carriage to bring the + veteran to the hall, and, as he was being conveyed in an arm-chair to a + place among the princes and nobles, the whole audience rose to their feet + in testimony of their regard. It was a cold night, and ladies sitting near + swathed him in their costly wraps and lace shawls. The concert began, and + the audience was hushed to silence. When that magnificent passage was + reached, "And there was light," they burst into loud applause, and Haydn, + overcome with excitement, exclaimed, "Not I, but a Power from above + created that." The performance went on, but it proved too much for the old + man, and friends arranged to take him home at the end of the first part. + As he was being carried out, some of the highest of the land crowded round + to take what was felt to be a last farewell; and Beethoven, forgetting + incidents of early days, bent down and fervently kissed his hand and + forehead. Having reached the door, Haydn asked his bearers to pause and + turn him towards the orchestra. Then, lifting his hand, as if in the act + of blessing, he was borne out into the night. + </p> + <p> + Next year Vienna was bombarded by the French, and a cannon-ball fell not + far from Haydn's house. He was naturally much alarmed; but there is no + ground for the statement, sometimes made, that his death was hastened by + the fright. On the contrary, he called out to his servants, who were + assisting him to dress: "Children, don't be frightened; no harm can happen + to you while Haydn is here." + </p> + <p> + The End + </p> + <p> + But his days were numbered. "This miserable war has cast me down to the + very ground," he would say, with tears in his eyes. And yet it was a + French officer who last visited him on his death-bed, the city being then + actually occupied by the enemy. The officer's name is not given, but he + sang "In native worth" with such expression that Haydn was quite overcome, + and embraced him warmly at parting. On May 26 he seems to have felt that + his end was fast approaching. He gathered his household around him, and, + being carried to the piano, at his own special request, played the + Emperor's Hymn three times over, with an emotion that fairly overpowered + himself and all who heard him. Five days later, on the 31st of May 1809, + he breathed his last. + </p> + <p> + Funeral services were held in all the churches, and on June 15 Mozart's + Requiem was given in his honour at the Scots Church, when several generals + and administrators of the French army were present. Many poems were also + written in his praise. + </p> + <p> + Haydn was buried as a private individual in the Hundsthurm Churchyard, + which was just outside the lines, and close to the suburb of Gumpendorf, + where he had lived. The grave remained entirely undistinguished till 1814—another + instance of Vienna's neglect—when Haydn's pupil, Chevalier Neukomm, + erected a stone bearing the following inscription, which contains a + five-part canon for solution: + </p> + <p> + HAYDN NATUS MDCCXXXIII. OBIIT MDCCCIX. CAN. AENIGM. QUINQUE. VOC. + </p> + <p> + [figure: a musical score excerpt to the syllables non om - nis mo - ri - + ar] + </p> + <p> + D. D. D. + </p> + <p> + Discp. Eius Neukom Vindob. Redux. Mdcccxiv. + </p> + <p> + Desecration of Haydn's Remains + </p> + <p> + In 1820 the remains were exhumed by order of Prince Esterhazy, and + re-interred with fresh funeral honours in the Pilgrimage Church of + Maria-Einsiedel, near Eisenstadt, on November 7. A simple stone, with a + Latin inscription, is inserted in the wall over the vault. When the coffin + was opened, the startling discovery was made that the skull had been + stolen. The desecration took place two days after the funeral. It appears + that one Johann Peter, intendant of the royal and imperial prisons of + Vienna, conceived the grim idea of forming a collection of skulls, made, + as he avowed in his will, to corroborate the theory of Dr Gall, the + founder of phrenology. This functionary bribed the sexton, and—in + concert with Prince Esterhazy's secretary Rosenbaum, and with two + Government officials named Jungermann and Ullmann—he opened Haydn's + grave and removed the skull. Peter afterwards gave the most minute details + of the sacrilege. He declared that he examined the head and found the bump + of music fully developed, and traces in the nose of the polypus from which + Haydn suffered. The skull was placed in a lined box, and when Peter got + into difficulties and his collection was dispersed, the relic passed into + the possession of Rosenbaum. That worthy's conscience seems to have + troubled him in the matter, for he conceived the idea of erecting a + monument to the skull in his back garden! When the desecration was + discovered in 1820 there was an outcry, followed by police search. Prince + Esterhazy would stand no nonsense. The skull must be returned, no + questions would be asked, and Peter was offered a reward if he found it. + The notion then occurred to Rosenbaum of palming off another skull for + Haydn's. This he actually succeeded in doing, the head of some unfortunate + individual being handed to the police. Peter claimed the reward, which was + very justly refused him. When Rosenbaum was dying he confessed to the + deception, and gave the skull back to Peter. Peter formed the resolution + of bequeathing it, by will, to the Conservatorium at Vienna; but he + altered his mind before he died, and by codicil left the skull to Dr + Haller, from whose keeping it ultimately found its way to the anatomical + museum at Vienna. We believe it is still in the museum. Its proper place + is, of course, in Haydn's grave, and a stigma will rest on Vienna until it + is placed there. + </p> + <p> + [The great masters have been peculiarly unfortunate in the matter of their + "remains." When Beethoven's grave was opened in 1863, Professor Wagner was + actually allowed to cut off the ears and aural cavities of the corpse in + order to investigate the cause of the dead man's deafness. The alleged + skeleton of Sebastian Bach was taken to an anatomical museum a few years + ago, "cleaned up," and clothed with a semblance of flesh to show how Bach + looked in life! Donizetti's skull was stolen before the funeral, and was + afterwards sold to a pork butcher, who used it as a money-bowl. Gluck was + re-buried in 1890 beside Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, after having lain + in the little suburban churchyard of Matzleinsdorf since 1787.] + </p> + <p> + A copy of Haydn's will has been printed as one of the appendices to the + present volume, with notes and all necessary information about the + interesting document. Two years before his death he had arranged that his + books, music, manuscripts and medals should become the property of the + Esterhazy family. Among the relics were twenty-four canons which had hung, + framed and glazed, in his bedroom. "I am not rich enough," he said, "to + buy good pictures, so I have provided myself with hangings of a kind that + few possess." These little compositions were the subject of an oft-quoted + anecdote. His wife, in one of her peevish moods, was complaining that if + he should die suddenly, there was not sufficient money in the house to + bury him. "In case such a calamity should occur," he replied, "take these + canons to the music-publisher. I will answer for it, that they will bring + enough to pay for a decent funeral." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. HAYDN: THE MAN + </h2> + <p> + <i>Face and Features—Portraits—Social Habits—Partial to + Pretty Women—His Letters—His Humour—His Generosity—Unspoiled + by Success—His Piety—His Industry—Habits of Composition—Impatient + of Pedantry.</i> + </p> + <p> + Face and Features + </p> + <p> + Something of Haydn's person and character will have already been gathered + from the foregoing pages. He considered himself an ugly man, and, in + Addison's words, thought that the best expedient was "to be pleasant upon + himself." His face was deeply pitted with small-pox, and the nose, large + and aquiline, was disfigured by the polypus which he had inherited from + his mother. In complexion he was so dark as to have earned in some + quarters the familiar nickname of "The Moor." His underlip was thick and + hanging, his jaw massive. "The mouth and chin are Philistine," wrote + Lavater under his silhouette, noting, at the same time, "something out of + the common in the eyes and the nose." The eyes were dark gray. They are + described as "beaming with benevolence," and he used to say himself: + "Anyone can see by the look of me that I am a good-natured sort of + fellow." + </p> + <p> + In stature he was rather under the middle height, with legs + disproportionately short, a defect rendered more noticeable by the style + of his dress, which he refused to change with the changes of fashion. Dies + writes: "His features were regular, his expression animated, yet, at the + same time, temperate, gentle and attractive. His face wore a stern look + when in repose, but in conversation it was smiling and cheerful. I never + heard him laugh out loud. His build was substantial, but deficient in + muscle." Another of his acquaintances says that "notwithstanding a cast of + physiognomy rather morose, and a short way of expressing himself, which + seemed to indicate an ill-tempered man, the character of Haydn was gay, + open and humorous." From these testimonies we get the impression of a + rather unusual combination of the attractive and the repulsive, the + intellectual and the vulgar. What Lavater described as the "lofty and + good" brow was partly concealed by a wig, with side curls, and a pig-tail, + which he wore to the last. His dress as a private individual has not been + described in detail, but the Esterhazy uniform, though frequently changing + in colour and style, showed him in knee-breeches, white stockings, lace + ruffles and white neckcloth. This uniform he never wore except when on + actual duty. + </p> + <p> + Portraits + </p> + <p> + After his death there were many portraits in chalks, engraved, and modeled + in wax. Notwithstanding his admission of the lack of personal graces, he + had a sort of feminine objection to an artist making him look old. We read + that, in 1800, he was "seriously angry" with a painter who had represented + him as he then appeared. "If I was Haydn at forty," said he, "why should + you transmit to posterity a Haydn of seventy-eight?" Several writers + mention a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and even give details of the + sittings, but he never sat to Reynolds, whose eyesight had begun to fail + before Haydn's arrival in England. During his first visit to London + Hoppner painted his portrait at the special request of the Prince of + Wales. This portrait was engraved by Facius in 1807, and is now at Hampton + Court. Engravings were also published in London by Schiavonetti and + Bartolozzi from portraits by Guttenbrunn and Ott, and by Hardy from his + own oil-painting. A silhouette, which hung for long at the head of his + bed, was engraved for the first time for Grove's Dictionary of Music. This + was said by Elssler, his old servant, to have been a striking likeness. Of + the many busts, the best is that by his friend Grassi, the sculptor. + </p> + <p> + [figure: Haydn's silhouette by Lavater] + </p> + <p> + Social Habits + </p> + <p> + Very little has been recorded of his social habits. Anything like excess + in wine is not once mentioned; but it is easy to see from his + correspondence that he enjoyed a good dinner, and was not insensible to + creature comforts. Writing to Artaria from Esterhaz in 1788, he says: + "By-the-bye, I am very much obliged to you for the capital cheese you sent + me, and also the sausages, for which I am your debtor, but shall not fail + when an opportunity offers to return the obligation." In a subsequent + letter to Frau von Genzinger he comically laments the change from Vienna + to Esterhaz: "I lost twenty pounds in weight in three days, for the effect + of my fare at Vienna disappeared on the journey. 'Alas! alas!' thought I, + when driven to eat at the restaurateurs, 'instead of capital beef, a slice + of a cow fifty years old; instead of a ragout with little balls of + force-meat, an old sheep with yellow carrots; instead of a Bohemian + pheasant, a tough grill; instead of pastry, dry apple fritters and + hazelnuts, etc.! Alas! alas! would that I now had many a morsel I despised + in Vienna! Here in Esterhaz no one asks me, Would you like some chocolate, + with milk or without? Will you take some coffee, with or without cream? + What can I offer you, my good Haydn? Will you have vanille ice or + pineapple?' If I had only a piece of good Parmesan cheese, particularly in + Lent, to enable me to swallow more easily the black dumplings and puffs! I + gave our porter this very day a commission to send me a couple of pounds." + Even amid the social pleasures and excitements of London, where he was + invited out six times a week and had "four excellent dishes" at every + dinner, he longs to be back in his native land so that he may have "some + good German soup." + </p> + <p> + Partial to Pretty Women + </p> + <p> + We read that in Austria he "never associated with any but the musicians, + his colleagues," a statement which cannot be strictly true. In London he + was, as we have seen, something of a "lion," but it is doubtful if he + enjoyed the conventional diversions of the beau monde. Yet he liked the + company of ladies, especially when they were personally attractive. That + he was never at a loss for a compliment may perhaps be taken as explaining + his frequent conquests, for, as he frankly said himself, the pretty women + "were at any rate not tempted by my beauty." Of children he was + passionately fond, a fact which lends additional melancholy to his own + unhappy and childless home life. + </p> + <p> + His Letters + </p> + <p> + He was not highly educated, and he does not seem to have taken much + interest in anything outside his own profession. This much may be gathered + from his correspondence, upon which it is not necessary to comment at + length. Mr Russell Lowell remarks that a letter which is not mainly about + the writer loses its prime flavour. Haydn's letters are seldom "mainly + about the writer." They help us very little in seeking to get at what + Newman called "the inside of things," though some, notably those given at + the end of this volume, embody valuable suggestions. He habitually spoke + in the broad dialect of his native place. He knew Italian well and French + a little, and he had enough Latin to enable him to set the Church + services. Of English he was almost entirely ignorant until he came to + London in 1791, when we hear of him walking the country lanes with an + English grammar in hand. There is an amusing story of a dinner at Madame + Mara's, at which he was present during his first visit. Crossdill, the + violoncellist, proposed to celebrate him with "three times three." The + suggestion was at once adopted, all the guests, with the exception of + Haydn himself, standing up and cheering lustily. Haydn heard his name + repeated, but not understanding what was going on, stared at the company + in blank bewilderment. When the matter was explained to him he appeared + quite overcome with diffidence, putting his hands before his face and not + recovering his equanimity for some minutes. [See Records of My Life, by + John Taylor: London, 1832.] + </p> + <p> + His Humour + </p> + <p> + Of hobbies or recreations he appears to have had none, though, to relieve + the dull monotony of life at Eisenstadt or Esterhaz, he occasionally + indulged in hunting and fishing and mountain rambles. A leading trait in + his character was his humour and love of fun. As he remarked to Dies: "A + mischievous fit comes over me sometimes that is perfectly beyond control." + The incident of the removal of the fellow chorister's pig-tail will at + once recur to the memory. The "Surprise" Symphony is another illustration, + to say nothing of the "Toy" Symphony and "Jacob's Dream." + </p> + <p> + His Generosity + </p> + <p> + Of his generosity and his kindness to fellow artists there are many + proofs. In 1800 he speaks of himself as having "willingly endeavoured all + my life to assist everyone," and the words were no empty boast. No man + was, in fact, more ready to perform a good deed. He had many needy + relations always looking to him for aid, and their claims were seldom + refused. A brother artist in distress was sure of help, and talented young + men found in him a valuable friend, equally ready to give his advice or + his gold, as the case might require. That he was sometimes imposed upon + goes without saying. He has been charged with avarice, but the charge is + wholly unfounded. He was simply careful in money matters, and that, to a + large extent, because of the demands that were constantly being made upon + him. In commercial concerns he was certainly sharp and shrewd, and + attempts to take advantage of him always roused his indignation. "By + heavens!" he writes to Artaria, "you have wronged me to the extent of + fifty ducats.... This step must cause the cessation of all transactions + between us." The same firm, having neglected to answer some business + proposition, were pulled up in this fashion: "I have been much provoked by + the delay, inasmuch as I could have got forty ducats from another + publisher for these five pieces, and you make too many difficulties about + a matter by which, in such short compositions, you have at least a thirty + fold profit. The sixth piece has long had its companion, so pray make an + end of the affair and send me either my music or my money." + </p> + <p> + The Haydn of these fierce little notes is not the gentle recluse we are + apt to imagine him. They show, on the contrary, that he was not wanting in + spirit when occasion demanded. He was himself upright and honest in all + his dealings. And he never forgot a kindness, as more than one entry in + his will abundantly testifies. He was absolutely without malice, and there + are several instances of his repaying a slight with a generous deed or a + thoughtful action. His practical tribute to the memory of Werner, who + called him a fop and a "scribbler of songs," has been cited. His + forbearance with Pleyel, who had allowed himself to be pitted against him + by the London faction, should also be recalled; and it is perhaps worth + mentioning further that he put himself to some trouble to get a passport + for Pleyel during the long wars of the French Revolution. He carried his + kindliness and gentleness even into "the troubled region of artistic + life," and made friends where other men would have made foes. + </p> + <p> + Unspoiled by Success + </p> + <p> + His modesty has often been insisted upon. Success did not spoil him. In a + letter of 1799 he asks that a certain statement in his favour should not + be mentioned, lest he "be accused of conceit and arrogance, from which my + Heavenly Father has preserved me all my life long." Here he spoke the + simple truth. At the same time, while entirely free from presumption and + vanity, he was perfectly alive to his own merits, and liked to have them + acknowledged. When visitors came to see him nothing gave him greater + pleasure than to open his cabinets and show the medals, that had been + struck in his honour, along with the other gifts he had received from + admirers. Like a true man of genius, as Pohl says, he enjoyed distinction + and fame, but carefully avoided ambition. + </p> + <p> + High Ideals + </p> + <p> + Of his calling and opportunities as an artist he had a very high idea. + Acknowledging a compliment paid to him in 1802 by the members of the + Musical Union in Bergen, he wrote of the happiness it gave him to think of + so many families susceptible of true feeling deriving pleasure and + enjoyment from his compositions. + </p> + <p> + "Often when contending with the obstacles of every sort opposed to my + work, often when my powers both of body and mind failed, and I felt it a + hard matter to persevere in the course I had entered on, a secret feeling + within me whispered, 'There are but few contented and happy men here + below; everywhere grief and care prevail, perhaps your labours may one day + be the source from which the weary and worn or the man burdened with + affairs may derive a few moments' rest and refreshment.' What a powerful + motive to press onwards! And this is why I now look back with heartfelt, + cheerful satisfaction on the work to which I have devoted such a long + succession of years with such persevering efforts and exertions." + </p> + <p> + With this high ideal was combined a constant effort to perfect himself in + his art. To Kalkbrenner he once made the touching remark: "I have only + just learned in my old age how to use the wind instruments, and now that I + do understand them I must leave the world." To Griezinger, again, he said + that he had by no means exhausted his genius: that "ideas were often + floating in his mind, by which he could have carried the art far beyond + anything it had yet attained, had his physical powers been equal to the + task." + </p> + <p> + His Piety + </p> + <p> + Closely, indeed inseparably, connected with this exalted idea of his art + was his simple and sincere piety. He was a devout Christian, and looked + upon his genius as a gift from God, to be freely used in His service. His + faith was never assailed with doubts; he lived and died in the communion + of the Catholic Church, and was "never in danger of becoming either a + bigot or a free-thinker." When Carpani, anticipating latter-day criticism, + hinted to him that his Church compositions were impregnated with a light + gaiety, he replied: "I cannot help it; I give forth what is in me. When I + think of the Divine Being, my heart is, so full of joy that the notes fly + off as from a spindle, and as I have a cheerful heart He will pardon me if + I serve Him cheerfully." + </p> + <p> + His reverent practice during the composition of "The Creation" has been + mentioned. "Never was I so pious," he said. There are many proofs of the + same feeling in his correspondence and other writings. Thus he concludes + an autobiographical sketch with the words: "I offer up to Almighty God all + eulogiums, for to Him alone do I owe them. My sole wish is neither to + offend against my neighbour nor my gracious prince, but above all not + against our merciful God." Again, in one of his later letters, he says + "May God only vouchsafe to grant me the health that I have hitherto + enjoyed, and may I preserve it by good conduct, out of gratitude to the + Almighty." The note appended to the first draft of his will is also + significant. Nor in this connection should we forget the words with which + he inscribed the scores of his more important compositions. For the + conclusion he generally adopted Handel's "Soli Deo Gloria" or "Laus Deo," + with the occasional addition of "et B.V. Mae. et Oms. Sis. (Beatae Virgini + Mariae et Omnibus Sanctis)." Even his opera scores were so inscribed, one + indeed having the emphatic close: "Laus omnipotenti Deo et Beatissimae + Virgini Mariae." The superscription was uniformly "In nomine Domini." It + is recorded somewhere that when, in composing, he felt his inspiration + flagging, or was baulked by some difficulty, he rose from the instrument + and began to run over his rosary. In short, not to labour the point, he + had himself followed the advice which, as an old man, he gave to the + choirboys of Vienna: "Be good and industrious and serve God continually." + </p> + <p> + His Industry + </p> + <p> + The world has seen many an instance of genius without industry, as of + industry without genius. In Haydn the two were happily wedded. He was + always an early riser, and long after his student days were over he worked + steadily from sixteen to eighteen hours a day. He lived strictly by a + self-imposed routine, and was so little addicted to what Scott called + "bed-gown and slipper tricks," that he never sat down to work or received + a visitor until he was fully dressed. He had none of Wagner's luxurious + tastes or Balzac's affectations in regard to a special attire for work, + but when engaged on his more important compositions he always wore the + ring given him by the King of Prussia. In Haydn's case there are no + incredible tales of dashing off scores in the twinkling of an eye. That he + produced so much must be attributed to his habit of devoting all his + leisure to composition. He was not a rapid worker if we compare him with + Handel and Mozart. He never put down anything till he was "quite sure it + was the right thing"—a habit of mind indicated by his neat and + uniform handwriting ["His notes had such little heads and slender tails + that he used, very properly, to call them his, flies' legs."—Bombet, + p. 97.]—and he assures us: "I never was a quick writer, and always + composed with care and deliberation. That alone," he added, "is the way to + compose works that will last, and a real connoisseur can see at a glance + whether a score has been written in undue haste or not." He is quoted as + saying that "genius is always prolific." However the saying may be + interpreted, there does not seem to have been about him anything of what + has been called the irregular dishabille of composers, "the natural result + of the habit of genius of watching for an inspiration, and encouraging it + to take possession of the whole being when it comes." + </p> + <p> + Habits of Composition + </p> + <p> + His practice was to sketch out his ideas roughly in the morning, and + elaborate them in the afternoon, taking pains to preserve unity in idea + and form. "That is where so many young composers fail," he said in + reference to the latter point. "They string together a number of + fragments; they break off almost as soon as they have begun, and so at the + end the listener carries off no definite impression." The importance of + melody he specially emphasized. "It is the air which is the charm of + music," he remarked, "and it is that which is most difficult to produce. + The invention of a fine melody is the work of genius." In another place he + says: "In vocal composition, the art of producing beautiful melody may now + almost be considered as lost; and when a composer is so fortunate as to + throw forth a passage that is really melodious, he is sure, if he be not + sensible of its excellence, to overwhelm and destroy it by the fullness + and superfluity of his instrumental parts." [Compare Mozart's words as + addressed to Michael Kelly: "Melody is the essence of music. I should + liken one who invents melodies to a noble racehorse, and a mere + contrapuntist to a hired post-hack."] + </p> + <p> + He is stated to have always composed with the aid of the pianoforte or + harpsichord; and indeed we find him writing to Artaria in 1788 to say that + he has been obliged to buy a new instrument "that I might compose your + clavier sonatas particularly well." This habit of working out ideas with + the assistance of the piano has been condemned by most theorists as being + likely to lead to fragmentariness. With Haydn at any rate the result was + entirely satisfactory, for, as Sir Hubert Parry points out, the neatness + and compactness of his works is perfect. It is very likely, as Sir Hubert + says, that most modern composers have used the pianoforte a good deal—not + so much to help them to find out their ideas, as to test the details and + intensify their musical sensibility by the excitant sounds, the actual + sensual impression of which is, of course, an essential element in all + music. The composer can always hear such things in his mind, but obviously + the music in such an abstract form can never have quite as much effect + upon him as when the sounds really strike upon his ear. [See Studies of + Great Composers, by C. Hubert H. Parry, p. 109.] + </p> + <p> + No Pedant + </p> + <p> + Like all the really great composers, Haydn was no pedant in the matter of + theoretical formulae, though he admitted that the rigid rules of harmony + should rarely be violated, and "never without the compensation of some + inspired effect." When he was asked according to what rule he had + introduced a certain progression, he replied "The rules are all my very + obedient humble servants." With the quint-hunters and other faddists who + would place their shackles on the wrists of genius, he had as little + patience as Beethoven, who, when told that all the authorities forbade the + consecutive fifths in his C Minor Quartet, thundered out: "Well, I allow + them." Somebody once questioned him about an apparently unwarranted + passage in the introduction to Mozart's Quartet in C Major. "If Mozart has + written it, be sure he had good reasons for doing so," was the conclusive + reply. That fine old smoke-dried pedant, Albrechtsberger, declared against + consecutive fourths in strict composition, and said so to Haydn. "What is + the good of such rules?" demanded Haydn. "Art is free and must not be + fettered by mechanical regulations. The cultivated ear must decide, and I + believe myself as capable as anyone of making laws in this respect. Such + trifling is absurd; I wish instead that someone would try to compose a + really new minuet." To Dies he remarked further: "Supposing an idea struck + me as good and thoroughly satisfactory both to the ear and the heart, I + would far rather pass over some slight grammatical error than sacrifice + what seemed to me beautiful to any mere pedantic trifling." These were + sensible views. Practice must always precede theory. When we find a great + composer infringing some rule of the old text-books, there is, to say the + least, a strong presumption, not that the composer is wrong, but that the + rule needs modifying. The great composer goes first and invents new + effects: it is the business of the theorist not to cavil at every novelty, + but to follow modestly behind and make his rules conform to the practice + of the master. [Compare Professor Prout's Treatise on Harmony.] + </p> + <p> + Thus much about Haydn the man. Let us now turn to Haydn the composer and + his position in the history of music. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. HAYDN: THE COMPOSER + </h2> + <p> + <i>The Father of Instrumental Music—The Quartets—The + Symphonies—The Salomon Set—The Sonatas—Church Music—Songs—Operas—Orchestration—General + Style—Conclusion.</i> + </p> + <p> + The Father of Instrumental Music + </p> + <p> + Haydn has been called "the father of instrumental music," and although + rigid critics may dispute his full right to that title, on broad grounds + he must be allowed to have sufficiently earned it. He was practically the + creator of more than one of our modern forms, and there was hardly a + department of instrumental music in which he did not make his influence + felt. This was emphatically the case with the sonata, the symphony and the + string quartet. The latter he brought to its first perfection. Before his + time this particular form of chamber music was long neglected, and for a + very simple reason. Composers looked upon it as being too slight in + texture for the display of their genius. That, as has often been + demonstrated, was because they had not mastered the art of "writing a + four-part harmony with occasional transitions into the pure polyphonic + style—a method of writing which is indispensable to quartet + composition—and also because they did not yet understand the scope + and value of each individual instrument." + </p> + <p> + The Quartet + </p> + <p> + It would be too much to say that even Haydn fully realized the capacities + of each of his four instruments. Indeed, his quartet writing is often bald + and uninteresting. But at least he did write in four-part harmony, and it + is certainly to him that we owe the installation of the quartet as a + distinct species of chamber music. "It is not often," says Otto Jahn, the + biographer of Mozart, "that a composer hits so exactly upon the form + suited to his conceptions; the quartet was Haydn's natural mode of + expressing his feelings." This is placing the Haydn quartet in a very high + position among the products of its creator. But its artistic value and + importance cannot well be over-estimated. Even Mozart, who set a noble + seal upon the form, admitted that it was from Haydn he had first learned + the true way to compose quartets; and there have been enthusiasts who + regarded the Haydn quartet with even more veneration than the Haydn + symphony. No fewer than seventy-seven quartets are ascribed to him. + Needless to say, they differ considerably as regards their style and + treatment, for the first was written so early as 1755, while the last + belongs to his later years. But they are all characterized by the same + combination of manly earnestness, rich invention and mirthful spirit. The + form is concise and symmetrical, the part-writing is clear and + well-balanced, and a "sunny sweetness" is the prevailing mood. As a + discerning critic has remarked, there is nothing in the shape of + instrumental music much pleasanter and easier to listen to than one of + Haydn's quartets. The best of them hold their places in the concert-rooms + of to-day, and they seem likely to live as long as there are people to + appreciate clear and logical composition which attempts nothing beyond + "organized simplicity." [See W. J. Henderson's How Music Developed, p. + 191: London, 1899]. In this department, as Goethe said, he may be + superseded, but he can never be surpassed. + </p> + <p> + The Symphony + </p> + <p> + For the symphony Haydn did no less than for the quartet. The symphony, in + his young days, was not precisely the kind of work which now bears the + name. It was generally written for a small band, and consisted of four + parts for strings and four for wind instruments. It was meant to serve no + higher purpose, as a rule, than to be played in the houses of nobles; and + on that account it was neither elaborated as to length nor complicated as + to development. So long as it was agreeable and likely to please the + aristocratic ear, the end of the composer was thought to be attained. + </p> + <p> + Haydn, as we know, began his symphonic work under Count Morzin. The + circumstances were not such as to encourage him to "rise to any pitch of + real greatness or depth of meaning"; and although he was able to build on + a somewhat grander scale when he went to Eisenstadt, it was still a little + comfortable coterie that he understood himself to be writing for rather + than for the musical world at large. Nevertheless, he aimed at constant + improvement, and although he had no definite object in view, he "raised + the standard of symphony—writing far beyond any point which had been + attained before." + </p> + <p> + "His predecessors," to quote Sir Hubert Parry, "had always written rather + carelessly and hastily for the band, and hardly ever tried to get refined + and original effects from the use of their instruments, but he naturally + applied his mind more earnestly to the matter in hand, and found out new + ways of contrasting and combining the tones of different members of his + orchestra, and getting a fuller and richer effect out of the mass of them + when they were all playing. In the actual style of the music, too, he made + great advances, and in his hands symphonies became by degrees more + vigorous, and, at the same time, more really musical." + </p> + <p> + But the narrow limits of the Esterhazy audience and the numbing routine of + the performances were against his rising to the top heights of his genius. + </p> + <p> + The Salomon Set + </p> + <p> + It was only when he came to write for the English public that he showed + what he could really do with the matter of the symphony. In comparison + with the twelve symphonies which he wrote for Salomon, the other, and + especially the earlier works are of practically no account. They are + interesting, of course, as marking stages in the growth of the symphony + and in the development of the composer's genius. But regarded in + themselves, as absolute and individual entities, they are not for a moment + to be placed by the side of the later compositions. These, so far as his + instrumental music is concerned, are the crowning glory of his life work. + They are the ripe fruits of his long experience working upon the example + of Mozart, and mark to the full all those qualities of natural geniality, + humour, vigour and simple-heartedness, which are the leading + characteristics of his style. + </p> + <p> + [figure: a musical score excerpt] + </p> + <p> + The Sonata + </p> + <p> + Haydn's sonatas show the same advance in form as his symphonies and + quartets. The older specimens of the sonata, as seen in the works of + Biber, Kuhnau, Mattheson and others, contain little more than the germs of + the modern sonata. Haydn, building on Emanuel Bach, fixed the present + form, improving so largely upon the earlier, that we could pass from his + sonatas directly to those of Beethoven without the intervention of + Mozart's as a connecting link. Beethoven's sonatas were certainly more + influenced by Haydn's than by Mozart's. Haydn's masterpieces in this kind, + like those of Mozart and Beethoven, astonish by their order, regularity, + fluency, harmony and roundness; and by their splendid development into + full and complete growth out of the sometimes apparently unimportant + germs. [See Ernst Pauer's Musical Forms.] Naturally his sonatas are not + all masterpieces. Of the thirty-five, some are old-fashioned and some are + quite second-rate. But, like the symphonies, they are all of historical + value as showing the development not only of the form but of the + composer's powers. One of the number is peculiar in having four movements; + another is equally peculiar—to Haydn at least—in having only + two movements. Probably in the case of the latter the curtailment was due + to practical rather than to artistic reasons. Like Beethoven, with the + two-movement sonata in C minor, Haydn may not have had time for a third! + In several of the sonatas the part-writing strikes one as being somewhat + poor and meagre; in others there is, to the modern ear, a surfeiting + indulgence in those turns, arpeggios and other ornaments which were + inseparable from the nature of the harpsichord, with its thin tones and + want of sustaining power. If Haydn had lived to write for the richer and + more sustained sounds of the modern pianoforte, his genius would no doubt + have responded to the increased demands made upon it, though we may doubt + whether it was multiplex enough or intellectual enough to satisfy the + deeper needs of our time. As it is, the changes which have been made in + sonata form since his day are merely changes of detail. To him is due the + fixity of the form. [See "The Pianoforte Sonata," by J. S. Shedlock: + London, 1895. Mr Shedlock, by selecting for analysis some of the most + characteristic sonatas, shows Haydn in his three stages of apprenticeship, + mastery and maturity.] + </p> + <p> + Church Music + </p> + <p> + Of his masses and Church music generally it is difficult to speak + critically without seeming unfair. We have seen how he explained what must + be called the almost secular style of these works. But while it is true + that Haydn's masses have kept their place in the Catholic churches of + Germany and elsewhere, it is impossible, to Englishmen, at any rate, not + to feel a certain incongruity, a lack of that dignity and solemnity, that + religious "sense," which makes our own Church music so impressive. We must + not blame him for this. He escaped the influences which made Bach and + Handel great in religious music—the influences of Protestantism, not + to say Puritanism. The Church to which he belonged was no longer guided in + its music by the principles of Palestrina. On the contrary; it was tainted + by secular and operatic influences; and although Haydn felt himself to be + thoroughly in earnest it was rather the ornamental and decorate side of + religion that he expressed in his lively music. He might, perhaps, have + written in a more serious, lofty strain had he been brought under the + noble traditions which glorified the sacred choral works of the earlier + masters just named. In any case, his Church music has nothing of the + historical value of his instrumental music. It is marked by many sterling + and admirable qualities, but the progress of the art would not have been + materially affected if it had never come into existence. + </p> + <p> + Songs + </p> + <p> + As a song-writer Haydn was only moderately successful, perhaps because, + having himself but a slight acquaintance with literature, he left the + selection of the words to others, with, in many cases, unfortunate + results. The form does not seem to have been a favourite with him, for his + first songs were not produced until so late as 1780. Some of the later + compositions have, however, survived; and one or two of the canzonets, + such as "My mother bids me bind my hair" and "She never told her love," + are admirable. The three-part and the four-part songs, as well as the + canons, of which he thought very highly himself, are also excellent, and + still charm after the lapse of so many years. + </p> + <p> + Operas + </p> + <p> + On the subject of his operas little need be added to what has already been + said. Strictly speaking, he never had a chance of showing what he could do + with opera on a grand scale. He had to write for a small stage and a small + audience, and in so far he was probably successful. Pohl thinks that if + his project of visiting Italy had been fulfilled and his faculties been + stimulated in this direction by fresh scenes and a larger horizon, we + might have gained "some fine operas." It is doubtful; Haydn lacked the + true dramatic instinct. His placid, easy-going, contented nature could + never have allowed him to rise to great heights of dramatic force. He was + not built on a heroic mould; the meaning of tragedy was unknown to him. + </p> + <p> + Orchestration + </p> + <p> + Regarding his orchestration a small treatise might be written. The terms + which best describe it are, perhaps, refinement and brilliancy. Much of + his success in this department must, of course, be attributed to his long + and intimate association with the Esterhazy band. In 1766, six years after + his appointment, this band numbered seventeen instruments—six + violins and viola, one violoncello, one double bass, one flute, two oboes, + two bassoons and four horns. It was subsequently enlarged to twenty-two + and twenty-four, including trumpets and kettledrums on special occasions. + From 1776 to 1778 there were also clarinets. This gradual extension of + resources may be taken as roughly symbolizing Haydn's own advances in the + matter of orchestral development. When he wrote his first symphony in 1759 + he employed first and second violins, violas, basses, two oboes and two + horns; in his last symphony, written in 1795, he had at his command "the + whole symphonic orchestra as it had stood when Beethoven took up the work + of orchestral development." Between these two points Mozart had lived and + died, leaving Haydn his actual debtor so far as regards the increased + importance of the orchestra. It has been said that he learnt from Mozart + the use of the clarinet, and this is probably true, notwithstanding the + fact that he had employed a couple of clarinets in his first mass, written + in 1751 or 1752. Both composers used clarinets rarely, but Haydn certainly + did not reveal the real capacity of the instrument or establish its + position in the orchestra as Mozart did. + </p> + <p> + From his first works onwards, he proceeded along the true symphonic path, + and an orchestra of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, + two horns, two trumpets, drums, and the usual strings fairly represents + the result of his contributions to its development up to the first + successful experiments of Mozart. The names of Mozart and Haydn ought in + reality to be coupled together as the progenitors of the modern orchestral + colouring. But the superiority must be allowed to attach to Haydn, + inasmuch as his colouring is the more expansive and decided. Some of his + works, even of the later period, show great reticence in scoring, but, on + the other hand, as in "The Creation," he knew when to draw upon the full + resources of the orchestra. It has been pointed out as worthy of remark + that he was not sufficiently trustful of his instrumental army to leave it + without the weak support of the harpsichord, at which instrument he + frequently sat during the performance of his symphonies, and played with + the orchestra, with extremely bad effect. [Compare The Orchestra and + Orchestral Music, by W. J. Henderson: London, 1901.] In this, however, he + merely followed the custom of his day. + </p> + <p> + General Style + </p> + <p> + Of Haydn's general style as a composer it is hardly necessary to speak. To + say that a composition is "Haydnish" is to express in one word what is + well understood by all intelligent amateurs. Haydn's music is like his + character—clear, straightforward, fresh and winning, without the + slightest trace of affectation or morbidity. Its perfect transparency, its + firmness of design, its fluency of instrumental language, the beauty and + inexhaustible invention of its melody, its studied moderation, its + child-like cheerfulness—these are some of the qualities which mark + the style of this most genial of all the great composers. + </p> + <p> + That he was not deep, that he does not speak a message of the inner life + to the latter-day individual, who, in the Ossianic phrase, likes to + indulge in "the luxury of grief," must, of course, be admitted. The + definite embodiment of feeling which we find in Beethoven is not to be + found in him. It was not in his nature. "My music," says Schubert, "is the + production of my genius and my misery." Haydn, like Mendelssohn, was never + more than temporarily miserable. But in music the gospel of despair seldom + wants its preachers. To-day it is Tschaikowsky; to-morrow it will be + another. Haydn meant to make the world happy, not to tear it with agony. + "I know," he said, "that God has bestowed a talent upon me, and I thank + Him for it. I think I have done my duty, and been of use in my generation + by my works. Let others do the same." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEa" id="link2H_APPEa"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX A: HAYDN'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT + </h2> + <p> + The following draft of Haydn's will is copied from Lady Wallace's Letters + of Distinguished Musicians (London, 1867), where it was published in full + for the first time. The much-corrected original is in the Court Library at + Vienna. Dies says: "Six weeks before his death, in April 1809, he read + over his will to his servants in the presence of witnesses, and asked them + whether they were satisfied with his provisions or not. The good people + were quite taken by surprise at the kindness of their master's heart, + seeing themselves thus provided for in time to come, and they thanked him + with tears in their eyes." The extracts given by Dies vary in some + particulars from the following, because Haydn's final testamentary + dispositions were made at a later date. But, as Lady Wallace says, it is + not the legal but the moral aspect of the affair that interests us. Here + we see epitomized all the goodness and beauty of Haydn's character. The + document runs as follows: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + FLORINS. + + 1. For holy masses,........................................12 + + 2. To the Norman School,....................................5 + + 3. To the Poorhouse,........................................5 + + 4. To the executor of my will.............................200 + And also the small portrait of Grassi. + + 5. To the pastor,..........................................10 + + 6. Expenses of my funeral, first-class,...................200 + + 7. To my dear brother Michael, in Salzburg,..............4000 + + 8. To my brother Johann, in Eisenstadt,..................4000 + + 9. To my sister in Rohrau (erased, and written + underneath): "God have mercy on her soul! To the + three children of my sister,".........................2000 + + 10. To the workwoman in Esterhazy, Anna Maria Moser, + nee Frohlichin,........................................500 + + 11. To the workwoman in Rohrau, Elisabeth, nee Bohme,......500 + + 12. To the two workwomen there (erased, and replaced + by: "To the shoemaker, Anna Loder, in Vienna"),........200 + Should she presume to make any written claims, I + declare them to be null and void, having already + paid for her and her profligate husband, Joseph + Lungmayer, more than 6000 gulden. + + 13. To the shoemaker in Garhaus, Theresa Hammer,............500 + + 14. To her son, the blacksmith, Matthias Frohlich,..........500 + + 15.&16. To the eldest child of my deceased sister, + Anna Wimmer, and her husband, at Meolo, in Hungary,.....500 + + 17. To her married daughter at Kaposwar,....................100 + + 18. To the other three children (erased),...................300 + + 19. To the married Dusse, nee Scheeger,.....................300 + + 20. To her imbecile brother, Joseph (erased),...............100 + + 21. To her brother, Karl Scheeger, silversmith, and his + wife,...................................................900 + + 22. To the son of Frau von Koller,..........................300 + + 23. To his son (erased),....................................100 + + 24. To the sister of my late wife (erased). + + 25. To my servant, Johann Elssler,.........................2500 + Also one year's wages, likewise a coat, waistcoat + and a pair of trousers. (According to Griesinger, + Haydn bequeathed a capital of 6000 florins to this + faithful servant and copyist.) + + 26. To Rosalia Weber, formerly in my service,...............300 + (She has a written certificate of this from me.) + + 27. To my present maid-servant, Anna Kremnitzer,...........1000 + And a year's wages in addition. Also, her bed and + bedding and two pairs of linen sheets; also, four + chairs, a table, a chest of drawers, the watch, + the clock and the picture of the Blessed Virgin in + her room, a flat-iron, kitchen utensils and crockery, + one water-pail, and other trifles. + + 28. To my housekeeper, Theresia Meyer,......................500 + And one year's wages,.................................20 + + 29. To my old gardener, Michel,..............................24 + + 30. To the Prince's Choir for my obsequies, to share + alike (erased),......................................100 + + 31. To the priest (erased),..................................12 + + 32. To the pastor in Eisenstadt for a solemn mass,............5 + + 33. To his clerk,.............................................2 + + 34. To the beneficiary,.......................................2 + + 35. To Pastor von Nollendorf,.................................2 + + 36. To Pastor von St Georg,...................................2 + + 37. To the sexton (erased from 33),...........................1 + + 38. To the organ-bellows' blower,.............................1 + + 39. To the singer, Babett,...................................50 + + 40. To my cousin, the saddler's wife, in Eisenstadt,.........50 + To her daughter,........................................300 + + 41. To Mesdemoiselles Anna and Josepha Dillin,..............100 + + 42. To the blind daughter of Herr Graus, leader of + the choir in Eisenstadt (erased),.......................100 + + 43. To the four sisters Sommerfeld, daughters of + the wigmaker in Presburg,...............................200 + + 44. To Nannerl, daughter of Herr Weissgerb, my + neighbour (erased),......................................50 + + 45. To Herr Art, merchant in the Kleine Steingasse,..........50 + + 46. To the pastor in Rohrau,.................................12 + + 47. To the schoolmaster in Rohrau,............................6 + + 48. To the school children,...................................3 + + 49. To Herr Wamerl, formerly with Count v. Harrach,..........50 + + 50. To his present cashier,..................................50 + + 51. To Count v. Harrach for the purpose of defraying + the bequests Nos. 51 and 52, I bequeath an + obligation of 6000 florins at 5 per cent., the + interest to be disposed of as follows: + + To the widow Aloysia Polzelli, formerly + singer at Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy's, payable + in ready money six weeks after my death,................100 + + And each year, from the date of my death, for + her life, the interest of the above capital,............150 + + After her death her son, Anton Polzelli, to + receive 150 florins for one year, having always + been a good son to his mother and a grateful + pupil to me. N.B.—I hereby revoke the obligation + in Italian, signed by me, which may be produced + by Mdme. Polzelli, otherwise so many of my poor + relations with greater claims would receive too + little. Finally, Mdme. Polzelli must be satisfied + with the annuity of 150 florins. After her death + the half of the above capital, viz., 3000 + florins, to be divided into two shares—one-half + (1500) to devolve on the Rohrau family, for the + purpose of keeping in good order the monument + erected to me by Count von Harrach, and also + that of my deceased father at the door of the + sacristy. The other half to be held in trust by + the Count, and the annual interest of the sum, + namely, 45 florins, to be divided between any + two orphans in Rohrau. + + 52. To my niece, Anna Lungmayer, payable six weeks + after my death,..........................................100 + Likewise a yearly annuity to her husband and herself,....150 + All these legacies and obligations, and also + the proceeds of the sale of my house and legal + costs, to be paid within one year of my death; + all the other expenses to be deducted from the + sum of ready money in the hands of the executors, + who must account to the heir for the same. On + their demise this annuity to go to their children + until they come of age, and after that period the + capital to be equally divided among them. Of + the remaining 950 florins, 500 to become the + property of my beloved Count v. Harrach, as the + depositary of my last will and testament, and + 300 I bequeath to the agent for his trouble. + The residue of 150 florins to go to my stepmother, + and, if she be no longer living, to her + children. N.B.—Should Mdme. Lungmayer or + her husband produce any document signed by + me for a larger sum, I wish it to be understood, + as in the case of Mdme. Polzelli, that it is to be + considered null and void, as both Mdme. Lungmayer + and her husband, owing to my great kindness, lavished + more than 6000 florins of mine during my life, which + my own brother and the citizens in Oedenberg and + Eisenstadt can testify. + + (From No. 51 is repeatedly and thickly scored out.) + + 53. To the widow Theresia Eder and her two daughters, + lacemakers,...............................................150 + + 54. To my pupil, Anton Polzelli,..............................100 + + 55. To poor blind Adam in Eisenstadt,..........................24 + + 56. To my gracious Prince, my gold Parisian medal and + the letter that accompanied it, with a humble + request to grant them a place in the museum at + Forchtentein. + + 57. To Mdlle. C. Czeck, waiting-woman to Princess + Graschalkowitz (erased),.................................1000 + + 58. To Fraulein Anna Bucholz,.................................100 + Inasmuch as in my youth her grandfather lent + me 150 florins when I greatly needed them, + which, however, I repaid fifty years ago. + + 59. To the daughter of the bookkeeper, Kandler, my + piano, by the organ-builder Schanz. + + 60. The small Parisian medal to Count v. Harrach, and + also the bust a l'antique of Herr Grassi. + + 61. To the widow Wallnerin in Schottenhof,....................100 + + 62. To the Father Prior Leo in Eisenstadt, of the + "Brothers of Mercy,".......................................50 + + 63. To the Hospital for the Poor in Eisenstadt (erased),.......75 + + For the ratification of this my last will and testament, I have + written it entirely in my own hand, and earnestly beg the + authorities to consider it, even if not strictly or properly legal, + in the light at least of a codicil, and to do all in their power + to make it valid and binding. + + JOSEPH HAYDN. + May 5, 1801. + + Should God call me away suddenly, this my last will and testament, + though not written on stamped paper, to be considered valid in + law, and the stamps to be repaid tenfold to my sovereign. + + In the name of the Holy Trinity. The uncertainty of the + period when it may please my Creator, in His infinite wisdom, + to call me from time into eternity has caused me, being in sound + health, to make my last will with regard to my little remaining + property. I commend my soul to my all-merciful Creator; my + body I wish to be interred, according to the Roman Catholic + forms, in consecrated ground. A first-class funeral. For my + soul I bequeath No. 1. + + Joseph Haydn + + Vienna, Dec. 6, 1801 +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEb" id="link2H_APPEb"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX B: CATALOGUE OF WORKS + </h2> + <p> + There are unusual difficulties in the way of compiling a thoroughly + satisfactory catalogue of Haydn's instrumental works. From the want of any + generally-accepted consecutive numbering, and the fact that several are in + the same key, this is particularly the case with the symphonies. Different + editions have different numberings, and the confusion is increased by a + further re-numbering of the piano symphonic scores arranged for two and + four hands. In Breitkopf & Hartel's catalogue many works are included + among the symphonies which are also found among the smaller compositions, + and others are catalogued twice. Even the composer himself, in compiling + his thematic catalogue, made mistakes. In the present list we have been + content for the most part to state the numbers of the various instrumental + works, without attempting to notify each individual composition. Indeed, + to do otherwise would have called for an extensive use of music type. Nor + have we thought it necessary to include the supposititious and doubtful + works, for which Pohl's list may be consulted. + </p> + <p> + INSTRUMENTAL + </p> + <p> + 125 symphonies, including overtures to operas and plays. Of these 94 are + published in parts, 40 in score; 29 remain in MS. About 40 have been + arranged for pianoforte 2 hands, 60 for 4 hands, 10 for 8 hands. + </p> + <p> + Pohl gives a thematic list of the 12 symphonies composed for Salomon, + numbered in the order of their occurrence in the catalogue of the London + Philharmonic Society. These include: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + TITLE OF WORK KEY DATE + + "The Surprise" G major 1791 + + "The Clock," referring D minor 1794 + to the Andante + + "The Military" G major 1794 +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Other symphonies known by their titles are: +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + TITLE OF WORK KEY DATE + + "Le Matin" D major + "Le Midi" C major + "Le Soir" G major 1761 + "The Farewell" A major 1772 + "Maria Theresa" C major 1773 + "The Schoolmaster" E flat 1774 + "Feuer Symphonie" (probably + overture to "Die Feuersbrunst") A major 1774 + "La Chasse" D major 1780 + "Toy" Symphony C major 1780 + "La Reine de France" B major for Paris, 1786 + "The Oxford" G major 1788 + + "The Seven Words from the Cross." Originally for orchestra. + Arranged first for 2 violins, viola and bass; afterwards for soli, + chorus and orchestra. + + 66 various compositions for wind and strings, separately and + combined, including divertimenti, concerted pieces, etc. + + 7 notturnos or serenades for the lyre. + 7 marches. + 6 scherzandos. + 1 sestet. + Several quintets. + 1 "Echo" for 4 violins and 2 'cellos. + "Feld-partien" for wind instruments and arrangements from + baryton pieces. + 12 collections of minuets and allemands. + 31 concertos: 9 violin, 6 'cello, 1 double bass, 5 lyre, 3 baryton, + 2 flute, 3 horn, 1 for 2 horns, 1 clarino (1796). + 175 baryton pieces. Arrangements were published of several + of these in 3 parts, with violin (or flute), viola or 'cello as + principal. + 1 duet for 2 lutes. + 2 trios for lute, violin and 'cello. + 1 sonata for harp, with flute and bass. + Several pieces for a musical clock. + A solo for harmonica. + 6 duets for violin solo, with viola accompaniments. The + numerous printed duets for 2 violins are only arrangements from + his other works. + 30 trios: 20 for 2 violins and bass, 1 for violin solo, viola + concertante and bass, 2 for flute, violin and bass, 3 for 3 flutes, + 1 for corno di caccia, violin and 'cello. + 77 quartets. The first 18 were published in 3 series; the + next is in MS.; then 1 printed separately; 54 in 9 series of 6 + Nos. each; 2 more and the last. +</pre> + <p> + CLAVIER MUSIC + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 20 concertos and divertimenti: 1 concerto is with principal + violin, 2 only (G and D) have been printed; the last alone + survives. + 38 trios: 35 with violin and 'cello, 3 with flute and 'cello + Only 31 are printed. + 53 sonatas and divertimenti. Only 35 are printed: the one + in C, containing the adagio in F included in all the collections + of smaller pieces, only in London. + 4 sonatas for clavier and violin. 8 are published, but 4 of + these are arrangements. + 9 smaller pieces, including 5 Nos. of variations, a capriccio, a + fantasia, 2 adagios and "differentes petites pieces." + 1 duet (variations). +</pre> + <p> + VOCAL + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Church Music + + 14 masses. + 1 Stabat Mater. + 2 Te Deums. + 13 offertories. 10 of these are taken from other compositions + with Latin text added. + 4 motets. + 1 Tantum Ergo. + 4 Salve Reginas. + 1 Regina Coeli. + 2 Aves Reginas; Responsoria de Venerabili. + 1 Cantilena pro Aventu (German words). + 6 sacred arias. + 2 duets. +</pre> + <p> + ORATORIOS AND CANTATAS + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The Creation." + "The Seasons." + "Il Ritorno di Tobia." + "The Seven Words." + "Invocation of Neptune." + "Applausus Musicus." For the festival of a prelate, 1768. + Cantata for the birthday of Prince Nicolaus, 1763. + Cantata "Die Erwahlung eines Kapellmeisters." +</pre> + <p> + OPERAS + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Italian Operas: + + "La Canterina," 1769; + "L'Incontro Improviso," 1776; + "Lo Speciale," 1768; + "Le Pescatrice," 1780; + "Il Mondo della Luna," 1877; + "L'Isola Disabitata," 1779; + "Armida," 1782; + "L'Infedelta Delusa," 1773; + "La Fedelta Premiata," 1780; + "La Vera Constanza," 1786; + "Acide e Galatea," 1762; + "Orlando Paladino," 1782; + "Orfeo," London, 1794. + + German Opera or Singspiel, "Der Neue Krumme Teufel." + 5 marionette operas. + Music for "Alfred," a tragedy, and various other plays. +</pre> + <p> + MISCELLANEOUS SONGS: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 12 German lieder, 1782; + 12 ditto, 1784; + 12 single songs; + 6 original canzonets, London, 1796; + 6 ditto; + "The Spirit Song," Shakespeare (F minor); + "O Tuneful Voice" (E flat), composed for an English lady of position; + 3 English songs in MS.; + 2 duets; + 3 three-part and 10 four-part songs; + 3 choruses, MS.; + 1 ditto from "Alfred"; + The Austrian National Anthem, for single voice and in 4 parts; + 42 canons in 2 and more parts; + 2 ditto; + "The Ten Commandments" set to canons; the same + with different words under the title "Die zehn Gesetze der Kunst"; + symphonies and accompaniments for national songs + in the collections of Whyte, Napier and George Thomson. + 22 airs mostly inserted in operas. + "Ariana a Naxos," cantata for single voice and pianoforte, 1790. + "Deutschlands Klage auf den Tod Friedrichs der Grossen," + cantata for single voice, with baryton accompaniment, 1787. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEc" id="link2H_APPEc"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX C: BIBLIOGRAPHY + </h2> + <p> + The Haydn literature is almost entirely Continental. With the exceptions + of Pohl's article in Grove's "Dictionary of Music" and Miss Townsend's + "Haydn," nothing of real importance has appeared in English. The following + list does not profess to be complete. It seems futile in a book of this + kind to refer amateurs and students to foreign works, many of which are + out of print and others generally inaccessible. For the benefit of English + readers the English works have been placed first and apart from the + Continental. It has not been thought necessary to follow Pohl in giving a + separate list of German and other Continental critiques. His plan of + citing works in the order of their publication has, however, been adopted + as being perhaps preferable to an alphabetical order of writers. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + TITLE OF WORK AUTHOR PLACE AND DATE +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "History of Music," Vol. IV. Burney London, 1789 + + "Reminiscences," Vol. I, p. 190 Michael Kelly London, 1826 + + "Musical Memoirs" Parke London, 1830, + 2 vols. + + "Letters of Distinguished Musicians."... London, 1867 + Translated from the German by Lady + Wallace. Haydn's Letters, pp. 71-204, + with portrait + + "Musical Composers and their Works" Sarah Tytler London, 1875 + —Haydn, pp. 57-75 + + "Music and Morals"—Haydn, Haweis London, 1876 + pp. 241-263 + + Leisure Hour, p. 572. Article, ... London, 1877 + "Anecdotes of Haydn" + + "The Great Composers Sketched Joseph Bennett London, Musical + by Themselves"—No. 1, Haydn. Times, Sept. 1877 + An estimate of Haydn drawn mainly + from his letters + + Article on Haydn in Grove's Pohl London, 1879 + "Dictionary of Music" + + "Studies of Great Composers"—Haydn, Parry London, 1887 + pp. 91-118, with portrait + + "History of Music," English edition, Naumann London (Cassell), + Vol. IV., pp. 852-882. 1888 + Portraits and facsimiles + + "Musical Reminiscences"—Music and William Spark London, 1892 + Sunshine, pp. 141-149, with quotations + from Haydn's music to show "the happy + state of his mind whilst composing" + + "Musical Haunts in London"—Haydn in F. G. Edwards London, 1895 + London, pp. 32-36 + + "The Pianoforte Sonata"—Haydn, J. S. Shedlock London, 1895 + pp. 111-120 + + "Music and Manners from Pergolese Krehbiel London, 1898 + to Beethoven"—Haydn in London: + (1) His Note-book; (2) His English + Love, pp. 57-95 + + "George Thomson, the Friend of Burns" Cuthbert Hadden London, 1898 + —Correspondence with Haydn, + pp. 303-308 + + "Old Scores and New Readings"—Haydn J. F. Runciman London, 1899 + and his "Creation," pp. 85-92 + + "The Birthplace of Haydn: Dr Frank Merrick London, Musical + a Visit to Rohrau" Times, July 1899 + + "Joseph Haydn" Miss Pauline London, N.D. + in Great Musicians series D. Townsend + + Article on Haydn in "Dictionary Riemann London, + of Music." English ed. translated Augener & Co. + by J. S. Shedlock +</pre> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Autobiographical Sketch by himself. ... 1776 + This was made use of by (1) De Luca + in "Das gelehrte Oesterreich," 1778; + (2) in Forkel's "Musikalischer + Almanach fur Deutschland," 1783; + and (3) in the European Magazine + for October 1784. The latter includes + a portrait + + "Lexicon." Additional particulars Gerber 1790 + are given in 2nd edition, 1812 + + Musik Correspondenz der teutschen Gerber 1792 + Filarm. Gesellschaft, Nos. 17 and 18 + + Article in Journal des Luxus und Bertuch Weimar, 1805 + der Moden + + "Brevi notizie istorchie della vita Mayer Bergamo, 1809 + e delle opere di Guis. Haydn." + + Obituary in the Vaterland. Blatter ... Vienna, 1809 + fur den ost Kaiserstaat + + "Der Nagedachtenis van J. Haydn" Kinker Amsterdam, 1810 + + "Biographische Notizen uber Griezinger Leipzig, 1810 + Joseph Haydn" + + "Biographische Nachrichten von Dies Vienna, 1810 + Joseph Haydn" + + "Joseph Haydn" Arnold Erfurt, 1810; + 2nd ed., 1825 + + "Notice sur J. Haydn" Framery Paris, 1810 + + "Notice historique sur la vie et les Le Breton Paris, 1810 + ouvrages de Haydn" in the Moniteur. + This was reprinted in the + "Bibliographie Musicale," Paris, 1822. + It was also translated into Portuguese, + with additions by Silva-Lisboa. + Rio Janeiro, 1820 + + "Essai Historique sur la vie ... Strassburg, 1812 + de J. Haydn" + + "Le Haydine," etc. Carpani Milan, 1812; + This work was essentially reproduced, 2nd edition, + without acknowledgment, in "Lettres enlarged, + ecrites de Vienne en Autriche," etc., Padua, 1823 + by L. A. C. Bombet, Paris, 1814; + republished as "Vie de Haydn, Mozart + et Metastase," par Stendhal, Paris, + 1817. Bombet and Stendhal are both + pseudonyms of Henri Beyle. An English + translation of the 1814 work was + published in London by John Murray, + in 1817, under the title of "The Life + of Haydn in a Series of Letters," etc. + + "Biogr. Notizen" Grosser Hirschberg, 1826 + + "Allg. Encyclopadie der Ersch und Gruber Leipzig, 1828 + Wissenschaften und Kunste," + 2nd section, 3rd part, with a + biographical sketch by Frohlich + + "Allg. Wiener Musikzeitung" ... 1843 + + "J. Haydn in London, 1791 and 1792" Karajan Vienna, 1861 + + "Joseph Haydn und sein Bruder Michael" Wurzbach Vienna, 1861 + + "Joseph Haydn" Ludwig Nordhausen, 1867 + + "Mozart and Haydn in London" Pohl Vienna, 1867 + + "Joseph Haydn." Pohl ... + This, the first comprehensive + biography of Haydn, was published + —the first half of Vol. I. in + 1875, the second half in 1882. + After the death of Pohl in 1887 + it was completed (1890) by + E. V. Mandyczewski + + Notice in "Biographie Universelle" Fetis ... +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEd" id="link2H_APPEd"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX D: HAYDN'S BROTHERS + </h2> + <p> + Of the large family born to the Rohrau wheelwright, two, besides the great + composer, devoted themselves to music. + </p> + <p> + The first, JOHANN EVANGELIST HAYDN, made some little reputation as a + vocalist, and was engaged in that capacity in the Esterhazy Chapel. His + health had, however, been delicate from the first, and his professional + career was far from prosperous. + </p> + <p> + JOHANN MICHAEL HAYDN was much more distinguished. Born in 1737, he became, + as we have seen, a chorister and solo-vocalist at St Stephen's, Vienna. He + was a good violinist, and played the organ so well that he was soon able + to act as deputy-organist at the cathedral. In 1757 he was appointed + Capellmeister to the Bishop of Grosswardein, and in 1762 became conductor, + and subsequently leader and organist to Archbishop Sigismund of Salzburg. + There he naturally came in contact with Mozart, in whose biography his + name is often mentioned. Mozart on one occasion wrote two compositions for + him which the archbishop received as Michael Haydn's. The Concertmeister + was incapacitated by illness at the time, and Mozart came to his rescue to + save his salary, which the archbishop had characteristically threatened to + stop. Mozart also scored several of his sacred works for practice. + </p> + <p> + Michael Haydn remained at Salzburg till his death in 1806. He had the very + modest salary of 24 pounds, with board and lodging, which was afterwards + doubled; but although he was more than once offered preferment elsewhere, + he declined to leave his beloved Salzburg. He was happily married—in + 1768—to a daughter of Lipp, the cathedral organist; and with his + church work, his pupils—among whom were Reicha and Weber—and + his compositions, he sought nothing more. When the French entered Salzburg + and pillaged the city in 1801 he was among the victims, losing some + property and a month's salary, but his brother and friends repaired the + loss with interest. This misfortune led the Empress Maria Theresa to + commission him to compose a mass, for which she rewarded him munificently. + Another of his masses was written for Prince Esterhazy, who twice offered + him the vice-Capellmeistership of the chapel at Eisenstadt. Joseph thought + Michael too straightforward for this post. "Ours is a court life," he + said, "but a very different one from yours at Salzburg. It is uncommonly + hard to do what you want." If any appointment could have drawn him away + from Salzburg it was this; and it is said that he refused it only because + he hoped that the chapel at Salzburg would be reorganized and his salary + raised. + </p> + <p> + Michael Haydn is buried in a side chapel of St Peter's Church, Salzburg. A + monument was erected in 1821, and over it is an urn containing his skull. + He is described by Pohl as "upright, good-tempered and modest; a little + rough in manners, and in later life given to drink." His correspondence + shows him to have been a warm-hearted friend; and he had the same devout + practice of initialing his manuscripts as his brother. The latter thought + highly of him as a composer, declaring that his Church compositions were + superior to his own in earnestness, severity of style and sustained power. + When he asked leave to copy the canons which hung in Joseph's bedroom at + Vienna, Joseph replied: "Get away with your copies; you can compose much + better for yourself." Michael's statement has often been quoted: "Give me + good librettos and the same patronage as my brother, and I should not be + behind him." This could scarcely have been the case, since, as Pohl points + out, Michael Haydn failed in the very qualities which ensured his + brother's success. As it was, he wrote a very large number of works, most + of which remained in manuscript. A Mass in D is his best-known + composition, though mention should be made of the popular common-metre + tune "Salzburg," adapted from a mass composed for the use of country + choirs. Michael Haydn was nominated the great composer's sole heir, but + his death frustrated the generous intention. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_APPEe" id="link2H_APPEe"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + APPENDIX E: A SELECTION OF HAYDN LETTERS + </h2> + <p> + The greater number of Haydn's extant letters deal almost exclusively with + business matters, and are therefore of comparatively little interest to + the reader of his life. The following selection may be taken as + representing the composer in his more personal and social relations. It is + drawn from the correspondence with Frau von Genzinger, which was + discovered by Theodor Georg von Karajan, in Vienna, and published first in + the Jahrbuch fur Vaterlandische Geschichte, and afterwards in his J. Haydn + in London, 1791 and 1792 (1861). The translation here used, by the + courtesy of Messrs Longman, is that of Lady Wallace. + </p> + <p> + The name of Frau von Genzinger has been mentioned more than once in the + biography. Her husband was the Esterhazy physician. In that capacity he + paid frequent visits to Eisenstadt and Esterhaz (which Haydn spells + Estoras) and so became intimate with the Capellmeister. He was fond of + music, and during the long winter evenings in Vienna was in the habit of + assembling the best artists in his house at Schottenhof, where on Sundays + Mozart, Haydn, Dittersdorf, Albrechtsberger, and others were often to be + found. His wife, Marianne—nee von Kayser—was a good singer, + and was sought after by all the musical circles in Vienna. She was + naturally attracted to Haydn, and although she was nearly forty years of + age when the correspondence opened in 1789, "a personal connection was + gradually developed in the course of their musical intercourse that + eventually touched their hearts and gave rise to a bright bond of + friendship between the lady and the old, though still youthful, maestro." + Some brief extracts from the letters now to be given have of necessity + been worked into the biography. The correspondence originated in the + following note from Frau von Genzinger: + </p> + <p> + January 1789. + </p> + <p> + DEAR M. HAYDN, + </p> + <p> + With your kind permission I take the liberty to send a pianoforte + arrangement of the beautiful adagio in your admirable composition. I + arranged it from the score quite alone, and without the least help from my + master. I beg that, if you should discover any errors, you will be so good + as to correct them. I do hope that you are in perfect health, and nothing + do I wish more than to see you soon again in Vienna, in order to prove + further my high esteem. + </p> + <p> + Your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + MARIA ANNA V. GENZINGER. + </p> + <p> + To this Haydn replies as follows: + </p> + <p> + ESTORAS, Janr. 14, 1789. + </p> + <p> + DEAR MADAM, + </p> + <p> + In all my previous correspondence, nothing was ever so agreeable to me as + the surprise of seeing your charming writing, and reading so many kind + expressions; but still more did I admire what you sent me—the + admirable arrangement of the adagio, which, from its correctness, might be + engraved at once by any publisher. I should like to know whether you + arranged the adagio from the score, or whether you gave yourself the + amazing trouble of first putting it into score from the separate parts, + and then arranging it for the piano, for, if the latter, such an attention + would be too flattering to me, and I feel that I really do not deserve it. + </p> + <p> + Best and kindest Frau v. Genzinger! I only await a hint from you as to + how, and in what way, I can serve you; in the meantime, I return the + adagio, and hope that my talents, poor though they be, may ensure me some + commands from you. + </p> + <p> + I am yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + The next letter is from the lady: + </p> + <p> + VIENNA, Oct. 29, 1789. + </p> + <p> + DEAR HERR V. HAYDN, + </p> + <p> + I hope you duly received my letter of September 15, and also the first + movement of the symphony (the andante of which I sent you some months + ago), and now follows the last movement, which I have arranged for the + piano as well as it was in my power to do; I only wish that it may please + you, and earnestly beg that, if there are any mistakes in it, you will + correct them at your leisure, a service which I shall always accept from + you, my valued Herr Haydn, with the utmost gratitude. Be so good as to let + me know whether you received my letter of September 15, and the piece of + music, and if it is in accordance with your taste, which would delight me + very much, for I am very uneasy and concerned lest you should not have got + it safely, or not approve of it. I hope that you are well, which will + always be a source of pleasure to me to hear, and commending myself to + your further friendship and remembrance. + </p> + <p> + I remain, your devoted friend and servant, + </p> + <p> + MARIA ANNA V. GENZINGER. nee v. Kayser. + </p> + <p> + My husband sends you his regards. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + Nov. 9, 1789. + </p> + <p> + DEAR MADAM, + </p> + <p> + I beg your forgiveness a million times for having so long delayed + returning your laborious and admirable work: the last time my apartments + were cleared out, which occurred just after receiving your first movement, + it was mislaid by my copyist among the mass of my other music, and only a + few days ago I had the good fortune to find it in an old opera score. + </p> + <p> + Dearest and kindest Frau v. Genzinger! do not be displeased with a man who + values you so highly; I should be inconsolable if by the delay I were to + lose any of your favour, of which I am so proud. + </p> + <p> + These two pieces are arranged quite as correctly as the first. I cannot + but admire the trouble and the patience you lavish on my poor talents; and + allow me to assure you in return that, in my frequent evil moods, nothing + cheers me so much as the flattering conviction that I am kindly remembered + by you; for which favour I kiss your hands a thousand times, and am, with + sincere esteem, your obedient servant, + </p> + <p> + JOSEPH HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + P.S.—I shall soon claim permission to wait on you. + </p> + <p> + The next letter is again from Frau v. Genzinger: + </p> + <p> + VIENNA, Nov. 12, 1789. + </p> + <p> + MY VALUED HERR V. HAYDN, + </p> + <p> + I really cannot tell you all the pleasure I felt in reading your + highly-prized letter of the 9th. How well am I rewarded for my trouble by + seeing your satisfaction! Nothing do I wish more ardently than to have + more time (now so absorbed by household affairs), for in that case I would + certainly devote many hours to music, my most agreeable and favourite of + all occupations. You must not, my dear Herr v. Haydn, take it amiss that I + plague you with another letter, but I could not but take advantage of so + good an opportunity to inform you of the safe arrival of your letter. I + look forward with the utmost pleasure to the happy day when I am to see + you in Vienna. Pray continue to give me a place in your friendship and + remembrance. + </p> + <p> + Your sincere and devoted friend and servant. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + ESTORAS, Nov. 18, 1789. + </p> + <p> + DEAR LADY, + </p> + <p> + The letter which I received through Herr Siebert gave me another proof of + your excellent heart, as instead of a rebuke for my late remissness, you + express yourself in so friendly a manner towards me, that so much + indulgence, kindness and great courtesy cause me the utmost surprise, and + I kiss your hands in return a thousand times. If my poor talents enable me + to respond in any degree to so much that is flattering, I venture, dear + madam, to offer you a little musical potpourri. I do not, indeed, find in + it much that is fragrant; perhaps the publisher may rectify the fault in + future editions. If the arrangement of the symphony in it be yours, oh! + then I shall be twice as much pleased with the publisher; if not, I + venture to ask you to arrange a symphony, and to transcribe it with your + own hand, and to send it to me here, when I will at once forward it to my + publisher at Leipzig to be engraved. + </p> + <p> + I am happy to have found an opportunity that leads me to hope for a few + more charming lines from you. + </p> + <p> + I am, etc., + </p> + <p> + JOSEPH HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + Shortly after the date of this letter Hadyn was again in Vienna, when the + musical evenings at Schottenhof were renewed. The Herr v. Haring referred + to in the following note is doubtless the musical banker, well known as a + violinist in the Vienna of the time. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + Jan. 23, 1790. + </p> + <p> + DEAR, KIND FRAU V. GENZINGER, + </p> + <p> + I beg to inform you that all arrangements are now completed for the little + quartet party that we agreed to have next Friday. Herr v. Haring esteemed + himself very fortunate in being able to be of use to me on this occasion, + and the more so when I told him of all the attention I had received from + you, and your other merits. + </p> + <p> + What I care about is a little approval. Pray don't forget to invite the + Pater Professor. Meanwhile, I kiss your hands, and am, with profound + respect, yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + A call to return to Esterhaz put an end to these delights of personal + intercourse, as will be gathered from the following letter: + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + Feb. 3, 1790. + </p> + <p> + NOBLEST AND KINDEST LADY, + </p> + <p> + However flattering the last invitation you gave me yesterday to spend this + evening with you, I feel with deep regret that I am even unable to express + to you personally my sincere thanks for all your past kindness. Bitterly + as I deplore this, with equal truth do I fervently wish you, not only on + this evening, but ever and always, the most agreeable social "reunions"—mine + are all over—and to-morrow I return to dreary solitude! May God only + grant me health; but I fear the contrary, being far from well to-day. May + the Almighty preserve you, dear lady, and your worthy husband, and all + your beautiful children. Once more I kiss your hands, and am unchangeably + while life lasts, yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + The next letter was written six days later, evidently in the most doleful + mood: + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + ESTORAS, Feb. 9, 1790. + </p> + <p> + MUCH ESTEEMED AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER,— + </p> + <p> + Well! here I sit in my wilderness; forsaken, like some poor orphan, almost + without human society; melancholy, dwelling on the memory of past glorious + days. Yes; past, alas! And who can tell when these happy hours may return? + those charming meetings? where the whole circle have but one heart and one + soul—all those delightful musical evenings, which can only be + remembered, and not described. Where are all those inspired moments? All + gone—and gone for long. You must not be surprised, dear lady, that I + have delayed writing to express my gratitude. I found everything at home + in confusion; for three days I did not know whether I was capell master, + or capell servant; nothing could console me; my apartments were all in + confusion; my pianoforte, that I formerly loved so dearly, was perverse + and disobedient, and rather irritated than soothed me. I slept very + little, and even my dreams persecuted me, for, while asleep, I was under + the pleasant delusion that I was listening to the opera of "Le Nozze di + Figaro," when the blustering north wind woke me, and almost blew my + nightcap off my head. + </p> + <p> + [The portion of the letter deleted is that given at page 161, beginning, + "I lost twenty pounds in weight."] + </p> + <p> + ...Forgive me, dear lady, for taking up your time in this very first + letter by so wretched a scrawl, and such stupid nonsense; you must forgive + a man spoilt by the Viennese. Now, however, I begin to accustom myself by + degrees to country life, and yesterday I studied for the first time, and + somewhat in the Haydn style too. + </p> + <p> + No doubt, you have been more industrious than myself. The pleasing adagio + from the quartet has probably now received its true expression from your + fair fingers. I trust that my good Fraulein Peperl [Joseph A., one of the + Genzinger children.] may be frequently reminded of her master, by often + singing over the cantata, and that she will pay particular attention to + distinct articulation and correct vocalization, for it would be a sin if + so fine a voice were to remain imprisoned in the breast. I beg, therefore, + for a frequent smile, or else I shall be much vexed. I advise M. Francois + [Franz, author of the Genzinger children.] too to cultivate his musical + talents. Even if he sings in his dressing-gown, it will do well enough, + and I will often write something new to encourage him. I again kiss your + hands in gratitude for all the kindness you have shown me. I am, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + ESTORAS, March 14, 1790. + </p> + <p> + MOST VALUED, ESTEEMED AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + </p> + <p> + I ask forgiveness a million times for having so long delayed answering + your two charming letters, which has not been caused by negligence (a sin + from which may Heaven preserve me so long as I live), but from the press + of business which has devolved on me for my gracious Prince, in his + present melancholy condition. The death of his wife overwhelmed the Prince + with such grief that we were obliged to use every means in our power to + rouse him from his profound sorrow. I therefore arranged for the three + first days a selection of chamber music, but no singing. The poor Prince, + however, the first evening, on hearing my favourite Adagio in D, was + affected by such deep melancholy that it was difficult to disperse it by + other pieces. On the fourth day we had an opera, the fifth a comedy, and + then our theatre daily as usual... + </p> + <p> + You must now permit me to kiss your hands gratefully for the rusks you + sent me, which, however, I did not receive till last Tuesday; but they + came exactly at the right moment, having just finished the last of the + others. That my favourite "Ariadne" has been successful at Schottenhof is + delightful news to me, but I recommend Fraulein Peperl to articulate the + words clearly, especially in the words "Che tanto amai." I also take the + liberty of wishing you all possible good on your approaching nameday, + begging you to continue your favour towards me, and to consider me on + every occasion as your own, though unworthy, master. I must also mention + that the teacher of languages can come here any day, and his journey will + be paid. He can travel either by the diligence or by some other + conveyance, which can always be heard of in the Madschaker Hof. As I feel + sure, dear lady, that you take an interest in all that concerns me (far + greater than I deserve), I must inform you that last week I received a + present of a handsome gold snuff-box, the weight of thirty-four ducats, + from Prince Oetting v. Wallerstein, accompanied by an invitation to pay + him a visit this year, the Prince defraying my expenses, His Highness + being desirous to make my personal acquaintance (a pleasing fillip to my + depressed spirits). Whether I shall make up my mind to the journey is + another question. + </p> + <p> + I beg you will excuse this hasty scrawl. + </p> + <p> + I am always, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + P.S.—I have just lost my faithful coachman; he died on the 25th of + last month. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + ESTORAS, May 13, 1790. + </p> + <p> + BEST AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + </p> + <p> + I was quite surprised, on receiving your esteemed letter, to find that you + had not yet got my last letter, in which I mentioned that our landlord had + accepted the services of a French teacher, who came by chance to Estoras, + and I also made my excuses both to you and your tutor on that account. My + highly esteemed benefactress, this is not the first time that some of my + letters and of others also have been lost, inasmuch as our letter bag, on + its way to Oedenburg (in order to have letters put into it), is always + opened by the steward there, which has frequently been the cause of + mistake and other disagreeable occurrences. For greater security, however, + and to defeat such disgraceful curiosity, I will henceforth enclose all my + letters in a separate envelope to the porter, Herr Pointer. This trick + annoys me the more because you might justly reproach me with + procrastination, from which may Heaven defend me! At all events, the + prying person, whether male or female, cannot, either in this last letter + or in any of the others, have discovered anything in the least + inconsistent with propriety. And now, my esteemed patroness, when am I to + have the inexpressible happiness of seeing you in Estoras? As business + does not admit of my going to Vienna, I console myself by the hope of + kissing your hands here this summer. In which pleasing hope, I am, with + high consideration, etc., yours, + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + ESTORAS, May 30, 1790. + </p> + <p> + KINDEST AND BEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + </p> + <p> + I was at Oedenburg when I received your last welcome letter, having gone + there on purpose to enquire about the lost letter. The steward there vowed + by all that was holy that he had seen no letter at that time in my + writing, so that it must have been lost in Estoras! Be this as it may, + such curiosity can do me no harm, far less yourself, as the whole contents + of the letter were an account of my opera "La Vera Costanza," performed in + the new theatre in the Landstrasse, and about the French teacher who was + to have come at that time to Estoras. You need, therefore, be under no + uneasiness, dear lady, either as regards the past or the future, for my + friendship and esteem for you (tender as they are) can never become + reprehensible, having always before my eyes respect for your elevated + virtues, which not only I, but all who know you, must reverence. Do not + let this deter you from consoling me sometimes by your agreeable letters, + as they are so highly necessary to cheer me in this wilderness, and to + soothe my deeply wounded heart. Oh! that I could be with you, dear lady, + even for one quarter of an hour, to pour forth all my sorrows, and to + receive comfort from you. I am obliged to submit to many vexations from + our official managers here, which, however, I shall at present pass over + in silence. The sole consolation left me is that I am, thank God, well, + and eagerly disposed to work. I only regret that, with this inclination, + you have waited so long for the promised symphony. On this occasion it + really proceeds from absolute necessity, arising from my circumstances, + and the raised prices of everything. I trust, therefore, that you will not + be displeased with your Haydn, who, often as his Prince absents himself + from Estoras, never can obtain leave, even for four-and-twenty hours, to + go to Vienna. It is scarcely credible, and yet the refusal is always + couched in such polite terms, and in such a manner, as to render it + utterly impossible for me to urge my request for leave of absence. Well, + as God pleases! This time also will pass away, and the day, return when I + shall again have the inexpressible pleasure of being seated beside you at + the pianoforte, hearing Mozart's masterpieces, and kissing your hands from + gratitude for so much pleasure. With this hope, I am, etc., + </p> + <p> + J. HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + ESTORAS, June 6, 1790. + </p> + <p> + DEAR AND ESTEEMED LADY, + </p> + <p> + I heartily regret that you were so long in receiving my last letter. But + the previous week no messenger was despatched from Estoras, so it was not + my fault that the letter reached you so late. + </p> + <p> + Between ourselves! I must inform you that Mademoiselle Nanette has + commissioned me to compose a new sonata for you, to be given into your + hands alone. I esteem myself fortunate in having received such a command. + You will receive the sonata in a fortnight at latest. Mademoiselle Nanette + promised me payment for the work, but you can easily imagine that on no + account would I accept it. For me the best reward will always be to hear + that I have in some degree met with your approval. I am, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + ESTORAS, June 20, 1790. + </p> + <p> + DEAR, KIND FRIEND, + </p> + <p> + I take the liberty of sending you a new pianoforte sonata with violin or + flute, not as anything at all remarkable, but as a trifling resource in + case of any great ennui. I only beg that you will have it copied out as + soon as possible, and then return it to me. The day before yesterday I + presented to Mademoiselle Nanette the sonata commanded by her. I had hoped + she would express a wish to hear me play it, but I have not yet received + any order to that effect; I, therefore, do not know whether you will + receive it by this post or not. The sonata is in E flat, newly written, + and always intended for you. It is strange enough that the final movement + of this sonata contains the very same minuet and trio that you asked me + for in your last letter. This identical work was destined for you last + year, and I have only written a new adagio since then, which I strongly + recommend to your attention. It has a deep signification which I will + analyze for you when opportunity offers. It is rather difficult, but full + of feeling. What a pity that you have not one of Schanz's pianos, for then + you could produce twice the effect! + </p> + <p> + N.B.—Mademoiselle Nanette must know nothing of the sonata being + already half written before I received her commands, for this might + suggest notions with regard to me that I might find most prejudicial, and + I must be very careful not to lose her favour. In the meanwhile I consider + myself fortunate to be the means of giving her pleasure, particularly as + the sacrifice is made for your sake, my charming Frau v. Genzinger. Oh! + how I do wish that I could only play over these sonatas once or twice to + you; how gladly would I then reconcile myself to remain for a time in my + wilderness! I have much to say and to confess to you, from which no one + but yourself can absolve me; but what cannot be effected now will, I + devoutly hope, come to pass next winter, and half of the time is already + gone. Meanwhile I take refuge in patience, and am content with the + inestimable privilege of subscribing myself your sincere and obedient + friend and servant + </p> + <p> + J. HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + ESTORAS, June 27, 1790. + </p> + <p> + HIGHLY ESTEEMED LADY, + </p> + <p> + You have no doubt by this time received the new pianoforte sonata, and, if + not, you will probably do so along with this letter. Three days ago I + played the sonata to Mademoiselle Nanette in the presence of my gracious + Prince. At first I doubted very much, owing to its difficulty, whether I + should receive any applause, but was soon convinced of the reverse by a + gold snuff-box being presented to me by Mademoiselle Nanette's own hand. + My sole wish now is, that you may be satisfied with it, so that I may find + greater credit with my patroness. For the same reason, I beg that either + you or your husband will let her know "that my delight was such that I + could not conceal her generosity," especially being convinced that you + take an interest in all benefits conferred on me. It is a pity that you + have not a Schanz pianoforte, which is much more favourable to expression; + my idea is that you should make over your own still very tolerable piano + to Fraulein Peperl, and get a new one for yourself. Your beautiful hands, + and their brilliant execution, deserve this, and more. I know that I ought + to have composed the sonata in accordance with the capabilities of your + piano, but, being so unaccustomed to this, I found it impossible, and now + I am doomed to stay at home. What I lose by so doing you can well imagine: + It is indeed sad always to be a slave—but Providence wills it so. I + am a poor creature, plagued perpetually by hard work, and with few hours + for recreation. Friends? What do I say? One true friend; there are no + longer any true friends, but one female friend. Oh yes! no doubt I still + have one, but she is far away. Ah well! I take refuge in my thoughts. May + God bless her, and may she never forget me! Meanwhile I kiss your hands a + thousand times, and ever am, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + Pray forgive my bad writing. I am suffering from inflamed eyes to-day. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + ESTORAS, July 4, 1790. + </p> + <p> + MOST ESTEEMED AND VALUED LADY, + </p> + <p> + I this moment receive your letter, and at the same time the post departs. + I sincerely rejoice to hear that my Prince intends to present you with a + new piano, more especially as I am in some measure the cause of this, + having been constantly imploring Mademoiselle Nanette to persuade your + husband to purchase one for you. The choice now depends entirely on + yourself, and the chief point is that you should select one in accordance + with your touch and your taste. Certainly my friend, Herr Walter, is very + celebrated, and every year I receive the greatest civility from him; but, + entre nous, and to speak candidly, sometimes there is not more than one + out of ten of his instruments which may be called really good, and they + are exceedingly high priced besides. I know Herr Nickl's piano; it is + first-rate, but too heavy for your touch; nor can every passage be + rendered with proper delicacy on it. I should, therefore, like you to try + one of Herr Schanz's pianos, for they have a remarkably light and + agreeable touch. A good pianoforte is absolutely necessary for you, and my + sonata will also gain vastly by it. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile I thank you much, dear lady, for your caution with regard to + Mademoiselle Nanette. It is a pity that the little gold box she gave me, + and had used herself, is tarnished, but perhaps I may get it polished up + in Vienna. I have as yet received no orders to purchase a pianoforte. I + fear that one may be sent to your house, which may be handsome outside, + but the touch within heavy. If your husband will rely on my opinion, that + Herr Schanz is the best maker for this class of instruments, I would then + settle everything at once. In great haste, yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + Estoras, August 15. + </p> + <p> + I ought to have written to you last week in answer to your letter, but as + this day has been long enshrined in my heart, I have been striving + earnestly all the time to think how and what I was to wish for you; so + thus eight days passed, and now, when my wishes ought to be expressed, my + small amount of intellect comes to a standstill, and (quite abashed) I + find nothing to say; why? wherefore? because I have not been able to + fulfill those musical hopes for this particular day that you have justly + the right to expect. Oh, my most charming and kind benefactress! if you + could only know, or see into my troubled heart on this subject, you would + certainly feel pity and indulgence for me. The unlucky promised symphony + has haunted my imagination ever since it was bespoken, and it is only, + alas! the pressure of urgent occurrences that has prevented its being + hitherto ushered into the world! The hope, however, of your lenity towards + me for the delay, and the approaching time of the fulfillment of my + promise, embolden me to express my wish, which, among the hundreds offered + to you to-day and yesterday, may perhaps appear to you only an + insignificant interloper; I say perhaps, for it would be too bold in me to + think that you could form no better wish for yourself than mine. You see, + therefore, most kind and charming lady, that I can wish nothing for you on + your nameday, because my wishes are too feeble, and therefore + unproductive. As for me, I venture to wish for myself your kind + indulgence, and the continuance of your friendship, and the goodness that + I so highly prize. This is my warmest wish! But if any wish of mine may be + permitted, then mine shall become identical with your own, for thus I + shall feel assured that none other remains, except the wish once more to + be allowed to subscribe myself your very sincere friend and servant, + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + No further letters appear to have been addressed to the lady until Haydn + started on his first visit to London in December 1790. One or two extracts + from these London letters have been used in Chapter V., but as the + repetitions will be very slight, we allow the letters to stand as they + are. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + CALAIS, Decr. 31, 1790. + </p> + <p> + HIGHLY HONOURED LADY, + </p> + <p> + A violent storm and an incessant pour of rain prevented our arriving at + Calais till this evening (where I am now writing to you), and to-morrow at + seven in the morning we cross the sea to London. I promised to write from + Brussels, but we could only stay there an hour. I am very well, thank God! + although somewhat thinner, owing to fatigue, irregular sleep, and eating + and drinking so many different things. A few days hence I will describe + the rest of my journey, but I must beg you to excuse me for to-day. I hope + to heaven that you and your husband and children are all well. + </p> + <p> + I am, with high esteem, etc., yours, + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + LONDON, Jan. 8, 1791. + </p> + <p> + I thought that you had received my last letter from Calais. I ought, + indeed, according to my promise, to have sent you some tidings of myself + when I arrived in London, but I preferred waiting a few days that I might + detail various incidents to you. I must now tell you that on New Year's + Day, after attending early mass, I took ship at half-past seven o'clock + a.m., and at five o'clock in the afternoon arrived safe and well at Dover, + for which Heaven be praised! During the first four hours there was + scarcely any wind, and the vessel made so little way that in that time we + only went one English mile, there being twenty-four between Calais and + Dover. The ship's captain, in the worst possible humour, said that if the + wind did not change we should be at sea all night. Fortunately, however, + towards half-past eleven o'clock such a favourable breeze began to blow + that by four o'clock we had come twenty-two miles. As the ebb of the tide + prevented our large vessel making the pier, two small boats were rowed out + to meet us, into which we and our luggage were transferred, and at last we + landed safely, though exposed to a sharp gale. The large vessel stood out + to sea five hours longer, till the tide carried it into the harbour. Some + of the passengers, being afraid to trust themselves in the small boats, + stayed on board, but I followed the example of the greater number. I + remained on deck during the whole passage, in order to gaze my fill at + that huge monster, the Ocean. So long as there was a calm I had no fears, + but when at length a violent wind began to blow, rising every minute, and + I saw the boisterous high waves running on, I was seized with a little + alarm, and a little indisposition likewise. But I overcame it all, and + arrived safely in harbour, without being actually ill. Most of the + passengers were ill, and looked like ghosts. I did not feel the fatigue of + the journey till I arrived in London, but it took two days before I could + recover from it. But now I am quite fresh and well, and occupied in + looking at this mighty and vast town of London, its various beauties and + marvels causing me the most profound astonishment. I immediately paid the + necessary visits, such as to the Neapolitan Minister and to our own. Both + called on me in return two days afterwards, and a few days ago I dined + with the former—nota bene, at six o'clock in the evening, which is + the fashion here. + </p> + <p> + My arrival caused a great sensation through the whole city, and I went the + round of all the newspapers for three successive days. Everyone seems + anxious to know me. I have already dined out six times, and could be + invited every day if I chose; but I must in the first place consider my + health, and in the next my work. Except the nobility, I admit no visitors + till two o'clock in the afternoon, and at four o'clock I dine at home with + Salomon. I have a neat, comfortable lodging, but very dear. My landlord is + an Italian, and likewise a cook, who gives us four excellent dishes; we + each pay one florin thirty kreuzers a day, exclusive of wine and beer, but + everything is terribly dear here. I was yesterday invited to a grand + amateur concert, but as I arrived rather late, when I gave my ticket, they + would not let me in, but took me to an ante-room, where I was obliged to + remain till the piece which was then being given was over. Then they + opened the door, and I was conducted, leaning on the arm of the director, + up the centre of the room to the front of the orchestra amid universal + clapping of hands, stared at by everyone, and greeted by a number of + English compliments. I was assured that such honours had not been + conferred on anyone for fifty years. After the concert I was taken into a + very handsome room adjoining, where tables were laid for all the amateurs, + to the number of two hundred. It was proposed that I should take a seat + near the top, but as it so happened that I had dined out that very day, + and ate more than usual, I declined the honour, excusing myself under the + pretext of not being very well; but in spite of this, I could not get off + drinking the health, in Burgundy, of the harmonious gentlemen present; all + responded to it, but at last allowed me to go home. All this, my dear + lady, was very flattering to me; still I wish I could fly for a time to + Vienna, to have more peace to work, for the noise in the streets, and the + cries of the common people selling their wares, is intolerable. I am still + working at symphonies, as the libretto of the opera is not yet decided on, + but in order to be more quiet, I intend to engage an apartment some little + way out of town. I would gladly write more at length, but I fear losing + this opportunity. With kindest regards to your husband, Fraulein Pepi, and + all the rest, I am, with sincere esteem, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + P.S.—I have a request to make. I think I must have left my symphony + in E flat, that you returned to me, in my room at home, or mislaid it on + the journey. I missed it yesterday, and being in pressing need of it, I + beg you urgently to procure it for me, through my kind friend, Herr v. + Kees. Pray have it copied out in your own house, and send it by post as + soon as possible. If Herr v. Kees hesitates about this, which I don't + think likely, pray send him this letter. My address is, M. Haydn, 18 Great + Pulteney Street, London. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + LONDON, Sept. 17, 1791. + </p> + <p> + MY HIGHLY ESTEEMED FRIEND, + </p> + <p> + I have received no reply to my two letters of July 3, entrusted to the + care of a composer, Herr Diettenhofer, by whom I likewise sent the + pianoforte arrangement of an andante in one of my new symphonies. Nor have + I any answer either about the symphony in E flat, that I wished to get. I + can now no longer delay inquiring after your own health, as well as that + of your husband, and all your dear family. Is that odious proverb, "Out of + sight, out of mind," to prove true everywhere? Oh no! urgent affairs or + the loss of my letter and the symphony are, no doubt, the cause of your + silence. I feel assured of Herr von Kees's willingness to send the + symphony, as he said he would do so in his letter; so it seems we shall + both have to deplore a loss, and must trust to Providence. I flatter + myself I shall receive a short answer to this. Now, my dear, good, kind + lady, what is your piano about? Is a thought of Haydn sometimes recalled + by your fair hand? Does my sweet Fraulein Pepi ever sing poor "Ariadne"? + Oh yes! I seem to hear it even here, especially during the last two + months, when I have been residing in the country, amid lovely scenery, + with a banker, whose heart and family resemble the Genzingers, and where I + live as in a monastery. God be praised! I am in good health, with the + exception of my usual rheumatic state. I work hard, and in the early + mornings, when I walk in the wood alone with my English grammar, I think + of my Creator, of my family, and of all the friends I have left—and + of these you are the most valued of all. + </p> + <p> + I had hoped, indeed, sooner to have enjoyed the felicity of seeing you + again; but my circumstances, in short, fate so wills it that I must remain + eight or ten months longer in London. Oh, my dear, good lady, how sweet is + some degree of liberty! I had a kind Prince, but was obliged at times to + be dependent on base souls. I often sighed for release, and now I have it + in some measure. I am quite sensible of this benefit, though my mind is + burdened with more work. The consciousness of being no longer a + bond-servant sweetens all my toils. But, dear as liberty is to me, I do + hope on my return again to enter the service of Prince Esterhazy, solely + for the sake of my poor family. I doubt much whether I shall find this + desire realized, for in his letter my Prince complains of my long absence, + and exacts my speedy return in the most absolute terms; which, however, I + cannot comply with, owing to a new contract I have entered into here. I, + alas! expect my dismissal; but I hope even in that case that God will be + gracious to me, and enable me in some degree to remedy the loss by my own + industry. Meanwhile I console myself by the hope of soon hearing from you. + You shall receive my promised new symphony two months hence; but in order + to inspire me with good ideas, I beg you will write to me, and a long + letter too. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc. + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + LONDON, Oct. 13, 1791. + </p> + <p> + I take the liberty of earnestly entreating you to advance 150 florins for + a short time to my wife, provided you do not imagine that since my journey + I have become a bad manager. No, my kind, good friend, God blesses my + efforts. Three circumstances are alone to blame. In the first place, since + I have been here, I have repaid my Prince the 450 florins he advanced for + my journey; secondly, I can demand no interest from my bank obligations, + having placed them under your care, and not being able to remember either + the names or the numbers, so I cannot write a receipt; thirdly, I cannot + yet apply for the 5883 florins (1000 of which I recently placed in my + Prince's hands, and the rest with the Count v. Fries), especially because + it is English money. You will, therefore, see that I am no spendthrift. + This leads me to hope that you will not refuse my present request, to lend + my wife 150 florins. This letter must be your security, and would be valid + in any court. I will repay the interest of the money with a thousand + thanks on my return. + </p> + <p> + I am, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + ...I believe you received my letter the very same day that I was reading + your cruel reproach that Haydn was capable of forgetting his friend and + benefactress. Oh! how often do I long to be beside you at the piano, even + for a quarter of an hour, and then to have some good German soup. But we + cannot have everything in this world. May God only vouchsafe to grant me + the health that I have hitherto enjoyed, and may I preserve it by good + conduct and out of gratitude to the Almighty! That you are well is to me + the most delightful of all news. May Providence long watch over you! I + hope to see you in the course of six months, when I shall, indeed, have + much to tell you. Good-night! it is time to go to bed; it is half-past + eleven o'clock. One thing more. To insure the safety of the money, Herr + Hamberger, a good friend of mine, a man of tall stature, our landlord, + will bring you this letter himself, and you can with impunity entrust him + with the money; but I beg you will take a receipt both from him and from + my wife. + </p> + <p> + Among other things, Herr v. Kees writes to me that he should like to know + my position in London, as there are so many different reports about me in + Vienna. From my youth upwards I have been exposed to envy, so it does not + surprise me when any attempt is made wholly to crush my poor talents; but + the Almighty above is my support. My wife wrote to me that Mozart + depreciates me very much, but this I will never believe. If true, I + forgive him. There is no doubt that I find many who are envious of me in + London also, and I know them almost all. Most of them are Italians. But + they can do me no harm, for my credit with this nation has been firmly + established far too many years. Rest assured that, if I had not met with a + kind reception, I would long since have gone back to Vienna. I am beloved + and esteemed by everyone, except, indeed, professors [of music]. As for my + remuneration, Mozart can apply to Count Fries for information, in whose + hands I placed 500 pounds, and 1000 guilders in those of my Prince, making + together nearly 6000 florins. I daily thank my Creator for this boon, and + I have good hope that I may bring home a couple of thousands besides, + notwithstanding, my great outlay and the cost of the journey. I will now + no longer intrude on your time. How badly this is written! What is Pater + —— doing? My compliments to him. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc. + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + LONDON, Nov. 17, 1791. + </p> + <p> + I write in the greatest haste, to request that you will send the + accompanying packet, addressed to you, to Herr v. Kees, as it contains the + two new symphonies I promised. I waited for a good opportunity, but could + hear of none; I have therefore been obliged to send them after all by + post. I beg you will ask Herr v. Kees to have a rehearsal of both these + symphonies, as they are very delicate, particularly the last movement in + D, which I recommend to be given as pianissimo as possible, and the tempo + very quick. I will write to you again in a few days. Nota bene, I was + obliged to enclose both the symphonies to you, not knowing the address of + Herr v. Kees. + </p> + <p> + I am, etc. + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + P.S.—I only returned here to-day from the country. I have been + staying with a mylord for the last fortnight, a hundred miles from London. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + LONDON, Dec. 20, 1791. + </p> + <p> + I am much surprised that you did not get my letter at the same time as the + two symphonies, having put them myself into the post here, and given every + direction about them. My mistake was not having enclosed the letter in the + packet. This is what often happens, dear lady, with those who have too + much head work. I trust, however, that the letter reached you soon + afterwards, but in case it did not, I must here explain that both + symphonies were intended for Herr v. Kees, but with the stipulation that, + after being copied by his order, the scores were to be given up to you, so + that you may prepare a pianoforte arrangement of them, if you are so + disposed. The particular symphony intended for you will be finished by the + end of February at latest. I regret much having been obliged to forward + the heavy packet to you, from not knowing Herr v. Kees's address; but he + will, of course, repay you the cost of postage, and also, I hope, hand you + over seven ducats. May I, therefore, ask you to employ a portion of that + sum in copying on small paper my often-applied-for symphony in E minor, + and forward it to me by post as soon as possible, for it may perhaps be + six months before a courier is despatched from Vienna, and I am in urgent + need of the symphony. Further, I must plague you once more by asking you + to buy at Artaria's my last pianoforte sonata in A flat, that is, with 4 B + flat minor, with violin and violoncello, and also another piece, the + fantasia in C, without accompaniment, for these pieces are not yet + published in London; but be so good as not to mention this to Herr + Artaria, or he might anticipate the sale in England. I beg you will deduct + the price from the seven ducats. To return to the aforesaid symphonies, I + must tell you that I sent you a pianoforte arrangement of the andante in C + minor by Herr Diettenhofer. It is reported here, however, that he either + died on the journey, or met with some serious accident. You had better + look over both pieces at your leisure. The principal part of the letter I + entrusted to Herr Diettenhofer was the description of a Doctor's degree + being conferred on me at Oxford, and all the honours I then received. I + must take this opportunity of mentioning that three weeks ago the Prince + of Wales invited me to his brother's country seat. The Prince presented me + to the Duchess (a daughter of the King of Prussia), who received me very + graciously, and said many flattering things. She is the most charming lady + in the world, possesses much intelligence, plays the piano, and sings very + pleasingly. I stayed two days there, because on the first day a slight + indisposition prevented her having any music; on the second day, however, + she remained beside me from ten o'clock at night, when the music began, + till two hours after midnight. No compositions played but Haydn's. I + directed the symphonies at the piano. The sweet little lady sat close + beside me at my left hand, and hummed all the pieces from memory, having + heard them so repeatedly in Berlin. The Prince of Wales sat on my right + hand, and accompanied me very tolerably on the violoncello. They made me + sing too. The Prince of Wales is having me painted just now, and the + portrait is to be hung up in his private sitting-room. The Prince of Wales + is the handsomest man on God's earth; he has an extraordinary love of + music, and a great deal of feeling, but very little money. Nota bene, this + is entre nous. His kindness gratifies me far more than any self-interest; + on the third day, as I could not get any post-horses, the Duke of York + sent me two stages with his own. + </p> + <p> + Now, dear lady, I should like to reproach you a little for believing that + I prefer London to Vienna, and find my residence here more agreeable than + in my fatherland. I am far from hating London, but I could not reconcile + myself to spend my life there; no, not even to amass millions; my reasons + I will tell you when we meet. I think of my home, and embracing once more + all my old friends, with the delight of a child; only I deeply lament that + the great Mozart will not be of the number, if it be true, which I trust + it is not, that he is dead. Posterity will not see such talent as his for + the next hundred years! I am happy to hear that you and yours are all so + well. I, too, have hitherto been in excellent health, till eight days + since, when I was attacked by English rheumatism, and so severely that + sometimes I could not help crying out aloud; but I hope soon to get quit + of it, as I have adopted the usual custom here, and have wrapped myself up + from head to foot in flannel. Pray excuse my bad writing. In the hope of + soon being gratified by a letter, and with all esteem for yourself, and + best regards to your husband, my dear Fraulein Pepi, and the others. + </p> + <p> + I am, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + P.S.—Pray give my respects to Herr v. Kreybich [chamber music + director to Joseph II]. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + LONDON, Jan. 17, 1792. + </p> + <p> + DEAREST AND KINDEST LADY, + </p> + <p> + I must ask your forgiveness a thousand times; and I own and bemoan that I + have been too dilatory in the performance of my promise, but if you could + only see how I am importuned to attend private concerts, causing me great + loss of time, and the mass of work with which I am burdened, you would + indeed, dear lady, feel the utmost compassion for me. Never in my life did + I write so much in one year as during the last, which has indeed utterly + exhausted me, and it will do me good to be able to take a little rest when + I return home. At present I am working for Salomon's concerts, and feel + bound to take all possible trouble, for our rivals of the Professional + Society have sent for my pupil Pleyel from Strassburg, to direct their + concerts. So a bloody harmonious war will now commence between master and + scholar. All the newspapers have begun to discuss the subject, but I think + an alliance will soon ensue, my reputation here being so firmly + established. Pleyel, on his arrival, displayed so much modesty towards me + that he gained my goodwill afresh. We are very often together, which is + much to his credit, and he knows how to appreciate his "father"; we will + share our laurels fairly, and each go home satisfied. Professional + Concerts met with a great misfortune on the 14th of this month, by the + Pantheon being entirely burned down, a theatre only built last year. It + was the work of an incendiary, and the damage is estimated at more than + 100,000 pounds sterling; so there is not a single Italian theatre in + London at this moment. Now, my dear angelic lady, I have a little fault to + find with you. How often have I reiterated my request to have my symphony + in E minor, of which I sent you the theme, copied out on small paper, and + sent to me by post? Long have I sighed for it, and if I do not get it by + the end of next month I shall lose twenty guineas. Herr v. Kees writes + that the copy may possibly arrive in London three months hence, or three + years, for there is no chance of a courier being sent off at present. I + also told Herr v. Kees in the same letter to take charge of this, and if + he could not do so, I ventured to transfer the commission to you, + flattering myself that my urgent request would certainly be fulfilled by + your kindness. I also desired Herr v. Kees to repay you the cost of the + postage you paid for his packet. Kindest and most charming Frau v. + Genzinger, I once more beg you to see to this matter, for it is really a + work of mercy, and when we meet I will explain my reasons, respectfully + kiss your fair hands, and repay my debt with gratitude. The celebration + you mention in honour of my poor abilities touched me deeply, but still + not so profoundly as if you had considered it more perfect. Perhaps I may + supply this imperfection by another symphony which I will shortly send + you; I say perhaps, because I (or rather my brain) am in truth weary. + Providence alone can repair the deficiency in my powers, and to Him I + daily pray for aid, for without His support I should indeed be a poor + creature! And now, my kind and dear friend, I venture to hope for your + indulgence. Oh yes! your portrait is at this moment before me, and I hear + it say, "Well, for this time, you odious Haydn, I will forgive you, but—but!" + No, no, I mean henceforth strictly to fulfill my duties. I must conclude + for to-day by saying that now, as ever, I am, with the highest esteem, + yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + LONDON, Feb. 2, 1792. + </p> + <p> + I have to-day received your kind letter, and also the fantasia, and sonata + a tre. I was, however, rather vexed, on opening the packet, not to find + the long-looked-for symphony in E minor, which I had fully hoped for, and + expected. Dear lady, I entreat you to send it at once, written on small + post paper, and I will gladly pay all expenses, for Heaven alone can tell + when the symphonies from Brussels may arrive here. I cannot dispense with + this one, without incurring great loss. Pray forgive my plaguing you so + often on the subject, but I shall indeed be truly grateful if you will + send it. Being overwhelmed with work at present, I cannot as yet write to + Herr v. Kees. Pray, then, apply to him yourself for the said symphony. + </p> + <p> + With my kind respects, I am, yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + You shall have a good portion of the sewing needles. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + LONDON, March 2, 1792. + </p> + <p> + Yesterday morning I received your valued letter, and also the + long-looked-for symphony. I humbly kiss your hands for sending it so + safely and quickly. I had indeed received it six days previously from + Brussels, through Herr v. Kees; but the score was more useful, as a good + deal must be altered in it to suit the English taste. I only regret that I + must trouble you so frequently with my commissions, especially as at + present I cannot adequately testify my gratitude. I do positively assure + and declare to you that this causes me great embarrassment, and indeed + often makes me feel very sad; the more so that, owing to various urgent + causes, I am unable to send you as yet the new symphony dedicated to you. + First, because I wish to alter and embellish the last movement, which is + too feeble when compared with the first. I felt this conviction myself + quite as much as the public, when it was performed for the first time last + Friday; notwithstanding which, it made the most profound impression on the + audience. The second reason is that I really dread the risk of its falling + into other hands. I was not a little startled when I read the unpleasant + intelligence about the sonata. By Heavens! I would rather have lost + twenty-five ducats than have suffered such a theft, and the only one who + can have done this is my own copyist; but I fervently hope to supply the + loss through Madame Tost, for I do not wish to incur any reproaches from + her. You must therefore, dear lady, be indulgent towards me, until I can + towards the end of July myself have the pleasure of placing in your hands + the sonata, as well as the symphony. Nota bene, the symphony is to be + given by myself, but the sonata by Madame Tost. It is equally impossible + for me to send Herr v. Kees the promised symphonies at present, for here + too there is a great want of faithful copyists. If I had time, I would + write them out myself, but no day, not a single one, am I free from work, + and I shall thank the good Lord when I can leave London; the sooner the + better. My labours are augmented by the arrival of my pupil Pleyel, who + has been summoned here by the Professional Society to direct their + concerts. He brought with him a number of new compositions, which were, + however, written long ago! He accordingly promised to give a new piece + every evening. On seeing this, I could easily perceive that there was a + dead set against me, so I also announced publicly that I would likewise + give twelve different new pieces; so in order to keep my promise, and to + support poor Salomon, I must be the victim, and work perpetually. I do + feel it, however, very much. My eyes suffer most, and my nights are very + sleepless, but with God's help I will overcome it all. The Professors + wished to put a spoke in my wheel because I did not join their concerts, + but the public is just. Last year I received great applause, but this year + still more. Pleyel's presumption is everywhere criticized, and yet I love + him, and have gone to his concert each time, and been the first to applaud + him. I sincerely rejoice that you and yours are well. My kind regards to + all. The time draws near to put my trunks in travelling order. Oh! how + delighted shall I be to see you again, and to show personally all the + esteem that I felt for you in absence, and that I ever shall feel for you. + </p> + <p> + Yours, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. + </p> + <p> + P.S.—Please apologize to Herr v. Kees for want of time preventing my + sending him the new symphonies. I hope to have the honour of directing + them myself in your house, at our next Christmas music. + </p> + <p> + To Frau v. Genzinger. + </p> + <p> + LONDON, April 24, 1792. + </p> + <p> + I yesterday evening received with much pleasure your last letter of 5 + April, with the extract from the newspaper, extolling my poor talents to + the Viennese. I must confess that I have gained considerable credit with + the English in vocal music, by this little chorus, [The "Storm Chorus," + see p. 91.] my first attempt with English words. It is only to be + regretted that, during my stay here, I have not been able to write more + pieces of a similar nature, but we could not find any boys to sing at our + concerts, they having been already engaged for a year past to sing at + other concerts, of which there are a vast number. In spite of the great + opposition of my musical enemies, who are so bitter against me, more + especially leaving nothing undone with my pupil Pleyel this winter to + humble me, still, thank God! I may say that I have kept the upper hand. I + must, however, admit that I am quite wearied and worn out with so much + work, and look forward with eager longing to the repose which will soon + take pity on me. I thank you, dear lady, for your kind solicitude about + me. Just as you thought, I do not require to go to Paris at present, from + a variety of reasons, which I will tell you when we meet. I am in daily + expectation of an order from my Prince, to whom I wrote lately, to tell me + where I am to go. It is possible that he may summon me to Frankfort; if + not, I intend (entre nous) to go by Holland to the King of Prussia at + Berlin, thence to Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, and last of all to Vienna, + where I hope to embrace all my friends. + </p> + <p> + Ever, with high esteem, etc., + </p> + <p> + HAYDN. <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <div class="mynote"> + INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + <p> + The preceding is the text of "Haydn," a biography of the composer Franz + Joseph Haydn, from the Master Musicians series. The book itself was + authored by J. Cuthbert Hadden, while the Master Musicians series itself + was edited by Frederick J. Crowest. "Haydn" was published in 1902 by + J.M. Dent & Co. (LONDON), represented at the time in New York by + E.P. Dutton & Co. Each page was cut out of the original book with an + X-acto knife and fed into an Automatic Document Feeder Scanner to make + this e-text, so the original book was, well, ruined in order to save it. + </p> + <p> + Some adaptations from the original text were made while formatting it + for an e-text. Italics in the original book were ignored in making this + e-text, unless they referred to proper nouns, in which case they are put + in quotes in the e-text. Italics are problematic because they are not + easily rendered in ASCII text. + </p> + <p> + Words enclosed in brackets [ ] are original footnotes inserted into the + text. + </p> + <p> + This electronic text was prepared by John Mamoun with help from numerous + other proofreaders, including those associated with Charles Franks' + Distributed Proofreaders website. Thanks to R. Zimmermann, S. Morrison, + B. Wyman, V. Walker, N. Harris, T. Mills, C. Franks, F. Clowes, T. + Mills, E. Beach, D. McKee, D. Levy, D. Bindner, R. Rowe, K. Rieff, J. + Cardillo, K. Peterson, H. Dank and several others for proof-reading. + </p> + <p> + Version 11 of this text prepared by Andrew Sly. Numerous changes and + corrections made by comparison with the original book. + </p> + <br /> + </div> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Haydn, by J. 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Cuthbert Hadden + +Release Date: February, 2003 [Etext #3788] +Posting Date: January 5, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAYDN *** + + + + +Produced by John Mamoun, Charles Franks, Andrew Sly and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +HAYDN + +By J. Cuthbert Hadden + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS: + + + + DEDICATION + PREFACE + TEXT OF "HAYDN," FROM THE MASTER MUSICIANS SERIES + + Chapter I: Birth--Ancestry--Early Years + Chapter II: Vienna--1750-1760 + Chapter III: Eisenstadt--1761-1766 + Chapter IV: Esterhaz--1766-1790 + Chapter V: First London Visit--1791-1792 + Chapter VI: Second London Visit--1794-1795 + Chapter VII: "The Creation" and "The Seasons" + Chapter VIII: Last Years + Chapter IX: Haydn, the Man + Chapter X: Haydn, the Composer + Appendix A: Haydn's Last Will and Testament + Appendix B: Catalogue of Works + Appendix C: Bibliography + Appendix D: Haydn's Brothers + Appendix E: A Selection of Haydn's Letters + + INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + + + +DEDICATION + +To The Rev. Robert Blair, D.D. In Grateful Acknowledgment of Many +Kindnesses and Much Pleasant Intercourse + + + + +PREFACE + + +The authority for Haydn's life is the biography begun by the late Dr +Pohl, and completed after his death by E.V. Mandyczewski. To this work, +as yet untranslated, every subsequent writer is necessarily indebted, +and the present volume, which I may fairly claim to be the fullest life +of Haydn that has so far appeared in English, is largely based upon +Pohl. I am also under obligations to Miss Pauline D. Townsend, the +author of the monograph in the "Great Musicians" series. For the rest, +I trust I have acquainted myself with all the more important references +made to Haydn in contemporary records and in the writings of those who +knew him. Finally, I have endeavoured to tell the story of his career +simply and directly, to give a clear picture of the man, and to discuss +the composer without trenching on the ground of the formalist. + +J.C.H. + +EDINBURGH, September 1902. + + + + + +HAYDN + + + +CHAPTER I. BIRTH--ANCESTRY--EARLY YEARS + +Introductory--Rohrau--A Poor Home--Genealogy--Haydn's Parents--His +Birth--His Precocity--Informal Music-making--His First +Teacher--Hainburg--"A Regular Little Urchin"--Attacks the Drum--A Piece +of Good Luck--A Musical Examination--Goes to Vienna--Choir School of +St Stephen's--A House of Suffering--Lessons at the Cathedral--A +Sixteen-Part Mass--Juvenile Escapades--"Sang like a Crow"--Dismissed +from the Choir. + +Haydn's position, alike in music and in musical biography, is almost +unique. With the doubtful exception of Sebastian Bach, no composer of +the first rank ever enjoyed a more tranquil career. Bach was not once +outside his native Germany; Haydn left Austria only to make those +visits to England which had so important an influence on the later +manifestations of his genius: His was a long, sane, sound, and on the +whole, fortunate existence. For many years he was poor and obscure, but +if he had his time of trial, he never experienced a time of failure. +With practical wisdom he conquered the Fates and became eminent. A hard, +struggling youth merged into an easy middle-age, and late years found +him in comfortable circumstances, with a solid reputation as an artist, +and a solid retiring-allowance from a princely patron, whose house he +had served for the better part of his working career. Like Goethe and +Wordsworth, he lived out all his life. He was no Marcellus, shown for +one brief moment and "withdrawn before his springtime had brought forth +the fruits of summer." His great contemporary, Mozart, cut off while yet +his light was crescent, is known to posterity only by the products of +his early manhood. Haydn's sun set at the end of a long day, crowning +his career with a golden splendour whose effulgence still brightens the +ever-widening realm of music. + +Voltaire once said of Dante that his reputation was becoming greater and +greater because no one ever read him. Haydn's reputation is not of that +kind. It is true that he may not appeal to what has been called the +"fevered modern soul," but there is an old-world charm about him which +is specially grateful in our bustling, nerve-destroying, bilious age. He +is still known as "Papa Haydn," and the name, to use Carlyle's phrase, +is "significant of much." In the history of the art his position is of +the first importance. He was the father of instrumental music. He laid +the foundations of the modern symphony and sonata, and established +the basis of the modern orchestra. Without him, artistically speaking, +Beethoven would have been impossible. He seems to us now a figure of a +very remote past, so great have been the changes in the world of music +since he lived. But his name will always be read in the golden book of +classical music; and whatever the evolutionary processes of the art may +bring, the time can hardly come when he will be forgotten, his works +unheard. + +Rohrau + +Franz Joseph Haydn was born at the little market-town of Rohrau, near +Prugg, on the confines of Austria and Hungary, some two-and-a-half +hours' railway journey from Vienna. The Leitha, which flows along the +frontier of Lower Austria and Hungary on its way to the Danube, runs +near, and the district + +[Figure: Haydn's birth-house at Rohrau] + +is flat and marshy. The house in which the composer was born had been +built by his father. Situated at the end of the market-place, it was in +frequent danger from inundation; and although it stood in Haydn's time +with nothing worse befalling it than a flooding now and again, it has +twice since been swept away, first in 1813, fours years after Haydn's +death, and again in 1833. It was carefully rebuilt on each occasion, and +still stands for the curious to see--a low-roofed cottage, very much +as it was when the composer of "The Creation" first began to be "that +various thing called man." A fire unhappily did some damage to the +building in 1899. But excepting that the picturesque thatched roof has +given place to a covering of less inflammable material, the "Zum Haydn" +presents its extensive frontage to the road, just as it did of yore. +Our illustration shows it exactly as it is to-day. [See an interesting +account of a visit to the cottage after the fire, in The Musical Times +for July 1899.] Schindler relates that when Beethoven, shortly before +his death, was shown a print of the cottage, sent to him by Diabelli, he +remarked: "Strange that so great a man should have been born in so poor +a home!" Beethoven's relations with Haydn, as we shall see later on, +were at one time somewhat strained; but the years had softened his +asperity, and this indirect tribute to his brother composer may readily +be accepted as a set-off to some things that the biographer of the +greater genius would willingly forget. + +A Poor Home + +It was indeed a poor home into which Haydn had been born; but +tenderness, piety, thrift and orderliness were there, and probably +the happiest part of his career was that which he spent in the tiny, +dim-lighted rooms within sound of Leitha's waters. + +In later life, when his name had been inscribed on the roll of fame, +he looked back to the cottage at Rohrau, "sweet through strange years," +with a kind of mingled pride and pathetic regret. Flattered by the great +and acclaimed by the devotees of his art, he never felt ashamed of his +lowly origin. On the contrary, he boasted of it. He was proud, as he +said, of having "made something out of nothing." He does not seem +to have been often at Rohrau after he was launched into the world, a +stripling not yet in his teens. But he retained a fond memory of his +birthplace. When in 1795 he was invited to inspect a monument erected +to his honour in the grounds of Castle Rohrau, he knelt down on the +threshold of the old home by the market-place and kissed the ground his +feet had trod in the far-away days of youth. When he came to make his +will, his thoughts went back to Rohrau, and one of his bequests provided +for two of its poorest orphans. + +Genealogy + +Modern theories of heredity and the origin of genius find but scanty +illustration in the case of Haydn. Unlike the ancestors of Bach and +Beethoven and Mozart, his family, so far as the pedigrees show, had +as little of genius, musical or other, in their composition, as the +families of Shakespeare and Cervantes. In the male line they were +hard-working, honest tradesmen, totally undistinguished even in their +sober walk in life. They came originally from Hainburg, where Haydn's +great-grandfather, Kaspar, had been among the few to escape massacre +when the town was stormed by the Turks in July 1683. The composer's +father, Matthias Haydn, was, like most of his brothers, a wheelwright, +combining with his trade the office of parish sexton. He belonged to the +better peasant class, and, though ignorant as we should now regard +him, was yet not without a tincture of artistic taste. He had been to +Frankfort during his "travelling years," and had there picked up some +little information of a miscellaneous kind. "He was a great lover of +music by nature," says his famous son, "and played the harp without +knowing a note of music." He had a fine tenor voice, and when the day's +toil was over he would gather his household around him and set them +singing to his well-meant accompaniment. + +Haydn's Mother + +It is rather a pretty picture that the imagination here conjures up, +but it does not help us very much in trying to account for the musical +genius of the composer. Even the popular idea that genius is derived +from the mother does not hold in Haydn's case. If Frau Haydn had a +genius for anything it was merely for moral excellence and religion and +the good management of her household. Like Leigh Hunt's mother, however, +she was "fond of music, and a gentle singer in her way"; and more than +one intimate of Haydn in his old age declared that he still knew by +heart all the simple airs which she had been wont to lilt about the +house. The maiden name of this estimable woman was Marie Koller. She was +a daughter of the Marktrichter (market judge), and had been a cook in +the family of Count Harrach, one of the local magnates. Eight years +younger than her husband, she was just twenty-one at her marriage, and +bore him twelve children. Haydn's regard for her was deep and sincere; +and it was one of the tricks of destiny that she was not spared to +witness more of his rising fame, being cut off in 1754, when she was +only forty-six. Matthias Haydn promptly married again, and had a second +family of five children, all of whom died in infancy. The stepmother +survived her husband--who died, as the result of an accident, in +1763--and then she too entered a second time into the wedded state. +Haydn can never have been very intimate with her, and he appears to have +lost sight of her entirely in her later years. But he bequeathed a small +sum to her in his will, "to be transferred to her children should she be +no longer alive." + +Birth + +Joseph Haydn, to give the composer the name which he now usually bears, +was the second of the twelve children born to the Rohrau wheelwright. +The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but it was either the 31st +of March or the 1st of April 1732. Haydn himself gave the latter as +the correct date, alleging that his brother Michael had fixed upon the +previous day to save him from being called an April fool! Probably we +shall not be far off the mark if we assume with Pohl that Haydn was born +in the night between the 31st of March and the 1st of April. + +His Precocity + +Very few details have come down to us in regard to his earlier +years; and such details as we have refer almost wholly to his musical +precocity. It was not such a precocity as that of Mozart, who was +playing minuets at the age of four, and writing concertos when he +was five; but just on that account it is all the more credible. One's +sympathies are with the frank Philistine who pooh-poohs the tales told +of baby composers, and hints that they must have been a trial to their +friends. Precocious they no doubt were; but precocity often evaporates +before it can become genius, leaving a sediment of disappointed hopes +and vain ambitions. In literature, as Mr Andrew Lang has well observed, +genius may show itself chiefly in acquisition, as in Sir Walter Scott, +who, as a boy, was packing all sorts of lore into a singularly capacious +mind, while doing next to nothing that was noticeable. In music it is +different. Various learning is not so important as a keenly sensitive +organism. The principal thing is emotion, duly ordered by the intellect, +not intellect touched by emotion. Haydn's precocity at any rate was of +this sort. It proclaimed itself in a quick impressionableness to sound, +a delicately-strung ear, and an acute perception of rhythm. + +Informal Music-Making + +We have seen how the father had his musical evenings with his harp and +the voices of wife and children. These informal rehearsals were +young Haydn's delight. We hear more particularly of his attempts at +music-making by sawing away upon a piece of stick at his father's side, +pretending to play the violin like the village schoolmaster under whom +he was now learning his rudiments. The parent was hugely pleased at +these manifestations of musical talent in his son. He had none of the +absurd, old-world ideas of Surgeon Handel as to the degrading character +of the divine art, but encouraged the youngster in every possible +way. Already he dreamt--what father of a clever boy has not done the +same?--that Joseph would in some way or other make the family name +famous; and although it is said that like his wife, he had notions of +the boy becoming a priest, he took the view that his progress towards +holy orders would be helped rather than hindered by the judicious +cultivation of his undoubted taste for music. + +His First Teacher + +While these thoughts were passing through his head, the chance visit of +a relation practically decided young Haydn's future. His grandmother, +being left a widow, had married a journeyman wheelwright, Matthias +Seefranz, and one of their children married a schoolmaster, Johann +Matthias Frankh. Frankh combined with the post of pedagogue that of +choir-regent at Hainburg, the ancestral home of the Haydns, some +four leagues from Rohrau. He came occasionally to Rohrau to see his +relatives, and one day he surprised Haydn keeping strict time to the +family music on his improvised fiddle. Some discussion following about +the boy's unmistakable talent, the schoolmaster generously offered to +take him to Hainburg that he might learn "the first elements of music +and other juvenile acquirements." The father was pleased; the mother, +hesitating at first, gave her reluctant approval, and Haydn left the +family home never to return, except on a flying visit. This was in 1738, +when he was six years of age. + +Hainburg + +The town of Hainburg lies close to the Danube, and looks very +picturesque with its old walls and towers. According to the Nibelungen +Lied, King Attila once spent a night in the place, and a stone figure +of that "scourge of God" forms a feature of the Hainburg Wiener Thor, a +rock rising abruptly from the river, crowned with the ruined Castle +of Rottenstein. The town cannot be very different from what it was in +Haydn's time, except perhaps that there is now a tobacco manufactory, +which gives employment to some 2000 hands. + +It is affecting to think of the little fellow of six dragged away from +his home and his mother's watchful care to be planted down here among +strange surroundings and a strange people. That he was not very happy +we might have assumed in any case. But there were, unfortunately, some +things to render him more unhappy than he need have been. Frankh's +intentions were no doubt excellent; but neither in temper nor in +character was he a fit guardian and instructor of youth. He got into +trouble with the authorities more than once for neglect of his duties, +and had to answer a charge of gambling with loaded dice. As a teacher +he was of that stern disciplinarian kind which believes in lashing +instruction into the pupil with the "tingling rod." Haydn says he owed +him more cuffs than gingerbread. + +"A Regular Little Urchin" + +What he owed to the schoolmaster's wife may be inferred from the fact +that she compelled him to wear a wig "for the sake of cleanliness." +All his life through Haydn was most particular about his personal +appearance, and when quite an old man it pained him greatly to recall +the way in which he was neglected by Frau Frankh. "I could not help +perceiving," he remarked to Dies, "much to my distress, that I was +gradually getting very dirty, and though I thought a good deal of my +little person, was not always able to avoid spots of dirt on my clothes, +of which I was dreadfully ashamed. In fact, I was a regular little +urchin." Perhaps we should not be wrong in surmising that the old man +was here reading into his childhood the habits and sentiments of his +later years. Young boys of his class are not usually deeply concerned +about grease spots or disheveled hair. + +Attacks the Drum + +At all events, if deplorably neglected in these personal matters, he was +really making progress with his art. Under Frankh's tuition he attained +to some proficiency on the violin and the harpsichord, and his voice was +so improved that, as an early biographer puts it, he was able to "sing +at the parish desk in a style which spread his reputation through the +canton." Haydn himself, going back upon these days in a letter of 1779, +says: "Our Almighty Father (to whom above all I owe the most profound +gratitude) had endowed me with so much facility in music that even in my +sixth year I was bold enough to sing some masses in the choir." He was +bold enough to attempt something vastly more ponderous. A drummer +being wanted for a local procession, Haydn undertook to play the part. +Unluckily, he was so small of stature that the instrument had to be +carried before him on the back of a colleague! That the colleague +happened to be a hunchback only made the incident more ludicrous. But +Haydn had rather a partiality for the drum--a satisfying instrument, +as Mr George Meredith says, because of its rotundity--and, as we +shall learn when we come to his visits to London, he could handle the +instrument well enough to astonish the members of Salomon's orchestra. +According to Pohl, the particular instrument upon which he performed on +the occasion of the Hainburg procession is still preserved in the choir +of the church there. + +Hard as these early years must have been, Haydn recognized in after-life +that good had mingled with the ill. His master's harshness had taught +him patience and self-reliance. "I shall be grateful to Frankh as long +as I live," he said to Griesinger, "for keeping me so hard at work." +He always referred to Frankh as "my first instructor," and, like Handel +with Zachau, he acknowledged his indebtedness in a practical way by +bequeathing to Frankh's daughter, then married, 100 florins and a +portrait of her father--a bequest which she missed by dying four years +before the composer himself. + +A Piece of Good Fortune + +Haydn had been two years with Frankh when an important piece of good +fortune befell him. At the time of which we are writing the Court +Capellmeister at Vienna was George Reutter, an inexhaustible composer +of church music, whose works, now completely forgotten, once had a great +vogue in all the choirs of the Imperial States. Even in 1823 Beethoven, +who was to write a mass for the Emperor Francis, was recommended to +adopt the style of this frilled and periwigged pedant! Reutter's father +had been for many years Capellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, +and on his death, in 1738, the son succeeded to the post. He had not +been long established in the office when he started on a tour of search +for choristers. Arriving at Hainburg, he heard from the local pastor of +Haydn's "weak but pleasing voice," and immediately had the young singer +before him. + +A Musical Examination + +The story of the examination is rather amusing. Reutter gave the little +fellow a canon to sing at first sight. The boy went though the thing +triumphantly, and the delighted Reutter cried "Bravo!" as he flung a +handful of cherries into Haydn's cap. But there was one point on which +Reutter was not quite satisfied. "How is it, my little man," he said, +"that you cannot shake?" "How can you expect me to shake," replied the +enfant terrible, "when Herr Frankh himself cannot shake?" The great +man was immensely tickled by the ready retort, and, drawing the child +towards him, he taught him how to make the vibrations in his throat +required to produce the ornament. The boy picked up the trick at once. +It was the final decision of his fate. Reutter saw that here was a +recruit worth having, and he lost no time in getting the parents' +sanction to carry him off to Vienna. In the father's case this was +easily managed, but the mother only yielded when it was pointed out that +her son's singing in the cathedral choir did not necessarily mean the +frustration of her hopes of seeing him made a priest. + +Goes to Vienna + +Thus, some time in the year 1740, Reutter marched away from Hainburg +with the little Joseph, and Hainburg knew the little Joseph no more. +Vienna was now to be his home for ten long years of dreary pupilage +and genteel starvation. In those days, and for long after, St Stephen's +Cathedral was described as "the first church in the empire," and it is +still, with its magnificent spire, the most important edifice in Vienna. +Erected in 1258 and 1276 on the site of a church dating from 1144, +it was not finally completed until 1446. It is in the form of a Latin +cross, and is 355 feet long. The roof is covered with coloured tiles, +and the rich groined vaulting is borne by eighteen massive pillars, +adorned with more than a hundred statuettes. Since 1852 the building +has been thoroughly restored, but in all essentials it remains as it was +when Haydn sang in it as a choir-boy. + +The Choir School of St Stephen's + +Many interesting details have been printed regarding the Choir School +of St Stephen's and its routine in Haydn's time. They have been well +summarized by one of his biographers. [See Miss Townsend's Haydn, p. 9.] +The Cantorei was of very ancient foundation. Mention is made of it as +early as 1441, and its constitution may be gathered from directions +given regarding it about the period 1558-1571. It was newly constituted +in 1663, and many alterations were made then and afterwards, but in +Haydn's day it was still practically what it had been for nearly a +century before. The school consisted of a cantor (made Capellmeister +in 1663), a sub-cantor, two ushers and six scholars. They all resided +together, and had meals in common; and although ample allowance +had originally been made for the board, lodging and clothing of the +scholars, the increased cost of living resulted in the boys of Haydn's +time being poorly fed and scantily clad. They were instructed in +"religion and Latin, together with the ordinary subjects of school +education, and in music, the violin, clavier, and singing." The younger +scholars were taken in hand by those more advanced. The routine would +seem to us now to be somewhat severe. There were two full choral +services daily in the cathedral. Special Te Deums were constantly sung, +and the boys had to take part in the numerous solemn processions of +religious brotherhoods through the city, as well as in the services for +royal birthdays and other such occasions. During Holy Week the labours +of the choir were continuous. Children's processions were very frequent, +and Haydn's delight in after years at the performance of the charity +children in St Paul's may have been partly owing to the reminiscences of +early days which it awakened. + +A House of Suffering + +But these details are aside from our main theme. The chapel-house of St +Stephen's was now the home of our little Joseph. It ought to have been +a happy home of instruction, but it was, alas! a house of suffering. +Reutter did not devote even ordinary care to his pupil, and from casual +lessons in musical theory he drifted into complete neglect. Haydn +afterwards declared that he had never had more than two lessons in +composition from Reutter, who was, moreover, harsh and cruel and +unfeeling, laughing at his pupil's groping attempts, and chastising him +on the slightest pretext. It has been hinted that the Capellmeister was +jealous of his young charge--that he was "afraid of finding a rival in +the pupil." But this is highly improbable. Haydn had not as yet shown +any unusual gifts likely to excite the envy of his superior. There is +more probability in the other suggestion that Reutter was piqued at not +having been allowed by Haydn's father to perpetuate the boy's fine voice +by the ancient method of emasculation. The point, in any case, is not +of very much importance. It is sufficient to observe that Reutter's name +survives mainly in virtue of the fact that he tempted Haydn to Vienna +with the promise of special instruction, and gave him practically +nothing of that, but a great deal of ill-usage. + +Lessons at St Stephen's + +Haydn was supposed to have lessons from two undistinguished professors +named Gegenbauer and Finsterbusch. But it all amounted to very little. +There was the regular drilling for the church services, to be sure: +solfeggi and psalms, psalms and solfeggi--always apt to degenerate, +under a pedant, into the dreariest of mechanical routine. How many a +sweet-voiced chorister, even in our own days, reaches manhood with a +love for music? It needs music in his soul. Haydn's soul withstood the +numbing influence of pedantry. He realized that it lay with himself +to develop and nurture the powers within his breast of which he was +conscious. "The talent was in me," he remarked, "and by dint of hard +work I managed to get on." Shortly before his death, when he happened to +be in Vienna for some church festival, he had an opportunity of speaking +to the choir-boys of that time. "I was once a singing boy," he said. +"Reutter brought me from Hainburg to Vienna. I was industrious when my +companions were at play. I used to take my little clavier under my arm, +and go off to practice undisturbed. When I sang a solo, the baker near +St Stephen's yonder always gave me a cake as a present. Be good and +industrious, and serve God continually." + +A Sixteen-Part Mass! + +It is pathetic to think of the boy assiduously scratching innumerable +notes on scraps of music paper, striving with yet imperfect knowledge +to express himself, and hoping that by some miracle of inspiration +something like music might come out of it. "I thought it must be all +right if the paper was nice and full," he said. He even went the length +of trying to write a mass in sixteen parts--an effort which Reutter +rewarded with a shrug and a sneer, and the sarcastic suggestion that for +the present two parts might be deemed sufficient, and that he had better +perfect his copying of music before trying to compose it. But Haydn was +not to be snubbed and snuffed out in this way. He appealed to his father +for money to buy some theory books. There was not too much money at +Rohrau, we may be sure, for the family was always increasing, and petty +economies were necessary. But the wheelwright managed to send the boy +six florins, and that sum was immediately expended on Fux's Gradus +ad Parnassum and Mattheson's Volkommener Capellmeister--heavy, dry +treatises both, which have long since gone to the musical antiquary's +top shelf among the dust and the cobwebs. These "dull and verbose +dampers to enthusiasm" Haydn made his constant companions, in default of +a living instructor, and, like Longfellow's "great men," toiled upwards +in the night, while less industrious mortals snored. + +Juvenile Escapades + +Meanwhile his native exuberance and cheerfulness of soul were +irrepressible. Several stories are told of the schoolboy escapades he +enjoyed with his fellow choristers. One will suffice here. He used to +boast that he had sung with success at Court as well as in St Stephen's. +This meant that he had made one of the choir when visits were paid to +the Palace of Schonbrunn, where the Empress Maria and her Court resided. +On the occasion of one of these visits the palace was in the hands of +the builders, and the scaffolding presented the usual temptation to the +youngsters. "The empress," to quote Pohl, "had caught them climbing it +many a time, but her threats and prohibitions had no effect. One day +when Haydn was balancing himself aloft, far above his schoolfellows, +the empress saw him from the windows, and requested her Hofcompositor to +take care that 'that fair-headed blockhead,' the ringleader of them all, +got 'einen recenten Schilling' (slang for 'a good hiding')." The command +was only too willingly obeyed by the obsequious Reutter, who by this +time had been ennobled, and rejoiced in the addition of "von" to his +name. Many years afterwards, when the empress was on a visit to Prince +Esterhazy, the "fair-headed blockhead" took the cruel delight of +thanking her for this rather questionable mark of Imperial favour! + +"Sang like a Crow" + +As a matter of fact, the empress, however she may have thought of Haydn +the man, showed herself anything but considerate to Haydn the choir-boy. +The future composer's younger brother, Michael, had now arrived in +Vienna, and had been admitted to the St Stephen's choir. His voice is +said to have been "stronger and of better quality" than Joseph's, which +had almost reached the "breaking" stage; and the empress, complaining to +Reutter that Joseph "sang like a crow," the complacent choirmaster put +Michael in his place. The empress was so pleased with the change that +she personally complimented Michael, and made him a present of 24 +ducats. + +Dismissed from St Stephen's + +One thing leads to another. Reutter, it is obvious, did not like Haydn, +and any opportunity of playing toady to the empress was too good to +be lost. Unfortunately Haydn himself provided the opportunity. Having +become possessed of a new pair of scissors, he was itching to try their +quality. The pig-tail of the chorister sitting before him offered an +irresistible attraction; one snip and lo! the plaited hair lay at his +feet. Discipline must be maintained; and Reutter sentenced the culprit +to be caned on the hand. This was too great an indignity for poor +Joseph, by this time a youth of seventeen--old enough, one would have +thought, to have forsworn such boyish mischief. He declared that +he would rather leave the cathedral service than submit. "You shall +certainly leave," retorted the Capellmeister, "but you must be caned +first." And so, having received his caning, Haydn was sent adrift on +the streets of Vienna, a broken-voiced chorister, without a coin in +his pocket, and with only poverty staring him in the face. This was in +November 1749. + + + +CHAPTER II. VIENNA--1750-1760 + +Vienna--The Forlorn Ex-Chorister--A Good Samaritan--Haydn +Enskied--Street Serenades--Joins a Pilgrim Party--An Unconditional +Loan--"Attic" Studies--An Early Composition--Metastasio--A Noble +Pupil--Porpora--Menial Duties--Emanuel Bach--Haydn his Disciple--Violin +Studies--Attempts at "Programme" Music--First Opera--An Aristocratic +Appointment--Taken for an Impostor--A Count's Capellmeister--Falls in +Love--Marries--His Wife. + +Vienna + +The Vienna into which Haydn was thus cast, a friendless and forlorn +youth of seventeen, was not materially different from the Vienna of +to-day. While the composer was still living, one who had made his +acquaintance wrote of the city: "Represent to yourself an assemblage of +palaces and very neat houses, inhabited by the most opulent families of +one of the greatest monarchies in Europe--by the only noblemen to +whom that title may still be with justice applied. The women here are +attractive; a brilliant complexion adorns an elegant form; the natural +but sometimes languishing and tiresome air of the ladies of the north of +Germany is mingled with a little coquetry and address, the effect of the +presence of a numerous Court...In a word, pleasure has taken possession +of every heart." This was written when Haydn was old and famous; it +might have been written when his name was yet unknown. + +Vienna was essentially a city of pleasure--a city inhabited by "a proud +and wealthy nobility, a prosperous middle class, and a silent, if not +contented, lower class." In 1768, Leopold Mozart, the father of the +composer, declared that the Viennese public had no love of anything +serious or sensible; "they cannot even understand it, and their theatres +furnish abundant proof that nothing but utter trash, such as dances, +burlesques, harlequinades, ghost tricks, and devils' antics will go down +with them." There is, no doubt, a touch of exaggeration in all this, +but it is sufficiently near the truth to let us understand the kind of +attention which the disgraced chorister of St Stephen's was likely to +receive from the musical world of Vienna. It was Vienna, we may recall, +which dumped Mozart into a pauper's grave, and omitted even to mark the +spot. + +The Forlorn Ex-Chorister + +Young Haydn, then, was wandering, weary and perplexed, through its +streets, with threadbare clothes on his back and nothing in his purse. +There was absolutely no one to whom he could think of turning. He might, +indeed, have taken the road to Rohrau and been sure of a warm welcome +from his humble parents there. But there were good reasons why he should +not make himself a burden on them; and, moreover, he probably feared +that at home he would run some risk of being tempted to abandon his +cherished profession. Frau Haydn had not yet given up the hope of seeing +her boy made a priest, and though we have no definite information that +Haydn himself felt a decided aversion to taking orders, it is evident +that he was disinclined to hazard the danger of domestic pressure. He +had now finally made up his mind that he would be a composer; but he saw +clearly enough that, for the present, he must work, and work, too, not +for fame, but for bread. + +A Good Samaritan + +Musing on these things while still parading the streets, tired and +hungry, he met one Spangler, a tenor singer of his acquaintance, who +earned a pittance at the Church of St Michael. Spangler was a poor +man--but it is ever the poor who are most helpful to each other--and, +taking pity on the dejected outcast, he invited Haydn to share his +garret rooms along with his wife and child. It is regrettable that +nothing more is known of this good Samaritan--one of those obscure +benefactors who go through the world doing little acts of kindness, +never perhaps even suspecting how far-reaching will be the results. He +must have died before Haydn, otherwise his name would certainly have +appeared in his will. + +Haydn Enskied + +Haydn remained with Spangler in that "ghastly garret" all through the +winter of 1749-1750. He has been commiserated on the garret--needlessly, +to be sure. Garrets are famous, in literary annals at any rate; and is +it not Leigh Hunt who reminds us that the top story is healthier than +the basement? The poor poet in Pope, who lay high in Drury Lane, "lull'd +by soft zephyrs through the broken pane," found profit, doubtless, +in his "neighbourhood with the stars." However that may be, there, in +Spangler's attic, was Haydn enskied, eager for work--work of any kind, +so long as it had fellowship with music and brought him the bare means +of subsistence. + + "Scanning his whole horizon + In quest of what he could clap eyes on," + +he sought any and every means of making money. He tried to get teaching, +with what success has not been recorded. He sang in choirs, played at +balls and weddings and baptisms, made "arrangements" for anybody who +would employ him, and in short drudged very much as Wagner did at the +outset of his tempestuous career. + +Street Serenades + +He even took part in street serenades by playing the violin. This last +was not a very dignified occupation; but it is important to remember +that serenading in Vienna was not the lover's business of Italy and +Spain, where the singer is accompanied by guitar or mandoline. It was a +much more serious entertainment. It dated from the seventeenth century, +if we are to trust Praetorius, and consisted of solos and concerted +vocal music in various forms, accompanied sometimes by full orchestra +and sometimes by wind instruments alone. Great composers occasionally +honoured their patrons and friends with the serenade; and composers who +hoped to be great found it advantageous as a means of gaining a hearing +for their works. It proved of some real service to Haydn later on, but +in the meantime it does not appear to have swelled his lean purse. With +all his industry he fell into the direst straits now and again, and was +more than once driven into wild projects by sheer stress of hunger. + +Joins a Pilgrim Party + +One curious story is told of a journey to Mariazell, in Styria. +This picturesquely-situated village has been for many years the most +frequented shrine in Austria. To-day it is said to be visited by +something like 100,000 pilgrims every year. The object of adoration +is the miraculous image of the Madonna and Child, twenty inches high, +carved in lime-wood, which was presented to the Mother Church of +Mariazell in 1157 by a Benedictine priest. Haydn was a devout Catholic, +and not improbably knew all about Mariazell and its Madonna. At any +rate, he joined a company of pilgrims, and on arrival presented himself +to the local choirmaster for admission, showing the official some of his +compositions, and telling of his eight years' training at St Stephen's. +The choirmaster was not impressed. "I have had enough of lazy rascals +from Vienna," said he. "Be off!" But Haydn, after coming so far, was not +to be dismissed so unceremoniously. He smuggled himself into the choir, +pleaded with the solo singer of the day to be allowed to act as his +deputy, and, when this was refused, snatched the music from the singer's +hand, and took up the solo at the right moment with such success that +"all the choir held their breath to listen." At the close of the service +the choirmaster sent for him, and, apologizing for his previous rude +behaviour, invited him to his house for the day. The invitation extended +to a week, and Haydn returned to Vienna with money enough--the result of +a subscription among the choir--to serve his immediate needs. + +An Unconditional Loan + +But it would have been strange if, in a musical city like Vienna, a +youth of Haydn's gifts had been allowed to starve. Slowly but surely he +made his way, and people who could help began to hear of him. The most +notable of his benefactors at this time was a worthy tradesman named +Buchholz, who made him an unconditional loan of 150 florins. An echo of +this unexpected favour is heard long years after in the composer's will, +where we read: "To Fraulein Anna Buchholz, 100 florins, inasmuch as in +my youth her grandfather lent me 150 florins when I greatly needed them, +which, however, I repaid fifty years ago." + +"Attic" Studies + +One hundred and fifty florins was no great sum assuredly, but at this +time it was a small fortune to Haydn. He was able to do a good many +things with it. First of all, he took a lodging for himself--another +attic! Spangler had been very kind, but he could not give the young +musician the privacy needed for study. It chanced that there was a room +vacant, "nigh to the gods and the clouds," in the old Michaelerhaus +in the Kohlmarkt, and Haydn rented it. It was not a very comfortable +room--just big enough to allow the poor composer to turn about. It was +dimly lighted. It "contained no stove, and the roof was in such bad +repair that the rain and the snow made unceremonious entry and drenched +the young artist in his bed. In winter the water in his jug froze so +hard during the night that he had to go and draw direct from the well." +For neighbours he had successively a journeyman printer, a footman and +a cook. These were not likely to respect his desire for quiet, but the +mere fact of his having a room all to himself made him oblivious of +external annoyances. As he expressed it, he was "too happy to envy the +lot of kings." He had his old, worm-eaten spinet, and his health and his +good spirits; and although he was still poor and unknown, he was "making +himself all the time," like Sir Walter Scott in Liddesdale. + +An Early Composition + +Needless to say, he was composing a great deal. Much of his manuscript +was, of course, torn up or consigned to the flames, but one piece +of work survived. This was his first Mass in F (No. 11 in Novello's +edition), erroneously dated by some writers 1742. It shows signs of +immaturity and inexperience, but when Haydn in his old age came upon the +long-forgotten score he was so far from being displeased with it that +he rearranged the music, inserting additional wind parts. One biographer +sees in this procedure "a striking testimony to the genius of the lad +of eighteen." We need not read it in that way. It rather shows a natural +human tenderness for his first work, a weakness, some might call it, +but even so, more pardonable than the weakness--well illustrated by some +later instances--of hunting out early productions and publishing them +without a touch of revision. + +Metastasio + +It was presumably by mere chance that in that same rickety Michaelerhaus +there lived at this date not only the future composer of "The Creation," +but the Scribe of the eighteenth century, the poet and opera librettist, +Metastasio. Born in 1698, the son of humble parents, this distinguished +writer had, like Haydn, suffered from "the eternal want of pence." A +precocious boy, he had improvised verses and recited them on the street, +and fame came to him only after long and weary years of waiting. In 1729 +he was appointed Court poet to the theatre at Vienna, for which he wrote +several of his best pieces, and when he made Haydn's acquaintance his +reputation was high throughout the whole of Europe. Naturally, he +did not live so near the clouds as Haydn--his rooms were on the third +story--but he heard somehow of the friendless, penniless youth in the +attic, and immediately resolved to do what he could to further his +interests. This, as events proved, was by no means inconsiderable. + +A Noble Pupil + +Metastasio had been entrusted with the education of Marianne von +Martinez, the daughter of a Spanish gentleman who was Master of +the Ceremonies to the Apostolic Nuncio. The young lady required a +musicmaster, and the poet engaged Haydn to teach her the harpsichord, in +return for which service he was to receive free board. Fraulein Martinez +became something of a musical celebrity. When she was only seventeen she +had a mass performed at St Michael's Church, Vienna. She was a favourite +of the Empress Maria Theresa, and is extolled by Burney--who speaks of +her "marvelous accuracy" in the writing of English--as a singer and a +player, almost as highly as Gluck's niece. Her name finds a place in the +biographies of Mozart, who, at her musical receptions, used to take part +with her in duets of her own composition. Several of her manuscripts are +still in the possession of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Something +of her musical distinction ought certainly to be attributed to Haydn, +who gave her daily lessons for three years, during which time he was +comfortably housed with the family. + +Porpora + +It was through Metastasio, too, that he was introduced to Niccolo +Porpora, the famous singing-master who taught the great Farinelli, +and whose name is sufficiently familiar from its connection with an +undertaking set on foot by Handel's enemies in London. Porpora seems +at this time to have ruled Vienna as a sort of musical director and +privileged censor, to have been, in fact, what Rossini was for many +years in Paris. He was giving lessons to the mistress of Correr, the +Venetian ambassador--a "rare musical enthusiast"--and he employed Haydn +to act as accompanist during the lessons. + +Menial Duties + +We get a curious insight into the social conditions of the musicians of +this time in the bearing of Haydn towards Porpora and his pupil. That +Haydn should become the instructor of Fraulein Martinez in no way +compromised his dignity; nor can any reasonable objection be raised +against his filling the post of, accompanist to the ambassador's +mistress. But what shall be said of his being transported to the +ambassador's summer quarters at Mannersdorf, and doing duty there for +six ducats a month and his board--at the servants' table? The reverend +author of Music and Morals answers by reminding us that in those days +musicians were not the confidential advisers of kings like Wagner, rich +banker's sons like Meyerbeer, private gentlemen like Mendelssohn, and +members of the Imperial Parliament like Verdi. They were "poor devils" +like Haydn. Porpora was a great man, no doubt, in his own metier. But it +is surely odd to hear of Haydn acting the part of very humble servant +to the singing-master; blackening his boots and trimming his wig, +and brushing his coat, and running his errands, and playing his +accompaniments! Let us, however, remember Haydn's position and +circumstances. He was a poor man. He had never received any regular +tuition such as Handel received from Zachau, Mozart from his father, and +Mendelssohn from Zelter. He had to pick up his instruction as he went +along; and if he felt constrained to play the lackey to Porpora, it was +only with the object of receiving in return something which would help +to fit him for his profession. As he naively said, "I improved greatly +in singing, composition, and Italian." [The relations of Haydn and +Porpora are sketched in George Sand's "Consuelo."] + +Emanuel Bach + +In the meantime he was carrying on his private studies with the greatest +assiduity. His Fux and his Mattheson had served their turn, and he +had now supplemented them by the first six Clavier Sonatas of Philipp +Emanuel Bach, the third son of the great composer. The choice may seem +curious when we remember that Haydn had at his hand all the music of +Handel and Bach, and the masters of the old contrapuntal school. But it +was wisely made. The simple, well-balanced form of Emanuel Bach's works +"acted as well as a master's guidance upon him, and led him to the first +steps in that style of writing which was afterwards one of his greatest +glories." The point is admirably put by Sir Hubert Parry. He says, in +effect, that what Haydn had to build upon, and what was most congenial +to him, through his origin and circumstances, was the popular songs and +dances of his native land, which, in the matter of structure, belong to +the same order of art as symphonies and sonatas; and how this kind of +music could be made on a grander scale was what he wanted to discover. +The music of Handel and Bach leaned too much towards the style of the +choral music and organ music of the church to serve him as a model. For +their art was essentially contrapuntal--the combination of several parts +each of equal importance with the rest, each in a sense pursuing its own +course. In modern music the essential principle is harmonic: the +chords formed by the combination of parts are derived and developed in +reference to roots and keys. In national dances few harmonies are used, +but they are arranged on the same principles as the harmonies of a +sonata or a symphony; and "what had to be found out in order to make +grand instrumental works was how to arrange more harmonies with the same +effect of unity as is obtained on a small scale in dances and national +songs." Haydn, whose music contains many reminiscences of popular +folk-song, had in him the instinct for this kind of art; and the study +of Philipp Emanuel's works taught him how to direct his energies in the +way that was most agreeable to him. + +A Disciple of Emanuel Bach + +Although much has been written about Emanuel Bach, it is probable that +the full extent of his genius remains yet to be recognized. He was the +greatest clavier player, teacher and accompanist of his day; a master +of form, and the pioneer of a style which was a complete departure from +that of his father. Haydn's enthusiasm for him can easily be explained. +"I did not leave the clavier till I had mastered all his six sonatas," +he says, "and those who know me well must be aware that I owe very much +to Emanuel Bach, whose works I understand and have thoroughly studied. +Emanuel Bach himself once complimented me on this fact." When Haydn +began to make a name Bach hailed him with delight as a disciple, +and took occasion to send him word that, "he alone had thoroughly +comprehended his works and made a proper use of them." + +This is a sufficient answer to the absurd statement which has been made, +and is still sometimes repeated, that Bach was jealous of the young +composer and abused him to his friends. A writer in the European +Magazine for October 1784, says that Bach was "amongst the number of +professors who wrote against our rising author." He mentions others as +doing the same thing, and then continues: "The only notice Haydn took of +their scurrility and abuse was to publish lessons written in imitation +of the several styles of his enemies, in which their peculiarities were +so closely copied and their extraneous passages (particularly those +of Bach of Hamburg) so inimitably burlesqued, that they all felt the +poignancy of his musical wit, confessed its truth, and were silent." +Further on we read that the sonatas of Ops. 13 and 14 were "expressly +composed in order to ridicule Bach of Hamburg." All this is manifestly +a pure invention. Many of the peculiarities of Emanuel Bach's style are +certainly to be found in Haydn's works--notes wide apart, pause bars, +surprise modulations, etc., etc.--but if every young composer who adopts +the tricks of his model is to be charged with caricature, few can hope +to escape. The truth is, of course, that every man's style, whether in +music or in writing, is a "mingled yarn" of many strands, and it serves +no good purpose to unravel it, even if we could. + +Violin Studies + +Haydn's chief instrument was the clavier, but in addition to that +he diligently practiced the violin. It was at this date that he took +lessons on the latter instrument from "a celebrated virtuoso." The name +is not mentioned, but the general opinion is that Dittersdorf was the +instructor. This eminent musician obtained a situation as violinist in +the Court Orchestra at Vienna in 1760; and, curiously enough, after many +years of professional activity, succeeded Haydn's brother, Michael, +as Capellmeister to the Bishop of Groswardein in Hungary. He wrote an +incredible amount of music, and his opera, "Doctor and Apotheker," by +which he eclipsed Mozart at one time, has survived up to the present. +Whether or not he gave Haydn lessons on the violin, it is certain that +the pair became intimate friends, and had many happy days and some +practical jokes together. One story connected with their names sounds +apocryphal, but there is no harm in quoting it. Haydn and Dittersdorf +were strolling down a back street when they heard a fiddler scraping +away in a little beer cellar. Haydn, entering, inquired, "Whose minuet +is that you are playing?" "Haydn's," answered the fiddler. "It's a--bad +minuet," replied Haydn, whereupon the enraged player turned upon him and +would have broken his head with the fiddle had not Dittersdorf dragged +him away. + +Attempts at Programme Music + +It seems to have been about this time--the date, in fact, was 1751--that +Haydn, still pursuing his serenading practices, directed a performance +of a quintet of his own composition under the windows of Felix Kurz, a +well-known Viennese comedian and theatrical manager. According to an +old writer, Kurz amused the public by his puns, and drew crowds to his +theatre by his originality and by good opera-buffas. He had, moreover, +a handsome wife, and "this was an additional reason for our nocturnal +adventurers to go and perform their serenades under the harlequin's +windows." The comedian was naturally flattered by Haydn's attention. He +heard the music, and, liking it, called the composer into the house to +show his skill on the clavier. Kurz appears to have been an admirer of +what we would call "programme" music. At all events he demanded that +Haydn should give him a musical representation of a storm at sea. +Unfortunately, Haydn had never set eyes on the "mighty monster," and was +hard put to it to describe what he knew nothing about. He made several +attempts to satisfy Kurz, but without success. At last, out of all +patience, he extended his hands to the two ends of the harpsichord, +and, bringing them rapidly together, exclaimed, as he rose from the +instrument, "The devil take the tempest." "That's it! That's it!" cried +the harlequin, springing upon his neck and almost suffocating him. Haydn +used to say that when he crossed the Straits of Dover in bad weather, +many years afterwards, he often smiled to himself as he thought of the +juvenile trick which so delighted the Viennese comedian. + +His First Opera + +But the comedian wanted more from Haydn than a tempest on the keyboard. +He had written the libretto of an opera, "Der Neue Krumme Teufel," and +desired that Haydn should set it to music. The chance was too good to +be thrown away, and Haydn proceeded to execute the commission with +alacrity, not a little stimulated, doubtless, by the promise of 24 +ducats for the work. There is a playfulness and buoyancy about much +of Haydn's music which seems to suggest that he might have succeeded +admirably in comic opera, and it is really to be regretted that while +the words of "Der Neue Krumme Teufel" have been preserved, the music has +been lost. It would have been interesting to see what the young +composer had made of a subject which--from Le Sage's "Le Diable Boiteux" +onwards--has engaged the attention of so many playwrights and musicians. +The opera was produced at the Stadt Theatre in the spring of 1752, +and was frequently repeated not only in Vienna, but in Berlin, Prague, +Saxony and the Breisgau. + +An Aristocratic Appointment + +An event of this kind must have done something for Haydn's reputation, +which was now rapidly extending. Porpora seems also to have been of +no small service to him in the way of introducing him to aristocratic +acquaintances. At any rate, in 1755, a wealthy musical amateur, the +Baron von Furnberg, who frequently gave concerts at his country house +at Weinzierl, near Vienna, invited him to take the direction of these +performances and compose for their programmes. It was for this nobleman +that he wrote his first string quartet, the one in B flat beginning-- + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +This composition was rapidly followed by seventeen other works of the +same class, all written between 1755 and 1756. + +Taken for an Impostor + +Haydn's connection with Furnberg and the success of his compositions +for that nobleman at once gave him a distinction among the musicians and +dilettanti of Vienna. He now felt justified in increasing his fees, +and charged from 2 to 5 florins for a month's lessons. Remembering the +legend of his unboylike fastidiousness, and the undoubted nattiness +of his later years, it is curious to come upon an incident of directly +opposite tendency. A certain Countess von Thun, whose name is associated +with Beethoven, Mozart and Gluck, met with one of his clavier sonatas +in manuscript, and expressed a desire to see him. When Haydn presented +himself, the countess was so struck by his shabby appearance and uncouth +manners that it occurred to her he must be an impostor! But Haydn soon +removed her doubts by the pathetic and realistic account which he gave +of his lowly origin and his struggles with poverty, and the countess +ended by becoming his pupil and one of his warmest friends. + +A Count's Capellmeister + +Haydn is said to have held for a time the post of organist to the Count +Haugwitz; but his first authenticated fixed engagement dates from +1759, when, through the influence of Baron Furnberg, he was appointed +Capellmeister to the Bohemian Count Morzin. This nobleman, whose country +house was at Lukavec, near Pilsen, was a great lover of music, and +maintained a small, well-chosen orchestra of some sixteen or eighteen +performers. It was for him that Haydn wrote his first Symphony in D-- + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] + +Falls in Love + +We now approach an interesting event in Haydn's career. In the course of +some banter at the house of Rogers, Campbell the poet once remarked that +marriage in nine cases out of ten looks like madness. Haydn's case was +not the tenth. His salary from Count Morzin was only 20 pounds with +board and lodging; he was not making anything substantial by his +compositions; and his teaching could not have brought him a large +return. Yet, with the proverbial rashness of his class, he must needs +take a wife, and that, too, in spite, of the fact that Count Morzin +never kept a married man in his service! "To my mind," said Mozart, +"a bachelor lives only half a life." It is true enough; but Mozart had +little reason to bless the "better half," while Haydn had less. The lady +with whom he originally proposed to brave the future was one of his own +pupils--the younger of the two daughters of Barber Keller, to whom he +had been introduced when he was a chorister at St Stephen's. According +to Dies, Haydn had lodged with the Kellers at one time. The statement is +doubtful, but in any case his good stars were not in the ascendant when +it was ordained that he should marry into this family. + +Marries + +It was, as we have said, with the younger of the two daughters that he +fell in love. Unfortunately, for some unexplained reason, she took the +veil, and said good-bye to a wicked world. Like the hero in "Locksley +Hall," Haydn may have asked himself, "What is that which I should do?" +But Keller soon solved the problem for him. "Barbers are not the most +diffident people of the world," as one of the race remarks in "Gil +Blas," and Keller was assuredly not diffident. "Never mind," he said to +Haydn, "you shall have the other." Haydn very likely did not want the +other, but, recognizing with Dr Holmes's fashionable lady that "getting +married is like jumping overboard anyway you look at it," he resolved to +risk it and take Anna Maria Keller for better or worse. + +His Wife + +The marriage was solemnized at St Stephen's on November 26, 1760, when +the bridegroom was twenty-nine and the bride thirty-two. There does not +seem to have been much affection on either side to start with; but Haydn +declared that he had really begun to "like" his wife, and would have +come to entertain a stronger feeling for her if she had behaved in a +reasonable way. It was, however, not in Anna Maria's nature to behave in +a reasonable way. The diverting Marville says that the majority of women +married to men of genius are so vain of the abilities of their husbands +that they are frequently insufferable. Frau Haydn was not a woman of +that kind. As Haydn himself sadly remarked, it did not matter to her +whether he were a cobbler or an artist. She used his manuscript scores +for curling papers and underlays for the pastry, and wrote to him when +he was in England for money to buy a "widow's home." He was even driven +to pitifully undignified expedients to protect his hard-earned cash from +her extravagant hands. + +There are not many details of Anna Maria's behaviour, for Haydn was +discreetly reticent about his domestic affairs; and only two references +can be found in all his published correspondence to the woman who had +rendered his life miserable. But these anecdotes tell us enough. For a +long time he tried making the best of it; but making the best of it is +a poor affair when it comes to a man and woman living together, and the +day arrived when the composer realized that to live entirely apart was +the only way of ending a union that had proved anything but a foretaste +of heaven. Frau Haydn looked to spend her last years in a "widow's home" +provided for her by the generosity of her husband, but she predeceased +him by nine years, dying at Baden, near Vienna, on the 20th of March +1800. With this simple statement of facts we may finally dismiss a +matter that is best left to silence--to where "beyond these voices there +is peace." + +Whether Count Morzin would have retained the services of Haydn in spite +of his marriage is uncertain. The question was not put to the test, for +the count fell into financial embarrassments and had to discharge his +musical establishment. A short time before this, Prince Paul Anton +Esterhazy had heard some of Haydn's compositions when on a visit to +Morzin, and, being favourably impressed thereby, he resolved to engage +Haydn should an opportunity ever present itself. The opportunity had +come, and Haydn entered the service of a family who were practically +his life-long patrons, and with whom his name must always be intimately +associated. + + + +CHAPTER III. EISENSTADT--1761-1766 + +The Esterhazy Family--Haydn's Agreement--An "Upper Servant"?--Dependence +in the Order of Nature--Material and Artistic Advantages of the +Esterhazy Appointment--Some Disadvantages--Capellmeister Werner--A +Posthumous Tribute--Esterhazy "The Magnificent"--Compositions for +Baryton--A Reproval--Operettas and other Occasional Works--First +Symphonies. + +The Esterhazy Family + +As Haydn served the Esterhazys uninterruptedly for the long period of +thirty years, a word or two about this distinguished family will not +be out of place. At the present time the Esterhazy estates include +twenty-nine lordships, with twenty-one castles, sixty market towns, and +414 villages in Hungary, besides lordships in Lower Austria and a county +in Bavaria. This alone will give some idea of the power and importance +of the house to which Haydn was attached. The family was divided into +three main branches, but it is with the Frakno or Forchtenstein line +that we are more immediately concerned. Count Paul Esterhazy of Frakno +(1635-1713) served in the Austrian army with such distinction as to gain +a field-marshal's baton at the age of thirty. He was the first prince +of the name, having been ennobled in 1687 for his successes against the +Turks and his support of the House of Hapsburg. He was a musical amateur +and a performer of some ability, and it was to him that the family owed +the existence of the Esterhazy private chapel, with its solo singers, +its chorus, and its orchestra. Indeed, it was this prince who, in 1683, +built the splendid Palace of Eisenstadt, at the foot of the Leitha +mountains, in Hungary, where Haydn was to spend so many and such +momentous years. + +When Prince Paul died in 1713, he was succeeded by his son, Joseph +Anton, who acquired "enormous wealth," and raised the Esterhazy family +to "the height of its glory." This nobleman's son, Paul Anton, was the +reigning prince when Haydn was called to Eisenstadt in 1761. He was a +man of fifty, and had already a brilliant career behind him. Twice +in the course of the Seven Years' War he had "equipped and maintained +during a whole campaign a complete regiment of hussars for the service +of his royal mistress," and, like his distinguished ancestor, he had +been elevated to the dignity of field-marshal. He was passionately +devoted to the fine arts, more particularly to music, and played the +violin with eminent skill. Under his reign the musical establishment +at Eisenstadt enjoyed a prosperity unknown at any other period of its +history. + +Haydn's Agreement + +As there will be something to say about the terms and nature of Haydn's +engagement with Prince Paul Anton, it may be well to quote the text of +the agreement which he was required to sign. It was in these terms: + +FORM OF AGREEMENT AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE VICE-CAPELLMEISTER + +"This day (according to the date hereto appended) Joseph Heyden +[sic] native of Rohrau, in Austria, is accepted and appointed +Vice-Capellmeister in the service of his Serene Highness, Paul Anton, +Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, of Esterhazy and Galantha, etc., etc., +with the conditions here following: + +"1st. Seeing that the Capellmeister at Eisenstadt, by name Gregorius +Werner, having devoted many years of true and faithful service to the +princely house, is now, on account of his great age and infirmities, +unfit to perform the duties incumbent on him, therefore the said +Gregorious Werner, in consideration of his long services, shall +retain the post of Capellmeister, and the said Joseph Heyden as +Vice-Capellmeister shall, as far as regards the music of the choir, be +subordinate to the Capellmeister and receive his instructions. But +in everything else relating to musical performances, and in all that +concerns the orchestra, the Vice-Capellmeister shall have the sole +direction. + +"2nd. The said Joseph Heyden shall be considered and treated as a member +of the household. Therefore his Serene Highness is graciously pleased +to place confidence in his conducting himself as becomes an honourable +official of a princely house. He must be temperate, not showing himself +overbearing towards his musicians, but mild and lenient, straightforward +and composed. It is especially to be observed that when the orchestra +shall be summoned to perform before company, the Vice-Capellmeister and +all the musicians shall appear in uniform, and the said Joseph Heyden +shall take care that he and all members of his orchestra do follow +the instructions given, and appear in white stockings, white linen, +powdered, and either with a pig-tail or a tie-wig. + +"3rd. Seeing that the other musicians are referred for directions to +the said Vice-Capellmeister, therefore he should take the more care +to conduct himself in an exemplary manner, abstaining from undue +familiarity, and from vulgarity in eating, drinking and conversation, +not dispensing with the respect due to him, but acting uprightly and +influencing his subordinates to preserve such harmony as is becoming +in them, remembering how displeasing the consequences of any discord or +dispute would be to his Serene Highness. + +"4th. The said Vice-Capellmeister shall be under an obligation to +compose such music as his Serene Highness may command, and neither to +communicate such compositions to any other person, nor to allow them to +be copied, but to retain them for the absolute use of his Highness, and +not to compose anything for any other person without the knowledge and +permission of his Highness. + +"5th. The said Joseph Heyden shall appear in the ante-chamber daily, +before and after mid-day, and inquire whether his Highness is pleased +to order a performance of the orchestra. After receipt of his orders be +shall communicate them to the other musicians and shall take care to +be punctual at the appointed time, and to ensure punctuality in +his subordinates, making a note of those who arrive late or absent +themselves altogether. + +"6th. Should any quarrel or cause of complaint arise, the +Vice-Capellmeister shall endeavour to arrange it, in order that his +Serene Highness may not be incommoded with trifling disputes; but should +any more serious difficulty occur, which the said Joseph Heyden is +unable to set right, his Serene Highness must then be respectfully +called upon to decide the matter. + +"7th. The said Vice-Capellmeister shall take careful charge of all music +and musical instruments, and shall be responsible for any injury that +may occur to them from carelessness or neglect. + +"8th. The said Joseph Heyden shall be obliged to instruct the female +vocalists, in order that they may not forget in the country what they +had been taught with much trouble and expense in Vienna, and, as the +said Vice-Capellmeister is proficient on various instruments, he shall +take care to practice himself on all that he is acquainted with. + +"9th. A copy of this agreement and instructions shall be given to the +said Vice-Capellmeister and to his subordinates, in order that he may be +able to hold them to their obligations therein laid down. + +"10th. It is considered unnecessary to detail the services required of +the said Joseph Heyden more particularly, since his Serene Highness is +pleased to hope that he will of his own free will strictly observe not +only these regulations, but all others that may from time to time be +made by his Highness, and that he will place the orchestra on such a +footing, and in such good order, that he may bring honour upon himself, +and deserve the further favour of the Prince, his master, who thus +confides in his zeal and discretion. + +"11th. A salary of four hundred florins to be received quarterly is +hereby bestowed upon the said Vice-Capellmeister by his Serene Highness. + +"12th. In addition, the said Joseph Heyden shall have board at the +officers' table, or half a gulden a day in lieu thereof. + +"13th. Finally, this agreement shall hold good for at least three years +from May 1st, 1761, with the further condition that if at the conclusion +of this term the said Joseph Heyden shall desire to leave the service, +he shall notify his intention to his Highness half-a-year beforehand. + +"14th. His Serene Highness undertakes to keep Joseph Heyden in his +service during this time, and should he be satisfied with him, he may +look forward to being appointed Capellmeister. This, however, must not +be understood to deprive his Serene Highness of the freedom to dismiss +the said Joseph Heyden at the expiration of the term, should he see fit +to do so. + +"Duplicate copies of this document shall be executed and exchanged. + +"Given at Vienna this 1st day of May 1761, + +"Ad mandatum Celsissimi Principis. + +"JOHANN STIFFTELL, Secretary." + + +An "Upper Servant"? + +The situation indicated by this lengthy document has afforded matter for +a good deal of comment, and not a little foolish writing. With some +it is the old case of Porpora and the blacking of the boots. Thus Miss +Townsend remarks: "Our indignation is roused at finding a great artist +placed in the position of an upper servant, and required to perform +duties almost menial in their nature." That is essentially a modern +view. These things have to be judged in relation to the ideas of the +age. It was only a few years before this that Johnson had contemptuously +thrown away a pair of boots which some pitying soul had placed at the +door of his rooms at Pembroke. The British mind likes to think of the +sturdy independence of the man who struck the death-blow at patronage in +literature. But Johnson himself had the meanest opinion of fiddlers. + +Dependence in the Order of Nature + +There was no talk in Haydn's native country of the dignity of art, at +any rate so far as musicians were concerned. When Mozart first arrived +in Vienna in 1781, he had to live with the archbishop's household, and +dine at the servants' table. Nay, he was known as "the villain, the low +fellow." And is it altogether certain even now, in free Britain, that +the parish organist is very clearly distinguished in the squire's mind +from the peripatetic organ-grinder? Public opinion does not seem to +have commiserated Haydn on his position of dependence; and, as for Haydn +himself, he was no doubt only too glad to have an assured income and +a comfortable home. We may be certain that he did not find the yoke +unbearably galling. He was of humble birth; of a family which must +always have looked up to their "betters" as unspeakably and immeasurably +above them. Dependence was in the order of nature, and a man of Haydn's +good sense was the last in the world to starve and fret because his +freedom to practice his art and develop his powers was complicated with +a sort of feudal service. Some strong souls may find an empty purse the +truest source of inspiration, as Mr Russell Lowell declares it to be; +but it is very much to be doubted whether a careful investigation would +show that a great man's best work was done with the wolf at the door. + +Material Advantages + +Haydn had no self-pity: why should we pity him? He had free quarters at +the palace, with liberty to enjoy the company of his wife when she chose +to favour him--an event of rare occurrence. His salary was raised from +time to time. The old prince, his first employer, paid him 400 florins; +his successor increased the amount first to 600 and then to 782 florins +(78 pounds); and finally he had 1400 florins, which last sum was +continued to him as a pension when he left the Esterhazy service. +Although money had a much higher purchasing value in those days, the +figures here quoted do not seem princely when we consider the extent +and nature of Haydn's duties, but to a man of Haydn's simple tastes they +would appear ample enough. At least, they would save him from lying on +straw and drinking bad whisky, which Wagner regarded as among the things +that are inimical to the creative genius. + +Artistic Advantages + +These were the material advantages of the Eisenstadt appointment. The +artistic advantages were even more important, especially to a young and +inexperienced artist who, so far, had not enjoyed many opportunities of +practically testing his own work. Haydn had a very good band always at +his disposal, the members of which were devoted to him. If he wrote part +of a symphony over-night he could try it in the morning, prune, revise, +accept, reject. Many a young composer of to-day would rejoice at such an +opportunity, as indeed Haydn himself rejoiced at it. "I not only had the +encouragement of constant approval," he says, speaking of this period of +his career, "but as conductor of an orchestra I could make experiments, +observe what produced an effect and what weakened it, and was thus in a +position to improve, alter, make additions and omissions, and be as bold +as I pleased." + +Some Disadvantages + +No doubt there were some disadvantages in counterpoise. After the gay +life of Vienna, Eisenstadt must have been dull enough, and there is +plenty of evidence to show that the young artist occasionally fell into +the dumps. In one letter he complains that he "never can obtain leave, +even for four-and-twenty hours, to go to Vienna." In another he writes: +"I am doomed to stay at home. What I lose by so doing you can well +imagine. It is indeed sad always to be a slave, but Providence wills it +so. I am a poor creature, plagued perpetually by hard work, and with few +hours for recreation." Haydn clearly recognized the necessities of +the artist. A quiet life is all very well, but no man ever yet greatly +touched the hearts of men if he kept himself too strictly segregated +from his kind. Music, like every other art, would perish in a hot-house. +Reckon up to-day the composers who are really a force in the emotional +life of the people, and ask which of them was reared in the serene, cold +air of the academies. A composer to be great must live with his fellows, +and open his soul to human affluences. "I was cut off from the world," +says Haydn. "There was no one to confuse or torment me, and I was forced +to become original." But his originality was that of an active +mind working upon material already stored, and the store had to be +replenished in occasional excursions, all too few, from the palace. + +The Eisenstadt appointment, then, provided for Haydn's material wants, +and gave him opportunities for the peaceful pursuit of his studies, for +experiment and self-criticism. He was treated with great consideration +by the Esterhazys, and, menial or not, he lived on their bounty and in +the friendliest relations with them. + +Capellmeister Werner + +From his agreement with Prince Esterhazy it will have been gathered +that, though virtually entrusted with the direction of the Eisenstadt +musical establishment, Haydn was really under the control of an old +official. Such arrangements seldom work well. The retention of Joseph +Werner was presumably due to the thoughtful kindness of his noble +patron, but it was bound to lead to awkward situations. Werner had +served the Esterhazys for thirty-two years, and could not be expected +to placidly accept his supersession by a young and as yet almost unknown +musician. True, he was not a very distinguished man himself. He had +composed a large amount of music, chiefly sacred, including thirty-nine +masses and twelve "Oratorios for Good Friday," besides some grotesque +pieces intended as burlesques of the musical life of Vienna. Not one of +his works has any real musical value; but, as is usually the case with +the talent which stops short of genius, he thought a great deal of +himself, and was inclined to look down upon Haydn as an interloper, +unskilled in that rigid counterpoint which was the "heaven's law" of the +old-time composer. Indeed, he described his associate as "a mere fop" +and "a scribbler of songs." + +A Posthumous Tribute + +It is but fair to Haydn to say that, if he did not suffer his nominal +superior gladly, he at least treated him with respect and a certain +deference. He did more. Werner died in 1766, having thus seen only five +years of the new order of things, but Haydn's regard for his memory was +such that, so late as 1804, he published six of his fugues arranged as +string quartets, "out of sincere esteem for this celebrated master." +A kindness of heart and a total absence of professional jealousy +characterized Haydn throughout his whole career, and never more than in +this action. + +Esterhazy "the Magnificent" + +The composer had been rather less than a twelvemonth in his service when +Prince Paul Anton died on the 18th of March 1762. He was succeeded by +his brother Nicolaus, a sort of glorified "Grand Duke" of Chandos, who +rejoiced in the soubriquet of "The Magnificent." He loved ostentation +and glitter above all things, wearing at times a uniform bedecked with +diamonds. But he loved music as well. More, he was a performer +himself, and played the baryton, a stringed instrument not unlike the +viola-da-gamba, in general use up to the end of the eighteenth century. +Haydn naturally desired to please his prince, and being perpetually +pestered to provide new works for the noble baryton player, he thought +it would flatter him if he himself learnt to handle the baryton. This +proved an unfortunate misreading of "The Magnificent's" character, for +when Haydn at length made his debut with the instrument, the prince lost +no time in letting him understand that he disapproved of such rivalry. +An amusing story is told of Kraft, the Eisenstadt 'cellist, at this +time, who occasionally played the second baryton. Kraft presented +the prince with a composition into which he had introduced a solo +for himself as second baryton. The prince asked to see the part, and +proceeded to try it over. Coming to a difficult passage, he exclaimed +indignantly: "For the future, write solos only for my part; it is no +credit to you to play better than I; it is your duty." + +Compositions for Baryton + +Haydn, so far as we can make out, never essayed the baryton again, +but he wrote a surprising amount of music for it, considering its +complicated mechanism and the weakness of its tone. In the catalogue +of his works there are no fewer than 175 compositions for the +instrument--namely, six duets for two barytons, twelve sonatas for +baryton and violoncello, twelve divertimenti for two barytons and bass, +and 125 divertimenti for baryton, viola and violoncello; seventeen +so-called "cassations"; and three concertos for baryton, with +accompaniment of two violins and bass. There is no need to say anything +about these compositions, inasmuch as they have gone to oblivion with +the instrument which called them into being. At the best they can never +have been of much artistic importance. + +A Reproval + +A new epoch began at Eisenstadt with the rule of Prince Nicolaus. He +was a man of unbounded energy himself, and he expected everybody in +his service to be energetic too. There is nothing to suggest that Haydn +neglected any of his routine duties, which certainly gave him abundant +opportunity to "break the legs of time," but once, at least--in +1765--his employer taxed him with lack of diligence in composition, +as well as for failing to maintain the necessary discipline among the +musicians under his charge. It is likely enough that Haydn was not a +rigid disciplinarian; but it must have been a mere whim on the part of +Prince Nicolaus to reprove him on the score of laziness in composing. +In any case, it seems to have been only a solitary reproof. There is no +evidence of its having been repeated, and we may assume that even now +it was not regarded as a very serious matter, from the fact that three +weeks after the prince was requesting his steward to pay Haydn 12 ducats +for three new pieces, with which he was "very much pleased." + +Operettas + +Life at Eisenstadt moved on in "calm peace and quiet," but now and again +it was stirred into special activity, when Haydn had to put forth his +efforts in various new directions. Such an occasion came very early in +his service of Prince Nicolaus, when that pompous person made triumphant +entry into Eisenstadt. The festivities were on a regal scale and +continued for a whole month. A company of foreign players had been +engaged to perform on a stage erected in the large conservatory, and +Haydn was required to provide them with operettas. He wrote several +works of the kind, one of which, "La Marchesa Nepola," survives in the +autograph score. Later on, for the marriage of Count Anton, the eldest +son of Prince Nicolaus, in 1763, he provided a setting of the story +which Handel had already used for his "Acis and Galatea." This work, +which was performed by the Eisenstadt Capelle, with the orchestra +clad in a new uniform of crimson and gold, bore the name of "Acide e +Galatea." Portions of the score still exist--a section of the overture, +four arias, and a finale quartet. The overture is described as being +"in his own style, fresh and cheerful, foreshadowing his symphonies. +The songs are in the Italian manner, very inferior in originality +and expression to Handel's music; the quartet is crude in form and +uninteresting in substance." [See Miss Townsend's Haydn, p. 44.] + +It would seem rather ungracious, as it would certainly be redundant to +discuss these "occasional" works in detail. For one thing, the material +necessary to enable us to form a correct estimate of Haydn's powers as a +dramatic composer is wanting. The original autograph of "Armida," first +performed in 1783, is, indeed, preserved. "Orfeo ed Euridice," written +for the King's Theatre in the Haymarket in 1791, but never staged, was +printed at Leipzig in 1806, and a fair idea of the general style of +the work may be obtained from the beautiful air, "Il pensier sta negli +oggetti," included in a collection entitled "Gemme d'Antichita." But +beyond these and the fragments previously mentioned, there is little +left to represent Haydn as a composer of opera, the scores of most of +the works written expressly for Prince Esterhazy having been destroyed +when the prince's private theatre was burned down in 1779. What Haydn +would have done for opera if he had devoted his serious attention to +it at any of the larger theatres it is, of course, impossible to say. +Judging from what has survived of his work in this department, he was +notable for refinement rather than for dramatic power. We must, however, +remember the conditions under which he worked. He confessed himself that +his operas were fitted only for the small stage at Esterhaz and "could +never produce the proper effect elsewhere." If he had written with a +large stage in view, it may reasonably be assumed that he would have +written somewhat differently. + +Occasional Works + +In 1764 Prince Nicolaus made a journey to Frankfort for the coronation +of the Archduke Joseph as King of the Romans. After the festivities +connected with that imposing function were over he extended his journey +to Paris, where he created some sensation by his extravagant displays +of wealth and circumstance. During the Prince's absence Haydn +busied himself on a couple of compositions intended to celebrate his +home-coming. One was a Te Deum, the other a cantata. The latter work is +the more worthy of remark, not because of its music, but because of +the fulsomely obsequious manner in which it celebrates the graces and +virtues of Nicolaus the Magnificent. The cantata is made up of choruses +and duets, a recitative and two arias. Parts of it were afterwards +employed in church services. The Te Deum is in C major, and is for four +voices with orchestra. It is interesting as an early work, especially if +we compare it with the greater Te Deum in the same key composed in the +year 1800. + +First Symphonies + +At this point a summary may perhaps be made of the compositions written +by Haydn during these five years a Eisenstadt. The list, as given by +Pohl, comprises, in addition to the works already named, about thirty +symphonies six string trios, a few divertimenti in five parts, a piece +for four violins and two 'celli, entitled "Echo," twelve minuets for +orchestra, concertos, trios, sonatas and variations for clavier, and, +in vocal music, a "Salve Regina" for soprano and alto, two violins and +organ. It would serve no useful purpose to deal with these works in +detail. The symphonies are, of course, the most important feature in the +list, but of these we shall speak generally when treating of Haydn as +the father of instrumental music. The first Symphony in C Major, usually +called "Le Midi," is of special interest. + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] + +The autograph score, dated 1761, and preserved at Eisenstadt, is +superscribed, "In Nomine Domini," and closes with Haydn's customary +"Laus Deo" after the final signature The work is in the usual four +movements. The symphonies of this date included also those known in +England as "Le Matin" and "Le Soir," the one beginning-- + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] and the other-- + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +Of the string quartets and other instrumental compositions of the period +nothing need be said. In all these the composer was simply feeling +his way towards a more perfect expression, and as few of them are now +performed, their interest for us is almost entirely antiquarian. + + + +CHAPTER IV. ESTERHAZ--1766-1790 + +Haydn's Fame extending--Haydn and Mozart compared--Esterhaz--Its Puppet +Theatre--A Busy Life--Opera at Esterhaz--First Oratorio--Opponents and +Intriguers--"L'Isola Disabitata"--A Love Episode--Correspondence with +Artaria and Forster--Royal Dedicatees--The "Seven Words"--The "Toy" and +"Farewell" Symphonies. + +To crowd the details of a professional career covering close upon a +quarter of a century into a single chapter would, in the case of most of +the great composers, be an altogether impossible task. In Haydn's case +the difficulty is to find the material for even so slight a record. His +life went on smoothly, almost sleepily, as we should now think, in the +service of his prince, without personal incident and with next to no +disturbance from the outside world. If he had not been a genius of the +first rank the outside world would, in all probability, never have heard +of his existence. + +Haydn's Fame extending + +As it was, his fame was now manifestly spreading. Thus the Wiener Diarum +for 1766 includes him among the most distinguished musicians of +Vienna, and describes him as "the darling of our nation." His amiable +disposition, says the panegyrist, "speaks through every one of his +works. His music has beauty, purity, and a delicate and noble simplicity +which commends it to every hearer. His cassations, quartets and trios +may be compared to a pure, clear stream of water, the surface now +rippled by a gentle breeze from the south, and anon breaking into +agitated billows, but without ever leaving its proper channel and +appointed course. His symphonies are full of force and delicate +sympathy. In his cantatas he shows himself at once captivating and +caressing, and in his minuets he is delightful and full of humour. In +short, Haydn is in music what Gellert is in poetry." This comparison +with Gellert, who died three years later, was at that date, as Dr Pohl +remarks, the most flattering that could well be made. The simplicity +and naturalness of Gellert's style were the very antithesis of the +pedantries and frigid formalities of the older school; and just as he +pioneered the way for the resuscitation of German poetry under Goethe +and Schiller, so Haydn may be said to have prepared the path for +Beethoven and the modern school. + +Haydn and Mozart compared + +Very likely it was this comparison of the magazine writer that suggested +Dittersdorf's remark to Joseph II in 1786, when the emperor requested +him to draw an analogy between Haydn's and Mozart's chamber music. +Dittersdorf shrewdly replied by asking the emperor in his turn to draw a +parallel between Gellert and Klopstock; whereupon Joseph made answer by +saying that both were great poets, but that Klopstock's works required +attentive study, while Gellert's beauties were open to the first glance. +The analogy, Dittersdorf tells us, "pleased the emperor very much." Its +point is, however, not very clear--that is to say, it is not very clear +whether the emperor meant to compare Klopstock with Haydn and Gellert +with Mozart or vice versa, and whether, again, he regarded it as more of +a merit that the poet and the composer should require study or be "open +to the first glance." Joseph was certainly friendly towards Mozart, but +by all accounts he had no great love for Haydn, to whose "tricks and +nonsense" he made frequent sneering reference. + +The first noteworthy event of 1766 was the death of Werner, which took +place on March 5. It made no real difference to Haydn, who, as we have +seen, had been from the first, in effect, if not in name, chief of +the musical establishment; but it at least freed him from sundry petty +annoyances, and left him absolutely master of the musical situation. +Shortly after Werner's death, the entire musical establishment at +Eisenstadt was removed to the prince's new palace of Esterhaz, with +which Haydn was now to be connected for practically the whole of his +remaining professional career. + +Esterhaz + +A great deal has been written about Esterhaz, but it is not necessary +that we should occupy much space with a description of the castle and +its surroundings. The palace probably owed its inception to the prince's +visit to Paris in 1764. At any rate, it is in the French Renaissance +style, and there is some significance in the fact that a French +traveller who saw it about 1782 described it as having no place but +Versailles to compare with it for magnificence. The situation--about +three and a half miles from Eisenstadt--was anything but suitable for an +erection of the kind, being in an unhealthy marsh and "quite out of the +world." But Prince Nicolaus had set his heart upon the scheme, as Scott +set his heart upon Abbotsford; and just as "Clarty Hole" came in time to +be "parked about and gated grandly," so Esterhaz, after something +like 11,000,000 gulden had been spent upon it, emerged a veritable +Versailles, with groves and grottoes, hermitages and temples, +summer-houses and hot-houses, and deer parks and flower gardens. +There were two theatres in the grounds: one for operas and dramatic +performances generally; the other "brilliantly ornamented and furnished +with large artistic marionettes, excellent scenery and appliances." + +A Puppet Theatre + +It is upon the entertainments connected with the latter house that the +French traveller just mentioned chiefly dwells. "The prince," he says, +"has a puppet theatre which is certainly unique in character. Here the +grandest operas are produced. One knows not whether to be amazed or to +laugh at seeing 'Alceste,' 'Alcides,' etc., put on the stage with all +due solemnity, and played by puppets. His orchestra is one of the best +I ever heard, and the great Haydn is his court and theatre composer. +He employs a poet for his singular theatre, whose humour and skill +in suiting the grandest subjects for the stage, and in parodying the +gravest effects, are often exceedingly happy. He often engages a troupe +of wandering players for a month at a time, and he himself and his +retinue form the entire audience. They are allowed to come on the stage +uncombed, drunk, their parts not half learned, and half-dressed. The +prince is not for the serious and tragic, and he enjoys it when the +players, like Sancho Panza, give loose reins to their humour." + +Prince Nicolaus became so much attached to this superb creation of his +own, that he seldom cared to leave it. A small portion of the Capelle +remained at Eisenstadt to carry on the church service there, but the +prince seldom went to Eisenstadt, and more seldom still to Vienna. Most +of the Hungarian grandees liked nothing better than to display their +wealth in the Imperial city during the winter season; but to Haydn's +employer there was literally "no place like home." When he did go to +Vienna, he would often cut short his visits in the most abrupt manner, +to the great confusion of his musicians and other dependants. +These eccentricities must have given some annoyance to Haydn, who, +notwithstanding his love of quiet and seclusion, often longed for +the change and variety of city life. It is said that he was specially +anxious to make a tour in Italy about this time, but that ambition had, +of necessity, to be abandoned. + +A Busy Life + +There was certainly plenty for him to do at Esterhaz--more than he +had ever been required to do at Eisenstadt. Royalties, nobles and +aristocrats were constantly at the palace; and music was one of the +chief diversions provided for them. The prince was very proud of his +musical establishment, and desired to have it considered the best of its +kind in Europe. The orchestra of the opera was formed of members of the +Capelle; "the singers were Italian for the most part, engaged for one, +two, or more years, and the books of the words were printed. Numerous +strolling companies were engaged for shorter terms; travelling virtuosi +often played with the members of the band. Special days and hours were +fixed for chamber music, and for orchestral works; and in the interval +the singers, musicians and actors met at the cafe, and formed, so to +speak, one family." Something more than creative genius was obviously +required to direct the music of an establishment of this kind. A talent +for organization, an eye for detail, tact in the management of players +and singers--these qualities were all indispensable for the performance +of duties such as Haydn had undertaken. That he possessed them we may +fairly assume from more than one circumstance. In the first place, +his employer was satisfied with him. He raised his salary, listened +attentively to all his suggestions, and did everything that he could +to retain his services. In the second place, his band and singers +were sincerely attached to him. They saw that he had their interests, +personal and professional, at heart, and they "loved him like a father." +The prince paid them well, and several of them were sufficiently capable +to receive appointments afterwards in the Imperial Chapel. Pohl gives a +list of the names about this time, but, with one or two exceptions, they +are quite unfamiliar. J. B. Krumpholtz, the harpist, was engaged from +1773 to 1776, and Andreas Lidl, who played in London soon after leaving +the band, was in the service of the prince from 1769 to 1774. + +The sum paid to Haydn at this date was not large as we should now +consider it, but it was sufficient to free him from financial worry had +it not been for the extravagance and bad management of his wife. The +prince gave him about 78 pounds, in addition to which he had certain +allowances in kind, and, as we have already said, free quarters for +himself and his wife when she thought fit to stay with him. Probably, +too, he was now making something substantial by his compositions. +Griesinger declares that he had saved about 200 pounds before 1790, the +year when he started for London. If that be true, he must have been very +economical. His wife, we must remember, was making constant calls upon +him for money, and in addition he had to meet the pressing demands of +various poor relations. His correspondence certainly does not tend to +show that he was saving, and we know that when he set out for London he +had not only to draw upon the generosity of his prince for the costs of +the journey, but had to sell his house to provide for his wife until his +return. + +Opera at Esterhaz + +It is time, however, to speak of some of Haydn's compositions during +this period. At Esterhaz he "wrote nearly all his operas, most of his +arias and songs, the music for the marionette theatre--of which he was +particularly fond--and the greater part of his orchestral and chamber +works." The dramatic works bulk rather largely during the earlier +part of the period. In 1769, for example, when the whole musical +establishment of Esterhaz visited Vienna, a performance of his opera, +"Lo Speciale," was given at the house of Freiherr von Sommerau, and +was repeated in the form of a concert. Other works of the kind were +performed at intervals, particularly on festival occasions, but as +most of them have perished, and all of them are essentially pieces +d'occasion, it is unnecessary even to recall their names. In 1771 Haydn +wrote a "Stabat Mater" and a "Salve Regina," and in 1773 followed the +Symphony in C which bears the name of the Empress Maria Theresa, having +been written for the empress's visit to Esterhaz in September of that +year. In the course of the visit Haydn was naturally introduced to Her +Majesty, when, as we have stated, he took occasion to remind her of the +"good hiding" she had ordered him to have at Schonbrunn during the old +chorister days at St Stephen's. "Well, you see, my dear Haydn," was the +reply, "the hiding has borne good fruit." + +First Oratorio + +In 1775 came his first oratorio, "Il Ritorno di Tobia." This is an +exceedingly interesting work. It was first performed under Haydn's +direction by the Tonkunstler Societat, with solo singers from Esterbaz, +at Vienna, on April 2, 1775. In 1784 Haydn added two choruses, one a +"Storm Chorus," which is sometimes confused with the "Storm Chorus" (in +the same key, but in triple time) composed during his sojourn in London. +It is from "Il Ritorno di Tobia" that the so-called motet, "Insanae et +Vanae Curae," is adapted, and the "Storm Chorus" immediately follows +a fine soprano air in F minor and major, sung by Anna in the original +work, a portion of which forms the beautiful second subject (in F) +of the "Insanae." The original words of this chorus--"Svanisce in un +momento"--are to the effect that the soul threatens to yield to the +fury of its enemies, yet trust in God keeps one steadfast. The music +admirably reflects these contrasting sentiments, first in the tumultuous +D minor section, and then in the tranquillity of the F major portion +which follows, no less than in the trustful quietude of the D major +conclusion. Latin words were adapted to three of the original choruses, +but nothing seems to be known as to the origin of the "Insanae" +adaptation. A full score of the motet, published by Breitkopf & Hartel +in 1809, was reviewed in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung of August +15, 1810, as if it were an entirely original work. The source of the +Latin words also remains a mystery. They were presumably put together to +fit Haydn's music, but by whom we have no means of ascertaining. + +It is interesting to know that Haydn brought the score of his "Il +Ritorno di Tobia" with him to England on the occasion of his first visit +in 1791, probably with a view to its performance here. Messrs Novello's +private library contains an oblong volume in the handwriting of Vincent +Novello, in which he has copied some numbers from "Tobia," including the +air of Anna already mentioned, but not the "Insanae" chorus. The inside +cover of the book bears the following note in Novello's hand, written, +not later than 1820, under the contents of the volume: + +"The whole of the above are unpublished manuscripts, and were copied +from an extremely rare volume, containing the full orchestral score of +the entire oratorio, kindly lent to me for the purpose by my friend, Mr +Shield, who had obtained it from Haydn himself during the visit of the +latter to England in the year 1791.--VINCENT NOVELLO, 240 Oxford St." + +[See an interesting account of "Il Ritorno di Tobia" in The Musical +Times for September 1901, p. 600.] + +Some of our musical societies in search of novelties might do worse +than revive this almost completely forgotten oratorio. The airs +are exceedingly melodious, and the choruses bold and tuneful, with +well-developed fugue subjects. The "Insanae" already referred to is +frequently performed. + +Opponents + +In 1776 Haydn composed "La Vera Costanza" for the Court Theatre of +Vienna, but owing to certain intrigues it was declined by the management +and produced at Esterhaz instead. The opera was subsequently staged +at Vienna in 1790, and six of its airs and a duet were published by +Artaria. This incident makes it sufficiently plain that Haydn had +his opponents among the musicians and critics of Vienna as well as +elsewhere. Burney says a friend in Hamburg wrote him in 1772 that "the +genius, fine ideas and fancy of Haydn, Ditters and Filitz were praised, +but their mixture of serious and comic was disliked, particularly as +there is more of the latter than the former in their works; and as for +rules, they knew but little of them." If we substitute "humorous" for +"comic," this may be allowed to fully represent the views of the critics +and amateurs of Vienna in regard to Haydn's music. + +And, unfortunately, the incident just mentioned was not a solitary one. +In 1778 Haydn applied for membership to the Tonkunstler Societat, for +whom he had in reality written his "Il Ritorno di Tobia." One would have +expected such a body to receive him with open arms, but instead of that +they exacted a sum of 300 florins on the ground of his non-residence +in Vienna! Not only so, but they would fain have brought him under a +promise to compose for them whenever they chose to ask him. This latter +condition Haydn felt to be impossible in view of his engagement at +Esterhaz, and he withdrew his admission fee. That the society were not +ashamed of themselves is obvious from a further episode. Some years +after this they desired Haydn to rearrange his "Tobia" for a special +performance, and when he demanded payment for his trouble they promptly +decided to produce Hasse's "Elena" instead. Everything comes to the man +who waits. After his second visit to London the Tonkunstler Societat +welcomed Haydn at a special meeting, and with one voice appointed him +"Assessor Senior" for life. In return for this distinction he presented +the society with "The Creation" and "The Seasons," to which gifts, +according to Pohl, its prosperity is mainly owing. + +"L'Isola Disabitata" + +If Haydn was thus less highly appreciated at home than he deserved to +be, there were others who knew his sterling worth. In 1779 he composed +one of his best operas, "L'Isola Disabitata," the libretto of which was +by his old benefactor Metastasio, and this work procured his nomination +as a member of the Philharmonic Society of Modena. The following extract +of a letter written to Artaria in May 1781 is interesting in this +connection. He says: "M. le Gros, director of the 'Concerts Spirituels' +[in Paris], wrote me a great many fine things about my Stabat Mater, +which had been given there four times with great applause; so this +gentleman asked permission to have it engraved. They made me an offer +to engrave all my future works on very advantageous terms, and are much +surprised that my compositions for the voice are so singularly pleasing. +I, however, am not in the least surprised, for, as yet, they have heard +nothing. If they could only hear my operetta, 'L'Isola Disabitata,' and +my last Shrove-tide opera, 'La Fedelta Premiata,' I do assure you that +no such work has hitherto been heard in Paris, nor, perhaps, in Vienna +either. My great misfortune is living in the country." It will be seen +from this what he thought of "L'Isola," which was not heard in Vienna +until its performance at a concert given at the Court Theatre by +Willmann the 'cellist in 1785. Haydn sent the score to the King +of Spain, who showed his sense of the honour by the gift of a gold +snuff-box, set in brilliants. Other marks of royal attention were +bestowed upon him about this time. Thus, in 1784, Prince Henry of +Prussia sent him a gold medal and his portrait in return for the +dedication of six new quartets, while in 1787 King Frederick William +II gave him the famous gold ring which he afterwards always wore when +composing. + +A Love Episode + +But we have passed somewhat out of our chronological order. The absence +of love at home, as we all know, often encourages love abroad. Haydn +liked to have an occasional flirtation, as ardent as might be within the +bounds of decorum. Sometimes, indeed, according to our insular ideas of +such things, he exceeded the bounds of decorum, as in the case of which +we are now compelled to speak. Among the musicians who had been engaged +for the Esterhazy service in 1779 were a couple named Polzelli--the +husband a violinist, the wife a second-rate vocalist. Luigia Polzelli +was a lively Italian girl of nineteen. She does not seem to have been +happy with Polzelli, and Haydn's pity was roused for her, much +as Shelley's pity was roused for "my unfortunate friend," Harriet +Westbrook. The pity, as often happens in such cases, ultimately ripened +into a violent passion. + +We are not concerned to adopt an apologetic tone towards Haydn. But +Signora Polzelli was clearly an unscrupulous woman. She first got her +admirer into her power, and then used her position to dun him for money. +She had two sons, and the popular belief of the time that Haydn was +the father of the younger is perpetuated in several of the biographies. +Haydn had certainly a great regard for the boy, made him a pupil of +his own, and left him a small sum in his first will, which, however, he +revoked in the second. Signora Polzelli's conduct was probably natural +enough in the circumstances, but it must have been rather embarrassing +to Haydn. After the death of her husband, she wheedled him into signing +a paper promising to marry her in the event of his becoming a widower. +This promise he subsequently repudiated, but he cared for her well +enough to leave her an annuity in his will, notwithstanding that she +had married again. She survived him for twenty-three years, and her two +daughters were still living at Pesth in 1878. + +Returning to 1779, an untoward event of that year was the destruction +by fire of the theatre at Esterhaz. The re-building of the house was +set about at once, the prince having meanwhile gone to Paris, and the +re-opening took place on October 15, 1780, when Haydn's "La Fedelta +Premiata," already mentioned, was staged. + +Correspondence + +It was about this time that he began to correspond with Artaria, the +Vienna music-publisher, with whom he had business dealings for many +years. A large number of his letters is given in an English translation +by Lady Wallace. [See Letters of Distinguished Musicians. Translated +from the German by Lady Wallace. London, 1867]. They treat principally +of business matters, but are not unimportant as fixing the chronological +dates of some of his works. They exhibit in a striking way the simple, +honest, unassuming nature of the composer; and if they also show him +"rather eager after gain, and even particular to a groschen," we must +not forget the ever-pressing necessity for economy under which he +laboured, and his almost lavish benevolence to straitened relatives and +friends. In one letter requesting an advance he writes: "I am unwilling +to be in debt to tradesmen, and, thank God! I am free from this burden; +but as great people keep me so long waiting for payments, I have got +rather into difficulty. This letter, however, will be your security...I +will pay off the interest with my notes." There is no real ground +for charging Haydn with avarice, as some writers have done. "Even +philosophers," as he remarked himself, "occasionally stand in need of +money"; and, as Beethoven said to George Thomson, when haggling +about prices, there is no reason why the "true artist" should not be +"honourably paid." + +A London Publisher + +It was about this time too that Haydn opened a correspondence with +William Forster of London, who had added to his business of violin-maker +that of a music-seller and publisher. Forster entered into an agreement +with him for the English copyright of his compositions, and between +1781 and 1787 he published eighty-two symphonies, twenty-four quartets, +twenty-four solos, duets and trios, and the "Seven Last Words," of which +we have yet to speak. Nothing of the Forster correspondence seems to +have survived. + +Royal Dedicatees + +Among the events of 1781-1782 should be noted the entertainments given +in connection with two visits which the Emperor Joseph II received from +the Grand Duke Paul and his wife. The Grand Duchess was musical, and had +just been present at the famous combat between Clementi and Mozart, a +suggestion of the Emperor. She had some of Haydn's quartets played at +her house and liked them so well that she gave him a diamond snuff-box +and took lessons from him. It was to her that he afterwards--in +1802--dedicated his part-songs for three and four voices, while the +Grand Duke was honoured by the dedication of the six so-called "Russian" +quartets. It had been arranged that the Duke and Duchess should +accompany the Emperor to Eisenstadt, but the arrangement fell through, +and an opera which Haydn had written for the occasion was only produced +at Esterhaz in the autumn of 1782. This was his "Orlando Paladino," +better known in its German form as "Ritter Roland." Another work of this +year (1782) was the "Mariazell" Mass in C major (Novello, No. 15), which +derives its name from the shrine of the Virgin in Styria, the scene +of an incident already related. The mass was written to the order of a +certain Herr Liebe de Kreutzner, and the composer is said to have taken +special pains with it, perhaps because it reminded him of his early +struggling days as a chorister in Vienna. It was the eighth mass Haydn +had written, one being the long and difficult "Cecilia" Mass in C +major, now heard only in a curtailed form. No other work of the kind was +composed until 1796, between which year and 1802 the best of his masses +were produced. To the year 1783 belongs the opera "Armida," performed in +1784 and again in 1797 at Schickaneder's Theatre in Vienna. Haydn writes +to Artaria in March 1784 to say that "Armida" had been given at Esterhaz +with "universal applause," adding that "it is thought the best work I +have yet written." The autograph score was sent to London to make up, in +a manner, for the non-performance of his "Orfeo" there in 1791. + +The "Seven Words" + +But the most interesting work of this period was the "Seven Words of our +Saviour on the Cross," written in 1785. The circumstances attending its +composition are best told in Haydn's own words. In Breitkopf & Hartel's +edition of 1801, he writes: + +About fifteen years ago I was requested by a Canon of Cadiz to compose +instrumental music on the Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross. It was +the custom of the Cathedral of Cadiz to produce an oratorio every year +during Lent, the effect of the performance being not a little enhanced +by the following circumstances. The walls, windows and pillars of the +Church were hung with black cloth, and only one large lamp, hanging from +the centre of the roof, broke the solemn obscurity. At mid-day the doors +were closed and the ceremony began. After a short service the bishop +ascended the pulpit, pronounced one of the Seven Words (or sentences) +and delivered a discourse thereon. This ended, he left the pulpit and +knelt prostrate before the altar. The pause was filled by the music. The +bishop then in like manner pronounced the second word, then the third, +and so on, the orchestra falling in at the conclusion of each discourse. +My composition was to be subject to these conditions, and it was no easy +matter to compose seven adagios to last ten minutes each, and follow one +after the other without fatiguing the listeners; indeed I found it quite +impossible to confine myself within the appointed limits. + +This commission may be taken as a further evidence of the growing extent +of Haydn's fame. He appears to have been already well known in Spain. +Boccherini carried on a friendly correspondence with him from Madrid, +and he was actually made the hero of a poem called "The Art of Music," +published there in 1779. The "Seven Words" created a profound impression +when performed under the circumstances just detailed, but the work was +not allowed to remain in its original form, though it was printed in +that form by Artaria and by Forster. Haydn divided it into two parts, +and added choruses and solos, in which form it was given for the first +time at Eisenstadt in October, 1797, and published in 1801. The "Seven +Words" was a special favourite of the composer himself, who indeed is +declared by some to have preferred it to all his other compositions. + +The "Toy" Symphony + +The remaining years of the period covered by this chapter being almost +totally devoid of incident, we may pause to notice briefly two of the +better-known symphonies of the time--the "Toy" Symphony and the more +famous "Farewell." The former is a mere jeu d'esprit, in which, with an +orchestral basis of two violins and a bass, the solo instruments are all +of a burlesque character. Mozart attempted something of a kindred +nature in his "Musical joke," where instruments come in at wrong places, +execute inappropriate phrases, and play abominably out of tune. This +kind of thing does not require serious notice, especially in the case +of Haydn, to whom humour in music was a very different matter from the +handling of rattles and penny trumpets and toy drums. + +The "Farewell" Symphony + +The "Farewell" Symphony has often been described, though the +circumstances of its origin are generally mis-stated. It has been +asserted, for example, that Haydn intended it as an appeal to the prince +against the dismissal of the Capelle. But this, as Pohl has conclusively +shown, is incorrect. The real design of the "Farewell" was to persuade +the prince to shorten his stay at Esterhaz, and so enable the musicians +to rejoin their wives and families. Fortunately, the prince was +quick-witted enough to see the point of the joke. As one after another +ceased playing and left the orchestra, until only two violinists +remained, he quietly observed, "If all go, we may as well go too." +Thus Haydn's object was attained--for the time being! The "Farewell" +is perfectly complete as a work of art, but its fitness for ordinary +occasions is often minimized by the persistent way in which its original +purpose is pointed out to the listener. + +Free from Esterhaz + +Haydn's active career at Esterhaz may be said to have closed with the +death, on September 28, 1790, of Prince Nicolaus. The event was of great +importance to his future. Had the prince lived, Haydn would doubtless +have continued in his service, for he "absolutely adored him." But +Prince Anton, who now succeeded, dismissed the whole Capelle, retaining +only the few members necessary for the carrying on of the church +service, and Haydn's occupation was practically gone. The new prince +nominally held the right to his services, but there was no reason for +his remaining longer at the castle, and he accordingly took up his +residence in Vienna. Thus free to employ his time as he considered best, +Haydn embraced the opportunity to carry out a long-meditated project, +and paid the first of his two visits to London. With these we enter upon +a new epoch in the composer's life, and one of great interest to the +student and lover of music. + + + +CHAPTER V. FIRST LONDON VISIT--1791-1792 + +English Music about 1791--Salomon--Mozart and Haydn--Terms for +London--Bonn and Beethoven--Haydn Sea-Sick--Arrives in London--An +Enthusiastic Welcome--Ideas of the Metropolis--At Court--Unreasoning +Rivalries--Temporarily eclipsed--Band and Baton--A Rehearsal +Incident--Hanover Square Rooms--Hoops and Swords--The "Surprise" +Symphony--Gallic Excitement--New Compositions--Benefit and Other +Concerts--Haydn on Handel--Oxford Doctor of Music--The +"Oxford" Symphony--Relaxations--Royalty again--Pleyel--Close of +Season--Herschel--Haydn at St Paul's--London Acquaintances--Another +Romance--Mistress Schroeter--Love-Letters--Haydn's Note-Book. + +English Music about 1791 + +Haydn came to England in 1791. It may occur to the reader to ask what +England was doing in music at that time, and who were the foremost +representatives of the art. The first question may be partially answered +from the literature of the period. Thus Jackson, in his Present State of +Music in London, published the year after Haydn's arrival, remarks +that "instrumental music has been of late carried to such perfection +in London by the consummate skill of the performers that any attempt to +beat the time would be justly considered as entirely needless." Burney, +again, in his last volume, published in 1789, says that the great +improvement in taste during the previous twenty years was "as different +as civilized people from savages"; while Stafford Smith, writing in +1779, tells that music was then "thought to be in greater perfection +than among even the Italians themselves." There is a characteristic John +Bull complacency about these statements which is hardly borne out by a +study of the lives of the leading contemporary musicians. Even Mr Henry +Davey, the applauding historian of English music, has to admit the +evanescent character of the larger works which came from the composers +of that "bankrupt century." Not one of these composers--not even +Arne--is a real personality to us like Handel, or Bach, or Haydn, or +Mozart. The great merit of English music was melody, which seems to +have been a common gift, but "the only strong feeling was patriotic +enthusiasm, and the compositions that survive are almost all short +ballads expressing this sentiment or connected with it by their nautical +subjects." When Haydn arrived, there was, in short, no native composer +of real genius, and our "tardy, apish nation" was ready to welcome with +special cordiality an artist whose gifts were of a higher order. + +Salomon + +We have spoken of Haydn's visit as a long-meditated project. In 1787 +Cramer, the violinist, had offered to engage him on his own terms for +the Professional Concerts; and Gallini, the director of the King's +Theatre in Drury Lane, pressed him to write an opera for that house. +Nothing came of these proposals, mainly because Haydn was too much +attached to his prince to think of leaving him, even temporarily. But +the time arrived and the man with it. The man was Johann Peter +Salomon, a violinist, who, having fallen out with the directors of the +professional concerts, had started concerts on his own account. Salomon +was a native of Bonn, and had been a member of the Electoral Orchestra +there. He had travelled about the Continent a good deal, and no one was +better fitted to organize and direct a series of concerts on a large +scale. In 1790 he had gone abroad in search of singers, and, hearing of +the death of Prince Esterhazy, he set off at once for Vienna, resolved +to secure Haydn at any cost. "My name is Salomon," he bluntly announced +to the composer, as he was shown into his room one morning. "I have come +from London to fetch you; we will settle terms to-morrow." + +The question of terms was, we may be sure, important enough for Haydn. +But it was not the only question. The "heavy years" were beginning to +weigh upon him. He was bordering on threescore, and a long journey in +those days was not to be lightly undertaken. Moreover, he was still, +nominally at least, the servant of Prince Anton, whose consent would +have to be obtained; and, besides all this, he was engaged on various +commissions, notably some for the King of Naples, which were probably a +burden on his conscience. His friends, again, do not appear to have been +very enthusiastic about the projected visit. There were Dittersdorf and +Albrechtsberger, and Dr Leopold von Genzinger, the prince's physician, +and Frau von Genzinger, whose tea and coffee he so much appreciated, and +who sent him such excellent cream. Above all, there was Mozart--"a man +very dear to me," as Haydn himself said. + +Mozart and Haydn + +He had always greatly revered Mozart. Three years before this he wrote: +"I only wish I could impress upon every friend of mine, and on great men +in particular, the same deep musical sympathy and profound appreciation +which I myself feel for Mozart's inimitable music; then nations would +vie with each other to possess such a jewel within their frontiers. It +enrages me to think that the unparalleled Mozart is not yet engaged at +any Imperial Court! Forgive my excitement; I love the man so dearly." +The regard was reciprocal. "Oh, Papa," exclaimed Mozart, when he heard +of Haydn's intention to travel, "you have had no education for the wide, +wide world, and you speak too few languages." It was feelingly said, and +Haydn knew it. "My language," he replied, with a smile, "is understood +all over the world." Mozart was really concerned at the thought of +parting with his brother composer, to whom he stood almost in the +relation of a son. When it came to the actual farewell, the tears sprang +to his eyes, and he said affectingly: "This is good-bye; we shall never +meet again." The words proved prophetic. A year later, Mozart was thrown +with a number of paupers into a grave which is now as unknown as the +grave of Moliere. Haydn deeply lamented his loss; and when his thoughts +came to be turned homewards towards the close of his English visit his +saddest reflection was that there would be no Mozart to meet him. His +wretched wife had tried to poison his mind against his friend by writing +that Mozart had been disparaging his genius. "I cannot believe it," he +cried; "if it is true, I will forgive him." It was not true, and Haydn +never believed it. As late as 1807 he burst into tears when Mozart's +name was mentioned, and then, recovering himself, remarked: "Forgive me! +I must ever weep at the name of my Mozart." + +Terms for London + +But to return. Salomon at length carried the day, and everything was +arranged for the London visit. Haydn was to have 300 pounds for six +symphonies and 200 pounds for the copyright of them; 200 pounds for +twenty new compositions to be produced by himself at the same number of +concerts; and 200 pounds from a benefit concert. The composer paid his +travelling expenses himself, being assisted in that matter by an advance +of 450 florins from the prince, which he refunded within the year. In +order to provide for his wife during his absence he sold his house at +Eisenstadt, the gift of Prince Nicolaus, which had been twice rebuilt +after being destroyed by fire. + +Salomon sent advance notices of the engagement to London, and on the +30th of December the public were informed through the Morning Chronicle +that, immediately on his arrival with his distinguished guest, "Mr +Salomon would have the honour of submitting to all lovers of music his +programme for a series of subscription concerts, the success of which +would depend upon their support and approbation." Before leaving for +London Haydn had a tiff with the King of Naples, Ferdinand IV, who was +then in Vienna. The composer had taken him some of the works which he +had been commissioned to write, and His Majesty, thanking him for the +favour, remarked that "We will rehearse them the day after to-morrow." +"The day after to-morrow," replied Haydn, "I shall be on my way to +England." "What!" exclaimed the King, "and you promised to come to +Naples!" With which observation he turned on his heel and indignantly +left the room. Before Haydn had time to recover from his astonishment +Ferdinand was back with a letter of introduction to Prince Castelcicala, +the Neapolitan Ambassador in London; and to show further that the +misunderstanding was merely a passing affair he sent the composer later +in the day a valuable tabatiere as a token of esteem and regard. + +Bonn and Beethoven + +The journey to London was begun by Haydn and Salomon on the 15th of +December 1790, and the travellers arrived at Bonn on Christmas Day. It +is supposed, with good reason, that Haydn here met Beethoven, then +a youth of twenty, for the first time. Beethoven was a member of the +Electoral Chapel, and we know that Haydn, after having one of his masses +performed and being complimented by the Elector, the musical brother of +Joseph II, entertained the chief musicians at dinner at his lodgings. An +amusing description of the regale may be read in Thayer's biography +of Beethoven. From Bonn the journey was resumed by way of Brussels to +Calais, which was reached in a violent storm and an incessant downpour +of rain. "I am very well, thank God!" writes the composer to Frau +Genzinger, "although somewhat thinner, owing to fatigue, irregular +sleep, and eating and drinking so many different things." + +Haydn Sea-Sick + +Next morning, after attending early mass, he embarked at 7:30, and +landed at Dover at five o'clock in the afternoon. It was his first +acquaintance with the sea, and, as the weather was rather rough, he +makes no little of it in letters written from London. "I remained on +deck during the whole passage," he says, "in order to gaze my full +at that huge monster--the ocean. So long as there was a calm I had no +fears, but when at length a violent wind began to blow, rising every +minute, and I saw the boisterous high waves running on, I was seized +with a little alarm and a little indisposition likewise." Thus +delicately does he allude to a painful episode. + +Arrives in London + +Haydn reached London in the opening days of 1791. He passed his first +night at the house of Bland, the music-publisher, at 45 High Holborn, +which now, rebuilt, forms part of the First Avenue Hotel. Bland, it +should have been mentioned before, had been sent over to Vienna by +Salomon to coax Haydn into an engagement in 1787. When he was admitted +on that occasion to Haydn's room, he found the composer in the act of +shaving, complaining the while of the bluntness of his razor. "I would +give my best quartet for a good razor," he exclaimed testily. The hint +was enough for Bland, who immediately hurried off to his lodgings and +fetched a more serviceable tool. Haydn was as good as his word: +he presented Bland with his latest quartet, and the work is still +familiarly known as the "Rasirmesser" (razor) Quartet. The incident +was, no doubt, recalled when Haydn renewed his acquaintance with the +music-publisher. + +But Haydn did not remain the guest of Bland. Next day he went to live +with Salomon, at 18 Great Pulteney Street, Golden Square, which--also +rebuilt--is now the warehouse of Messrs Chatto & Windus, the publishers. +[See Musical Haunts in London, by F.G. Edwards, London, 1895] He +described it in one of his letters as "a neat, comfortable lodging," +and extolled the cooking of his Italian landlord, "who gives us four +excellent dishes." But his frugal mind was staggered at the charges. +"Everything is terribly dear here," he wrote. "We each pay 1 florin 30 +kreuzers [about 2s. 8d.] a day, exclusive of wine and beer." This was +bad enough. + +An Enthusiastic Welcome + +But London made up for it all by the flattering way in which it received +the visitor. People of the highest rank called on him; ambassadors left +cards; the leading musical societies vied with each other in their zeal +to do him honour. Even the poetasters began to twang their lyres in his +praise. Thus Burney, who had been for some time in correspondence with +him, saluted him with an effusion, of which it will suffice to quote the +following lines: + +Welcome, great master! to our favoured isle, Already partial to thy name +and style; Long may thy fountain of invention run In streams as rapid +as it first begun; While skill for each fantastic whim provides, And +certain science ev'ry current guides! Oh, may thy days, from human +suff'rings, free, Be blest with glory and felicity, With full fruition, +to a distant hour, Of all thy magic and creative pow'r! Blest in +thyself, with rectitude of mind, And blessing, with thy talents, all +mankind! + +Like "the man Sterne" after the publication of Tristram Shandy, he was +soon deep in social engagements for weeks ahead. "I could dine out every +day," he informs his friends in Germany. Shortly after his arrival he +was conducted by the Academy of Ancient Music into a "very handsome +room" adjoining the Freemasons' Hall, and placed at a table where covers +were laid for 200. "It was proposed that I should take a seat near the +top, but as it so happened that I had dined out that very day, and +ate more than usual, I declined the honour, excusing myself under the +pretext of not being very well; but in spite of this, I could not +get off drinking the health, in Burgundy, of the harmonious gentlemen +present. All responded to it, but at last allowed me to go home." +This sort of thing strangely contrasted with the quiet, drowsy life +of Esterhaz; and although Haydn evidently felt flattered by so much +attention, he often expressed a wish that he might escape in order to +have more peace for work. + +Ideas of London + +His ideas about London were mixed and hesitating. He was chiefly +impressed by the size of the city, a fact which the Londoner of to-day +can only fully appreciate when he remembers that in Haydn's time +Regent Street had not been built and Lisson Grove was a country lane. +Mendelssohn described the metropolis as "that smoky nest which is fated +to be now and ever my favourite residence." But Haydn's regard was less +for the place itself than for the people and the music. The fogs +brought him an uncommonly severe attack of rheumatism, which he naively +describes as "English," and obliged him to wrap up in flannel from head +to foot. The street noises proved a great distraction--almost as much as +they proved to Wagner in 1839, when the composer of "Lohengrin" had to +contend with an organ-grinder at each end of the street! He exclaimed in +particular against "the cries of the common people selling their wares." +It was very distracting, no doubt, for, as a cynic has said, one cannot +compose operas or write books or paint pictures in the midst of a row. +Haydn desired above all things quiet for his work, and so by-and-by, as +a solace for the evils which afflicted his ear, he removed himself +from Great Pulteney Street to Lisson Grove--"in the country amid lovely +scenery, where I live as if I were in a monastery." + +Haydn at Court + +For the present the dining and the entertaining went on. The 12th of +January found him at the "Crown and Anchor" in the Strand, where the +Anacreonatic Society expressed their respect and admiration in the usual +fashion. The 18th of the same month was the Queen's birthday, and +Haydn was invited to a Court ball in the evening. This was quite an +exceptional distinction, for he had not yet been "presented" at Court. +Probably he owed it to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. The +Prince was a musical amateur, like his father and his grandfather, whose +enthusiasm for Handel it is hardly necessary to recall. He played the +'cello--"not badly for a Prince," to parody Boccherini's answer to his +royal master--and liked to take his part in glees and catches. Haydn was +charmed by his affability. "He is the handsomest man on God's earth," +wrote the composer. "He has an extraordinary love for music, and a great +deal of feeling, but very little money." These courtesies to Haydn may +perhaps be allowed to balance the apparent incivility shown to Beethoven +and Weber, who sent compositions to the same royal amateur that were +never so much as acknowledged. + +But even the attentions of princes may become irksome and unprofitable. +Haydn soon found that his health and his work were suffering from the +flood of social engagements which London poured upon him. The dinner +hour at this time was six o'clock. He complained that the hour was too +late, and made a resolve to dine at home at four. He wanted his mornings +for composition, and if visitors must see him they would have to wait +till afternoon. Obviously he was beginning to tire of "the trivial +round." + +Unreasoning Rivalries + +The Salomon concerts should have begun in January, but London, as it +happened, was suffering from one of those unreasoning rivalries which +made a part of Handel's career so miserable, and helped to immortalize +the names of Gluck and Piccini. It is hardly worth reviving the details +of such ephemeral contests now. In the present case the factionists were +to some extent swayed by financial interests; to a still greater extent +by professional jealousies. The trouble seems to have arisen originally +in connection with Gallini's preparations for the opening of a new Opera +House in the Haymarket. Salomon had engaged Cappelletti and David as his +principal vocalists; but these, it appeared, were under contract not to +sing in public before the opening of the Opera House. One faction did +not want to have the Opera House opened at all. They were interested in +the old Pantheon, and contended that a second Italian Opera House was +altogether unnecessary. + +Temporarily eclipsed + +Salomon's first concert, already postponed to February 25, had been +fixed for the 11th of March, on which date David, by special permission, +was to appear "whether the Opera house was open or not." The delay was +extremely awkward for both Haydn and Salomon, particularly for Haydn. He +had been brought to London with beat of drum, and here he was compelled +to hide his light while the directors of the professional concerts shot +ahead of him and gained the ear of the public before he could assert his +superiority. By this time also the element of professional jealousy +had come into free play. Depreciatory paragraphs appeared in the public +prints "sneering at the composer as 'a nine days' wonder,' whom closer +acquaintance would prove to be inferior to either Cramer or Clementi; +and alluding to the 'proverbial avarice' of the Germans as tempting so +many artists, who met with scanty recognition from their own countrymen +to herald their arrival in England with such a flourish of trumpets as +should charm the money out of the pockets of easily-gulled John Bull." +These pleasantries were continued on rather different lines, when at +length Haydn was in a position to justify the claims made for him. + +Band and Baton + +Haydn, meanwhile, had been rehearsing the symphony for his opening +concert. Two points are perhaps worth noting here: First, the size and +strength of the Salomon Orchestra; and second, the fact that Haydn did +not, as every conductor does now, direct his forces, baton in hand. +The orchestra numbered between thirty-five and forty performers--a very +small company compared with our Handel Festival and Richter Orchestras, +but in Haydn's time regarded as quite sufficiently strong. There were +sixteen violins, four tenors, three 'celli, four double basses, flutes, +oboes, bassoons, trumpets and drums. + +Salomon played the first violin and led the orchestra, and Haydn sat +at the harpsichord, keeping the band together by an occasional chord +or two, as the practice then was. Great composers have not always +been great conductors, but Haydn had a winning way with his band, and +generally succeeded in getting what he wanted. + +A Rehersal Incident + +An interesting anecdote is told by Dies of his first experience with the +Salomon Orchestra. The symphony began with three single notes, which the +orchestra played much too loudly; Haydn called for less tone a second +and a third time, and still was dissatisfied. He was growing impatient. +At this point he overheard a German player whisper to a neighbour in his +own language: "If the first three notes don't please him, how shall we +get through all the rest?" Thereupon, calling for the loan of a violin, +he illustrated his meaning to such purpose that the band answered to +his requirements in the first attempt. Haydn was naturally at a great +disadvantage with an English orchestra by reason of his ignorance of +the language. It may be true, as he said, that the language of music "is +understood all over the world," but one cannot talk to an orchestra in +crotchets and semi-breves. + +The Hanover Square Rooms + +At length the date of the first concert arrived, and a brilliant +audience rewarded the enterprise, completely filling the Hanover Square +Rooms, at that time the principal concert hall in London. It had been +opened in 1775 by J. C. Bach, the eleventh son of the great Sebastian, +when the advertisements announced that "the ladies' tickets are red and +the gentlemen's black." It was there that, two years after the date +of which we are writing, "Master Hummel, from Vienna," gave his first +benefit; Liszt appeared in 1840, when the now familiar term "recital" +was first used; Rubinstein made his English debut in 1842; and in the +same year Mendelssohn conducted his Scotch Symphony for the first time +in England. In 1844 the "wonderful little Joachim," then a youth of +thirteen in a short jacket, made the first of his many subsequent visits +to London, and played in the old "Rooms." + +Hoops and Swords + +So much for the associations of the concert hall in which Haydn directed +some of his finest symphonies. And what about the audiences of Haydn's +time? It was the day of the Sedan chair, when women waddled in hoops, +like that of the lady mentioned in the Spectator, who appeared "as if +she stood in a large drum." Even the royal princesses were, in Pope's +phrase, "armed in ribs of steel" so wide that the Court attendants had +to assist their ungainly figures through the doorways. Swords were still +being worn as a regulation part of full dress, and special weapons were +always provided at a grand concert for the use of the instrumental solo +performers, who, when about to appear on the platform, were girt for +the occasion by an attendant, known as the "sword-bearer." [See Musical +Haunts in London, F. G. Edwards, quoting Dr W. H. Cummings.] + +Haydn's first concert, we have said, was an immense success. Burney +records that his appearance in the orchestra "seemed to have an +electrical effect on all present, and he never remembered a performance +where greater enthusiasm was displayed." A wave of musical excitement +appears to have been passing through London, for on this very evening +both Covent Garden and Drury Lane Theatres were packed with audiences +drawn together by the oratorio performances there. Haydn was vastly +pleased at having the slow movement of his symphony encored--an unusual +occurrence in those days--and he spoke of it afterwards as worthy of +mention in his biography. Fresh from the dinner-table, the audience +generally fell asleep during the slow movements! When the novelty of the +Salomon concerts had worn off, many of the listeners lapsed into their +usual somnolence. Most men in Haydn's position would have resented such +inattention by an outburst of temper. Haydn took it good-humouredly, and +resolved to have his little joke. + +The "Surprise" Symphony + +He wrote the well-known "Surprise" Symphony. The slow movement of this +work opens and proceeds in the most subdued manner, and at the moment +when the audience may be imagined to have comfortably settled for their +nap a sudden explosive fortissimo chord is introduced. "There all the +women will scream," said Haydn, with twinkling eyes. A contemporary +critic read quite a different "programme" into it. "The 'Surprise,'" +he wrote, "might not be inaptly likened to the situation of a beautiful +shepherdess who, lulled to slumber by the murmur of a distant waterfall, +starts alarmed by the unexpected firing of a fowling-piece." One can +fancy the composer's amusement at this highly-imaginative interpretation +of his harmless bit of waggery. + +Gallic Excitement + +The same success which attended Haydn's first concert marked the rest +of the series. The Prince of Wales's presence at the second concert no +doubt gave a certain "lead" to the musical public. We read in one of +the Gallic newspapers: "It is truly wonderful what sublime and august +thoughts this master weaves into his works. Passages often occur which +it is impossible to listen to without becoming excited--we are carried +away by admiration, and are forced to applaud with hand and mouth. The +Frenchmen here cannot restrain their transports in soft adagios; they +will clap their hands in loud applause and thus mar the effect." + +In the midst of all this enthusiasm the factionists were keeping up +their controversy about the opening of Gallini's Theatre. Gallini had +already engaged the services of Haydn, together with an orchestra led +by Salomon, but nothing could be done without the Lord Chamberlain's +license for the performance of operas. To prevent the issue of that +license was the avowed object of the Pantheon management and their +friends. The fight was rendered all the more lively when the Court +divided itself between the opposing interests. "The rival theatre," +wrote Horace Walpole, "is said to be magnificent and lofty, but it is +doubtful whether it will be suffered to come to light; in short the +contest will grow political; 'Dieu et mon Droit' (the King) supporting +the Pantheon, and 'Ich dien' (the Prince of Wales) countenancing the +Haymarket. It is unlucky that the amplest receptacle is to hold the +minority." + +Cantatas, Catches and Choruses + +That was how it turned out. The Lord Chamberlain finally refused his +license for operatic performances, and Gallini had to be content with a +license for "entertainments of music and dancing." He opened his house +on the 20th of March, and continued during the season to give mixed +entertainments twice a week. Various works of Haydn's were performed at +these entertainments, including a cantata composed for David, an Italian +catch for seven voices, and the chorus known as "The Storm," a setting +of Peter Pindar's "Hark, the wild uproar of the waves." An opera, "Orfeo +ed Euridice," to which we have already referred, was almost completed, +but its production had necessarily to be abandoned, a circumstance which +must have occasioned him considerable regret in view of the store he set +upon his dramatic work. + +Benefit and Other Concerts + +On the 16th of May he had a benefit concert, when the receipts exceeded +by 150 pounds the 200 pounds which had been guaranteed. A second benefit +was given on May 30, when "La Passione Instrumentale" (the "Seven Words" +written for Cadiz) was performed. This work was given again on June 10, +at the benefit concert of the "little" Clement, a boy violinist who grew +into the famous artist for whom Beethoven wrote his Violin Concerto. +On this occasion Haydn conducted for Clement, and it is interesting to +observe that Clement took the first violin at the last concert Haydn +ever attended, in March 1808. + +Haydn on Handel + +In the note-book he kept while in London, one of the entries reads: +"Anno 1791, the last great concert, with 885 persons, was held in +Westminster, Anno 1792, it was transferred to St Margaret's Chapel, with +200 performers. This evoked criticism." Haydn here refers to the Handel +Commemoration Festival, the sixth and last of the century. He +attended that of 1791, and was much impressed with the grandeur of the +performances. A place had been reserved for him near the King's box, and +when the "Hallelujah Chorus" was sung, and the whole audience rose to +their feet, he wept like a child. "Handel is the master of us all," he +sobbed. No one knew the value of Handel's choral work better than Haydn. +After listening at the Concert of Antient Music to the chorus, "The +Nations tremble," from "Joshua," he told Shield that "he had long been +acquainted with music, but never knew half its powers before he heard +it, as he was perfectly certain that only one inspired author ever +did, or ever would, pen so sublime a composition." [See the Appendix to +Shield's Introduction to Harmony.] + +Oxford Doctor of Music + +Haydn was no Handel, either as man or artist. Handel declined the Doctor +of Music degree with the characteristic remark: "What the devil I throw +my money away for that the blockhead wish?" Haydn did not decline it, +though probably enough he rated the distinction no higher than Handel +did. In the month of July he went down to the Oxford Commemoration, and +was then invested with the degree. Handel's latest biographer, Mr W. S. +Rockstro, says that the Oxford fees would have cost Handel 100 pounds. +Haydn's note of the expense is not so alarming: "I had to pay one and +a half guineas for the bell peals at Oxforth [sic] when I received the +doctor's degree, and half a guinea for the robe." He seems to have found +the ceremonies a little trying, and not unlikely he imagined himself +cutting rather a ridiculous figure in his gorgeous robe of cherry and +cream-coloured silk. At the concert following the investiture he seized +the gown, and, raising it in the air, exclaimed in English, "I thank +you." "I had to walk about for three days in this guise," he afterwards +wrote, "and only wish my Vienna friends could have seen me." Haydn's +"exercise" for the degree was the following "Canon cancrizans, a tre," +set to the words, "Thy voice, O harmony, is divine." + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +This was subsequently used for the first of the Ten Commandments, the +whole of which he set to canons during his stay in London. Three grand +concerts formed a feature of the Oxford Commemoration. + +The "Oxford" Symphony + +At the second of these a symphony in G, written in 1787 or 1788, and +since known as the "Oxford," was performed, with the composer at the +organ. He had taken a new symphony with him for the occasion, but owing +to lack of time for rehearsals, the earlier work was substituted. +Of this latter, the Morning Chronicle wrote that "a more wonderful +composition never was heard. The applause given to Haydn was +enthusiastic; but the merit of the work, in the opinion of all the +musicians present, exceeded all praise." + +Holiday Relaxations + +The London season having now come to an end, Haydn proceeded to recruit +his energies by paying visits to distinguished people at their country +quarters, taking part in river excursions, picnics, and the like. Prince +Esterhazy had sent him a pressing summons to return for a great fete +which was being organized in honour of the Emperor, but having entered +into new engagements with Salomon and others, he found it impossible to +comply. A less indulgent employer would have requited him with instant +dismissal, but all that the prince said when they afterwards met was, +"Ah, Haydn! you might have saved me 40,000 florins." His longest visit +at this time was spent with Mr Brassey, a Lombard Street banker, and +ancestor of the present peer. "The banker," he says, "once cursed +because he enjoyed too much happiness in this world." He gave lessons to +Miss Brassey, and "enjoyed the repose of country life in the midst of +a family circle all cordially devoted to him." In November he was the +guest at two Guildhall banquets--that of the outgoing Lord Mayor on the +5th and that of his successor on the 9th. Of these entertainments he +has left a curious account, and as the memorandum is in English it +may, perhaps, be reproduced here. It runs as follows in Lady Wallace's +translation of the letters: + +I was invited to the Lord Mayor's banquet on November 5. At the +first table, No. 1, the new Lord Mayor and his wife dined, the Lord +Chancellor, the two sheriffs, the Duke of Lids [Leeds], the minister +Pitt, and others of the highest rank in the Cabinet. I was seated at +No. 2 with Mr Sylvester, the most celebrated advocate and first King's +counsel in London. In this hall, called the Geld Hall [Guildhall], were +six tables, besides others in the adjoining room. About twelve hundred +persons altogether dined, and everything was in the greatest splendour. +The dishes were very nice and well dressed. Wines of every kind in +abundance. We sat down to dinner at six o'clock and rose from table +at eight. The guests accompanied the Lord Mayor both before and after +dinner in their order of precedence. There were various ceremonies, +sword bearing, and a kind of golden crown, all attended by a band of +wind instruments. After dinner, the whole of the aristocratic guests of +No. 1 withdrew into a private room prepared for them, to have tea and +coffee, while the rest of the company were conducted into another room. +At nine o'clock No. 1 repaired to a small saloon, when the ball began. +There was a raised platform in this room, reserved for the highest +nobility, where the Lord Mayor and his wife were seated on a throne. +Dancing then commenced in due order of precedence, but only one couple +at a time, just as on January 6, the King's birthday. There were raised +benches on both sides of this room with four steps, where the fair sex +chiefly prevailed. Nothing but minuets were danced in this saloon, but +I could only remain for a quarter of an hour, first, because the heat of +so many people assembled in such a narrow space was so oppressive, and, +secondly, on account of the bad music for dancing, the whole orchestra +consisting of two violins and a violoncello; the minuets were more in +the Polish style than in our own, or that of the Italians. I proceeded +into another room, which really was more like a subterranean cave than +anything else; they were dancing English dances, and the music here was +a degree better, as a drum was played by one of the violinists! [This +might be effected by the violin player having the drumstick tied to his +right foot, which was sometimes done.] + +I went on to the large hall, where we had dined, and there the orchestra +was more numerous, and the music more tolerable. They were also dancing +English dances, but only opposite the raised platform where the four +first sets had dined with the Lord Mayor. The other tables were all +filled afresh with gentlemen, who as usual drank freely the whole night. +The strangest thing of all was that one part of the company went on +dancing without hearing a single note of the music, for first at one +table, and then at another, songs were shouted, or toasts given, amidst +the most crazy uproar and clinking of glasses and hurrahs. This hall and +all the other rooms were lighted with lamps, of which the effluvia was +most disagreeable, especially in the small ballroom. It was remarkable +that the Lord Mayor had no need of a carving-knife, as a man in the +centre of the table carved everything for him. One man stood before the +Lord Mayor and another behind him, shouting out vociferously all the +toasts in their order according to etiquette, and after each toast came +a flourish of kettledrums and trumpets. No health was more applauded +than that of Mr Pitt. There seemed to be no order. The dinner cost 6,000 +pounds, one-half of which is paid by the Lord Mayor, and the other half +by the two sheriffs. + +Royalty Again + +In this same month--November--he visited the Marionettes at the +Fantoccini Theatre in Saville Row, prompted, no doubt, by old +associations with Esterhaz. On the 24th he went to Oatlands to visit the +Duke of York, who had just married the Princess of Prussia. "I remained +two days," he says, "and enjoyed many marks of graciousness and +honour... On the third day the Duke had me taken twelve miles towards +town with his own horses. The Prince of Wales asked for my portrait. +For two days we made music for four hours each evening, i.e., from ten +o'clock till two hours after midnight. Then we had supper, and at three +o'clock went to bed." After this he proceeded to Cambridge to see the +university, thence to Sir. Patrick Blake's at Langham. Of the Cambridge +visit he writes: "Each university has behind it a very roomy and +beautiful garden, besides stone bridges, in order to afford passage +over the stream which winds past. The King's Chapel is famous for its +carving. It is all of stone, but so delicate that nothing more beautiful +could have been made of wood. It has already stood for 400 years, and +everybody judges its age at about ten years, because of the firmness and +peculiar whiteness of the stone. The students bear themselves like those +at Oxford, but it is said they have better instructors. There are in all +800 students." + +From Langham he went to the house of a Mr Shaw, to find in his hostess +the "most beautiful woman I ever saw." Haydn, it may be remarked in +passing, was always meeting the "most beautiful woman." At one time she +was a Mrs Hodges, another of his London admirers. When quite an old man +he still preserved a ribbon which Mrs Shaw had worn during his visit, +and on which his name was embroidered in gold. + +Pleyel in Opposition + +But other matters now engaged his attention. The directors of the +Professional Concerts, desiring to take advantage of his popularity, +endeavoured to make him cancel his engagements with Salomon and Gallini. +In this they failed. "I will not," said Haydn, "break my word to Gallini +and Salomon, nor shall any desire for dirty gain induce me to do them an +injury. They have run so great a risk and gone to so much expense on +my account that it is only fair they should be the gainers by it." +Thus defeated in their object, the Professionals decided to bring over +Haydn's own pupil, Ignaz Pleyel, to beat the German on his own ground. +It was not easy to upset Haydn's equanimity in an affair of this kind; +his gentle nature, coupled with past experiences, enabled him to take it +all very calmly. "From my youth upwards," he wrote, "I have been exposed +to envy, so it does not surprise me when any attempt is made wholly to +crush my poor talents, but the Almighty above is my support.... There +is no doubt that I find many who are envious of me in London also, and +I know them almost all. Most of them are Italians. But they can do me no +harm, for my credit with this nation has been established far too many +years." As a rule, he was forbearing enough with his rivals. At first +he wrote of Pleyel: "He behaves himself with great modesty." Later on +he remarked that "Pleyel's presumption is everywhere criticized." +Nevertheless, "I go to all his concerts, for I love him." It is very +pleasant to read all this. But how far Haydn's feelings towards Pleyel +were influenced by patriotic considerations it is impossible to say. + +The defeated Professionals had a certain advantage by being first in +the field in 1792. But Haydn was only a few days behind them with his +opening concert, and the success of the entire series was in no way +affected by the ridiculous rivalry. Symphonies, divertimenti for +concerted instruments, string quartets, a clavier trio, airs, a cantata, +and other works were all produced at these concerts, and with almost +invariable applause. Nor were Haydn's services entirely confined to +the Salomon concerts. He conducted for various artists, including +Barthelemon, the violinist; Haesler, the pianist; and Madam Mara, of +whom he tells that she was hissed at Oxford for not rising during the +"Hallelujah" Chorus. + +Close of the Season + +The last concert was given on June 6 "by desire," when Haydn's +compositions were received with "an extasy of admiration." Thus +Salomon's season ended, as the Morning Chronicle put it, with the +greatest eclat. Haydn's subsequent movements need not detain us long. +He made excursions to Windsor Castle and to Ascot "to see the races," of +which he has given an account in his note-book. + +Herschel and Haydn + +From Ascot he went to Slough, where he was introduced to Herschel. In +this case there was something like real community of tastes, for the +astronomer was musical, having once played the oboe, and later on acted +as organist, first at Halifax Parish Church, and then at the Octagon +Chapel Bath. The big telescope with which he discovered the planet +Uranus in 1781 was an object of great interest to Haydn, who was +evidently amazed at the idea of a man sitting out of doors "in the most +intense cold for five or six hours at a time." + +Visits were also paid to Vauxhall Gardens, where "the music is +fairly good" and "coffee and milk cost nothing." "The place and its +diversions," adds Haydn, "have no equal in the world." + +At St Paul's + +But the most interesting event of this time to Haydn was the meeting of +the Charity Children in St Paul's Cathedral, when something like 4000 +juveniles took part. "I was more touched," he says in his diary, "by +this innocent and reverent music than by any I ever heard in my life!" +And then he notes the following chant by John Jones: [Jones was organist +of St Paul's Cathedral at this time. His chant, which was really in the +key of D, has since been supplanted. Haydn made an error in bar 12.] + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] + +Curiously enough Berlioz was impressed exactly in the same way when he +heard the Charity Children in 1851. He was in London as a juror at the +Great Exhibition; and along with his friend, the late G. A. Osborne, he +donned a surplice and sang bass in the select choir. He was so moved by +the children's singing that he hid his face behind his music and wept. +"It was," he says, "the realization of one part of my dreams, and a +proof that the powerful effect of musical masses is still absolutely +unknown." [See Berlioz's Life and Letters, English edition, Vol. I., p. +281.] + +London Acquaintances + +Haydn made many interesting acquaintances during this London visit. +Besides those already mentioned, there was Bartolozzi, the famous +engraver, to whose wife he dedicated three clavier trios and a sonata +in E flat (Op. 78), which, so far unprinted in Germany, is given by +Sterndale Bennett in his Classical Practice. There was also John Hunter, +described by Haydn as "the greatest and most celebrated chyrurgus in +London," who vainly tried to persuade him to have a polypus removed from +his nose. It was Mrs Hunter who wrote the words for most of his English +canzonets, including the charming "My mother bids me bind my hair." And +then there was Mrs Billington, the famous singer, whom Michael Kelly +describes as "an angel of beauty and the Saint Cecilia of song." There +is no more familiar anecdote than that which connects Haydn with Sir +Joshua Reynolds's portrait of this notorious character. Carpani +is responsible for the tale. He says that Haydn one day found Mrs +Billington sitting to Reynolds, who was painting her as St Cecilia +listening to the angels. "It is like," said Haydn, "but there is a +strange mistake." "What is that?" asked Reynolds. "You have painted +her listening to the angels. You ought to have represented the angels +listening to her." It is a very pretty story, but it cannot possibly +be true. Reynolds's portrait of Mrs Billington was painted in 1789, +two years before Haydn's arrival, and was actually shown in the Academy +Exhibition of 1790, the last to which Sir Joshua contributed. [The +portrait, a whole length, was sold in 1798 for 325 pounds, 10s., and +again at Christie's, in 1845, for 505 guineas--to an American, as +usual.] Of course Haydn may have made the witty remark here attributed +to him, but it cannot have been at the time of the painting of the +portrait. That he was an enthusiastic admirer of Mrs Billington there +can be no doubt. + +Another Romance + +There was another intimacy of more import, about which it is necessary +to speak at some length. When Dies published his biography of Haydn +in 1810 he referred to a batch of love-letters written to the composer +during this visit to London. The existence of the letters was known +to Pohl, who devotes a part of his Haydn in London to them, and prints +certain extracts; but the letters themselves do not appear to have been +printed either in the original English or in a German translation until +Mr Henry E. Krehbiel, the well-known American musical critic, gave them +to the world through the columns of the New York Tribune. Mr Krehbiel +was enabled to do this by coming into possession of a transcript of +Haydn's London note-book, with which we will deal presently. Haydn, as +he informs us, had copied all the letters out in full, "a proceeding +which tells its own story touching his feelings towards the missives and +their fair author." He preserved them most carefully among the souvenirs +of his visit, and when Dies asked him about them, he replied: "They are +letters from an English widow in London who loved me. Though sixty years +old, she was still lovely and amiable, and I should in all likelihood +have married her if I had been single." Who was the lady thus +celebrated? In Haydn's note-book the following entry occurs: "Mistress +Schroeter, No. 6 James Street, Buckingham Gate." The inquiry is here +answered: Mistress Schroeter was the lady. + +Mistress Schroeter + +Haydn, it will be seen, describes her as a widow of sixty. According +to Goldsmith, women and music should never be dated; but in the present +case, there is a not unnatural curiosity to discover the lady's age. Mr +Krehbiel gives good grounds for doubting Haydn's statement that Mistress +Schroeter was sixty when he met her. She had been married to Johann +Samuel Schroeter, an excellent German musician, who settled in London +in 1772. Schroeter died in 1788, three years before the date of Haydn's +visit, when he was just thirty-eight. Now Dr Burney, who must have known +the family, says that Schroeter "married a young lady of considerable +fortune, who was his scholar, and was in easy circumstances." If, +therefore, Mrs Schroeter was sixty years old when Haydn made her +acquaintance, she must have been nineteen years her husband's senior, +and could not very well be described as a "young" lady at the time of +her marriage. + +It is, however, unnecessary to dwell upon the matter of age. The +interesting point is that Haydn fell under the spell of the charming +widow. There is no account of their first meeting; but it was probably +of a purely professional nature. Towards the end of June 1791 the lady +writes: "Mrs Schroeter presents her compliments to Mr Haydn, and informs +him she is just returned to town, and will be very happy to see him +whenever it is convenient to him to give her a lesson." A woman of sixty +should hardly have been requiring lessons, especially after having been +the wife of a professor who succeeded the "English Bach" as music-master +to the Queen. But lessons sometimes cover a good deal of love-making, +and that was clearly the case with Haydn and Mrs Schroeter. + +Love Letters + +There is indeed some reason to doubt if the lessons were continued. At +any rate, by February 1792, the affair had ripened so far as to allow +the lady to address the composer as "my dear," and disclose her tender +solicitude for his health. On the 7th of the following month she writes +that she was "extremely sorry" to part with him so suddenly the previous +night. "Our conversation was particularly interesting, and I had a +thousand affectionate things to say to you. My heart was and is full +of tenderness for you, but no language can express half the love and +affection I feel for you. You are dearer to me every day of my life." + +This was pretty warm, considering that Haydn was still in the bonds +of wedlock. We cannot tell how far he reciprocated the feeling, his +letters, if he wrote any, not having been preserved; but it may be +safely inferred that a lady who was to be "happy to see you both in the +morning and the evening" did not do all the love-making. On the 4th of +April the composer gets a present of soap, and is the "ever dear Haydn" +of the "invariable and truly affectionate" Mistress Schroeter. He had +been working too hard about this particular date (he notes that he was +"bled in London" on the 17th of March), and on the 12th the "loveress," +to use Marjorie Fleming's term, is "truly anxious" about her "dear +love," for whom her regard is "stronger every day." An extract from the +letter of April 19 may be quoted as it stands: + +I was extremely sorry to hear this morning that you were indisposed. I +am told you were five hours at your studies yesterday. Indeed, my dear +love, I am afraid it will hurt you. Why should you, who have already +produced so many wonderful and charming compositions, still fatigue +yourself with such close application? I almost tremble for your health. +Let me prevail on you, my much-loved Haydn, not to keep to your studies +so long at one time. My dear love, if you could know how very precious +your welfare is to me, I flatter myself you would endeavour to preserve +it for my sake as well as your own. + +Come Early + +The next letter shows that Haydn had been deriving some profit from +Mistress Schroeter's affections by setting her to work as an amanuensis. +She has been copying out a march, and is sorry that she has not done it +better. "If my Haydn would employ me oftener to write music, I hope +I should improve; and I know I should delight in the occupation." +Invitations to dine at St James's Street are repeatedly being sent, for +Mistress Schroeter wishes "to have as much of your company as possible." +When others are expected, Haydn is to come early, so that they may +have some time together "before the rest of our friends come." Does the +adored Schroeter go to one of her "dearest love's" concerts, she +thanks him a thousand times for the entertainment. "Where your sweet +compositions and your excellent performance combine," she writes, "it +cannot fail of being the most charming concert; but, apart from that, +the pleasure of seeing you must ever give me infinite satisfaction." As +the time drew near for Haydn's departure, "every moment of your +company is more and more precious to me." She begs to assure him with +"heart-felt affection" that she will ever consider the acquaintance with +him as one of the chief blessings of her life. Nay, she entertains for +her "dearest Haydn" "the fondest and tenderest affection the human heart +is capable of." And so on. + +An Innocent Amourette + +One feels almost brutally rude in breaking in upon the privacy of +this little romance. No doubt the flirtation was inexcusable enough on +certain grounds. But taking the whole circumstances into account--above +all, the loveless, childless home of the composer--the biographer +is disposed to see in the episode merely that human yearning after +affection and sympathy which had been denied to Haydn where he had most +right to expect them. He admitted that he was apt to be fascinated by +pretty and amiable women, and the woman to whom he had given his name +was neither pretty nor amiable. An ancient philosopher has said that a +man should never marry a plain woman, since his affections would always +be in danger of straying when he met a beauty. This incident in Haydn's +career would seem to support the philosopher's contention. For the rest, +it was probably harmless enough, for there is nothing to show that the +severer codes of morality were infringed. + +The biographers of Haydn have not succeeded in discovering how the +Schroeter amourette ended. The letters printed by Mr Krehbiel are all +confined to the year 1792, and mention is nowhere made of any of later +date. When Haydn returned to London in 1794, he occupied rooms at No. 1 +Bury Street, St James', and Pohl suggests that he may have owed the more +pleasant quarters to his old admirer, who would naturally be anxious to +have him as near her as possible. A short walk of ten minutes through St +James' Park and the Mall would bring him to Buckingham Palace, and +from that to Mrs Schroeter's was only a stone-throw. Whether the old +affectionate relations were resumed it is impossible to say. If there +were any letters of the second London visit, it is curious that Haydn +should not have preserved them with the rest. There is no ground for +supposing that any disagreement came between the pair: the facts point +rather the other way. When Haydn finally said farewell to London, he +left the scores of his six last symphonies "in the hands of a lady." +Pohl thinks the lady was Mrs Schroeter, and doubtless he is right. +At any rate Haydn's esteem for her, to use no stronger term, is +sufficiently emphasized by his having inscribed to her the three trios +numbered 1, 2 and 6 in the Breitkopf & Hartel list. + +Haydn's Note-Book + +Reference has already been made to the diary or note-book kept by Haydn +during his visit. The original manuscript of this curious document +came into the hands of his friend, Joseph Weigl, whose father had been +'cellist to Prince Esterhazy. A similar diary was kept during the +second visit, but this was lost; and indeed the first note-book narrowly +escaped destruction at the hands of a careless domestic. Haydn's +autograph was at one time in the possession of Dr Pohl. A copy of it +made by A. W. Thayer, the biographer of Beethoven, in 1862, became, +as previously stated, the property of Mr Krehbiel, who has printed +the entries, with running comment, in his "Music and Manners in the +Classical Period" (London, 1898). Mr Krehbiel rightly describes some +of the entries as mere "vague mnemonic hints," and adds that one entry +which descants in epigrammatic fashion on the comparative morals of the +women of France, Holland and England is unfit for publication. Looking +over the diary, it is instructive to observe how little reference +is made to music. One or two of the entries are plainly memoranda of +purchases to be made for friends. There is one note about the National +Debt of England, another about the trial of Warren Hastings. London, we +learn, has 4000 carts for cleaning the streets, and consumes annually +800,000 cartloads of coals. That scandalous book, the Memoirs of Mrs +Billington, which had just been published, forms the subject of a long +entry. "It is said that her [Mrs Billington's] character is very faulty, +but nevertheless she is a great genius, and all the women hate her +because she is so beautiful." + +Prince of Wale's Punch + +A note is made of the constituents of the Prince of Wales's punch--"One +bottle champagne, one bottle Burgundy, one bottle rum, ten lemons, two +oranges, pound and a half of sugar." A process for preserving milk "for +a long time" is also described. We read that on the 5th of November +(1791) "there was a fog so thick that one might have spread it on bread. +In order to write I had to light a candle as early as eleven o'clock." +Here is a curious item--"In the month of June 1792 a chicken, 7s.; an +Indian [a kind of bittern found in North America] 9s.; a dozen larks, 1 +coron [? crown]. N.B.--If plucked, a duck, 5s." + +Haydn liked a good story, and when he heard one made a note of it. The +diary contains two such stories. One is headed "Anectod," and runs: "At +a grand concert, as the director was about to begin the first number, +the kettledrummer called loudly to him, asking him to wait a moment, +because his two drums were not in tune. The leader could not and would +not wait any longer, and told the drummer to transpose for the present." +The second story is equally good. "An Archbishop of London, having asked +Parliament to silence a preacher of the Moravian religion who preached +in public, the Vice-President answered that could easily be done: only +make him a Bishop, and he would keep silent all his life." + +On the whole the note-book cannot be described as of strong biographical +interest, but a reading of its contents as translated by Mr Krehbiel +will certainly help towards an appreciation of the personal character of +the composer. + + + +CHAPTER VI. SECOND LONDON VISIT--1794-1795 + +Beethoven--Takes Lessons from Haydn--The Relations of the Two +Composers--The Haydn Museum--Haydn starts for London--His +Servant Elssler--The Salomon Concerts--A "Smart" Drummer--New +Acquaintances--Haydn at Bath--Opera Concerts--Kingly Courtesies--A +Valuable Parrot--Rohrau Reminiscences--Esterhaz once more--The "Austrian +Hymn"--Haydn's Love for It--A Charge of Plagiarism. + +Haydn left London some time towards the end of June 1792. He had +intended to visit Berlin, in response to an invitation from King +Frederick William II., but he altered his route in order to meet Prince +Anton Esterhazy, who was at Frankfort for the coronation of the Emperor +Francis II. + +Beethoven + +A more interesting meeting took place at Bonn. Beethoven, then a young +man of twenty-two, was still living with his people in the Wenzegasse, +but already arrangements had been made by the Elector for his paying a +somewhat lengthened visit to Vienna in order to prosecute his studies +there. Since the death of Mozart, Haydn had become the most brilliant +star in the musical firmament, and it was only natural that the rising +genius should look to him for practical help and encouragement. It so +happened that the Elector's Band, of which Beethoven was a member, gave +a dinner to Haydn at Godesberg. The occasion was opportune. Beethoven +submitted a cantata to the guest of the evening which Haydn "greatly +praised, warmly encouraging the composer to proceed with his studies." +The name of the cantata has not been ascertained, though Thayer +conjectures it to have been on the death of the Emperor Leopold II. + +Whatever it was, the fact of Haydn's approval would make it an easy +matter to discuss the subject of lessons, whether now or later. +Beethoven did not start for Vienna until November, and it appears that +immediately before that date some formal communication had been made +with Haydn in reference to his studies. On the 29th of October Count +Waldstein wrote: + +"DEAR BEETHOVEN,--You are travelling to Vienna in fulfillment of your +long-cherished wish. The genius of Mozart is still weeping and bewailing +the death of her favourite. With the inexhaustible Haydn she found a +refuge, but no occupation, and is now waiting to leave him and join +herself to someone else. Labour assiduously, and receive Mozart's spirit +from the hands of Haydn." + +This was not exactly complimentary to Haydn, but Beethoven doubtless had +the good sense not to repeat the count's words. When the young artist +arrived in Vienna, he found Haydn living at the Hamberger Haus, No. +992 (since demolished), and thither he went for his lessons. From +Beethoven's own notes of expenses we find that his first payment was +made to Haydn on December 12. The sum entered is 8 groschen (about +9 1/2 d.), which shows at least that Haydn was not extravagant in +his charges. + +Master and Pupil + +Beethoven's studies were in strict counterpoint, and the text-book was +that same "Gradus ad Parnassum" of Fux which Haydn had himself contended +with in the old days at St Stephen's. How many exercises Beethoven wrote +cannot be said, but 245 have been preserved, of which, according to +Nottebohm, Haydn corrected only forty-two. Much ink has been wasted in +discussing the relations of these distinguished composers. There is no +denying that Haydn neglected his young pupil, but one may find another +excuse for the neglect besides that of his increasing age and his +engrossing occupations. Beethoven was already a musical revolutionist: +Haydn was content to walk in the old ways. The two men belonged almost +to different centuries, and the disposition which the younger artist +had for "splendid experiments" must have seemed to the mature musician +little better than madness and licentious irregularity. "He will never +do anything in decent style," was Albrechtsberger's dictum after giving +Beethoven a series of lessons. + +Haydn's opinion of Beethoven's future was not so dogmatically expressed; +but he must have been sorely puzzled by a pupil who looked upon even +consecutive fifths as an open question, and thought it a good thing to +"learn occasionally what is according to rule that one may hereafter +come to what is contrary to rule." It is said that Haydn persisted +in regarding Beethoven, not as a composer at all but as a pianoforte +player; and certainly Beethoven regarded Haydn as being behind the age. +That he was unjust to Haydn cannot be gainsaid. He even went so far as +to suspect Haydn of willfully trying to retard him in his studies, a +proceeding of which Haydn was altogether incapable. For many years he +continued to discharge splenetic remarks about his music, and he was +always annoyed at being called his pupil. "I never learned anything from +Haydn," he would say; "he never would correct my mistakes." When, the +day after the production of his ballet music to Prometheus, he met Haydn +in the street, the old man observed to him: "I heard your music last +night; I liked it very well." To which Beethoven, alluding to Haydn's +oratorio, replied: "Oh! dear master, it is far from being a CREATION." +The doubtful sincerity of this remark may be inferred from an anecdote +quoted by Moscheles. Haydn had been told that Beethoven was speaking +depreciatingly of "The Creation." "That is wrong of him," he said. "What +has HE written, then? His Septet? Certainly that is beautiful; nay, +splendid." + +Beethoven on Haydn + +It is hardly necessary to say who comes out best in these passages +at arms. Yet we must not be too hard on Beethoven. That he recognized +Haydn's genius as a composer no careful reader of his biography can +fail to see. As Pohl takes pains to point out, he spoke highly of +Haydn whenever opportunity offered, often chose one of his themes when +improvising in public, scored one of his quartets for his own use, and +lovingly preserved the autograph of one of the English symphonies. That +he came in the end to realize his true greatness is amply proved by +the story already related which represents him as exclaiming on his +death-bed upon the fact of Haydn having been born in a common peasant's +cottage. + +In the meantime, although Beethoven was dissatisfied with his progress +under Haydn, there was no open breach between the two. It is true that +the young musician sought another teacher--one Schenck, a well-known +Viennese composer--but this was done without Haydn's knowledge, out of +consideration, we may assume, for his feelings. That master and pupil +were still on the best of terms may be gathered from their having been +at Eisenstadt together during the summer of 1793. In the January of +the following year Haydn set out on his second visit to England, and +Beethoven transferred himself to Albrechtsberger. + +The Haydn Museum + +Haydn's life in Vienna during the eighteen months which intervened +between the two London visits was almost totally devoid of incident. His +wife, it will be remembered, had written to him in England, asking for +money to buy a certain house which she fancied for a "widow's home." +Haydn was astute enough not to send the money, but on his return to +Vienna, finding the house in every way to his liking, he bought +it himself. Frau Haydn died seven years later, "and now," said the +composer, speaking in 1806, "I am living in it as a widower." The house +is situated in the suburb of Vienna known as Gumpendorf. It is No. 19 +of the Haydngasse and bears a marble memorial tablet, affixed to it in +1840. The pious care of the composer's admirers has preserved it almost +exactly as it was in Haydn's day, and has turned it into a kind of +museum containing portraits and mementoes of the master, the original +manuscript of "The Creation," and other interesting relics. + +Starts for London + +Haydn started on his journey to England on January 19, 1794, Salomon +having brought him, under a promise to return with six new symphonies +which he was to conduct in person. This time he travelled down the +Rhine, and he had not been many days on the way when news reached him of +the death of Prince Anton Esterhazy, who had very reluctantly given him +leave of absence. On the occasion of the first London visit Salomon had +been his travelling companion; now, feeling doubtless the encumbrance +of increasing years, Haydn took his servant and copyist, Johann Elssler, +along with him. + +Honest Elssler + +It may be noted in passing that he entertained a very warm regard for +Elssler, whose father had been music copyist to Prince Esterhazy. He was +born at Eisenstadt in 1769, and, according to Pohl, lived the whole of +his life with Haydn, first as copyist, and then as general servant and +factotum. It was Elssler who tended the composer in his last years, a +service recompensed by the handsome bequest of 6000 florins, which he +lived to enjoy until 1843. No man, it has been said, is a hero to his +valet, but "Haydn was to Elssler a constant subject of veneration, which +he carried so far that when he thought himself unobserved he would stop +with the censer before his master's portrait as if it were the altar." +This "true and honest servant" copied a large amount of Haydn's +music, partly in score, partly in separate parts, much of which is now +treasured as the autograph of Haydn, though the handwritings of the two +are essentially different. It is a pity that none of the earlier writers +on Haydn thought of applying to Elssler for particulars of the private +life of the composer. He could have given information on many obscure +points, and could have amplified the details of this second London +visit, about which we know much less than we know about the former +visit. + +The Salomon Concerts + +Salomon's first concert had been arranged for the 3rd of February, but +Haydn did not arrive until the 4th, and the series accordingly began +upon the 10th. Twelve concerts were given in all, and with the most +brilliant success. The six new symphonies commissioned by Salomon were +performed, and the previous set were also repeated, along with some new +quartets. Of the many contemporary notices of the period, perhaps the +most interesting is that which appears in the Journal of Luxury and +Fashion, published at Weimar in July 1794. It is in the form of a London +letter, written on March 25, under the heading of "On the Present State +and Fashion of Music in England." After speaking of Salomon's efforts +on behalf of classical music and of the praise due to him for his +performance of the quartets of "our old favourite, Haydn," the writer +continues: "But what would you now say to his new symphonies composed +expressly for these concerts, and directed by himself at the piano? It +is truly wonderful what sublime and august thoughts this master weaves +into his works. Passages often occur which render it impossible to +listen to them without becoming excited. We are altogether carried +away by admiration, and forced to applaud with hand and mouth. This is +especially the case with Frenchmen, of whom we have so many here that +all public places are filled with them. You know that they have great +sensibility, and cannot restrain their transports, so that in the midst +of the finest passages in soft adagios they clap their hands in loud +applause and thus mar the effect. In every symphony of Haydn the adagio +or andante is sure to be repeated each time, after the most vehement +encores. The worthy Haydn, whose personal acquaintance I highly value, +conducts himself on these occasions in the most modest manner. He is +indeed a good-hearted, candid, honest man, esteemed and beloved by all." + +Several notable incidents occurred at the Salomon Concerts. It has been +remarked, as "an event of some interest in musical history," that Haydn +and Wilhelm Cramer appeared together at one concert, Cramer as leader of +the orchestra, Haydn conducting from the pianoforte. But Cramer was +not a genius of the first rank--his compositions are of the slightest +importance--and there was nothing singular about his appearing along +with Haydn. He had been leader at the Handel Festivals at Westminster +Abbey in 1784 and 1787, and was just the man to be engaged for an +enterprise like that of Salomon's. + +A "Smart" Drummer + +An anecdote told of Haydn in connection with one of the rehearsals is +better worth noting. The drummer was found to be absent. "Can anyone +here play the drum?" inquired Haydn, looking round from his seat at the +piano. "I can," promptly replied young George (afterwards Sir George) +Smart, who was sitting among the violinists. Smart, who lived to become +the doyen of the musical profession in England, had never handled a +drumstick before, and naturally failed to satisfy the conductor. Haydn +took the drumstick from him and "showed to the astonished orchestra a +new and unexpected attitude in their leader." Then, turning to Smart, +he remarked: "That is how we use the drumsticks in Germany." "Oh, very +well," replied the unabashed youth, "if you like it better in that way +we can also do it so in London." + +New Acquaintances + +Haydn made several new acquaintances during this visit, the most notable +being, perhaps, Dragonetti, the famous double-bass player, who had +accompanied Banti, the eminent prima donna, to London in 1794. Banti had +been discovered as a chanteuse in a Paris cafe, and afterwards attracted +much notice by her fine voice both in Paris and London. "She is the +first singer in Italy, and drinks a bottle of wine every day," said one +who knew her. In her journeys through Germany, Austria and Italy she won +many triumphs. Haydn composed for her an air, "Non Partir," in E, which +she sang at his benefit. As for "Old Drag," the familiar designation of +the distinguished bassist, his eccentricities must have provided Haydn +with no little amusement. He always took his dog Carlo with him into the +orchestra, and Henry Phillips tells us that, having a strange weakness +for dolls, he often carried one of them to the festivals as his wife! +On his way to Italy in 1798 Dragonetti visited Haydn in Vienna, and was +much delighted with the score of "The Creation," just completed. Several +eminent violinists were in London at the time of Haydn's visit. The most +distinguished of them was perhaps Felice de Giardini, who, at the age of +fourscore, produced an oratorio at Ranelagh Gardens, and even played +a concerto. He had a perfectly volcanic temper, and hated Haydn as the +devil is said to hate holy water. "I don't wish to see the German dog," +he remarked in the composer's hearing, when urged to pay him a visit. +Haydn, as a rule, was kindly disposed to all brother artists, but to be +called a dog was too much, He went to hear Giardini, and then got even +with him by noting in his diary that he "played like a pig." + +The accounts preserved of Haydn's second visit to England are, +as already remarked, far less full than those of the first visit. +Unconnected memoranda appear in his diary, some of which are given by +Griesinger and Dies; but they are of comparatively little interest. +During the summer of 1794 he moved about the country a good deal. Thus, +about the 26th of August, he paid a visit to Waverley Abbey, whose +"Annales Waverliensis" suggested to Scott the name of his first romance. +The ruined condition of the venerable pile--it dates from 1128--set +Haydn moralizing on the "Protestant heresy" which led the "rascal mob" +to tear down "what had once been a stronghold of his own religion." + +Haydn at Bath + +In the following month he spent three days in Bath with Dr Burney, +and Rauzzini, the famous tenor, who had retired to the fashionable +watering-place after a successful career of thirteen years as a singer +and teacher in London. Rauzzini is little more than a name now, but for +Haydn's sake it is worth recalling his memory. Born at Rome in 1747, +his striking beauty of face and figure had drawn him into certain +entanglements which made it expedient for him to leave his native land. +He was as fond of animals as Dragonetti was of dolls, and had erected a +memorial tablet in his garden to his "best friend," otherwise his dog. +"Turk was a faithful dog and not a man," ran the inscription, which +reminds one of Schopenhauer's cynical observation that if it were not +for the honest faces of dogs, we should forget the very existence of +sincerity. When Haydn read the inscription he immediately proceeded to +make use of the words for a four-part canon. It was presumably at this +time that he became acquainted with Dr Henry Harington, the musician +and author, who had removed to Bath in 1771, where he had founded the +Harmonic Society. Haydn dedicated one of his songs to him in return for +certain music and verses, which explains the following otherwise cryptic +note of Clementi's, published for the first time recently by Mr J. S. +Shedlock: "The first Dr [Harington] having bestowed much praise on +the second Dr [Haydn], the said second Dr, out of doctorial gratitude, +returns the 1st Dr thanks for all favours recd., and praises in his +turn the said 1st Dr most handsomely." The title of Haydn's song was "Dr +Harington's Compliments." + +Opera Concerts + +The composer returned to London at the beginning of October for the +winter season's concerts. These began, as before, in February, and were +continued once a week up to the month of May. This time they took the +form of opera concerts, and were given at the "National School of Music" +in the new concert-room of the King's Theatre. No fresh symphonies were +contributed by Haydn for this series, though some of the old ones always +found a place in the programmes. Two extra concerts were given on May +21 and June 1, at both of which Haydn appeared; but the composer's last +benefit concert was held on May 4. On this occasion the programme +was entirely confined to his own compositions, with the exception of +concertos by Viotti, the violinist, and Ferlendis, the oboist. Banti +sang the aria already mentioned as having been written expressly for +her, but, according to the composer, "sang very scanty." The main +thing, however, was that the concert proved a financial success, the net +receipts amounting to 400 pounds. "It is only in England," said Haydn, +"that one can make 4000 gulden in one evening." + +Haydn did indeed remarkably well in London. As Pohl says, "he returned +from it with increased powers, unlimited fame, and a competence for +life. By concerts, lessons, and symphonies, not counting his other +compositions, he had again made 1200 pounds, enough to relieve him from +all anxiety as to the future. He often said afterwards that it was not +till he had been to England that he became famous in Germany; by which +he meant that although his reputation was high at home, the English were +the first to give him public homage and liberal remuneration." + +Kingly Courtesies + +It is superfluous to say that Haydn was as much of a "lion" in London +society during his second visit as he had been on the previous occasion. +The attention bestowed on him in royal circles made that certain, for +"society" are sheep, and royalty is their bell-wether. The Prince +of Wales had rather a fancy for him, and commanded his attendance at +Carlton House no fewer than twenty-six times. At one concert at York +House the programme was entirely devoted to his music. George III and +Queen Caroline were present, and Haydn was presented to the King by the +Prince. "You have written a great deal, Dr Haydn," said the King. "Yes, +sire," was the reply; "more than is good for me." "Certainly not," +rejoined His Majesty. He was then presented to the Queen, and asked to +sing some German songs. "My voice," he said, pointing to the tip of +his little finger, "is now no bigger than that"; but he sat down to +the pianoforte and sang his song, "Ich bin der Verliebteste." He was +repeatedly invited by the Queen to Buckingham Palace, and she tried to +persuade him to settle in England. "You shall have a house at Windsor +during the summer months," she said, and then, looking towards the King, +added, "We can sometimes make music tete-a-tete." "Oh! I am not jealous +of Haydn," interposed the King; "he is a good, honourable German." "To +preserve that reputation," replied Haydn, "is my greatest pride." + +Most of Haydn's appearances were made at the concerts regularly +organized for the entertainment of royalty at Carlton House and +Buckingham Palace, and Haydn looked to be paid for his services. Whether +the King and the Prince expected him to give these services in return +for the supposed honour they had conferred upon him does not appear. +At all events, Haydn sent in a bill for 100 guineas sometime after his +return to Vienna, and the amount was promptly paid by Parliament. + +A Valuable Parrot + +Among the other attentions bestowed upon him while in London, mention +should be made of the present of a talking parrot. Haydn took the bird +with him, and it was sold for 140 pounds after his death. Another gift +followed him to Vienna. A Leicester manufacturer named Gardiner--he +wrote a book on The Music of Nature, and other works--sent him half a +dozen pairs of cotton stockings, into which were woven the notes of the +Austrian Hymn, "My mother bids me bind my hair," the Andante from +the "Surprise" Symphony, and other thematic material. These musical +stockings, as a wit has observed, must have come as a REAL surprise +to Haydn. It was this same Leicester manufacturer, we may remark +parenthetically, who annotated the translation of Bombet's Life of +Haydn, made by his fellow-townsman, Robert Brewin, in 1817. + +Haydn's return from London was hastened by the receipt of a +communication from Esterhaz. Prince Anton had been succeeded by his +son Nicolaus, who was as fond of music as the rest of his family, and +desired to keep his musical establishment up to the old standard. During +the summer of 1794 he had written to Haydn, asking if the composer would +care to retain his appointment as director. Haydn was only too glad to +assent; and now that his London engagements were fulfilled, he saw no +reason for remaining longer in England. Accordingly he started for home +on the 15th of August 1795, travelling by way of Hamburg, Berlin and +Dresden, and arriving at Vienna in the early days of September. + +Rohrau Reminiscences + +Soon after his return he was surprised to receive an invitation to visit +his native Rohrau. When he arrived there he found that a monument, with +a marble bust of himself, had been erected to his honour in a park near +his birthplace. This interesting memorial consists of a square pillar +surmounting three stone steps, with an inscription on each side. The +visit was productive of mingled feelings to Haydn. He took his friends +to see the old thatch-roofed cottage, and, pointing to the familiar +stove, still in its place, modestly remarked that there his career as a +musician began--a reminiscence of the now far-away time when he sat by +his father's side and sawed away on his improvised fiddle. + +Esterhaz once more + +There is little to say about Haydn's labours as Capellmeister of the +Esterhazy household at this time. Apparently he was only at Eisenstadt +for the summer and autumn. Down to 1802, however, he always had a mass +ready for Princess Esterhazy's name-day in September. These compositions +are Nos. 2, 1, 3, 16, 4 and 6 of the Novello edition. No. 2, Pohl tells +us, was composed in 1796, and called the "Paukenmesse," from the fact +of the drums being used in the Agnus. No. 3 was written in 1797. It +is known in England as the Imperial Mass, but in Germany as "Die +Nelsonmesse," on account of its having been performed during Nelson's +visit to Eisenstadt in 1800. On that occasion Nelson asked Haydn for his +pen, and gave him his own gold watch in exchange. + +The Austrian Hymn + +It was shortly after his return to Vienna--in January 1797, to be +precise--that he composed his favourite air, "God preserve the Emperor," +better known as the Austrian Hymn. The story of this celebrated +composition is worth telling with some minuteness. Its inception was +due to Count von Saurau, Imperial High Chancellor and Minister of the +Interior. Writing in 1820, the count said: + +I often regretted that we had not, like the English, a national air +calculated to display to all the world the loyal devotion of our people +to the kind and upright ruler of our Fatherland, and to awaken +within the hearts of all good Austrians that noble national pride +so indispensable to the energetic fulfillment of all the beneficial +measures of the sovereign. This seemed to me more urgent at a period +when the French Revolution was raging most furiously, and when the +Jacobins cherished the idle hope of finding among the worthy Viennese +partisans and participators in their criminal designs. [The scandalous +Jacobin persecutions and executions in Austria and Hungary took place +in 1796]. I caused that meritorious poet Haschka to write the words, +and applied to our immortal countryman Haydn to set them to music, for I +considered him alone capable of writing anything approaching in merit +to the English "God save the King." Such was the origin of our national +hymn. + +It would not have been difficult to match "God save the King," the +mediocrity of which, especially as regards the words, has been the butt +of countless satirists. Beethoven wrote in his diary that he "must show +the English what a blessing they have" in that "national disgrace." If +Haydn regarded it as a "blessing," he certainly did not take it as a +model. He produced an air which, looking at it from a purely artistic +point of view, is the best thing of the national anthem kind that has +ever been written. The Emperor was enchanted with it when sung on his +birthday, February 12, 1797, at the National Theatre in Vienna, and +through Count Saurau sent the composer a gold box adorned with a +facsimile of the royal features. "Such a surprise and such a mark of +favour, especially as regards the portrait of my beloved monarch," wrote +Haydn, "I never before received in acknowledgment of my poor talents." + +Haydn's Love for It + +We have several indications of Haydn's predilection for this fine air, +which has long been popular as a hymn tune in all the churches. He +wrote a set of variations for it as the Andante of his "Kaiser Quartet." +Griesinger tells us, too, that as often as the warm weather and his +strength permitted, during the last few years of his life, he used to be +led into his back room that he might play it on the piano. It is further +related by Dies that, during the bombardment of Vienna in May 1809, +Haydn seated himself at his instrument every forenoon to give forth the +sound of the favourite song. Indeed, on May 26, only five days before +his death, he played it over three times in succession, and "with a +degree of expression that astonished himself." As one writer puts it, +the air "seemed to have acquired a certain sacredness in his eyes in an +age when kings were beheaded and their crowns tossed to the rabble." + +Haydn's first sketch of the melody was found among his papers after his +death. We reproduce it here, with an improvement shown in small notes. +There are, it will be observed, some slight differences between the +draft and the published version of the air: + +[figure: a musical score excerpt from the draft] + +[figure: a musical score excerpt from the published version] + +The collecting of what Tennyson called "the chips of the workshop" +is not as a rule an edifying business, but the evolution of a great +national air must always be interesting. + +Plagiarism or Coincidence? + +It might perhaps be added that Dr Kuhac, the highest authority on +Croatian folk-song, asserted in an article contributed to the Croatian +Review (1893) that the Austrian National Hymn was based on a Croatian +popular air. In reviewing Kuhac's collection of Croatian melodies, a +work in four volumes, containing 1600 examples, Dr Reimann signifies his +agreement with Kuhac, and adds that Haydn employed Croatian themes not +only in "God preserve the Emperor," but in many passages of his +other works. These statements must not be taken too seriously. Handel +purloined wholesale from brother composers and said nothing about it. +The artistic morality of Haydn's age was different, and, knowing his +character as we do, we may be perfectly sure that if he had of set +purpose introduced into any of his compositions music which was not his +own he would, in some way or other, have acknowledged the debt. This +hunting for plagiarisms which are not plagiarisms at all but mere +coincidences--coincidences which are and must be inevitable--is fast +becoming a nuisance, and it is the duty of every serious writer to +discredit the practice. The composer of "The Creation" had no need to +borrow his melodies from any source. + + + +CHAPTER VII. "THE CREATION" AND "THE SEASONS" + +Haydn's Crowning Achievement--"The Creation" suggested--The +"Unintelligible Jargon" of the Libretto--The Stimulating Effect +of London--Haydn's Self-Criticism--First Performance of "The +Creation"--London Performances--French Enthusiasm--The Oratorio +criticized--"The Seasons." + +Haydn's Crowning Achievement + +Haydn rounded his life with "The Creation" and "The Seasons." They +were the summit of his achievement, as little to be expected from +him, considering his years, as "Falstaff" was to be expected from the +octogenarian Verdi. Some geniuses flower late. It was only now, by his +London symphonies and his "Creation," that Haydn's genius blossomed so +luxuriantly as to place him with almost amazing suddenness among the +very first of composers. There is hardly anything more certain than +this, that if he had not come to London he would not have stood where he +stands to-day. The best of his symphonies were written for London; +and it was London, in effect, that set him to work in what was for him +practically a new direction, leading to the production of an oratorio +which at once took its place by the side of Handel's master-pieces, and +rose to a popularity second only to that of "The Messiah" itself. + +"The Creation" suggested + +The connection thus established between the names of Handel and Haydn +is interesting, for there can be little question that Haydn was led to +think of writing a large choral work chiefly as the result of frequently +hearing Handel's oratorios during his visits to the metropolis. The +credit of suggesting "The Creation" to Haydn is indeed assigned to +Salomon, but it is more than probable that the matter had already been +occupying his thoughts. It has been explicitly stated [See note by C.H. +Purday in Leisure Hour for 1880, p. 528.] that, being greatly impressed +with the effect produced by "The Messiah," Haydn intimated to his friend +Barthelemon his desire to compose a work of the same kind. He asked +Barthelemon what subject he would advise for such a purpose, and +Barthelemon, pointing to a copy of the Bible, replied: "There! take +that, and begin at the beginning." This story is told on apparently good +authority. But it hardly fits in with the statements of biographers. +According to the biographers, Salomon handed the composer a libretto +originally selected for Handel from Genesis and Paradise Lost by Mr +Lidley or Liddell. That this was the libretto used by Haydn is certain, +and we may therefore accept it as a fact that Haydn's most notable +achievement in choral music was due in great measure to the man who +had brought him to London, and had drawn from him the finest of his +instrumental works. + +"The Creation" Libretto + +Before proceeding further we may deal finally with the libretto of "The +Creation." The "unintelligible jargon" which disfigures Haydn's immortal +work has often formed the subject of comment; and assuredly nothing that +can be said of it can well be too severe. "The Creation" libretto stands +to the present day as an example of all that is jejune and incongruous +in words for music. The theme has in itself so many elements of +inspiration that it is a matter for wonder how, for more than a century, +English-speaking audiences have listened to the arrant nonsense with +which Haydn's music is associated. As has been well observed, "the +suburban love-making of our first parents, and the lengthy references +to the habits of the worm and the leviathan are almost more than modern +flesh and blood can endure." Many years ago a leading musical critic +wrote that there ought to be enough value, monetarily speaking, in "The +Creation" to make it worth while preparing a fresh libretto; for, +said he, "the present one seems only fit for the nursery, to use in +connection with Noah's ark." At the Norwich Festival performance of +the oratorio in 1872, the words were, in fact, altered, but in all the +published editions of the work the text remains as it was. It is +usual to credit the composer's friend, Baron van Swieten, with the +"unintelligible jargon." The baron certainly had a considerable hand +in the adaptation of the text. But in reality it owes its very uncouth +verbiage largely to the circumstance that it was first translated from +English into German, and then re-translated back into English; the +words, with the exception of the first chorus, being adapted to the +music. Considering the ways of translators, the best libretto in the +world could not but have suffered under such transformations, and it is +doing a real injustice to the memory of Baron Swieten, the good friend +of more than one composer, to hold him up needlessly to ridicule. [In +one of George Thomson's letters to Mrs Hunter we read: "It it is not +the first time that your muse and Haydn's have met, as we see from the +beautiful canzonets. Would he had been directed by you about the words +to 'The Creation'! It is lamentable to see such divine music joined with +such miserable broken English. He (Haydn) wrote me lately that in three +years, by the performance of 'The Creation' and 'The Seasons' at Vienna, +40,000 florins had been raised for the poor families of musicians."] + +The Stimulus of London + +Haydn set to work on "The Creation" with all the ardour of a first love. +Naumann suggests that his high spirits were due to the "enthusiastic +plaudits of the English people," and that the birth of both "The +Creation" and "The Seasons" was "unquestionably owing to the new man +he felt within himself after his visit to England." There was now, in +short, burning within his breast, "a spirit of conscious strength which +he knew not he possessed, or knowing, was unaware of its true worth." +This is somewhat exaggerated. Handel wrote "The Messiah" in twenty-four +days; it took Haydn the best part of eighteen months to complete "The +Creation," from which we may infer that "the sad laws of time" had not +stopped their operation simply because he had been to London. No doubt, +as we have already more than hinted, he was roused and stimulated by the +new scenes and the unfamiliar modes of life which he saw and experienced +in England. His temporary release from the fetters of official life had +also an exhilarating influence. So much we learn indeed from himself. +Thus, writing from London to Frau von Genzinger, he says: "Oh, my dear, +good lady, how sweet is some degree of liberty! I had a kind prince, but +was obliged at times to be dependent on base souls. I often sighed for +freedom, and now I have it in some measure. I am quite sensible of this +benefit, though my mind is burdened with more work. The consciousness of +being no longer a bond-servant sweetens all my toils." If this liberty, +this contact with new people and new forms of existence, had come to +Haydn twenty years earlier, it might have altered the whole current of +his career. But it did not help him much in the actual composition of +"The Creation," which he found rather a tax, alike on his inspiration +and his physical powers. Writing to Breitkopf & Hartel on June 12, 1799, +he says: "The world daily pays me many compliments, even on the fire of +my last works; but no one could believe the strain and effort it costs +me to produce these, inasmuch as many a day my feeble memory and the +unstrung state of my nerves so completely crush me to the earth, that +I fall into the most melancholy condition, so much so that for days +afterwards I am incapable of finding one single idea, till at length +my heart is revived by Providence, when I seat myself at the piano and +begin once more to hammer away at it. Then all goes well again, God be +praised!" + +Self-Criticism + +In the same letter he remarks that, "as for myself, now an old man, I +hope the critics may not handle my 'Creation' with too great severity, +and be too hard on it. They may perhaps find the musical orthography +faulty in various passages, and perhaps other things also which I have +for so many years been accustomed to consider as minor points; but the +genuine connoisseur will see the real cause as readily as I do, and will +willingly cast aside such stumbling blocks." It is impossible to miss +the significance of all this. + +[At this point in the original book, a facsimile of a letter regarding +"The Creation" takes up the entire next page.] + +Certainly it ought to be taken into account in any critical estimate +of "The Creation"; for when a man admits his own shortcomings it is +ungracious, to say the least, for an outsider to insist upon them. It is +obvious at any rate that Haydn undertook the composition of the oratorio +in no light-hearted spirit. "Never was I so pious," he says, "as when +composing 'The Creation.' I felt myself so penetrated with religious +feeling that before I sat down to the pianoforte I prayed to God with +earnestness that He would enable me to praise Him worthily." In the +lives of the great composers there is only one parallel to this frame of +mind--the religious fervour in which Handel composed "The Messiah." + +First Performance of the Oratorio + +The first performance of "The Creation" was of a purely private nature. +It took place at the Schwartzenburg Palace, Vienna, on the 29th of April +1798, the performers being a body of dilettanti, with Haydn presiding +over the orchestra. Van Swieten had been exerting himself to raise +a guarantee fund for the composer, and the entire proceeds of the +performance, amounting to 350 pounds, were paid over to him. Haydn was +unable to describe his sensations during the progress of the work. "One +moment," he says, "I was as cold as ice, the next I seemed on fire; more +than once I thought I should have a fit." A year later, on the 19th +of March 1799, to give the exact date, the oratorio was first heard +publicly at the National Theatre in Vienna, when it produced the +greatest effect. The play-bill announcing the performance (see next +page) had a very ornamental border, and was, of course, in German. + +[At this point in the original book, a facsimile of the first play-bill +for "The Creation" takes up the entire next page.] + +Next year the score was published by Breitkopf & Hartel, and no fewer +than 510 copies, nearly half the number subscribed for, came to England. +The title-page was printed both in German and English, the latter +reading as follows: "The Creation: an Oratorio composed by Joseph Haydn, +Doctor of Musik, and member of the Royal Society of Musik, in Sweden, +in actuel (sic) service of His Highness the Prince of Esterhazy, Vienna, +1800." Clementi had just set up a musical establishment in London, and +on August 22, 1800, we find Haydn writing to his publishers to +complain that he was in some danger of losing 2000 gulden by Clementi's +non-receipt of a consignment of copies. + +London Performances + +Salomon, strangely enough, had threatened Haydn with penalties for +pirating his text, but he thought better of the matter, and now wrote +to the composer for a copy of the score, so that he might produce the +oratorio in London. He was, however, forestalled by Ashley, who was at +that time giving performances of oratorio at Covent Garden Theatre, and +who brought forward the new work on the 28th of March (1800). An amusing +anecdote is told in this connection. The score arrived by a King's +messenger from Vienna on Saturday, March 22, at nine o'clock in the +evening. It was handed to Thomas Goodwin, the copyist of the theatre, +who immediately had the parts copied out for 120 performers. The +performance was on the Friday evening following, and when Mr Harris, the +proprietor of the theatre, complimented all parties concerned on their +expedition, Goodwin, with ready wit, replied: "Sir, we have humbly +emulated a great example; it is not the first time that the Creation has +been completed in six days." Salomon followed on the 21st of April +with a performance at the King's Theatre, Mara and Dussek taking the +principal parts. Mara remarked that it was the first time she had +accompanied an orchestra! + +French Enthusiasm + +Strange to say--for oratorio has never been much at home in France--"The +Creation" was received with immense enthusiasm in Paris when it was +first performed there in the summer of this same year. Indeed, the +applause was so great that the artists, in a fit of transport, and to +show their personal regard for the composer, resolved to present him +with a large gold medal. The medal was designed by the famous engraver, +Gateaux. It was adorned on one side with a likeness of Haydn, and on +the other side with an ancient lyre, over which a flame flickered in the +midst of a circle of stars. The inscription ran: "Homage a Haydn par les +Musiciens qui ont execute l'oratorio de la Creation du Monde au Theatre +des Arts l'au ix de la Republique Francais ou MDCCC." The medal was +accompanied by a eulogistic address, to which the recipient duly replied +in a rather flowery epistle. "I have often," he wrote, "doubted whether +my name would survive me, but your goodness inspires me with confidence, +and the token of esteem with which you have honoured me perhaps +justifies my hope that I shall not wholly die. Yes, gentlemen, you have +crowned my gray hairs, and strewn flowers on the brink of my grave." +Seven years after this Haydn received another medal from Paris--from +the Societe Academique des Enfants d'Apollon, who had elected him an +honorary member. + +A second performance of "The Creation" took place in the French capital +on December 24, 1800, when Napoleon I. escaped the infernal machine in +the Rue Nicaise. It was, however, in England, the home of oratorio, that +the work naturally took firmest root. It was performed at the Worcester +Festival of 1800, at the Hereford Festival of the following year, and +at Gloucester in 1802. Within a few years it had taken its place by the +side of Handel's best works of the kind, and its popularity remained +untouched until Mendelssohn's "Elijah" was heard at Birmingham in 1847. +Even now, although it has lost something of its old-time vogue, it is +still to be found in the repertory of our leading choral societies. It +is said that when a friend urged Haydn to hurry the completion of the +oratorio, he replied: "I spend much time over it because I intend it +to last a long time." How delighted he would have been could he have +foreseen that it would still be sung and listened to with pleasure in +the early years of the twentieth century. + +"The Creation" criticized + +No one thinks of dealing critically with the music of "The Messiah"; and +it seems almost as thankless a task to take the music of "The Creation" +to pieces. Schiller called it a "meaningless hotch-potch"; and even +Beethoven, though he was not quite innocent of the same thing himself, +had his sardonic laugh over its imitations of beasts and birds. +Critics of the oratorio seldom fail to point out these "natural history +effects"--to remark on "the sinuous motion of the worm," "the graceful +gamboling of the leviathan," the orchestral imitations of the bellowing +of the "heavy beasts," and such like. It is probably indefensible on +purely artistic grounds. But Handel did it in "Israel in Egypt" and +elsewhere. And is there not a crowing cock in Bach's "St Matthew +Passion"? Haydn only followed the example of his predecessors. + +Of course, the dispassionate critic cannot help observing that there is +in "The Creation" a good deal of music which is finicking and something +which is trumpery. But there is also much that is first-rate. The +instrumental representation of chaos, for example, is excellent, and +nothing in all the range of oratorio produces a finer effect than the +soft voices at the words, "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face +of the waters." Even the fortissimo C major chord on the word "light," +coming abruptly after the piano and mezzoforte minor chords, is as +dazzling to-day as it was when first sung. It has been said that the +work is singularly deficient in sustained choruses. That is true, if we +are comparing it with the choruses of Handel's oratorios. But Haydn's +style is entirely different from that of Handel. His choruses are +designed on a much less imposing scale. They are more reflective or +descriptive, much less dramatic. It was not in his way "to strike like a +thunderbolt," as Mozart said of Handel. The descriptive effects which +he desired to introduce into his orchestration made it necessary that he +should throw the vocal element into a simpler mould. Allowance must +be made for these differences. Haydn could never have written "The +Messiah," but, on the other hand, Handel could never have written "The +Creation." + +The chief beauty of Haydn's work lies in its airs for the solo voices. +While never giving consummate expression to real and deep emotion, much +less sustained thought, they are never wanting in sincerity, and the +melody and the style are as pure and good as those of the best Italian +writing for the stage. With all our advance it is impossible to resist +the freshness of "With verdure clad," and the tender charm of such +settings as that of "Softly purling, glides on, thro' silent vales, the +limpid brook." On the whole, however, it is difficult to sum up a work +like "The Creation," unless, as has been cynically remarked, one is +prepared to call it great and never go to hear it. It is not sublime, +but neither is it dull. In another fifty years, perhaps, the critic will +be able to say that its main interest is largely historic and literary. +[See J. F. Runciman's Old Scores and New Readings, where an admirably +just and concise appreciation of Haydn and "The Creation" may be read.] + +A New Work + +After such an unexpected success as that of "The Creation," it was only +in the nature of things that Haydn's friends should persuade him to +undertake the composition of a second work of the kind. Van Swieten was +insistent, and the outcome of his importunity was "The Seasons." This +work is generally classed as an oratorio, but it ought more properly +to be called a cantata, being essentially secular as regards its text, +though the form and style are practically the same as those of "The +Creation." The libretto was again due to Swieten, who, of course, +adapted the text from James Thomson's well-known poem. + +"The Seasons" + +It would certainly have been a pity to lose such a fresh, melodious +little work as "The Seasons"; but it is only too apparent that while +there was no appreciable failure of Haydn's creative force, his physical +strength was not equal to the strain involved by a composition of +such length. In 1806, when Dies found him rather weaker than usual, he +dolorously remarked: "You see it is all over with me. Eight years ago it +was different, but 'The Seasons' brought on this weakness. I ought +never to have undertaken that work. It gave me the finishing stroke." +He appears to have started on the work with great reluctance and with +considerable distrust of his own powers, but once fairly committed to +the undertaking he entered into it with something of his old animation, +disputing so manfully with his librettist over certain points in the +text that a serious rupture between the two was at one time imminent. +The subject was probably not very congenial to Haydn, who, as the years +advanced, was more and more inclined towards devotional themes. That +at least seems to be the inference to be drawn from the remark which he +made to the Emperor Francis on being asked which of his two oratorios he +himself preferred. "'The Creation,'" answered Haydn. "In 'The Creation' +angels speak and their talk is of God; in 'The Seasons' no one higher +speaks than Farmer Simon." + +"The Seasons" criticized + +But whether he liked the theme or not, in the end he produced a work as +fresh and genial and melodious as if it had been the work of his prime. +If anyone sees in it an evidence of weakness, he is seeing only what he +had expected to see. As Mr Rockstro remarks, not a trace of the "failing +power" of which the grand old man complained is to be found in any part +of it. It is a model of descriptive, contemplative work, and must please +by its thoughtful beauty and illustrative power. True to Nature in +its minutest details, it yet never insults her by trivial attempts at +outward imitation where artistic suggestion of the hidden truth was, +possible. The "delicious softness" of the opening chorus, and the +perfection of rustic happiness portrayed in the song which describes the +joy of the "impatient husbandman" are alone sufficient to prove that, +whatever he may have thought about it himself, Haydn's genius was not +appreciably waning. + +The first performance of "The Seasons" took place at the Schwartzenburg +Palace on the 24th of April 1801. It was repeated twice within a week; +and on the 29th of May the composer conducted a grand public performance +at the Redoutensaal. The work proved almost as successful as "The +Creation." Haydn was enraptured with it, but he was never really himself +again. As he said, it gave him the finishing stroke. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. LAST YEARS + +Failing Strength--Last Works--A Scottish Admirer--Song +Accompaniments--Correspondence with George Thomson--Mrs Jordan--A +Hitch--A "Previous" Letter of Condolence--Eventide--Last Public +Appearance--The End--Funeral Honours--Desecration of Remains. + +Failing Strength + +Little is left to be told of the years which followed the production of +"The Seasons." Haydn never really recovered from the strain which that +last great effort of his genius had entailed. From his letters and the +reminiscences of his friends we can read only too plainly the story of +his growing infirmity. Even in 1799 he spoke of the diminution of his +mental powers, and exclaimed: "Oh, God! how much yet remains to be done +in this splendid art, even by a man like myself!" In 1802 he wrote of +himself as "a gradually decaying veteran," enjoying only the feeble +health which is "the inseparable companion of a gray-haired man +of seventy." In December 1803 he made his last public exertion by +conducting the "Seven Words" for the hospital fund at the Redoutensaal, +and shortly afterwards wrote sadly of his "very great weakness." In 1804 +he was asked to direct a performance of "The Creation," but declined +on the score of failing strength. Gradually he withdrew himself almost +entirely from the outside world, his general languor broken only by the +visits of friends and by moods of passing cheerfulness. Cherubini, +the Abbe Vogler, Pleyel, the Weber family, Hummel, Reichardt, and many +others came to see him. Visits from members of the Esterhazy family gave +him much pleasure. Mozart's widow also brought her son Wolfgang, to beg +his blessing on the occasion of his first public concert in April 1805, +for which he had composed a cantata in honour of Haydn's seventy-third +birthday. But the homage of friends and admirers could not strengthen +the weak hands or confirm the feeble knees. In 1806 Dies notes that his +once-gleaming eye has become dull and heavy and his complexion sallow, +while he suffers from "headache, deafness, forgetfulness and other +pains." His old gaiety has completely gone, and even his friends have +become a bore to him. "My remaining days," he said to Dies, "must all be +spent in this lonely fashion.... I have many visitors, but it confuses +me so much to talk to them that at last I scarcely know what I am saying +and only long to be left in peace." The condition of a man of naturally +genial and optimistic temperament can easily be imagined from all +this--perhaps even more from the fact of his having a card printed to +hand to inquirers who called, bearing the words: + +Hin ist alle meine Kraft; Alt and schwach bin ich. + +[Fled for ever is my strength; Old and weak am I.] + +Last Works + +But while Haydn was thus suffering from the natural disabilities of his +years, he was not wholly divorced from his art. It is true that nothing +of any real importance came from his pen after "The Seasons," but a good +deal of work of various kinds was done, some of which it is impossible +for the biographer to ignore. One rather novel undertaking carries us +back to the end of 1799, about which time he was first asked by George +Thomson, the friend of Burns, to write accompaniments for certain +Scottish songs to be published in Thomson's well-known national +collections. The correspondence which followed is interesting in many +ways, and as it is not noticed in any other biography of Haydn, we +propose to deal with it here. [The letters passed through the present +writer's hands some five years ago, when he was preparing his Life of +George Thomson(1898). They are now in the British Museum with the other +Thomson correspondence.] + +A Scottish Admirer + +George Thomson engaged at one time or other the services of Beethoven, +Pleyel, Weber, Hummel, Bishop and Kozeluch. But Haydn was his first +love. A genius of the kind, he writes in 1811 "never before existed and +probably never will be surpassed." He is "the inimitable Haydn," the +"delectable," the "father of us all," and so on. On the other hand, +Haydn was proud of what he did for Thomson. "I boast of this work," he +said, "and by it I flatter myself my name will live in Scotland many +years after my death." Nay, if we may trust an authority cited by +Thomson, so highly did he think of "the symphonies and accompaniments +which he composed for my melodies as to have the original score of each +framed and hung all over the walls of his bedroom." Little wonder +that Thomson "loved the dear old man" and regretted that his worldly +circumstances did not allow him to erect a statue to the composer at his +own expense! + +We have called this writing of symphonies and accompaniments for George +Thomson a novel undertaking. It was, however, only novel in the sense of +being rather out of Haydn's special "line." He had already been employed +on work of the kind for the collection of William Napier, to which +he contributed the accompaniments of 150 songs. Later on, too (in +1802-1803), he harmonized and wrote accompaniments for sixty-five airs, +for which he received 500 florins from Whyte of Edinburgh. The extent of +his labours for George Thomson we shall now proceed to show. + +Song Accompaniments + +Thomson addressed his first letter to Haydn in October 1799. There is no +copy of it, but there is a copy of a letter to Mr Straton, a friend of +Thomson's, who was at this time Secretary to the Legation at Vienna. +Straton was to deliver the letter to Haydn, and negotiate with him on +Thomson's behalf. He was authorized to "say whatever you conceive is +likely to produce compliance," and if necessary to "offer a few more +ducats for each air." The only stipulation was that Haydn "must not +speak of what he gets." Thomson does not expect that he will do the +accompaniments better than Kozeluch--"that is scarcely possible"(!); but +in the symphonies he will be "great and original." Thomson, as we now +learn from Straton, had offered 2 ducats for each air (say 20s.); +Haydn "seemed desirous of having rather more than 2 ducats, but did not +precisely insist upon the point." Apparently he did not insist, for the +next intimation of the correspondence is to the effect that thirty-two +airs which he had just finished had been forwarded to Thomson on June +19, 1800. They would have been done sooner, says Straton, but "poor +Haydn laboured under so severe an illness during the course of this +spring that we were not altogether devoid of alarm in regard to his +recovery." Thomson, thus encouraged, sent sixteen more airs; and Straton +writes (April 30, 1801) that Haydn at first refused to touch them +because the price paid was too low. But in the course of conversation +Straton learnt that Haydn was writing to Thomson to ask him to procure +a dozen India handkerchiefs, and it struck him that "your making him a +present of them might mollify the veteran into compliance respecting +the sixteen airs." Straton therefore took upon himself to promise in +Thomson's name that the handkerchiefs would be forthcoming, and "this +had the desired effect to such a degree that Haydn immediately put the +sixteen airs in his pocket, and is to compose the accompaniments as soon +as possible on the same terms as the former." + +Mrs Jordan + +The handkerchiefs duly arrived--"nice and large"--and Haydn made his +acknowledgments in appropriate terms. At the same time (in January 1802) +he wrote: "I send you with this the favourite air 'The Blue Bells of +Scotland,' and I should like that this little air should be engraved +all alone and dedicated in my name as a little complimentary gift to +the renowned Mrs Jordan, whom, without having the honour of knowing, I +esteem extremely for her great virtue and reputation." Mrs Jordan +has been credited with the air of "The Blue Bells of Scotland." She +certainly popularized the song, whether it was her own or not. In the +note just quoted Haydn must have used the term "virtue" in the Italian +sense. + +A Hitch + +After this a little hitch occurred in the Thomson correspondence. +Haydn, being asked by Whyte, the publisher of a rival collection, to +do something for his work, at once agreed. Thomson, not unnaturally, +perhaps, felt hurt. He made his complaint through Mr Straton's successor +at the Embassy, Mr Charles Stuart; and in August 1803 Stuart writes to +say that he had broached the matter to Haydn "in as delicate terms as +possible for fear he might take offence." Haydn frankly admitted that he +had done the accompaniments for Whyte, but said the airs were different +from those he had done for Thomson. After "a long conversation, he +informed me," says Mr Stuart, "that being now seventy-four years of +age and extremely infirm, he found himself wholly incapable of further +application to study; that he must therefore beg leave to decline all +offers, whether on your part or from any other person whatsoever. He +even declared that notwithstanding the repeated requests of Prince +Esterhazy, he felt himself utterly incapable of finishing several pieces +of music he had undertaken, and being possessed of a competency he +desired nothing so much as to pass the short time he has yet to live in +repose and quiet." From this letter we learn that Thomson had unluckily +sent a present of a handkerchief for Frau Haydn, who had now been dead +for three years! + +A "Previous" Letter of Condolence + +In spite of the little misunderstanding just referred to Haydn was +brought round once more, and on the 20th of December 1803 Thomson sends +twenty-four airs, "which will most certainly be the last." Haydn's work +delights him so much that he "really cannot bear the idea of seeking an +inferior composer to finish a work already so nearly finished by you." +He would pay 4 ducats for each air rather than have the mortification +of a refusal. After this there is little of interest to note in the +correspondence, unless it be a very "previous" letter of condolence +which Thomson sent to Vienna. A false rumour had reached him that Haydn +was dead. The following extract from a note which Haydn dictated to +be sent to the friend who received Thomson's letter will explain the +matter: + +Kindly say to Mr Thomson that Haydn is very sensible of the distress +that the news of his alleged death has caused him, and that this sign of +affection has added, if that were possible, to the esteem and friendship +he will always entertain for Mr Thomson. You will notice that he has put +his name and the date on the sheet of music to give better proof that he +is still on this nether world. He begs you at the same time to be kind +enough to have Mr Thomson's letter of condolence copied and to send him +the copy. + +Haydn's experience in this way was perhaps unique. Burney says he was +reported dead in 1778; and the false rumour which reached Thomson in +1805 led Cherubini to compose a sacred cantata for three voices and +orchestra, which was duly performed in Paris when his death actually +occurred. + +Haydn furnished in all some 250 airs with symphonies and accompaniments +for Thomson. In the packet of letters from the composer, docketed by +Thomson himself, the latter has placed a slip of paper indicating the +various payments he had made. According to this statement Haydn had +291 pounds, 18s. for his work from first to last--not by any means an +insignificant sum to make out of a side branch of his art. + +Eventide + +This interesting correspondence takes us up to the year 1806, by which +time Haydn's work was entirely over. His eventide, alas! was darkened by +the clouds of war. The wave of the French Revolution had cast its bloody +spray upon the surrounding nations, and 1805 saw the composer's beloved +Vienna occupied by the French. Haydn was no politician, but love of +country lay deep down in his heart, and he watched the course of events, +from his little cottage, with the saddest forebodings. + +The Last Public Appearance + +Once only was he drawn from his seclusion. This was on the 27th of March +1808, when he appeared in public for the last time at a performance of +"The Creation" at the University. The scene on this remarkable occasion +has been described by many pens. Naumann, writing of it, says that "such +an apotheosis of the master was witnessed as has but few parallels," and +this is no exaggeration. The performance, which was under the direction +of Salieri, had been arranged in honour of his approaching seventy-sixth +birthday. All the great artists of Vienna were present, among them +Beethoven and Hummel. Prince Esterhazy had sent his carriage to bring +the veteran to the hall, and, as he was being conveyed in an arm-chair +to a place among the princes and nobles, the whole audience rose to +their feet in testimony of their regard. It was a cold night, and ladies +sitting near swathed him in their costly wraps and lace shawls. The +concert began, and the audience was hushed to silence. When that +magnificent passage was reached, "And there was light," they burst into +loud applause, and Haydn, overcome with excitement, exclaimed, "Not I, +but a Power from above created that." The performance went on, but it +proved too much for the old man, and friends arranged to take him home +at the end of the first part. As he was being carried out, some of the +highest of the land crowded round to take what was felt to be a last +farewell; and Beethoven, forgetting incidents of early days, bent down +and fervently kissed his hand and forehead. Having reached the door, +Haydn asked his bearers to pause and turn him towards the orchestra. +Then, lifting his hand, as if in the act of blessing, he was borne out +into the night. + +Next year Vienna was bombarded by the French, and a cannon-ball fell not +far from Haydn's house. He was naturally much alarmed; but there is no +ground for the statement, sometimes made, that his death was hastened +by the fright. On the contrary, he called out to his servants, who were +assisting him to dress: "Children, don't be frightened; no harm can +happen to you while Haydn is here." + +The End + +But his days were numbered. "This miserable war has cast me down to the +very ground," he would say, with tears in his eyes. And yet it was a +French officer who last visited him on his death-bed, the city being +then actually occupied by the enemy. The officer's name is not given, +but he sang "In native worth" with such expression that Haydn was quite +overcome, and embraced him warmly at parting. On May 26 he seems to have +felt that his end was fast approaching. He gathered his household around +him, and, being carried to the piano, at his own special request, +played the Emperor's Hymn three times over, with an emotion that fairly +overpowered himself and all who heard him. Five days later, on the 31st +of May 1809, he breathed his last. + +Funeral services were held in all the churches, and on June 15 Mozart's +Requiem was given in his honour at the Scots Church, when several +generals and administrators of the French army were present. Many poems +were also written in his praise. + +Haydn was buried as a private individual in the Hundsthurm Churchyard, +which was just outside the lines, and close to the suburb of Gumpendorf, +where he had lived. The grave remained entirely undistinguished +till 1814--another instance of Vienna's neglect--when Haydn's pupil, +Chevalier Neukomm, erected a stone bearing the following inscription, +which contains a five-part canon for solution: + +HAYDN + +NATUS MDCCXXXIII. OBIIT MDCCCIX. + +CAN. AENIGM. QUINQUE. VOC. + +[figure: a musical score excerpt to the syllables non om - nis mo - ri - +ar] + +D. D. D. + +Discp. Eius Neukom Vindob. Redux. Mdcccxiv. + +Desecration of Haydn's Remains + +In 1820 the remains were exhumed by order of Prince Esterhazy, and +re-interred with fresh funeral honours in the Pilgrimage Church of +Maria-Einsiedel, near Eisenstadt, on November 7. A simple stone, with +a Latin inscription, is inserted in the wall over the vault. When the +coffin was opened, the startling discovery was made that the skull had +been stolen. The desecration took place two days after the funeral. +It appears that one Johann Peter, intendant of the royal and imperial +prisons of Vienna, conceived the grim idea of forming a collection of +skulls, made, as he avowed in his will, to corroborate the theory of +Dr Gall, the founder of phrenology. This functionary bribed the sexton, +and--in concert with Prince Esterhazy's secretary Rosenbaum, and with +two Government officials named Jungermann and Ullmann--he opened Haydn's +grave and removed the skull. Peter afterwards gave the most minute +details of the sacrilege. He declared that he examined the head and +found the bump of music fully developed, and traces in the nose of the +polypus from which Haydn suffered. The skull was placed in a lined box, +and when Peter got into difficulties and his collection was dispersed, +the relic passed into the possession of Rosenbaum. That worthy's +conscience seems to have troubled him in the matter, for he conceived +the idea of erecting a monument to the skull in his back garden! When +the desecration was discovered in 1820 there was an outcry, followed by +police search. Prince Esterhazy would stand no nonsense. The skull must +be returned, no questions would be asked, and Peter was offered a reward +if he found it. The notion then occurred to Rosenbaum of palming off +another skull for Haydn's. This he actually succeeded in doing, the head +of some unfortunate individual being handed to the police. Peter claimed +the reward, which was very justly refused him. When Rosenbaum was dying +he confessed to the deception, and gave the skull back to Peter. Peter +formed the resolution of bequeathing it, by will, to the Conservatorium +at Vienna; but he altered his mind before he died, and by codicil left +the skull to Dr Haller, from whose keeping it ultimately found its +way to the anatomical museum at Vienna. We believe it is still in the +museum. Its proper place is, of course, in Haydn's grave, and a stigma +will rest on Vienna until it is placed there. + +[The great masters have been peculiarly unfortunate in the matter of +their "remains." When Beethoven's grave was opened in 1863, Professor +Wagner was actually allowed to cut off the ears and aural cavities of +the corpse in order to investigate the cause of the dead man's deafness. +The alleged skeleton of Sebastian Bach was taken to an anatomical museum +a few years ago, "cleaned up," and clothed with a semblance of flesh to +show how Bach looked in life! Donizetti's skull was stolen before the +funeral, and was afterwards sold to a pork butcher, who used it as a +money-bowl. Gluck was re-buried in 1890 beside Mozart, Beethoven +and Schubert, after having lain in the little suburban churchyard of +Matzleinsdorf since 1787.] + +A copy of Haydn's will has been printed as one of the appendices to +the present volume, with notes and all necessary information about the +interesting document. Two years before his death he had arranged that +his books, music, manuscripts and medals should become the property of +the Esterhazy family. Among the relics were twenty-four canons which +had hung, framed and glazed, in his bedroom. "I am not rich enough," he +said, "to buy good pictures, so I have provided myself with hangings of +a kind that few possess." These little compositions were the subject +of an oft-quoted anecdote. His wife, in one of her peevish moods, was +complaining that if he should die suddenly, there was not sufficient +money in the house to bury him. "In case such a calamity should occur," +he replied, "take these canons to the music-publisher. I will answer for +it, that they will bring enough to pay for a decent funeral." + + + +CHAPTER IX. HAYDN: THE MAN + + + +Face and Features--Portraits--Social Habits--Partial to Pretty +Women--His Letters--His Humour--His Generosity--Unspoiled by +Success--His Piety--His Industry--Habits of Composition--Impatient of +Pedantry. + +Face and Features + +Something of Haydn's person and character will have already been +gathered from the foregoing pages. He considered himself an ugly man, +and, in Addison's words, thought that the best expedient was "to be +pleasant upon himself." His face was deeply pitted with small-pox, and +the nose, large and aquiline, was disfigured by the polypus which he +had inherited from his mother. In complexion he was so dark as to +have earned in some quarters the familiar nickname of "The Moor." His +underlip was thick and hanging, his jaw massive. "The mouth and chin +are Philistine," wrote Lavater under his silhouette, noting, at the same +time, "something out of the common in the eyes and the nose." The eyes +were dark gray. They are described as "beaming with benevolence," and +he used to say himself: "Anyone can see by the look of me that I am a +good-natured sort of fellow." + +In stature he was rather under the middle height, with legs +disproportionately short, a defect rendered more noticeable by the style +of his dress, which he refused to change with the changes of fashion. +Dies writes: "His features were regular, his expression animated, yet, +at the same time, temperate, gentle and attractive. His face wore +a stern look when in repose, but in conversation it was smiling and +cheerful. I never heard him laugh out loud. His build was substantial, +but deficient in muscle." Another of his acquaintances says that +"notwithstanding a cast of physiognomy rather morose, and a short way +of expressing himself, which seemed to indicate an ill-tempered man, the +character of Haydn was gay, open and humorous." From these testimonies +we get the impression of a rather unusual combination of the attractive +and the repulsive, the intellectual and the vulgar. What Lavater +described as the "lofty and good" brow was partly concealed by a wig, +with side curls, and a pig-tail, which he wore to the last. His dress as +a private individual has not been described in detail, but the Esterhazy +uniform, though frequently changing in colour and style, showed him in +knee-breeches, white stockings, lace ruffles and white neckcloth. This +uniform he never wore except when on actual duty. + +Portraits + +After his death there were many portraits in chalks, engraved, and +modeled in wax. Notwithstanding his admission of the lack of personal +graces, he had a sort of feminine objection to an artist making him look +old. We read that, in 1800, he was "seriously angry" with a painter who +had represented him as he then appeared. "If I was Haydn at forty," said +he, "why should you transmit to posterity a Haydn of seventy-eight?" +Several writers mention a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and even give +details of the sittings, but he never sat to Reynolds, whose eyesight +had begun to fail before Haydn's arrival in England. During his first +visit to London Hoppner painted his portrait at the special request of +the Prince of Wales. This portrait was engraved by Facius in 1807, and +is now at Hampton Court. Engravings were also published in London by +Schiavonetti and Bartolozzi from portraits by Guttenbrunn and Ott, and +by Hardy from his own oil-painting. A silhouette, which hung for long +at the head of his bed, was engraved for the first time for Grove's +Dictionary of Music. This was said by Elssler, his old servant, to have +been a striking likeness. Of the many busts, the best is that by his +friend Grassi, the sculptor. + +[figure: Haydn's silhouette by Lavater] + +Social Habits + +Very little has been recorded of his social habits. Anything like +excess in wine is not once mentioned; but it is easy to see from his +correspondence that he enjoyed a good dinner, and was not insensible to +creature comforts. Writing to Artaria from Esterhaz in 1788, he says: +"By-the-bye, I am very much obliged to you for the capital cheese you +sent me, and also the sausages, for which I am your debtor, but shall +not fail when an opportunity offers to return the obligation." In a +subsequent letter to Frau von Genzinger he comically laments the change +from Vienna to Esterhaz: "I lost twenty pounds in weight in three days, +for the effect of my fare at Vienna disappeared on the journey. 'Alas! +alas!' thought I, when driven to eat at the restaurateurs, 'instead of +capital beef, a slice of a cow fifty years old; instead of a ragout with +little balls of force-meat, an old sheep with yellow carrots; instead +of a Bohemian pheasant, a tough grill; instead of pastry, dry apple +fritters and hazelnuts, etc.! Alas! alas! would that I now had many a +morsel I despised in Vienna! Here in Esterhaz no one asks me, Would you +like some chocolate, with milk or without? Will you take some coffee, +with or without cream? What can I offer you, my good Haydn? Will you +have vanille ice or pineapple?' If I had only a piece of good Parmesan +cheese, particularly in Lent, to enable me to swallow more easily the +black dumplings and puffs! I gave our porter this very day a commission +to send me a couple of pounds." Even amid the social pleasures and +excitements of London, where he was invited out six times a week and +had "four excellent dishes" at every dinner, he longs to be back in his +native land so that he may have "some good German soup." + +Partial to Pretty Women + +We read that in Austria he "never associated with any but the musicians, +his colleagues," a statement which cannot be strictly true. In London +he was, as we have seen, something of a "lion," but it is doubtful if he +enjoyed the conventional diversions of the beau monde. Yet he liked the +company of ladies, especially when they were personally attractive. +That he was never at a loss for a compliment may perhaps be taken as +explaining his frequent conquests, for, as he frankly said himself, the +pretty women "were at any rate not tempted by my beauty." Of children he +was passionately fond, a fact which lends additional melancholy to his +own unhappy and childless home life. + +His Letters + +He was not highly educated, and he does not seem to have taken much +interest in anything outside his own profession. This much may be +gathered from his correspondence, upon which it is not necessary to +comment at length. Mr Russell Lowell remarks that a letter which is not +mainly about the writer loses its prime flavour. Haydn's letters are +seldom "mainly about the writer." They help us very little in seeking to +get at what Newman called "the inside of things," though some, notably +those given at the end of this volume, embody valuable suggestions. +He habitually spoke in the broad dialect of his native place. He knew +Italian well and French a little, and he had enough Latin to enable him +to set the Church services. Of English he was almost entirely ignorant +until he came to London in 1791, when we hear of him walking the country +lanes with an English grammar in hand. There is an amusing story of a +dinner at Madame Mara's, at which he was present during his first visit. +Crossdill, the violoncellist, proposed to celebrate him with "three +times three." The suggestion was at once adopted, all the guests, with +the exception of Haydn himself, standing up and cheering lustily. Haydn +heard his name repeated, but not understanding what was going on, stared +at the company in blank bewilderment. When the matter was explained to +him he appeared quite overcome with diffidence, putting his hands +before his face and not recovering his equanimity for some minutes. [See +Records of My Life, by John Taylor: London, 1832.] + +His Humour + +Of hobbies or recreations he appears to have had none, though, to +relieve the dull monotony of life at Eisenstadt or Esterhaz, he +occasionally indulged in hunting and fishing and mountain rambles. A +leading trait in his character was his humour and love of fun. As he +remarked to Dies: "A mischievous fit comes over me sometimes that is +perfectly beyond control." The incident of the removal of the fellow +chorister's pig-tail will at once recur to the memory. The "Surprise" +Symphony is another illustration, to say nothing of the "Toy" Symphony +and "Jacob's Dream." + +His Generosity + +Of his generosity and his kindness to fellow artists there are many +proofs. In 1800 he speaks of himself as having "willingly endeavoured +all my life to assist everyone," and the words were no empty boast. No +man was, in fact, more ready to perform a good deed. He had many needy +relations always looking to him for aid, and their claims were seldom +refused. A brother artist in distress was sure of help, and talented +young men found in him a valuable friend, equally ready to give his +advice or his gold, as the case might require. That he was sometimes +imposed upon goes without saying. He has been charged with avarice, but +the charge is wholly unfounded. He was simply careful in money matters, +and that, to a large extent, because of the demands that were constantly +being made upon him. In commercial concerns he was certainly sharp +and shrewd, and attempts to take advantage of him always roused his +indignation. "By heavens!" he writes to Artaria, "you have wronged me to +the extent of fifty ducats.... This step must cause the cessation of all +transactions between us." The same firm, having neglected to answer some +business proposition, were pulled up in this fashion: "I have been much +provoked by the delay, inasmuch as I could have got forty ducats +from another publisher for these five pieces, and you make too many +difficulties about a matter by which, in such short compositions, you +have at least a thirty fold profit. The sixth piece has long had its +companion, so pray make an end of the affair and send me either my music +or my money." + +The Haydn of these fierce little notes is not the gentle recluse we are +apt to imagine him. They show, on the contrary, that he was not wanting +in spirit when occasion demanded. He was himself upright and honest in +all his dealings. And he never forgot a kindness, as more than one entry +in his will abundantly testifies. He was absolutely without malice, and +there are several instances of his repaying a slight with a generous +deed or a thoughtful action. His practical tribute to the memory of +Werner, who called him a fop and a "scribbler of songs," has been +cited. His forbearance with Pleyel, who had allowed himself to be pitted +against him by the London faction, should also be recalled; and it is +perhaps worth mentioning further that he put himself to some trouble to +get a passport for Pleyel during the long wars of the French Revolution. +He carried his kindliness and gentleness even into "the troubled region +of artistic life," and made friends where other men would have made +foes. + +Unspoiled by Success + +His modesty has often been insisted upon. Success did not spoil him. In +a letter of 1799 he asks that a certain statement in his favour should +not be mentioned, lest he "be accused of conceit and arrogance, from +which my Heavenly Father has preserved me all my life long." Here he +spoke the simple truth. At the same time, while entirely free from +presumption and vanity, he was perfectly alive to his own merits, and +liked to have them acknowledged. When visitors came to see him nothing +gave him greater pleasure than to open his cabinets and show the medals, +that had been struck in his honour, along with the other gifts he had +received from admirers. Like a true man of genius, as Pohl says, he +enjoyed distinction and fame, but carefully avoided ambition. + +High Ideals + +Of his calling and opportunities as an artist he had a very high idea. +Acknowledging a compliment paid to him in 1802 by the members of the +Musical Union in Bergen, he wrote of the happiness it gave him to think +of so many families susceptible of true feeling deriving pleasure and +enjoyment from his compositions. + +"Often when contending with the obstacles of every sort opposed to my +work, often when my powers both of body and mind failed, and I felt it +a hard matter to persevere in the course I had entered on, a secret +feeling within me whispered, 'There are but few contented and happy men +here below; everywhere grief and care prevail, perhaps your labours may +one day be the source from which the weary and worn or the man burdened +with affairs may derive a few moments' rest and refreshment.' What a +powerful motive to press onwards! And this is why I now look back with +heartfelt, cheerful satisfaction on the work to which I have devoted +such a long succession of years with such persevering efforts and +exertions." + +With this high ideal was combined a constant effort to perfect himself +in his art. To Kalkbrenner he once made the touching remark: "I have +only just learned in my old age how to use the wind instruments, and now +that I do understand them I must leave the world." To Griezinger, again, +he said that he had by no means exhausted his genius: that "ideas were +often floating in his mind, by which he could have carried the art far +beyond anything it had yet attained, had his physical powers been equal +to the task." + +His Piety + +Closely, indeed inseparably, connected with this exalted idea of his art +was his simple and sincere piety. He was a devout Christian, and looked +upon his genius as a gift from God, to be freely used in His service. +His faith was never assailed with doubts; he lived and died in the +communion of the Catholic Church, and was "never in danger of becoming +either a bigot or a free-thinker." When Carpani, anticipating latter-day +criticism, hinted to him that his Church compositions were impregnated +with a light gaiety, he replied: "I cannot help it; I give forth what +is in me. When I think of the Divine Being, my heart is, so full of joy +that the notes fly off as from a spindle, and as I have a cheerful heart +He will pardon me if I serve Him cheerfully." + +His reverent practice during the composition of "The Creation" has been +mentioned. "Never was I so pious," he said. There are many proofs of the +same feeling in his correspondence and other writings. Thus he concludes +an autobiographical sketch with the words: "I offer up to Almighty God +all eulogiums, for to Him alone do I owe them. My sole wish is neither +to offend against my neighbour nor my gracious prince, but above all not +against our merciful God." Again, in one of his later letters, he says +"May God only vouchsafe to grant me the health that I have hitherto +enjoyed, and may I preserve it by good conduct, out of gratitude to +the Almighty." The note appended to the first draft of his will is also +significant. Nor in this connection should we forget the words with +which he inscribed the scores of his more important compositions. For +the conclusion he generally adopted Handel's "Soli Deo Gloria" or "Laus +Deo," with the occasional addition of "et B.V. Mae. et Oms. Sis. (Beatae +Virgini Mariae et Omnibus Sanctis)." Even his opera scores were so +inscribed, one indeed having the emphatic close: "Laus omnipotenti Deo +et Beatissimae Virgini Mariae." The superscription was uniformly "In +nomine Domini." It is recorded somewhere that when, in composing, he +felt his inspiration flagging, or was baulked by some difficulty, he +rose from the instrument and began to run over his rosary. In short, not +to labour the point, he had himself followed the advice which, as an old +man, he gave to the choirboys of Vienna: "Be good and industrious and +serve God continually." + +His Industry + +The world has seen many an instance of genius without industry, as of +industry without genius. In Haydn the two were happily wedded. He was +always an early riser, and long after his student days were over he +worked steadily from sixteen to eighteen hours a day. He lived strictly +by a self-imposed routine, and was so little addicted to what Scott +called "bed-gown and slipper tricks," that he never sat down to work or +received a visitor until he was fully dressed. He had none of Wagner's +luxurious tastes or Balzac's affectations in regard to a special attire +for work, but when engaged on his more important compositions he always +wore the ring given him by the King of Prussia. In Haydn's case there +are no incredible tales of dashing off scores in the twinkling of +an eye. That he produced so much must be attributed to his habit of +devoting all his leisure to composition. He was not a rapid worker if we +compare him with Handel and Mozart. He never put down anything till he +was "quite sure it was the right thing"--a habit of mind indicated by +his neat and uniform handwriting ["His notes had such little heads and +slender tails that he used, very properly, to call them his, flies' +legs."--Bombet, p. 97.]--and he assures us: "I never was a quick writer, +and always composed with care and deliberation. That alone," he added, +"is the way to compose works that will last, and a real connoisseur can +see at a glance whether a score has been written in undue haste or not." +He is quoted as saying that "genius is always prolific." However the +saying may be interpreted, there does not seem to have been about him +anything of what has been called the irregular dishabille of composers, +"the natural result of the habit of genius of watching for an +inspiration, and encouraging it to take possession of the whole being +when it comes." + +Habits of Composition + +His practice was to sketch out his ideas roughly in the morning, and +elaborate them in the afternoon, taking pains to preserve unity in +idea and form. "That is where so many young composers fail," he said +in reference to the latter point. "They string together a number of +fragments; they break off almost as soon as they have begun, and so at +the end the listener carries off no definite impression." The importance +of melody he specially emphasized. "It is the air which is the charm of +music," he remarked, "and it is that which is most difficult to produce. +The invention of a fine melody is the work of genius." In another place +he says: "In vocal composition, the art of producing beautiful melody +may now almost be considered as lost; and when a composer is so +fortunate as to throw forth a passage that is really melodious, he is +sure, if he be not sensible of its excellence, to overwhelm and destroy +it by the fullness and superfluity of his instrumental parts." [Compare +Mozart's words as addressed to Michael Kelly: "Melody is the essence of +music. I should liken one who invents melodies to a noble racehorse, and +a mere contrapuntist to a hired post-hack."] + +He is stated to have always composed with the aid of the pianoforte or +harpsichord; and indeed we find him writing to Artaria in 1788 to say +that he has been obliged to buy a new instrument "that I might compose +your clavier sonatas particularly well." This habit of working out ideas +with the assistance of the piano has been condemned by most theorists +as being likely to lead to fragmentariness. With Haydn at any rate the +result was entirely satisfactory, for, as Sir Hubert Parry points out, +the neatness and compactness of his works is perfect. It is very likely, +as Sir Hubert says, that most modern composers have used the pianoforte +a good deal--not so much to help them to find out their ideas, as to +test the details and intensify their musical sensibility by the excitant +sounds, the actual sensual impression of which is, of course, an +essential element in all music. The composer can always hear such things +in his mind, but obviously the music in such an abstract form can never +have quite as much effect upon him as when the sounds really strike +upon his ear. [See Studies of Great Composers, by C. Hubert H. Parry, p. +109.] + +No Pedant + +Like all the really great composers, Haydn was no pedant in the matter +of theoretical formulae, though he admitted that the rigid rules of +harmony should rarely be violated, and "never without the compensation +of some inspired effect." When he was asked according to what rule he +had introduced a certain progression, he replied "The rules are all +my very obedient humble servants." With the quint-hunters and other +faddists who would place their shackles on the wrists of genius, he had +as little patience as Beethoven, who, when told that all the authorities +forbade the consecutive fifths in his C Minor Quartet, thundered out: +"Well, I allow them." Somebody once questioned him about an apparently +unwarranted passage in the introduction to Mozart's Quartet in C Major. +"If Mozart has written it, be sure he had good reasons for doing +so," was the conclusive reply. That fine old smoke-dried pedant, +Albrechtsberger, declared against consecutive fourths in strict +composition, and said so to Haydn. "What is the good of such rules?" +demanded Haydn. "Art is free and must not be fettered by mechanical +regulations. The cultivated ear must decide, and I believe myself as +capable as anyone of making laws in this respect. Such trifling is +absurd; I wish instead that someone would try to compose a really new +minuet." To Dies he remarked further: "Supposing an idea struck me as +good and thoroughly satisfactory both to the ear and the heart, I would +far rather pass over some slight grammatical error than sacrifice +what seemed to me beautiful to any mere pedantic trifling." These were +sensible views. Practice must always precede theory. When we find a +great composer infringing some rule of the old text-books, there is, to +say the least, a strong presumption, not that the composer is wrong, but +that the rule needs modifying. The great composer goes first and invents +new effects: it is the business of the theorist not to cavil at every +novelty, but to follow modestly behind and make his rules conform to the +practice of the master. [Compare Professor Prout's Treatise on Harmony.] + +Thus much about Haydn the man. Let us now turn to Haydn the composer and +his position in the history of music. + + + +CHAPTER X. HAYDN: THE COMPOSER + +The Father of Instrumental Music--The Quartets--The +Symphonies--The Salomon Set--The Sonatas--Church +Music--Songs--Operas--Orchestration--General Style--Conclusion. + +The Father of Instrumental Music + +Haydn has been called "the father of instrumental music," and although +rigid critics may dispute his full right to that title, on broad grounds +he must be allowed to have sufficiently earned it. He was practically +the creator of more than one of our modern forms, and there was hardly a +department of instrumental music in which he did not make his influence +felt. This was emphatically the case with the sonata, the symphony +and the string quartet. The latter he brought to its first perfection. +Before his time this particular form of chamber music was long +neglected, and for a very simple reason. Composers looked upon it as +being too slight in texture for the display of their genius. That, as +has often been demonstrated, was because they had not mastered the art +of "writing a four-part harmony with occasional transitions into the +pure polyphonic style--a method of writing which is indispensable to +quartet composition--and also because they did not yet understand the +scope and value of each individual instrument." + +The Quartet + +It would be too much to say that even Haydn fully realized the +capacities of each of his four instruments. Indeed, his quartet writing +is often bald and uninteresting. But at least he did write in four-part +harmony, and it is certainly to him that we owe the installation of the +quartet as a distinct species of chamber music. "It is not often," says +Otto Jahn, the biographer of Mozart, "that a composer hits so exactly +upon the form suited to his conceptions; the quartet was Haydn's natural +mode of expressing his feelings." This is placing the Haydn quartet in +a very high position among the products of its creator. But its artistic +value and importance cannot well be over-estimated. Even Mozart, who set +a noble seal upon the form, admitted that it was from Haydn he had +first learned the true way to compose quartets; and there have been +enthusiasts who regarded the Haydn quartet with even more veneration +than the Haydn symphony. No fewer than seventy-seven quartets are +ascribed to him. Needless to say, they differ considerably as regards +their style and treatment, for the first was written so early as +1755, while the last belongs to his later years. But they are all +characterized by the same combination of manly earnestness, rich +invention and mirthful spirit. The form is concise and symmetrical, the +part-writing is clear and well-balanced, and a "sunny sweetness" is the +prevailing mood. As a discerning critic has remarked, there is nothing +in the shape of instrumental music much pleasanter and easier to listen +to than one of Haydn's quartets. The best of them hold their places in +the concert-rooms of to-day, and they seem likely to live as long as +there are people to appreciate clear and logical composition which +attempts nothing beyond "organized simplicity." [See W. J. Henderson's +How Music Developed, p. 191: London, 1899]. In this department, as +Goethe said, he may be superseded, but he can never be surpassed. + +The Symphony + +For the symphony Haydn did no less than for the quartet. The symphony, +in his young days, was not precisely the kind of work which now bears +the name. It was generally written for a small band, and consisted of +four parts for strings and four for wind instruments. It was meant to +serve no higher purpose, as a rule, than to be played in the houses of +nobles; and on that account it was neither elaborated as to length nor +complicated as to development. So long as it was agreeable and likely to +please the aristocratic ear, the end of the composer was thought to be +attained. + +Haydn, as we know, began his symphonic work under Count Morzin. The +circumstances were not such as to encourage him to "rise to any pitch of +real greatness or depth of meaning"; and although he was able to build +on a somewhat grander scale when he went to Eisenstadt, it was still a +little comfortable coterie that he understood himself to be writing for +rather than for the musical world at large. Nevertheless, he aimed at +constant improvement, and although he had no definite object in view, he +"raised the standard of symphony--writing far beyond any point which had +been attained before." + +"His predecessors," to quote Sir Hubert Parry, "had always written +rather carelessly and hastily for the band, and hardly ever tried to get +refined and original effects from the use of their instruments, but he +naturally applied his mind more earnestly to the matter in hand, and +found out new ways of contrasting and combining the tones of different +members of his orchestra, and getting a fuller and richer effect out of +the mass of them when they were all playing. In the actual style of the +music, too, he made great advances, and in his hands symphonies became +by degrees more vigorous, and, at the same time, more really musical." + +But the narrow limits of the Esterhazy audience and the numbing routine +of the performances were against his rising to the top heights of his +genius. + +The Salomon Set + +It was only when he came to write for the English public that he showed +what he could really do with the matter of the symphony. In comparison +with the twelve symphonies which he wrote for Salomon, the other, and +especially the earlier works are of practically no account. They are +interesting, of course, as marking stages in the growth of the symphony +and in the development of the composer's genius. But regarded in +themselves, as absolute and individual entities, they are not for a +moment to be placed by the side of the later compositions. These, so far +as his instrumental music is concerned, are the crowning glory of his +life work. They are the ripe fruits of his long experience working +upon the example of Mozart, and mark to the full all those qualities of +natural geniality, humour, vigour and simple-heartedness, which are the +leading characteristics of his style. + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +The Sonata + +Haydn's sonatas show the same advance in form as his symphonies and +quartets. The older specimens of the sonata, as seen in the works of +Biber, Kuhnau, Mattheson and others, contain little more than the germs +of the modern sonata. Haydn, building on Emanuel Bach, fixed the present +form, improving so largely upon the earlier, that we could pass from +his sonatas directly to those of Beethoven without the intervention of +Mozart's as a connecting link. Beethoven's sonatas were certainly more +influenced by Haydn's than by Mozart's. Haydn's masterpieces in this +kind, like those of Mozart and Beethoven, astonish by their order, +regularity, fluency, harmony and roundness; and by their splendid +development into full and complete growth out of the sometimes +apparently unimportant germs. [See Ernst Pauer's Musical Forms.] +Naturally his sonatas are not all masterpieces. Of the thirty-five, +some are old-fashioned and some are quite second-rate. But, like the +symphonies, they are all of historical value as showing the development +not only of the form but of the composer's powers. One of the number is +peculiar in having four movements; another is equally peculiar--to Haydn +at least--in having only two movements. Probably in the case of the +latter the curtailment was due to practical rather than to artistic +reasons. Like Beethoven, with the two-movement sonata in C minor, +Haydn may not have had time for a third! In several of the sonatas the +part-writing strikes one as being somewhat poor and meagre; in others +there is, to the modern ear, a surfeiting indulgence in those turns, +arpeggios and other ornaments which were inseparable from the nature of +the harpsichord, with its thin tones and want of sustaining power. If +Haydn had lived to write for the richer and more sustained sounds of +the modern pianoforte, his genius would no doubt have responded to +the increased demands made upon it, though we may doubt whether it was +multiplex enough or intellectual enough to satisfy the deeper needs +of our time. As it is, the changes which have been made in sonata form +since his day are merely changes of detail. To him is due the fixity of +the form. [See "The Pianoforte Sonata," by J. S. Shedlock: London, 1895. +Mr Shedlock, by selecting for analysis some of the most characteristic +sonatas, shows Haydn in his three stages of apprenticeship, mastery and +maturity.] + +Church Music + +Of his masses and Church music generally it is difficult to speak +critically without seeming unfair. We have seen how he explained what +must be called the almost secular style of these works. But while it is +true that Haydn's masses have kept their place in the Catholic churches +of Germany and elsewhere, it is impossible, to Englishmen, at any rate, +not to feel a certain incongruity, a lack of that dignity and solemnity, +that religious "sense," which makes our own Church music so impressive. +We must not blame him for this. He escaped the influences which +made Bach and Handel great in religious music--the influences of +Protestantism, not to say Puritanism. The Church to which he belonged +was no longer guided in its music by the principles of Palestrina. On +the contrary; it was tainted by secular and operatic influences; and +although Haydn felt himself to be thoroughly in earnest it was rather +the ornamental and decorate side of religion that he expressed in his +lively music. He might, perhaps, have written in a more serious, lofty +strain had he been brought under the noble traditions which glorified +the sacred choral works of the earlier masters just named. In any case, +his Church music has nothing of the historical value of his instrumental +music. It is marked by many sterling and admirable qualities, but the +progress of the art would not have been materially affected if it had +never come into existence. + +Songs + +As a song-writer Haydn was only moderately successful, perhaps because, +having himself but a slight acquaintance with literature, he left the +selection of the words to others, with, in many cases, unfortunate +results. The form does not seem to have been a favourite with him, for +his first songs were not produced until so late as 1780. Some of the +later compositions have, however, survived; and one or two of the +canzonets, such as "My mother bids me bind my hair" and "She never told +her love," are admirable. The three-part and the four-part songs, as +well as the canons, of which he thought very highly himself, are also +excellent, and still charm after the lapse of so many years. + +Operas + +On the subject of his operas little need be added to what has already +been said. Strictly speaking, he never had a chance of showing what he +could do with opera on a grand scale. He had to write for a small stage +and a small audience, and in so far he was probably successful. Pohl +thinks that if his project of visiting Italy had been fulfilled and his +faculties been stimulated in this direction by fresh scenes and a larger +horizon, we might have gained "some fine operas." It is doubtful; Haydn +lacked the true dramatic instinct. His placid, easy-going, contented +nature could never have allowed him to rise to great heights of dramatic +force. He was not built on a heroic mould; the meaning of tragedy was +unknown to him. + +Orchestration + +Regarding his orchestration a small treatise might be written. The terms +which best describe it are, perhaps, refinement and brilliancy. Much +of his success in this department must, of course, be attributed to +his long and intimate association with the Esterhazy band. In 1766, +six years after his appointment, this band numbered seventeen +instruments--six violins and viola, one violoncello, one double bass, +one flute, two oboes, two bassoons and four horns. It was subsequently +enlarged to twenty-two and twenty-four, including trumpets and +kettledrums on special occasions. From 1776 to 1778 there were also +clarinets. This gradual extension of resources may be taken as +roughly symbolizing Haydn's own advances in the matter of orchestral +development. When he wrote his first symphony in 1759 he employed first +and second violins, violas, basses, two oboes and two horns; in his last +symphony, written in 1795, he had at his command "the whole symphonic +orchestra as it had stood when Beethoven took up the work of orchestral +development." Between these two points Mozart had lived and died, +leaving Haydn his actual debtor so far as regards the increased +importance of the orchestra. It has been said that he learnt from Mozart +the use of the clarinet, and this is probably true, notwithstanding +the fact that he had employed a couple of clarinets in his first mass, +written in 1751 or 1752. Both composers used clarinets rarely, but +Haydn certainly did not reveal the real capacity of the instrument or +establish its position in the orchestra as Mozart did. + +From his first works onwards, he proceeded along the true symphonic +path, and an orchestra of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two +bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, drums, and the usual strings fairly +represents the result of his contributions to its development up to the +first successful experiments of Mozart. The names of Mozart and Haydn +ought in reality to be coupled together as the progenitors of the modern +orchestral colouring. But the superiority must be allowed to attach to +Haydn, inasmuch as his colouring is the more expansive and decided. Some +of his works, even of the later period, show great reticence in scoring, +but, on the other hand, as in "The Creation," he knew when to draw upon +the full resources of the orchestra. It has been pointed out as worthy +of remark that he was not sufficiently trustful of his instrumental +army to leave it without the weak support of the harpsichord, at which +instrument he frequently sat during the performance of his symphonies, +and played with the orchestra, with extremely bad effect. [Compare The +Orchestra and Orchestral Music, by W. J. Henderson: London, 1901.] In +this, however, he merely followed the custom of his day. + +General Style + +Of Haydn's general style as a composer it is hardly necessary to speak. +To say that a composition is "Haydnish" is to express in one word what +is well understood by all intelligent amateurs. Haydn's music is like +his character--clear, straightforward, fresh and winning, without the +slightest trace of affectation or morbidity. Its perfect transparency, +its firmness of design, its fluency of instrumental language, the beauty +and inexhaustible invention of its melody, its studied moderation, its +child-like cheerfulness--these are some of the qualities which mark the +style of this most genial of all the great composers. + +That he was not deep, that he does not speak a message of the inner +life to the latter-day individual, who, in the Ossianic phrase, likes +to indulge in "the luxury of grief," must, of course, be admitted. The +definite embodiment of feeling which we find in Beethoven is not to be +found in him. It was not in his nature. "My music," says Schubert, "is +the production of my genius and my misery." Haydn, like Mendelssohn, +was never more than temporarily miserable. But in music the gospel of +despair seldom wants its preachers. To-day it is Tschaikowsky; to-morrow +it will be another. Haydn meant to make the world happy, not to tear it +with agony. "I know," he said, "that God has bestowed a talent upon me, +and I thank Him for it. I think I have done my duty, and been of use in +my generation by my works. Let others do the same." + + + +APPENDIX A: HAYDN'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT + + + +The following draft of Haydn's will is copied from Lady Wallace's +Letters of Distinguished Musicians (London, 1867), where it was +published in full for the first time. The much-corrected original is in +the Court Library at Vienna. Dies says: "Six weeks before his death, +in April 1809, he read over his will to his servants in the presence +of witnesses, and asked them whether they were satisfied with his +provisions or not. The good people were quite taken by surprise at the +kindness of their master's heart, seeing themselves thus provided for +in time to come, and they thanked him with tears in their eyes." The +extracts given by Dies vary in some particulars from the following, +because Haydn's final testamentary dispositions were made at a later +date. But, as Lady Wallace says, it is not the legal but the moral +aspect of the affair that interests us. Here we see epitomized all the +goodness and beauty of Haydn's character. The document runs as follows: + + FLORINS. + + 1. For holy masses,........................................12 + + 2. To the Norman School,....................................5 + + 3. To the Poorhouse,........................................5 + + 4. To the executor of my will.............................200 + And also the small portrait of Grassi. + + 5. To the pastor,..........................................10 + + 6. Expenses of my funeral, first-class,...................200 + + 7. To my dear brother Michael, in Salzburg,..............4000 + + 8. To my brother Johann, in Eisenstadt,..................4000 + + 9. To my sister in Rohrau (erased, and written + underneath): "God have mercy on her soul! To the + three children of my sister,".........................2000 + + 10. To the workwoman in Esterhazy, Anna Maria Moser, + nee Frohlichin,........................................500 + + 11. To the workwoman in Rohrau, Elisabeth, nee Bohme,......500 + + 12. To the two workwomen there (erased, and replaced + by: "To the shoemaker, Anna Loder, in Vienna"),........200 + Should she presume to make any written claims, I + declare them to be null and void, having already + paid for her and her profligate husband, Joseph + Lungmayer, more than 6000 gulden. + + 13. To the shoemaker in Garhaus, Theresa Hammer,............500 + + 14. To her son, the blacksmith, Matthias Frohlich,..........500 + + 15.&16. To the eldest child of my deceased sister, + Anna Wimmer, and her husband, at Meolo, in Hungary,.....500 + + 17. To her married daughter at Kaposwar,....................100 + + 18. To the other three children (erased),...................300 + + 19. To the married Dusse, nee Scheeger,.....................300 + + 20. To her imbecile brother, Joseph (erased),...............100 + + 21. To her brother, Karl Scheeger, silversmith, and his + wife,...................................................900 + + 22. To the son of Frau von Koller,..........................300 + + 23. To his son (erased),....................................100 + + 24. To the sister of my late wife (erased). + + 25. To my servant, Johann Elssler,.........................2500 + Also one year's wages, likewise a coat, waistcoat + and a pair of trousers. (According to Griesinger, + Haydn bequeathed a capital of 6000 florins to this + faithful servant and copyist.) + + 26. To Rosalia Weber, formerly in my service,...............300 + (She has a written certificate of this from me.) + + 27. To my present maid-servant, Anna Kremnitzer,...........1000 + And a year's wages in addition. Also, her bed and + bedding and two pairs of linen sheets; also, four + chairs, a table, a chest of drawers, the watch, + the clock and the picture of the Blessed Virgin in + her room, a flat-iron, kitchen utensils and crockery, + one water-pail, and other trifles. + + 28. To my housekeeper, Theresia Meyer,......................500 + And one year's wages,.................................20 + + 29. To my old gardener, Michel,..............................24 + + 30. To the Prince's Choir for my obsequies, to share + alike (erased),......................................100 + + 31. To the priest (erased),..................................12 + + 32. To the pastor in Eisenstadt for a solemn mass,............5 + + 33. To his clerk,.............................................2 + + 34. To the beneficiary,.......................................2 + + 35. To Pastor von Nollendorf,.................................2 + + 36. To Pastor von St Georg,...................................2 + + 37. To the sexton (erased from 33),...........................1 + + 38. To the organ-bellows' blower,.............................1 + + 39. To the singer, Babett,...................................50 + + 40. To my cousin, the saddler's wife, in Eisenstadt,.........50 + To her daughter,........................................300 + + 41. To Mesdemoiselles Anna and Josepha Dillin,..............100 + + 42. To the blind daughter of Herr Graus, leader of + the choir in Eisenstadt (erased),.......................100 + + 43. To the four sisters Sommerfeld, daughters of + the wigmaker in Presburg,...............................200 + + 44. To Nannerl, daughter of Herr Weissgerb, my + neighbour (erased),......................................50 + + 45. To Herr Art, merchant in the Kleine Steingasse,..........50 + + 46. To the pastor in Rohrau,.................................12 + + 47. To the schoolmaster in Rohrau,............................6 + + 48. To the school children,...................................3 + + 49. To Herr Wamerl, formerly with Count v. Harrach,..........50 + + 50. To his present cashier,..................................50 + + 51. To Count v. Harrach for the purpose of defraying + the bequests Nos. 51 and 52, I bequeath an + obligation of 6000 florins at 5 per cent., the + interest to be disposed of as follows: + + To the widow Aloysia Polzelli, formerly + singer at Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy's, payable + in ready money six weeks after my death,................100 + + And each year, from the date of my death, for + her life, the interest of the above capital,............150 + + After her death her son, Anton Polzelli, to + receive 150 florins for one year, having always + been a good son to his mother and a grateful + pupil to me. N.B.--I hereby revoke the obligation + in Italian, signed by me, which may be produced + by Mdme. Polzelli, otherwise so many of my poor + relations with greater claims would receive too + little. Finally, Mdme. Polzelli must be satisfied + with the annuity of 150 florins. After her death + the half of the above capital, viz., 3000 + florins, to be divided into two shares--one-half + (1500) to devolve on the Rohrau family, for the + purpose of keeping in good order the monument + erected to me by Count von Harrach, and also + that of my deceased father at the door of the + sacristy. The other half to be held in trust by + the Count, and the annual interest of the sum, + namely, 45 florins, to be divided between any + two orphans in Rohrau. + + 52. To my niece, Anna Lungmayer, payable six weeks + after my death,..........................................100 + Likewise a yearly annuity to her husband and herself,....150 + All these legacies and obligations, and also + the proceeds of the sale of my house and legal + costs, to be paid within one year of my death; + all the other expenses to be deducted from the + sum of ready money in the hands of the executors, + who must account to the heir for the same. On + their demise this annuity to go to their children + until they come of age, and after that period the + capital to be equally divided among them. Of + the remaining 950 florins, 500 to become the + property of my beloved Count v. Harrach, as the + depositary of my last will and testament, and + 300 I bequeath to the agent for his trouble. + The residue of 150 florins to go to my stepmother, + and, if she be no longer living, to her + children. N.B.--Should Mdme. Lungmayer or + her husband produce any document signed by + me for a larger sum, I wish it to be understood, + as in the case of Mdme. Polzelli, that it is to be + considered null and void, as both Mdme. Lungmayer + and her husband, owing to my great kindness, lavished + more than 6000 florins of mine during my life, which + my own brother and the citizens in Oedenberg and + Eisenstadt can testify. + + (From No. 51 is repeatedly and thickly scored out.) + + 53. To the widow Theresia Eder and her two daughters, + lacemakers,...............................................150 + + 54. To my pupil, Anton Polzelli,..............................100 + + 55. To poor blind Adam in Eisenstadt,..........................24 + + 56. To my gracious Prince, my gold Parisian medal and + the letter that accompanied it, with a humble + request to grant them a place in the museum at + Forchtentein. + + 57. To Mdlle. C. Czeck, waiting-woman to Princess + Graschalkowitz (erased),.................................1000 + + 58. To Fraulein Anna Bucholz,.................................100 + Inasmuch as in my youth her grandfather lent + me 150 florins when I greatly needed them, + which, however, I repaid fifty years ago. + + 59. To the daughter of the bookkeeper, Kandler, my + piano, by the organ-builder Schanz. + + 60. The small Parisian medal to Count v. Harrach, and + also the bust a l'antique of Herr Grassi. + + 61. To the widow Wallnerin in Schottenhof,....................100 + + 62. To the Father Prior Leo in Eisenstadt, of the + "Brothers of Mercy,".......................................50 + + 63. To the Hospital for the Poor in Eisenstadt (erased),.......75 + + For the ratification of this my last will and testament, I have + written it entirely in my own hand, and earnestly beg the + authorities to consider it, even if not strictly or properly legal, + in the light at least of a codicil, and to do all in their power + to make it valid and binding. + + JOSEPH HAYDN. + May 5, 1801. + + Should God call me away suddenly, this my last will and testament, + though not written on stamped paper, to be considered valid in + law, and the stamps to be repaid tenfold to my sovereign. + + In the name of the Holy Trinity. The uncertainty of the + period when it may please my Creator, in His infinite wisdom, + to call me from time into eternity has caused me, being in sound + health, to make my last will with regard to my little remaining + property. I commend my soul to my all-merciful Creator; my + body I wish to be interred, according to the Roman Catholic + forms, in consecrated ground. A first-class funeral. For my + soul I bequeath No. 1. + + Joseph Haydn + + Vienna, Dec. 6, 1801 + + + +APPENDIX B: CATALOGUE OF WORKS + + + +There are unusual difficulties in the way of compiling a thoroughly +satisfactory catalogue of Haydn's instrumental works. From the want of +any generally-accepted consecutive numbering, and the fact that several +are in the same key, this is particularly the case with the symphonies. +Different editions have different numberings, and the confusion is +increased by a further re-numbering of the piano symphonic scores +arranged for two and four hands. In Breitkopf & Hartel's catalogue many +works are included among the symphonies which are also found among the +smaller compositions, and others are catalogued twice. Even the composer +himself, in compiling his thematic catalogue, made mistakes. In the +present list we have been content for the most part to state the numbers +of the various instrumental works, without attempting to notify each +individual composition. Indeed, to do otherwise would have called for an +extensive use of music type. Nor have we thought it necessary to include +the supposititious and doubtful works, for which Pohl's list may be +consulted. + +INSTRUMENTAL + +125 symphonies, including overtures to operas and plays. Of these 94 +are published in parts, 40 in score; 29 remain in MS. About 40 have been +arranged for pianoforte 2 hands, 60 for 4 hands, 10 for 8 hands. + +Pohl gives a thematic list of the 12 symphonies composed for Salomon, +numbered in the order of their occurrence in the catalogue of the London +Philharmonic Society. These include: + + + TITLE OF WORK KEY DATE + + "The Surprise" G major 1791 + + "The Clock," referring D minor 1794 + to the Andante + + "The Military" G major 1794 + + + Other symphonies known by their titles are: + + + TITLE OF WORK KEY DATE + + "Le Matin" D major + "Le Midi" C major + "Le Soir" G major 1761 + "The Farewell" A major 1772 + "Maria Theresa" C major 1773 + "The Schoolmaster" E flat 1774 + "Feuer Symphonie" (probably + overture to "Die Feuersbrunst") A major 1774 + "La Chasse" D major 1780 + "Toy" Symphony C major 1780 + "La Reine de France" B major for Paris, 1786 + "The Oxford" G major 1788 + + "The Seven Words from the Cross." Originally for orchestra. + Arranged first for 2 violins, viola and bass; afterwards for soli, + chorus and orchestra. + + 66 various compositions for wind and strings, separately and + combined, including divertimenti, concerted pieces, etc. + + 7 notturnos or serenades for the lyre. + 7 marches. + 6 scherzandos. + 1 sestet. + Several quintets. + 1 "Echo" for 4 violins and 2 'cellos. + "Feld-partien" for wind instruments and arrangements from + baryton pieces. + 12 collections of minuets and allemands. + 31 concertos: 9 violin, 6 'cello, 1 double bass, 5 lyre, 3 baryton, + 2 flute, 3 horn, 1 for 2 horns, 1 clarino (1796). + 175 baryton pieces. Arrangements were published of several + of these in 3 parts, with violin (or flute), viola or 'cello as + principal. + 1 duet for 2 lutes. + 2 trios for lute, violin and 'cello. + 1 sonata for harp, with flute and bass. + Several pieces for a musical clock. + A solo for harmonica. + 6 duets for violin solo, with viola accompaniments. The + numerous printed duets for 2 violins are only arrangements from + his other works. + 30 trios: 20 for 2 violins and bass, 1 for violin solo, viola + concertante and bass, 2 for flute, violin and bass, 3 for 3 flutes, + 1 for corno di caccia, violin and 'cello. + 77 quartets. The first 18 were published in 3 series; the + next is in MS.; then 1 printed separately; 54 in 9 series of 6 + Nos. each; 2 more and the last. + +CLAVIER MUSIC + + 20 concertos and divertimenti: 1 concerto is with principal + violin, 2 only (G and D) have been printed; the last alone + survives. + 38 trios: 35 with violin and 'cello, 3 with flute and 'cello + Only 31 are printed. + 53 sonatas and divertimenti. Only 35 are printed: the one + in C, containing the adagio in F included in all the collections + of smaller pieces, only in London. + 4 sonatas for clavier and violin. 8 are published, but 4 of + these are arrangements. + 9 smaller pieces, including 5 Nos. of variations, a capriccio, a + fantasia, 2 adagios and "differentes petites pieces." + 1 duet (variations). + +VOCAL + + Church Music + + 14 masses. + 1 Stabat Mater. + 2 Te Deums. + 13 offertories. 10 of these are taken from other compositions + with Latin text added. + 4 motets. + 1 Tantum Ergo. + 4 Salve Reginas. + 1 Regina Coeli. + 2 Aves Reginas; Responsoria de Venerabili. + 1 Cantilena pro Aventu (German words). + 6 sacred arias. + 2 duets. + +ORATORIOS AND CANTATAS + + "The Creation." + "The Seasons." + "Il Ritorno di Tobia." + "The Seven Words." + "Invocation of Neptune." + "Applausus Musicus." For the festival of a prelate, 1768. + Cantata for the birthday of Prince Nicolaus, 1763. + Cantata "Die Erwahlung eines Kapellmeisters." + +OPERAS + + Italian Operas: + + "La Canterina," 1769; + "L'Incontro Improviso," 1776; + "Lo Speciale," 1768; + "Le Pescatrice," 1780; + "Il Mondo della Luna," 1877; + "L'Isola Disabitata," 1779; + "Armida," 1782; + "L'Infedelta Delusa," 1773; + "La Fedelta Premiata," 1780; + "La Vera Constanza," 1786; + "Acide e Galatea," 1762; + "Orlando Paladino," 1782; + "Orfeo," London, 1794. + + German Opera or Singspiel, "Der Neue Krumme Teufel." + 5 marionette operas. + Music for "Alfred," a tragedy, and various other plays. + +MISCELLANEOUS + +SONGS: + + 12 German lieder, 1782; + 12 ditto, 1784; + 12 single songs; + 6 original canzonets, London, 1796; + 6 ditto; + "The Spirit Song," Shakespeare (F minor); + "O Tuneful Voice" (E flat), composed for an English lady of position; + 3 English songs in MS.; + 2 duets; + 3 three-part and 10 four-part songs; + 3 choruses, MS.; + 1 ditto from "Alfred"; + The Austrian National Anthem, for single voice and in 4 parts; + 42 canons in 2 and more parts; + 2 ditto; + "The Ten Commandments" set to canons; the same + with different words under the title "Die zehn Gesetze der Kunst"; + symphonies and accompaniments for national songs + in the collections of Whyte, Napier and George Thomson. + 22 airs mostly inserted in operas. + "Ariana a Naxos," cantata for single voice and pianoforte, 1790. + "Deutschlands Klage auf den Tod Friedrichs der Grossen," + cantata for single voice, with baryton accompaniment, 1787. + + + +APPENDIX C: BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + +The Haydn literature is almost entirely Continental. With the exceptions +of Pohl's article in Grove's "Dictionary of Music" and Miss Townsend's +"Haydn," nothing of real importance has appeared in English. The +following list does not profess to be complete. It seems futile in a +book of this kind to refer amateurs and students to foreign works, many +of which are out of print and others generally inaccessible. For the +benefit of English readers the English works have been placed first and +apart from the Continental. It has not been thought necessary to +follow Pohl in giving a separate list of German and other Continental +critiques. His plan of citing works in the order of their publication +has, however, been adopted as being perhaps preferable to an +alphabetical order of writers. + + + + TITLE OF WORK AUTHOR PLACE AND DATE + + + "History of Music," Vol. IV. Burney London, 1789 + + "Reminiscences," Vol. I, p. 190 Michael Kelly London, 1826 + + "Musical Memoirs" Parke London, 1830, + 2 vols. + + "Letters of Distinguished Musicians."... London, 1867 + Translated from the German by Lady + Wallace. Haydn's Letters, pp. 71-204, + with portrait + + "Musical Composers and their Works" Sarah Tytler London, 1875 + --Haydn, pp. 57-75 + + "Music and Morals"--Haydn, Haweis London, 1876 + pp. 241-263 + + Leisure Hour, p. 572. Article, ... London, 1877 + "Anecdotes of Haydn" + + "The Great Composers Sketched Joseph Bennett London, Musical + by Themselves"--No. 1, Haydn. Times, Sept. 1877 + An estimate of Haydn drawn mainly + from his letters + + Article on Haydn in Grove's Pohl London, 1879 + "Dictionary of Music" + + "Studies of Great Composers"--Haydn, Parry London, 1887 + pp. 91-118, with portrait + + "History of Music," English edition, Naumann London (Cassell), + Vol. IV., pp. 852-882. 1888 + Portraits and facsimiles + + "Musical Reminiscences"--Music and William Spark London, 1892 + Sunshine, pp. 141-149, with quotations + from Haydn's music to show "the happy + state of his mind whilst composing" + + "Musical Haunts in London"--Haydn in F. G. Edwards London, 1895 + London, pp. 32-36 + + "The Pianoforte Sonata"--Haydn, J. S. Shedlock London, 1895 + pp. 111-120 + + "Music and Manners from Pergolese Krehbiel London, 1898 + to Beethoven"--Haydn in London: + (1) His Note-book; (2) His English + Love, pp. 57-95 + + "George Thomson, the Friend of Burns" Cuthbert Hadden London, 1898 + --Correspondence with Haydn, + pp. 303-308 + + "Old Scores and New Readings"--Haydn J. F. Runciman London, 1899 + and his "Creation," pp. 85-92 + + "The Birthplace of Haydn: Dr Frank Merrick London, Musical + a Visit to Rohrau" Times, July 1899 + + "Joseph Haydn" Miss Pauline London, N.D. + in Great Musicians series D. Townsend + + Article on Haydn in "Dictionary Riemann London, + of Music." English ed. translated Augener & Co. + by J. S. Shedlock + + + + Autobiographical Sketch by himself. ... 1776 + This was made use of by (1) De Luca + in "Das gelehrte Oesterreich," 1778; + (2) in Forkel's "Musikalischer + Almanach fur Deutschland," 1783; + and (3) in the European Magazine + for October 1784. The latter includes + a portrait + + "Lexicon." Additional particulars Gerber 1790 + are given in 2nd edition, 1812 + + Musik Correspondenz der teutschen Gerber 1792 + Filarm. Gesellschaft, Nos. 17 and 18 + + Article in Journal des Luxus und Bertuch Weimar, 1805 + der Moden + + "Brevi notizie istorchie della vita Mayer Bergamo, 1809 + e delle opere di Guis. Haydn." + + Obituary in the Vaterland. Blatter ... Vienna, 1809 + fur den ost Kaiserstaat + + "Der Nagedachtenis van J. Haydn" Kinker Amsterdam, 1810 + + "Biographische Notizen uber Griezinger Leipzig, 1810 + Joseph Haydn" + + "Biographische Nachrichten von Dies Vienna, 1810 + Joseph Haydn" + + "Joseph Haydn" Arnold Erfurt, 1810; + 2nd ed., 1825 + + "Notice sur J. Haydn" Framery Paris, 1810 + + "Notice historique sur la vie et les Le Breton Paris, 1810 + ouvrages de Haydn" in the Moniteur. + This was reprinted in the + "Bibliographie Musicale," Paris, 1822. + It was also translated into Portuguese, + with additions by Silva-Lisboa. + Rio Janeiro, 1820 + + "Essai Historique sur la vie ... Strassburg, 1812 + de J. Haydn" + + "Le Haydine," etc. Carpani Milan, 1812; + This work was essentially reproduced, 2nd edition, + without acknowledgment, in "Lettres enlarged, + ecrites de Vienne en Autriche," etc., Padua, 1823 + by L. A. C. Bombet, Paris, 1814; + republished as "Vie de Haydn, Mozart + et Metastase," par Stendhal, Paris, + 1817. Bombet and Stendhal are both + pseudonyms of Henri Beyle. An English + translation of the 1814 work was + published in London by John Murray, + in 1817, under the title of "The Life + of Haydn in a Series of Letters," etc. + + "Biogr. Notizen" Grosser Hirschberg, 1826 + + "Allg. Encyclopadie der Ersch und Gruber Leipzig, 1828 + Wissenschaften und Kunste," + 2nd section, 3rd part, with a + biographical sketch by Frohlich + + "Allg. Wiener Musikzeitung" ... 1843 + + "J. Haydn in London, 1791 and 1792" Karajan Vienna, 1861 + + "Joseph Haydn und sein Bruder Michael" Wurzbach Vienna, 1861 + + "Joseph Haydn" Ludwig Nordhausen, 1867 + + "Mozart and Haydn in London" Pohl Vienna, 1867 + + "Joseph Haydn." Pohl ... + This, the first comprehensive + biography of Haydn, was published + --the first half of Vol. I. in + 1875, the second half in 1882. + After the death of Pohl in 1887 + it was completed (1890) by + E. V. Mandyczewski + + Notice in "Biographie Universelle" Fetis ... + + + +APPENDIX D: HAYDN'S BROTHERS + + + +Of the large family born to the Rohrau wheelwright, two, besides the +great composer, devoted themselves to music. + +The first, JOHANN EVANGELIST HAYDN, made some little reputation as a +vocalist, and was engaged in that capacity in the Esterhazy Chapel. His +health had, however, been delicate from the first, and his professional +career was far from prosperous. + +JOHANN MICHAEL HAYDN was much more distinguished. Born in 1737, he +became, as we have seen, a chorister and solo-vocalist at St Stephen's, +Vienna. He was a good violinist, and played the organ so well that he +was soon able to act as deputy-organist at the cathedral. In 1757 he +was appointed Capellmeister to the Bishop of Grosswardein, and in 1762 +became conductor, and subsequently leader and organist to Archbishop +Sigismund of Salzburg. There he naturally came in contact with Mozart, +in whose biography his name is often mentioned. Mozart on one occasion +wrote two compositions for him which the archbishop received as Michael +Haydn's. The Concertmeister was incapacitated by illness at the time, +and Mozart came to his rescue to save his salary, which the archbishop +had characteristically threatened to stop. Mozart also scored several of +his sacred works for practice. + +Michael Haydn remained at Salzburg till his death in 1806. He had the +very modest salary of 24 pounds, with board and lodging, which +was afterwards doubled; but although he was more than once offered +preferment elsewhere, he declined to leave his beloved Salzburg. He was +happily married--in 1768--to a daughter of Lipp, the cathedral organist; +and with his church work, his pupils--among whom were Reicha and +Weber--and his compositions, he sought nothing more. When the French +entered Salzburg and pillaged the city in 1801 he was among the victims, +losing some property and a month's salary, but his brother and friends +repaired the loss with interest. This misfortune led the Empress Maria +Theresa to commission him to compose a mass, for which she rewarded him +munificently. Another of his masses was written for Prince Esterhazy, +who twice offered him the vice-Capellmeistership of the chapel at +Eisenstadt. Joseph thought Michael too straightforward for this post. +"Ours is a court life," he said, "but a very different one from yours at +Salzburg. It is uncommonly hard to do what you want." If any appointment +could have drawn him away from Salzburg it was this; and it is said that +he refused it only because he hoped that the chapel at Salzburg would be +reorganized and his salary raised. + +Michael Haydn is buried in a side chapel of St Peter's Church, Salzburg. +A monument was erected in 1821, and over it is an urn containing his +skull. He is described by Pohl as "upright, good-tempered and modest; +a little rough in manners, and in later life given to drink." His +correspondence shows him to have been a warm-hearted friend; and he had +the same devout practice of initialing his manuscripts as his brother. +The latter thought highly of him as a composer, declaring that his +Church compositions were superior to his own in earnestness, severity of +style and sustained power. When he asked leave to copy the canons which +hung in Joseph's bedroom at Vienna, Joseph replied: "Get away with your +copies; you can compose much better for yourself." Michael's statement +has often been quoted: "Give me good librettos and the same patronage +as my brother, and I should not be behind him." This could scarcely have +been the case, since, as Pohl points out, Michael Haydn failed in the +very qualities which ensured his brother's success. As it was, he wrote +a very large number of works, most of which remained in manuscript. A +Mass in D is his best-known composition, though mention should be +made of the popular common-metre tune "Salzburg," adapted from a mass +composed for the use of country choirs. Michael Haydn was nominated +the great composer's sole heir, but his death frustrated the generous +intention. + + + +APPENDIX E: A SELECTION OF HAYDN LETTERS + + + +The greater number of Haydn's extant letters deal almost exclusively +with business matters, and are therefore of comparatively little +interest to the reader of his life. The following selection may be taken +as representing the composer in his more personal and social relations. +It is drawn from the correspondence with Frau von Genzinger, which was +discovered by Theodor Georg von Karajan, in Vienna, and published first +in the Jahrbuch fur Vaterlandische Geschichte, and afterwards in his J. +Haydn in London, 1791 and 1792 (1861). The translation here used, by the +courtesy of Messrs Longman, is that of Lady Wallace. + +The name of Frau von Genzinger has been mentioned more than once in the +biography. Her husband was the Esterhazy physician. In that capacity +he paid frequent visits to Eisenstadt and Esterhaz (which Haydn spells +Estoras) and so became intimate with the Capellmeister. He was fond of +music, and during the long winter evenings in Vienna was in the habit +of assembling the best artists in his house at Schottenhof, where on +Sundays Mozart, Haydn, Dittersdorf, Albrechtsberger, and others were +often to be found. His wife, Marianne--nee von Kayser--was a good +singer, and was sought after by all the musical circles in Vienna. She +was naturally attracted to Haydn, and although she was nearly forty +years of age when the correspondence opened in 1789, "a personal +connection was gradually developed in the course of their musical +intercourse that eventually touched their hearts and gave rise to a +bright bond of friendship between the lady and the old, though still +youthful, maestro." Some brief extracts from the letters now to be given +have of necessity been worked into the biography. The correspondence +originated in the following note from Frau von Genzinger: + + + +January 1789. + +DEAR M. HAYDN, + +With your kind permission I take the liberty to send a pianoforte +arrangement of the beautiful adagio in your admirable composition. I +arranged it from the score quite alone, and without the least help from +my master. I beg that, if you should discover any errors, you will be so +good as to correct them. I do hope that you are in perfect health, and +nothing do I wish more than to see you soon again in Vienna, in order to +prove further my high esteem. + +Your obedient servant, + +MARIA ANNA V. GENZINGER. + + + +To this Haydn replies as follows: + +ESTORAS, Janr. 14, 1789. + +DEAR MADAM, + +In all my previous correspondence, nothing was ever so agreeable to me +as the surprise of seeing your charming writing, and reading so many +kind expressions; but still more did I admire what you sent me--the +admirable arrangement of the adagio, which, from its correctness, might +be engraved at once by any publisher. I should like to know whether you +arranged the adagio from the score, or whether you gave yourself the +amazing trouble of first putting it into score from the separate +parts, and then arranging it for the piano, for, if the latter, such an +attention would be too flattering to me, and I feel that I really do not +deserve it. + +Best and kindest Frau v. Genzinger! I only await a hint from you as to +how, and in what way, I can serve you; in the meantime, I return the +adagio, and hope that my talents, poor though they be, may ensure me +some commands from you. + +I am yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +The next letter is from the lady: + +VIENNA, Oct. 29, 1789. + +DEAR HERR V. HAYDN, + +I hope you duly received my letter of September 15, and also the first +movement of the symphony (the andante of which I sent you some months +ago), and now follows the last movement, which I have arranged for +the piano as well as it was in my power to do; I only wish that it may +please you, and earnestly beg that, if there are any mistakes in it, you +will correct them at your leisure, a service which I shall always accept +from you, my valued Herr Haydn, with the utmost gratitude. Be so good as +to let me know whether you received my letter of September 15, and the +piece of music, and if it is in accordance with your taste, which would +delight me very much, for I am very uneasy and concerned lest you should +not have got it safely, or not approve of it. I hope that you are well, +which will always be a source of pleasure to me to hear, and commending +myself to your further friendship and remembrance. + +I remain, your devoted friend and servant, + +MARIA ANNA V. GENZINGER. nee v. Kayser. + +My husband sends you his regards. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Nov. 9, 1789. + +DEAR MADAM, + +I beg your forgiveness a million times for having so long delayed +returning your laborious and admirable work: the last time my apartments +were cleared out, which occurred just after receiving your first +movement, it was mislaid by my copyist among the mass of my other music, +and only a few days ago I had the good fortune to find it in an old +opera score. + +Dearest and kindest Frau v. Genzinger! do not be displeased with a man +who values you so highly; I should be inconsolable if by the delay I +were to lose any of your favour, of which I am so proud. + +These two pieces are arranged quite as correctly as the first. I cannot +but admire the trouble and the patience you lavish on my poor talents; +and allow me to assure you in return that, in my frequent evil moods, +nothing cheers me so much as the flattering conviction that I am kindly +remembered by you; for which favour I kiss your hands a thousand times, +and am, with sincere esteem, your obedient servant, + +JOSEPH HAYDN. + +P.S.--I shall soon claim permission to wait on you. + + + +The next letter is again from Frau v. Genzinger: + +VIENNA, Nov. 12, 1789. + +MY VALUED HERR V. HAYDN, + +I really cannot tell you all the pleasure I felt in reading your +highly-prized letter of the 9th. How well am I rewarded for my trouble +by seeing your satisfaction! Nothing do I wish more ardently than to +have more time (now so absorbed by household affairs), for in that case +I would certainly devote many hours to music, my most agreeable and +favourite of all occupations. You must not, my dear Herr v. Haydn, take +it amiss that I plague you with another letter, but I could not but take +advantage of so good an opportunity to inform you of the safe arrival +of your letter. I look forward with the utmost pleasure to the happy day +when I am to see you in Vienna. Pray continue to give me a place in your +friendship and remembrance. + +Your sincere and devoted friend and servant. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, Nov. 18, 1789. + +DEAR LADY, + +The letter which I received through Herr Siebert gave me another proof +of your excellent heart, as instead of a rebuke for my late remissness, +you express yourself in so friendly a manner towards me, that so much +indulgence, kindness and great courtesy cause me the utmost surprise, +and I kiss your hands in return a thousand times. If my poor talents +enable me to respond in any degree to so much that is flattering, I +venture, dear madam, to offer you a little musical potpourri. I do not, +indeed, find in it much that is fragrant; perhaps the publisher may +rectify the fault in future editions. If the arrangement of the symphony +in it be yours, oh! then I shall be twice as much pleased with the +publisher; if not, I venture to ask you to arrange a symphony, and to +transcribe it with your own hand, and to send it to me here, when I will +at once forward it to my publisher at Leipzig to be engraved. + +I am happy to have found an opportunity that leads me to hope for a few +more charming lines from you. + +I am, etc., + +JOSEPH HAYDN. + +Shortly after the date of this letter Hadyn was again in Vienna, when +the musical evenings at Schottenhof were renewed. The Herr v. Haring +referred to in the following note is doubtless the musical banker, well +known as a violinist in the Vienna of the time. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Jan. 23, 1790. + +DEAR, KIND FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I beg to inform you that all arrangements are now completed for the +little quartet party that we agreed to have next Friday. Herr v. Haring +esteemed himself very fortunate in being able to be of use to me on this +occasion, and the more so when I told him of all the attention I had +received from you, and your other merits. + +What I care about is a little approval. Pray don't forget to invite the +Pater Professor. Meanwhile, I kiss your hands, and am, with profound +respect, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +A call to return to Esterhaz put an end to these delights of personal +intercourse, as will be gathered from the following letter: + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Feb. 3, 1790. + +NOBLEST AND KINDEST LADY, + +However flattering the last invitation you gave me yesterday to spend +this evening with you, I feel with deep regret that I am even unable to +express to you personally my sincere thanks for all your past kindness. +Bitterly as I deplore this, with equal truth do I fervently wish you, +not only on this evening, but ever and always, the most agreeable +social "reunions"--mine are all over--and to-morrow I return to dreary +solitude! May God only grant me health; but I fear the contrary, being +far from well to-day. May the Almighty preserve you, dear lady, and your +worthy husband, and all your beautiful children. Once more I kiss your +hands, and am unchangeably while life lasts, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +The next letter was written six days later, evidently in the most +doleful mood: + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, Feb. 9, 1790. + +MUCH ESTEEMED AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER,-- + +Well! here I sit in my wilderness; forsaken, like some poor orphan, +almost without human society; melancholy, dwelling on the memory of past +glorious days. Yes; past, alas! And who can tell when these happy hours +may return? those charming meetings? where the whole circle have but +one heart and one soul--all those delightful musical evenings, which +can only be remembered, and not described. Where are all those inspired +moments? All gone--and gone for long. You must not be surprised, dear +lady, that I have delayed writing to express my gratitude. I found +everything at home in confusion; for three days I did not know whether +I was capell master, or capell servant; nothing could console me; my +apartments were all in confusion; my pianoforte, that I formerly loved +so dearly, was perverse and disobedient, and rather irritated than +soothed me. I slept very little, and even my dreams persecuted me, for, +while asleep, I was under the pleasant delusion that I was listening to +the opera of "Le Nozze di Figaro," when the blustering north wind woke +me, and almost blew my nightcap off my head. + +[The portion of the letter deleted is that given at page 161, beginning, +"I lost twenty pounds in weight."] + +...Forgive me, dear lady, for taking up your time in this very first +letter by so wretched a scrawl, and such stupid nonsense; you must +forgive a man spoilt by the Viennese. Now, however, I begin to accustom +myself by degrees to country life, and yesterday I studied for the first +time, and somewhat in the Haydn style too. + +No doubt, you have been more industrious than myself. The pleasing +adagio from the quartet has probably now received its true expression +from your fair fingers. I trust that my good Fraulein Peperl [Joseph +A., one of the Genzinger children.] may be frequently reminded of +her master, by often singing over the cantata, and that she will pay +particular attention to distinct articulation and correct vocalization, +for it would be a sin if so fine a voice were to remain imprisoned in +the breast. I beg, therefore, for a frequent smile, or else I shall +be much vexed. I advise M. Francois [Franz, author of the Genzinger +children.] too to cultivate his musical talents. Even if he sings in his +dressing-gown, it will do well enough, and I will often write something +new to encourage him. I again kiss your hands in gratitude for all the +kindness you have shown me. I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, March 14, 1790. + +MOST VALUED, ESTEEMED AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I ask forgiveness a million times for having so long delayed answering +your two charming letters, which has not been caused by negligence (a +sin from which may Heaven preserve me so long as I live), but from the +press of business which has devolved on me for my gracious Prince, in +his present melancholy condition. The death of his wife overwhelmed the +Prince with such grief that we were obliged to use every means in our +power to rouse him from his profound sorrow. I therefore arranged for +the three first days a selection of chamber music, but no singing. The +poor Prince, however, the first evening, on hearing my favourite Adagio +in D, was affected by such deep melancholy that it was difficult to +disperse it by other pieces. On the fourth day we had an opera, the +fifth a comedy, and then our theatre daily as usual... + +You must now permit me to kiss your hands gratefully for the rusks you +sent me, which, however, I did not receive till last Tuesday; but they +came exactly at the right moment, having just finished the last of the +others. That my favourite "Ariadne" has been successful at Schottenhof +is delightful news to me, but I recommend Fraulein Peperl to articulate +the words clearly, especially in the words "Che tanto amai." I also +take the liberty of wishing you all possible good on your approaching +nameday, begging you to continue your favour towards me, and to consider +me on every occasion as your own, though unworthy, master. I must also +mention that the teacher of languages can come here any day, and his +journey will be paid. He can travel either by the diligence or by some +other conveyance, which can always be heard of in the Madschaker Hof. As +I feel sure, dear lady, that you take an interest in all that concerns +me (far greater than I deserve), I must inform you that last week +I received a present of a handsome gold snuff-box, the weight of +thirty-four ducats, from Prince Oetting v. Wallerstein, accompanied +by an invitation to pay him a visit this year, the Prince defraying my +expenses, His Highness being desirous to make my personal acquaintance +(a pleasing fillip to my depressed spirits). Whether I shall make up my +mind to the journey is another question. + +I beg you will excuse this hasty scrawl. + +I am always, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--I have just lost my faithful coachman; he died on the 25th of last +month. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, May 13, 1790. + +BEST AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I was quite surprised, on receiving your esteemed letter, to find +that you had not yet got my last letter, in which I mentioned that our +landlord had accepted the services of a French teacher, who came by +chance to Estoras, and I also made my excuses both to you and your tutor +on that account. My highly esteemed benefactress, this is not the first +time that some of my letters and of others also have been lost, inasmuch +as our letter bag, on its way to Oedenburg (in order to have letters put +into it), is always opened by the steward there, which has frequently +been the cause of mistake and other disagreeable occurrences. For +greater security, however, and to defeat such disgraceful curiosity, +I will henceforth enclose all my letters in a separate envelope to the +porter, Herr Pointer. This trick annoys me the more because you might +justly reproach me with procrastination, from which may Heaven defend +me! At all events, the prying person, whether male or female, cannot, +either in this last letter or in any of the others, have discovered +anything in the least inconsistent with propriety. And now, my esteemed +patroness, when am I to have the inexpressible happiness of seeing you +in Estoras? As business does not admit of my going to Vienna, I console +myself by the hope of kissing your hands here this summer. In which +pleasing hope, I am, with high consideration, etc., yours, + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, May 30, 1790. + +KINDEST AND BEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I was at Oedenburg when I received your last welcome letter, having gone +there on purpose to enquire about the lost letter. The steward there +vowed by all that was holy that he had seen no letter at that time in my +writing, so that it must have been lost in Estoras! Be this as it +may, such curiosity can do me no harm, far less yourself, as the whole +contents of the letter were an account of my opera "La Vera Costanza," +performed in the new theatre in the Landstrasse, and about the French +teacher who was to have come at that time to Estoras. You need, +therefore, be under no uneasiness, dear lady, either as regards the past +or the future, for my friendship and esteem for you (tender as they are) +can never become reprehensible, having always before my eyes respect +for your elevated virtues, which not only I, but all who know you, must +reverence. Do not let this deter you from consoling me sometimes by your +agreeable letters, as they are so highly necessary to cheer me in this +wilderness, and to soothe my deeply wounded heart. Oh! that I could be +with you, dear lady, even for one quarter of an hour, to pour forth all +my sorrows, and to receive comfort from you. I am obliged to submit to +many vexations from our official managers here, which, however, I shall +at present pass over in silence. The sole consolation left me is that I +am, thank God, well, and eagerly disposed to work. I only regret +that, with this inclination, you have waited so long for the promised +symphony. On this occasion it really proceeds from absolute necessity, +arising from my circumstances, and the raised prices of everything. I +trust, therefore, that you will not be displeased with your Haydn, +who, often as his Prince absents himself from Estoras, never can obtain +leave, even for four-and-twenty hours, to go to Vienna. It is scarcely +credible, and yet the refusal is always couched in such polite terms, +and in such a manner, as to render it utterly impossible for me to urge +my request for leave of absence. Well, as God pleases! This time +also will pass away, and the day, return when I shall again have the +inexpressible pleasure of being seated beside you at the pianoforte, +hearing Mozart's masterpieces, and kissing your hands from gratitude for +so much pleasure. With this hope, I am, etc., + +J. HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, June 6, 1790. + +DEAR AND ESTEEMED LADY, + +I heartily regret that you were so long in receiving my last letter. But +the previous week no messenger was despatched from Estoras, so it was +not my fault that the letter reached you so late. + +Between ourselves! I must inform you that Mademoiselle Nanette has +commissioned me to compose a new sonata for you, to be given into +your hands alone. I esteem myself fortunate in having received such +a command. You will receive the sonata in a fortnight at latest. +Mademoiselle Nanette promised me payment for the work, but you can +easily imagine that on no account would I accept it. For me the best +reward will always be to hear that I have in some degree met with your +approval. I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, June 20, 1790. + +DEAR, KIND FRIEND, + +I take the liberty of sending you a new pianoforte sonata with violin or +flute, not as anything at all remarkable, but as a trifling resource in +case of any great ennui. I only beg that you will have it copied out as +soon as possible, and then return it to me. The day before yesterday +I presented to Mademoiselle Nanette the sonata commanded by her. I had +hoped she would express a wish to hear me play it, but I have not yet +received any order to that effect; I, therefore, do not know whether +you will receive it by this post or not. The sonata is in E flat, newly +written, and always intended for you. It is strange enough that the +final movement of this sonata contains the very same minuet and trio +that you asked me for in your last letter. This identical work was +destined for you last year, and I have only written a new adagio since +then, which I strongly recommend to your attention. It has a deep +signification which I will analyze for you when opportunity offers. It +is rather difficult, but full of feeling. What a pity that you have not +one of Schanz's pianos, for then you could produce twice the effect! + +N.B.--Mademoiselle Nanette must know nothing of the sonata being already +half written before I received her commands, for this might suggest +notions with regard to me that I might find most prejudicial, and I +must be very careful not to lose her favour. In the meanwhile I consider +myself fortunate to be the means of giving her pleasure, particularly as +the sacrifice is made for your sake, my charming Frau v. Genzinger. Oh! +how I do wish that I could only play over these sonatas once or twice to +you; how gladly would I then reconcile myself to remain for a time in my +wilderness! I have much to say and to confess to you, from which no one +but yourself can absolve me; but what cannot be effected now will, I +devoutly hope, come to pass next winter, and half of the time is already +gone. Meanwhile I take refuge in patience, and am content with the +inestimable privilege of subscribing myself your sincere and obedient +friend and servant + +J. HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, June 27, 1790. + +HIGHLY ESTEEMED LADY, + +You have no doubt by this time received the new pianoforte sonata, and, +if not, you will probably do so along with this letter. Three days ago I +played the sonata to Mademoiselle Nanette in the presence of my gracious +Prince. At first I doubted very much, owing to its difficulty, whether I +should receive any applause, but was soon convinced of the reverse by a +gold snuff-box being presented to me by Mademoiselle Nanette's own hand. +My sole wish now is, that you may be satisfied with it, so that I may +find greater credit with my patroness. For the same reason, I beg that +either you or your husband will let her know "that my delight was such +that I could not conceal her generosity," especially being convinced +that you take an interest in all benefits conferred on me. It is a pity +that you have not a Schanz pianoforte, which is much more favourable +to expression; my idea is that you should make over your own still very +tolerable piano to Fraulein Peperl, and get a new one for yourself. Your +beautiful hands, and their brilliant execution, deserve this, and more. +I know that I ought to have composed the sonata in accordance with the +capabilities of your piano, but, being so unaccustomed to this, I found +it impossible, and now I am doomed to stay at home. What I lose by so +doing you can well imagine: It is indeed sad always to be a slave--but +Providence wills it so. I am a poor creature, plagued perpetually by +hard work, and with few hours for recreation. Friends? What do I say? +One true friend; there are no longer any true friends, but one female +friend. Oh yes! no doubt I still have one, but she is far away. Ah +well! I take refuge in my thoughts. May God bless her, and may she never +forget me! Meanwhile I kiss your hands a thousand times, and ever am, +etc., + +HAYDN. + +Pray forgive my bad writing. I am suffering from inflamed eyes to-day. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, July 4, 1790. + +MOST ESTEEMED AND VALUED LADY, + +I this moment receive your letter, and at the same time the post +departs. I sincerely rejoice to hear that my Prince intends to present +you with a new piano, more especially as I am in some measure the +cause of this, having been constantly imploring Mademoiselle Nanette to +persuade your husband to purchase one for you. The choice now depends +entirely on yourself, and the chief point is that you should select one +in accordance with your touch and your taste. Certainly my friend, +Herr Walter, is very celebrated, and every year I receive the greatest +civility from him; but, entre nous, and to speak candidly, sometimes +there is not more than one out of ten of his instruments which may be +called really good, and they are exceedingly high priced besides. I know +Herr Nickl's piano; it is first-rate, but too heavy for your touch; +nor can every passage be rendered with proper delicacy on it. I should, +therefore, like you to try one of Herr Schanz's pianos, for they have +a remarkably light and agreeable touch. A good pianoforte is absolutely +necessary for you, and my sonata will also gain vastly by it. + +Meanwhile I thank you much, dear lady, for your caution with regard to +Mademoiselle Nanette. It is a pity that the little gold box she gave me, +and had used herself, is tarnished, but perhaps I may get it polished up +in Vienna. I have as yet received no orders to purchase a pianoforte. I +fear that one may be sent to your house, which may be handsome outside, +but the touch within heavy. If your husband will rely on my opinion, +that Herr Schanz is the best maker for this class of instruments, I +would then settle everything at once. In great haste, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Estoras, August 15. + +I ought to have written to you last week in answer to your letter, but +as this day has been long enshrined in my heart, I have been striving +earnestly all the time to think how and what I was to wish for you; so +thus eight days passed, and now, when my wishes ought to be expressed, +my small amount of intellect comes to a standstill, and (quite abashed) +I find nothing to say; why? wherefore? because I have not been able to +fulfill those musical hopes for this particular day that you have justly +the right to expect. Oh, my most charming and kind benefactress! if +you could only know, or see into my troubled heart on this subject, you +would certainly feel pity and indulgence for me. The unlucky promised +symphony has haunted my imagination ever since it was bespoken, and it +is only, alas! the pressure of urgent occurrences that has prevented its +being hitherto ushered into the world! The hope, however, of your lenity +towards me for the delay, and the approaching time of the fulfillment +of my promise, embolden me to express my wish, which, among the hundreds +offered to you to-day and yesterday, may perhaps appear to you only an +insignificant interloper; I say perhaps, for it would be too bold in me +to think that you could form no better wish for yourself than mine. You +see, therefore, most kind and charming lady, that I can wish nothing +for you on your nameday, because my wishes are too feeble, and therefore +unproductive. As for me, I venture to wish for myself your kind +indulgence, and the continuance of your friendship, and the goodness +that I so highly prize. This is my warmest wish! But if any wish of mine +may be permitted, then mine shall become identical with your own, for +thus I shall feel assured that none other remains, except the wish once +more to be allowed to subscribe myself your very sincere friend and +servant, + +HAYDN. + + + +No further letters appear to have been addressed to the lady until +Haydn started on his first visit to London in December 1790. One or two +extracts from these London letters have been used in Chapter V., but as +the repetitions will be very slight, we allow the letters to stand as +they are. + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +CALAIS, Decr. 31, 1790. + +HIGHLY HONOURED LADY, + +A violent storm and an incessant pour of rain prevented our arriving at +Calais till this evening (where I am now writing to you), and to-morrow +at seven in the morning we cross the sea to London. I promised to write +from Brussels, but we could only stay there an hour. I am very well, +thank God! although somewhat thinner, owing to fatigue, irregular sleep, +and eating and drinking so many different things. A few days hence I +will describe the rest of my journey, but I must beg you to excuse me +for to-day. I hope to heaven that you and your husband and children are +all well. + +I am, with high esteem, etc., yours, + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Jan. 8, 1791. + +I thought that you had received my last letter from Calais. I ought, +indeed, according to my promise, to have sent you some tidings of myself +when I arrived in London, but I preferred waiting a few days that I +might detail various incidents to you. I must now tell you that on New +Year's Day, after attending early mass, I took ship at half-past seven +o'clock a.m., and at five o'clock in the afternoon arrived safe and well +at Dover, for which Heaven be praised! During the first four hours there +was scarcely any wind, and the vessel made so little way that in that +time we only went one English mile, there being twenty-four between +Calais and Dover. The ship's captain, in the worst possible humour, +said that if the wind did not change we should be at sea all night. +Fortunately, however, towards half-past eleven o'clock such a favourable +breeze began to blow that by four o'clock we had come twenty-two miles. +As the ebb of the tide prevented our large vessel making the pier, two +small boats were rowed out to meet us, into which we and our luggage +were transferred, and at last we landed safely, though exposed to a +sharp gale. The large vessel stood out to sea five hours longer, till +the tide carried it into the harbour. Some of the passengers, being +afraid to trust themselves in the small boats, stayed on board, but I +followed the example of the greater number. I remained on deck during +the whole passage, in order to gaze my fill at that huge monster, the +Ocean. So long as there was a calm I had no fears, but when at length +a violent wind began to blow, rising every minute, and I saw the +boisterous high waves running on, I was seized with a little alarm, +and a little indisposition likewise. But I overcame it all, and arrived +safely in harbour, without being actually ill. Most of the passengers +were ill, and looked like ghosts. I did not feel the fatigue of the +journey till I arrived in London, but it took two days before I could +recover from it. But now I am quite fresh and well, and occupied in +looking at this mighty and vast town of London, its various beauties and +marvels causing me the most profound astonishment. I immediately paid +the necessary visits, such as to the Neapolitan Minister and to our own. +Both called on me in return two days afterwards, and a few days ago I +dined with the former--nota bene, at six o'clock in the evening, which +is the fashion here. + +My arrival caused a great sensation through the whole city, and I went +the round of all the newspapers for three successive days. Everyone +seems anxious to know me. I have already dined out six times, and could +be invited every day if I chose; but I must in the first place consider +my health, and in the next my work. Except the nobility, I admit no +visitors till two o'clock in the afternoon, and at four o'clock I dine +at home with Salomon. I have a neat, comfortable lodging, but very +dear. My landlord is an Italian, and likewise a cook, who gives us +four excellent dishes; we each pay one florin thirty kreuzers a day, +exclusive of wine and beer, but everything is terribly dear here. I was +yesterday invited to a grand amateur concert, but as I arrived rather +late, when I gave my ticket, they would not let me in, but took me to an +ante-room, where I was obliged to remain till the piece which was then +being given was over. Then they opened the door, and I was conducted, +leaning on the arm of the director, up the centre of the room to the +front of the orchestra amid universal clapping of hands, stared at by +everyone, and greeted by a number of English compliments. I was assured +that such honours had not been conferred on anyone for fifty years. +After the concert I was taken into a very handsome room adjoining, where +tables were laid for all the amateurs, to the number of two hundred. +It was proposed that I should take a seat near the top, but as it so +happened that I had dined out that very day, and ate more than usual, I +declined the honour, excusing myself under the pretext of not being very +well; but in spite of this, I could not get off drinking the health, in +Burgundy, of the harmonious gentlemen present; all responded to it, +but at last allowed me to go home. All this, my dear lady, was very +flattering to me; still I wish I could fly for a time to Vienna, to have +more peace to work, for the noise in the streets, and the cries of the +common people selling their wares, is intolerable. I am still working at +symphonies, as the libretto of the opera is not yet decided on, but in +order to be more quiet, I intend to engage an apartment some little way +out of town. I would gladly write more at length, but I fear losing this +opportunity. With kindest regards to your husband, Fraulein Pepi, and +all the rest, I am, with sincere esteem, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--I have a request to make. I think I must have left my symphony in +E flat, that you returned to me, in my room at home, or mislaid it on +the journey. I missed it yesterday, and being in pressing need of it, I +beg you urgently to procure it for me, through my kind friend, Herr v. +Kees. Pray have it copied out in your own house, and send it by post as +soon as possible. If Herr v. Kees hesitates about this, which I don't +think likely, pray send him this letter. My address is, M. Haydn, 18 +Great Pulteney Street, London. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Sept. 17, 1791. + +MY HIGHLY ESTEEMED FRIEND, + +I have received no reply to my two letters of July 3, entrusted to +the care of a composer, Herr Diettenhofer, by whom I likewise sent the +pianoforte arrangement of an andante in one of my new symphonies. Nor +have I any answer either about the symphony in E flat, that I wished to +get. I can now no longer delay inquiring after your own health, as +well as that of your husband, and all your dear family. Is that odious +proverb, "Out of sight, out of mind," to prove true everywhere? Oh no! +urgent affairs or the loss of my letter and the symphony are, no doubt, +the cause of your silence. I feel assured of Herr von Kees's willingness +to send the symphony, as he said he would do so in his letter; so +it seems we shall both have to deplore a loss, and must trust to +Providence. I flatter myself I shall receive a short answer to this. +Now, my dear, good, kind lady, what is your piano about? Is a thought of +Haydn sometimes recalled by your fair hand? Does my sweet Fraulein +Pepi ever sing poor "Ariadne"? Oh yes! I seem to hear it even here, +especially during the last two months, when I have been residing in +the country, amid lovely scenery, with a banker, whose heart and family +resemble the Genzingers, and where I live as in a monastery. God be +praised! I am in good health, with the exception of my usual rheumatic +state. I work hard, and in the early mornings, when I walk in the wood +alone with my English grammar, I think of my Creator, of my family, and +of all the friends I have left--and of these you are the most valued of +all. + +I had hoped, indeed, sooner to have enjoyed the felicity of seeing you +again; but my circumstances, in short, fate so wills it that I must +remain eight or ten months longer in London. Oh, my dear, good lady, how +sweet is some degree of liberty! I had a kind Prince, but was obliged at +times to be dependent on base souls. I often sighed for release, and now +I have it in some measure. I am quite sensible of this benefit, though +my mind is burdened with more work. The consciousness of being no longer +a bond-servant sweetens all my toils. But, dear as liberty is to me, +I do hope on my return again to enter the service of Prince Esterhazy, +solely for the sake of my poor family. I doubt much whether I shall find +this desire realized, for in his letter my Prince complains of my long +absence, and exacts my speedy return in the most absolute terms; which, +however, I cannot comply with, owing to a new contract I have entered +into here. I, alas! expect my dismissal; but I hope even in that case +that God will be gracious to me, and enable me in some degree to remedy +the loss by my own industry. Meanwhile I console myself by the hope of +soon hearing from you. You shall receive my promised new symphony two +months hence; but in order to inspire me with good ideas, I beg you will +write to me, and a long letter too. + +Yours, etc. + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Oct. 13, 1791. + +I take the liberty of earnestly entreating you to advance 150 florins +for a short time to my wife, provided you do not imagine that since +my journey I have become a bad manager. No, my kind, good friend, God +blesses my efforts. Three circumstances are alone to blame. In the first +place, since I have been here, I have repaid my Prince the 450 florins +he advanced for my journey; secondly, I can demand no interest from my +bank obligations, having placed them under your care, and not being +able to remember either the names or the numbers, so I cannot write a +receipt; thirdly, I cannot yet apply for the 5883 florins (1000 of which +I recently placed in my Prince's hands, and the rest with the Count v. +Fries), especially because it is English money. You will, therefore, see +that I am no spendthrift. This leads me to hope that you will not refuse +my present request, to lend my wife 150 florins. This letter must +be your security, and would be valid in any court. I will repay the +interest of the money with a thousand thanks on my return. + +I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + +...I believe you received my letter the very same day that I was reading +your cruel reproach that Haydn was capable of forgetting his friend and +benefactress. Oh! how often do I long to be beside you at the piano, +even for a quarter of an hour, and then to have some good German soup. +But we cannot have everything in this world. May God only vouchsafe to +grant me the health that I have hitherto enjoyed, and may I preserve it +by good conduct and out of gratitude to the Almighty! That you are well +is to me the most delightful of all news. May Providence long watch +over you! I hope to see you in the course of six months, when I shall, +indeed, have much to tell you. Good-night! it is time to go to bed; it +is half-past eleven o'clock. One thing more. To insure the safety of the +money, Herr Hamberger, a good friend of mine, a man of tall stature, our +landlord, will bring you this letter himself, and you can with impunity +entrust him with the money; but I beg you will take a receipt both from +him and from my wife. + +Among other things, Herr v. Kees writes to me that he should like to +know my position in London, as there are so many different reports about +me in Vienna. From my youth upwards I have been exposed to envy, so it +does not surprise me when any attempt is made wholly to crush my poor +talents; but the Almighty above is my support. My wife wrote to me that +Mozart depreciates me very much, but this I will never believe. If true, +I forgive him. There is no doubt that I find many who are envious of me +in London also, and I know them almost all. Most of them are Italians. +But they can do me no harm, for my credit with this nation has been +firmly established far too many years. Rest assured that, if I had not +met with a kind reception, I would long since have gone back to Vienna. +I am beloved and esteemed by everyone, except, indeed, professors [of +music]. As for my remuneration, Mozart can apply to Count Fries for +information, in whose hands I placed 500 pounds, and 1000 guilders in +those of my Prince, making together nearly 6000 florins. I daily thank +my Creator for this boon, and I have good hope that I may bring home a +couple of thousands besides, notwithstanding, my great outlay and the +cost of the journey. I will now no longer intrude on your time. How +badly this is written! What is Pater ---- doing? My compliments to him. + +Yours, etc. + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Nov. 17, 1791. + +I write in the greatest haste, to request that you will send the +accompanying packet, addressed to you, to Herr v. Kees, as it contains +the two new symphonies I promised. I waited for a good opportunity, but +could hear of none; I have therefore been obliged to send them after +all by post. I beg you will ask Herr v. Kees to have a rehearsal of +both these symphonies, as they are very delicate, particularly the last +movement in D, which I recommend to be given as pianissimo as possible, +and the tempo very quick. I will write to you again in a few days. Nota +bene, I was obliged to enclose both the symphonies to you, not knowing +the address of Herr v. Kees. + +I am, etc. + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--I only returned here to-day from the country. I have been staying +with a mylord for the last fortnight, a hundred miles from London. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Dec. 20, 1791. + +I am much surprised that you did not get my letter at the same time as +the two symphonies, having put them myself into the post here, and +given every direction about them. My mistake was not having enclosed the +letter in the packet. This is what often happens, dear lady, with those +who have too much head work. I trust, however, that the letter reached +you soon afterwards, but in case it did not, I must here explain that +both symphonies were intended for Herr v. Kees, but with the stipulation +that, after being copied by his order, the scores were to be given up +to you, so that you may prepare a pianoforte arrangement of them, if +you are so disposed. The particular symphony intended for you will be +finished by the end of February at latest. I regret much having been +obliged to forward the heavy packet to you, from not knowing Herr v. +Kees's address; but he will, of course, repay you the cost of postage, +and also, I hope, hand you over seven ducats. May I, therefore, ask +you to employ a portion of that sum in copying on small paper my +often-applied-for symphony in E minor, and forward it to me by post as +soon as possible, for it may perhaps be six months before a courier +is despatched from Vienna, and I am in urgent need of the symphony. +Further, I must plague you once more by asking you to buy at Artaria's +my last pianoforte sonata in A flat, that is, with 4 B flat minor, +with violin and violoncello, and also another piece, the fantasia in C, +without accompaniment, for these pieces are not yet published in London; +but be so good as not to mention this to Herr Artaria, or he might +anticipate the sale in England. I beg you will deduct the price from +the seven ducats. To return to the aforesaid symphonies, I must tell you +that I sent you a pianoforte arrangement of the andante in C minor by +Herr Diettenhofer. It is reported here, however, that he either died on +the journey, or met with some serious accident. You had better look +over both pieces at your leisure. The principal part of the letter I +entrusted to Herr Diettenhofer was the description of a Doctor's degree +being conferred on me at Oxford, and all the honours I then received. I +must take this opportunity of mentioning that three weeks ago the Prince +of Wales invited me to his brother's country seat. The Prince presented +me to the Duchess (a daughter of the King of Prussia), who received +me very graciously, and said many flattering things. She is the most +charming lady in the world, possesses much intelligence, plays the +piano, and sings very pleasingly. I stayed two days there, because on +the first day a slight indisposition prevented her having any music; +on the second day, however, she remained beside me from ten o'clock +at night, when the music began, till two hours after midnight. No +compositions played but Haydn's. I directed the symphonies at the piano. +The sweet little lady sat close beside me at my left hand, and hummed +all the pieces from memory, having heard them so repeatedly in Berlin. +The Prince of Wales sat on my right hand, and accompanied me very +tolerably on the violoncello. They made me sing too. The Prince of Wales +is having me painted just now, and the portrait is to be hung up in his +private sitting-room. The Prince of Wales is the handsomest man on +God's earth; he has an extraordinary love of music, and a great deal +of feeling, but very little money. Nota bene, this is entre nous. His +kindness gratifies me far more than any self-interest; on the third day, +as I could not get any post-horses, the Duke of York sent me two stages +with his own. + +Now, dear lady, I should like to reproach you a little for believing +that I prefer London to Vienna, and find my residence here more +agreeable than in my fatherland. I am far from hating London, but I +could not reconcile myself to spend my life there; no, not even to amass +millions; my reasons I will tell you when we meet. I think of my home, +and embracing once more all my old friends, with the delight of a child; +only I deeply lament that the great Mozart will not be of the number, if +it be true, which I trust it is not, that he is dead. Posterity will not +see such talent as his for the next hundred years! I am happy to hear +that you and yours are all so well. I, too, have hitherto been in +excellent health, till eight days since, when I was attacked by English +rheumatism, and so severely that sometimes I could not help crying out +aloud; but I hope soon to get quit of it, as I have adopted the usual +custom here, and have wrapped myself up from head to foot in flannel. +Pray excuse my bad writing. In the hope of soon being gratified by +a letter, and with all esteem for yourself, and best regards to your +husband, my dear Fraulein Pepi, and the others. + +I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--Pray give my respects to Herr v. Kreybich [chamber music director +to Joseph II]. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Jan. 17, 1792. + +DEAREST AND KINDEST LADY, + +I must ask your forgiveness a thousand times; and I own and bemoan that +I have been too dilatory in the performance of my promise, but if you +could only see how I am importuned to attend private concerts, causing +me great loss of time, and the mass of work with which I am burdened, +you would indeed, dear lady, feel the utmost compassion for me. Never +in my life did I write so much in one year as during the last, which has +indeed utterly exhausted me, and it will do me good to be able to take +a little rest when I return home. At present I am working for Salomon's +concerts, and feel bound to take all possible trouble, for our rivals of +the Professional Society have sent for my pupil Pleyel from Strassburg, +to direct their concerts. So a bloody harmonious war will now commence +between master and scholar. All the newspapers have begun to discuss +the subject, but I think an alliance will soon ensue, my reputation here +being so firmly established. Pleyel, on his arrival, displayed so much +modesty towards me that he gained my goodwill afresh. We are very often +together, which is much to his credit, and he knows how to appreciate +his "father"; we will share our laurels fairly, and each go home +satisfied. Professional Concerts met with a great misfortune on the 14th +of this month, by the Pantheon being entirely burned down, a theatre +only built last year. It was the work of an incendiary, and the damage +is estimated at more than 100,000 pounds sterling; so there is not a +single Italian theatre in London at this moment. Now, my dear angelic +lady, I have a little fault to find with you. How often have I +reiterated my request to have my symphony in E minor, of which I sent +you the theme, copied out on small paper, and sent to me by post? Long +have I sighed for it, and if I do not get it by the end of next month +I shall lose twenty guineas. Herr v. Kees writes that the copy may +possibly arrive in London three months hence, or three years, for there +is no chance of a courier being sent off at present. I also told Herr v. +Kees in the same letter to take charge of this, and if he could not do +so, I ventured to transfer the commission to you, flattering myself that +my urgent request would certainly be fulfilled by your kindness. I also +desired Herr v. Kees to repay you the cost of the postage you paid for +his packet. Kindest and most charming Frau v. Genzinger, I once more beg +you to see to this matter, for it is really a work of mercy, and when we +meet I will explain my reasons, respectfully kiss your fair hands, and +repay my debt with gratitude. The celebration you mention in honour of +my poor abilities touched me deeply, but still not so profoundly as +if you had considered it more perfect. Perhaps I may supply this +imperfection by another symphony which I will shortly send you; I say +perhaps, because I (or rather my brain) am in truth weary. Providence +alone can repair the deficiency in my powers, and to Him I daily pray +for aid, for without His support I should indeed be a poor creature! And +now, my kind and dear friend, I venture to hope for your indulgence. +Oh yes! your portrait is at this moment before me, and I hear it say, +"Well, for this time, you odious Haydn, I will forgive you, but--but!" +No, no, I mean henceforth strictly to fulfill my duties. I must conclude +for to-day by saying that now, as ever, I am, with the highest esteem, +yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Feb. 2, 1792. + +I have to-day received your kind letter, and also the fantasia, and +sonata a tre. I was, however, rather vexed, on opening the packet, not +to find the long-looked-for symphony in E minor, which I had fully hoped +for, and expected. Dear lady, I entreat you to send it at once, written +on small post paper, and I will gladly pay all expenses, for Heaven +alone can tell when the symphonies from Brussels may arrive here. +I cannot dispense with this one, without incurring great loss. Pray +forgive my plaguing you so often on the subject, but I shall indeed +be truly grateful if you will send it. Being overwhelmed with work at +present, I cannot as yet write to Herr v. Kees. Pray, then, apply to him +yourself for the said symphony. + +With my kind respects, I am, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + +You shall have a good portion of the sewing needles. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, March 2, 1792. + +Yesterday morning I received your valued letter, and also the +long-looked-for symphony. I humbly kiss your hands for sending it so +safely and quickly. I had indeed received it six days previously from +Brussels, through Herr v. Kees; but the score was more useful, as a good +deal must be altered in it to suit the English taste. I only regret that +I must trouble you so frequently with my commissions, especially as at +present I cannot adequately testify my gratitude. I do positively assure +and declare to you that this causes me great embarrassment, and indeed +often makes me feel very sad; the more so that, owing to various urgent +causes, I am unable to send you as yet the new symphony dedicated to +you. First, because I wish to alter and embellish the last movement, +which is too feeble when compared with the first. I felt this conviction +myself quite as much as the public, when it was performed for the first +time last Friday; notwithstanding which, it made the most profound +impression on the audience. The second reason is that I really dread the +risk of its falling into other hands. I was not a little startled when +I read the unpleasant intelligence about the sonata. By Heavens! I would +rather have lost twenty-five ducats than have suffered such a theft, and +the only one who can have done this is my own copyist; but I fervently +hope to supply the loss through Madame Tost, for I do not wish to incur +any reproaches from her. You must therefore, dear lady, be indulgent +towards me, until I can towards the end of July myself have the pleasure +of placing in your hands the sonata, as well as the symphony. Nota bene, +the symphony is to be given by myself, but the sonata by Madame Tost. +It is equally impossible for me to send Herr v. Kees the promised +symphonies at present, for here too there is a great want of faithful +copyists. If I had time, I would write them out myself, but no day, not +a single one, am I free from work, and I shall thank the good Lord when +I can leave London; the sooner the better. My labours are augmented +by the arrival of my pupil Pleyel, who has been summoned here by the +Professional Society to direct their concerts. He brought with him a +number of new compositions, which were, however, written long ago! He +accordingly promised to give a new piece every evening. On seeing this, +I could easily perceive that there was a dead set against me, so I +also announced publicly that I would likewise give twelve different new +pieces; so in order to keep my promise, and to support poor Salomon, I +must be the victim, and work perpetually. I do feel it, however, very +much. My eyes suffer most, and my nights are very sleepless, but with +God's help I will overcome it all. The Professors wished to put a spoke +in my wheel because I did not join their concerts, but the public is +just. Last year I received great applause, but this year still more. +Pleyel's presumption is everywhere criticized, and yet I love him, and +have gone to his concert each time, and been the first to applaud him. +I sincerely rejoice that you and yours are well. My kind regards to +all. The time draws near to put my trunks in travelling order. Oh! how +delighted shall I be to see you again, and to show personally all the +esteem that I felt for you in absence, and that I ever shall feel for +you. + +Yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--Please apologize to Herr v. Kees for want of time preventing my +sending him the new symphonies. I hope to have the honour of directing +them myself in your house, at our next Christmas music. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, April 24, 1792. + +I yesterday evening received with much pleasure your last letter of 5 +April, with the extract from the newspaper, extolling my poor talents to +the Viennese. I must confess that I have gained considerable credit with +the English in vocal music, by this little chorus, [The "Storm Chorus," +see p. 91.] my first attempt with English words. It is only to be +regretted that, during my stay here, I have not been able to write more +pieces of a similar nature, but we could not find any boys to sing at +our concerts, they having been already engaged for a year past to sing +at other concerts, of which there are a vast number. In spite of the +great opposition of my musical enemies, who are so bitter against me, +more especially leaving nothing undone with my pupil Pleyel this winter +to humble me, still, thank God! I may say that I have kept the upper +hand. I must, however, admit that I am quite wearied and worn out with +so much work, and look forward with eager longing to the repose which +will soon take pity on me. I thank you, dear lady, for your kind +solicitude about me. Just as you thought, I do not require to go to +Paris at present, from a variety of reasons, which I will tell you when +we meet. I am in daily expectation of an order from my Prince, to whom +I wrote lately, to tell me where I am to go. It is possible that he may +summon me to Frankfort; if not, I intend (entre nous) to go by Holland +to the King of Prussia at Berlin, thence to Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, +and last of all to Vienna, where I hope to embrace all my friends. + +Ever, with high esteem, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + + +The preceding is the text of "Haydn," a biography of the composer Franz +Joseph Haydn, from the Master Musicians series. The book itself was +authored by J. Cuthbert Hadden, while the Master Musicians series itself +was edited by Frederick J. Crowest. "Haydn" was published in 1902 by +J.M. Dent & Co. (LONDON), represented at the time in New York by E.P. +Dutton & Co. Each page was cut out of the original book with an X-acto +knife and fed into an Automatic Document Feeder Scanner to make this +e-text, so the original book was, well, ruined in order to save it. + +Some adaptations from the original text were made while formatting it +for an e-text. Italics in the original book were ignored in making this +e-text, unless they referred to proper nouns, in which case they are put +in quotes in the e-text. Italics are problematic because they are not +easily rendered in ASCII text. + +Words enclosed in brackets [ ] are original footnotes inserted into the +text. + +This electronic text was prepared by John Mamoun with help from numerous +other proofreaders, including those associated with Charles Franks' +Distributed Proofreaders website. Thanks to R. Zimmermann, S. Morrison, +B. Wyman, V. Walker, N. Harris, T. Mills, C. Franks, F. Clowes, T. +Mills, E. Beach, D. McKee, D. Levy, D. Bindner, R. Rowe, K. Rieff, J. +Cardillo, K. Peterson, H. Dank and several others for proof-reading. + +Version 11 of this text prepared by Andrew Sly. Numerous changes and +corrections made by comparison with the original book. + + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Haydn, by J. 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Cuthbert Hadden + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS: + + + +DEDICATION +PREFACE +TEXT OF "HAYDN," FROM THE MASTER MUSICIANS SERIES + + Chapter I: Birth--Ancestry--Early Years + Chapter II: Vienna--1750-1760 + Chapter III: Eisenstadt--1761-1766 + Chapter IV: Esterhaz--1766-1790 + Chapter V: First London Visit--1791-1972 + Chapter VI: Second London Visit--1794-1795 + Chapter VII: "The Creation" and "The Seasons" + Chapter VIII: Last Years + Chapter IX: Haydn, the Man + Chapter X: Haydn, the Composer + Appendix A: Haydn's Last Will and Testament + Appendix B: Catalogue of Works + Appendix C: Bibliography + Appendix D: Haydn's Brothers + Appendix E: A Selection of Haydn's Letters + +INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + + + +DEDICATION + + + +To +The Rev. Robert Blair, D.D. +In Grateful Acknowledgment of +Many Kindnesses and Much +Pleasant Intercourse + + + +PREFACE + + + +The authority for Haydn's life is the biography begun by the late +Dr. Pohl, and completed after his death by E.V. Mandyczewski. To +this work, as yet untranslated, every subsequent writer is +necessarily indebted, and the present volume, which I may fairly +claim to be the fullest life of Haydn that has so far appeared in +English, is largely based upon Pohl. I am also under obligations +to Miss Pauline D. Townsend, the author of the monograph in the +"Great Musicians" series. For the rest, I trust I have acquainted +myself with all the more important references made to Haydn in +contemporary records and in the writings of those who knew him. +Finally, I have endeavoured to tell the story of his career +simply and directly, to give a clear picture of the man, and to +discuss the composer without trenching on the ground of the +formalist. + +J.C.H. + +EDINBURGH, September 1902. + + + +HAYDN + +CHAPTER I + +BIRTH--ANCESTRY--EARLY YEARS + +Introductory--Rohran--A Poor Home--Genealogy--Haydn's Parents-- +His Birth--His Precocity--Informal Music-making--His First +Teacher--Hainburg--"A Regular Little Urchin"--Attacks the Drum--A +Piece of Good Luck--A Musical Examination--Goes to Vienna--Choir +School of St Stephen's--A House of Suffering--Lessons at the +Cathedral--A Sixteen-Part Mass--Juvenile Escapades--"Sang like a +Crow"--Dismissed from the Choir. + +Haydn's position, alike in music and in musical biography, is +almost unique. With the doubtful exception of Sebastian Bach, no +composer of the first rank ever enjoyed a more tranquil career. +Bach was not once outside his native Germany; Haydn left Austria +only to make those visits to England which had so important an +influence on the later manifestations of his genius: His was a +long, sane, sound, and on the whole, fortunate existence. For +many years he was poor and obscure, but if he had his time of +trial, he never experienced a time of failure. With practical +wisdom he conquered the Fates and became eminent. A hard, +struggling youth merged into an easy middle-age, and late years +found him in comfortable circumstances, with a solid reputation +as an artist, and a solid retiring-allowance from a princely +patron, whose house he had served for the better part of his +working career. Like Goethe and Wordsworth, he lived out all his +life. He was no Marcellus, shown for one brief moment and +"withdrawn before his springtime had brought forth the fruits of +summer." His great contemporary, Mozart, cut off while yet his +light was crescent, is known to posterity only by the products of +his early manhood. Haydn's sun set at the end of a long day, +crowning his career with a golden splendour whose effulgence +still brightens the ever-widening realm of music. + +Voltaire once said of Dante that his reputation was becoming +greater and greater because no one ever read him. Haydn's +reputation is not of that kind. It is true that he may not appeal +to what has been called the "fevered modern soul," but there is +an old-world charm about him which is specially grateful in our +bustling, nerve-destroying, bilious age. He is still known as +"Papa Haydn," and the name, to use Carlyle's phrase, is +"significant of much." In the history of the art his position is +of the first importance. He was the father of instrumental music. +He laid the foundations of the modern symphony and sonata, and +established the basis of the modern orchestra. Without him, +artistically speaking, Beethoven would have been impossible. He +seems to us now a figure of a very remote past, so great have +been the changes in the world of music since he lived. But his +name will always be read in the golden book of classical music; +and whatever the evolutionary processes of the art may bring, the +time can hardly come when he will be forgotten, his works +unheard. + +Rohrau + +Franz Joseph Haydn was born at the little market-town of Rohrau, +near Prugg, on the confines of Austria and Hungary, some two-and- +a-half hours' railway journey from Vienna. The Leitha, which +flows along the frontier of Lower Austria and Hungary on its way +to the Danube, runs near, and the district + +[Figure: Haydn's birth-house at Rohrau] + +is flat and marshy. The house in which the composer was born had +been built by his father. Situated at the end of the market- +place, it was in frequent danger from inundation; and although it +stood in Haydn's time with nothing worse befalling it than a +flooding now and again, it has twice since been swept away, first +in 1813, fours years after Haydn's death, and again in 1833. It +was carefully rebuilt on each occasion, and still stands for the +curious to see--a low-roofed cottage, very much as it was when +the composer of "The Creation" first began to be "that various +thing called man." A fire unhappily did some damage to the +building in 1899. But excepting that the picturesque thatched +roof has given place to a covering of less inflammable material, +the "Zum Haydn" presents its extensive frontage to the road, just +as it did of yore. Our illustration shows it exactly as it is +today. [See an interesting account of a visit to the cottage +after the fire, in The Musical Times for July 1899.] Schindler +relates that when Beethoven, shortly before his death, was shown +a print of the cottage, sent to him by Diabelli, he remarked: +"Strange that so great a man should have been born in so poor a +home!" Beethoven's relations with Haydn, as we shall see later +on, were at one time somewhat strained; but the years had +softened his asperity, and this indirect tribute to his brother +composer may readily be accepted as a set-off to some things that +the biographer of the greater genius would willingly forget. + +A Poor Home + +It was indeed a poor home into which Haydn had been born; but +tenderness, piety, thrift and orderliness were there, and +probably the happiest part of his career was that which he spent +in the tiny, dim-lighted rooms within sound of Leitha's waters. + +In later life, when his name had been inscribed on the roll of +fame, he looked back to the cottage at Rohrau, "sweet through +strange years," with a kind of mingled pride and pathetic regret. +Flattered by the great and acclaimed by the devotees of his art, +he never felt ashamed of his lowly origin. On the contrary, he +boasted of it. He was proud, as he said, of having "made +something out of nothing." He does not seem to have been often at +Rohrau after he was launched into the world, a stripling not yet +in his teens. But he retained a fond memory of his birthplace. +When in 1795 he was invited to inspect a monument erected to his +honour in the grounds of Castle Rohrau, he knelt down on the +threshold of the old home by the market-place and kissed the +ground his feet had trod in the far-away days of youth. When he +came to make his will, his thoughts went back to Rohrau, and one +of his bequests provided for two of its poorest orphans. + +Genealogy + +Modern theories of heredity and the origin of genius find but +scanty illustration in the case of Haydn. Unlike the ancestors of +Bach and Beethoven and Mozart, his family, so far as the +pedigrees show, had as little of genius, musical or other, in +their composition, as the families of Shakespeare and Cervantes. +In the male line they were hard-working, honest tradesmen, +totally undistinguished even in their sober walk in life. They +came originally from Hainburg, where Haydn's great-grandfather, +Kaspar, had been among the few to escape massacre when the town +was stormed by the Turks in July 1683. The composer's father, +Matthias Haydn, was, like most of his brothers, a wheelwright, +combining with his trade the office of parish sexton. He belonged +to the better peasant class, and, though ignorant as we should +now regard him, was yet not without a tincture of artistic taste. +He had been to Frankfort during his "traveling years," and had +there picked up some little information of a miscellaneous kind. +"He was a great lover of music by nature," says his famous son, +"and played the harp without knowing a note of music." He had a +fine tenor voice, and when the day's toil was over he would +gather his household around him and set them singing to his well- +meant accompaniment. + +Haydn's Mother + +It is rather a pretty picture that the imagination here conjures +up, but it does not help us very much in trying to account for +the musical genius of the composer. Even the popular idea that +genius is derived from the mother does not hold in Haydn's case. +If Frau Haydn had a genius for anything it was merely for moral +excellence and religion and the good management of her household. +Like Leigh Hunt's mother, however, she was "fond of music, and a +gentle singer in her way"; and more than one intimate of Haydn in +his old age declared that he still knew by heart all the simple +airs which she had been wont to lilt about the house. The maiden +name of this estimable woman was Marie Koller. She was a daughter +of the Marktrichter (market judge), and had been a cook in the +family of Count Harrach, one of the local magnates. Eight years +younger than her husband, she was just twenty-one at her +marriage, and bore him twelve children. Haydn's regard for her +was deep and sincere; and it was one of the tricks of destiny +that she was not spared to witness more of his rising fame, being +cut off in 1754, when she was only forty-six. Matthias Haydn +promptly married again, and had a second family of five children, +all of whom died in infancy. The stepmother survived her husband- +-who died, as the result of an accident, in 1763--and then she +too entered a second time into the wedded state. Haydn can never +have been very intimate with her, and he appears to have lost +sight of her entirely in her later years. But he bequeathed a +small sum to her in his will, "to be transferred to her children +should she be no longer alive." + +Birth + +Joseph Haydn, to give the composer the name which he now usually +bears, was the second of the twelve children born to the Rohrau +wheelwright. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but it was +either the 31st of March or the 1st of April 1732. Haydn himself +gave the latter as the correct date, alleging that his brother +Michael had fixed upon the previous day to save him from being +called an April fool! Probably we shall not be far off the mark +if we assume with Pohl that Haydn was born in the night between +the 31st of March and the 1st of April. + +His Precocity + +Very few details have come down to us in regard to his earlier +years; and such details as we have refer almost wholly to his +musical precocity. It was not such a precocity as that of Mozart, +who was playing minuets at the age of four, and writing concertos +when he was five; but just on that account it is all the more +credible. One's sympathies are with the frank Philistine who +pooh-poohs the tales told of baby composers, and hints that they +must have been a trial to their friends. Precocious they no doubt +were; but precocity often evaporates before it can become genius, +leaving a sediment of disappointed hopes and vain ambitions. In +literature, as Mr. Andrew Lang has well observed, genius may show +itself chiefly in acquisition, as in Sir Walter Scott, who, as a +boy, was packing all sorts of lore into a singularly capacious +mind, while doing next to nothing that was noticeable. In music +it is different. Various learning is not so important as a keenly +sensitive organism. The principal thing is emotion, duly ordered +by the intellect, not intellect touched by emotion. Haydn's +precocity at any rate was of this sort. It proclaimed itself in a +quick impressionableness to sound, a delicately-strung ear, and +an acute perception of rhythm. + +Informal Music-Making + +We have seen how the father had his musical evenings with his +harp and the voices of wife and children. These informal +rehearsals were young Haydn's delight. We hear more particularly +of his attempts at music-making by sawing away upon a piece of +stick at his father's side, pretending to play the violin like +the village schoolmaster under whom he was now learning his +rudiments. The parent was hugely pleased at these manifestations +of musical talent in his son. He had none of the absurd, old- +world ideas of Surgeon Handel as to the degrading character of +the divine art, but encouraged the youngster in every possible +way. Already he dreamt--what father of a clever boy has not done +the same?--that Joseph would in some way or other make the family +name famous; and although it is said that like his wife, he had +notions of the boy becoming a priest, he took the view that his +progress towards holy orders would be helped rather than hindered +by the judicious cultivation of his undoubted taste for music. + +His First Teacher + +While these thoughts were passing through his head, the chance +visit of a relation practically decided young Haydn's future. His +grandmother, being left a widow, had married a journeyman +wheelwright, Matthias Seefranz, and one of their children married +a schoolmaster, Johann Matthias Frankh. Frankh combined with the +post of pedagogue that of choir-regent at Hainburg, the ancestral +home of the Haydns, some four leagues from Rohrau. He came +occasionally to Rohrau to see his relatives, and one day he +surprised Haydn keeping strict time to the family music on his +improvised fiddle. Some discussion following about the boy's +unmistakable talent, the schoolmaster generously offered to take +him to Hainburg that he might learn "the first elements of music +and other juvenile acquirements." The father was pleased; the +mother, hesitating at first, gave her reluctant approval, and +Haydn left the family home never to return, except on a flying +visit. This was in 1738, when he was six years of age. + +Hainburg + +The town of Hainburg lies close to the Danube, and looks very +picturesque with its old walls and towers. According to the +Nibelungen Lied, King Attila once spent a night in the place, and +a stone figure of that "scourge of God" forms a feature of the +Hainburg Wiener Thor, a rock rising abruptly from the river, +crowned with the ruined Castle of Rottenstein. The town cannot be +very different from what it was in Haydn's time, except perhaps +that there is now a tobacco manufactory, which gives employment +to some 2000 hands. + +It is affecting to think of the little fellow of six dragged away +from his home and his mother's watchful care to be planted down +here among strange surroundings and a strange people. That he was +not very happy we might have assumed in any case. But there were, +unfortunately, some things to render him more unhappy than he +need have been. Frankh's intentions were no doubt excellent; but +neither in temper nor in character was he a fit guardian and +instructor of youth. He got into trouble with the authorities +more than once for neglect of his duties, and had to answer a +charge of gambling with loaded dice. As a teacher he was of that +stern disciplinarian kind which believes in lashing instruction +into the pupil with the "tingling rod." Haydn says he owed him +more cuffs than gingerbread. + +"A Regular Little Urchin" + +What he owed to the schoolmaster's wife may be inferred from the +fact that she compelled him to wear a wig "for the sake of +cleanliness." All his life through Haydn was most particular +about his personal appearance, and when quite an old man it +pained him greatly to recall the way in which he was neglected by +Frau Frankh. "I could not help perceiving," he remarked to Dies, +"much to my distress, that I was gradually getting very dirty, +and though I thought a good deal of my little person, was not +always able to avoid spots of dirt on my clothes, of which I was +dreadfully ashamed. In fact, I was a regular little urchin." +Perhaps we should not be wrong in surmising that the old man was +here reading into his childhood the habits and sentiments of his +later years. Young boys of his class are not usually deeply +concerned about grease spots or disheveled hair. Attacks the Drum + +At all events, if deplorably neglected in these personal matters, +he was really making progress with his art. Under Frankh's +tuition he attained to some proficiency on the violin and the +harpsichord, and his voice was so improved that, as an early +biographer puts it, he was able to "sing at the parish desk in a +style which spread his reputation through the canton." Haydn +himself, going back upon these days in a letter of 1779, says: +"Our Almighty Father (to whom above all I owe the most profound +gratitude) had endowed me with so much facility in music that +even in my sixth year I was bold enough to sing some masses in +the choir." He was bold enough to attempt something vastly more +ponderous. A drummer being wanted for a local procession, Haydn +undertook to play the part. Unluckily, he was so small of stature +that the instrument had to be carried before him on the back of a +colleague! That the colleague happened to be a hunchback only +made the incident more ludicrous. But Haydn had rather a +partiality for the drum--a satisfying instrument, as Mr. George +Meredith says, because of its rotundity--and, as we shall learn +when we come to his visits to London, he could handle the +instrument well enough to astonish the members of Salomon's +orchestra. According to Pohl, the particular instrument upon +which he performed on the occasion of the Hainburg procession is +still preserved in the choir of the church there. + +Hard as these early years must have been, Haydn recognized in +after-life that good had mingled with the ill. His master's +harshness had taught him patience and self-reliance. "I shall be +grateful to Frankh as long as I live," he said to Griesinger, +"for keeping me so hard at work." He always referred to Frankh as +"my first instructor," and, like Handel with Zachau, he +acknowledged his indebtedness in a practical way by bequeathing +to Frankh's daughter, then married, 100 florins and a portrait of +her father--a bequest which she missed by dying four years before +the composer himself. + +A Piece of Good Fortune + +Haydn had been two years with Frankh when an important piece of +good fortune befell him. At the time of which we are writing the +Court Capellmeister at Vienna was George Reutter, an +inexhaustible composer of church music, whose works, now +completely forgotten, once had a great vogue in all the choirs of +the Imperial States. Even in 1823 Beethoven, who was to write a +mass for the Emperor Francis, was recommended to adopt the style +of this frilled and periwigged pedant! Reutter's father had been +for many years Capellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, +and on his death, in 1738, the son succeeded to the post. He had +not been long established in the office when he started on a tour +of search for choristers. Arriving at Hainburg, he heard from the +local pastor of Haydn's "weak but pleasing voice," and +immediately had the young singer before him. + +A Musical Examination + +The story of the examination is rather amusing. Reutter gave the +little fellow a canon to sing at first sight. The boy went though +the thing triumphantly, and the delighted Reutter cried "Bravo!" +as he flung a handful of cherries into Haydn's cap. But there was +one point on which Reutter was not quite satisfied. "How is it, +my little man," he said, "that you cannot shake?" "How can you +expect me to shake," replied the enfant terrible, "when Herr +Frankh himself cannot shake?" The great man was immensely tickled +by the ready retort, and, drawing the child towards him, he +taught him how to make the vibrations in his throat required to +produce the ornament. The boy picked up the trick at once. It was +the final decision of his fate. Reutter saw that here was a +recruit worth having, and he lost no time in getting the parents' +sanction to carry him off to Vienna. In the father's case this +was easily managed, but the mother only yielded when it was +pointed out that her son's singing in the cathedral choir did not +necessarily mean the frustration of her hopes of seeing him made +a priest. + +Goes to Vienna + +Thus, some time in the year 1740, Reutter marched away from +Hainburg with the little Joseph, and Hainburg knew the little +Joseph no more. Vienna was now to be his home for ten long years +of dreary pupilage and genteel starvation. In those days, and for +long after, St Stephen's Cathedral was described as "the first +church in the empire," and it is still, with its magnificent +spire, the most important edifice in Vienna. Erected in 1258 and +1276 on the site of a church dating from 1144, it was not finally +completed until 1446. It is in the form of a Latin cross, and is +355 feet long. The roof is covered with coloured tiles, and the +rich groined vaulting is borne by eighteen massive pillars, +adorned with more than a hundred statuettes. Since 1852 the +building has been thoroughly restored, but in all essentials it +remains as it was when Haydn sang in it as a choir-boy. Many +interesting details have been printed regarding the Choir School +of St Stephen's and its routine in Haydn's time. They have been +well summarized by one of his biographers [See Miss Townsend's +Haydn, p. 9]. + +The Choir School of St. Steven's + +The Cantorei was of very ancient foundation. Mention is made of +it as early as 1441, and its constitution may be gathered from +directions given regarding it about the period 1558-1571. It was +newly constituted in 1663, and many alterations were made then +and afterwards, but in Haydn's day it was still practically what +it had been for nearly a century before. The school consisted of +a cantor (made Capellmeister in 1663), a sub-cantor, two ushers +and six scholars. They all resided together, and had meals in +common; and although ample allowance had originally been made for +the board, lodging and clothing of the scholars, the increased +cost of living resulted in the boys of Haydn's time being poorly +fed and scantily clad. They were instructed in "religion and +Latin, together with the ordinary subjects of school education, +and in music, the violin, clavier, and singing." The younger +scholars were taken in hand by those more advanced. The routine +would seem to us now to be somewhat severe. There were two full +choral services daily in the cathedral. Special Te Deums were +constantly sung, and the boys had to take part in the numerous +solemn processions of religious brotherhoods through the city, as +well as in the services for royal birthdays and other such +occasions. During Holy Week the labours of the choir were +continuous. Children's processions were very frequent, and +Haydn's delight in after years at the performance of the charity +children in St Paul's may have been partly owing to the +reminiscences of early days which it awakened. + +A House of Suffering + +But these details are aside from our main theme. The chapel-house +of St Stephen's was now the home of our little Joseph. It ought +to have been a happy home of instruction, but it was, alas! s +house of suffering. Reutter did not devote even ordinary care to +his pupil, and from casual lessons in musical theory he drifted +into complete neglect. Haydn afterwards declared that he had +never had more than two lessons in composition from Reutter, who +was, moreover, harsh and cruel and unfeeling, laughing at his +pupil's groping attempts, and chastising him on the slightest +pretext. It has been hinted that the Capellmeister was jealous of +his young charge--that he was "afraid of finding a rival in the +pupil." But this is highly improbable. Haydn had not as yet shown +any unusual gifts likely to excite the envy of his superior. +There is more probability in the other suggestion that Reutter +was piqued at not having been allowed by Haydn's father to +perpetuate the boy's fine voice by the ancient method of +emasculation. The point, in any case, is not of very much +importance. It is sufficient to observe that Reutter's name +survives mainly in virtue of the fact that he tempted Haydn to +Vienna with the promise of special instruction, and gave him +practically nothing of that, but a great deal of ill-usage. + +Haydn was supposed to have lessons from two undistinguished +professors named Gegenbauer and Finsterbusch. + +Lesson at St. Stephen's + +But it all amounted to very little. There was the regular +drilling for the church services, to be sure: solfeggi and +psalms, psalms and solfeggi--always apt to degenerate, under a +pedant, into the dreariest of mechanical routine. How many a +sweet-voiced chorister, even in our own days, reaches manhood +with a love for music? It needs music in his soul. Haydn's soul +withstood the numbing influence of pedantry. He realized that it +lay with himself to develop and nurture the powers within his +breast of which he was conscious. "The talent was in me," he +remarked, "and by dint of hard work I managed to get on." Shortly +before his death, when he happened to be in Vienna for some +church festival, he had an opportunity of speaking to the choir- +boys of that time. "I was once a singing boy," he said. "Reutter +brought me from Hainburg to Vienna. I was industrious when my +companions were at play. I used to take my little clavier under +my arm, and go off to practice undisturbed. When I sang a solo, +the baker near St Stephen's yonder always gave me a cake as a +present. Be good and industrious, and serve God continually." + +A Sixteen-Part Mass! + +It is pathetic to think of the boy assiduously scratching +innumerable notes on scraps of music paper, striving with yet +imperfect knowledge to express himself, and hoping that by some +miracle of inspiration something like music might come out of it. +"I thought it must be all right if the paper was nice and full," +he said. He even went the length of trying to write a mass in +sixteen parts--an effort which Reutter rewarded with a shrug and +a sneer, and the sarcastic suggestion that for the present two +parts might be deemed sufficient, and that he had better perfect +his copying of music before trying to compose it. But Haydn was +not to be snubbed and snuffed out in this way. He appealed to his +father for money to buy some theory books. There was not too much +money at Rohrau, we may be sure, for the family was always +increasing, and petty economies were necessary. But the +wheelwright managed to send the boy six florins, and that sum was +immediately expended on Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum and Mattheson's +Volkommener Capellmeister--heavy, dry treatises both, which have +long since gone to the musical antiquary's top shelf among the +dust and the cobwebs. These "dull and verbose dampers to +enthusiasm" Haydn made his constant companions, in default of a +living instructor, and, like Longfellow's "great men," toiled +upwards in the night, while less industrious mortals snored. + +Juvenile Escapades + +Meanwhile his native exuberance and cheerfulness of soul were +irrepressible. Several stories are told of the schoolboy +escapades he enjoyed with his fellow choristers. One will suffice +here. He used to boast that he had sung with success at Court as +well as in St Stephen's. This meant that he had made one of the +choir when visits were paid to the Palace of Schonbrunn, where +the Empress Maria and her Court resided. On the occasion of one +of these visits the palace was in the hands of the builders, and +the scaffolding presented the usual temptation to the youngsters. +"The empress," to quote Pohl, "had caught them climbing it many a +time, but her threats and prohibitions had no effect. One day +when Haydn was balancing himself aloft, far above his +schoolfellows, the empress saw him from the windows, and +requested her Hofcompositor to take care that 'that fair-headed +blockhead,' the ringleader of them all, got 'einen recenten +Schilling' (slang for 'a good hiding')." The command was only too +willingly obeyed by the obsequious Reutter, who by this time had +been ennobled, and rejoiced in the addition of "von" to his name. +Many years afterwards, when the empress was on a visit to Prince +Esterhazy, the "fair-headed blockhead" took the cruel delight of +thanking her for this rather questionable mark of Imperial +favour! + +"Sang like a Crow" + +As a matter of fact, the empress, however she may have thought of +Haydn the man, showed herself anything but considerate to Haydn +the choir-boy. The future composer's younger brother, Michael, +had now arrived in Vienna, and had been admitted to the St +Stephen's choir. His voice is said to have been "stronger and of +better quality" than Joseph's, which had almost reached the +"breaking" stage; and the empress, complaining to Reutter that +Joseph "sang like a crow," the complacent choirmaster put Michael +in his place. The empress was so pleased with the change that she +personally complimented Michael, and made him a present of 24 +ducats. + +Dismissed from St. Stephen's + +One thing leads to another. Reutter, it is obvious, did not like +Haydn, and any opportunity of playing toady to the empress was +too good to be lost. Unfortunately Haydn himself provided the +opportunity. Having become possessed of a new pair of scissors, +he was itching to try their quality. The pig-tail of the +chorister sitting before him offered an irresistible attraction; +one snip and lo! the plaited hair lay at his feet. Discipline +must be maintained; and Reutter sentenced the culprit to be caned +on the hand. This was too great an indignity for poor Joseph, by +this time a youth of seventeen--old enough, one would have +thought, to have forsworn such boyish mischief. He declared that +he would rather leave the cathedral service than submit. "You +shall certainly leave," retorted the Capellmeister, "but you must +be caned first." And so, having received his caning, Haydn was +sent adrift on the streets of Vienna, a broken-voiced chorister, +without a coin in his pocket, and with only poverty staring him +in the face. This was in November 1749. + +CHAPTER II + +VIENNA--1750-1760 + +Vienna--The Forlorn Ex-Chorister--A Good Samaritan--Haydn +Enskied--Street Serenades--Joins a Pilgrim Party--An +Unconditional Loan--"Attic" Studies--An Early Composition-- +Metastasio--A Noble Pupil--Porpora--Menial Duties--Emanuel Bach-- +Haydn his Disciple--Violin Studies--Attempts at "Programme" +Music--First Opera--An Aristocratic Appointment--Taken for an +Impostor--A Count's Capellmeister--Falls in Love--Marries--His +Wife. + +Vienna + +The Vienna into which Haydn was thus cast, a friendless and +forlorn youth of seventeen, was not materially different from the +Vienna of today. While the composer was still living, one who had +made his acquaintance wrote of the city: "Represent to yourself +an assemblage of palaces and very neat houses, inhabited by the +most opulent families of one of the greatest monarchies in +Europe--by the only noblemen to whom that title may still be with +justice applied. The women here are attractive; a brilliant +complexion adorns an elegant form; the natural but sometimes +languishing and tiresome air of the ladies of the north of +Germany is mingled with a little coquetry and address, the effect +of the presence of a numerous Court...In a word, pleasure has +taken possession of every heart." This was written when Haydn was +old and famous; it might have been written when his name was yet +unknown. + +Vienna was essentially a city of pleasure--a city inhabited by "a +proud and wealthy nobility, a prosperous middle class, and a +silent, if not contented, lower class." In 1768, Leopold Mozart, +the father of the composer, declared that the Viennese public had +no love of anything serious or sensible; "they cannot even +understand it, and their theatres furnish abundant proof that +nothing but utter trash, such as dances, burlesques, +harlequinades, ghost tricks, and devils' antics will go down with +them." There is, no doubt, a touch of exaggeration in all this, +but it is sufficiently near the truth to let us understand the +kind of attention which the disgraced chorister of St Stephen's +was likely to receive from the musical world of Vienna. It was +Vienna, we may recall, which dumped Mozart into a pauper's grave, +and omitted even to mark the spot. + +The Forlorn Ex-Chorister + +Young Haydn, then, was wandering, weary and perplexed, through +its streets, with threadbare clothes on his back and nothing in +his purse. There was absolutely no one to whom he could think of +turning. He might, indeed, have taken the road to Rohrau and been +sure of a warm welcome from his humble parents there. But there +were good reasons why he should not make himself a burden on +them; and, moreover, he probably feared that at home he would run +some risk of being tempted to abandon his cherished profession. +Frau Haydn had not yet given up the hope of seeing her boy made a +priest, and though we have no definite information that Haydn +himself felt a decided aversion to taking orders, it is evident +that he was disinclined to hazard the danger of domestic +pressure. He had now finally made up his mind that he would be a +composer; but he saw clearly enough that, for the present, he +must work, and work, too, not for fame, but for bread. + +A Good Samaritan + +Musing on these things while still parading the streets, tired +and hungry, he met one Spangler, a tenor singer of his +acquaintance, who earned a pittance at the Church of St Michael. +Spangler was a poor man--but it is ever the poor who are most +helpful to each other--and, taking pity on the dejected outcast, +he invited Haydn to share his garret rooms along with his wife +and child. It is regrettable that nothing more is known of this +good Samaritan--one of those obscure benefactors who go through +the world doing little acts of kindness, never perhaps even +suspecting how far-reaching will be the results. He must have +died before Haydn, otherwise his name would certainly have +appeared in his will. + +Haydn Enskied + +Haydn remained with Spangler in that "ghastly garret" all through +the winter of l749-1750. He has been commiserated on the garret-- +needlessly, to be sure. Garrets are famous, in literary annals at +any rate; and is it not Leigh Hunt who reminds us that the top +story is healthier than the basement? The poor poet in Pope, who +lay high in Drury Lane, "lull'd by soft zephyrs through the +broken pane," found profit, doubtless, in his "neighbourhood with +the stars." However that may be, there, in Spangler's attic, was +Haydn enskied, eager for work--work of any kind, so long as it +had fellowship with music and brought him the bare means of +subsistence. + +"Scanning his whole horizon +In quest of what he could clap eyes on," + +he sought any and every means of making money. He tried to get +teaching, with what success has not been recorded. He sang in +choirs, played at balls and weddings and baptisms, made +"arrangements" for anybody who would employ him, and in short +drudged very much as Wagner did at the outset of his tempestuous +career. + +Street Serenades + +He even took part in street serenades by playing the violin. This +last was not a very dignified occupation; but it is important to +remember that serenading in Vienna was not the lover's business +of Italy and Spain, where the singer is accompanied by guitar or +mandoline. It was a much more serious entertainment. It dated +from the seventeenth century, if we are to trust Praetorius, and +consisted of solos and concerted vocal music in various forms, +accompanied sometimes by full orchestra and sometimes by wind +instruments alone. Great composers occasionally honoured their +patrons and friends with the serenade; and composers who hoped to +be great found it advantageous as a means of gaining a hearing +for their works. It proved of some real service to Haydn later +on, but in the meantime it does not appear to have swelled his +lean purse. With all his industry he fell into the direst straits +now and again, and was more than once driven into wild projects +by sheer stress of hunger. + +Joins a Pilgrim Party + +One curious story is told of a journey to Mariazell, in Styria. +This picturesquely-situated village has been for many years the +most frequented shrine in Austria. Today it is said to be visited +by something like 100,000 pilgrims every year. The object of +adoration is the miraculous image of the Madonna and Child, +twenty inches high, carved in lime-wood, which was presented to +the Mother Church of Mariazell in 1157 by a Benedictine priest. +Haydn was a devout Catholic, and not improbably knew all about +Mariazell and its Madonna. At any rate, he joined a company of +pilgrims, and on arrival presented himself to the local +choirmaster for admission, showing the official some of his +compositions, and telling of his eight years' training at St +Stephen's. The choirmaster was not impressed. "I have had enough +of lazy rascals from Vienna," said he. "Be off!" But Haydn, after +coming so far, was not to be dismissed so unceremoniously. He +smuggled himself into the choir, pleaded with the solo singer of +the day to be allowed to act as his deputy, and, when this was +refused, snatched the music from the singer's hand, and took up +the solo at the right moment with such success that "all the +choir held their breath to listen." At the close of the service +the choirmaster sent for him, and, apologizing for his previous +rude behaviour, invited him to his house for the day. The +invitation extended to, a week, and Haydn returned to Vienna with +money enough--the result of a subscription among the choir--to +serve his immediate needs. + +An Unconditional Loan + +But it would have been strange if, in a musical city like Vienna, +a youth of Haydn's gifts had been allowed to starve. Slowly but +surely he made his way, and people who could help began to hear +of him. The most notable of his benefactors at this time was a +worthy tradesman named Buchholz, who made him an unconditional +loan of 150 florins. An echo of this unexpected favour is heard +long years after in the composer's will, where we read: "To +Fraulein Anna Buchholz, 100 florins, inasmuch as in my youth her +grandfather lent me 150 florins when I greatly needed them, +which, however, I repaid fifty years ago." + +"Attic" Studies + +One hundred and fifty florins was no great sum assuredly, but at +this time it was a small fortune to Haydn. He was able to do a +good many things with it. First of all, he took a lodging for +himself--another attic! Spangler had been very kind, but he could +not give the young musician the privacy needed for study. It +chanced that there was a room vacant, "nigh to the gods and the +clouds," in the old Michaelerhaus in the Kohlmarkt, and Haydn +rented it. It was not a very comfortable room--just big enough to +allow the poor composer to turn about. It was dimly lighted. It +"contained no stove, and the roof was in such bad repair that the +rain and the snow made unceremonious entry and drenched the young +artist in his bed. In winter the water in his jug froze so hard +during the night that he had to go and draw direct from the +well." For neighbours he had successively a journeyman printer, a +footman and a cook. These were not likely to respect his desire +for quiet, but the mere fact of his having a room all to himself +made him oblivious of external annoyances. As he expressed it, he +was "too happy to envy the lot of kings." He had his old, worm- +eaten spinet, and his health and his good spirits; and although +he was still poor and unknown, he was "making himself all the +time," like Sir Walter Scott in Liddesdale. + +An Early Composition + +Needless to say, he was composing a great deal. Much of his +manuscript was, of course, torn up or consigned to the flames, +but one piece of work survived. This was his first Mass in F (No. +11 in Novello's edition), erroneously dated by some writers 1742. +It shows signs of immaturity and inexperience, but when Haydn in +his old age came upon the long-forgotten score he was so far from +being displeased with it that he rearranged the music, inserting +additional wind parts. One biographer sees in this procedure "a +striking testimony to the genius of the lad of eighteen." We need +not read it in that way. It rather shows a natural human +tenderness for his first work, a weakness, some might call it, +but even so, more pardonable than the weakness--well illustrated +by some later instances--of hunting out early productions and +publishing them without a touch of revision. + +Metastasio + +It was presumably by mere chance that in that same rickety +Michaelerhaus there lived at this date not only the future +composer of "The Creation," but the Scribe of the eighteenth +century, the poet and opera librettist, Metastasio. Born in 1698, +the son of humble parents, this distinguished writer had, like +Haydn, suffered from "the eternal want of pence." A precocious +boy, he had improvised verses and recited them on the street, and +fame came to him only after long and weary years of waiting. In +1729 he was appointed Court poet to the theatre at Vienna, for +which he wrote several of his best pieces, and when he made +Haydn's acquaintance his reputation was high throughout the whole +of Europe. Naturally, he did not live so near the clouds as +Haydn--his rooms were on the third story--but he heard somehow of +the friendless, penniless youth in the attic, and immediately +resolved to do what he could to further his interests. This, as +events proved, was by no means inconsiderable. + +A Noble Pupil + +Metastasio had been entrusted with the education of Marianne von +Martinez, the daughter of a Spanish gentleman who was Master of +the Ceremonies to the Apostolic Nuncio. The young lady required a +musicmaster, and the poet engaged Haydn to teach her the +harpsichord, in return for which service he was to receive free +board. Fraulein Martinez became something of a musical celebrity. +When she was only seventeen she had a mass performed at St +Michael's Church, Vienna. She was a favourite of the Empress +Maria Theresa, and is extolled by Burney--who speaks of her +"marvelous accuracy" in the writing of English--as a singer and a +player, almost as highly as Gluck's niece. Her name finds a place +in the biographies of Mozart, who, at her musical receptions, +used to take part with her in duets of her own composition. +Several of her manuscripts are still in the possession of the +Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Something of her musical +distinction ought certainly to be attributed to Haydn, who gave +her daily lessons for three years, during which time he was +comfortably housed with the family. + +Porpora + +It was through Metastasio, too, that he was introduced to Niccolo +Porpora, the famous singing-master who taught the great +Farinelli, and whose name is sufficiently familiar from its +connection with an undertaking set on foot by Handel's enemies in +London. Porpora seems at this time to have ruled Vienna as a sort +of musical director and privileged censor, to have been, in fact, +what Rossini was for many years in Paris. He was giving lessons +to the mistress of Correr, the Venetian ambassador--a "rare +musical enthusiast"--and he employed Haydn to act as accompanist +during the lessons. + +We get a curious insight into the social conditions of the +musicians of this time in the bearing of Haydn towards Porpora +and his pupil. That Haydn should become the instructor of +Fraulein Martinez in no way compromised his dignity; nor can any +reasonable objection be raised against his filling the post of, +accompanist to the ambassador's mistress. But what shall be said +of his being transported to the ambassador's summer quarters at +Mannersdorf, and doing duty there for six ducats a month and his +board--at the servants' table? The reverend author of Music and +Morals answers by reminding us that in those days musicians were +not the confidential advisers of kings like Wagner, rich banker's +sons like Meyerbeer, private gentlemen like Mendelssohn, and +members of the Imperial Parliament like Verdi. They were "poor +devils" like Haydn. Porpora was a great man, no doubt, in his own +metier. But it is surely odd to hear of Haydn acting the part of +very humble servant to the singing-master; blackening his boots +and trimming his wig, and brushing his coat, and running his +errands, and playing his accompaniments! Let us, however, +remember Haydn's position and circumstances. He was a poor man. +He had never received any regular tuition such as Handel received +from Zachau, Mozart from his father, and Mendelssohn from Zelter. +He had to pick up his instruction as he went along; and if he +felt constrained to play the lackey to Porpora, it was only with +the object of receiving in return something which would help to +fit him for his profession. As he naively said, "I improved +greatly in singing, composition, and Italian." [The relations of +Haydn and Porpora are sketched in George Sand's "Consuelo."] + +Emanuel Bach + +In the meantime he was carrying on his private studies with the +greatest assiduity. His Fux and his Mattheson had served their +turn, and he had now supplemented them by the first six Clavier +Sonatas of Philipp Emanuel Bach, the third son of the great +composer. The choice may seem curious when we remember that Haydn +had at his hand all the music of Handel and Bach, and the masters +of the old contrapuntal school. But it was wisely made. The +simple, well-balanced form of Emanuel Bach's works "acted as well +as a master's guidance upon him, and led him to the first steps +in that style of writing which was afterwards one of his greatest +glories." The point is admirably put by Sir Hubert Parry. He +says, in effect, that what Haydn had to build upon, and what was +most congenial to him, through his origin and circumstances, was +the popular songs and dances of his native land, which, in the +matter of structure, belong to the same order of art as +symphonies and sonatas; and how this kind of music could be made +on a grander scale was what he wanted to discover. The music of +Handel and Bach leaned too much towards the style of the choral +music and organ music of the church to serve him as a model. For +their art was essentially contrapuntal--the combination of +several parts each of equal importance with the rest, each in a +sense pursuing its own course. In modern music the essential +principle is harmonic: the chords formed by the combination of +parts are derived and developed in reference to roots and keys. +In national dances few harmonies are used, but they are arranged +on the same principles as the harmonies of a sonata or a +symphony; and "what had to be found out in order to make grand +instrumental works was how to arrange more harmonies with the +same effect of unity as is obtained on a small scale in dances +and national songs." Haydn, whose music contains many +reminiscences of popular folk-song, had in him the instinct for +this kind of art; and the study of Philipp Emanuel's works taught +him how to direct his energies in the way that was most agreeable +to him. + +Although much has been written about Emanuel Bach, it is probable +that the full extent of his genius remains yet to be recognized. +He was the greatest clavier player, teacher and accompanist of +his day; a master of form, and the pioneer of a style which was a +complete departure from that of his father. Haydn's enthusiasm +for him can easily be explained. "I did not leave the clavier +till I had mastered all his six sonatas," he says, "and those who +know me well must be aware that I owe very much to Emanuel Bach, +whose works I understand and have thoroughly studied. Emanuel +Bach himself once complimented me on this fact." When Haydn began +to make a name Bach hailed him with delight as a disciple, and +took occasion to send him word that, "he alone had thoroughly +comprehended his works and made a proper use of them." + +This is a sufficient answer to the absurd statement which has +been made, and is still sometimes repeated, that Bach was jealous +of the young composer and abused him to his friends. A writer in +the European Magazine for October 1784., says that Bach was +"amongst the number of professors who wrote against our rising +author." He mentions others as doing the same thing, and then +continues: "The only notice Haydn took of their scurrility and +abuse was to publish lessons written in imitation of the several +styles of his enemies, in which their peculiarities were so +closely copied and their extraneous passages (particularly those +of Bach of Hamburg) so inimitably burlesqued, that they all felt +the poignancy of his musical wit, confessed its truth, and were +silent." Further on we read that the sonatas of Ops. 13 and 14 +were "expressly composed in order to ridicule Bach of Hamburg." +All this is manifestly a pure invention. Many of the +peculiarities of Emanuel Bach's style are certainly to be found +in Haydn's works--notes wide apart, pause bars, surprise +modulations, etc., etc.--but if every young composer who adopts +the tricks of his model is to be charged with caricature, few can +hope to escape. The truth is, of course, that every man's style, +whether in music or in writing, is a "mingled yarn" of many +strands, and it serves no good purpose to unravel it, even if we +could. + +Violin Studies + +Haydn's chief instrument was the clavier, but in addition to that +he diligently practiced the violin. It was at this date that he +took lessons on the latter instrument from "a celebrated +virtuoso." The name is not mentioned, but the general opinion is +that Dittersdorf was the instructor. This eminent musician +obtained a situation as violinist in the Court Orchestra at +Vienna in 1760; and, curiously enough, after many years of +professional activity, succeeded Haydn's brother, Michael, as +Capellmeister to the Bishop of Groswardein in Hungary. He wrote +an incredible amount of music, and his opera, "Doctor and +Apotheker," by which he eclipsed Mozart at one time, has survived +up to the present. Whether or not he gave Haydn lessons on the +violin, it is certain that the pair became intimate friends, and +had many happy days and some practical jokes together. One story +connected with their names sounds apocryphal, but there is no +harm in quoting it. Haydn and Dittersdorf were strolling down a +back street when they heard a fiddler scraping away in a little +beer cellar. Haydn, entering, inquired, "Whose minuet is that you +are playing?" "Haydn's," answered the fiddler. "It's a--bad +minuet," replied Haydn, whereupon the enraged player turned upon +him and would have broken his head with the fiddle had not +Dittersdorf dragged him away. + +Attempts at Programme Music + +It seems to have been about this time--the date, in fact, was +l75l--that Haydn, still pursuing his serenading practices, +directed a performance of a quintet of his own composition under +the windows of Felix Kurz, a well-known Viennese comedian and +theatrical manager. According to an old writer, Kurz amused the +public by his puns, and drew crowds to his theatre by his +originality and by good operabuffas. He had, moreover, a handsome +wife, and "this was an additional reason for our nocturnal +adventurers to go and perform their serenades under the +harlequin's windows." The comedian was naturally flattered by +Haydn's attention. He heard the music, and, liking it, called the +composer into the house to show his skill on the clavier. Kurz +appears to have been an admirer of what we would call "programme" +music. At all events he demanded that Haydn should give him a +musical representation of a storm at sea. Unfortunately, Haydn +had never set eyes on the "mighty monster," and was hard put to +it to describe what he knew nothing about. He made several +attempts to satisfy Kurz, but without success. At last, out of +all patience, he extended his hands to the two ends of the +harpsichord, and, bringing them rapidly together, exclaimed, as +he rose from the instrument, "The devil take the tempest." +"That's it! That's it!" cried the harlequin, springing upon his +neck and almost suffocating him. Haydn used to say that when he +crossed the Straits of Dover in bad weather, many years +afterwards, he often smiled to himself as he thought of the +juvenile trick which so delighted the Viennese comedian. + +But the comedian wanted more from Haydn than a tempest on the +keyboard. He had written the libretto of an opera, "Der Neue +Krumme Teufel," and desired that Haydn should set it to music. + +His First Opera + +The chance was too good to be thrown away, and Haydn proceeded to +execute the commission with alacrity, not a little stimulated, +doubtless, by the promise of 24 ducats for the work. There is a +playfulness and buoyancy about much of Haydn's music which seems +to suggest that he might have succeeded admirably in comic opera, +and it is really to be regretted that while the words of "Der +Neue Krumme Teufel" have been preserved, the music has been lost. +It would have been interesting to see what the young composer had +made of a subject which=-from Le Sage's "Le Diable Boiteux" +onwards--has engaged the attention of so many playwrights and +musicians. The opera was produced at the Stadt Theatre in the +spring of 1752, and was frequently repeated not only in Vienna, +but in Berlin, Prague, Saxony and the Breisgau. + +An Aristocratic Appointment + +An event of this kind must have done something for Haydn's +reputation, which was now rapidly extending. Porpora seems also +to have been of no small service to him in the way of introducing +him to aristocratic acquaintances. At any rate, in 1755, a +wealthy musical amateur, the Baron von Furnberg, who frequently +gave concerts at his country house at Weinzierl, near Vienna, +invited him to take the direction of these performances and +compose for their programmes. It was for this nobleman that he +wrote his first string quartet, the one in B flat beginning-- + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +This composition was rapidly followed by seventeen other works of +the same class, all written between 1755 and 1756. + +Haydn's connection with Furnberg and the success of his +compositions for that nobleman at once gave him a distinction +among the musicians and dilettanti of Vienna. He now felt +justified in increasing his fees, and charged from 2 to 5 florins +for a month's lessons. + +Taken for an Impostor + +Remembering the legend of his unboylike fastidiousness, and the +undoubted nattiness of his later years, it is curious to come +upon an incident of directly opposite tendency. A certain +Countess von Thun, whose name is associated with Beethoven, +Mozart and Gluck, met with one of his clavier sonatas in +manuscript, and expressed a desire to see him. When Haydn +presented himself, the countess was so struck by his shabby +appearance and uncouth manners that it occurred to her he must be +an impostor! But Haydn soon removed her doubts by the pathetic +and realistic account which he gave of his lowly origin and his +struggles with poverty, and the countess ended by becoming his +pupil and one of his warmest friends. + +A Count's Capellmeister + +Haydn is said to have held for a time the post of organist to the +Count Haugwitz; but his first authenticated fixed engagement +dates from 1759, when, through the influence of Baron Furnberg, +he was appointed Capellmeister to the Bohemian Count Morzin. This +nobleman, whose country house was at Lukavec, near Pilsen, was a +great lover of music, and maintained a small, well-chosen +orchestra of some sixteen or eighteen performers. It was for him +that Haydn wrote his first Symphony in D-- + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] + +Falls in Love + +We now approach an interesting event in Haydn's career. In the +course of some banter at the house of Rogers, Campbell the poet +once remarked that marriage in nine cases out of ten looks like +madness. Haydn's case was not the tenth. His salary from Count +Morzin was only 20 pounds with board and lodging; he was not +making anything substantial by his compositions; and his teaching +could not have brought him a large return. Yet, with the +proverbial rashness of his class, he must needs take a wife, and +that, too, in spite, of the fact that Count Morzin never kept a +married man in his service! "To my mind," said Mozart, "a +bachelor lives only half a life." It is true enough; but Mozart +had little reason to bless the "better half," while Haydn had +less. The lady with whom he originally proposed to brave the +future was one of his own pupils--the younger of the two +daughters of Barber Keller, to whom he had been introduced when +he was a chorister at St Stephen's. According to Dies, Haydn had +lodged with the Kellers at one time. The statement is doubtful, +but in any case his good stars were not in the ascendant when it +was ordained that he should marry into this family. + +Marries + +It was, as we have said, with the younger of the two daughters +that he fell in love. Unfortunately, for some unexplained reason, +she took the veil, and said good-bye to a wicked world. Like the +hero in "Locksley Hall," Haydn may have asked himself, "What is +that which I should do?" But Keller soon solved the problem for +him. "Barbers are not the most diffident people of the world," as +one of the race remarks in "Gil Blas," and Keller was assuredly +not diffident. "Never mind," he said to Haydn, "you shall have +the other." Haydn very likely did not want the other, but, +recognizing with Dr. Holmes's fashionable lady that "getting +married is like jumping overboard anyway you look at it," he +resolved to risk it and take Anna Maria Keller for better or +worse. + +His Wife + +The marriage was solemnized at St Stephen's on November 26, 1760, +when the bridegroom was twenty-nine and the bride thirty-two. +There does not seem to have been much affection on either side to +start with; but Haydn declared that he had really begun to "like" +his wife, and would have come to entertain a stronger feeling for +her if she had behaved in a reasonable way. It was, however, not +in Anna Maria's nature to behave in a reasonable way. The +diverting Marville says that the majority of women married to men +of genius are so vain of the abilities of their husbands that +they are frequently insufferable. Frau Haydn was not a woman of +that kind. As Haydn himself sadly remarked, it did not matter to +her whether he were a cobbler or an artist. She used his +manuscript scores for curling papers and underlays for the +pastry, and wrote to him when he was in England for money to buy +a "widow's home." He was even driven to pitifully undignified +expedients to protect his hard-earned cash from her extravagant +hands. + +There are not many details of Anna Maria's behaviour, for Haydn +was discreetly reticent about his domestic affairs; and only two +references can be found in all his published correspondence to +the woman who had rendered his life miserable. But these +anecdotes tell us enough. For a long time he tried making the +best of it; but making the best of it is a poor affair when it +comes to a man and woman living together, and the day arrived +when the composer realized that to live entirely apart was the +only way of ending a union that had proved anything but a +foretaste of heaven. Frau Haydn looked to spend her last years in +a "widow's home" provided for her by the generosity of her +husband, but she predeceased him by nine years, dying at Baden, +near Vienna, on the 20th of March 1800. With this simple +statement of facts we may finally dismiss a matter that is best +left to silence--to where "beyond these voices there is peace." + +Whether Count Morzin would have retained the services of Haydn in +spite of his marriage is uncertain. The question was not put to +the test, for the count fell into financial embarrassments and +had to discharge his musical establishment. A short time before +this, Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy had heard some of Haydn's +compositions when on a visit to Morzin, and, being favourably +impressed thereby, he resolved to engage Haydn should an +opportunity ever present itself. The opportunity had come, and +Haydn entered the service of a family who were practically his +life-long patrons, and with whom his name must always be +intimately associated. + +CHAPTER III + +EISENSTADT--1761-1766 + +The Esterhazy Family--Haydn's Agreement--An "Upper Servant"?-- +Dependence in the Order of Nature--Material and Artistic +Advantages of the Esterhazy Appointment--Some Disadvantages-- +Capellmeister Werner--A Posthumous Tribute--Esterhazy "The +Magnificent"--Compositions for Baryton--A Reproval--Operettas and +other Occasional Works--First Symphonies. + +The Esterhazy Family + +As Haydn served the Esterhazys uninterruptedly for the long +period of thirty years, a word or two about this distinguished +family will not be out of place. At the present time the +Esterhazy estates include twenty-nine lordships, with twenty-one +castles, sixty market towns, and 414 villages in Hungary, besides +lordships in Lower Austria and a county in Bavaria. This alone +will give some idea of the power and importance of the house to +which Haydn was attached. The family was divided into three main +branches, but it is with the Frakno or Forchtenstein line that we +are more immediately concerned. Count Paul Esterhazy of Frakno +(1635-1713) served in the Austrian army with such distinction as +to gain a field-marshal's baton at the age of thirty. He was the +first prince of the name, having been ennobled in 1687 for his +successes against the Turks and his support of the House of +Hapsburg. He was a musical amateur and a performer of some +ability, and it was to him that the family owed the existence of +the Esterhazy private chapel, with its solo singers, its chorus, +and its orchestra. Indeed, it was this prince who, in 1683, built +the splendid Palace of Eisenstadt, at the foot of the Leitha +mountains, in Hungary, where Haydn was to spend so many and such +momentous years. + +When Prince Paul died in 1713, he was succeeded by his son, +Joseph Anton, who acquired "enormous wealth," and raised the +Esterhazy family to "the height of its glory." This nobleman's +son, Paul Anton, was the reigning prince when Haydn was called to +Eisenstadt in 1761. He was a man of fifty, and had already a +brilliant career behind him. Twice in the course of the Seven +Years' War he had "equipped and maintained during a whole +campaign a complete regiment of hussars for the service of his +royal mistress," and, like his distinguished ancestor, he had +been elevated to the dignity of field-marshal. He was +passionately devoted to the fine arts, more particularly to +music, and played the violin with eminent skill. Under his reign +the musical establishment at Eisenstadt enjoyed a prosperity +unknown at any other period of its history. + +Haydn's Agreement + +As there will be something to say about the terms and nature of +Haydn's engagement with Prince Paul Anton, it may be well to +quote the text of the agreement which he was required to sign. It +was in these terms: + +FORM OF AGREEMENT +AND +INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE VICE-CAPELLMEISTER + +"This day (according to the date hereto appended) Joseph Heyden +[sic] native of Rohrau, in Austria, is accepted and appointed +Vice-Capellmeister in the service of his Serene Highness, Paul +Anton, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, of Esterhazy and +Galantha, etc., etc., with the conditions here following: + +"1st. Seeing that the Capellmeister at Eisenstadt, by name +Gregorius Werner, having devoted many years of true and faithful +service to the princely house, is now, on account of his great +age and infirmities, unfit to perform the duties incumbent on +him, therefore the said Gregorious Werner, in consideration of +his long services, shall retain the post of Capellmeister, and +the said Joseph Heyden as Vice-Capellmeister shall, as far as +regards the music of the choir, be subordinate to the +Capellmeister and receive his instructions. But in everything +else relating to musical performances, and in all that concerns +the orchestra, the Vice-Capellmeister shall have the sole +direction. + +"2nd. The said Joseph Heyden shall be considered and treated as a +member of the household. Therefore his Serene Highness is +graciously pleased to place confidence in his conducting himself +as becomes an honourable official of a princely house. He must be +temperate, not showing himself overbearing towards his musicians, +but mild and lenient, straightforward and composed. It is +especially to be observed that when the orchestra shall be +summoned to perform before company, the Vice-Capellmeister and +all the musicians shall appear in uniform, and the said Joseph +Heyden shall take care that he and all members of his orchestra +do follow the instructions given, and appear in white stockings, +white linen, powdered, and either with a pig-tail or a tie-wig. + +"3rd. Seeing that the other musicians are referred for directions +to the said Vice-Capellmeister, therefore he should take the more +care to conduct himself in an exemplary manner, abstaining from +undue familiarity, and from vulgarity in eating, drinking and +conversation, not dispensing with the respect due to him, but +acting uprightly and influencing his subordinates to preserve +such harmony as is becoming in them, remembering how displeasing +the consequences of any discord or dispute would be to his Serene +Highness. + +"4th. The said Vice-Capellmeister shall be under an obligation to +compose such music as his Serene Highness may command, and +neither to communicate such compositions to any other person, nor +to allow them to be copied, but to retain them for the absolute +use of his Highness, and not to compose anything for any other +person without the knowledge and permission of his Highness. + +"5th. The said Joseph Heyden shall appear in the ante-chamber +daily, before and after mid-day, and inquire whether his Highness +is pleased to order a performance of the orchestra. After receipt +of his orders be shall communicate them to the other musicians +and shall take care to be punctual at the appointed time, and to +ensure punctuality in his subordinates, making a note of those +who arrive late or absent themselves altogether. + +"6th. Should any quarrel or cause of complaint arise, the Vice- +Capellmeister shall endeavour to arrange it, in order that his +Serene Highness may not be incommoded with trifling disputes; but +should any more serious difficulty occur, which the said Joseph +Heyden is unable to set right, his Serene Highness must then be +respectfully called upon to decide the matter. + +"7th. The said Vice-Capellmeister shall take careful charge of +all music and musical instruments, and shall be responsible for +any injury that may occur to them from carelessness or neglect. + +"8th. The said Joseph Heyden shall be obliged to instruct the +female vocalists, in order that they may not forget in the +country what they had been taught with much trouble and expense +in Vienna, and, as the said Vice-Capellmeister is proficient on +various instruments, he shall take care to practice himself on +all that he is acquainted with. + +"9th. A copy of this agreement and instructions shall be given to +the said Vice-Capellmeister and to his subordinates, in order +that he may be able to hold them to their obligations therein +laid down. "10th. It is considered unnecessary to detail the +services required of the said Joseph Heyden more particularly, +since his Serene Highness is pleased to hope that he will of his +own free will strictly observe not only these regulations, but +all others that may from time to time be made by his Highness, +and that he will place the orchestra on such a footing, and in +such good order, that he may bring honour upon himself, and +deserve the further favour of the Prince, his master, who thus +confides in his zeal and discretion. + +"11th. A salary of four hundred florins to be received quarterly +is hereby bestowed upon the said Vice-Capellmeister by his Serene +Highness. + +"12th. In addition, the said Joseph Heyden shall have board at +the officers' table, or half a gulden a day in lieu thereof. + +"13th. Finally, this agreement shall hold good for at least three +years from May 1st, 1761, with the further condition that if at +the conclusion of this term the said Joseph Heyden shall desire +to leave the service, he shall notify his intention to his +Highness half-a-year beforehand. + +"14th. His Serene Highness undertakes to keep Joseph Heyden in +his service during this time, and should he be satisfied with +him, he may look forward to being appointed Capellmeister. This, +however, must not be understood to deprive his Serene Highness of +the freedom to dismiss the said Joseph Heyden at the expiration +of the term, should he see fit to do so. + +"Duplicate copies of this document shall be executed and +exchanged. + +"Given at Vienna this 1st day of May 1761, + +"Ad mandatum Celsissimi Principis. + +"JOHANN STIFFTELL, Secretary." + +The situation indicated by this lengthy document has afforded +matter for a good deal of comment, and not a little foolish +writing. With some it is the old case of Porpora and the blacking +of the boots. + +An "Upper Servant"? + +Thus Miss Townsend remarks: "Our indignation is roused at finding +a great artist placed in the position of an upper servant, and +required to perform duties almost menial in their nature." That +is essentially a modern view. These things have to be judged in +relation to the ideas of the age. It was only a few years before +this that Johnson had contemptuously thrown away a pair of boots +which some pitying soul had placed at the door of his rooms at +Pembroke. The British mind likes to think of the sturdy +independence of the man who struck the death-blow at patronage in +literature. But Johnson himself had the meanest opinion of +fiddlers. + +Dependence in the Order of Nature + +There was no talk in Haydn's native country of the dignity of +art, at any rate so far as musicians were concerned. When Mozart +first arrived in Vienna in 1781, he had to live with the +archbishop's household, and dine at the servants' table. Nay, he +was known as "the villain, the low fellow." And is it altogether +certain even now, in free Britain, that the parish organist is +very clearly distinguished in the squire's mind from the +peripatetic organ-grinder? Public opinion does not seem to have +commiserated Haydn on his position of dependence; and, as for +Haydn himself, he was no doubt only too glad to have an assured +income and a comfortable home. We may be certain that he did not +find the yoke unbearably galling. He was of humble birth; of a +family which must always have looked up to their "betters" as +unspeakably and immeasurably above them. Dependence was in the +order of nature, and a man of Haydn's good sense was the last in +the world to starve and fret because his freedom to practice his +art and develop his powers was complicated with a sort of feudal +service. Some strong souls may find an empty purse the truest +source of inspiration, as Mr. Russell Lowell declares it to be; +but it is very much to be doubted whether a careful investigation +would show that a great man's best work was done with the wolf at +the door. + +Material Advantages + +Haydn had no self-pity: why should we pity him? He had free +quarters at the palace, with liberty to enjoy the company of his +wife when she chose to favour him--an event of rare occurrence. +His salary was raised from time to time. The old prince, his +first employer, paid him 400 florins; his successor increased the +amount first to 600 and then to 782 florins (78 pounds); and +finally he had 1400 florins, which last sum was continued to him +as a pension when he left the Esterhazy service. Although money +had a much higher purchasing value in those days, the figures +here quoted do not seem princely when we consider the extent and +nature of Haydn's duties, but to a man of Haydn's simple tastes +they would appear ample enough. At least, they would save him +from lying on straw and drinking bad whisky, which Wagner +regarded as among the things that are inimical to the creative +genius. + +Artistic Advantages + +These were the material advantages of the Eisenstadt appointment. +The artistic advantages were even more important, especially to a +young and inexperienced artist who, so far, had not enjoyed many +opportunities of practically testing his own work. Haydn had a +very good band always at his disposal, the members of which were +devoted to him. If he wrote part of a symphony over-night he +could try it in the morning, prune, revise, accept, reject. Many +a young composer of today would rejoice at such an opportunity, +as indeed Haydn himself rejoiced at it. "I not only had the +encouragement of constant approval," he says, speaking of this +period of his career, "but as conductor of an orchestra I could +make experiments, observe what produced an effect and what +weakened it, and was thus in a position to improve, alter, make +additions and omissions, and be as bold as I pleased." + +Some Disadvantages + +No doubt there were some disadvantages in counterpoise. After the +gay life of Vienna, Eisenstadt must have been dull enough, and +there is plenty of evidence to show that the young artist +occasionally fell into the dumps. In one letter he complains that +he "never can obtain leave, even for four-and-twenty hours, to go +to Vienna." In another he writes: "I am doomed to stay at home. +What I lose by so doing you can well imagine. It is indeed sad +always to be a slave, but Providence wills it so. I am a poor +creature, plagued perpetually by hard work, and with few hours +for recreation." Haydn clearly recognized the necessities of the +artist. A quiet life is all very well, but no man ever yet +greatly touched the hearts of men if he kept himself too strictly +segregated from his kind. Music, like every other art, would +perish in a hot-house. Reckon up today the composers who are +really a force in the emotional life of the people, and ask which +of them was reared in the serene, cold air of the academies. A +composer to be great must live with his fellows, and open his +soul to human affluences. "I was cut off from the world," says +Haydn. "There was no one to confuse or torment me, and I was +forced to become original." But his originality was that of an +active mind working upon material already stored, and the store +had to be replenished in occasional excursions, all too few, from +the palace. + +The Eisenstadt appointment, then, provided for Haydn's material +wants, and gave him opportunities for the peaceful pursuit of his +studies, for experiment and self-criticism. He was treated with +great consideration by the Esterhazys, and, menial or not, he +lived on their bounty and in the friendliest relations with them. + +Capellmeister Werner + +From his agreement with Prince Esterhazy it will have been +gathered that, though virtually entrusted with the direction of +the Eisenstadt musical establishment, Haydn was really under the +control of an old official. Such arrangements seldom work well. +The retention of Joseph Werner was presumably due to the +thoughtful kindness of his noble patron, but it was bound to lead +to awkward situations. Werner had served the Esterhazys for +thirty-two years, and could not be expected to placidly accept +his supersession by a young and as yet almost unknown musician. +True, he was not a very distinguished man himself. He had +composed a large amount of music, chiefly sacred, including +thirty-nine masses and twelve "Oratorios for Good Friday," +besides some grotesque pieces intended as burlesques of the +musical life of Vienna. Not one of his works has any real musical +value; but, as is usually the case with the talent which stops +short of genius, he thought a great deal of himself, and was +inclined to look down upon Haydn as an interloper, unskilled in +that rigid counterpoint which was the "heaven's law" of the old- +time composer. Indeed, he described his associate as "a mere fop" +and "a scribbler of songs." + +A Posthumous Tribute + +It is but fair to Haydn to say that, if he did not suffer his +nominal superior gladly, he at least treated him with respect and +a certain deference. He did more. Werner died in 1766, having +thus seen only five years of the new order of things, but Haydn's +regard for his memory was such that, so late as 1804, he +published six of his fugues arranged as string quartets, "out of +sincere esteem for this celebrated master." A kindness of heart +and a total absence of professional jealousy characterized Haydn +throughout his whole career, and never more than in this action. + +Esterhazy "the Magnificent" + +The composer had been rather less than a twelvemonth in his +service when Prince Paul Anton died on the 18th of March 1762. He +was succeeded by his brother Nicolaus, a sort of glorified "Grand +Duke" of Chandos, who rejoiced in the soubriquet of "The +Magnificent." He loved ostentation and glitter above all things, +wearing at times a uniform bedecked with diamonds. But he loved +music as well. More, he was a performer himself, and played the +baryton, a stringed instrument not unlike the viola-da-gamba, in +general use up to the end of the eighteenth century. Haydn +naturally desired to please his prince, and being perpetually +pestered to provide new works for the noble baryton player, he +thought it would flatter him if he himself learnt to handle the +baryton. This proved an unfortunate misreading of "The +Magnificent's" character, for when Haydn at length made his debut +with the instrument, the prince lost no time in letting him +understand that he disapproved of such rivalry. An amusing story +is told of Kraft, the Eisenstadt 'cellist, at this time, who +occasionally played the second baryton. Kraft presented the +prince with a composition into which he had introduced a solo for +himself as second baryton. The prince asked to see the part, and +proceeded to try it over. Coming to a difficult passage, he +exclaimed indignantly: "For the future, write solos only for my +part; it is no credit to you to play better than I; it is your +duty." + +Compositions for Baryton + +Haydn, so far as we can make out, never essayed the baryton +again, but he wrote a surprising amount of music for it, +considering its complicated mechanism and the weakness of its +tone. In the catalogue of his works there are no fewer than 175 +compositions for the instrument--namely, six duets for two +barytons, twelve sonatas for baryton and violoncello, twelve +divertimenti for two barytons and bass, and 125 divertimenti for +baryton, viola and violoncello; seventeen so-called "cassations"; +and three concertos for baryton, with accompaniment of two +violins and bass. There is no need to say anything about these +compositions, inasmuch as they have gone to oblivion with the +instrument which called them into being. At the best they can +never have been of much artistic importance. A Reproval + +A new epoch began at Eisenstadt with the rule of Prince Nicolaus. +He was a man of unbounded energy himself, and he expected +everybody in his service to be energetic too. There is nothing to +suggest that Haydn neglected any of his routine duties, which +certainly gave him abundant opportunity to "break the legs of +time," but once, at least--in 1765--his employer taxed him with +lack of diligence in composition, as well as for failing to +maintain the necessary discipline among the musicians under his +charge. It is likely enough that Haydn was not a rigid +disciplinarian; but it must have been a mere whim on the part of +Prince Nicolaus to reprove him on the score of laziness in +composing. In any case, it seems to have been only a solitary +reproof. There is no evidence of its having been repeated, and we +may assume that even now it was not regarded as a very serious +matter, from the fact that three weeks after the prince was +requesting his steward to pay Haydn 12 ducats for three new +pieces, with which he was "very much pleased." + +Operettas + +Life at Eisenstadt moved on in "calm peace and quiet," but now +and again it was stirred into special activity, when Haydn had to +put forth his efforts in various new directions. Such an occasion +came very early in his service of Prince Nicolaus, when that +pompous person made triumphant entry into Eisenstadt. The +festivities were on a regal scale and continued for a whole +month. A company of foreign players had been engaged to perform +on a stage erected in the large conservatory, and Haydn was +required to provide them with operettas. He wrote several works +of the kind, one of which, "La Marchesa Nepola," survives in the +autograph score. Later on, for the marriage of Count Anton, the +eldest son of Prince Nicolaus, in 1763, he provided a setting of +the story which Handel had already used for his "Acis and +Galatea." This work, which was performed by the Eisenstadt +Capelle, with the orchestra clad in a new uniform of crimson and +gold, bore the name of "Acide e Galatea." Portions of the score +still exist--a section of the overture, four arias, and a finale +quartet. The overture is described as being "in his own style, +fresh and cheerful, foreshadowing his symphonies. The songs are +in the Italian manner, very inferior in originality and +expression to Handel's music; the quartet is crude in form and +uninteresting in substance." [See Miss Townsend's Hayden, p. 44] + +It would seem rather ungracious, as it would certainly be +redundant to discuss these "occasional" works in detail. For one +thing, the material necessary to enable us to form a correct +estimate of Haydn's powers as a dramatic composer is wanting. The +original autograph of "Armida," first performed in 1783, is, +indeed, preserved. "Orfeo ed Euridice," written for the King's +Theatre in the Haymarket in 1791, but never staged, was printed +at Leipzig in 1806, and a fair idea of the general style of the +work may be obtained from the beautiful air, "Il pensier sta +negli oggetti," included in a collection entitled "Gemme +d'Antichita." But beyond these and the fragments previously +mentioned, there is little left to represent Haydn as a composer +of opera, the scores of most of the works written expressly for +Prince Esterhazy having been destroyed when the prince's private +theatre was burned down in 1779. What Haydn would have done for +opera if he had devoted his serious attention to it at any of the +larger theatres it is, of course, impossible to say. Judging from +what has survived of his work in this department, he was notable +for refinement rather than for dramatic power. We must, however, +remember the conditions under which he worked. He confessed +himself that his operas were fitted only for the small stage at +Esterhaz and "could never produce the proper effect elsewhere." +If he had written with a large stage in view, it may reasonably +be assumed that he would have written somewhat differently. + +Occasional Works + +In 1764 Prince Nicolaus made a journey to Frankfort for the +coronation of the Archduke Joseph as King of the Romans. After +the festivities connected with that imposing function were over +he extended his journey to Paris, where he created some sensation +by his extravagant displays of wealth and circumstance. During +the Prince's absence Haydn busied himself on a couple of +compositions intended to celebrate his home-coming. One was a Te +Deum, the other a cantata. The latter work is the more worthy of +remark, not because of its music, but because of the fulsomely +obsequious manner in which it celebrates the graces and virtues +of Nicolaus the Magnificent. The cantata is made up of choruses +and duets, a recitative and two arias. Parts of it were +afterwards employed in church services. The Te Deum is in C +major, and is for four voices with orchestra. It is interesting +as an early work, especially if we compare it with the greater Te +Deum in the same key composed in the year 1800. First Symphonies + +At this point a summary may perhaps be made of the compositions +written by Haydn during these five years a Eisenstadt. The list, +as given by Pohl, comprises, in addition to the works already +named, about thirty symphonies six string trios, a few +divertimenti in five parts, a piece for four violins and two +'celli, entitled "Echo," twelve minuets for orchestra, concertos, +trios, sonatas and variations for clavier, and, in vocal music, a +"Salve Regina" for soprano and alto, two violins and organ. It +would serve no useful purpose to deal with these works in detail. +The symphonies are, of course, the most important feature in the +list, but of these we shall speak generally when treating of +Haydn as the father of instrumental music. The first Symphony in +C Major, usually called "Le Midi," is of special interest. + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] + +The autograph score, dated 1761, and preserved at Eisenstadt, is +superscribed, "In Nomine Domini," and closes with Haydn's +customary "Laus Deo" after the final signature The work is in the +usual four movements. The symphonies of this date included also +those known in England as "Le Matin" and "Le Soir," the one +beginning-- + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] and the other-- + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +Of the string quartets and other instrumental compositions of the +period nothing need be said. In all these the composer was simply +feeling his way towards a more perfect expression, and as few of +them are now performed, their interest for us is almost entirely +antiquarian. + +CHAPTER IV + +ESTERHAZ--l766-l790 + +Haydn's Fame extending--Haydn and Mozart compared--Esterhaz--Its +Puppet Theatre--A Busy Life--Opera at Esterhaz--First Oratorio-- +Opponents and Intriguers--"L'Isola Disabitata"--A Love Episode-- +Correspondence with Artaria and Forster--Royal Dedicatees--The +"Seven Words"--The "Toy" and "Farewell" Symphonies. + +To crowd the details of a professional career covering close upon +a quarter of a century into a single chapter would, in the case +of most of the great composers, be an altogether impossible task. +In Haydn's case the difficulty is to find the material for even +so slight a record. His life went on smoothly, almost sleepily, +as we should now think, in the service of his prince, without +personal incident and with next to no disturbance from the +outside world. If he had not been a genius of the first rank the +outside world would, in all probability, never have heard of his +existence. + +Haydn's Fame extending + +As it was, his fame was now manifestly spreading. Thus the Wiener +Diarum for 1766 includes him among the most distinguished +musicians of Vienna, and describes him as "the darling of our +nation." His amiable disposition, says the panegyrist, "speaks +through every one of his works. His music has beauty, purity, and +a delicate and noble simplicity which commends it to every +hearer. His cassations, quartets and trios may be compared to a +pure, clear stream of water, the surface now rippled by a gentle +breeze from the south, and anon breaking into agitated billows, +but without ever leaving its proper channel and appointed course. +His symphonies are full of force and delicate sympathy. In his +cantatas he shows himself at once captivating and caressing, and +in his minuets he is delightful and full of humour. In short, +Haydn is in music what Gellert is in poetry." This comparison +with Gellert, who died three years later, was at that date, as Dr. +Pohl remarks, the most flattering that could well be made. The +simplicity and naturalness of Gellert's style were the very +antithesis of the pedantries and frigid formalities of the older +school; and just as he pioneered the way for the resuscitation of +German poetry under Goethe and Schiller, so Haydn may be said to +have prepared the path for Beethoven and the modern school. Very +likely it was this comparison of the magazine writer that +suggested Dittersdorf's remark to Joseph II in 1786, when the +emperor requested him to draw an analogy between Haydn's and +Mozart's chamber music. + +Haydn and Mozart compared + +Dittersdorf shrewdly replied by asking the emperor in his turn to +draw a parallel between Gellert and Klopstock; whereupon Joseph +made answer by saying that both were great poets, but that +Klopstock's works required attentive study, while Gellert's +beauties were open to the first glance. The analogy, Dittersdorf +tells us, "pleased the emperor very much." Its point is, however, +not very clear--that is to say, it is not very clear whether the +emperor meant to compare Klopstock with Haydn and Gellert with +Mozart or vice versa, and whether, again, he regarded it as more +of a merit that the poet and the composer should require study or +be "open to the first glance." Joseph was certainly friendly +towards Mozart, but by all accounts he had no great love for +Haydn, to whose "tricks and nonsense" he made frequent sneering +reference. + +The first noteworthy event of 1766 was the death of Werner, which +took place on March 5. It made no real difference to Haydn, who, +as we have seen, had been from the first, in effect, if not in +name, chief of the musical establishment; but it at least freed +him from sundry petty annoyances, and left him absolutely master +of the musical situation. Shortly after Werner's death, the +entire musical establishment at Eisenstadt was removed to the +prince's new palace of Esterhaz, with which Haydn was now to be +connected for practically the whole of his remaining professional +career. + +Esterhaz + +A great deal has been written about Esterhaz, but it is not +necessary that we should occupy much space with a description of +the castle and its surroundings. The palace probably owed its +inception to the prince's visit to Paris in 1764. At any rate, it +is in the French Renaissance style, and there is some +significance in the fact that a French traveler who saw it about +1782 described it as having no place but Versailles to compare +with it for magnificence. The situation--about three and a half +miles from Eisenstadt--was anything but suitable for an erection +of the kind, being in an unhealthy marsh and "quite out of the +world." But Prince Nicolaus had set his heart upon the scheme, as +Scott set his heart upon Abbotsford; and just as "Clarty Hole" +came in time to be "parked about and gated grandly," so Esterhaz, +after something like 11,000,000 gulden had been spent upon it, +emerged a veritable Versailles, with groves and grottoes, +hermitages and temples, summer-houses and hot-houses, and deer +parks and flower gardens. There were two theatres in the grounds: +one for operas and dramatic performances generally; the other +"brilliantly ornamented and furnished with large artistic +marionettes, excellent scenery and appliances." + +A Puppet Theatre + +It is upon the entertainments connected with the latter house +that the French traveler just mentioned chiefly dwells. "The +prince," he says, "has a puppet theatre which is certainly unique +in character. Here the grandest operas are produced. One knows +not whether to be amazed or to laugh at seeing 'Alceste,' +'Alcides,' etc., put on the stage with all due solemnity, and +played by puppets. His orchestra is one of the best I ever heard, +and the great Haydn is his court and theatre composer. He employs +a poet for his singular theatre, whose humour and skill in +suiting the grandest subjects for the stage, and in parodying the +gravest effects, are often exceedingly happy. He often engages a +troupe of wandering players for a month at a time, and he himself +and his retinue form the entire audience. They are allowed to +come on the stage uncombed, drunk, their parts not half learned, +and half-dressed. The prince is not for the serious and tragic, +and he enjoys it when the players, like Sancho Panza, give loose +reins to their humour." + +Prince Nicolaus became so much attached to this superb creation +of his own, that he seldom cared to leave it. A small portion of +the Capelle remained at Eisenstadt to carry on the church service +there, but the prince seldom went to Eisenstadt, and more seldom +still to Vienna. Most of the Hungarian grandees liked nothing +better than to display their wealth in the Imperial city during +the winter season; but to Haydn's employer there was literally +"no place like home." When he did go to Vienna, he would often +cut short his visits in the most abrupt manner, to the great +confusion of his musicians and other dependants. These +eccentricities must have given some annoyance to Haydn, who, +notwithstanding his love of quiet and seclusion, often longed for +the change and variety of city life. It is said that he was +specially anxious to make a tour in Italy about this time, but +that ambition had, of necessity, to be abandoned. + +A Busy Life + +There was certainly plenty for him to do at Esterhaz--more than +he had ever been required to do at Eisenstadt. Royalties, nobles +and aristocrats were constantly at the palace; and music was one +of the chief diversions provided for them. The prince was very +proud of his musical establishment, and desired to have it +considered the best of its kind in Europe. The orchestra of the +opera was formed of members of the Capelle; "the singers were +Italian for the most part, engaged for one, two, or more years, +and the books of the words were printed. Numerous strolling +companies were engaged for shorter terms; traveling virtuosi +often played with the members of the band. Special days and hours +were fixed for chamber music, and for orchestral works; and in +the interval the singers, musicians and actors met at the cafe, +and formed, so to speak, one family." Something more than +creative genius was obviously required to direct the music of an +establishment of this kind. A talent for organization, an eye for +detail, tact in the management of players and singers--these +qualities were all indispensable for the performance of duties +such as Haydn had undertaken. That he possessed them we may +fairly assume from more than one circumstance. In the first +place, his employer was satisfied with him. He raised his salary, +listened attentively to all his suggestions, and did everything +that he could to retain his services. In the second place, his +band and singers were sincerely attached to him. They saw that he +had their interests, personal and professional, at heart, and +they "loved him like a father." The prince paid them well, and +several of them were sufficiently capable to receive appointments +afterwards in the Imperial Chapel. Pohl gives a list of the names +about this time, but, with one or two exceptions, they are quite +unfamiliar. J. B. Krumpholtz, the harpist, was engaged from 1773 +to 1776, and Andreas Lidl, who played in London soon after +leaving the band, was in the service of the prince from 1769 to +1774. + +The sum paid to Haydn at this date was not large as we should now +consider it, but it was sufficient to free him from financial +worry had it not been for the extravagance and bad management of +his wife. The prince gave him about 78 pounds, in addition +to which he had certain allowances in kind, and, as we have +already said, free quarters for himself and his wife when +she thought fit to stay with him. Probably, too, he was now +making something substantial by his compositions. Griesinger +declares that he had saved about 200 pounds before 1790, +the year when he started for London. If that be true, he must +have been very economical. His wife, we must remember, was making +constant calls upon him for money, and in addition he had to meet +the pressing demands of various poor relations. His +correspondence certainly does not tend to show that he was +saving, and we know that when he set out for London he had not +only to draw upon the generosity of his prince for the costs of +the journey, but had to sell his house to provide for his wife +until his return. + +Opera at Esterhaz + +It is time, however, to speak of some of Haydn's compositions +during this period. At Esterhaz he "wrote nearly all his operas, +most of his arias and songs, the music for the marionette +theatre--of which he was particularly fond--and the greater part +of his orchestral and chamber works." The dramatic works bulk +rather largely during the earlier part of the period. In 1769, +for example, when the whole musical establishment of Esterhaz +visited Vienna, a performance of his opera, "Lo Speciale," was +given at the house of Freiherr von Sommerau, and was repeated in +the form of a concert. Other works of the kind were performed at +intervals, particularly on festival occasions, but as most of +them have perished, and all of them are essentially pieces +d'occasion, it is unnecessary even to recall their names. In 1771 +Haydn wrote a "Stabat Mater" and a "Salve Regina," and in 1773 +followed the Symphony in C which bears the name of the Empress +Maria Theresa, having been written for the empress's visit to +Esterhaz in September of that year. In the course of the visit +Haydn was naturally introduced to Her Majesty, when, as we have +stated, he took occasion to remind her of the "good hiding" she +had ordered him to have at Schonbrunn during the old chorister +days at St Stephen's. "Well, you see, my dear Haydn," was the +reply, "the hiding has borne good fruit." + +First Oratorio + +In 1775 came his first oratorio, "Il Ritorno di Tobia." This is +an exceedingly interesting work. It was first performed under +Haydn's direction by the Tonkunstler Societat, with solo singers +from Esterbaz, at Vienna, on April 2, 1775. In 1784 Haydn added +two choruses, one a "Storm Chorus," which is sometimes confused +with the "Storm Chorus" (in the same key, but in triple time) +composed during his sojourn in London. It is from "Il Ritorno di +Tobia" that the so-called motet, "Insanae et Vanae Curae," is +adapted, and the "Storm Chorus" immediately follows a fine +soprano air in F minor and major, sung by Anna in the original +work, a portion of which forms the beautiful second subject (in +F) of the "Insanae." The original words of this chorus--"Svanisce +in un momento"--are to the effect that the soul threatens to +yield to the fury of its enemies, yet trust in God keeps one +steadfast. The music admirably reflects these contrasting +sentiments, first in the tumultuous D minor section, and then in +the tranquility of the F major portion which follows, no less +than in the trustful quietude of the D major conclusion. Latin +words were adapted to three of the original choruses, but nothing +seems to be known as to the origin of the "Insanae" adaptation. A +full score of the motet, published by Breitkopf & Hartel in 1809, +was reviewed in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung of August 15, +1810, as if it were an entirely original work. The source of the +Latin words also remains a mystery. They were presumably put +together to fit Haydn's music, but by whom we have no means of +ascertaining. + +It is interesting to know that Haydn brought the score of his "Il +Ritorno di Tobia" with him to England on the occasion of his +first visit in 1791, probably with a view to its performance +here. Messrs Novello's private library contains an oblong volume +in the handwriting of Vincent Novello, in which he has copied +some numbers from "Tobia," including the air of Anna already +mentioned, but not the "Insanae" chorus. The inside cover of the +book bears the following note in Novello's hand, written, not +later than 1820, under the contents of the volume: + +"The whole of the above are unpublished manuscripts, and were +copied from an extremely rare volume, containing the full +orchestral score of the entire oratorio, kindly lent to me for +the purpose by my friend, Mr. Shield, who had obtained it from +Haydn himself during the visit of the latter to England in the +year 1791. + +--VINCENT NOVELLO + +240 Oxford St." + +[See an interesting account of "Il Ritorno di Tobia" in The +Musical Times for September 1901, p. 600.] + +Some of our musical societies in search of novelties might do +worse than revive this almost completely forgotten oratorio. The +airs are exceedingly melodious, and the choruses bold and +tuneful, with well-developed fugue subjects. The "Insanae" +already referred to is frequently performed. + +Opponents + +In 1776 Haydn composed "La Vera Costanza" for the Court Theatre +of Vienna, but owing to certain intrigues it was declined by the +management and produced at Esterhaz instead. The opera was +subsequently staged at Vienna in 1790, and six of its airs and a +duet were published by Artaria. This incident makes it +sufficiently plain that Haydn had his opponents among the +musicians and critics of Vienna as well as elsewhere. Burney says +a friend in Hamburg wrote him in 1772 that "the genius, fine +ideas and fancy of Haydn, Ditters and Filitz were praised, but +their mixture of serious and comic was disliked, particularly as +there is more of the latter than the former in their works; and +as for rules, they knew but little of them." If we substitute +"humorous" for "comic," this may be allowed to fully represent +the views of the critics and amateurs of Vienna in regard to +Haydn's music. + +And, unfortunately, the incident just mentioned was not a +solitary one. In 1778 Haydn applied for membership to the +Tonkunstler Societat, for whom he had in reality written his "Il +Ritorno di Tobia." One would have expected such a body to receive +him with open arms, but instead of that they exacted a sum of 300 +florins on the ground of his non-residence in Vienna! Not only +so, but they would fain have brought him under a promise to +compose for them whenever they chose to ask him. This latter +condition Haydn felt to be impossible in view of his engagement +at Esterhaz, and he withdrew his admission fee. That the society +were not ashamed of themselves is obvious from a further episode. +Some years after this they desired Haydn to rearrange his "Tobia" +for a special performance, and when he demanded payment for his +trouble they promptly decided to produce Hasse's "Elena" instead. +Everything comes to the man who waits. After his second visit to +London the Tonkunstler Societat welcomed Haydn at a special +meeting, and with one voice appointed him "Assessor Senior" for +life. In return for this distinction he presented the society +with "The Creation" and "The Seasons," to which gifts, according +to Pohl, its prosperity is mainly owing. + +"L'Isola Disabitata" + +If Haydn was thus less highly appreciated at home than he +deserved to be, there were others who knew his sterling worth. In +1779 he composed one of his best operas, "L'Isola Disabitata," +the libretto of which was by his old benefactor Metastasio, and +this work procured his nomination as a member of the Philharmonic +Society of Modena. The following extract of a letter written to +Artaria in May 1781 is interesting in this connection. He says: +"M. le Gros, director of the 'Concerts Spirituels' [in Paris], +wrote me a great many fine things about my Stabat Mater, which +had been given there four times with great applause; so this +gentleman asked permission to have it engraved. They made me an +offer to engrave all my future works on very advantageous terms, +and are much surprised that my compositions for the voice are so +singularly pleasing. I, however, am not in the least surprised, +for, as yet, they have heard nothing. If they could only hear my +operetta, 'L'Isola Disabitata,' and my last Shrove-tide opera, +'La Fedelta Premiata,' I do assure you that no such work has +hitherto been heard in Paris, nor, perhaps, in Vienna either. My +great misfortune is living in the country." It will be seen from +this what he thought of "L'Isola," which was not heard in Vienna +until its performance at a concert given at the Court Theatre by +Willmann the 'cellist in 1785. Haydn sent the score to the King +of Spain, who showed his sense of the honour by the gift of a +gold snuff-box, set in brilliants. Other marks of royal attention +were bestowed upon him about this time. Thus, in 1784, Prince +Henry of Prussia sent him a gold medal and his portrait in return +for the dedication of six new quartets, while in 1787 King +Frederick William II gave him the famous gold ring which he +afterwards always wore when composing. + +A Love Episode + +But we have passed somewhat out of our chronological order. The +absence of love at home, as we all know, often encourages love +abroad. Haydn liked to have an occasional flirtation, as ardent +as might be within the bounds of decorum. Sometimes, indeed, +according to our insular ideas of such things, he exceeded the +bounds of decorum, as in the case of which we are now compelled +to speak. Among the musicians who had been engaged for the +Esterhazy service in 1779 were a couple named Polzelli--the +husband a violinist, the wife a second-rate vocalist. Luigia +Polzelli was a lively Italian girl of nineteen. She does not seem +to have been happy with Polzelli, and Haydn's pity was roused for +her, much as Shelley's pity was roused for "my unfortunate +friend," Harriet Westbrook. The pity, as often happens in such +cases, ultimately ripened into a violent passion. + +We are not concerned to adopt an apologetic tone towards Haydn. +But Signora Polzelli was clearly an unscrupulous woman. She first +got her admirer into her power, and then used her position to dun +him for money. She had two sons, and the popular belief of the +time that Haydn was the father of the younger is perpetuated in +several of the biographies. Haydn had certainly a great regard +for the boy, made him a pupil of his own, and left him a small +sum in his first will, which, however, he revoked in the second. +Signora Polzelli's conduct was probably natural enough in the +circumstances, but it must have been rather embarrassing to +Haydn. After the death of her husband, she wheedled him into +signing a paper promising to marry her in the event of his +becoming a widower. This promise he subsequently repudiated, but +he cared for her well enough to leave her an annuity in his will, +notwithstanding that she had married again. She survived him for +twenty-three years, and her two daughters were still living at +Pesth in 1878. + +Returning to 1779, an untoward event of that year was the +destruction by fire of the theatre at Esterhaz. The re-building +of the house was set about at once, the prince having meanwhile +gone to Paris, and the re-opening took place on October 15, 1780, +when Haydn's "La Fedelta Premiata," already mentioned, was +staged. + +Correspondence + +It was about this time that he began to correspond with Artaria, +the Vienna music-publisher, with whom he had business dealings +for many years. A large number of his letters is given in an +English translation by Lady Wallace [See Letters of Distinguished +Musicians. Translated from the German by Lady Wallace. London, +1867]. They treat principally of business matters, but are not +unimportant as fixing the chronological dates of some of his +works. They exhibit in a striking way the simple, honest, +unassuming nature of the composer; and if they also show him +"rather eager after gain, and even particular to a groschen," we +must not forget the ever-pressing necessity for economy under +which be laboured, and his almost lavish benevolence to +straitened relatives and friends. In one letter requesting an +advance he writes: "I am unwilling to be in debt to tradesmen, +and, thank God! I am free from this burden; but as great people +keep me so long waiting for payments, I have got rather into +difficulty. This letter, however, will be your security...I will +pay off the interest with my notes." There is no real ground for +charging Haydn with avarice, as some writers have done. "Even +philosophers," as he remarked himself, "occasionally stand in +need of money"; and, as Beethoven said to George Thomson, when +haggling about prices, there is no reason why the "true artist" +should not be "honourably paid." + +A London Publisher + +It was about this time too that Haydn opened a correspondence +with William Forster of London, who had added to his business of +violin-maker that of a music-seller and publisher. Forster +entered into an agreement with him for the English copyright of +his compositions, and between 1781 and 1787 he published eighty- +two symphonies, twenty-four quartets, twenty-four solos, duets +and trios, and the "Seven Last Words," of which we have yet to +speak. Nothing of the Forster correspondence seems to have +survived. + +Royal Dedicatees + +Among the events of 1781-1782 should be noted the entertainments +given in connection with two visits which the Emperor Joseph II +received from the Grand Duke Paul and his wife. The Grand Duchess +was musical, and had just been present at the famous combat +between Clementi and Mozart, a suggestion of the Emperor. She had +some of Haydn's quartets played at her house and liked them so +well that she gave him a diamond snuff-box and took lessons from +him. It was to her that he afterwards--in l802--dedicated his +part-songs for three and four voices, while the Grand Duke was +honoured by the dedication of the six so-called "Russian" +quartets. It had been arranged that the Duke and Duchess should +accompany the Emperor to Eisenstadt, but the arrangement fell +through, and an opera which Haydn had written for the occasion +was only produced at Esterhaz in the autumn of 1782. This was his +"Orlando Paladino," better known in its German form as "Ritter +Roland." Another work of this year (1782) was the "Mariazell" +Mass in C major (Novello, No. 15), which derives its name from +the shrine of the Virgin in Styria, the scene of an incident +already related. The mass was written to the order of a certain +Herr Liebe de Kreutzner, and the composer is said to have taken +special pains with it, perhaps because it reminded him of his +early struggling days as a chorister in Vienna. It was the eighth +mass Haydn had written, one being the long and difficult +"Cecilia" Mass in C major, now heard only in a curtailed form. No +other work of the kind was composed until 1796, between which +year and 1802 the best of his masses were produced. To the year +1783 belongs the opera "Armida," performed in 1784 and again in +1797 at Schickaneder's Theatre in Vienna. Haydn writes to Artaria +in March 1784 to say that "Armida" had been given at Esterhaz +with "universal applause," adding that "it is thought the best +work I have yet written." The autograph score was sent to London +to make up, in a manner, for the non-performance of his "Orfeo" +there in 1791. + +The "Seven Words" + +But the most interesting work of this period was the "Seven Words +of our Saviour on the Cross," written in 1785. The circumstances +attending its composition are best told in Haydn's own words. In +Breitkopf & Hartel's edition of 1801, he writes: + +About fifteen years ago I was requested by a Canon of Cadiz to +compose instrumental music on the Seven Words of Jesus on the +Cross. It was the custom of the Cathedral of Cadiz to produce an +oratorio every year during Lent, the effect of the performance +being not a little enhanced by the following circumstances. The +walls, windows and pillars of the Church were hung with black +cloth, and only one large lamp, hanging from the centre of the +roof, broke the solemn obscurity. At mid-day the doors were +closed and the ceremony began. After a short service the bishop +ascended the pulpit, pronounced one of the Seven Words (or +sentences) and delivered a discourse thereon. This ended, he left +the pulpit and knelt prostrate before the altar. The pause was +filled by the music. The bishop then in like manner pronounced +the second word, then the third, and so on, the orchestra falling +in at the conclusion of each discourse. My composition was to be +subject to these conditions, and it was no easy matter to compose +seven adagios to last ten minutes each, and follow one after the +other without fatiguing the listeners; indeed I found it quite +impossible to confine myself within the appointed limits. + +This commission may be taken as a further evidence of the growing +extent of Haydn's fame. He appears to have been already well +known in Spain. Boccherini carried on a friendly correspondence +with him from Madrid, and he was actually made the hero of a poem +called "The Art of Music," published there in 1779. The "Seven +Words" created a profound impression when performed under the +circumstances just detailed, but the work was not allowed to +remain in its original form, though it was printed in that form +by Artaria and by Forster. Haydn divided it into two parts, and +added choruses and solos, in which form it was given for the +first time at Eisenstadt in October, 1797, and published in 1801. +The "Seven Words" was a special favourite of the composer +himself, who indeed is declared by some to have preferred it to +all his other compositions. + +The "Toy" Symphony + +The remaining years of the period covered by this chapter being +almost totally devoid of incident, we may pause to notice briefly +two of the better-known symphonies of the time--the "Toy" +Symphony and the more famous "Farewell." The former is a mere jeu +d'esprit, in which, with an orchestral basis of two violins and a +bass, the solo instruments are all of a burlesque character. +Mozart attempted something of a kindred nature in his "Musical +joke," where instruments come in at wrong places, execute +inappropriate phrases, and play abominably out of tune. This kind +of thing does not require serious notice, especially in the case +of Haydn, to whom humour in music was a very different matter +from the handling of rattles and penny trumpets and toy drums. + +The "Farewell" Symphony + +The "Farewell" Symphony has often been described, though the +circumstances of its origin are generally mis-stated. It has been +asserted, for example, that Haydn intended it as an appeal to the +prince against the dismissal of the Capelle. But this, as Pohl +has conclusively shown, is incorrect. The real design of the +"Farewell" was to persuade the prince to shorten his stay at +Esterhaz, and so enable the musicians to rejoin their wives and +families. Fortunately, the prince was quick-witted enough to see +the point of the joke. As one after another ceased playing and +left the orchestra, until only two violinists remained, he +quietly observed, "If all go, we may as well go too." Thus +Haydn's object was attained--for the time being! The "Farewell" +is perfectly complete as a work of art, but its fitness for +ordinary occasions is often minimized by the persistent way in +which its original purpose is pointed out to the listener. + +Free from Esterhaz + +Haydn's active career at Esterhaz may be said to have closed with +the death, on September 28, 1790, of Prince Nicolaus. The event +was of great importance to his future. Had the prince lived, +Haydn would doubtless have continued in his service, for he +"absolutely adored him." But Prince Anton, who now succeeded, +dismissed the whole Capelle, retaining only the few members +necessary for the carrying on of the church service, and Haydn's +occupation was practically gone. The new prince nominally held +the right to his services, but there was no reason for his +remaining longer at the castle, and he accordingly took up his +residence in Vienna. Thus free to employ his time as he +considered best, Haydn embraced the opportunity to carry out a +long-meditated project, and paid the first of his two visits to +London. With these we enter upon a new epoch in the composer's +life, and one of great interest to the student and lover of +music. + +CHAPTER V + +FIRST LONDON VISIT--l79l-l792 + +English Music about l79l--Salomon--Mozart and Haydn--Terms for +London--Bonn and Beethoven--Haydn Sea-Sick--Arrives in London--An +Enthusiastic Welcome--Ideas of the Metropolis--At Court-- +Unreasoning Rivalries--Temporarily eclipsed--Band and Baton--A +Rehearsal Incident--Hanover Square Rooms--Hoops and Swords--The +"Surprise" Symphony--Gallic Excitement--New Compositions--Benefit +and Other Concerts--Haydn on Handel--Oxford Doctor of Music--The +"Oxford" Symphony--Relaxations--Royalty again--Pleyel--Close of +Season--Herschel--Haydn at St Paul's--London Acquaintances-- +Another Romance--Mistress Schroeter--Love-Letters--Haydn's Note- +Book. + +English Music about 1791 + +Haydn came to England in 1791. It may occur to the reader to ask +what England was doing in music at that time, and who were the +foremost representatives of the art. The first question may be +partially answered from the literature of the period. Thus +Jackson, in his Present State of Music in London, published the +year after Haydn's arrival, remarks that "instrumental music has +been of late carried to such perfection in London by the +consummate skill of the performers that any attempt to beat the +time would be justly considered as entirely needless." Burney, +again, in his last volume, published in 1789, says that the great +improvement in taste during the previous twenty years was "as +different as civilized people from savages"; while Stafford +Smith, writing in 1779, tells that music was then "thought to be +in greater perfection than among even the Italians themselves." +There is a characteristic John Bull complacency about these +statements which is hardly borne out by a study of the lives of +the leading contemporary musicians. Even Mr. Henry Davey, the +applauding historian of English music, has to admit the +evanescent character of the larger works which came from the +composers of that "bankrupt century." Not one of these composers- +-not even Arne--is a real personality to us like Handel, or Bach, +or Haydn, or Mozart. The great merit of English music was melody, +which seems to have been a common gift, but "the only strong +feeling was patriotic enthusiasm, and the compositions that +survive are almost all short ballads expressing this sentiment or +connected with it by their nautical subjects." When Haydn +arrived, there was, in short, no native composer of real genius, +and our "tardy, apish nation" was ready to welcome with special +cordiality an artist whose gifts were of a higher order. + +Salomon + +We have spoken of Haydn's visit as a long-meditated project. In +1787 Cramer, the violinist, had offered to engage him on his own +terms for the Professional Concerts; and Gallini, the director of +the King's Theatre in Drury Lane, pressed him to write an opera +for that house. Nothing came of these proposals, mainly because +Haydn was too much attached to his prince to think of leaving +him, even temporarily. But the time arrived and the man with it. +The man was Johann Peter Salomon, a violinist, who, having fallen +out with the directors of the professional concerts, had started +concerts on his own account. Salomon was a native of Bonn, and +had been a member of the Electoral Orchestra there. He had +traveled about the Continent a good deal, and no one was better +fitted to organize and direct a series of concerts on a large +scale. In 1790 he had gone abroad in search of singers, and, +hearing of the death of Prince Esterhazy, he set off at once for +Vienna, resolved to secure Haydn at any cost. "My name is +Salomon," he bluntly announced to the composer, as he was shown +into his room one morning. "I have come from London to fetch you; +we will settle terms tomorrow." + +The question of terms was, we may be sure, important enough for +Haydn. But it was not the only question. The "heavy years" were +beginning to weigh upon him. He was bordering on threescore, and +a long journey in those days was not to be lightly undertaken. +Moreover, he was still, nominally at least, the servant of Prince +Anton, whose consent would have to be obtained; and, besides all +this, he was engaged on various commissions, notably some for the +King of Naples, which were probably a burden on his conscience. +His friends, again, do not appear to have been very enthusiastic +about the projected visit. There were Dittersdorf and +Albrechtsberger, and Dr. Leopold von Genzinger, the prince's +physician, and Frau von Genzinger, whose tea and coffee he so +much appreciated, and who sent him such excellent cream. Above +all, there was Mozart--"a man very dear to me," as Haydn himself +said. + +Mozart and Haydn + +He had always greatly revered Mozart. Three years before this he +wrote: "I only wish I could impress upon every friend of mine, +and on great men in particular, the same deep musical sympathy +and profound appreciation which I myself feel for Mozart's +inimitable music; then nations would vie with each other to +possess such a jewel within their frontiers. It enrages me to +think that the unparalleled Mozart is not yet engaged at any +Imperial Court! Forgive my excitement; I love the man so dearly." +The regard was reciprocal. "Oh, Papa," exclaimed Mozart, when he +heard of Haydn's intention to travel, "you have had no education +for the wide, wide world, and you speak too few languages." It +was feelingly said, and Haydn knew it. "My language," he replied, +with a smile, "is understood all over the world." Mozart was +really concerned at the thought of parting with his brother +composer, to whom he stood almost in the relation of a son. When +it came to the actual farewell, the tears sprang to his eyes, and +he said affectingly: "This is good-bye; we shall never meet +again." The words proved prophetic. A year later, Mozart was +thrown with a number of paupers into a grave which is now as +unknown as the grave of Moliere. Haydn deeply lamented his loss; +and when his thoughts came to be turned homewards towards the +close of his English visit his saddest reflection was that there +would be no Mozart to meet him. His wretched wife had tried to +poison his mind against his friend by writing that Mozart had +been disparaging his genius. "I cannot believe it," he cried; "if +it is true, I will forgive him." It was not true, and Haydn never +believed it. As late as 1807 he burst into tears when Mozart's +name was mentioned, and then, recovering himself, remarked: +"Forgive me! I must ever weep at the name of my Mozart." + +Terms for London + +But to return. Salomon at length carried the day, and everything +was arranged for the London visit. Haydn was to have 300 pounds +for six symphonies and 200 pounds for the copyright of them; 200 +pounds for twenty new compositions to be produced by himself at +the same number of concerts; and 200 pounds from a benefit +concert. The composer paid his traveling expenses himself, being +assisted in that matter by an advance of 450 florins from the +prince, which he refunded within the year. In order to provide +for his wife during his absence he sold his house at Eisenstadt, +the gift of Prince Nicolaus, which had been twice rebuilt after +being destroyed by fire. + +Salomon sent advance notices of the engagement to London, and on +the 30th of December the public were informed through the Morning +Chronicle that, immediately on his arrival with his distinguished +guest, "Mr. Salomon would have the honour of submitting to all +lovers of music his programme for a series of subscription +concerts, the success of which would depend upon their support +and approbation." Before leaving for London Haydn had a tiff with +the King of Naples, Ferdinand IV, who was then in Vienna. The +composer had taken him some of the works which he had been +commissioned to write, and His Majesty, thanking him for the +favour, remarked that "We will rehearse them the day after +tomorrow." "The day after tomorrow," replied Haydn, "I shall be +on my way to England." "What!" exclaimed the King, "and you +promised to come to Naples!" With which observation he turned on +his heel and indignantly left the room. Before Haydn had time to +recover from his astonishment Ferdinand was back with a letter of +introduction to Prince Castelcicala, the Neapolitan Ambassador in +London; and to show further that the misunderstanding was merely +a passing affair he sent the composer later in the day a valuable +tabatiere as a token of esteem and regard. + +Bonn and Beethoven + +The journey to London was begun by Haydn and Salomon on the 15th +of December 1790, and the travelers arrived at Bonn on Christmas +Day. It is supposed, with good reason, that Haydn here met +Beethoven, then a youth of twenty, for the first time. Beethoven +was a member of the Electoral Chapel, and we know that Haydn, +after having one of his masses performed and being complimented +by the Elector, the musical brother of Joseph II, entertained the +chief musicians at dinner at his lodgings. An amusing description +of the regale may be read in Thayer's biography of Beethoven. +From Bonn the journey was resumed by way of Brussels to Calais, +which was reached in a violent storm and an incessant downpour of +rain. "I am very well, thank God!" writes the composer to Frau +Genzinger, "although somewhat thinner, owing to fatigue, +irregular sleep, and eating and drinking so many different +things." Next morning, after attending early mass, he embarked at +7:30, and landed at Dover at five o'clock in the afternoon. It +was his first Haydn Sea-Sick + +acquaintance with the sea, and, as the weather was rather rough, +he makes no little of it in letters written from London. "I +remained on deck during the whole passage," he says, "in order to +gaze my full at that huge monster--the ocean. So long as there +was a calm I had no fears, but when at length a violent wind +began to blow, rising every minute, and I saw the boisterous high +waves running on, I was seized with a little alarm and a little +indisposition likewise." Thus delicately does he allude to a +painful episode. + +Arrives in London + +Haydn reached London in the opening days of 1791. He passed his +first night at the house of Bland, the music-publisher, at 45 +High Holborn, which now, rebuilt, forms part of the First Avenue +Hotel. Bland, it should have been mentioned before, had been sent +over to Vienna by Salomon to coax Haydn into an engagement in +1787. When he was admitted on that occasion to Haydn's room, he +found the composer in the act of shaving, complaining the while +of the bluntness of his razor. "I would give my best quartet for +a good razor," he exclaimed testily. The hint was enough for +Bland, who immediately hurried off to his lodgings and fetched a +more serviceable tool. Haydn was as good as his word: he +presented Bland with his latest quartet, and the work is still +familiarly known as the "Rasirmesser" (razor) Quartet. The +incident was, no doubt, recalled when Haydn renewed his +acquaintance with the music-publisher. + +But Haydn did not remain the guest of Bland. Next day he went to +live with Salomon, at 18 Great Pulteney Street, Golden Square, +which--also rebuilt--is now the warehouse of Messrs Chatto & +Windus, the publishers. [See Musical Haunts in London, by F.G. +Edwards, London, 1895] He described it in one of his letters as +"a neat, comfortable lodging," and extolled the cooking of his +Italian landlord, "who gives us four excellent dishes." But his +frugal mind was staggered at the charges. "Everything is terribly +dear here," he wrote. "We each pay 1 florin 30 kreuzers [about +2s. 8d.] a day, exclusive of wine and beer." This was bad enough. + +An Enthusiastic Welcome + +But London made up for it all by the flattering way in which it +received the visitor. People of the highest rank called on him; +ambassadors left cards; the leading musical societies vied with +each other in their zeal to do him honour. Even the poetasters +began to twang their lyres in his praise. Thus Burney, who had +been for some time in correspondence with him, saluted him with +an effusion, of which it will suffice to quote the following +lines: + +Welcome, great master! to our favoured isle, Already partial to +thy name and style; Long may thy fountain of invention run In +streams as rapid as it first begun; While skill for each +fantastic whim provides, And certain science ev'ry current +guides! Oh, may thy days, from human suff'rings, free, Be blest +with glory and felicity, With full fruition, to a distant hour, +Of all thy magic and creative pow'r! Blest in thyself, with +rectitude of mind, And blessing, with thy talents, all mankind! +Like "the man Sterne" after the publication of Tristram Shandy, +he was soon deep in social engagements for weeks ahead. "I could +dine out every day," he informs his friends in Germany. Shortly +after his arrival he was conducted by the Academy of Ancient +Music into a "very handsome room" adjoining the Freemasons' Hall, +and placed at a table where covers were laid for 200. "It was +proposed that I should take a seat near the top, but as it so +happened that I had dined out that very day, and ate more than +usual, I declined the honour, excusing myself under the pretext +of not being very well; but in spite of this, I could not get off +drinking the health, in Burgundy, of the harmonious gentlemen +present. All responded to it, but at last allowed me to go home." +This sort of thing strangely contrasted with the quiet, drowsy +life of Esterhaz; and although Haydn evidently felt flattered by +so much attention, he often expressed a wish that he might escape +in order to have more peace for work. + +Ideas of London + +His ideas about London were mixed and hesitating. He was chiefly +impressed by the size of the city, a fact which the Londoner of +today can only fully appreciate when he remembers that in Haydn's +time Regent Street had not been built and Lisson Grove was a +country lane. Mendelssohn described the metropolis as "that smoky +nest which is fated to be now and ever my favourite residence." +But Haydn's regard was less for the place itself than for the +people and the music. The fogs brought him an uncommonly severe +attack of rheumatism, which he naively describes as "English," +and obliged him to wrap up in flannel from head to foot. The +street noises proved a great distraction--almost as much as they +proved to Wagner in 1839, when the composer of "Lohengrin" had to +contend with an organ-grinder at each end of the street! He +exclaimed in particular against "the cries of the common people +selling their wares." It was very distracting, no doubt, for, as +a cynic has said, one cannot compose operas or write books or +paint pictures in the midst of a row. Haydn desired above all +things quiet for his work, and so by-and-by, as a solace for the +evils which afflicted his ear, he removed himself from Great +Pulteney Street to Lisson Grove--"in the country amid lovely +scenery, where I live as if I were in a monastery." + +For the present the dining and the entertaining went on. The 12th +of January found him at the "Crown and Anchor" in the Strand, +where the Anacreonatic Society expressed their respect and +admiration in the usual fashion. + +Haydn at Court + +The 18th of the same month was the Queen's birthday, and Haydn +was invited to a Court ball in the evening. This was quite an +exceptional distinction, for he had not yet been "presented" at +Court. Probably he owed it to the Prince of Wales, afterwards +George IV. The Prince was a musical amateur, like his father and +his grandfather, whose enthusiasm for Handel it is hardly +necessary to recall. He played the 'cello--"not badly for a +Prince," to parody Boccherini's answer to his royal master--and +liked to take his part in glees and catches. Haydn was charmed by +his affability. "He is the handsomest man on God's earth," wrote +the composer. "He has an extraordinary love for music, and a +great deal of feeling, but very little money." These courtesies +to Haydn may perhaps be allowed to balance the apparent +incivility shown to Beethoven and Weber, who sent compositions to +the same royal amateur that were never so much as acknowledged. + +But even the attentions of princes may become irksome and +unprofitable. Haydn soon found that his health and his work were +suffering from the flood of social engagements which London +poured upon him. The dinner hour at this time was six o'clock. He +complained that the hour was too late, and made a resolve to dine +at home at four. He wanted his mornings for composition, and if +visitors must see him they would have to wait till afternoon. +Obviously he was beginning to tire of "the trivial round." + +Unreasoning Rivalries + +The Salomon concerts should have begun in January, but London, as +it happened, was suffering from one of those unreasoning +rivalries which made a part of Handel's career so miserable, and +helped to immortalize the names of Gluck and Piccini. It is +hardly worth reviving the details of such ephemeral contests now. +In the present case the factionists were to some extent swayed by +financial interests; to a still greater extent by professional +jealousies. The trouble seems to have arisen originally in +connection with Gallini's preparations for the opening of a new +Opera House in the Haymarket. Salomon had engaged Cappelletti and +David as his principal vocalists; but these, it appeared, were +under contract not to sing in public before the opening of the +Opera House. One faction did not want to have the Opera House +opened at all. They were interested in the old Pantheon, and +contended that a second Italian Opera House was altogether +unnecessary. + +Temporarily eclipsed + +Salomon's first concert, already postponed to February 25, had +been fixed for the 11th of March, on which date David, by special +permission, was to appear "whether the Opera house was open or +not." The delay was extremely awkward for both Haydn and Salomon, +particularly for Haydn. He had been brought to London with beat +of drum, and here he was compelled to hide his light while the +directors of the professional concerts shot ahead of him and +gained the ear of the public before he could assert his +superiority. By this time also the element of professional +jealousy had come into free play. Depreciatory paragraphs +appeared in the public prints "sneering at the composer as 'a +nine days' wonder,' whom closer acquaintance would prove to be +inferior to either Cramer or Clementi; and alluding to the +'proverbial avarice' of the Germans as tempting so many artists, +who met with scanty recognition from their own countrymen to +herald their arrival in England with such a flourish of trumpets +as should charm the money out of the pockets of easily-gulled +John Bull." These pleasantries were continued on rather different +lines, when at length Haydn was in a position to justify the +claims made for him. + +Haydn, meanwhile, had been rehearsing the symphony for his +opening concert. Two points are perhaps worth noting here: First, +the size and strength of the Salomon Orchestra; and second, the +fact that Haydn did not, as every conductor does now, direct his +forces, baton in hand. The orchestra numbered between thirty-five +and forty performers--a very small company compared with our +Handel Festival and Richter [sidebar: Band and Baton] Orchestras, +but in Haydn's time regarded as quite sufficiently strong. There +were sixteen violins, four tenors, three 'celli, four double +basses, flutes, oboes, bassoons, trumpets and drums. + +Salomon played the first violin and led the orchestra, and Haydn +sat at the harpsichord, keeping the band together by an +occasional chord or two, as the practice then was. Great +composers have not always been great conductors, but Haydn had a +winning way with his band, and generally succeeded in getting +what he wanted. An interesting anecdote is told by Dies of his +first experience with the Salomon Orchestra. The symphony began +with three single notes, which [sidebar: A Rehersal Incident] the +orchestra played much too loudly; Haydn called for less tone a +second and a third time, and still was dissatisfied. He was +growing impatient. At this point he overheard a German player +whisper to a neighbour in his own language: "If the first three +notes don't please him, how shall we get through all the rest?" +Thereupon, calling for the loan of a violin, he illustrated his +meaning to such purpose that the band answered to his +requirements in the first attempt. Haydn was naturally at a great +disadvantage with an English orchestra by reason of his ignorance +of the language. It may be true, as he said, that the language of +music "is understood all over the world," but one cannot talk to +an orchestra in crotchets and semi-breves. The Hanover Square +Rooms + +At length the date of the first concert arrived, and a brilliant +audience rewarded the enterprise, completely filling the Hanover +Square Rooms, at that time the principal concert hall in London. +It had been opened in 1775 by J. C. Bach, the eleventh son of the +great Sebastian, when the advertisements announced that "the +ladies' tickets are red and the gentlemen's black." It was there +that, two years after the date of which we are writing, "Master +Hummel, from Vienna," gave his first benefit; Liszt appeared in +1840, when the now familiar term "recital" was first used; +Rubinstein made his English debut in 1842; and in the same year +Mendelssohn conducted his Scotch Symphony for the first time in +England. In 1844 the "wonderful little Joachim," then a youth of +thirteen in a short jacket, made the first of his many subsequent +visits to London, and played in the old "Rooms." + +Hoops and Swords + +So much for the associations of the concert hall in which Haydn +directed some of his finest symphonies. And what about the +audiences of Haydn's time? It was the day of the Sedan chair, +when women waddled in hoops, like that of the lady mentioned in +the Spectator, who appeared "as if she stood in a large drum." +Even the royal princesses were, in Pope's phrase, "armed in ribs +of steel" so wide that the Court attendants had to assist their +ungainly figures through the doorways. Swords were still being +worn as a regulation part of full dress, and special weapons were +always provided at a grand concert for the use of the +instrumental solo performers, who, when about to appear on the +platform, were girt for the occasion by an attendant, known as +the "sword-bearer." (Footnote: See Musical Haunts in London, F. +G. Edwards, quoting Dr. W. H. Cummings.) + +Haydn's first concert, we have said, was an immense success. +Burney records that his appearance in the orchestra "seemed to +have an electrical effect on all present, and he never remembered +a performance where greater enthusiasm was displayed." A wave of +musical excitement appears to have been passing through London, +for on this very evening both Covent Garden and Drury Lane +Theatres were packed with audiences drawn together by the +oratorio performances there. Haydn was vastly pleased at having +the slow movement of his symphony encored--an unusual occurrence +in those days--and he spoke of it afterwards as worthy of mention +in his biography. Fresh from the dinner-table, the audience +generally fell asleep during the slow movements! When the novelty +of the Salomon concerts had worn off, many of the listeners +lapsed into their usual somnolence. Most men in Haydn's position +would have resented such inattention by an outburst of temper. +Haydn took it good-humouredly, and resolved to have his little +joke. + +The "Surprise" Symphony + +He wrote the well-known "Surprise" Symphony. The slow movement of +this work opens and proceeds in the most subdued manner, and at +the moment when the audience may be imagined to have comfortably +settled for their nap a sudden explosive fortissimo chord is +introduced. "There all the women will scream," said Haydn, with +twinkling eyes. A contemporary critic read + +quite a different "programme" into it. "The 'Surprise,'" he +wrote, "might not be inaptly likened to the situation of a +beautiful shepherdess who, lulled to slumber by the murmur of a +distant waterfall, starts alarmed by the unexpected firing of a +fowling-piece." One can fancy the composer's amusement at this +highly-imaginative interpretation of his harmless bit of waggery. + +Gallic Excitement + +The same success which attended Haydn's first concert marked the +rest of the series. The Prince of Wales's presence at the second +concert no doubt gave a certain "lead" to the musical public. We +read in one of the Gallic newspapers: "It is truly wonderful what +sublime and august thoughts this master weaves into his works. +Passages often occur which it is impossible to listen to without +becoming excited--we are carried away by admiration, and are +forced to applaud with hand and mouth. The Frenchmen here cannot +restrain their transports in soft adagios; they will clap their +hands in loud applause and thus mar the effect." + +In the midst of all this enthusiasm the factionists were keeping +up their controversy about the opening of Gallini's Theatre. +Gallini had already engaged the services of Haydn, together with +an orchestra led by Salomon, but nothing could be done without +the Lord Chamberlain's license for the performance of operas. To +prevent the issue of that license was the avowed object of the +Pantheon management and their friends. The fight was rendered all +the more lively when the Court divided itself between the +opposing interests. "The rival theatre," wrote Horace Walpole, +"is said to be magnificent and lofty, but it is doubtful whether +it will be suffered to come to light; in short the contest will +grow political; ' Dieu et mon Droit' (the King) supporting the +Pantheon, and 'Ich dien' (the Prince of Wales) countenancing the +Haymarket. It is unlucky that the amplest receptacle is to hold +the minority." + +Cantatas, Catches and Choruses + +That was how it turned out. The Lord Chamberlain finally refused +his license for operatic performances, and Gallini had to be +content with a license for "entertainments of music and dancing." +He opened his house on the 20th of March, and continued during +the season to give mixed entertainments twice a week. Various +works of Haydn's were performed at these entertainments, +including a cantata composed for David, an Italian catch for +seven voices, and the chorus known as "The Storm," a setting of +Peter Pindar's "Hark, the wild uproar of the waves." An opera," +Orfeo ed Euridice," to which we have already referred, was almost +completed, but its production had necessarily to be abandoned, a +circumstance which must have occasioned him considerable regret +in view of the store he set upon his dramatic work. + +Benefit and Other Concerts + +On the 16th of May he had a benefit concert, when the receipts +exceeded by £150 the £200 which had been guaranteed. A second +benefit was given on May 30, when "La Passione Instrumentale" +(the "Seven Words" written for Cadiz) was performed. This work +was given again on June 10, at the benefit concert of the +"little" Clement, a boy violinist who grew into the famous artist +for whom Beethoven wrote his Violin Concerto. On this occasion +Haydn conducted for Clement, and it is interesting to observe +that Clement took the first violin at the last concert Haydn ever +attended, in March 1808. + +Haydn on Handel + +In the note-book he kept while in London, one of the entries +reads: "Anno 1791, the last great concert, with 885 persons, was +held in Westminster, Anno 1792, it was transferred to St +Margaret's Chapel, with 200 performers. This evoked criticism." +Haydn here refers to the Handel Commemoration Festival, the sixth +and last of the century. He attended that of 1791, and was much +impressed with the grandeur of the performances. A place had been +reserved for him near the King's box, and when the "Hallelujah +Chorus" was sung, and the whole audience rose to their feet, he +wept like a child. "Handel is the master of us all," he sobbed. +No one knew the value of Handel's choral work better than Haydn. +After listening at the Concert of Antient Music to the chorus, +"The Nations tremble," from "Joshua," he told Shield that "he had +long been acquainted with music, but never knew half its powers +before he heard it, as he was perfectly certain that only one +inspired author ever did, or ever would, pen so sublime a +composition." (Footnote: See the Appendix to Shield's +Introduction to Harmony.) + +Oxford Doctor of Music + +Haydn was no Handel, either as man or artist. Handel declined the +Doctor of Music degree with the characteristic remark: "What the +devil I throw my money away for that the blockhead wish?" Haydn +did not decline it, though probably enough he rated the +distinction no higher than Handel did. In the month of July he +went down to the Oxford Commemoration, and was then invested with +the degree. Handel's latest biographer, Mr. W. S. Rockstro, says +that the Oxford fees would have cost Handel 100 pounds. Haydn's +note of the expense is not so alarming: "I had to pay one and a +half guineas for the bell peals at Oxforth [sic] when I received +the doctor's degree, and half a guinea for the robe." He seems to +have found the ceremonies a little trying, and not unlikely he +imagined himself cutting rather a ridiculous figure in his +gorgeous robe of cherry and cream-coloured silk. At the concert +following the investiture he seized the gown, and, raising it in +the air, exclaimed in English, "I thank you." "I had to walk +about for three days in this guise, "he afterwards wrote, "and +only wish my Vienna friends could have seen me." Haydn's +"exercise " for the degree was the following "Canon cancrizans, a +tre," set to the words, "Thy voice, O harmony, is divine." + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +This was subsequently used for the first of the Ten Commandments, +the whole of which he set to canons during his stay in London. +Three grand concerts formed a feature of the Oxford +Commemoration. + +The "Oxford" Symphony + +At the second of these a symphony in G, written in 1787 or 1788, +and since known as the "Oxford," was performed, with the composer +at the organ. He had taken a new symphony with him for the +occasion, but owing to lack of time for rehearsals, the earlier +work was substituted. Of this latter, the Morning Chronicle wrote +that "a more wonderful composition never was heard. The applause +given to Haydn was enthusiastic; but the merit of the work, in +the opinion of all the musicians present, exceeded all praise." + +Holiday Relaxations + +The London season having now come to an end, Haydn proceeded to +recruit his energies by paying visits to distinguished people at +their country quarters, taking part in river excursions, picnics, +and the like. Prince Esterhazy had sent him a pressing summons to +return for a great fete which was being organized in honour of +the Emperor, but having entered into new engagements with Salomon +and others, he found it impossible to comply. A less indulgent +employer would have requited him with instant dismissal, but all +that the prince said when they afterwards met was, "Ah, Haydn! +you might have saved me 40,000 florins." His longest visit at +this time was spent with Mr. Brassey, a Lombard Street banker, +and ancestor of the present peer. "The banker," he says, "once +cursed because he enjoyed too much happiness in this world." He +gave lessons to Miss Brassey, and "enjoyed the repose of country +life in the midst of a family circle all cordially devoted to +him." In November he was the guest at two Guildhall banquets-- +that of the outgoing Lord Mayor on the 5th and that of his +successor on the 9th. Of these entertainments he has left a +curious account, and as the memorandum is in English it may, +perhaps, be reproduced here. It runs as follows in Lady Wallace's +translation of the letters: + +I was invited to the Lord Mayor's banquet on November 5. At the +first table, No. r, the new Lord Mayor and his wife dined, the +Lord Chancellor, the two sheriffs, the Duke of Lids [Leeds], the +minister Pitt, and others of the highest rank in the Cabinet. I +was seated at No. 2 with Mr. Sylvester, the most celebrated +advocate and first King's counsel in London. In this hall, called +the Geld Hall [Guildhall], were six tables, besides others in the +adjoining room. About twelve hundred persons altogether dined, +and everything was in the greatest splendour. The dishes were +very nice and well dressed. Wines of every kind in abundance. We +sat down to dinner at six o'clock and rose from table at eight. +The guests accompanied the Lord Mayor both before and after +dinner in their order of precedence. There were various +ceremonies, sword bearing, and a kind of golden crown, all +attended by a band of wind instruments. After dinner, the whole +of the aristocratic guests of No. 1 withdrew into a private room +prepared for them, to have tea and coffee, while the rest of the +company were conducted into another room. At nine o'clock No. 1 +repaired to a small saloon, when the ball began. There was a +raised platform in this room, reserved for the highest nobility, +where the Lord Mayor and his wife were seated on a throne. +Dancing then commenced in due order of precedence, but only one +couple at a time, just as on January 6,the King's birthday. There +were raised benches on both sides of this room with four steps, +where the fair sex chiefly prevailed. Nothing but minuets were +danced in this saloon, but I could only remain for a quarter of +an hour, first, because the heat of so many people assembled in +such a narrow space was so oppressive, and, secondly, on account +of the bad music for dancing, the whole orchestra consisting of +two violins and a violoncello; the minuets were more in the +Polish style than in our own, or that of the Italians. I +proceeded into another room, which really was more like a +subterranean cave than anything else; they were dancing English +dances, and the music here was a degree better, as a drum was +played by one of the violinists! [Footnote: This might be +effected by the violin player having the drumstick tied to his +right foot, which was sometimes done.] + +I went on to the large hall, where we had dined, and there the +orchestra was more numerous, and the music more tolerable. They +were also dancing English dances, but only opposite the raised +platform where the four first sets had dined with the Lord Mayor. +The other tables were all filled afresh with gentlemen, who as +usual drank freely the whole night. The strangest thing of all +was that one part of the company went on dancing without hearing +a single note of the music, for first at one table, and then at +another, songs were shouted, or toasts given, amidst the most +crazy uproar and clinking of glasses and hurrahs. This hall and +all the other rooms were lighted with lamps, of which the +effluvia was most disagreeable, especially in the small ball- +room. It was remarkable that the Lord Mayor had no need of a +carving-knife, as a man in the centre of the table carved +everything for him. One man stood before the Lord Mayor and +another behind him, shouting out vociferously all the toasts in +their order according to etiquette, and after each toast came a +flourish of kettledrums and trumpets. No health was more +applauded than that of Mr. Pitt. There seemed to be no order. The +dinner cost 6,000 British pounds, one-half of which is paid by +the Lord Mayor, and the other half by the two sheriffs. + + + +Royalty Again + +In this same month--November--he visited the Marionettes at the +Fantoccini Theatre in Saville Row, prompted, no doubt, by old +associations with Esterhaz. On the 24th he went to Oatlands to +visit the Duke of York, who had just married the Princess of +Prussia. "I remained two days," he says, "and enjoyed many marks +of graciousness and honour... On the third day the Duke had me +taken twelve miles towards town with his own horses. The Prince +of Wales asked for my portrait. For two days we made music for +four hours each evening, i.e., from ten o'clock till two hours +after midnight. Then we had supper, and at three o'clock went to +bed." After this he proceeded to Cambridge to see the university, +thence to Sir. Patrick Blake's at Langham. Of the Cambridge visit +he writes: "Each university has behind it a very roomy and +beautiful garden, besides stone bridges, in order to afford +passage over the stream which winds past. The King's Chapel is +famous for its carving. It is all of stone, but so delicate that +nothing more beautiful could have been made of wood. It has +already stood for 400 years, and everybody judges its age at +about ten years, because of the firmness and peculiar whiteness +of the stone. The students bear themselves like those at Oxford, +but it is said they have better instructors. There are in all 800 +students." + +From Langham he went to the house of a Mr. Shaw, to find in his +hostess the "most beautiful woman I ever saw." Haydn, it may be +remarked in passing, was always meeting the "most beautiful +woman." At one time she was a Mrs. Hodges, another of his London +admirers. When quite an old man he still preserved a ribbon which +Mrs. Shaw had worn during his visit, and on which his name was +embroidered in gold. + +But other matters now engaged his attention. The directors of the +Professional Concerts, desiring to take advantage of his +popularity, endeavoured to make him cancel his engagements with +Salomon and Gallini. In this they failed. "I will not," said +Haydn, "break my word to Gallini and Salomon, nor shall any +desire for Pleyel in Opposition + +dirty gain induce me to do them an injury. They have run so great +a risk and gone to so much expense on my account that it is only +fair they should be the gainers by it. "Thus defeated in their +object, the Professionals decided to bring over Haydn's own +pupil, Ignaz Pleyel, to beat the German on his own ground. It was +not easy to upset Haydn's equanimity in an affair of this kind; +his gentle nature, coupled with past experiences, enabled him to +take it all very calmly. "From my youth upwards," he wrote, "I +have been exposed to envy, so it does not surprise me when any +attempt is made wholly to crush my poor talents, but the Almighty +above is my support. . .There is no doubt that I find many who +are envious of me in London also, and I know them almost all. +Most of them are Italians. But they can do me no harm, for my +credit with this nation has been established far too many years." +As a rule, he was forbearing enough with his rivals. At first he +wrote of Pleyel: "He behaves himself with great modesty." Later +on he remarked that "Pleyel's presumption is everywhere +criticized." Nevertheless, "I go to all his concerts, for I love +him." It is very pleasant to read all this. But how far Haydn's +feelings towards Pleyel were influenced by patriotic +considerations it is impossible to say. + +The defeated Professionals had a certain advantage by being first +in the field in 1792. But Haydn was only a few days behind them +with his opening concert, and the success of the entire series +was in no way affected by the ridiculous rivalry. Symphonies, +divertimenti for concerted instruments, string quartets, a +clavier trio, airs, a cantata, and other works were all produced +at these concerts, and with almost invariable applause. Nor were +Haydn's services entirely confined to the Salomon concerts. He +conducted for various artists, including Barthelemon, the +violinist; Haesler, the pianist; and Madam Mara, of whom he tells +that she was hissed at Oxford for not rising during the +"Hallelujah" Chorus. The last concert was given on June 6 "by +desire," when Haydn's compositions were received with "an extasy +of admiration." Thus Salomon's season ended, as the Morning +Chronicle put it, with the greatest eclat. Haydn's subsequent +movements need not detain us long. He made excursions to Windsor +Castle and to Ascot "to see the races," of which he has given an +account in his note-book. From Ascot he went to Slough, where he +was introduced to Herschel. In this case there was something like +real community of tastes, for the astronomer was musical, having +once played the oboe, and later on acted as organist, first at +Halifax Parish Church, and then at the Octagon Chapel Bath. The +big telescope with which he discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 +was an object of great interest to Haydn, who was evidently +amazed at the idea of a man sitting out of doors "in the most +intense cold for five or six hours at a time." + +Visits were also paid to Vauxhall Gardens, where "the music is +fairly good" and "coffee and milk cost nothing." "The place and +its diversions," adds Haydn, "have no equal in the world." + +At St. Paul's + +But the most interesting event of this time to Haydn was the +meeting of the Charity Children in St Paul's Cathedral, when +something like 4000 juveniles took part. "I was more touched," he +says in his diary, "by this innocent and reverent music than by +any I ever heard in my life!" And then he notes the following +chant by John Jones [Jones was organist of St Paul's Cathedral at +this time. His chant, which was really in the key of D, has since +been supplanted. Haydn made an error in bar 12.): + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] + +Curiously enough Berlioz was impressed exactly in the same way +when he heard the Charity Children in 1851. He was in London as a +juror at the Great Exhibition; and along with his friend, the +late G. A. Osborne, he donned a surplice and sang bass in the +select choir. He was so moved by the children's singing that he +hid his face behind his music and wept. "It was," he says, "the +realization of one part of my dreams, and a proof that the +powerful effect of musical masses is still absolutely unknown. +[See Berlioz's "Life and Letters," English edition, Vol. I., p. +281.] + +Haydn made many interesting acquaintances during this London +visit. Besides those already mentioned, there was London +Acquaintances + +Bartolozzi, the famous engraver, to whose wife he dedicated three +clavier trios and a sonata in E flat (Op. 78), which, so far +unprinted in Germany, is given by Sterndale Bennett in his +Classical Practice. There was also John Hunter, described by +Haydn as "the greatest and most celebrated chyrurgus in London," +who vainly tried to persuade him to have a polypus removed from +his nose. It was Mrs. Hunter who wrote the words for most of his +English canzonets, including the charming "My mother bids me bind +my hair." And then there was Mrs. Billington, the famous singer, +whom Michael Kelly describes as "an angel of beauty and the Saint +Cecilia of song." There is no more familiar anecdote than that +which connects Haydn with Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of this +notorious character. Carpani is responsible for the tale. He says +that Haydn one day found Mrs. Billington sitting to Reynolds, who +was painting her as St Cecilia listening to the angels. "It is +like," said Haydn, "but there is a strange mistake." "What is +that?" asked Reynolds. "You have painted her listening to the +angels. You ought to have represented the angels listening to +her." It is a very pretty story, but it cannot possibly be true. +Reynolds's portrait of Mrs. Billington was painted in 1789, two +years before Haydn's arrival, and was actually shown in the +Academy Exhibition of 1790, the last to which Sir Joshua +contributed. [The portrait, a whole length, was sold in 1798 for +325 pounds sterling, 10 shillings, and again at Christie's, in +1845, for 505 guineas--to an American, as usual.] Of course Haydn +may have made the witty remark here attributed to him, but it +cannot have been at the time of the painting of the portrait. +That he was an enthusiastic admirer of Mrs. Billington there can +be no doubt. + +Another Romance + +There was another intimacy of more import, about which it is +necessary to speak at some length. When Dies published his +biography of Haydn in l810 he referred to a batch of love-letters +written to the composer during this visit to London. The +existence of the letters was known to Pohl, who devotes a part of +his Haydn in London to them, and prints certain extracts; but the +letters themselves do not appear to have been printed either in +the original English or in a German translation until Mr. Henry +E. Krehbiel, the well-known American musical critic, gave them to +the world through the columns of the New York Tribune. Mr. +Krehbiel was enabled to do this by coming into possession of a +transcript of Haydn's London note-book, with which we will deal +presently. Haydn, as he informs us, had copied all the letters +out in full, "a proceeding which tells its own story touching his +feelings towards the missives and their fair author." He +preserved them most carefully among the souvenirs of his visit, +and when Dies asked him about them, he replied: "They are letters +from an English widow in London who loved me. Though sixty years +old, she was still lovely and amiable, and I should in all +likelihood have married her if I had been single." Who was the +lady thus celebrated? In Haydn's note-book the following entry +occurs: "Mistress Schroeter, No. 6 James Street, Buckingham +Gate." The inquiry is here answered: Mistress Schroeter was the +lady. + +Mistress Schroeter + +Haydn, it will be seen, describes her as a widow of sixty. +According to Goldsmith, women and music should never be dated; +but in the present case, there is a not unnatural curiosity to +discover the lady's age. Mr. Krehbiel gives good grounds for +doubting Haydn's statement that Mistress Schroeter was sixty when +he met her. She had been married to Johann Samuel Schroeter, an +excellent German musician, who settled in London in 1772. +Schroeter died in 1788, three years before the date of Haydn's +visit, when he was just thirty-eight. Now Dr Burney, who must +have known the family, says that Schroeter "married a young lady +of considerable fortune, who was his scholar, and was in easy +circumstances." If, therefore, Mrs. Schroeter was sixty years old +when Haydn made her acquaintance, she must have been nineteen +years her husband's senior, and could not very well be described +as a "young" lady at the time of her marriage. + +It is, however, unnecessary to dwell upon the matter of age. The +interesting point is that Haydn fell under the spell of the +charming widow. There is no account of their first meeting; but +it was probably of a purely professional nature. Towards the end +of June 1791 the lady writes: "Mrs. Schroeter presents her +compliments to Mr. Haydn, and informs him she is just returned to +town, and will be very happy to see him whenever it is convenient +to him to give her a lesson." A woman of sixty should hardly have +been requiring lessons, especially after having been the wife of +a professor who succeeded the "English Bach" as musicmaster to +the Queen. But lessons sometimes cover a good deal of love- +making, and that was clearly the case with Haydn and Mrs. +Schroeter. + +Love Letters + +There is indeed some reason to doubt if the lessons were +continued. At any rate, by February 1792, the affair had ripened +so far as to allow the lady to address the composer as "my dear," +and disclose her tender solicitude for his health. On the 7th of +the following month she writes that she was "extremely sorry" to +part with him so suddenly the previous night. "Our conversation +was particularly interesting, and I had a thousand affectionate +things to say to you. My heart was and is full of tenderness for +you, but no language can express half the love and affection I +feel for you. You are dearer to me every day of my life." + +This was pretty warm, considering that Haydn was still in the +bonds of wedlock. We cannot tell how far he reciprocated the +feeling, his letters, if he wrote any, not having been preserved; +but it may be safely inferred that a lady who was to be "happy to +see you both in the morning and the evening" did not do all the +love-making. On the 4th of April the composer gets a present of +soap, and is the "ever dear Haydn" of the "invariable and truly +affectionate" Mistress Schroeter. He had been working too hard +about this particular date (he notes that he was "bled in London" +on the l7th of March), and on the l2th the "loveress," to use +Marjorie Fleming's term, is "truly anxious" about her "dear +love," for whom her regard is "stronger every day." An extract +from the letter of April 19 may be quoted as it stands: I was +extremely sorry to hear this morning that you were indisposed. I +am told you were five hours at your studies yesterday. Indeed, my +dear love, I am afraid it will hurt you. Why should you, who have +already produced so many wonderful and charming compositions, +still fatigue yourself with such close application? I almost +tremble for your health. Let me prevail on you, my much-loved +Haydn, not to keep to your studies so long at one time. My dear +love, if you could know how very precious your welfare is to me, +I flatter myself you would endeavour to preserve it for my sake +as well as your own. + + + +Come Early + +The next letter shows that Haydn had been deriving some profit +from Mistress Schroeter's affections by setting her to work as an +amanuensis. She has been copying out a march, and is sorry that +she has not done it better. "If my Haydn would employ me oftener +to write music, I hope I should improve; and I know I should +delight in the occupation." Invitations to dine at St James's +Street are repeatedly being sent, for Mistress Schroeter wishes +"to have as much of your company as possible." When others are +expected, Haydn is to come early, so that they may have some time +together "before the rest of our friends come." Does the adored +Schroeter go to one of her "dearest love's" concerts, she thanks +him a thousand times for the entertainment. "Where your sweet +compositions and your excellent performance combine," she writes, +"it cannot fail of being the most charming concert; but, apart +from that, the pleasure of seeing you must ever give me infinite +satisfaction." As the time drew near for Haydn's departure, +"every moment of your company is more and more precious to me. +"She begs to assure him with "heart-felt affection" that she will +ever consider the acquaintance with him as one of the chief +blessings of her life. Nay, she entertains for her "dearest +Haydn" the fondest and tenderest affection the human heart is +capable of." And so on. + +An Innocent Amourette + +One feels almost brutally rude in breaking in upon the privacy of +this little romance. No doubt the flirtation was inexcusable +enough on certain grounds. But taking the whole circumstances +into account--above all, the loveless, childless home of the +composer--the biographer is disposed to see in the episode merely +that human yearning after affection and sympathy which had been +denied to Haydn where he had most right to expect them. He +admitted that he was apt to be fascinated by pretty and amiable +women, and the woman to whom he had given his name was neither +pretty nor amiable. An ancient philosopher has said that a man +should never marry a plain woman, since his affections would +always be in danger of straying when he met a beauty. This +incident in Haydn's career would seem to support the +philosopher's contention. For the rest, it was probably harmless +enough, for there is nothing to show that the severer codes of +morality were infringed. + +The biographers of Haydn have not succeeded in discovering how +the Schroeter amourette ended. The letters printed by Mr. +Krehbiel are all confined to the year 1792, and mention is +nowhere made of any of later date. When Haydn returned to London +in 1794, he occupied rooms at No. 1 Bury Street, St James', and +Pohl suggests that he may have owed the more pleasant quarters to +his old admirer, who would naturally be anxious to have him as +near her as possible. A short walk of ten minutes through St +James' Park and the Mall would bring him to Buckingham Palace, +and from that to Mrs. Schroeter's was only a stone-throw. Whether +the old affectionate relations were resumed it is impossible to +say. If there were any letters of the second London visit, it is +curious that Haydn should not have preserved them with the rest. +There is no ground for supposing that any disagreement came +between the pair: the facts point rather the other way. When +Haydn finally said farewell to London, he left the scores of his +six last symphonies "in the hands of a lady." Pohl thinks the +lady was Mrs. Schroeter, and doubtless he is right. At any rate +Haydn's esteem for her, to use no stronger term, is sufficiently +emphasized by his having inscribed to her the three trios +numbered 1, 2 and 6 in the Breitkopf & Hartel list. + +Haydn's Note-Book + +Reference has already been made to the diary or note-book kept by +Haydn during his visit. The original manuscript of this curious +document came into the hands of his friend, Joseph Weigl, whose +father had been 'cellist to Prince Esterhazy. A similar diary was +kept during the second visit, but this was lost; and indeed the +first note-book narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of a +careless domestic. Haydn's autograph was at one time in the +possession of Dr. Pohl. A copy of it made by A. W. Thayer, the +biographer of Beethoven, in 1862, became, as previously stated, +the property of Mr. Krehbiel, who has printed the entries, with +running comment, in his "Music and Manners in the Classical +Period" (London, 1898). Mr. Krehbiel rightly describes some of +the entries as mere "vague mnemonic hints," and adds that one +entry which descants in epigrammatic fashion on the comparative +morals of the women of France, Holland and England is unfit for +publication. Looking over the diary, it is instructive to observe +how little reference is made to music. One or two of the entries +are plainly memoranda of purchases to be made for friends. There +is one note about the National Debt of England, another about the +trial of Warren Hastings. London, we learn, has 4000 carts for +cleaning the streets, and consumes annually 800,000 cartloads of +coals. That scandalous book, the Memoirs of Mrs. Billingdon, +which had just been published, forms the subject of a long entry. +"It is said that her [Mrs. Billington's] character is very +faulty, but nevertheless she is a great genius, and all the women +hate her because she is so beautiful." + +Prince of Wale's Punch + +A note is made of the constituents of the Prince of Wales's +punch--"One bottle champagne, one bottle Burgundy, one bottle +rum, ten lemons, two oranges, pound and a half of sugar." A +process for preserving milk "for a long time" is also described. +We read that on the 5th of November (1791) "there was a fog so +thick that one might have spread it on bread. In order to write I +had to light a candle as early as eleven o'clock." Here is a +curious item--"In the month of June 1792 a chicken, 7s.; an +Indian [a kind of bittern found in North America] 9s.; a dozen +larks, 1 coron [? crown]. N.B.--If plucked, a duck, 5s." Haydn +liked a good story, and when he heard one made a note of it. The +diary contains two such stories. One is headed "Anectod," and +runs: "At a grand concert, as the director was about to begin the +first number, the kettledrummer called loudly to him, asking him +to wait a moment, because his two drums were not in tune. The +leader could not and would not wait any longer, and told the +drummer to transpose for the present." The second story is +equally good. "An Archbishop of London, having asked Parliament +to silence a preacher of the Moravian religion who preached in +public, the Vice-President answered that could easily be done: +only make him a Bishop, and he would keep silent all his life." + +On the whole the note-book cannot be described as of strong +biographical interest, but a reading of its contents as +translated by Mr. Krehbiel will certainly help towards an +appreciation of the personal character of the composer. + +CHAPTER VI + +SECOND LONDON VISIT--l794-l795 + +Beethoven--Takes Lessons from Haydn--The Relations of the Two +Composers--The Haydn Museum--Haydn starts for London--His Servant +Elssler--The Salomon Concerts--A "Smart" Drummer--New +Acquaintances--Haydn at Bath--Opera Concerts--Kingly Courtesies-- +A Valuable Parrot--Rohrau Reminiscences--Esterhaz once more--The +"Austrian Hymn"--Haydn's Love for It--A Charge of Plagiarism. + +Haydn left London some time towards the end of June 1792. He had +intended to visit Berlin, in response to an invitation from King +Frederick William II., but he altered his route in order to meet +Prince Anton Esterhazy, who was at Frankfort for the coronation +of the Emperor Francis II. + +Beethoven + +A more interesting meeting took place at Bonn. Beethoven, then a +young man of twenty-two, was still living with his people in the +Wenzegasse, but already arrangements had been made by the Elector +for his paying a somewhat lengthened visit to Vienna in order to +prosecute his studies there. Since the death of Mozart, Haydn had +become the most brilliant star in the musical firmament, and it +was only natural that the rising genius should look to him for +practical help and encouragement. It so happened that the +Elector's Band, of which Beethoven was a member, gave a dinner to +Haydn at Godesberg. The occasion was opportune. Beethoven +submitted a cantata to the guest of the evening which Haydn +"greatly praised, warmly encouraging the composer to proceed with +his studies." The name of the cantata has not been ascertained, +though Thayer conjectures it to have been on the death of the +Emperor Leopold II. + +Whatever it was, the fact of Haydn's approval would make it an +easy matter to discuss the subject of lessons, whether now or +later. Beethoven did not start for Vienna until November, and it +appears that immediately before that date some formal +communication had been made with Haydn in reference to his +studies. On the 29th of October Count Waldstein wrote: + +"DEAR BEETHOVEN + +You are traveling to Vienna in fulfillment of your long-cherished +wish. The genius of Mozart is still weeping and bewailing the +death of her favourite. With the inexhaustible Haydn she found a +refuge, but no occupation, and is now waiting to leave him and +join herself to someone else. Labour assiduously, and receive +Mozart's spirit from the hands of Haydn." + +This was not exactly complimentary to Haydn, but Beethoven +doubtless had the good sense not to repeat the count's words. +When the young artist arrived in Vienna, he found Haydn living at +the Hamberger Haus, No. 992 (since demolished), and thither he +went for his lessons. From Beethoven's own notes of expenses we +find that his first payment was made to Haydn on December 12. The +sum entered is 8 groschen (about 9 1/2 d.), which shows at least +that Haydn was not extravagant in his charges. + +Master and Pupil + +Beethoven's studies were in strict counterpoint, and the text- +book was that same "Gradus ad Parnassum" of Fux which Haydn had +himself contended with in the old days at St Stephen's. How many +exercises Beethoven wrote cannot be said, but 245 have been +preserved, of which, according to Nottebohm, Haydn corrected only +forty-two. Much ink has been wasted in discussing the relations +of these distinguished composers. There is no denying that Haydn +neglected his young pupil, but one may find another excuse for +the neglect besides that of his increasing age and his engrossing +occupations. Beethoven was already a musical revolutionist: Haydn +was content to walk in the old ways. The two men belonged almost +to different centuries, and the disposition which the younger +artist had for "splendid experiments" must have seemed to the +mature musician little better than madness and licentious +irregularity. "He will never do anything in decent style," was +Albrechtsberger's dictum after giving Beethoven a series of +lessons. + +Haydn's opinion of Beethoven's future was not so dogmatically +expressed; but he must have been sorely puzzled by a pupil who +looked upon even consecutive fifths as an open question, and +thought it a good thing to "learn occasionally what is according +to rule that one may hereafter come to what is contrary to rule." +It is said that Haydn persisted in regarding Beethoven, not as a +composer at all but as a pianoforte player; and certainly +Beethoven regarded Haydn as being behind the age. That he was +unjust to Haydn cannot be gainsaid. He even went so far as to +suspect Haydn of willfully trying to retard him in his studies, a +proceeding of which Haydn was altogether incapable. For many +years he continued to discharge splenetic remarks about his +music, and he was always annoyed at being called his pupil. "I +never learned anything from Haydn," he would say; "he never would +correct my mistakes." When, the day after the production of his +ballet music to Prometheus, he met Haydn in the street, the old +man observed to him: "I heard your music last night; I liked it +very well." To which Beethoven, alluding to Haydn's oratorio, +replied: "Oh! dear master, it is far from being a creation." The +doubtful sincerity of this remark may be inferred from an +anecdote quoted by Moscheles. Haydn had been told that Beethoven +was speaking depreciatingly of "The Creation." "That is wrong of +him," he said. "What has he written, then? His Septet? Certainly +that is beautiful; nay, splendid." + +Beethoven on Haydn + +It is hardly necessary to say who comes out best in these +passages at arms. Yet we must not be too hard on Beethoven. That +he recognized Haydn's genius as a composer no careful reader of +his biography can fail to see. As Pohl takes pains to point out, +he spoke highly of Haydn whenever opportunity offered, often +chose one of his themes when improvising in public, scored one of +his quartets for his own use, and lovingly preserved the +autograph of one of the English symphonies. That he came in the +end to realize his true greatness is amply proved by the story +already related which represents him as exclaiming on his death- +bed upon the fact of Haydn having been born in a common peasant's +cottage. + +In the meantime, although Beethoven was dissatisfied with his +progress under Haydn, there was no open breach between the two. +It is true that the young musician sought another teacher--one +Schenck, a well-known Viennese composer--but this was done +without Haydn's knowledge, out of consideration, we may assume, +for his feelings. That master and pupil were still on the best of +terms may be gathered from their having been at Eisenstadt +together during the summer of 1793. In the January of the +following year Haydn set out on his second visit to England, and +Beethoven transferred himself to Albrechtsberger. + +The Haydn Museum + +Haydn's life in Vienna during the eighteen months which +intervened between the two London visits was almost totally +devoid of incident. His wife, it will be remembered, had written +to him in England, asking for money to buy a certain house which +she fancied for a "widow's home." Haydn was astute enough not to +send the money, but on his return to Vienna, finding the house in +every way to his liking, he bought it himself. Frau Haydn died +seven years later, "and now," said the composer, speaking in +1806, "I am living in it as a widower." The house is situated in +the suburb of Vienna known as Gumpendorf. It is No. i9 of the +Haydngasse and bears a marble memorial tablet, affixed to it in +1840. The pious care of the composer's admirers has preserved it +almost exactly as it was in Haydn's day, and has turned it into a +kind of museum containing portraits and mementoes of the master, +the original manuscript of "The Creation," and other interesting +relics. + +Starts for London Haydn started on his journey to England on +January 19, 1794, Salomon having brought him, under a promise to +return with six new symphonies which be was to conduct in person. +This time he traveled down the Rhine, and he had not been many +days on the way when news reached him of the death of Prince +Anton Esterhazy, who had very reluctantly given him leave of +absence. On the occasion of the first London visit Salomon had +been his traveling companion; now, feeling doubtless the +encumbrance of increasing years, Haydn took his servant and +copyist, Johann Elssler, along with him. + +Honest Elssler It map be noted in passing that he entertained a +very warm regard for Elssler, whose father had been music copyist +to Prince Esterhazy. He was born at Eisenstadt in 1769, and, +according to Pohl, lived the whole of his life with Haydn, first +as copyist, and then as general servant and factotum. It was +Elssler who tended the composer in his last years, a service +recompensed by the handsome bequest of 6000 florins, which he +lived to enjoy until 1843. No man, it has been said, is a hero to +his valet, but "Haydn was to Elssler a constant subject of +veneration, which he carried so far that when he thought himself +unobserved he would stop with the censer before his master's +portrait as if it were the altar." This "true and honest servant" +copied a large amount of Haydn's music, partly in score, partly +in separate parts, much of which is now treasured as the +autograph of Haydn, though the handwritings of the two are +essentially different. It is a pity that none of the earlier +writers on Haydn thought of applying to Elssler for particulars +of the private life of the composer. He could have given +information on many obscure points, and could have amplified the +details of this second London visit, about which we know much +less than we know about the former visit. + +The Salomon Concerts + +Salomon's first concert had been arranged for the 3rd of +February, but Haydn did not arrive until the 4th, and the series +accordingly began upon the 10th. Twelve concerts were given in +all, and with the most brilliant success. The six new symphonies +commissioned by Salomon were performed, and the previous set were +also repeated, along with some new quartets. Of the many +contemporary notices of the period, perhaps the most interesting +is that which appears in the Journal of Luxury and Fashion, +published at Weimar in July 1794. It is in the form of a London +letter, written on March 25, under the heading of "On the Present +State and Fashion of Music in England." After speaking of +Salomon's efforts on behalf of classical music and of the praise +due to him for his performance of the quartets of "our old +favourite, Haydn," the writer continues: "But what would you now +say to his new symphonies composed expressly for these concerts, +and directed by himself at the piano? It is truly wonderful what +sublime and august thoughts this master weaves into his works. +Passages often occur which render it impossible to listen to them +without becoming excited. We are altogether carried away by +admiration, and forced to applaud with hand and mouth. This is +especially the case with Frenchmen, of whom we have so many here +that all public places are filled with them. You know that they +have great sensibility, and cannot restrain their transports, so +that in the midst of the finest passages in soft adagios they +clap their hands in loud applause and thus mar the effect. In +every symphony of Haydn the adagio or andante is sure to be +repeated each time, after the most vehement encores. The worthy +Haydn, whose personal acquaintance I highly value, conducts +himself on these occasions in the most modest manner. He is +indeed a good-hearted, candid, honest man, esteemed and beloved +by all." + +A "Smart" Drummer + +Several notable incidents occurred at the Salomon Concerts. It +has been remarked, as "an event of some interest in musical +history," that Haydn and Wilhelm Cramer appeared together at one +concert, Cramer as leader of the orchestra, Haydn conducting from +the pianoforte. But Cramer was not a genius of the first rank-- +his compositions are of the slightest importance--and there was +nothing singular about his appearing along with Haydn. He had +been leader at the Handel Festivals at Westminster Abbey in 1784 +and 1787, and was just the man to be engaged for an enterprise +like that of Salomon's. An anecdote told of Haydn in connection +with one of the rehearsals is better worth noting. The drummer +was found to be absent. "Can anyone here play the drum?" inquired +Haydn, looking round from his seat at the piano. "I can," +promptly replied young George (afterwards Sir George) Smart, who +was sitting among the violinists. Smart, who lived to become the +doyen of the musical profession in England, had never handled a +drumstick before, and naturally failed to satisfy the conductor. +Haydn took the drumstick from him and "showed to the astonished +orchestra a new and unexpected attitude in their leader." Then, +turning to Smart, he remarked: "That is how we use the drumsticks +in Germany." "Oh, very well," replied the unabashed youth, "if +you like it better in that way we can also do it so in London." + +New Acquaintances + +Haydn made several new acquaintances during this visit, the most +notable being, perhaps, Dragonetti, the famous double-bass +player, who had accompanied Banti, the eminent prima donna, to +London in 1794. Banti had been discovered as a chanteuse in a +Paris cafe, and afterwards attracted much notice by her fine +voice both in Paris and London. "She is the first singer in +Italy, and drinks a bottle of wine every day," said one who knew +her. In her journeys through Germany, Austria and Italy she won +many triumphs. Haydn composed for her an air, "Non Partir," in E, +which she sang at his benefit. As for "Old Drag," the familiar +designation of the distinguished bassist, his eccentricities must +have provided Haydn with no little amusement. He always took his +dog Carlo with him into the orchestra, and Henry Phillips tells +us that, having a strange weakness for dolls, he often carried +one of them to the festivals as his wife! On his way to Italy in +1798 Dragonetti visited Haydn in Vienna, and was much delighted +with the score of "The Creation," just completed. Several eminent +violinists were in London at the time of Haydn's visit. The most +distinguished of them was perhaps Felice de Giardini, who, at the +age of fourscore, produced an oratorio at Ranelagh Gardens, and +even played a concerto. He had a perfectly volcanic temper, and +hated Haydn as the devil is said to hate holy water. "I don't +wish to see the German dog," he remarked in the composer's +hearing, when urged to pay him a visit. Haydn, as a rule, was +kindly disposed to all brother artists, but to be called a dog +was too much, He went to hear Giardini, and then got even with +him by noting in his diary that he "played like a pig." + +Haydn at Bath + +The accounts preserved of Haydn's second visit to England are, as +already remarked, far less full than those of the first visit. +Unconnected memoranda appear in his diary, some of which are +given by Griesinger and Dies; but they are of comparatively +little interest. During the summer of 1794 he moved about the +country a good deal. Thus, about the 26th of August, he paid a +visit to Waverley Abbey, whose "Annales Waverliensis" suggested +to Scott the name of his first romance. The ruined condition of +the venerable pile--it dates from 1128--set Haydn moralizing on +the "Protestant heresy" which led the "rascal mob" to tear down +"what had once been a stronghold of his own religion." In the +following month he spent three days in Bath with Dr. Burney, and +Rauzzini, the famous tenor, who had retired to the fashionable +watering-place after a successful career of thirteen years as a +singer and teacher in London. Rauzzini is little more than a name +now, but for Haydn's sake it is worth recalling his memory. Born +at Rome in 1747, his striking beauty of face and figure had drawn +him into certain entanglements which made it expedient for him to +leave his native land. He was as fond of animals as Dragonetti +was of dolls, and had erected a memorial tablet in his garden to +his "best friend," otherwise his dog. "Turk was a faithful dog +and not a man," ran the inscription, which reminds one of +Schopenhauer's cynical observation that if it were not for the +honest faces of dogs, we should forget the very existence of +sincerity. When Haydn read the inscription he immediately +proceeded to make use of the words for a four-part canon. It was +presumably at this time that he became acquainted with Dr. Henry +Harington, the musician and author, who had removed to Bath in +1771, where he had founded the Harmonic Society. Haydn dedicated +one of his songs to him in return for certain music and verses, +which explains the following otherwise cryptic note of +Clementi's, published for the first time recently by Mr. J. S. +Shedlock: "The first Dr. [Harington] having bestowed much praise +on the second Dr. [Haydn], the said second Dr, out of doctorial +gratitude, returns the 1st Dr. thanks for all favours recd., and +praises in his turn the said lst Dr. most handsomely." The title +of Haydn's song was "Dr. Harington's Compliments." + +Opera Concerts + +The composer returned to London at the beginning of October for +the winter season's concerts. These began, as before, in +February, and were continued once a week up to the month of May. +This time they took the form of opera concerts, and were given at +the "National School of Music" in the new concert room of the +King's Theatre. No fresh symphonies were contributed by Haydn for +this series, though + +some of the old ones always found a place in the programmes. Two +extra concerts were given on May 21 and June 1, at both of which +Haydn appeared; but the composer's last benefit concert was held +on May 4. On this occasion the programme was entirely confined to +his own compositions, with the exception of concertos by Viotti, +the violinist, and Ferlendis, the oboist. Banti sang the aria +already mentioned as having been written expressly for her, but, +according to the composer, "sang very scanty." The main thing, +however, was that the concert proved a financial success, the net +receipts amounting to £400. "It is only in England," said Haydn, +"that one can make 4000 gulden in one evening." + +Haydn did indeed remarkably well in London. As Pohl says, "he +returned from it with increased powers, unlimited fame, and a +competence for life. By concerts, lessons, and symphonies, not +counting his other compositions, he had again made £1200, enough +to relieve him from all anxiety as to the future. He often said +afterwards that it was not till he had been to England that he +became famous in Germany; by which he meant that although his +reputation was high at home, the English were the first to give +him public homage and liberal remuneration." + +Kingly Courtesies + +It is superfluous to say that Haydn was as much of a "lion" in +London society during his second visit as he had been on the +previous occasion. The attention bestowed on him in royal circles +made that certain, for "society" are sheep, and royalty is their +bell-wether. The Prince of Wales had rather a fancy for him, and +commanded his attendance at Carlton House no fewer than twenty- +six times. At one concert at York House the programme was +entirely devoted to his music. George III and Queen Caroline were +present, and Haydn was presented to the King by the Prince. "You +have written a great deal, Dr. Haydn," said the King. "Yes, sire," +was the reply; "more than is good for me." "Certainly not," +rejoined His Majesty. He was then presented to the Queen, and +asked to sing some German songs. "My voice," he said, pointing to +the tip of his little finger, "is now no bigger than that"; but +he sat down to the pianoforte and sang his song, "Ich bin der +Verliebteste." He was repeatedly invited by the Queen to +Buckingham Palace, and she tried to persuade him to settle in +England. "You shall have a house at Windsor during the summer +months," she said, and then, looking towards the King, added, "We +can sometimes make music tete-a-tete." "Oh! I am not jealous of +Haydn," interposed the King; "he is a good, honourable German." +"To preserve that reputation," replied Haydn, "is my greatest +pride." + +Most of Haydn's appearances were made at the concerts regularly +organized for the entertainment of royalty at Carlton House and +Buckingham Palace, and Haydn looked to be paid for his services. +Whether the King and the Prince expected him to give these +services in return for the supposed honour they had conferred +upon him does not appear. At all events, Haydn sent in a bill for +100 guineas sometime after his return to Vienna, and the amount +was promptly paid by Parliament. + +A Valuable Parrot + +Among the other attentions bestowed upon him while in London, +mention should be made of the present of a talking parrot. Haydn +took the bird with him, and it was sold for 140 pounds after his +death. Another gift followed him to Vienna. A Leicester +manufacturer named Gardiner--he wrote a book on The Music of +Nature, and other works--sent him half a dozen pairs of cotton +stockings, into which were woven the notes of the Austrian Hymn, +"My mother bids me bind my hair," the Andante from the "Surprise" +Symphony, and other thematic material. These musical stockings, +as a wit has observed, must have come as a real surprise to +Haydn. It was this same Leicester manufacturer, we may remark +parenthetically, who annotated the translation of Bombet's Life +of Haydn, made by his fellow-townsman, Robert Brewin, in 1817, + +Haydn's return from London was hastened by the receipt of a +communication from Esterhaz. Prince Anton had been succeeded by +his son Nicolaus, who was as fond of music as the rest of his +family, and desired to keep his musical establishment up to the +old standard. During the summer of 1794 he had written to Haydn, +asking if the composer would care to retain his appointment as +director. Haydn was only too glad to assent; and now that his +London engagements were fulfilled, he saw no reason for remaining +longer in England. Accordingly he started for home on the l5th of +August 1795, traveling by way of Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden, and +arriving at Vienna in the early days of September. + +Rohrau Reminiscences + +Soon after his return he was surprised to receive an invitation +to visit his native Rohrau. When he arrived there he found that a +monument, with a marble bust of himself, had been erected to his +honour in a park near his birthplace. This interesting memorial +consists of a square pillar surmounting three stone steps, with +an inscription on each side. The visit was productive of mingled +feelings to Haydn. He took his friends to see the old thatch- +roofed cottage, and, pointing to the familiar stove, still in its +place, modestly remarked that there his career as a musician +began--a reminiscence of the now far-away time when he sat by his +father's side and sawed away on his improvised fiddle. + +Esterhaz once more + +There is little to say about Haydn's labours as Capellmeister of +the Esterhazy household at this time. Apparently he was only at +Eisenstadt for the summer and autumn. Down to 1802, however, he +always had a mass ready for Princess Esterhazy's name-day in +September. These compositions are Nos. 2, 1, 3, 16, 4 and 6 of +the Novello edition. No. 2, Pohl tells us, was composed in 1796, +and called the "Paukenmesse," from the fact of the drums being +used in the Agnus. No. 3 was written in 1797. It is known in +England as the Imperial Mass, but in Germany as "Die +Nelsonmesse," on account of its having been performed during +Nelson's visit to Eisenstadt in l800. On that occasion Nelson +asked Haydn for his pen, and gave him his own gold watch in +exchange. + +The Austrian Hymn + +It was shortly after his return to Vienna--in January 1797, to be +precise--that he composed his favourite air, "God preserve the +Emperor," better known as the Austrian Hymn. The story of this +celebrated composition is worth telling with some minuteness. Its +inception was due to Count von Saurau, Imperial High Chancellor +and Minister of the Interior. Writing in 1820, the count said: + +I often regretted that we had not, like the English, a national +air calculated to display to all the world the loyal devotion of +our people to the kind and upright ruler of our Fatherland, and +to awaken within the hearts of all good Austrians that noble +national pride so indispensable to the energetic fulfillment of +all the beneficial measures of the sovereign. This seemed to me +more urgent at a period when the French Revolution was raging +most furiously, and when the Jacobins cherished the idle hope of +finding among the worthy Viennese partisans and participators in +their criminal designs [The scandalous Jacobin persecutions and +executions in Austria and Hungary took place in 1796]. I caused +that meritorious poet Haschka to write the words, and applied to +our immortal countryman Haydn to set them to music, for I +considered him alone capable of writing anything approaching in +merit to the English "God save the King." Such was the origin of +our national hymn. + +It would not have been difficult to match "God save the King," +the mediocrity of which, especially as regards the words, has +been the butt of countless satirists. Beethoven wrote in his +diary that he "must show the English what a blessing they have" +in that "national disgrace." If Haydn regarded it as a +"blessing," he certainly did not take it as a model. He produced +an air which, looking at it from a purely artistic point of view, +is the best thing of the national anthem kind that has ever been +written. The Emperor was enchanted with it when sung on his +birthday, February 12, 1797, at the National Theatre in Vienna, +and through Count Saurau sent the composer a gold box adorned +with a facsimile of the royal features. "Such a surprise and such +a mark of favour, especially as regards the portrait of my +beloved monarch," wrote Haydn, "I never before received in +acknowledgment of my poor talents." + +Haydn's Love for It + +We have several indications of Haydn's predilection for this fine +air, which has long been popular as a hymn tune in all the +churches. He wrote a set of variations for it as the Andante of +his "Kaiser Quartet." Griesinger tells us, too, that as often as +the warm weather and his strength permitted, during the last few +years of his life, he used to be led into his back room that he +might play it on the piano. It is further related by Dies that, +during the bombardment of Vienna in May 1809, Haydn seated +himself at his instrument every forenoon to give forth the sound +of the favourite song. Indeed, on May 26, only five days before +his death, he played it over three times in succession, and "with +a degree of expression that astonished himself." As one writer +puts it, the air "seemed to have acquired a certain sacredness in +his eyes in an age when kings were beheaded and their crowns +tossed to the rabble." + +Haydn's first sketch of the melody was found among his papers +after his death. We reproduce it here, with an improvement shown +in small notes. There are, it will be observed, some slight +differences between the draft and the published version of the +air: + +[figure: a musical score excerpt from the draft] + +[figure: a musical score excerpt from the published version] + +The collecting of what Tennyson called "the chips of the +workshop" is not as a rule an edifying business, but the +evolution of a great national air must always be interesting. + +Plagiarism or Coincidence? + +It might perhaps be added that Dr. Kuhac, the highest authority on +Croatian folk-song, asserted in an article contributed to the +Croatian Review (1893) that the Austrian National Hymn was based +on a Croatian popular air. In reviewing Kuhac's collection of +Croatian melodies, a work in four volumes, containing 1600 +examples, Dr. Reimann signifies his agreement with Kuhac, and adds +that Haydn employed Croatian themes not only in "God preserve the +Emperor," but in many passages of his other works. These +statements must not be taken too seriously. Handel purloined +wholesale from brother composers and said nothing about it. The +artistic morality of Haydn's age was different, and, knowing his +character as we do, we may be perfectly sure that if he had of +set purpose introduced into any of his compositions music which +was not his own he would, in some way or other, have acknowledged +the debt. This hunting for plagiarisms which are not plagiarisms +at all but mere coincidences--coincidences which are and must be +inevitable--is fast becoming a nuisance, and it is the duty of +every serious writer to discredit the practice. The composer of +"The Creation" had no need to borrow his melodies from any +source. + +CHAPTER VII + +"THE CREATION" AND "THE SEASONS" + +Haydn's Crowning Achievement--"The Creation" suggested--The +"Unintelligible Jargon" of the Libretto--The Stimulating Effect +of London--Haydn's Self-Criticism--First Performance of "The +Creation"--London Performances--French Enthusiasm--The Oratorio +criticized--"The Seasons." + +Haydn's Crowning Achievement + +Haydn rounded his life with "The Creation" and "The Seasons." +They were the summit of his achievement, as little to be expected +from him, considering his years, as "Falstaff" was to be expected +from the octogenarian Verdi. Some geniuses flower late. It was +only now, by his London symphonies and his "Creation," that +Haydn's genius blossomed so luxuriantly as to place him with +almost amazing suddenness among the very first of composers. +There is hardly anything more certain than this, that if he had +not come to London he would not have stood where he stands today. +The best of his symphonies were written for London; and it was +London, in effect, that set him to work in what was for him +practically a new direction, leading to the production of an +oratorio which at once took its place by the side of Handel's +master-pieces, and rose to a popularity second only to that of +"The Messiah" itself. + +The Creation + +The connection thus established between the names of Handel and +Haydn is interesting, for there can be little question that Haydn +was led to think of writing a large choral work chiefly as the +result of frequently hearing Handel's oratorios during his visits +to the metropolis. The credit of suggesting "The Creation" to +Haydn is indeed assigned to Salomon, but it is more than probable +that the matter had already been occupying his thoughts. It has +been explicitly stated [Footnote: See note by C.H. Purday in +Leisure Hour for 1880, p. 528.] that, being greatly impressed +with the effect produced by "The Messiah," Haydn intimated to his +friend Barthelemon his desire to compose a work of the same kind. +He asked Barthelemon what subject he would advise for such a +purpose, and Barthelemon, pointing to a copy of the Bible, +replied: "There! take that, and begin at the beginning." This +story is told on apparently good authority. But it hardly fits in +with the statements of biographers. According to the biographers, +Salomon handed the composer a libretto originally selected for +Handel from Genesis and Paradise Lost by Mr. Lidley or Liddell. +That this was the libretto used by Haydn is certain, and we may +therefore accept it as a fact that Haydn's most notable +achievement in choral music was due in great measure to the man +who had brought him to London, and had drawn from him the finest +of his instrumental works. + +The Creation" Libretto + +Before proceeding further we may deal finally with the libretto +of "The Creation." The "unintelligible jargon" which disfigures +Haydn's immortal work has often formed the subject of comment; +and assuredly nothing that can be said of it can well be too +severe. "The Creation" libretto stands to the present day as an +example of all that is jejune and incongruous in words for music. +The theme has in itself so many elements of inspiration that it +is a matter for wonder how, for more than a century, English- +speaking audiences have listened to the arrant nonsense with +which Haydn's music is associated. As has been well observed, +"the suburban love-making of our first parents, and the lengthy +references to the habits of the worm and the leviathan are almost +more than modern flesh and blood can endure." Many years ago a +leading musical critic wrote that there ought to be enough value, +monetarily speaking, in "The Creation" to make it worth while +preparing a fresh libretto; for, said he, "the present one seems +only fit for the nursery, to use in connection with Noah's ark." +At the Norwich Festival performance of the oratorio in 1872, the +words were, in fact, altered, but in all the published editions +of the work the text remains as it was. It is usual to credit the +composer's friend, Baron van Swieten, with the "unintelligible +jargon." The baron certainly had a considerable hand in the +adaptation of the text. But in reality it owes its very uncouth +verbiage largely to the circumstance that it was first translated +from English into German, and then re-translated back into +English; the words, with the exception of the first chorus, being +adapted to the music. Considering the ways of translators, the +best libretto in the world could not but have suffered under such +transformations, and it is doing a real injustice to the memory +of Baron Swieten, the good friend of more than one composer, to +hold him up needlessly to ridicule. [Footnote: In one of George +Thomson's letters to Mrs. Hunter we read: "It The Stimulus of +London + +Haydn set to work on "The Creation" with all the ardour of a +first love. Naumann suggests that his high spirits were due to +the "enthusiastic plaudits of the English people," and that the +birth of both "The Creation" and "The Seasons" was +"unquestionably owing to the new man he felt within himself after +his visit to England." There was now, in short, burning within +his breast, "a spirit of conscious strength which he knew not he +possessed, or knowing, was unaware of its true worth." This is +somewhat exaggerated. Handel wrote "The Messiah" in twenty-four +days; it took Haydn the best part of eighteen months to complete +"The Creation," from which we may infer that "the sad laws of +time" had not stopped their operation simply because he had been +to London. No doubt, as we have already more than hinted, he was +roused and stimulated by the new scenes and the unfamiliar modes +of life which he saw and experienced in England. His temporary +release from the fetters of official life had also an +exhilarating influence. So much we learn indeed from himself. +Thus, writing from London to Frau von Genzinger, he says: "Oh, my +dear, good lady, how sweet is some degree of liberty! I had a +kind prince, but was obliged at times to be dependent on base +souls. I often sighed for freedom, and now I have it is not the +first time that your muse and Haydn's have met, as we see from +the beautiful canzonets. Would he had been directed by you about +the words to 'The Creation'! It is lamentable to see such divine +music joined with such miserable broken English. He (Haydn) wrote +me lately that in three years, by the performance of 'The +Creation' and 'The Seasons' at Vienna, 40,000 florins had been +raised for the poor families of musicians." in some measure. I am +quite sensible of this benefit, though my mind is burdened with +more work. The consciousness of being no longer a bond-servant +sweetens all my toils." If this liberty, this contact with new +people and new forms of existence, had come to Haydn twenty years +earlier, it might have altered the whole current of his career. +But it did not help him much in the actual composition of "The +Creation," which he found rather a tax, alike on his inspiration +and his physical powers. Writing to Breitkopf & Hartel on June +12, 1799, he says: "The world daily pays me many compliments, +even on the fire of my last works; but no one could believe the +strain and effort it costs me to produce these, inasmuch as many +a day my feeble memory and the unstrung state of my nerves so +completely crush me to the earth, that I fall into the most +melancholy condition, so much so that for days afterwards I am +incapable of finding one single idea, till at length my heart is +revived by Providence, when I seat myself at the piano and begin +once more to hammer away at it. Then all goes well again, God be +praised!" + +Self-Criticism + +In the same letter he remarks that, "as for myself, now an old +man, I hope the critics may not handle my 'Creation' with too +great severity, and be too hard on it. They may perhaps find the +musical orthography faulty in various passages, and perhaps other +things also which I have for so many years been accustomed to +consider as minor points; but the genuine connoisseur will see +the real cause as readily as I do, and will willingly cast aside +such stumbling blocks." It is impossible to miss the significance +of all this. + +[At this point in the original book, a facsimile of a letter +regarding "The Creation" takes up the entire next page.] + +Certainly it ought to be taken into account in any critical +estimate of "The Creation"; for when a man admits his own +shortcomings it is ungracious, to say the least, for an outsider +to insist upon them. It is obvious at any rate that Haydn +undertook the composition of the oratorio in no light-hearted +spirit. "Never was I so pious," he says, "as when composing 'The +Creation.' I felt myself so penetrated with religious feeling +that before I sat down to the pianoforte I prayed to God with +earnestness that He would enable me to praise Him worthily." In +the lives of the great composers there is only one parallel to +this frame of mind--the religious fervour in which Handel +composed "The Messiah." + +First Performance of the Oratorio + +The first performance of "The Creation" was of a purely private +nature. It took place at the Schwartzenburg Palace, Vienna, on +the 29th of April 1798, the performers being a body of +dilettanti, with Haydn presiding over the orchestra. Van Swieten +had been exerting himself to raise a guarantee fund for the +composer, and the entire proceeds of the performance, amounting +to £350, were paid over to him. Haydn was unable to describe his +sensations during the progress of the work. "One moment," he +says, "I was as cold as ice, the next I seemed on fire; more than +once I thought I should have a fit." A year later, on the l9th of +March 1799, to give the exact date, the oratorio was first heard +publicly at the National Theatre in Vienna, when it produced the +greatest effect. The play-bill announcing the performance (see +next page) had a very ornamental border, and was, of course, in +German. + +[At this point in the original book, a facsimile of the first +play-bill for "The Creation" takes up the entire next page.] + +Next year the score was published by Breitkopf & Hartel, and no +fewer than 510 copies, nearly half the number subscribed for, +came to England. The title-page was printed both in German and +English, the latter reading as follows: "The Creation: an +Oratorio composed by Joseph Haydn, Doctor of Musik, and member of +the Royal Society of Musik, in Sweden, in actuel (sic) service of +His Highness the Prince of Esterhazy, Vienna, l800." Clementi had +just set up a musical establishment in London, and on August 22, +1800, we find Haydn writing to his publishers to complain that he +was in some danger of losing 2000 gulden by Clementi's non- +receipt of a consignment of copies. + +London Performances + +Salomon, strangely enough, had threatened Haydn with penalties +for pirating his text, but he thought better of the matter, and +now wrote to the composer for a copy of the score, so that he +might produce the oratorio in London. He was, however, +forestalled by Ashley, who was at that time giving performances +of oratorio at Covent Garden Theatre, and who brought forward the +new work on the 28th of March (1800). An amusing anecdote is told +in this connection. The score arrived by a King's messenger from +Vienna on Saturday, March 22, at nine o'clock in the evening. It +was handed to Thomas Goodwin, the copyist of the theatre, who +immediately had the parts copied out for 120 performers. The +performance was on the Friday evening following, and when Mr. +Harris, the proprietor of the theatre, complimented all parties +concerned on their expedition, Goodwin, with ready wit, replied: +"Sir, we have humbly emulated a great example; it is not the +first time that the Creation has been completed in six days." +Salomon followed on the 21st of April with a performance at the +King's Theatre, Mara and Dussek taking the principal parts. Mara +remarked that it was the first time she had accompanied an +orchestra! + +French Enthusiasm + +Strange to say--for oratorio has never been much at home in +France--"The Creation" was received with immense enthusiasm in +Paris when it was first performed there in the summer of this +same year. Indeed, the applause was so great that the artists, in +a fit of transport, and to show their personal regard for the +composer, resolved to present him with a large gold medal. The +medal was designed by the famous engraver, Gateaux. It was +adorned on one side with a likeness of Haydn, and on the other +side with an ancient lyre, over which a flame flickered in the +midst of a circle of stars. The inscription ran: "Homage a Haydn +par les Musiciens qui ont execute l'oratorio de la Creation du +Monde au Theatre des Arts l'au ix de la Republique Francais ou +MDCCC." The medal was accompanied by a eulogistic address, to +which the recipient duly replied in a rather flowery epistle. "I +have often," he wrote, "doubted whether my name would survive me, +but your goodness inspires me with confidence, and the token of +esteem with which you have honoured me perhaps justifies my hope +that I shall not wholly die. Yes, gentlemen, you have crowned my +gray hairs, and strewn flowers on the brink of my grave." Seven +years after this Haydn received another medal from Paris--from +the Societe Academique des Enfants d'Apollon, who had elected him +an honorary member. + +A second performance of "The Creation" took place in the French +capital on December 24, 1800, when Napoleon I. escaped the +infernal machine in the Rue Nicaise. It was, however, in England, +the home of oratorio, that the work naturally took firmest root. +It was performed at the Worcester Festival of 1800, at the +Hereford Festival of the following year, and at Gloucester in +1802. Within a few years it had taken its place by the side of +Handel's best works of the kind, and its popularity remained +untouched until Mendelssohn's "Elijah" was heard at Birmingham in +1847. Even now, although it has lost something of its old-time +vogue, it is still to be found in the repertory of our leading +choral societies. It is said that when a friend urged Haydn to +hurry the completion of the oratorio, he replied: "I spend much +time over it because I intend it to last a long time." How +delighted he would have been could he have foreseen that it would +still be sung and listened to with pleasure in the early years of +the twentieth century. + +"The Creation" criticized + +No one thinks of dealing critically with the music of "The +Messiah"; and it seems almost as thankless a task to take the +music of "The Creation" to pieces. Schiller called it a +"meaningless hotch-potch"; and even Beethoven, though he was not +quite innocent of the same thing himself, had his sardonic laugh +over its imitations of beasts and birds. Critics of the oratorio +seldom fail to point out these "natural history effects"--to +remark on "the sinuous motion of the worm," "the graceful +gamboling of the leviathan," the orchestral imitations of the +bellowing of the "heavy beasts," and such like. It is probably +indefensible on purely artistic grounds. But Handel did it in +"Israel in Egypt" and elsewhere. And is there not a crowing cock +in Bach's "St Matthew Passion"? Haydn only followed the example +of his predecessors. + +Of course, the dispassionate critic cannot help observing that +there is in "The Creation" a good deal of music which is +finicking and something which is trumpery. But there is also much +that is first-rate. The instrumental representation of chaos, for +example, is excellent, and nothing in all the range of oratorio +produces a finer effect than the soft voices at the words, "And +the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Even the +fortissimo C major chord on the word "light," coming abruptly +after the piano and mezzoforte minor chords, is as dazzling today +as it was when first sung. It has been said that the work is +singularly deficient in sustained choruses. That is true, if we +are comparing it with the choruses of Handel's oratorios. But +Haydn's style is entirely different from that of Handel. His +choruses are designed on a much less imposing scale. They are +more reflective or descriptive, much less dramatic. It was not in +his way "to strike like a thunderbolt," as Mozart said of Handel. +The descriptive effects which he desired to introduce into his +orchestration made it necessary that he should throw the vocal +element into a simpler mould. Allowance must be made for these +differences. Haydn could never have written "The Messiah," but, +on the other hand, Handel could never have written "The +Creation." + +The chief beauty of Haydn's work lies in its airs for the solo +voices. While never giving consummate expression to real and deep +emotion, much less sustained thought, they are never wanting in +sincerity, and the melody and the style are as pure and good as +those of the best Italian writing for the stage. With all our +advance it is impossible to resist the freshness of "With verdure +clad," and the tender charm of such settings as that of "Softly +purling, glides on, thro' silent vales, the limpid brook." On the +whole, however, it is difficult to sum up a work like "The +Creation," unless, as has been cynically remarked, one is +prepared to call it great and never go to hear it. It is not +sublime, but neither is it dull. In another fifty years, perhaps, +the critic will be able to say that its main interest is largely +historic and literary. [See J. F. Runciman's Old Scores and New +Readings, where an admirably just and concise appreciation of +Haydn and "The Creation" may be read.] + +A New Work + +After such an unexpected success as that of "The Creation," it +was only in the nature of things that Haydn's friends should +persuade him to undertake the composition of a second work of the +kind. Van Swieten was insistent, and the outcome of his +importunity was "The Seasons." This work is generally classed as +an oratorio, but it ought more properly to be called a cantata, +being essentially secular as regards its text, though the form +and style are practically the same as those of "The Creation." +The libretto was again due to Swieten, who, of course, adapted +the text from James Thomson's well-known poem. + +The Seasons + +It would certainly have been a pity to lose such a fresh, +melodious little work as "The Seasons"; but it is only too +apparent that while there was no appreciable failure of Haydn's +creative force, his physical strength was not equal to the strain +involved by a composition of such length. In 1806, when Dies +found him rather weaker than usual, he dolorously remarked: "You +see it is all over with me. Eight years ago it was different, but +'The Seasons' brought on this weakness. I ought never to have +undertaken that work. It gave me the finishing stroke." He +appears to have started on the work with great reluctance and +with considerable distrust of his own powers, but once fairly +committed to the undertaking he entered into it with something of +his old animation, disputing so manfully with his librettist over +certain points in the text that a serious rupture between the two +was at one time imminent. The subject was probably not very +congenial to Haydn, who, as the years advanced, was more and more +inclined towards devotional themes. That at least seems to be the +inference to be drawn from the remark which he made to the +Emperor Francis on being asked which of his two oratorios he +himself preferred. "'The Creation,'" answered Haydn. "In 'The +Creation' angels speak and their talk is of God; in 'The Seasons' +no one higher speaks than Farmer Simon." + +"The Seasons" criticized + +But whether he liked the theme or not, in the end he produced a +work as fresh and genial and melodious as if it had been the work +of his prime. If anyone sees in it an evidence of weakness, he is +seeing only what he had expected to see. As Mr. Rockstro remarks, +not a trace of the "failing power" of which the grand old man +complained is to be found in any part of it. It is a model of +descriptive, contemplative work, and must please by its +thoughtful beauty and illustrative power. True to Nature in its +minutest details, it yet never insults her by trivial attempts at +outward imitation where artistic suggestion of the hidden truth +was, possible. The "delicious softness" of the opening chorus, +and the perfection of rustic happiness portrayed in the song +which describes the joy of the "impatient husbandman" are alone +sufficient to prove that, whatever he may have thought about it +himself, Haydn's genius was not appreciably waning. + +The first performance of "The Seasons" took place at the +Schwartzenburg Palace on the 24th of April 1801. It was repeated +twice within a week; and on the 29th of May the composer +conducted a grand public performance at the Redoutensaal. The +work proved almost as successful as "The Creation." Haydn was +enraptured with it, but he was never really himself again. As he +said, it gave him the finishing stroke. + +CHAPTER VIII + +LAST YEARS + +Failing Strength--Last Works--A Scottish Admirer--Song +Accompaniments--Correspondence with George Thomson--Mrs. Jordan-- +A Hitch--A "Previous" Letter of Condolence--Eventide--Last Public +Appearance--The End--Funeral Honours--Desecration of Remains. + +Failing Strength + +Little is left to be told of the years which followed the +production of "The Seasons." Haydn never really recovered from +the strain which that last great effort of his genius had +entailed. From his letters and the reminiscences of his friends +we can read only too plainly the story of his growing infirmity. +Even in 1799 he spoke of the diminution of his mental powers, and +exclaimed: "Oh, God! how much yet remains to be done in this +splendid art, even by a man like myself!" In 1802 he wrote of +himself as "a gradually decaying veteran," enjoying only the +feeble health which is "the inseparable companion of a gray- +haired man of seventy." In December 1803 he made his last public +exertion by conducting the "Seven Words" for the hospital fund at +the Redoutensaal, and shortly afterwards wrote sadly of his "very +great weakness." In 1804 he was asked to direct a performance of +"The Creation," but declined on the score of failing strength. +Gradually he withdrew himself almost entirely from the outside +world, his general languor broken only by the visits of friends +and by moods of passing cheerfulness. Cherubini, the Abbe Vogler, +Pleyel, the Weber family, Hummel, Reichardt, and many others came +to see him. Visits from members of the Esterhazy family gave him +much pleasure. Mozart's widow also brought her son Wolfgang, to +beg his blessing on the occasion of his first public concert in +April 1805, for which he had composed a cantata in honour of +Haydn's seventy-third birthday. But the homage of friends and +admirers could not strengthen the weak hands or confirm the +feeble knees. In 1806 Dies notes that his once-gleaming eye has +become dull and heavy and his complexion sallow, while he suffers +from "headache, deafness, forgetfulness and other pains." His old +gaiety has completely gone, and even his friends have become a +bore to him. "My remaining days," he said to Dies, "must all be +spent in this lonely fashion. . . . I have many visitors, but it +confuses me so much to talk to them that at last I scarcely know +what I am saying and only long to be left in peace." The +condition of a man of naturally genial and optimistic temperament +can easily be imagined from all this--perhaps even more from the +fact of his having a card printed to hand to inquirers who +called, bearing the words: + +Hin ist alle meine Kraft; Alt and schwach bin ich. + +[Fled for ever is my strength; Old and weak am I.] Last Works + +But while Haydn was thus suffering from the natural disabilities +of his years, he was not wholly divorced from his art. It is true +that nothing of any real importance came from his pen after "The +Seasons," but a good deal of work of various kinds was done, some +of which it is impossible for the biographer to ignore. One +rather novel undertaking carries us back to the end of 1799, +about which time he was first asked by George Thomson, the friend +of Burns, to write accompaniments for certain Scottish songs to +be published in Thomson's well-known national collections. The +correspondence which followed is interesting in many ways, and as +it is not noticed in any other biography of Haydn, we propose to +deal with it here.[Footnote: The letters passed through the +present writer's hands some five years ago, when he was preparing +his Life of George Thomson(1898). They are now in the British +Museum with the other Thomson correspondence.] + +A Scottish Admirer + +George Thomson engaged at one time or other the services of +Beethoven, Pleyel, Weber, Hummel, Bishop and Kozeluch. But Haydn +was his first love. A genius of the kind, he writes in 1811 +"never before existed and probably never will be surpassed." He +is "the inimitable Haydn," the "delectable," the "father of us +all," and so on. On the other hand, Haydn was proud of what he +did for Thomson. "I boast of this work," he said, "and by it I +flatter myself my name will live in Scotland many years after my +death. Nay, if we may trust an authority cited by Thomson, so +highly did he think of "the symphonies and accompaniments which +he composed for my melodies as to have the original score of each +framed and hung all over the walls of his bedroom." Little wonder +that Thomson "loved the dear old man" and regretted that his +worldly circumstances did not allow him to erect a statue to the +composer at his own expense! + +We have called this writing of symphonies and accompaniments for +George Thomson a novel undertaking. It was, however, only novel +in the sense of being rather out of Haydn's special "line." He +had already been employed on work of the kind for the collection +of William Napier, to which he contributed the accompaniments of +150 songs. Later on, too (in 1802-1803), he harmonized and wrote +accompaniments for sixty-five airs, for which he received 500 +florins from Whyte of Edinburgh. The extent of his labours for +George Thomson we shall now proceed to show. + +Song Accompaniments + +Thomson addressed his first letter to Haydn in October 1799. +There is no copy of it, but there is a copy of a letter to Mr. +Straton, a friend of Thomson's, who was at this time Secretary to +the Legation at Vienna. Straton was to deliver the letter to +Haydn, and negotiate with him on Thomson's behalf. He was +authorized to "say whatever you conceive is likely to produce +compliance," and if necessary to "offer a few more ducats for +each air." The only stipulation was that Haydn "must not speak of +what he gets." Thomson does not expect that he will do the +accompaniments better than Kozeluch--"that is scarcely +possible"(!); but in the symphonies he will be "great and +original." Thomson, as we now learn from Straton, had offered 2 +ducats for each air (say 20S.); Haydn "seemed desirous of having +rather more than 2 ducats, but did not precisely insist upon the +point." Apparently he did not insist, for the next intimation of +the correspondence is to the effect that thirty-two airs which he +had just finished had been forwarded to Thomson on June 19, 1800. +They would have been done sooner, says Straton, but "poor Haydn +laboured under so severe an illness during the course of this +spring that we were not altogether devoid of alarm in regard to +his recovery." Thomson, thus encouraged, sent sixteen more airs; +and Straton writes (April 30, 1801) that Haydn at first refused +to touch them because the price paid was too low. But in the +course of conversation Straton learnt that Haydn was writing to +Thomson to ask him to procure a dozen India handkerchiefs, and it +struck him that "your making him a present of them might mollify +the veteran into compliance respecting the sixteen airs." Straton +therefore took upon himself to promise in Thomson's name that the +handkerchiefs would be forthcoming, and "this had the desired +effect to such a degree that Haydn immediately put the sixteen +airs in his pocket, and is to compose the accompaniments as soon +as possible on the same terms as the former." + +Mrs. Jordan + +The handkerchiefs duly arrived--"nice and large"--and Haydn made +his acknowledgments in appropriate terms. At the same time (in +January 1802) he wrote: "I send you with this the favourite air +'The Blue Bells of Scotland,' and I should like that this little +air should be engraved all alone and dedicated in my name as a +little complimentary gift to the renowned Mrs. Jordan, whom, +without having the honour of knowing, I esteem extremely for her +great virtue and reputation." Mrs. Jordan has been credited with +the air of "The Blue Bells of Scotland." She certainly +popularized the song, whether it was her own or not. In the note +just quoted Haydn must have used the term "virtue" in the Italian +sense. + +A Hitch + +After this a little hitch occurred in the Thomson correspondence. +Haydn, being asked by Whyte, the publisher of a rival collection, +to do something for his work, at once agreed. Thomson, not +unnaturally, perhaps, felt hurt. He made his complaint through +Mr. Straton's successor at the Embassy, Mr. Charles Stuart; and +in August 1803 Stuart writes to say that he had broached the +matter to Haydn "in as delicate terms as possible for fear he +might take offence." Haydn frankly admitted that he had done the +accompaniments for Whyte, but said the airs were different from +those he had done for Thomson. After "a long conversation, he +informed me," says Mr. Stuart, "that being now seventy-four years +of age and extremely infirm, he found himself wholly incapable of +further application to study; that he must therefore beg leave to +decline all offers, whether on your part or from any other person +whatsoever. He even declared that notwithstanding the repeated +requests of Prince Esterhazy, he felt himself utterly incapable +of finishing several pieces of music he had undertaken, and being +possessed of a competency he desired nothing so much as to pass +the short time he has yet to live in repose and quiet." From this +letter we learn that Thomson had unluckily sent a present of a +handkerchief for Frau Haydn, who had now been dead for three +years! + +A "Previous" Letter of Condolence + +In spite of the little misunderstanding just referred to Haydn +was brought round once more, and on the 20th of December 1803 +Thomson sends twenty-four airs, "which will most certainly be the +last." Haydn's work delights him so much that he "really cannot +bear the idea of seeking an inferior composer to finish a work +already so nearly finished by you. "He would pay 4 ducats for +each air rather than have the mortification of a refusal. After +this there is little of interest to note in the correspondence, +unless it be a very "previous" letter of condolence which Thomson +sent to Vienna. A false rumour had reached him that Haydn was +dead. The following extract from a note which Haydn dictated to +be sent to the friend who received Thomson's letter will explain +the matter: + +Kindly say to Mr. Thomson that Haydn is very sensible of the +distress that the news of his alleged death has caused him, and +that this sign of affection has added, if that were possible, to +the esteem and friendship he will always entertain for Mr. +Thomson. You will notice that he has put his name and the date on +the sheet of music to give better proof that he is still on this +nether world. He begs you at the same time to be kind enough to +have Mr. Thomson's letter of condolence copied and to send him +the copy. + +Haydn's experience in this way was perhaps unique. Burney says he +was reported dead in 1778; and the false rumour which reached +Thomson in 1805 led Cherubini to compose a sacred cantata for +three voices and orchestra, which was duly performed in Paris +when his death actually occurred. + +Haydn furnished in all some 250 airs with symphonies and +accompaniments for Thomson. In the packet of letters from the +composer, docketed by Thomson himself, the latter has placed a +slip of paper indicating the various payments he had made. +According to this statement Haydn had 291 pounds, l8s. for his +work from first to last--not by any means an insignificant sum to +make out of a side branch of his art. + +Eventide + +This interesting correspondence takes us up to the year 1806, by +which time Haydn's work was entirely over. His eventide, alas! +was darkened by the clouds of war. The wave of the French +Revolution had cast its bloody spray upon the surrounding +nations, and 1805 saw the composer's beloved Vienna occupied by +the French. Haydn was no politician, but love of country lay deep +down in his heart, and he watched the course of events, from his +little cottage, with the saddest forebodings. + +The Last Public Appearance + +Once only was he drawn from his seclusion. This was on the 27th +of March 1808, when he appeared in public for the last time at a +performance of "The Creation" at the University. The scene on +this remarkable occasion has been described by many pens. +Naumann, writing of it, says that "such an apotheosis of the +master was witnessed as has but few parallels," and this is no +exaggeration. The performance, which was under the direction of +Salieri, had been arranged in honour of his approaching seventy- +sixth birthday. All the great artists of Vienna were present, +among them Beethoven and Hummel. Prince Esterhazy had sent his +carriage to bring the veteran to the hall, and, as he was being +conveyed in an arm-chair to a place among the princes and nobles, +the whole audience rose to their feet in testimony of their +regard. It was a cold night, and ladies sitting near swathed him +in their costly wraps and lace shawls. The concert began, and the +audience was hushed to silence. When that magnificent passage was +reached, "And there was light," they burst into loud applause, +and Haydn, overcome with excitement, exclaimed, "Not I, but a +Power from above created that." The performance went on, but it +proved too much for the old man, and friends arranged to take him +home at the end of the first part. As he was being carried out, +some of the highest of the land crowded round to take what was +felt to be a last farewell; and Beethoven, forgetting incidents +of early days, bent down and fervently kissed his hand and +forehead. Having reached the door, Haydn asked his bearers to +pause and turn him towards the orchestra. Then, lifting his hand, +as if in the act of blessing, he was borne out into the night. + +Next year Vienna was bombarded by the French, and a cannon-ball +fell not far from Haydn's house. He was naturally much alarmed; +but there is no ground for the statement, sometimes made, that +his death was hastened by the fright. On the contrary, he called +out to his servants, who were assisting him to dress: "Children, +don't be frightened; no harm can happen to you while Haydn is +here." + +The End + +But his days were numbered. "This miserable war has cast me down +to the very ground," he would say, with tears in his eyes. And +yet it was a French officer who last visited him on his death- +bed, the city being then actually occupied by the enemy. The +officer's name is not given, but he sang "In native worth" with +such expression that Haydn was quite overcome, and embraced him +warmly at parting. On May 26 he seems to have felt that his end +was fast approaching. He gathered his household around him, and, +being carried to the piano, at his own special request, played +the Emperor's Hymn three times over, with an emotion that fairly +overpowered himself and all who heard him. Five days later, on +the 31st of May 1809, he breathed his last. + +Funeral services were held in all the churches, and on June 15 +Mozart's Requiem was given in his honour at the Scots Church, +when several generals and administrators of the French army were +present. Many poems were also written in his praise. + +Haydn was buried as a private individual in the Hundsthurm +Churchyard, which was just outside the lines, and close to the +suburb of Gumpendorf, where he had lived. The grave remained +entirely undistinguished till 1814--another instance of Vienna's +neglect--when Haydn's pupil, Chevalier Neukomm, erected a stone +bearing the following inscription, which contains a five-part +canon for solution: + +HAYDN + +NATUS MDCCXXXIII. OBIIT MDCCCIX. + +CAN. AENIGM. QUINQUE. VOC. + +[figure: a musical score excerpt to the syllables non om - nis mo +- ri - ar] + +D. D. D. + +Discp. Eius Neukom Vindob. Redux. Mdcccxiv. + +Desecration of Haydn's Remains + +In 1820 the remains were exhumed by order of Prince Esterhazy, +and re-interred with fresh funeral honours in the Pilgrimage +Church of Maria-Einsiedel, near Eisenstadt, on November 7. A +simple stone, with a Latin inscription, is inserted in the wall +over the vault. When the coffin was opened, the startling +discovery was made that the skull had been stolen. The +desecration took place two days after the funeral. It appears +that one Johann Peter, intendant of the royal and imperial +prisons of Vienna, conceived the grim idea of forming a +collection of skulls, made, as he avowed in his will, to +corroborate the theory of Dr. Gall, the founder of phrenology. +This functionary bribed the sexton, and--in concert with Prince +Esterhazy's secretary Rosenbaum, and with two Government +officials named Jungermann and Ullmann--he opened Haydn's grave +and removed the skull. Peter afterwards gave the most minute +details of the sacrilege. He declared that he examined the head +and found the bump of music fully developed, and traces in the +nose of the polypus from which Haydn suffered. The skull was +placed in a lined box, and when Peter got into difficulties and +his collection was dispersed, the relic passed into the +possession of Rosenbaum. That worthy's conscience seems to have +troubled him in the matter, for he conceived the idea of erecting +a monument to the skull in his back garden! When the desecration +was discovered in 1820 there was an outcry, followed by police +search. Prince Esterhazy would stand no nonsense. The skull must +be returned, no questions would be asked, and Peter was offered a +reward if he found it. The notion then occurred to Rosenbaum of +palming off another skull for Haydn's. This he actually succeeded +in doing, the head of some unfortunate individual being handed to +the police. Peter claimed the reward, which was very justly +refused him. When Rosenbaum was dying he confessed to the +deception, and gave the skull back to Peter. Peter formed the +resolution of bequeathing it, by will, to the Conservatorium at +Vienna; but he altered his mind before he died, and by codicil +left the skull to Dr. Haller, from whose keeping it ultimately +found its way to the anatomical museum at Vienna. We believe it +is still in the museum. Its proper place is, of course, in +Haydn's grave, and a stigma will rest on Vienna until it is +placed there. + +[The great masters have been peculiarly unfortunate in the matter +of their "remains." When Beethoven's grave was opened in 1863, +Professor Wagner was actually allowed to cut off the ears and +aural cavities of the corpse in order to investigate the cause of +the dead man's deafness. The alleged skeleton of Sebastian Bach +was taken to an anatomical museum a few years ago, "cleaned up," +and clothed with a semblance of flesh to show how Bach looked in +life! Donizetti's skull was stolen before the funeral, and was +afterwards sold to a pork butcher, who used it as a money-bowl. +Gluck was re-buried in 1890 beside Mozart, Beethoven and +Schubert, after having lain in the little suburban churchyard of +Matzleinsdorf since 1787.] + +A copy of Haydn's will has been printed as one of the appendices +to the present volume, with notes and all necessary information +about the interesting document. Two years before his death he had +arranged that his books, music, manuscripts and medals should +become the property of the Esterhazy family. Among the relics +were twenty-four canons which had hung, framed and glazed, in his +bedroom. "I am not rich enough," he said, "to buy good pictures, +so I have provided myself with hangings of a kind that few +possess." These little compositions were the subject of an oft- +quoted anecdote. His wife, in one of her peevish moods, was +complaining that if he should die suddenly, there was not +sufficient money in the house to bury him. "In case such a +calamity should occur," he replied, "take these canons to the +music-publisher. I will answer for it, that they will bring +enough to pay for a decent funeral." + +CHAPTER IX + +HAYDN: THE MAN + + + +Face and Features--Portraits--Social Habits--Partial to Pretty +Women--His Letters--His Humour--His Generosity--Unspoiled by +Success--His Piety--His Industry--Habits of Composition-- +Impatient of Pedantry. + +Face and Features + +Something of Haydn's person and character will have already been +gathered from the foregoing pages. He considered himself an ugly +man, and, in Addison's words, thought that the best expedient was +"to be pleasant upon himself." His face was deeply pitted with +small-pox, and the nose, large and aquiline, was disfigured by +the polypus which he had inherited from his mother. In complexion +he was so dark as to have earned in some quarters the familiar +nickname of "The Moor." His underlip was thick and hanging, his +jaw massive. "The mouth and chin are Philistine," wrote Lavater +under his silhouette, noting, at the same time, "something out of +the common in the eyes and the nose." The eyes were dark gray. +They are described as "beaming with benevolence," and he used to +say himself: "Anyone can see by the look of me that I am a good- +natured sort of fellow." + +In stature he was rather under the middle height, with legs +disproportionately short, a defect rendered more noticeable by +the style of his dress, which he refused to change with the +changes of fashion. Dies writes: "His features were regular, his +expression animated, yet, at the same time, temperate, gentle and +attractive. His face wore a stern look when in repose, but in +conversation it was smiling and cheerful. I never heard him laugh +out loud. His build was substantial, but deficient in muscle." +Another of his acquaintances says that "notwithstanding a cast of +physiognomy rather morose, and a short way of expressing himself, +which seemed to indicate an ill-tempered man, the character of +Haydn was gay, open and humorous." From these testimonies we get +the impression of a rather unusual combination of the attractive +and the repulsive, the intellectual and the vulgar. What Lavater +described as the "lofty and good" brow was partly concealed by a +wig, with side curls, and a pig-tail, which he wore to the last. +His dress as a private individual has not been described in +detail, but the Esterhazy uniform, though frequently changing in +colour and style, showed him in knee-breeches, white stockings, +lace ruffles and white neckcloth. This uniform he never wore +except when on actual duty. + +Portraits + +After his death there were many portraits in chalks, engraved, +and modeled in wax. Notwithstanding his admission of the lack of +personal graces, he had a sort of feminine objection to an artist +making him look old. We read that, in 1800, he was "seriously +angry" with a painter who had represented him as he then +appeared. "If I was Haydn at forty," said he, "why should you +transmit to posterity a Haydn of seventy-eight?" Several writers +mention a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and even give details +of the sittings, but he never sat to Reynolds, whose eyesight had +begun to fail before Haydn's arrival in England. During his first +visit to London Hoppner painted his portrait at the special +request of the Prince of Wales. This portrait was engraved by +Facius in 1807, and is now at Hampton Court. Engravings were also +published in London by Schiavonetti and Bartolozzi from portraits +by Guttenbrunn and Ott, and by Hardy from his own oil-painting. A +silhouette, which hung for long at the head of his bed, was +engraved for the first time for Grove's Dictionary of Music. This +was said by Elssler, his old servant, to have been a striking +likeness. Of the many busts, the best is that by his friend +Grassi, the sculptor. + +[figure: Haydn's silhouette by Lavater] + +Social Habits + +Very little has been recorded of his social habits. Anything like +excess in wine is not once mentioned; but it is easy to see from +his correspondence that he enjoyed a good dinner, and was not +insensible to creature comforts. Writing to Artaria from Esterhaz +in 1788, he says: "By-the-bye, I am very much obliged to you for +the capital cheese you sent me, and also the sausages, for which +I am your debtor, but shall not fail when an opportunity offers +to return the obligation." In a subsequent letter to Frau von +Genzinger he comically laments the change from Vienna to +Esterhaz: "I lost twenty pounds in weight in three days, for the +effect of my fare at Vienna disappeared on the journey. 'Alas! +alas!' thought I, when driven to eat at the restaurateurs, +'instead of capital beef, a slice of a cow fifty years old; +instead of a ragout with little balls of force-meat, an old sheep +with yellow carrots; instead of a Bohemian pheasant, a tough +grill; instead of pastry, dry apple fritters and hazelnuts, etc.! +Alas! alas! would that I now had many a morsel I despised in +Vienna! Here in Esterhaz no one asks me, Would you like some +chocolate, with milk or without? Will you take some coffee, with +or without cream? What can I offer you, my good Haydn? Will you +have vanille ice or pineapple?' If I had only a piece of good +Parmesan cheese, particularly in Lent, to enable me to swallow +more easily the black dumplings and puffs! I gave our porter this +very day a commission to send me a couple of pounds." Even amid +the social pleasures and excitements of London, where he was +invited out six times a week and had "four excellent dishes" at +every dinner, he longs to be back in his native land so that he +may have "some good German soup." + +We read that in Austria he "never associated with any but the +musicians, his colleagues," a statement which cannot be strictly +true. In London he was, as we have seen, something of a "lion," +but it is doubtful if he Partial to Pretty Women + +enjoyed the conventional diversions of the beau monde. Yet he +liked the company of ladies, especially when they were personally +attractive. That he was never at a loss for a compliment may +perhaps be taken as explaining his frequent conquests, for, as he +frankly said himself, the pretty women "were at any rate not +tempted by my beauty." Of children he was passionately fond, a +fact which lends additional melancholy to his own unhappy and +childless home life. + +His Letters + +He was not highly educated, and he does not seem to have taken +much interest in anything outside his own profession. This much +may be gathered from his correspondence, upon which it is not +necessary to comment at length. Mr. Russell Lowell remarks that a +letter which is not mainly about the writer loses its prime +flavour. Haydn's letters are seldom "mainly about the writer." +They help us very little in seeking to get at what Newman called +"the inside of things," though some, notably those given at the +end of this volume, embody valuable suggestions. He habitually +spoke in the broad dialect of his native place. He knew Italian +well and French a little, and he had enough Latin to enable him +to set the Church services. Of English he was almost entirely +ignorant until he came to London in 1791, when we hear of him +walking the country lanes with an English grammar in hand. There +is an amusing story of a dinner at Madame Mara's, at which he was +present during his first visit. Crossdill, the violoncellist, +proposed to celebrate him with "three times three." The +suggestion was at once adopted, all the guests, with the +exception of Haydn himself, standing up and cheering lustily. +Haydn heard his name repeated, but not understanding what was +going on, stared at the company in blank bewilderment. When the +matter was explained to him he appeared quite overcome with +diffidence, putting his hands before his face and not recovering +his equanimity for some minutes. [See "Records of My Life," by +John Taylor: London, 1832.] + +His Humour + +Of hobbies or recreations he appears to have had none, though, to +relieve the dull monotony of life at Eisenstadt or Esterhaz, he +occasionally indulged in hunting and fishing and mountain +rambles. A leading trait in his character was his humour and love +of fun. As he remarked to Dies: "A mischievous fit comes over me +sometimes that is perfectly beyond control." The incident of the +removal of the fellow chorister's pig-tail will at once recur to +the memory. The "Surprise" Symphony is another illustration, to +say nothing of the "Toy" Symphony and "Jacob's Dream." + +His Generosity + +Of his generosity and his kindness to fellow artists there are +many proofs. In 1800 he speaks of himself as having "willingly +endeavoured all my life to assist everyone," and the words were +no empty boast. No man was, in fact, more ready to perform a good +deed. He had many needy relations always looking to him for aid, +and their claims were seldom refused. A brother artist in +distress was sure of help, and talented young men found in him a +valuable friend, equally ready to give his advice or his gold, as +the case might require. That he was sometimes imposed upon goes +without saying. He has been charged with avarice, but the charge +is wholly unfounded. He was simply careful in money matters, and +that, to a large extent, because of the demands that were +constantly being made upon him. In commercial concerns he was +certainly sharp and shrewd, and attempts to take advantage of him +always roused his indignation. "By heavens!" he writes to +Artaria, "you have wronged me to the extent of fifty ducats. . . +. This step must cause the cessation of all transactions between +us." The same firm, having neglected to answer some business +proposition, were pulled up in this fashion: "I have been much +provoked by the delay, inasmuch as I could have got forty ducats +from another publisher for these five pieces, and you make too +many difficulties about a matter by which, in such short +compositions, you have at least a thirty fold profit. The sixth +piece has long had its companion, so pray make an end of the +affair and send me either my music or my money." + +The Haydn of these fierce little notes is not the gentle recluse +we are apt to imagine him. They show, on the contrary, that he +was not wanting in spirit when occasion demanded. He was himself +upright and honest in all his dealings. And he never forgot a +kindness, as more than one entry in his will abundantly +testifies. He was absolutely without malice, and there are +several instances of his repaying a slight with a generous deed +or a thoughtful action. His practical tribute to the memory of +Werner, who called him a fop and a "scribbler of songs," has been +cited. His forbearance with Pleyel, who had allowed himself to be +pitted against him by the London faction, should also be +recalled; and it is perhaps worth mentioning further that he put +himself to some trouble to get a passport for Pleyel during the +long wars of the French Revolution. He carried his kindliness and +gentleness even into "the troubled region of artistic life," and +made friends where other men would have made foes. + +Unspoiled by Success + +His modesty has often been insisted upon. Success did not spoil +him. In a letter of 1799 he asks that a certain statement in his +favour should not be mentioned, lest he "be accused of conceit +and arrogance, from which my Heavenly Father has preserved me all +my life long." Here he spoke the simple truth. At the same time, +while entirely free from presumption and vanity, he was perfectly +alive to his own merits, and liked to have them acknowledged. +When visitors came to see him nothing gave him greater pleasure +than to open his cabinets and show the medals, that had been +struck in his honour, along with the other gifts he had received +from admirers. Like a true man of genius, as Pohl says, he +enjoyed distinction and fame, but carefully avoided ambition. + +High Ideals + +Of his calling and opportunities as an artist he had a very high +idea. Acknowledging a compliment paid to him in 1802 by the +members of the Musical Union in Bergen, he wrote of the happiness +it gave him to think of so many families susceptible of true +feeling deriving pleasure and enjoyment from his compositions. + +"Often when contending with the obstacles of every sort opposed +to my work, often when my powers both of body and mind failed, +and I felt it a hard matter to persevere in the course I had +entered on, a secret feeling within me whispered, 'There are but +few contented and happy men here below; everywhere grief and care +prevail, perhaps your labours may one day be the source from +which the weary and worn or the man burdened with affairs may +derive a few moments' rest and refreshment.' What a powerful +motive to press onwards! And this is why I now look back with +heartfelt, cheerful satisfaction on the work to which I have +devoted such a long succession of years with such persevering +efforts and exertions." + +With this high ideal was combined a constant effort to perfect +himself in his art. To Kalkbrenner he once made the touching +remark: "I have only just learned in my old age how to use the +wind instruments, and now that I do understand them I must leave +the world." To Griezinger, again, he said that he had by no means +exhausted his genius: that "ideas were often floating in his +mind, by which he could have carried the art far beyond anything +it had yet attained, had his physical powers been equal to the +task." + +His Piety + +Closely, indeed inseparably, connected with this exalted idea of +his art was his simple and sincere piety. He was a devout +Christian, and looked upon his genius as a gift from God, to be +freely used in His service. His faith was never assailed with +doubts; he lived and died in the communion of the Catholic +Church, and was "never in danger of becoming either a bigot or a +free-thinker." When Carpani, anticipating latter-day criticism, +hinted to him that his Church compositions were impregnated with +a light gaiety, he replied: "I cannot help it; I give forth what +is in me. When I think of the Divine Being, my heart is, so full +of joy that the notes fly off as from a spindle, and as I have a +cheerful heart He will pardon me if I serve Him cheerfully." + +His reverent practice during the composition of "The Creation" +has been mentioned. "Never was I so pious," he said. There are +many proofs of the same feeling in his correspondence and other +writings. Thus he concludes an autobiographical sketch with the +words: "I offer up to Almighty God all eulogiums, for to Him +alone do I owe them. My sole wish is neither to offend against my +neighbour nor my gracious prince, but above all not against our +merciful God. "Again, in one of his later letters, he says "May +God only vouchsafe to grant me the health that I have hitherto +enjoyed, and may I preserve it by good conduct, out of gratitude +to the Almighty." The note appended to the first draft of his +will is also significant. Nor in this connection should we forget +the words with which he inscribed the scores of his more +important compositions. For the conclusion he generally adopted +Handel's "Soli Deo Gloria" or "Laus Deo," with the occasional +addition of "et B.V. Mae. et Oms. Sis. (Beata Virgini Maria et +Omnibus Sanctis)." Even his opera scores were so inscribed, one +indeed having the emphatic close: "Laus omna potenti Deo et +Beatissimae Virgini Maria. The superscription was uniformly "In +nomine Domini." It is recorded somewhere that when, in composing, +he felt his inspiration flagging, or was baulked by some +difficulty, he rose from the instrument and began to run over his +rosary. In short, not to labour the point, he had himself +followed the advice which, as an old man, he gave to the +choirboys of Vienna: "Be good and industrious and serve God +continually." + +His Industry + +The world has seen many an instance of genius without industry, +as of industry without genius. In Haydn the two were happily +wedded. He was always an early riser, and long after his student +days were over he worked steadily from sixteen to eighteen hours +a day. He lived strictly by a self-imposed routine, and was so +little addicted to what Scott called "bed-gown and slipper +tricks," that he never sat down to work or received a visitor +until he was fully dressed. He had none of Wagner's luxurious +tastes or Balzac's affectations in regard to a special attire for +work, but when engaged on his more important compositions he +always wore the ring given him by the King of Prussia. In Haydn's +case there are no incredible tales of dashing off scores in the +twinkling of an eye. That he produced so much must be attributed +to his habit of devoting all his leisure to composition. He was +not a rapid worker if we compare him with Handel and Mozart. He +never put down anything till he was "quite sure it was the right +thing"--a habit of mind indicated by his neat and uniform +handwriting [His notes had such little heads and slender tails +that he used, very properly, to call them his, flies' legs."- +Bombet, p. 97.]--and he assures us: "I never was a quick writer, +and always composed with care and deliberation. That alone," he +added, "is the way to compose works that will last, and a real +connoisseur can see at a glance whether a score has been written +in undue haste or not." He is quoted as saying that "genius is +always prolific." However the saying may be interpreted, there +does not seem to have been about him anything of what has been +called the irregular dishabille of composers, "the natural result +of the habit of genius of watching for an inspiration, and +encouraging it to take possession of the whole being when it +comes." + +Habits of Composition + +His practice was to sketch out his ideas roughly in the morning, +and elaborate them in the afternoon, taking pains to preserve +unity in idea and form. "That is where so many young composers +fail," he said in reference to the latter point. "They string +together a number of fragments; they break off almost as soon as +they have begun, and so at the end the listener carries off no +definite impression. "The importance of melody he specially +emphasized. "It is the air which is the charm of music," he +remarked, "and it is that which is most difficult to produce. The +invention of a fine melody is the work of genius." In another +place he says: "In vocal composition, the art of producing +beautiful melody may now almost be considered as lost; and when a +composer is so fortunate as to throw forth a passage that is +really melodious, he is sure, if he be not sensible of its +excellence, to overwhelm and destroy it by the fullness and +superfluity of his instrumental parts." [Compare Mozart's words +as addressed to Michael Kelly: "Melody is the essence of music. I +should liken one who invents melodies to a noble racehorse, and a +mere contrapuntist to a hired post-hack."] + +He is stated to have always composed with the aid of the +pianoforte or harpsichord; and indeed we find him writing to +Artaria in 1788 to say that he has been obliged to buy a new +instrument "that I might compose your clavier sonatas +particularly well." This habit of working out ideas with the +assistance of the piano has been condemned by most theorists as +being likely to lead to fragmentariness. With Haydn at any rate +the result was entirely satisfactory, for, as Sir Hubert Parry +points out, the neatness and compactness of his works is perfect. +It is very likely, as Sir Hubert says, that most modern composers +have used the pianoforte a good deal--not so much to help them to +find out their ideas, as to test the details and intensify their +musical sensibility by the excitant sounds, the actual sensual +impression of which is, of course, an essential element in all +music. The composer can always hear such things in his mind, but +obviously the music in such an abstract form can never have quite +as much effect upon him as when the sounds really strike upon his +ear. [See "Studies of Great Composers, by C. Hubert Parry, p. +109.] + +No Pedant + +Like all the really great composers, Haydn was no pedant in the +matter of theoretical formulae, though he admitted that the rigid +rules of harmony should rarely be violated, and "never without +the compensation of some inspired effect." When he was asked +according to what rule he had introduced a certain progression, +he replied "The rules are all my very obedient humble servants." +With the quint-hunters and other faddists who would place their +shackles on the wrists of genius, he had as little patience as +Beethoven, who, when told that all the authorities forbade the +consecutive fifths in his C Minor Quartet, thundered out: "Well, +I allow them." Somebody once questioned him about an apparently +unwarranted passage in the introduction to Mozart's Quartet in C +Major. "If Mozart has written it, be sure he had good reasons for +doing so," was the conclusive reply. That fine old smoke-dried +pedant, Albrechtsberger, declared against consecutive fourths in +strict composition, and said so to Haydn. "What is the good of +such rules?" demanded Haydn. "Art is free and must not be +fettered by mechanical regulations. The cultivated ear must +decide, and I believe myself as capable as anyone of making laws +in this respect. Such trifling is absurd; I wish instead that +someone would try to compose a really new minuet." To Dies he +remarked further: "Supposing an idea struck me as good and +thoroughly satisfactory both to the ear and the heart, I would +far rather pass over some slight grammatical error than sacrifice +what seemed to me beautiful to any mere pedantic trifling." These +were sensible views. Practice must always precede theory. When we +find a great composer infringing some rule of the old text-books, +there is, to say the least, a strong presumption, not that the +composer is wrong, but that the rule needs modifying. The great +composer goes first and invents new effects: it is the business +of the theorist not to cavil at every novelty, but to follow +modestly behind and make his rules conform to the practice of the +master. [footnote: Compare Professor Prout's Treatise on +Harmony.] + +Thus much about Haydn the man. Let us now turn to Haydn the +composer and his position in the history of music. + +CHAPTER X + +HAYDN: THE COMPOSER + +The Father of Instrumental Music--The Quartets--The Symphonies-- +The Salomon Set--The Sonatas--Church Music--Songs--Operas-- +Orchestration--General Style--Conclusion. + +The Father of Instrumental Music + +Haydn has been called "the father of instrumental music," and +although rigid critics may dispute his full right to that title, +on broad grounds he must be allowed to have sufficiently earned +it. He was practically the creator of more than one of our modern +forms, and there was hardly a department of instrumental music in +which he did not make his influence felt. This was emphatically +the case with the sonata, the symphony and the string quartet. +The latter he brought to its first perfection. Before his time +this particular form of chamber music was long neglected, and for +a very simple reason. Composers looked upon it as being too +slight in texture for the display of their genius. That, as has +often been demonstrated, was because they had not mastered the +art of "writing a four-part harmony with occasional transitions +into the pure polyphonic style--a method of writing which is +indispensable to quartet composition--and also because they did +not yet understand the scope and value of each individual +instrument." + +The Quartet + +It would be too much to say that even Haydn fully realized the +capacities of each of his four instruments. Indeed, his quartet +writing is often bald and uninteresting. But at least he did +write in four-part harmony, and it is certainly to him that we +owe the installation of the quartet as a distinct species of +chamber music. "It is not often," says Otto Jahn, the biographer +of Mozart, "that a composer hits so exactly upon the form suited +to his conceptions; the quartet was Haydn's natural mode of +expressing his feelings." This is placing the Haydn quartet in a +very high position among the products of its creator. But its +artistic value and importance cannot well be over-estimated. Even +Mozart, who set a noble seal upon the form, admitted that it was +from Haydn he had first learned the true way to compose quartets; +and there have been enthusiasts who regarded the Haydn quartet +with even more veneration than the Haydn symphony. No fewer than +seventy-seven quartets are ascribed to him. Needless to say, they +differ considerably as regards their style and treatment, for the +first was written so early as 1755, while the last belongs to his +later years. But they are all characterized by the same +combination of manly earnestness, rich invention and mirthful +spirit. The form is concise and symmetrical, the part-writing is +clear and well-balanced, and a "sunny sweetness" is the +prevailing mood. As a discerning critic has remarked, there is +nothing in the shape of instrumental music much pleasanter and +easier to listen to than one of Haydn's quartets. The best of +them hold their places in the concert-rooms of today, and they +seem likely to live as long as there are people to appreciate +clear and logical composition which attempts nothing beyond +"organized simplicity" [See W. J. Henderson's How Music +Developed, p. 191: London, 1899]. In this department, as Goethe +said, he may be superseded, but he can never be surpassed. + +The Symphony + +For the symphony Haydn did no less than for the quartet. The +symphony, in his young days, was not precisely the kind of work +which now bears the name. It was generally written for a small +band, and consisted of four parts for strings and four for wind +instruments. It was meant to serve no higher purpose, as a rule, +than to be played in the houses of nobles; and on that account it +was neither elaborated as to length nor complicated as to +development. So long as it was agreeable and likely to please the +aristocratic ear, the end of the composer was thought to be +attained. + +Haydn, as we know, began his symphonic work under Count Morzin. +The circumstances were not such as to encourage him to "rise to +any pitch of real greatness or depth of meaning"; and although he +was able to build on a somewhat grander scale when he went to +Eisenstadt, it was still a little comfortable coterie that he +understood himself to be writing for rather than for the musical +world at large. Nevertheless, he aimed at constant improvement, +and although he had no definite object in view, he "raised the +standard of symphony--writing far beyond any point which had been +attained before." + +"His predecessors," to quote Sir Hubert Parry, "had always +written rather carelessly and hastily for the band, and hardly +ever tried to get refined and original effects from the use of +their instruments, but he naturally applied his mind more +earnestly to the matter in hand, and found out new ways of +contrasting and combining the tones of different members of his +orchestra, and getting a fuller and richer effect out of the mass +of them when they were all playing. In the actual style of the +music, too, he made great advances, and in his hands symphonies +became by degrees more vigorous, and, at the same time, more +really musical." + +But the narrow limits of the Esterhazy audience and the numbing +routine of the performances were against his rising to the top +heights of his genius. + +The Salomon Set + +It was only when he came to write for the English public that he +showed what he could really do with the matter of the symphony. +In comparison with the twelve symphonies which he wrote for +Salomon, the other, and especially the earlier works are of +practically no account. They are interesting, of course, as +marking stages in the growth of the symphony and in the +development of the composer's genius. But regarded in themselves, +as absolute and individual entities, they are not for a moment to +be placed by the side of the later compositions. These, so far as +his instrumental music is concerned, are the crowning glory of +his life work. They are the ripe fruits of his long experience +working upon the example of Mozart, and mark to the full all +those qualities of natural geniality, humour, vigour and +simple-heartedness, which are the leading characteristics of his +style. + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +The Sonata + +Haydn's sonatas show the same advance in form as his symphonies +and quartets. The older specimens of the sonata, as seen in the +works of Biber, Kuhnau, Mattheson and others, contain little more +than the germs of the modern sonata. Haydn, building on Emanuel +Bach, fixed the present form, improving so largely upon the +earlier, that we could pass from his sonatas directly to those of +Beethoven without the intervention of Mozart's as a connecting +link. Beethoven's sonatas were certainly more influenced by +Haydn's than by Mozart's. Haydn's masterpieces in this kind, like +those of Mozart and Beethoven, astonish by their order, +regularity, fluency, harmony and roundness; and by their splendid +development into full and complete growth out of the sometimes +apparently unimportant germs. [Footnote: See Ernst Pauer's +Musical Forms.] Naturally his sonatas are not all masterpieces. +Of the thirty-five, some are old-fashioned and some are quite +second-rate. But, like the symphonies, they are all of historical +value as showing the development not only of the form but of the +composer's powers. One of the number is peculiar in having four +movements; another is equally peculiar--to Haydn at least--in +having only two movements. Probably in the case of the latter the +curtailment was due to practical rather than to artistic reasons. +Like Beethoven, with the two-movement sonata in C minor, Haydn +may not have had time for a third! In several of the sonatas the +part-writing strikes one as being somewhat poor and meagre; in +others there is, to the modern ear, a surfeiting indulgence in +those turns, arpeggios and other ornaments which were inseparable +from the nature of the harpsichord, with its thin tones and want +of sustaining power. If Haydn had lived to write for the richer +and more sustained sounds of the modern pianoforte, his genius +would no doubt have responded to the increased demands made upon +it, though we may doubt whether it was multiplex enough or +intellectual enough to satisfy the deeper needs of our time. As +it is, the changes which have been made in sonata form since his +day are merely changes of detail. To him is due the fixity of the +form. [See "The Pianoforte Sonata," by J. S. Shedlock: London, +1895. Mr. Shedlock, by selecting for analysis some of the most +characteristic sonatas, shows Haydn in his three stages of +apprenticeship, mastery and maturity.] + +Church Music + +Of his masses and Church music generally it is difficult to speak +critically without seeming unfair. We have seen how he explained +what must be called the almost secular style of these works. But +while it is true that Haydn's masses have kept their place in the +Catholic churches of Germany and elsewhere, it is impossible, to +Englishmen, at any rate, not to feel a certain incongruity, a +lack of that dignity and solemnity, that religious "sense," which +makes our own Church music so impressive. We must not blame him +for this. He escaped the influences which made Bach and Handel +great in religious music--the influences of Protestantism, not to +say Puritanism. The Church to which he belonged was no longer +guided in its music by the principles of Palestrina. On the +contrary; it was tainted by secular and operatic influences; and +although Haydn felt himself to be thoroughly in earnest it was +rather the ornamental and decorate side of religion that he +expressed in his lively music. He might, perhaps, have written in +a more serious, lofty strain had he been brought under the noble +traditions which glorified the sacred choral works of the earlier +masters just named. In any case, his Church music has nothing of +the historical value of his instrumental music. It is marked by +many sterling and admirable qualities, but the progress of the +art would not have been materially affected if it had never come +into existence. + +Songs + +As a song-writer Haydn was only moderately successful, perhaps +because, having himself but a slight acquaintance with +literature, he left the selection of the words to others, with, +in many cases, unfortunate results. The form does not seem to +have been a favourite with him, for his first songs were not +produced until so late as 1780. Some of the later compositions +have, however, survived; and one or two of the canzonets, such as +"My mother bids me bind my hair" and "She never told her love," +are admirable. The three-part and the four-part songs, as well as +the canons, of which he thought very highly himself, are also +excellent, and still charm after the lapse of so many years. + +Operas + +On the subject of his operas little need be added to what has +already been said. Strictly speaking, he never had a chance of +showing what he could do with opera on a grand scale. He had to +write for a small stage and a small audience, and in so far he +was probably successful. Pohl thinks that if his project of +visiting Italy had been fulfilled and his faculties been +stimulated in this direction by fresh scenes and a larger +horizon, we might have gained "some fine operas." It is doubtful; +Haydn lacked the true dramatic instinct. His placid, easy-going, +contented nature could never have allowed him to rise to great +heights of dramatic force. He was not built on a heroic mould; +the meaning of tragedy was unknown to him. + +Orchestration + +Regarding his orchestration a small treatise might be written. +The terms which best describe it are, perhaps, refinement and +brilliancy. Much of his success in this department must, of +course, be attributed to his long and intimate association with +the Esterhazy band. In 1766, six years after his appointment, +this band numbered seventeen instruments--six violins and viola, +one violoncello, one double bass, one flute, two oboes, two +bassoons and four horns. It was subsequently enlarged to twenty- +two and twenty-four, including trumpets and kettledrums on +special occasions. From 1776 to 1778 there were also clarinets. +This gradual extension of resources may be taken as roughly +symbolizing Haydn's own advances in the matter of orchestral +development. When he wrote his first symphony in 1759 he employed +first and second violins, violas, basses, two oboes and two +horns; in his last symphony, written in 1795, he had at his +command "the whole symphonic orchestra as it had stood when +Beethoven took up the work of orchestral development." Between +these two points Mozart had lived and died, leaving Haydn his +actual debtor so far as regards the increased importance of the +orchestra. It has been said that he learnt from Mozart the use of +the clarinet, and this is probably true, notwithstanding the fact +that he had employed a couple of clarinets in his first mass, +written in 1751 or 1752. Both composers used clarinets rarely, +but Haydn certainly did not reveal the real capacity of the +instrument or establish its position in the orchestra as Mozart +did. + +From his first works onwards, he proceeded along the true +symphonic path, and an orchestra of two flutes, two oboes, two +clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, drums, and the +usual strings fairly represents the result of his contributions +to its development up to the first successful experiments of +Mozart. The names of Mozart and Haydn ought in reality to be +coupled together as the progenitors of the modern orchestral +colouring. But the superiority must be allowed to attach to +Haydn, inasmuch as his colouring is the more expansive and +decided. Some of his works, even of the later period, show great +reticence in scoring, but, on the other hand, as in "The +Creation," he knew when to draw upon the full resources of the +orchestra. It has been pointed out as worthy of remark that he +was not sufficiently trustful of his instrumental army to leave +it without the weak support of the harpsichord, at which +instrument he frequently sat during the performance of his +symphonies, and played with the orchestra, with extremely bad +effect. [Compare "The Orchestra and Orchestral Music," by W, J. +Henderson: London, 1901.] In this, however, he merely followed +the custom of his day. + +General Style + +Of Haydn's general style as a composer it is hardly necessary to +speak. To say that a composition is "Haydnish" is to express in +one word what is well understood by all intelligent amateurs. +Haydn's music is like his character--clear, straightforward, +fresh and winning, without the slightest trace of affectation or +morbidity. Its perfect transparency, its firmness of design, its +fluency of instrumental language, the beauty and inexhaustible +invention of its melody, its studied moderation, its child-like +cheerfulness--these are some of the qualities which mark the +style of this most genial of all the great composers. + +That he was not deep, that he does not speak a message of the +inner life to the latter-day individual, who, in the Ossianic +phrase, likes to indulge in "the luxury of grief," must, of +course, be admitted. The definite embodiment of feeling which we +find in Beethoven is not to be found in him. It was not in his +nature. "My music," says Schubert, "is the production of my +genius and my misery." Haydn, like Mendelssohn, was never more +than temporarily miserable. But in music the gospel of despair +seldom wants its preachers. Today it is Tschaikowsky; tomorrow it +will be another. Haydn meant to make the world happy, not to tear +it with agony. "I know," he said, "that God has bestowed a talent +upon me, and I thank Him for it. I think I have done my duty, and +been of use in my generation by my works. Let others do the +same." + + + +APPENDIX A: HAYDN'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT + + + +The following draft of Haydn's will is copied from Lady Wallace's +Letters of Distinguished Musicians (London, 1867), where it was +published in full for the first time. The much-corrected original +is in the Court Library at Vienna. Dies says: "Six weeks before +his death, in April 1809, he read over his will to his servants +in the presence of witnesses, and asked them whether they were +satisfied with his provisions or not. The good people were quite +taken by surprise at the kindness of their master's heart, seeing +themselves thus provided for in time to come, and they thanked +him with tears in their eyes." The extracts given by Dies vary in +some particulars from the following, because Haydn's final +testamentary dispositions were made at a later date. But, as Lady +Wallace says, it is not the legal but the moral aspect of the +affair that interests us. Here we see epitomized all the goodness +and beauty of Haydn's character. The document runs as follows: + + FLORINS. + +1. For holy masses,......................................12 +2. To the Norman School,.................................5 +3. To the Poorhouse,.....................................5 +4. To the executor of my will............................200 + And also the small portrait of Grassi. +5. To the pastor,........................................10 +6. Expenses of my funeral, first-class,..................200 +7. To my dear brother Michael, in Salzburg,..............4000 +8. To my brother Johann, in Eisenstadt,..................4000 +9. To my sister in Rohrau (erased, and written + underneath): "God have mercy on her soul! To the + three children of my sister,".........................2000 +10. To the workwoman in Esterhazy, Anna Maria Moser, + nee Frohlichin,.......................................500 +11. To the workwoman in Rohrau, Elisabeth, nee Bohme,.....500 +12. To the two workwomen there (erased, and replaced + by: "To the shoemaker, Anna Loder, in Vienna"),.......200 + Should she presume to make any written claims, I + declare them to be null and void, having already + paid for her and her profligate husband, Joseph + Lungmayer, more than 6000 gulden. +13. To the shoemaker in Garhaus, Theresa Hammer,...........500 +14. To her son, the blacksmith, Matthias Frohlich,.........500 +15.&16. To the eldest child of my deceased sister, + Anna Wimmer, and her husband, at Meolo, in Hungary,....500 +17. To her married daughter at Kaposwar,...................100 +18. To the other three children (erased),..................300 +19. To the married Dusse, nee Scheeger,....................300 +20. To her imbecile brother, Joseph (erased),..............100 +21. To her brother, Karl Scheeger, silversmith, and his + wife,..................................................900 +22. To the son of Frau von Koller,.........................300 +23. To his son (erased),...................................100 +24. To the sister of my late wife (erased). +25. To my servant, Johann Elssler,.........................2500 + Also one year's wages, likewise a coat, waistcoat + and a pair of trousers. [According to Griesinger, + Haydn bequeathed a capital of 6000 florins to this + faithful servant and copyist.] +26. To Rosalia Weber, formerly in my service,..............300 + (She has a written certificate of this from me.) +27. To my present maid-servant, Anna Kremnitzer,...........1000 + And a year's wages in addition. Also, her bed and + bedding and two pairs of linen sheets; also, four + chairs, a table, a chest of drawers, the watch, + the clock and the picture of the Blessed Virgin in + her room, a flat-iron, kitchen utensils and crockery, + one water-pail, and other trifles. +28. To my housekeeper, Theresia Meyer,.....................500 + And one year's wages,...............................20 +29. To my old gardener, Michel,............................24 +30. To the Prince's Choir for my obsequies, to share + alike (erased),.....................................100 +31. To the priest (erased),................................12 +32. To the pastor in Eisenstadt for a solemn mass,.........5 +33. To his clerk,..........................................2 +34. To the beneficiary,....................................2 +35. To Pastor von Nollendorf,..............................2 +36. To Pastor von St Georg,................................2 +37. To the sexton (erased from 33),........................1 +38. To the organ-bellows' blower,..........................1 +39. To the singer, Babett,.................................50 +40. To my cousin, the saddler's wife, in Eisenstadt,.......50 + To her daughter,.......................................300 +41. To Mesdemoiselles Anna and Josepha Dillin,.............100 +42. To the blind daughter of Herr Graus, leader of + the choir in Eisenstadt (erased),......................100 +43. To the four sisters Sommerfeld, daughters of + the wigmaker in Presburg,..............................200 +44. To Nannerl, daughter of Herr Weissgerb, my + neighbour (erased),....................................50 +45. To Herr Art, merchant in the Kleine Steingasse,........50 +46. To the pastor in Rohrau,...............................12 +47. To the schoolmaster in Rohrau,.........................6 +48. To the school children,................................3 +49. To Herr Wamerl, formerly with Count v. Harrach,........50 +50. To his present cashier,................................50 +51. To Count v. Harrach for the purpose of defraying + the bequests Nos. 51 and 52, I bequeath an + obligation of 6000 florins at 5 per cent., the + interest to be disposed of as follows: + + To the widow Aloysia Polzelli, formerly + singer at Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy's, payable + in ready money six weeks after my death,...............100 + + And each year, from the date of my death, for + her life, the interest of the above capital,...........150 + + After her death her son, Anton Polzelli, to + receive 150 florins for one year, having always + been a good son to his mother and a grateful + pupil to me. N.B.--I hereby revoke the obligation + in Italian, signed by me, which may be + produced by Mdme. Polzelli, otherwise so many + of my poor relations with greater claims would + receive too little. Finally, Mdme. Polzelli must + be satisfied with the annuity of 150 florins. + After her death the half of the above capital, + viz., 3000 florins, to be divided into two shares-- + one-half (1500) to devolve on the Rohrau family, + for the purpose of keeping in good order the + monument erected to me by Count von Harrach, + and also that of my deceased father at the door + of the sacristy. The other half to be held in + trust by the Count, and the annual interest of + the sum, namely, 45 florins, to be divided + between any two orphans in Rohrau. +52. To my niece, Anna Lungmayer, payable six weeks + after my death,.........................................100 + Likewise a yearly annuity to her husband and herself,...150 + All these legacies and obligations, and also + the proceeds of the sale of my house and legal + costs, to be paid within one year of my death; + all the other expenses to be deducted from the + sum of ready money in the hands of the executors, + who must account to the heir for the same. On + their demise this annuity to go to their children + until they come of age, and after that period the + capital to be equally divided among them. Of + the remaining 950 florins, 500 to become the + property of my beloved Count v. Harrach, as the + depositary of my last will and testament, and + 300 I bequeath to the agent for his trouble. + The residue of 150 florins to go to my stepmother, + and, if she be no longer living, to her + children. N.B.--Should Mdme. Lungmayer or + her husband produce any document signed by + me for a larger sum, I wish it to be understood, + as in the case of Mdme. Polzelli, that it is to be + considered null and void, as both Mdme. Lungmayer + and her husband, owing to my great kindness, lavished + more than 6000 florins of mine during my life, which + my own brother and the citizens in Oedenberg and + Eisenstadt can testify. + +(From No. 51 is repeatedly and thickly scored out.) + +53. To the widow Theresia Eder and her two daughters, + lacemakers,..............................................150 +54. To my pupil, Anton Polzelli,.............................100 +55. To poor blind Adam in Eisenstadt,........................24 +56. To my gracious Prince, my gold Parisian medal and + the letter that accompanied it, with a humble + request to grant them a place in the museum at + Forchtentein. +57. To Mdlle. C. Czeck, waiting-woman to Princess + Graschalkowitz (erased),.................................1000 +58. To Fraulein Anna Bucholz,................................100 + Inasmuch as in my youth her grandfather lent + me 150 florins when I greatly needed them, + which, however, I repaid fifty years ago. +59. To the daughter of the bookkeeper, Kandler, my + piano, by the organ-builder Schanz. +60. The small Parisian medal to Count v. Harrach, and + also the bust a l'antique of Herr Grassi. +61. To the widow Wallnerin in Schottenhof,...................100 +62. To the Father Prior Leo in Eisenstadt, of the + "Brothers of Mercy,".....................................50 +63. To the Hospital for the Poor in Eisenstadt (erased),.....75 + +For the ratification of this my last will and testament, I have +written it entirely in my own hand, and earnestly beg the +authorities to consider it, even if not strictly or properly legal, +in the light at least of a codicil, and to do all in their power to +make it valid and binding. + +JOSEPH HAYDN. +May 5, 1801. + +Should God call me away suddenly, this my last will and testament, +though not written on stamped paper, to be considered valid in +law, and the stamps to be repaid tenfold to my sovereign. + +In the name of the Holy Trinity. The uncertainty of the +period when it may please my Creator, in His infinite wisdom, +to call me from time into eternity has caused me, being in sound +health, to make my last will with regard to my little remaining +property. I commend my soul to my all-merciful Creator; my +body I wish to be interred, according to the Roman Catholic +forms, in consecrated ground. A first-class funeral. For my +soul I bequeath No. 1. + +Joseph Haydn + +Vienna, Dec. 6, 1801 + + + +APPENDIX B: CATALOGUE OF WORKS + + + +There are unusual difficulties in the way of compiling a +thoroughly satisfactory catalogue of Haydn's instrumental works. +From the want of any generally-accepted consecutive numbering, +and the fact that several are in the same key, this is +particularly the case with the symphonies. Different editions +have different numberings, and the confusion is increased by a +further re-numbering of the piano symphonic scores arranged for +two and four hands. In Breitkopf & Hartel's catalogue many works +are included among the symphonies which are also found among the +smaller compositions, and others are catalogued twice. Even the +composer himself, in compiling his thematic catalogue, made +mistakes. In the present list we have been content for the most +part to state the numbers of the various instrumental works, +without attempting to notify each individual composition. Indeed, +to do otherwise would have called for an extensive use of music +type. Nor have we thought it necessary to include the +supposititious and doubtful works, for which Pohl's list may be +consulted. + +INSTRUMENTAL + +125 symphonies, including overtures to operas and plays. +Of these 94 are published in parts, 40 in score; 29 remain in +MS. About 40 have been arranged for pianoforte 2 hands, 60 +for 4 hands, 10 for 8 hands. + +Pohl gives a thematic list of the 12 symphonies composed for +Salomon, numbered in the order of their occurrence in the +catalogue of the London Philharmonic Society. These include: + + +TITLE OF WORK KEY DATE + +"The Surprise" G major 1791 + +"The Clock," referring D minor 1794 +to the Andante + +"The Military" G major 1794 + + +Other symphonies known by their titles are: + + +TITLE OF WORK KEY DATE + +"Le Matin" D major +"Le Midi" C major +"Le Soir" G major 1761 +"The Farewell" A major 1772 +"Maria Theresa" C major 1773 +"The Schoolmaster" E flat 1774 +"Feuer Symphonic" (probably +overture to "Die Feuersbrunst) A major 1774 +"La Chasse" D major 1780 +"Toy" Symphony C major 1780 +"La Reine de France" B major for Paris, 1786 +"The Oxford" G major 1788 + +"The Seven Words from the Cross." Originally for orchestra. +Arranged first for 2 violins, viola and bass; afterwards for soli, +chorus and orchestra. + +66 various compositions for wind and strings, separately and +combined, including divertimenti, concerted pieces, etc. + +7 notturnos or serenades for the lyre. +7 marches. +6 scherzandos. +1 sestet. +Several quintets. +1 "Echo" for 4 violins and 2 'cellos. +"Feld-partien" for wind instruments and arrangements from +baryton pieces. +12 collections of minuets and allemands. +31 concertos: 9 violin, 6 'cello, 1 double bass, 5 lyre, 3 baryton, +2 flute, 3 horn, 1 for 2 horns, 1 clarino (1796). +175 baryton pieces. Arrangements were published of several +of these in 3 parts, with violin (or flute), viola or 'cello as +principal. +1 duet for 2 lutes. +2 trios for lute, violin and 'cello. +1 sonata for harp, with flute and bass. +Several pieces for a musical clock. +A solo for harmonica. +6 duets for violin solo, with viola accompaniments. The +numerous printed duets for 2 violins are only arrangements from +his other works. +30 trios: 20 for 2 violins and bass, 1 for violin solo, viola +concertante and bass, 2 for flute, violin and bass, 3 for 3 flutes, +1 for corno di caccia, violin and 'cello. +77 quartets. The first 18 were published in 3 series; the +next is in MS.; then 1 printed separately; 54 in 9 series of 6 +Nos. each; 2 more and the last. + +CLAVIER MUSIC + +20 concertos and divertimenti: 1 concerto is with principal +violin, 2 only (G and D) have been printed; the last alone +survives. +38 trios: 35 with violin and 'cello, 3 with flute and 'cello +Only 31 are printed. +53 sonatas and divertimenti. Only 35 are printed: the one +in C, containing the adagio in F included in all the collections +of smaller pieces, only in London. +4 sonatas for clavier and violin. 8 are published, but 4 of +these are arrangements. +9 smaller pieces, including 5 Nos. of variations, a capriccio, a +fantasia, 2 adagios and "differentes petites pieces." +1 duet (variations). + +VOCAL + +Church Music + +14 masses. +1 Stabat Mater. +2 Te Deums. +13 offertories. 10 of these are taken from other compositions +with Latin text added. +4 motets. +1 Tantum Ergo. +4 Salve Reginas. +1 Regina Coeli. +2 Aves Reginas; Responsoria de Venerabili. +1 Cantilena pro Aventu (German words). +6 sacred arias. +2 duets. + +ORATORIOS AND CANTATAS + +"The Creation." +"The Seasons." +"Il Ritorno di Tobia." +"The Seven Words." +"Invocation of Neptune." +"Applausus Musicus." For the festival of a prelate, 1768. +Cantata for the birthday of Prince Nicolaus, 1763. +Cantata "Die Erwahlung eines Kapellmeisters." + +OPERAS + +Italian Operas: + +"La Canterina," 1769; +"L'Incontro Improviso," 1776; +"Lo Speciale," 1768; +"Le Pescatrice," 1780; +"Il Mondo della Luna," 1877; +"L'Isola Disabitata," 1779; +"Armida," 1782: +"L'Infedelta Delusa," 1773; +"La Fedelta Premiata," 1780; +"La Vera Constanza," 1786; +"Acide e Galatea," 1762; +"Orlando Paladino," 1782; +"Orfeo," London, 1794. + +German Opera or Singspiel, "Der Neue Krumme Teufel." +5 marionette operas. +Music for "Alfred," a tragedy, and various other plays. + +MISCELLANEOUS + +SONGS: + +12 German lieder, 1782; +12 ditto, 1784; +12 single songs; +6 original canzonets, London, 1796; +6 ditto; +"The Spirit Song," Shakespeare (F minor); +"O Tuneful Voice" (E flat), composed for an English lady of position; +3 English songs in MS.; +2 duets; +3 three-part and 10 four-part songs; +3 choruses, MS.; +1 ditto from "Alfred"; +The Austrian National Anthem, for single voice and in 4 parts; +42 canons in 2 and more parts; +2 ditto; +"The Ten Commandments" set to canons; the same +with different words under the title "Die zehn Gesetze der +Kunst"; +symphonies and accompaniments for national songs +in the collections of Whyte, Napier and George Thomson. +22 airs mostly inserted in operas. +"Ariana a Naxos," cantata for single voice and pianoforte, 1790. +"Deutschlands Klage auf den Tod Friedrichs der Grossen," +cantata for single voice, with baryton accompaniment, 1787. + + + +APPENDIX C: BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + +The Haydn literature is almost entirely Continental. With the +exceptions of Pohl's article in Grove's "Dictionary of Music" and +Miss Townsend's "Haydn," nothing of real importance has appeared +in English. The following list does not profess to be complete. +It seems futile in a book of this kind to refer amateurs and +students to foreign works, many of which are out of print and +others generally inaccessible. For the benefit of English readers +the English works have been placed first and apart from the +Continental. It has not been thought necessary to follow Pohl in +giving a separate list of German and other Continental critiques. +His plan of citing works in the order of their publication has, +however, been adopted as being perhaps preferable to an +alphabetical order of writers. + + +TITLE OF WORK --- AUTHOR --- PLACE AND DATE + + +"History of Music," Vol. IV. --- Burney --- London, 1789 + +"Reminiscences," Vol. I, p. 190 --- Michael Kelly --- London, +1826 + +"Musical Memoirs" --- Parke --- London, 1830, 2 vols. + +"Letters of Distinguished Musicians." Translated from the German +by Lady Wallace. Haydn's Letters, pp. 71-204, with portrait --- +... --- London, 1867 + +"Musical Composers and their Works"--Haydn, pp. 57-75 --- Sarah +Tytler --- London, 1875 + +"Music and Morals"--Haydn, pp. 241-263 --- Haweis --- London, +1876 + +Leisure Hour, p. 572. Article, "Anecdotes of Haydn" --- ... --- +London, 1877 + +"The Great Composers Sketched by Themselves"--No. 1, Haydn. An +estimate of Haydn drawn mainly from his letters --- Joseph +Bennett --- London, Musical Times, Sept. 1877 + +Article on Haydn in Grove's "Dictionary of Music" --- Pohl --- +London, 1879 + +"Studies of Great Composers"--Haydn, pp. 91-118, with portrait -- +- Parry --- London, 1887 + +"History of Music," English edition, Vol. IV., pp. 852-882. +Portraits and facsimiles --- Naumann --- London (Cassell), 1888 + +"Musical Reminiscences"--Music and Sunshine, pp. 141-149, with +quotations from Haydn's music to show "the happy state of his +mind whilst composing" --- William Spark --- London, 1892 + +"Musical Haunts in London"--Haydn in London, pp. 32-36 --- F.G. +Edwards --- London, 1895 + +"The Pianoforte Sonata"--Haydn, pp. 111-120 --- J.S. Shedlock --- +London, 1895 + +"Music and Manners from Pergolese to Beethoven"--Haydn in London: +(1) His Note-book; (2) His English Love, pp. 57-95 --- Krehbiel - +-- London, 1898 + +"George Thomson, the Friend of Burns" --Correspondence with +Haydn, pp. 303-308 --- Cuthbert Hadden --- London, 1898 TITLE OF +WORK --- AUTHOR --- PLACE AND DATE + +"Old Scores and New Readings"--Haydn and his "Creation," pp. 85- +92 --- J. F. Runciman --- London, 1899 + +"The Birthplace of Haydn: a Visit to Rohrau" --- Dr. Frank Merrick +--- London, Musical Times, July 1899 + +"Joseph Haydn" in Great Musicians series --- Miss Pauline D. +Townsend -- London, N.D. + +Article on Haydn in "Dictionary of Music." English ed. translated +by J. S. Shedlock --- Riemann --- London, Augener & Co. + +Autobiographical Sketch by himself. This was made use of by (1) +De Luca in "Das gelehrte Oesterreich," 1778; (2) in Forkel's +"Musikalischer Almanach fur Deutschland," 1783; and (3) in the +European Magazine for October 1784. The latter includes a +portrait --- ... --- 1776 + +"Lexicon:' Additional particulars are given in 2nd edition, 1812 +--- Gerber --- 1790 + +Musik Correspondenz der teutsthen Filarm. Gesellschaft, Nos. 17 +and 18 --- Gerber --- 1792 + +Article in journal des Luxus und der Moden --- Bertuch --- +Weimar, 1805 + +"Brevi notizie istorchie dells vita a delle opere di Guis. +Haydn." --- Mayer --- Bergamo, 1809 + +Obituary in the Vaterland. Blatter fur den ost Kaiserstaat --- +... --- Vienna, 1809 + +"Der Nagedachtenis van J. Haydn" --- Kinker --- Amsterdam, 1810 + +"Biographische Notizen uber Joseph Haydn" --- Griezinger --- +Leipzig, 1810 + +"Biographische Nachrichten von Joseph Haydn" --- Dies --- Vienna, +1810 + +"Joseph Haydn" --- Arnold --- Erfurt, 181O; 2nd ed., 1825 + +"Notice sur J. Haydn" --- Framery --- Paris, 1810 + +"Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Haydn" in the +Moniteur. --- Le Breton --- Paris, 1810 This was reprinted in the +"Bibliographie Musicale," Paris, 1822. It was also translated +into Portuguese, with additions by Silva-Lisboa. Rio Janeiro, +1820 + +"Essai Historique sur la vie die J. Haydn" --- ... --- +Strassburg, 1812 + +"Le Haydine," etc. --- Carpani --- Milan, 1812; 2nd edition, +enlarged, Padua, 1823 This work was essentially reproduced, +without acknowledgment, in "Lettres ecrites de Vienne en +Autriche," etc., by L. A. C. Bombet, Paris, 1814; republished as +"Vie de Haydn, Mozart et Metastase," par Stendhal, Paris, 1817. +Bom- bet and Stendhal are both pseudonyms of Henri Beyle. An +English translation of the 1814 work was published in London by +John Murray, in 1817, under the title of "The Life of Haydn in a +Series of Letters," etc. See p. 123 of text + +"Biogr. Notizen" --- Grosser --- Hirschberg, 1826 + +"Allg. Encyclopadie der Wissenschaften und Kunste," 2nd section, +3rd part, with a biographical sketch by Frohlich --- Ersch und +Gruber --- Leipzig, 1828 + +"Allg. Wiener Musikzeitung" --- ... --- 1843 + +"J. Haydn in London, 1791 and 1792" --- Karajan --- Vienna, 1861 + +"Joseph Haydn and sein Bruder Michael" --- Wurzbach --- Vienna, +1861 + +"Joseph Haydn" --- Ludwig --- Nordhausen, 1867 + +"Mozart and Haydn in London" --- Pohl --- Vienna, 1867 + +"Joseph Haydn." --- Pohl --- ... This, the first comprehensive +biography of Haydn, was published--the first half of Vol. I. in +1875, the second half in 1882. After the death of Pohl in 1887 it +was completed (1890) by E. V. Mandyczewski + +Notice in "Biographie Universelle" --- Fetis --- ... + + + +APPENDIX D: HAYDN'S BROTHERS + + + +Of the large family born to the Rohrau wheelwright, two, besides +the great composer, devoted themselves to music. + +The first, JOHANN EVANGELIST HAYDN, made some little reputation +as a vocalist, and was engaged in that capacity in the Esterhazy +Chapel. His health had, however, been delicate from the first, +and his professional career was far from prosperous. + +JOHANN MICHAEL HAYDN was much more distinguished. Born in 1737, +he became, as we have seen, a chorister and solo-vocalist at St +Stephen's, Vienna. He was a good violinist, and played the organ +so well that he was soon able to act as deputy-organist at the +cathedral. In 1757 he was appointed Capellmeister to the Bishop +of Grosswardein, and in 1762 became conductor, and subsequently +leader and organist to Archbishop Sigismund of Salzburg. There he +naturally came in contact with Mozart, in whose biography his +name is often mentioned. Mozart on one occasion wrote two +compositions for him which the archbishop received as Michael +Haydn's. The Concertmeister was incapacitated by illness at the +time, and Mozart came to his rescue to save his salary, which the +archbishop had characteristically threatened to stop. Mozart also +scored several of his sacred works for practice. + +Michael Haydn remained at Salzburg till his death in 1806. He had +the very modest salary of 24 Pounds Sterling, with board and +lodging, which was afterwards doubled; but although he was more +than once offered preferment elsewhere, he declined to leave his +beloved Salzburg. He was happily married--in 1768--to a daughter +of Lipp, the cathedral organist; and with his church work, his +pupils--among whom were Reicha and Weber--and his compositions, +he sought nothing more. When the French entered Salzburg and +pillaged the city in 1801 he was among the victims, losing some +property and a month's salary, but his brother and friends +repaired the loss with interest. This misfortune led the Empress +Maria Theresa to commission him to compose a mass, for which she +rewarded him munificently. Another of his masses was written for +Prince Esterhazy, who twice offered him the vice- +Capellmeistership of the chapel at Eisenstadt. Joseph thought +Michael too straightforward for this post. "Ours is a court +life," he said, "but a very different one from yours at Salzburg. +It is uncommonly hard to do what you want." If any appointment +could have drawn him away from Salzburg it was this; and it is +said that he refused it only because he hoped that the chapel at +Salzburg would be reorganized and his salary raised. + +Michael Haydn is buried in a side chapel of St Peter's Church, +Salzburg. A monument was erected in 1821, and over it is an urn +containing his skull. He is described by Pohl as "upright, good- +tempered and modest; a little rough in manners, and in later life +given to drink." His correspondence shows him to have been a +warm-hearted friend; and he had the same devout practice of +initialing his manuscripts as his brother. The latter thought +highly of him as a composer, declaring that his Church +compositions were superior to his own in earnestness, severity of +style and sustained power. When he asked leave to copy the canons +which hung in Joseph's bedroom at Vienna, Joseph replied: "Get +away with your copies; you can compose much better for yourself." +Michael's statement has often been quoted: "Give me good +librettos and the same patronage as my brother, and I should not +be behind him." This could scarcely have been the case, since, as +Pohl points out, Michael Haydn failed in the very qualities which +ensured his brother's success. As it was, he wrote a very large +number of works, most of which remained in manuscript. A Mass in +D is his best-known composition, though mention should be made of +the popular common-metre tune "Salzburg," adapted from a mass +composed for the use of country choirs. Michael Haydn was +nominated the great composer's sole heir, but his death +frustrated the generous intention. + + + +APPENDIX E: A SELECTION OF HAYDN LETTERS + + + +The greater number of Haydn's extant letters deal almost +exclusively with business matters, and are therefore of +comparatively little interest to the reader of his life. The +following selection may be taken as representing the composer in +his more personal and social relations. It is drawn from the +correspondence with Frau von Genzinger, which was discovered by +Theodor Georg von Karajan, in Vienna, and published first in the +Jahrbuch fur Vaterlandische Geschichte, and afterwards in his J. +Haydn in London, 1791 and 1792 (1861). The translation here used, +by the courtesy of Messrs Longman, is that of Lady Wallace. + +The name of Frau von Genzinger has been mentioned more than once +in the biography. Her husband was the Esterhazy physician. In +that capacity he paid frequent visits to Eisenstadt and Esterhaz +(which Haydn spells Estoras) and so became intimate with the +Capellmeister. He was fond of music, and during the long winter +evenings in Vienna was in the habit of assembling the best +artists in his house at Schottenhof, where on Sundays Mozart, +Haydn, Dittersdorf, Albrechtsberger, and others were often to be +found. His wife, Marianne--nee von Kayser--was a good singer, and +was sought after by all the musical circles in Vienna. She was +naturally attracted to Haydn, and although she was nearly forty +years of age when the correspondence opened in 1789, "a personal +connection was gradually developed in the course of their musical +intercourse that eventually touched their hearts and gave rise to +a bright bond of friendship between the lady and the old, though +still youthful, maestro." Some brief extracts from the letters +now to be given have of necessity been worked into the biography. +The correspondence originated in the following note from Frau von +Genzinger: + + + +January 1789. + +DEAR M. HAYDN, + +With your kind permission I take the liberty to send a pianoforte +arrangement of the beautiful adagio in your admirable +composition. I arranged it from the score quite alone, and +without the least help from my master. I beg that, if you should +discover any errors, you will be so good as to correct them. I do +hope that you are in perfect health, and nothing do I wish more +than to see you soon again in Vienna, in order to prove further +my high esteem. + +Your obedient servant, + +MARIA ANNA V. GENZINGER. + + + +To this Haydn replies as follows: + +ESTORAS, Janr. 14, 1789. + +DEAR MADAM, + +In all my previous correspondence, nothing was ever so agreeable +to me as the surprise of seeing your charming writing, and +reading so many kind expressions; but still more did I admire +what you sent me--the admirable arrangement of the adagio, which, +from its correctness, might be engraved at once by any publisher. +I should like to know whether you arranged the adagio from the +score, or whether you gave yourself the amazing trouble of first +putting it into score from the separate parts, and then arranging +it for the piano, for, if the latter, such an attention would be +too flattering to me, and I feel that I really do not deserve it. + +Best and kindest Frau v. Genzinger! I only await a hint from you +as to how, and in what way, I can serve you; in the meantime, I +return the adagio, and hope that my talents, poor though they be, +may ensure me some commands from you. + +I am yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +The next letter is from the lady: + +VIENNA, Oct. 29, 1789. + +DEAR HERR V. HAYDN, + +I hope you duly received my letter of September 15, and also the +first movement of the symphony (the andante of which I sent you +some months ago), and now follows the last movement, which I have +arranged for the piano as well as it was in my power to do; I +only wish that it may please you, and earnestly beg that, if +there are any mistakes in it, you will correct them at your +leisure, a service which I shall always accept from you, my +valued Herr Haydn, with the utmost gratitude. Be so good as to +let me know whether you received my letter of September 15, and +the piece of music, and if it is in accordance with your taste, +which would delight me very much, for I am very uneasy and +concerned lest you should not have got it safely, or not approve +of it. I hope that you are well, which will always be a source of +pleasure to me to hear, and commending myself to your further +friendship and remembrance. + +I remain, your devoted friend and servant, + +MARIA ANNA V. GENZINGER. nee v. Kayser. + +My husband sends you his regards. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Nov. 9, 1789. + +DEAR MADAM, + +I beg your forgiveness a million times for having so long delayed +returning your laborious and admirable work: the last time my +apartments were cleared out, which occurred just after receiving +your first movement, it was mislaid by my copyist among the mass +of my other music, and only a few days ago I had the good fortune +to find it in an old opera score. + +Dearest and kindest Frau v. Genzinger! do not be displeased with +a man who values you so highly; I should be inconsolable if by +the delay I were to lose any of your favour, of which I am so +proud. + +These two pieces are arranged quite as correctly as the first. I +cannot but admire the trouble and the patience you lavish on my +poor talents; and allow me to assure you in return that, in my +frequent evil moods, nothing cheers me so much as the flattering +conviction that I am kindly remembered by you; for which favour I +kiss your hands a thousand times, and am, with sincere esteem, +your obedient servant, + +JOSEPH HAYDN. + +P.S.--I shall soon claim permission to wait on you. + + + +The next letter is again from Frau v. Genzinger: + +VIENNA, Nov. 12, 1789. + +MY VALUED HERR V. HAYDN, + +I really cannot tell you all the pleasure I felt in reading your +highly-prized letter of the 9th. How well am I rewarded for my +trouble by seeing your satisfaction! Nothing do I wish more +ardently than to have more time (now so absorbed by household +affairs), for in that case I would certainly devote many hours to +music, my most agreeable and favourite of all occupations. You +must not, my dear Herr v. Haydn, take it amiss that I plague you +with another letter, but I could not but take advantage of so +good an opportunity to inform you of the safe arrival of your +letter. I look forward with the utmost pleasure to the happy day +when I am to see you in Vienna. Pray continue to give me a place +in your friendship and remembrance. + +Your sincere and devoted friend and servant. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, Nov. 18, 1789. + +DEAR LADY, + +The letter which I received through Herr Siebert gave me another +proof of your excellent heart, as instead of a rebuke for my late +remissness, you express yourself in so friendly a manner towards +me, that so much indulgence, kindness and great courtesy cause me +the utmost surprise, and I kiss your hands in return a thousand +times. If my poor talents enable me to respond in any degree to +so much that is flattering, I venture, dear madam, to offer you a +little musical potpourri. I do not, indeed, find in it much that +is fragrant; perhaps the publisher may rectify the fault in +future editions. If the arrangement of the symphony in it be +yours, oh! then I shall be twice as much pleased with the +publisher; if not, I venture to ask you to arrange a symphony, +and to transcribe it with your own hand, and to send it to me +here, when I will at once forward it to my publisher at Leipzig +to be engraved. + +I am happy to have found an opportunity that leads me to hope for +a few more charming lines from you. + +I am, etc., + +JOSEPH HAYDN. + +Shortly after the date of this letter Hadyn was again in Vienna, +when the musical evenings at Schottenhof were renewed. The Herr +v. Haring referred to in the following note is doubtless the +musical banker, well known as a violinist in the Vienna of the +time. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Jan. 23, 1790. + +DEAR, KIND FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I beg to inform you that all arrangements are now completed for +the little quartet party that we agreed to have next Friday. Herr +v. Haring esteemed himself very fortunate in being able to be of +use to me on this occasion, and the more so when I told him of +all the attention I had received from you, and your other merits. + +What I care about is a little approval. Pray don't forget to +invite the Pater Professor. Meanwhile, I kiss your hands, and am, +with profound respect, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +A call to return to Esterhaz put an end to these delights of +personal intercourse, as will be gathered from the following +letter: + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Feb. 3, 1790. + +NOBLEST AND KINDEST LADY, + +However flattering the last invitation you gave me yesterday to +spend this evening with you, I feel with deep regret that I am +even unable to express to you personally my sincere thanks for +all your past kindness. Bitterly as I deplore this, with equal +truth do I fervently wish you, not only on this evening, but ever +and always, the most agreeable social "reunions"--mine are all +over--and tomorrow I return to dreary solitude! May God only +grant me health; but I fear the contrary, being far from well +today. May the Almighty preserve you, dear lady, and your worthy +husband, and all your beautiful children. Once more I kiss your +hands, and am unchangeably while life lasts, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +The next letter was written six days later, evidently in the most +doleful mood: + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, Feb. 9, 1790. + +MUCH ESTEEMED AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER,-- + +Well! here I sit in my wilderness; forsaken, like some poor +orphan, almost without human society; melancholy, dwelling on the +memory of past glorious days. Yes; past, alas! And who can tell +when these happy hours may return? those charming meetings? where +the whole circle have but one heart and one soul--all those +delightful musical evenings, which can only be remembered, and +not described. Where are all those inspired moments? All gone-- +and gone for long. You must not be surprised, dear lady, that I +have delayed writing to express my gratitude. I found everything +at home in confusion; for three days I did not know whether I was +capell master, or capell servant; nothing could console me; my +apartments were all in confusion; my pianoforte, that I formerly +loved so dearly, was perverse and disobedient, and rather +irritated than soothed me. I slept very little, and even my +dreams persecuted me, for, while asleep, I was under the pleasant +delusion that I was listening to the opera of "Le Nozze di +Figaro," when the blustering north wind woke me, and almost blew +my nightcap off my head. + +[The portion of the letter deleted is that given at page 161, +beginning, "I lost twenty pounds in weight."] + +Forgive me, dear lady, for taking up your time in this very first +letter by so wretched a scrawl, and such stupid nonsense; you +must forgive a man spoilt by the Viennese. Now, however, I begin +to accustom myself by degrees to country life, and yesterday I +studied for the first time, and somewhat in the Haydn style too. + +No doubt, you have been more industrious than myself. The +pleasing adagio from the quartet has probably now received its +true expression from your fair fingers. I trust that my good +Fraulein Peperl [Joseph A., one of the Genzinger children] may be +frequently reminded of her master, by often singing over the +cantata, and that she will pay particular attention to distinct +articulation and correct vocalization, for it would be a sin if +so fine a voice were to remain imprisoned in the breast. I beg, +therefore, for a frequent smile, or else I shall be much vexed. I +advise M. Francois [Franz, author of the Genzinger children.] too +to cultivate his musical talents. Even if he sings in his +dressing-gown, it will do well enough, and I will often write +something new to encourage him. I again kiss your hands in +gratitude for all the kindness you have shown me. I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, March 14, 1790. + +MOST VALUED, ESTEEMED AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I ask forgiveness a million times for having so long delayed +answering your two charming letters, which has not been caused by +negligence (a sin from which may Heaven preserve me so long as I +live), but from the press of business which has devolved on me +for my gracious Prince, in his present melancholy condition. The +death of his wife overwhelmed the Prince with such grief that we +were obliged to use every means in our power to rouse him from +his profound sorrow. I therefore arranged for the three first +days a selection of chamber music, but no singing. The poor +Prince, however, the first evening, on hearing my favourite +Adagio in D, was affected by such deep melancholy that it was +difficult to disperse it by other pieces. On the fourth day we +had an opera, the fifth a comedy, and then our theatre daily as +usual... + +You must now permit me to kiss your hands gratefully for the +rusks you sent me, which, however, I did not receive till last +Tuesday; but they came exactly at the right moment, having just +finished the last of the others. That my favourite "Ariadne" has +been successful at Schottenhof is delightful news to me, but I +recommend Fraulein Peperl to articulate the words clearly, +especially in the words "Che tanto amai." I also take the liberty +of wishing you all possible good on your approaching nameday, +begging you to continue your favour towards me, and to consider +me on every occasion as your own, though unworthy, master. I must +also mention that the teacher of languages can come here any day, +and his journey will be paid. He can travel either by the +diligence or by some other conveyance, which can always be heard +of in the Madschaker Hof. As I feel sure, dear lady, that you +take an interest in all that concerns me (far greater than I +deserve), I must inform you that last week I received a present +of a handsome gold snuff box, the weight of thirty-four ducats, +from Prince Oetting v. Wallerstein, accompanied by an invitation +to pay him a visit this year, the Prince defraying my expenses, +His Highness being desirous to make my personal acquaintance (a +pleasing fillip to my depressed spirits). Whether I shall make up +my mind to the journey is another question. + +I beg you will excuse this hasty scrawl. + +I am always, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--I have just lost my faithful coachman; he died on the 25th +of last month. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, May 13, 1790. + +BEST AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I was quite surprised, on receiving your esteemed letter, to find +that you had not yet got my last letter, in which I mentioned +that our landlord had accepted the services of a French teacher, +who came by chance to Estoras, and I also made my excuses both to +you and your tutor on that account. My highly esteemed +benefactress, this is not the first time that some of my letters +and of others also have been lost, inasmuch as our letter bag, on +its way to Oedenburg (in order to have letters put into it), is +always opened by the steward there, which has frequently been the +cause of mistake and other disagreeable occurrences. For greater +security, however, and to defeat such disgraceful curiosity, I +will henceforth enclose all my letters in a separate envelope to +the porter, Herr Pointer. This trick annoys me the more because +you might justly reproach me with procrastination, from which may +Heaven defend me! At all events, the prying person, whether male +or female, cannot, either in this last letter or in any of the +others, have discovered anything in the least inconsistent with +propriety. And now, my esteemed patroness, when am I to have the +inexpressible happiness of seeing you in Estoras? As business +does not admit of my going to Vienna, I console myself by the +hope of kissing your hands here this summer. In which pleasing +hope, I am, with high consideration, etc., yours, + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, May 30, 1790. + +KINDEST AND BEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I was at Oedenburg when I received your last welcome letter, +having gone there on purpose to enquire about the lost letter. +The steward there vowed by all that was holy that he had seen no +letter at that time in my writing, so that it must have been lost +in Estoras! Be this as it may, such curiosity can do me no harm, +far less yourself, as the whole contents of the letter were an +account of my opera "La Vera Costanza," performed in the new +theatre in the Landstrasse, and about the French teacher who was +to have come at that time to Estoras. You need, therefore, be +under no uneasiness, dear lady, either as regards the past or the +future, for my friendship and esteem for you (tender as they are) +can never become reprehensible, having always before my eyes +respect for your elevated virtues, which not only I, but all who +know you, must reverence. Do not let this deter you from +consoling me sometimes by your agreeable letters, as they are so +highly necessary to cheer me in this wilderness, and to soothe my +deeply wounded heart. Oh! that I could be with you, dear lady, +even for one quarter of an hour, to pour forth all my sorrows, +and to receive comfort from you. I am obliged to submit to many +vexations from our official managers here, which, however, I +shall at present pass over in silence. The sole consolation left +me is that I am, thank God, well, and eagerly disposed to work. I +only regret that, with this inclination, you have waited so long +for the promised symphony. On this occasion it really proceeds +from absolute necessity, arising from my circumstances, and the +raised prices of everything. I trust, therefore, that you will +not be displeased with your Haydn, who, often as his Prince +absents himself from Estoras, never can obtain leave, even for +four-and-twenty hours, to go to Vienna. It is scarcely credible, +and yet the refusal is always couched in such polite terms, and +in such a manner, as to render it utterly impossible for me to +urge my request for leave of absence. Well, as God pleases! This +time also will pass away, and the day, return when I shall again +have the inexpressible pleasure of being seated beside you at the +pianoforte, hearing Mozart's masterpieces, and kissing your hands +from gratitude for so much pleasure. With this hope, I am, etc., + +J. HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, June 6, 1790. + +DEAR AND ESTEEMED LADY, + +I heartily regret that you were so long in receiving my last +letter. But the previous week no messenger was despatched from +Estoras, so it was not my fault that the letter reached you so +late. + +Between ourselves! I must inform you that Mademoiselle Nanette +has commissioned me to compose a new sonata for you, to be given +into your hands alone. I esteem myself fortunate in having +received such a command. You will receive the sonata in a +fortnight at latest. Mademoiselle Nanette promised me payment for +the work, but you can easily imagine that on no account would I +accept it. For me the best reward will always be to hear that I +have in some degree met with your approval. I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, June 20, 1790. + +DEAR, KIND FRIEND, + +I take the liberty of sending you a new pianoforte sonata with +violin or flute, not as anything at all remarkable, but as a +trifling resource in case of any great ennui. I only beg that you +will have it copied out as soon as possible, and then return it +to me. The day before yesterday I presented to Mademoiselle +Nanette the sonata commanded by her. I had hoped she would +express a wish to hear me play it, but I have not yet received +any order to that effect; I, therefore, do not know whether you +will receive it by this post or not. The sonata is in E flat, +newly written, and always intended for you. It is strange enough +that the final movement of this sonata contains the very same +minuet and trio that you asked me for in your last letter. This +identical work was destined for you last year, and I have only +written a new adagio since then, which I strongly recommend to +your attention. It has a deep signification which I will analyze +for you when opportunity offers. It is rather difficult, but full +of feeling. What a pity that you have not one of Schanz's pianos, +for then you could produce twice the effect! + +N.B.--Mademoiselle Nanette must know nothing of the sonata being +already half written before I received her commands, for this +might suggest notions with regard to me that I might find most +prejudicial, and I must be very careful not to lose her favour. +In the meanwhile I consider myself fortunate to be the means of +giving her pleasure, particularly as the sacrifice is made for +your sake, my charming Frau v. Genzinger. Oh! how I do wish that +I could only play over these sonatas once or twice to you; how +gladly would I then reconcile myself to remain for a time in my +wilderness! I have much to say and to confess to you, from which +no one but yourself can absolve me; but what cannot be effected +now will, I devoutly hope, come to pass next winter, and half of +the time is already gone. Meanwhile I take refuge in patience, +and am content with the inestimable privilege of subscribing +myself your sincere and obedient friend and servant + +J. HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, June 27, 1790. + +HIGHLY ESTEEMED LADY, + +You have no doubt by this time received the new pianoforte +sonata, and, if not, you will probably do so along with this +letter. Three days ago I played the sonata to Mademoiselle +Nanette in the presence of my gracious Prince. At first I doubted +very much, owing to its difficulty, whether I should receive any +applause, but was soon convinced of the reverse by a gold snuff- +box being presented to me by Mademoiselle Nanette's own hand. My +sole wish now is, that you may be satisfied with it, so that I +may find greater credit with my patroness. For the same reason, I +beg that either you or your husband will let her know "that my +delight was such that I could not conceal her generosity," +especially being convinced that you take an interest in all +benefits conferred on me. It is a pity that you have not a Schanz +pianoforte, which is much more favourable to expression; my idea +is that you should make over your own still very tolerable piano +to Fraulein Peperl, and get a new one for yourself. Your +beautiful hands, and their brilliant execution, deserve this, and +more. I know that I ought to have composed the sonata in +accordance with the capabilities of your piano, but, being so +unaccustomed to this, I found it impossible, and now I am doomed +to stay at home. What I lose by so doing you can well imagine: It +is indeed sad always to be a slave--but Providence wills it so. I +am a poor creature, plagued perpetually by hard work, and with +few hours for recreation. Friends? What do I say? One true +friend; there are no longer any true friends, but one female +friend. Oh yes! no doubt I still have one, but she is far away. +Ah well! I take refuge in my thoughts. May God bless her, and may +she never forget me! Meanwhile I kiss your hands a thousand +times, and ever am, etc., + +HAYDN. + +Pray forgive my bad writing. I am suffering from inflamed eyes +today. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, July 4, 1790. + +MOST ESTEEMED AND VALUED LADY, + +I this moment receive your letter, and at the same time the post +departs. I sincerely rejoice to hear that my Prince intends to +present you with a new piano, more especially as I am in some +measure the cause of this, having been constantly imploring +Mademoiselle Nanette to persuade your husband to purchase one for +you. The choice now depends entirely on yourself, and the chief +point is that you should select one in accordance with your touch +and your taste. Certainly my friend, Herr Walter, is very +celebrated, and every year I receive the greatest civility from +him; but, entre nous, and to speak candidly, sometimes there is +not more than one out of ten of his instruments which may be +called really good, and they are exceedingly high priced besides. +I know Herr Nickl's piano; it is first-rate, but too heavy for +your touch; nor can every passage be rendered with proper +delicacy on it. I should, therefore, like you to try one of Herr +Schanz's pianos, for they have a remarkably light and agreeable +touch. A good pianoforte is absolutely necessary for you, and my +sonata will also gain vastly by it. + +Meanwhile I thank you much, dear lady, for your caution with +regard to Mademoiselle Nanette. It is a pity that the little gold +box she gave me, and had used herself, is tarnished, but perhaps +I may get it polished up in Vienna. I have as yet received no +orders to purchase a pianoforte. I fear that one may be sent to +your house, which may be handsome outside, but the touch within +heavy. If your husband will rely on my opinion, that Herr Schanz +is the best maker for this class of instruments, I would then +settle everything at once. In great haste, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Estoras, August 15. + +I ought to have written to you last week in answer to your +letter, but as this day has been long enshrined in my heart, I +have been striving earnestly all the time to think how and what I +was to wish for you; so thus eight days passed, and now, when my +wishes ought to be expressed, my small amount of intellect comes +to a standstill, and (quite abashed) I find nothing to say; why? +wherefore? because I have not been able to fulfill those musical +hopes for this particular day that you have justly the right to +expect. Oh, my most charming and kind benefactress! if you could +only know, or see into my troubled heart on this subject, you +would certainly feel pity and indulgence for me. The unlucky +promised symphony has haunted my imagination ever since it was +bespoken, and it is only, alas! the pressure of urgent +occurrences that has prevented its being hitherto ushered into +the world! The hope, however, of your lenity towards me for the +delay, and the approaching time of the fulfillment of my promise, +embolden me to express my wish, which, among the hundreds offered +to you today and yesterday, may perhaps appear to you only an +insignificant interloper; I say perhaps, for it would be too bold +in me to think that you could form no better wish for yourself +than mine. You see, therefore, most kind and charming lady, that +I can wish nothing for you on your nameday, because my wishes are +too feeble, and therefore unproductive. As for me, I venture to +wish for myself your kind indulgence, and the continuance of your +friendship, and the goodness that I so highly prize. This is my +warmest wish! But if any wish of mine may be permitted, then mine +shall become identical with your own, for thus I shall feel +assured that none other remains, except the wish once more to be +allowed to subscribe myself your very sincere friend and servant, + +HAYDN. + + + +No further letters appear to have been addressed to the lady +until Haydn started on his first visit to London in December +1790. One or two extracts from these London letters have been +used in Chapter V., but as the repetitions will be very slight, +we allow the letters to stand as they are. + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +CALAIS, Decr. 31, 1790. + +HIGHLY HONOURED LADY, + +A violent storm and an incessant pour of rain prevented our +arriving at Calais till this evening (where I am now writing to +you), and tomorrow at seven in the morning we cross the sea to +London. I promised to write from Brussels, but we could only stay +there an hour. I am very well, thank God! although somewhat +thinner, owing to fatigue, irregular sleep, and eating and +drinking so many different things. A few days hence I will +describe the rest of my journey, but I must beg you to excuse me +for today. I hope to heaven that you and your husband and +children are all well. + +I am, with high esteem, etc., yours, + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Jan. 8, 1791. + +I thought that you had received my last letter from Calais. I +ought, indeed, according to my promise, to have sent you some +tidings of myself when I arrived in London, but I preferred +waiting a few days that I might detail various incidents to you. +I must now tell you that on New Year's Day, after attending early +mass, I took ship at half-past seven o'clock a.m., and at five +o'clock in the afternoon arrived safe and well at Dover, for +which Heaven be praised! During the first four hours there was +scarcely any wind, and the vessel made so little way that in that +time we only went one English mile, there being twenty-four +between Calais and Dover. The ship's captain, in the worst +possible humour, said that if the wind did not change we should +be at sea all night. Fortunately, however, towards half-past +eleven o'clock such a favourable breeze began to blow that by +four o'clock we had come twenty-two miles. As the ebb of the tide +prevented our large vessel making the pier, two small boats were +rowed out to meet us, into which we and our luggage were +transferred, and at last we landed safely, though exposed to a +sharp gale. The large vessel stood out to sea five hours longer, +till the tide carried it into the harbour. Some of the +passengers, being afraid to trust themselves in the small boats, +stayed on board, but I followed the example of the greater +number. I remained on deck during the whole passage, in order to +gaze my fill at that huge monster, the Ocean. So long as there +was a calm I had no fears, but when at length a violent wind +began to blow, rising every minute, and I saw the boisterous high +waves running on, I was seized with a little alarm, and a little +indisposition likewise. But I overcame it all, and arrived safely +in harbour, without being actually ill. Most of the passengers +were ill, and looked like ghosts. I did not feel the fatigue of +the journey till I arrived in London, but it took two days before +I could recover from it. But now I am quite fresh and well, and +occupied in looking at this mighty and vast town of London, its +various beauties and marvels causing me the most profound +astonishment. I immediately paid the necessary visits, such as to +the Neapolitan Minister and to our own. Both called on me in +return two days afterwards, and a few days ago I dined with the +former--nota bene, at six o'clock in the evening, which is the +fashion here. + +My arrival caused a great sensation through the whole city, and I +went the round of all the newspapers for three successive days. +Everyone seems anxious to know me. I have already dined out six +times, and could be invited every day if I chose; but I must in +the first place consider my health, and in the next my work. +Except the nobility, I admit no visitors till two o'clock in the +afternoon, and at four o'clock I dine at home with Salomon. I +have a neat, comfortable lodging, but very dear. My landlord is +an Italian, and likewise a cook, who gives us four excellent +dishes; we each pay one florin thirty kreuzers a day, exclusive +of wine and beer, but everything is terribly dear here. I was +yesterday invited to a grand amateur concert, but as I arrived +rather late, when I gave my ticket, they would not let me in, but +took me to an ante-room, where I was obliged to remain till the +piece which was then being given was over. Then they opened the +door, and I was conducted, leaning on the arm of the director, up +the centre of the room to the front of the orchestra amid +universal clapping of hands, stared at by everyone, and greeted +by a number of English compliments. I was assured that such +honours had not been conferred on anyone for fifty years. After +the concert I was taken into a very handsome room adjoining, +where tables were laid for all the amateurs, to the number of two +hundred. It was proposed that I should take a seat near the top, +but as it so happened that I had dined out that very day, and ate +more than usual, I declined the honour, excusing myself under the +pretext of not being very well; but in spite of this, I could not +get off drinking the health, in Burgundy, of the harmonious +gentlemen present; all responded to it, but at last allowed me to +go home. All this, my dear lady, was very flattering to me; still +I wish I could fly for a time to Vienna, to have more peace to +work, for the noise in the streets, and the cries of the common +people selling their wares, is intolerable. I am still working at +symphonies, as the libretto of the opera is not yet decided on, +but in order to be more quiet, I intend to engage an apartment +some little way out of town. I would gladly write more at length, +but I fear losing this opportunity. With kindest regards to your +husband, Fraulein Pepi, and all the rest, I am, with sincere +esteem, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--I have a request to make. I think I must have left my +symphony in E flat, that you returned to me, in my room at home, +or mislaid it on the journey. I missed it yesterday, and being in +pressing need of it, I beg you urgently to procure it for me, +through my kind friend, Herr v. Kees. Pray have it copied out in +your own house, and send it by post as soon as possible. If Herr +v. Kees hesitates about this, which I don't think likely, pray +send him this letter. My address is, M. Haydn, 18 Great Pulteney +Street, London. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Sept. 17, l79I. + +MY HIGHLY ESTEEMED FRIEND, + +I have received no reply to my two letters of July 3, entrusted +to the care of a composer, Herr Diettenhofer, by whom I likewise +sent the pianoforte arrangement of an andante in one of my new +symphonies. Nor have I any answer either about the symphony in E +flat, that I wished to get. I can now no longer delay inquiring +after your own health, as well as that of your husband, and all +your dear family. Is that odious proverb, "Out of sight, out of +mind," to prove true everywhere? Oh no! urgent affairs or the +loss of my letter and the symphony are, no doubt, the cause of +your silence. I feel assured of Herr von Kees's willingness to +send the symphony, as he said he would do so in his letter; so it +seems we shall both have to deplore a loss, and must trust to +Providence. I flatter myself I shall receive a short answer to +this. Now, my dear, good, kind lady, what is your piano about? Is +a thought of Haydn sometimes recalled by your fair hand? Does my +sweet Fraulein Pepi ever sing poor "Ariadne"? Oh yes! I seem to +hear it even here, especially during the last two months, when I +have been residing in the country, amid lovely scenery, with a +banker, whose heart and family resemble the Genzingers, and where +I live as in a monastery. God be praised! I am in good health, +with the exception of my usual rheumatic state. I work hard, and +in the early mornings, when I walk in the wood alone with my +English grammar, I think of my Creator, of my family, and of all +the friends I have left--and of these you are the most valued of +all. + +I had hoped, indeed, sooner to have enjoyed the felicity of +seeing you again; but my circumstances, in short, fate so wills +it that I must remain eight or ten months longer in London. Oh, +my dear, good lady, how sweet is some degree of liberty! I had a +kind Prince, but was obliged at times to be dependent on base +souls. I often sighed for release, and now I have it in some +measure. I am quite sensible of this benefit, though my mind is +burdened with more work. The consciousness of being no longer a +bond-servant sweetens all my toils. But, dear as liberty is to +me, I do hope on my return again to enter the service of Prince +Esterhazy, solely for the sake of my poor family. I doubt much +whether I shall find this desire realized, for in his letter my +Prince complains of my long absence, and exacts my speedy return +in the most absolute terms; which, however, I cannot comply with, +owing to a new contract I have entered into here. I, alas! expect +my dismissal; but I hope even in that case that God will be +gracious to me, and enable me in some degree to remedy the loss +by my own industry. Meanwhile I console myself by the hope of +soon hearing from you. You shall receive my promised new symphony +two months hence; but in order to inspire me with good ideas, I +beg you will write to me, and a long letter too. + +Yours, etc. + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Oct. 13, 1791. + +I take the liberty of earnestly entreating you to advance 150 +florins for a short time to my wife, provided you do not imagine +that since my journey I have become a bad manager. No, my kind, +good friend, God blesses my efforts. Three circumstances are +alone to blame. In the first place, since I have been here, I +have repaid my Prince the 450 florins he advanced for my journey; +secondly, I can demand no interest from my bank obligations, +having placed them under your care, and not being able to +remember either the names or the numbers, so I cannot write a +receipt; thirdly, I cannot yet apply for the 5883 florins (1000 +of which I recently placed in my Prince's hands, and the rest +with the Count v. Fries), especially because it is English money. +You will, therefore, see that I am no spendthrift. This leads me +to hope that you will not refuse my present request, to lend my +wife 450 florins. This letter must be your security, and would be +valid in any court. I will repay the interest of the money with a +thousand thanks on my return. + +I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + +...I believe you received my letter the very same day that I was +reading your cruel reproach that Haydn was capable of forgetting +his friend and benefactress. Oh! how often do I long to be beside +you at the piano, even for a quarter of an hour, and then to have +some good German soup. But we cannot have everything in this +world. May God only vouchsafe to grant me the health that I have +hitherto enjoyed, and may I preserve it by good conduct and out +of gratitude to the Almighty! That you are well is to me the most +delightful of all news. May Providence long watch over you! I +hope to see you in the course of six months, when I shall, +indeed, have much to tell you. Good-night! it is time to go to +bed; it is half-past eleven o'clock. One thing more. To insure +the safety of the money, Herr Hamberger, a good friend of mine, a +man of tall stature, our landlord, will bring you this letter +himself, and you can with impunity entrust him with the money; +but I beg you will take a receipt both from him and from my wife. + +Among other things, Herr v. Kees writes to me that he should like +to know my position in London, as there are so many different +reports about me in Vienna. From my youth upwards I have been +exposed to envy, so it does not surprise me when any attempt is +made wholly to crush my poor talents; but the Almighty above is +my support. My wife wrote to me that Mozart depreciates me very +much, but this I will never believe. If true, I forgive him. +There is no doubt that I find many who are envious of me in +London also, and I know them almost all. Most of them are +Italians. But they can do me no harm, for my credit with this +nation has been firmly established far too many years. Rest +assured that, if I had not met with a kind treception, I would +long since have gone back to Vienna. I am beloved and esteemed by +everyone, except, indeed, professors [of music]. As for my +remuneration, Mozart can apply to Count Fries for information, in +whose hands I placed 500 pounds, and 1000 guilders in those of my +Prince, making together nearly 6000 florins. I daily thank my +Creator for this boon, and I have good hope that I may bring home +a couple of thousands besides, notwithstanding, my great outlay +and the cost of the journey. I will now no longer intrude on your +time. How badly this is written! What is Pater --- doing? My +compliments to him. + +Yours, etc. + +HAYDN. + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Nov. 17, 1791. + +I write in the greatest haste, to request that you will send the +accompanying packet, addressed to you, to Herr v. Kees, as it +contains the, two new symphonies I promised. I waited for a good +opportunity, but could hear of none; I have therefore been +obliged to send them after all by post. I beg you will ask Herr +v. Kees to have a rehearsal of both these symphonies, as they are +very delicate, particularly the last movement in D, which I +recommend to be given as pianissimo as possible, and the tempo +very quick. I will write to you again in a few days. Nota bene, I +was obliged to enclose both the symphonies to you, not knowing +the address of Herr v. Kees. + +I am, etc. + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--I only returned here today from the country. I have been +staying with a mylord for the last fortnight, a hundred miles +from London. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Dec. 20, 1791. + +I am much surprised that you did not get my letter at the same +time as the two symphonies, having put them myself into the post +here, and given every direction about them. My mistake was not +having enclosed the letter in the packet. This is what often +happens, dear lady, with those who have too much head work. I +trust, however, that the letter reached you soon afterwards, but +in case it did not, I must here explain that both symphonies were +intended for Herr v. Kees, but with the stipulation that, after +being copied by his order, the scores were to be given up to you, +so that you may prepare a pianoforte arrangement of them, if you +are so disposed. The particular symphony intended for you will be +finished by the end of February at latest. I regret much having +been obliged to forward the heavy packet to you, from not knowing +Herr v. Kees's address; but he will, of course, repay you the +cost of postage, and also, I hope, hand you over seven ducats. +May I, therefore, ask you to employ a portion of that sum in +copying on small paper my often-applied-for symphony in E minor, +and forward it to me by post as soon as possible, for it may +perhaps be six months before a courier is despatched from Vienna, +and I am in urgent need of the symphony. Further, I must plague +you once more by asking you to buy at Artaria's my last +pianoforte sonata in A flat, that is, with 4 B flat minor, with +violin and violoncello, and also another piece, the fantasia in +C, without accompaniment, for these pieces are not yet published +in London; but be so good as not to mention this to Herr Artaria, +or he might anticipate the sale in England. I beg you will deduct +the price from the seven ducats. To return to the aforesaid +symphonies, I must tell you that I sent you a pianoforte +arrangement of the andante in C minor by Herr Diettenhofer. It is +reported here, however, that he either died on the journey, or +met with some serious accident. You had better look over both +pieces at your leisure. The principal part of the letter I +entrusted to Herr Diettenhofer was the description of a Doctor's +degree being conferred on me at Oxford, and all the honours I +then received. I must take this opportunity of mentioning that +three weeks ago the Prince of Wales invited me to his brother's +country seat. The Prince presented me to the Duchess (a daughter +of the King of Prussia), who received me very graciously, and +said many flattering things. She is the most charming lady in the +world, possesses much intelligence, plays the piano, and sings +very pleasingly. I stayed two days there, because on the first +day a slight indisposition prevented her having any music; on the +second day, however, she remained beside me from ten o'clock at +night, when the music began, till two hours after midnight. No +compositions played but Haydn's. I directed the symphonies at the +piano. The sweet little lady sat close beside me at my left hand, +and hummed all the pieces from memory, having heard them so +repeatedly in Berlin. The Prince of Wales sat on my right hand, +and accompanied me very tolerably on the violoncello. They made +me sing too. The Prince of Wales is having me painted just now, +and the portrait is to be hung up in his private sitting-room. +The Prince of Wales is the handsomest man on God's earth; he has +an extraordinary love of music, and a great deal of feeling, but +very little money. Nota bene, this is entre nous. His kindness +gratifies me far more than any self-interest; on the third day, +as I could not get any post-horses, the Duke of York sent me two +stages with his own. + +Now, dear lady, I should like to reproach you a little for +believing that I prefer London to Vienna, and find my residence +here more agreeable than in my fatherland. I am far from hating +London, but I could not reconcile myself to spend my life there; +no, not even to amass millions; my reasons I will tell you when +we meet. I think of my home, and embracing once more all my old +friends, with the delight of a child; only I deeply lament that +the great Mozart will not be of the number, if it be true, which +I trust it is not, that he is dead. Posterity will not see such +talent as his for the next hundred years! I am happy to hear that +you and yours are all so well. I, too, have hitherto been in +excellent health, till eight days since, when I was attacked by +English rheumatism, and so severely that sometimes I could not +help crying out aloud; but I hope soon to get quit of it, as I +have adopted the usual custom here, and have wrapped myself up +from head to foot in flannel. Pray excuse my bad writing. In the +hope of soon being gratified by a letter, and with all esteem for +yourself, and best regards to your husband, my dear Fraulein +Pepi, and the others. + +I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--Pray give my respects to Herr v. Kreybich [chamber music +director to Joseph II]. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Jan. 17, 1792. + +DEAREST AND KINDEST LADY, + +I must ask your forgiveness a thousand times; and I own and +bemoan that I have been too dilatory in the performance of my +promise, but if you could only see how I am importuned to attend +private concerts, causing me great loss of time, and the mass of +work with which I am burdened, you would indeed, dear lady, feel +the utmost compassion for me. Never in my life did I write so +much in one year as during the last, which has indeed utterly +exhausted me, and it will do me good to be able to take a little +rest when I return home. At present I am working for Salomon's +concerts, and feel bound to take all possible trouble, for our +rivals of the Professional Society have sent for my pupil Pleyel +from Strassburg, to direct their concerts. So a bloody harmonious +war will now commence between master and scholar. All the +newspapers have begun to discuss the subject, but I think an +alliance will soon ensue, my reputation here being so firmly +established. Pleyel, on his arrival, displayed so much modesty +towards me that he gained my goodwill afresh. We are very often +together, which is much to his credit, and he knows how to +appreciate his "father"; we will share our laurels fairly, and +each go home satisfied. Professional Concerts met with a great +misfortune on the 14th of this month, by the Pantheon being +entirely burned down, a theatre only built last year. It was the +work of an incendiary, and the damage is estimated at more than +100,000 pounds sterling; so there is not a single Italian theatre +in London at this moment. Now, my dear angelic lady, I have a +little fault to find with you. How often have I reiterated my +request to have my symphony in E minor, of which I sent you the +theme, copied out on small paper, and sent to me by post? Long +have I sighed for it, and if I do not get it by the end of next +month I shall lose twenty guineas. Herr v. Kees writes that the +copy may possibly arrive in London three months hence, or three +years, for there is no chance of a courier being sent off at +present. I also told Herr v. Kees in the same letter to take +charge of this, and if he could not do so, I ventured to transfer +the commission to you, flattering myself that my urgent request +would certainly be fulfilled by your kindness. I also desired +Herr v. Kees to repay you the cost of the postage you paid for +his packet. Kindest and most charming Frau v. Genzinger, I once +more beg you to see to this matter, for it is really a work of +mercy, and when we meet I will explain my reasons, respectfully +kiss your fair hands, and repay my debt with gratitude. The +celebration you mention in honour of my poor abilities touched me +deeply, but still not so profoundly as if you had considered it +more perfect. Perhaps I may supply this imperfection by another +symphony which I will shortly send you; I say perhaps, because I +(or rather my brain) am in truth weary. Providence alone can +repair the deficiency in my powers, and to Him I daily pray for +aid, for without His support I should indeed be a poor creature! +And now, my kind and dear friend, I venture to hope for your +indulgence. Oh yes! your portrait is at this moment before me, +and I hear it say, "Well, for this time, you odious Haydn, I will +forgive you, but--but!" No, no, I mean henceforth strictly to +fulfill my duties. I must conclude for today by saying that now, +as ever, I am, with the highest esteem, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Feb. 2, 1792. + +I have today received your kind letter, and also the fantasia, +and sonata a tre. I was, however, rather vexed, on opening the +packet, not to find the long-looked-for symphony in E minor, +which I had fully hoped for, and expected. Dear lady, I entreat +you to send it at once, written on small post paper, and I will +gladly pay all expenses, for Heaven alone can tell when the +symphonies from Brussels may arrive here. I cannot dispense with +this one, without incurring great loss. Pray forgive my plaguing +you so often on the subject, but I shall indeed be truly grateful +if you will send it. Being overwhelmed with work at present, I +cannot as yet write to Herr v. Kees. Pray, then, apply to him +yourself for the said symphony. + +With my kind respects, I am, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + +You shall have a good portion of the sewing needles. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, March 2, 1792. + +Yesterday morning I received your valued letter, and also the +long-looked-for symphony. I humbly kiss your hands for sending it +so safely and quickly. I had indeed received it six days +previously from Brussels, through Herr v. Kees; but the score was +more useful, as a good deal must be altered in it to suit the +English taste. I only regret that I must trouble you so +frequently with my commissions, especially as at present I cannot +adequately testify my gratitude. I do positively assure and +declare to you that this causes me great embarrassment, and +indeed often makes me feel very sad; the more so that, owing to +various urgent causes, I am unable to send you as yet the new +symphony dedicated to you. First, because I wish to alter and +embellish the last movement, which is too feeble when compared +with the first. I felt this conviction myself quite as much as +the public, when it was performed for the first time last Friday; +notwithstanding which, it made the most profound impression on +the audience. The second reason is that I really dread the risk +of its falling into other hands. I was not a little startled when +I read the unpleasant intelligence about the sonata. By Heavens! +I would rather have lost twenty-five ducats than have suffered +such a theft, and the only one who can have done this is my own +copyist; but I fervently hope to supply the loss through Madame +Tost, for I do not wish to incur any reproaches from her. You +must therefore, dear lady, be indulgent towards me, until I can +towards the end of July myself have the pleasure of placing in +your hands the sonata, as well as the symphony. Nota bene, the +symphony is to be given by myself, but the sonata by Madame Tost. +It is equally impossible for me to send Herr v. Kees the promised +symphonies at present, for here too there is a great want of +faithful copyists. If I had time, I would write them out myself, +but no day, not a single one, am I free from work, and I shall +thank the good Lord when I can leave London; the sooner the +better. My labours are augmented by the arrival of my pupil +Pleyel, who has been summoned here by the Professional Society to +direct their concerts. He brought with him a number of new +compositions, which were, however, written long ago! He +accordingly promised to give a new piece every evening. On seeing +this, I could easily perceive that there was a dead set against +me, so I also announced publicly that I would likewise give +twelve different new pieces; so in order to keep my promise, and +to support poor Salomon, I must be the victim, and work +perpetually. I do feel it, however, very much. My eyes suffer +most, and my nights are very sleepless, but with God's help I +will overcome it all. The Professors wished to put a spoke in my +wheel because I did not join their concerts, but the public is +just. Last year I received great applause, but this year still +more. Pleyel's presumption is everywhere criticized, and yet I +love him, and have gone to his concert each time, and been the +first to applaud him. I sincerely rejoice that you and yours are +well. My kind regards to all. The time draws near to put my +trunks in traveling order. Oh! how delighted shall I be to see +you again, and to show personally all the esteem that I felt for +you in absence, and that I ever shall feel for you. + +Yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--Please apologize to Herr v. Kees for want of time +preventing my sending him the new symphonies. I hope to have the +honour of directing them myself in your house, at our next +Christmas music. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, April 24, 1792. + +I yesterday evening received with much pleasure your last letter +of 5 April, with the extract from the newspaper, extolling my +poor talents to the Viennese. I must confess that I have gained +considerable credit with the English in vocal music, by this +little chorus, [The "Storm Chorus," see p. 91.] my first attempt +with English words. It is only to be regretted that, during my +stay here, I have not been able to write more pieces of a similar +nature, but we could not find any boys to sing at our concerts, +they having been already engaged for a year past to sing at other +concerts, of which there are a vast number. In spite of the great +opposition of my musical enemies, who are so bitter against me, +more especially leaving nothing undone with my pupil Pleyel this +winter to humble me, still, thank God! I may say that I have kept +the upper hand. I must, however, admit that I am quite wearied +and worn out with so much work, and look forward with eager +longing to the repose which will soon take pity on me. I thank +you, dear lady, for your kind solicitude about me. Just as you +thought, I do not require to go to Paris at present, from a +variety of reasons, which I will tell you when we meet. I am in +daily expectation of an order from my Prince, to whom I wrote +lately, to tell me where I am to go. It is possible that he may +summon me to Frankfort; if not, I intend (entre nous) to go by +Holland to the King of Prussia at Berlin, thence to Leipzig, +Dresden, Prague, and last of all to Vienna, where I hope to +embrace all my friends. + +Ever, with high esteem, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +*********END OF "HAYDN," FROM THE MASTER MUSICIAN SERIES********* + + + +INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + + + +The preceding is the text of "Haydn," a biography of the composer +Franz Joseph Haydn, from the Master Musicians series. The book +itself was authored by J. Cuthbert Hadden, while the Master +Musicians series itself was edited by Frederick J. Crowest. +"Haydn" was published in 1902 by J.M. Dent & Co. 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Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by John Mamoun <mamounjo@umdnj.edu> and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team of Charles Franks. + + + + + +HAYDN + +by J. Cuthbert Hadden + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS: + + + +DEDICATION +PREFACE +TEXT OF "HAYDN," FROM THE MASTER MUSICIANS SERIES + + Chapter I: Birth--Ancestry--Early Years + Chapter II: Vienna--1750-1760 + Chapter III: Eisenstadt--1761-1766 + Chapter IV: Esterhaz--1766-1790 + Chapter V: First London Visit--1791-1792 + Chapter VI: Second London Visit--1794-1795 + Chapter VII: "The Creation" and "The Seasons" + Chapter VIII: Last Years + Chapter IX: Haydn, the Man + Chapter X: Haydn, the Composer + Appendix A: Haydn's Last Will and Testament + Appendix B: Catalogue of Works + Appendix C: Bibliography + Appendix D: Haydn's Brothers + Appendix E: A Selection of Haydn's Letters + +INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + + + +DEDICATION + + + +To +The Rev. Robert Blair, D.D. +In Grateful Acknowledgment of +Many Kindnesses and Much +Pleasant Intercourse + + + +PREFACE + + + +The authority for Haydn's life is the biography begun by the late +Dr Pohl, and completed after his death by E.V. Mandyczewski. To +this work, as yet untranslated, every subsequent writer is +necessarily indebted, and the present volume, which I may fairly +claim to be the fullest life of Haydn that has so far appeared in +English, is largely based upon Pohl. I am also under obligations +to Miss Pauline D. Townsend, the author of the monograph in the +"Great Musicians" series. For the rest, I trust I have acquainted +myself with all the more important references made to Haydn in +contemporary records and in the writings of those who knew him. +Finally, I have endeavoured to tell the story of his career +simply and directly, to give a clear picture of the man, and to +discuss the composer without trenching on the ground of the +formalist. + +J.C.H. + +EDINBURGH, September 1902. + + + +HAYDN + +CHAPTER I + +BIRTH--ANCESTRY--EARLY YEARS + +Introductory--Rohrau--A Poor Home--Genealogy--Haydn's Parents-- +His Birth--His Precocity--Informal Music-making--His First +Teacher--Hainburg--"A Regular Little Urchin"--Attacks the Drum-- +A Piece of Good Luck--A Musical Examination--Goes to Vienna--Choir +School of St Stephen's--A House of Suffering--Lessons at the +Cathedral--A Sixteen-Part Mass--Juvenile Escapades--"Sang like a +Crow"--Dismissed from the Choir. + +Haydn's position, alike in music and in musical biography, is +almost unique. With the doubtful exception of Sebastian Bach, no +composer of the first rank ever enjoyed a more tranquil career. +Bach was not once outside his native Germany; Haydn left Austria +only to make those visits to England which had so important an +influence on the later manifestations of his genius: His was a +long, sane, sound, and on the whole, fortunate existence. For +many years he was poor and obscure, but if he had his time of +trial, he never experienced a time of failure. With practical +wisdom he conquered the Fates and became eminent. A hard, +struggling youth merged into an easy middle-age, and late years +found him in comfortable circumstances, with a solid reputation +as an artist, and a solid retiring-allowance from a princely +patron, whose house he had served for the better part of his +working career. Like Goethe and Wordsworth, he lived out all his +life. He was no Marcellus, shown for one brief moment and +"withdrawn before his springtime had brought forth the fruits of +summer." His great contemporary, Mozart, cut off while yet his +light was crescent, is known to posterity only by the products of +his early manhood. Haydn's sun set at the end of a long day, +crowning his career with a golden splendour whose effulgence +still brightens the ever-widening realm of music. + +Voltaire once said of Dante that his reputation was becoming +greater and greater because no one ever read him. Haydn's +reputation is not of that kind. It is true that he may not appeal +to what has been called the "fevered modern soul," but there is +an old-world charm about him which is specially grateful in our +bustling, nerve-destroying, bilious age. He is still known as +"Papa Haydn," and the name, to use Carlyle's phrase, is +"significant of much." In the history of the art his position is +of the first importance. He was the father of instrumental music. +He laid the foundations of the modern symphony and sonata, and +established the basis of the modern orchestra. Without him, +artistically speaking, Beethoven would have been impossible. He +seems to us now a figure of a very remote past, so great have +been the changes in the world of music since he lived. But his +name will always be read in the golden book of classical music; +and whatever the evolutionary processes of the art may bring, the +time can hardly come when he will be forgotten, his works +unheard. + +Rohrau + +Franz Joseph Haydn was born at the little market-town of Rohrau, +near Prugg, on the confines of Austria and Hungary, some +two-and-a-half hours' railway journey from Vienna. The Leitha, +which flows along the frontier of Lower Austria and Hungary on +its way to the Danube, runs near, and the district + +[Figure: Haydn's birth-house at Rohrau] + +is flat and marshy. The house in which the composer was born had +been built by his father. Situated at the end of the market-place, +it was in frequent danger from inundation; and although it stood +in Haydn's time with nothing worse befalling it than a flooding +now and again, it has twice since been swept away, first in 1813, +fours years after Haydn's death, and again in 1833. It was +carefully rebuilt on each occasion, and still stands for the +curious to see--a low-roofed cottage, very much as it was when +the composer of "The Creation" first began to be "that various +thing called man." A fire unhappily did some damage to the +building in 1899. But excepting that the picturesque thatched +roof has given place to a covering of less inflammable material, +the "Zum Haydn" presents its extensive frontage to the road, just +as it did of yore. Our illustration shows it exactly as it is +to-day. [See an interesting account of a visit to the cottage +after the fire, in The Musical Times for July 1899.] Schindler +relates that when Beethoven, shortly before his death, was shown +a print of the cottage, sent to him by Diabelli, he remarked: +"Strange that so great a man should have been born in so poor a +home!" Beethoven's relations with Haydn, as we shall see later +on, were at one time somewhat strained; but the years had +softened his asperity, and this indirect tribute to his brother +composer may readily be accepted as a set-off to some things that +the biographer of the greater genius would willingly forget. + +A Poor Home + +It was indeed a poor home into which Haydn had been born; but +tenderness, piety, thrift and orderliness were there, and +probably the happiest part of his career was that which he spent +in the tiny, dim-lighted rooms within sound of Leitha's waters. + +In later life, when his name had been inscribed on the roll of +fame, he looked back to the cottage at Rohrau, "sweet through +strange years," with a kind of mingled pride and pathetic regret. +Flattered by the great and acclaimed by the devotees of his art, +he never felt ashamed of his lowly origin. On the contrary, he +boasted of it. He was proud, as he said, of having "made +something out of nothing." He does not seem to have been often at +Rohrau after he was launched into the world, a stripling not yet +in his teens. But he retained a fond memory of his birthplace. +When in 1795 he was invited to inspect a monument erected to his +honour in the grounds of Castle Rohrau, he knelt down on the +threshold of the old home by the market-place and kissed the +ground his feet had trod in the far-away days of youth. When he +came to make his will, his thoughts went back to Rohrau, and one +of his bequests provided for two of its poorest orphans. + +Genealogy + +Modern theories of heredity and the origin of genius find but +scanty illustration in the case of Haydn. Unlike the ancestors of +Bach and Beethoven and Mozart, his family, so far as the +pedigrees show, had as little of genius, musical or other, in +their composition, as the families of Shakespeare and Cervantes. +In the male line they were hard-working, honest tradesmen, +totally undistinguished even in their sober walk in life. They +came originally from Hainburg, where Haydn's great-grandfather, +Kaspar, had been among the few to escape massacre when the town +was stormed by the Turks in July 1683. The composer's father, +Matthias Haydn, was, like most of his brothers, a wheelwright, +combining with his trade the office of parish sexton. He belonged +to the better peasant class, and, though ignorant as we should +now regard him, was yet not without a tincture of artistic taste. +He had been to Frankfort during his "travelling years," and had +there picked up some little information of a miscellaneous kind. +"He was a great lover of music by nature," says his famous son, +"and played the harp without knowing a note of music." He had +a fine tenor voice, and when the day's toil was over he would +gather his household around him and set them singing to his +well-meant accompaniment. + +Haydn's Mother + +It is rather a pretty picture that the imagination here conjures +up, but it does not help us very much in trying to account for +the musical genius of the composer. Even the popular idea that +genius is derived from the mother does not hold in Haydn's case. +If Frau Haydn had a genius for anything it was merely for moral +excellence and religion and the good management of her household. +Like Leigh Hunt's mother, however, she was "fond of music, and a +gentle singer in her way"; and more than one intimate of Haydn in +his old age declared that he still knew by heart all the simple +airs which she had been wont to lilt about the house. The maiden +name of this estimable woman was Marie Koller. She was a daughter +of the Marktrichter (market judge), and had been a cook in the +family of Count Harrach, one of the local magnates. Eight years +younger than her husband, she was just twenty-one at her +marriage, and bore him twelve children. Haydn's regard for her +was deep and sincere; and it was one of the tricks of destiny +that she was not spared to witness more of his rising fame, +being cut off in 1754, when she was only forty-six. Matthias +Haydn promptly married again, and had a second family of five +children, all of whom died in infancy. The stepmother survived +her husband--who died, as the result of an accident, in 1763--and +then she too entered a second time into the wedded state. Haydn +can never have been very intimate with her, and he appears to have +lost sight of her entirely in her later years. But he bequeathed a +small sum to her in his will, "to be transferred to her children +should she be no longer alive." + +Birth + +Joseph Haydn, to give the composer the name which he now usually +bears, was the second of the twelve children born to the Rohrau +wheelwright. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but it was +either the 31st of March or the 1st of April 1732. Haydn himself +gave the latter as the correct date, alleging that his brother +Michael had fixed upon the previous day to save him from being +called an April fool! Probably we shall not be far off the mark +if we assume with Pohl that Haydn was born in the night between +the 31st of March and the 1st of April. + +His Precocity + +Very few details have come down to us in regard to his earlier +years; and such details as we have refer almost wholly to his +musical precocity. It was not such a precocity as that of Mozart, +who was playing minuets at the age of four, and writing concertos +when he was five; but just on that account it is all the more +credible. One's sympathies are with the frank Philistine who +pooh-poohs the tales told of baby composers, and hints that they +must have been a trial to their friends. Precocious they no doubt +were; but precocity often evaporates before it can become genius, +leaving a sediment of disappointed hopes and vain ambitions. In +literature, as Mr Andrew Lang has well observed, genius may show +itself chiefly in acquisition, as in Sir Walter Scott, who, as a +boy, was packing all sorts of lore into a singularly capacious +mind, while doing next to nothing that was noticeable. In music +it is different. Various learning is not so important as a keenly +sensitive organism. The principal thing is emotion, duly ordered +by the intellect, not intellect touched by emotion. Haydn's +precocity at any rate was of this sort. It proclaimed itself in a +quick impressionableness to sound, a delicately-strung ear, and +an acute perception of rhythm. + +Informal Music-Making + +We have seen how the father had his musical evenings with his +harp and the voices of wife and children. These informal +rehearsals were young Haydn's delight. We hear more particularly +of his attempts at music-making by sawing away upon a piece of +stick at his father's side, pretending to play the violin like +the village schoolmaster under whom he was now learning his +rudiments. The parent was hugely pleased at these manifestations +of musical talent in his son. He had none of the absurd, old-world +ideas of Surgeon Handel as to the degrading character of the +divine art, but encouraged the youngster in every possible way. +Already he dreamt--what father of a clever boy has not done the +same?--that Joseph would in some way or other make the family +name famous; and although it is said that like his wife, he had +notions of the boy becoming a priest, he took the view that his +progress towards holy orders would be helped rather than hindered +by the judicious cultivation of his undoubted taste for music. + +His First Teacher + +While these thoughts were passing through his head, the chance +visit of a relation practically decided young Haydn's future. His +grandmother, being left a widow, had married a journeyman +wheelwright, Matthias Seefranz, and one of their children married +a schoolmaster, Johann Matthias Frankh. Frankh combined with the +post of pedagogue that of choir-regent at Hainburg, the ancestral +home of the Haydns, some four leagues from Rohrau. He came +occasionally to Rohrau to see his relatives, and one day he +surprised Haydn keeping strict time to the family music on his +improvised fiddle. Some discussion following about the boy's +unmistakable talent, the schoolmaster generously offered to take +him to Hainburg that he might learn "the first elements of music +and other juvenile acquirements." The father was pleased; the +mother, hesitating at first, gave her reluctant approval, and +Haydn left the family home never to return, except on a flying +visit. This was in 1738, when he was six years of age. + +Hainburg + +The town of Hainburg lies close to the Danube, and looks very +picturesque with its old walls and towers. According to the +Nibelungen Lied, King Attila once spent a night in the place, and +a stone figure of that "scourge of God" forms a feature of the +Hainburg Wiener Thor, a rock rising abruptly from the river, +crowned with the ruined Castle of Rottenstein. The town cannot be +very different from what it was in Haydn's time, except perhaps +that there is now a tobacco manufactory, which gives employment +to some 2000 hands. + +It is affecting to think of the little fellow of six dragged away +from his home and his mother's watchful care to be planted down +here among strange surroundings and a strange people. That he was +not very happy we might have assumed in any case. But there were, +unfortunately, some things to render him more unhappy than he +need have been. Frankh's intentions were no doubt excellent; but +neither in temper nor in character was he a fit guardian and +instructor of youth. He got into trouble with the authorities +more than once for neglect of his duties, and had to answer a +charge of gambling with loaded dice. As a teacher he was of that +stern disciplinarian kind which believes in lashing instruction +into the pupil with the "tingling rod." Haydn says he owed him +more cuffs than gingerbread. + +"A Regular Little Urchin" + +What he owed to the schoolmaster's wife may be inferred from the +fact that she compelled him to wear a wig "for the sake of +cleanliness." All his life through Haydn was most particular +about his personal appearance, and when quite an old man it +pained him greatly to recall the way in which he was neglected by +Frau Frankh. "I could not help perceiving," he remarked to Dies, +"much to my distress, that I was gradually getting very dirty, +and though I thought a good deal of my little person, was not +always able to avoid spots of dirt on my clothes, of which I was +dreadfully ashamed. In fact, I was a regular little urchin." +Perhaps we should not be wrong in surmising that the old man was +here reading into his childhood the habits and sentiments of his +later years. Young boys of his class are not usually deeply +concerned about grease spots or disheveled hair. + +Attacks the Drum + +At all events, if deplorably neglected in these personal matters, +he was really making progress with his art. Under Frankh's +tuition he attained to some proficiency on the violin and the +harpsichord, and his voice was so improved that, as an early +biographer puts it, he was able to "sing at the parish desk in a +style which spread his reputation through the canton." Haydn +himself, going back upon these days in a letter of 1779, says: +"Our Almighty Father (to whom above all I owe the most profound +gratitude) had endowed me with so much facility in music that +even in my sixth year I was bold enough to sing some masses in +the choir." He was bold enough to attempt something vastly more +ponderous. A drummer being wanted for a local procession, Haydn +undertook to play the part. Unluckily, he was so small of stature +that the instrument had to be carried before him on the back of a +colleague! That the colleague happened to be a hunchback only +made the incident more ludicrous. But Haydn had rather a +partiality for the drum--a satisfying instrument, as Mr George +Meredith says, because of its rotundity--and, as we shall learn +when we come to his visits to London, he could handle the +instrument well enough to astonish the members of Salomon's +orchestra. According to Pohl, the particular instrument upon +which he performed on the occasion of the Hainburg procession is +still preserved in the choir of the church there. + +Hard as these early years must have been, Haydn recognized in +after-life that good had mingled with the ill. His master's +harshness had taught him patience and self-reliance. "I shall be +grateful to Frankh as long as I live," he said to Griesinger, +"for keeping me so hard at work." He always referred to Frankh as +"my first instructor," and, like Handel with Zachau, he +acknowledged his indebtedness in a practical way by bequeathing +to Frankh's daughter, then married, 100 florins and a portrait of +her father--a bequest which she missed by dying four years before +the composer himself. + +A Piece of Good Fortune + +Haydn had been two years with Frankh when an important piece of +good fortune befell him. At the time of which we are writing the +Court Capellmeister at Vienna was George Reutter, an +inexhaustible composer of church music, whose works, now +completely forgotten, once had a great vogue in all the choirs of +the Imperial States. Even in 1823 Beethoven, who was to write a +mass for the Emperor Francis, was recommended to adopt the style +of this frilled and periwigged pedant! Reutter's father had been +for many years Capellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, +and on his death, in 1738, the son succeeded to the post. He had +not been long established in the office when he started on a tour +of search for choristers. Arriving at Hainburg, he heard from the +local pastor of Haydn's "weak but pleasing voice," and +immediately had the young singer before him. + +A Musical Examination + +The story of the examination is rather amusing. Reutter gave the +little fellow a canon to sing at first sight. The boy went though +the thing triumphantly, and the delighted Reutter cried "Bravo!" +as he flung a handful of cherries into Haydn's cap. But there was +one point on which Reutter was not quite satisfied. "How is it, +my little man," he said, "that you cannot shake?" "How can you +expect me to shake," replied the enfant terrible, "when Herr +Frankh himself cannot shake?" The great man was immensely tickled +by the ready retort, and, drawing the child towards him, he +taught him how to make the vibrations in his throat required to +produce the ornament. The boy picked up the trick at once. It was +the final decision of his fate. Reutter saw that here was a +recruit worth having, and he lost no time in getting the parents' +sanction to carry him off to Vienna. In the father's case this +was easily managed, but the mother only yielded when it was +pointed out that her son's singing in the cathedral choir did not +necessarily mean the frustration of her hopes of seeing him made +a priest. + +Goes to Vienna + +Thus, some time in the year 1740, Reutter marched away from +Hainburg with the little Joseph, and Hainburg knew the little +Joseph no more. Vienna was now to be his home for ten long years +of dreary pupilage and genteel starvation. In those days, and for +long after, St Stephen's Cathedral was described as "the first +church in the empire," and it is still, with its magnificent +spire, the most important edifice in Vienna. Erected in 1258 and +1276 on the site of a church dating from 1144, it was not finally +completed until 1446. It is in the form of a Latin cross, and is +355 feet long. The roof is covered with coloured tiles, and the +rich groined vaulting is borne by eighteen massive pillars, +adorned with more than a hundred statuettes. Since 1852 the +building has been thoroughly restored, but in all essentials +it remains as it was when Haydn sang in it as a choir-boy. + +The Choir School of St Stephen's + +Many interesting details have been printed regarding the Choir +School of St Stephen's and its routine in Haydn's time. They have +been well summarized by one of his biographers. [See Miss Townsend's +Haydn, p. 9.] The Cantorei was of very ancient foundation. Mention +is made of it as early as 1441, and its constitution may be gathered +from directions given regarding it about the period 1558-1571. It +was newly constituted in 1663, and many alterations were made then +and afterwards, but in Haydn's day it was still practically what it +had been for nearly a century before. The school consisted of a +cantor (made Capellmeister in 1663), a sub-cantor, two ushers and +six scholars. They all resided together, and had meals in common; +and although ample allowance had originally been made for the board, +lodging and clothing of the scholars, the increased cost of living +resulted in the boys of Haydn's time being poorly fed and scantily +clad. They were instructed in "religion and Latin, together with the +ordinary subjects of school education, and in music, the violin, +clavier, and singing." The younger scholars were taken in hand by +those more advanced. The routine would seem to us now to be somewhat +severe. There were two full choral services daily in the cathedral. +Special Te Deums were constantly sung, and the boys had to take part +in the numerous solemn processions of religious brotherhoods through +the city, as well as in the services for royal birthdays and other +such occasions. During Holy Week the labours of the choir were +continuous. Children's processions were very frequent, and Haydn's +delight in after years at the performance of the charity children in +St Paul's may have been partly owing to the reminiscences of early +days which it awakened. + +A House of Suffering + +But these details are aside from our main theme. The chapel-house +of St Stephen's was now the home of our little Joseph. It ought +to have been a happy home of instruction, but it was, alas! a +house of suffering. Reutter did not devote even ordinary care to +his pupil, and from casual lessons in musical theory he drifted +into complete neglect. Haydn afterwards declared that he had +never had more than two lessons in composition from Reutter, who +was, moreover, harsh and cruel and unfeeling, laughing at his +pupil's groping attempts, and chastising him on the slightest +pretext. It has been hinted that the Capellmeister was jealous of +his young charge--that he was "afraid of finding a rival in the +pupil." But this is highly improbable. Haydn had not as yet shown +any unusual gifts likely to excite the envy of his superior. +There is more probability in the other suggestion that Reutter +was piqued at not having been allowed by Haydn's father to +perpetuate the boy's fine voice by the ancient method of +emasculation. The point, in any case, is not of very much +importance. It is sufficient to observe that Reutter's name +survives mainly in virtue of the fact that he tempted Haydn to +Vienna with the promise of special instruction, and gave him +practically nothing of that, but a great deal of ill-usage. + +Lessons at St Stephen's + +Haydn was supposed to have lessons from two undistinguished +professors named Gegenbauer and Finsterbusch. But it all +amounted to very little. There was the regular drilling for +the church services, to be sure: solfeggi and psalms, psalms +and solfeggi--always apt to degenerate, under a pedant, into the +dreariest of mechanical routine. How many a sweet-voiced chorister, +even in our own days, reaches manhood with a love for music? +It needs music in his soul. Haydn's soul withstood the numbing +influence of pedantry. He realized that it lay with himself to +develop and nurture the powers within his breast of which he was +conscious. "The talent was in me," he remarked, "and by dint of +hard work I managed to get on." Shortly before his death, when +he happened to be in Vienna for some church festival, he had an +opportunity of speaking to the choir-boys of that time. "I was +once a singing boy," he said. "Reutter brought me from Hainburg +to Vienna. I was industrious when my companions were at play. +I used to take my little clavier under my arm, and go off to +practice undisturbed. When I sang a solo, the baker near St +Stephen's yonder always gave me a cake as a present. Be good +and industrious, and serve God continually." + +A Sixteen-Part Mass! + +It is pathetic to think of the boy assiduously scratching +innumerable notes on scraps of music paper, striving with yet +imperfect knowledge to express himself, and hoping that by some +miracle of inspiration something like music might come out of it. +"I thought it must be all right if the paper was nice and full," +he said. He even went the length of trying to write a mass in +sixteen parts--an effort which Reutter rewarded with a shrug and +a sneer, and the sarcastic suggestion that for the present two +parts might be deemed sufficient, and that he had better perfect +his copying of music before trying to compose it. But Haydn was +not to be snubbed and snuffed out in this way. He appealed to his +father for money to buy some theory books. There was not too much +money at Rohrau, we may be sure, for the family was always +increasing, and petty economies were necessary. But the +wheelwright managed to send the boy six florins, and that sum was +immediately expended on Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum and Mattheson's +Volkommener Capellmeister--heavy, dry treatises both, which have +long since gone to the musical antiquary's top shelf among the +dust and the cobwebs. These "dull and verbose dampers to +enthusiasm" Haydn made his constant companions, in default of a +living instructor, and, like Longfellow's "great men," toiled +upwards in the night, while less industrious mortals snored. + +Juvenile Escapades + +Meanwhile his native exuberance and cheerfulness of soul were +irrepressible. Several stories are told of the schoolboy +escapades he enjoyed with his fellow choristers. One will suffice +here. He used to boast that he had sung with success at Court as +well as in St Stephen's. This meant that he had made one of the +choir when visits were paid to the Palace of Schonbrunn, where +the Empress Maria and her Court resided. On the occasion of one +of these visits the palace was in the hands of the builders, and +the scaffolding presented the usual temptation to the youngsters. +"The empress," to quote Pohl, "had caught them climbing it many a +time, but her threats and prohibitions had no effect. One day +when Haydn was balancing himself aloft, far above his +schoolfellows, the empress saw him from the windows, and +requested her Hofcompositor to take care that 'that fair-headed +blockhead,' the ringleader of them all, got 'einen recenten +Schilling' (slang for 'a good hiding')." The command was only too +willingly obeyed by the obsequious Reutter, who by this time had +been ennobled, and rejoiced in the addition of "von" to his name. +Many years afterwards, when the empress was on a visit to Prince +Esterhazy, the "fair-headed blockhead" took the cruel delight of +thanking her for this rather questionable mark of Imperial +favour! + +"Sang like a Crow" + +As a matter of fact, the empress, however she may have thought of +Haydn the man, showed herself anything but considerate to Haydn +the choir-boy. The future composer's younger brother, Michael, +had now arrived in Vienna, and had been admitted to the St +Stephen's choir. His voice is said to have been "stronger and of +better quality" than Joseph's, which had almost reached the +"breaking" stage; and the empress, complaining to Reutter that +Joseph "sang like a crow," the complacent choirmaster put Michael +in his place. The empress was so pleased with the change that she +personally complimented Michael, and made him a present of 24 +ducats. + +Dismissed from St Stephen's + +One thing leads to another. Reutter, it is obvious, did not like +Haydn, and any opportunity of playing toady to the empress was +too good to be lost. Unfortunately Haydn himself provided the +opportunity. Having become possessed of a new pair of scissors, +he was itching to try their quality. The pig-tail of the +chorister sitting before him offered an irresistible attraction; +one snip and lo! the plaited hair lay at his feet. Discipline +must be maintained; and Reutter sentenced the culprit to be caned +on the hand. This was too great an indignity for poor Joseph, by +this time a youth of seventeen--old enough, one would have +thought, to have forsworn such boyish mischief. He declared that +he would rather leave the cathedral service than submit. "You +shall certainly leave," retorted the Capellmeister, "but you must +be caned first." And so, having received his caning, Haydn was +sent adrift on the streets of Vienna, a broken-voiced chorister, +without a coin in his pocket, and with only poverty staring him +in the face. This was in November 1749. + +CHAPTER II + +VIENNA--1750-1760 + +Vienna--The Forlorn Ex-Chorister--A Good Samaritan--Haydn +Enskied--Street Serenades--Joins a Pilgrim Party--An +Unconditional Loan--"Attic" Studies--An Early Composition-- +Metastasio--A Noble Pupil--Porpora--Menial Duties--Emanuel Bach-- +Haydn his Disciple--Violin Studies--Attempts at "Programme" +Music--First Opera--An Aristocratic Appointment--Taken for an +Impostor--A Count's Capellmeister--Falls in Love--Marries-- +His Wife. + +Vienna + +The Vienna into which Haydn was thus cast, a friendless and +forlorn youth of seventeen, was not materially different from the +Vienna of to-day. While the composer was still living, one who had +made his acquaintance wrote of the city: "Represent to yourself +an assemblage of palaces and very neat houses, inhabited by the +most opulent families of one of the greatest monarchies in +Europe--by the only noblemen to whom that title may still be with +justice applied. The women here are attractive; a brilliant +complexion adorns an elegant form; the natural but sometimes +languishing and tiresome air of the ladies of the north of +Germany is mingled with a little coquetry and address, the effect +of the presence of a numerous Court...In a word, pleasure has +taken possession of every heart." This was written when Haydn was +old and famous; it might have been written when his name was yet +unknown. + +Vienna was essentially a city of pleasure--a city inhabited by "a +proud and wealthy nobility, a prosperous middle class, and a +silent, if not contented, lower class." In 1768, Leopold Mozart, +the father of the composer, declared that the Viennese public had +no love of anything serious or sensible; "they cannot even +understand it, and their theatres furnish abundant proof that +nothing but utter trash, such as dances, burlesques, +harlequinades, ghost tricks, and devils' antics will go down with +them." There is, no doubt, a touch of exaggeration in all this, +but it is sufficiently near the truth to let us understand the +kind of attention which the disgraced chorister of St Stephen's +was likely to receive from the musical world of Vienna. It was +Vienna, we may recall, which dumped Mozart into a pauper's grave, +and omitted even to mark the spot. + +The Forlorn Ex-Chorister + +Young Haydn, then, was wandering, weary and perplexed, through +its streets, with threadbare clothes on his back and nothing in +his purse. There was absolutely no one to whom he could think of +turning. He might, indeed, have taken the road to Rohrau and been +sure of a warm welcome from his humble parents there. But there +were good reasons why he should not make himself a burden on +them; and, moreover, he probably feared that at home he would run +some risk of being tempted to abandon his cherished profession. +Frau Haydn had not yet given up the hope of seeing her boy made a +priest, and though we have no definite information that Haydn +himself felt a decided aversion to taking orders, it is evident +that he was disinclined to hazard the danger of domestic +pressure. He had now finally made up his mind that he would be a +composer; but he saw clearly enough that, for the present, he +must work, and work, too, not for fame, but for bread. + +A Good Samaritan + +Musing on these things while still parading the streets, tired +and hungry, he met one Spangler, a tenor singer of his +acquaintance, who earned a pittance at the Church of St Michael. +Spangler was a poor man--but it is ever the poor who are most +helpful to each other--and, taking pity on the dejected outcast, +he invited Haydn to share his garret rooms along with his wife +and child. It is regrettable that nothing more is known of this +good Samaritan--one of those obscure benefactors who go through +the world doing little acts of kindness, never perhaps even +suspecting how far-reaching will be the results. He must have +died before Haydn, otherwise his name would certainly have +appeared in his will. + +Haydn Enskied + +Haydn remained with Spangler in that "ghastly garret" all through +the winter of 1749-1750. He has been commiserated on the garret-- +needlessly, to be sure. Garrets are famous, in literary annals at +any rate; and is it not Leigh Hunt who reminds us that the top +story is healthier than the basement? The poor poet in Pope, who +lay high in Drury Lane, "lull'd by soft zephyrs through the +broken pane," found profit, doubtless, in his "neighbourhood with +the stars." However that may be, there, in Spangler's attic, was +Haydn enskied, eager for work--work of any kind, so long as it +had fellowship with music and brought him the bare means of +subsistence. + +"Scanning his whole horizon +In quest of what he could clap eyes on," + +he sought any and every means of making money. He tried to get +teaching, with what success has not been recorded. He sang in +choirs, played at balls and weddings and baptisms, made +"arrangements" for anybody who would employ him, and in short +drudged very much as Wagner did at the outset of his tempestuous +career. + +Street Serenades + +He even took part in street serenades by playing the violin. This +last was not a very dignified occupation; but it is important to +remember that serenading in Vienna was not the lover's business +of Italy and Spain, where the singer is accompanied by guitar or +mandoline. It was a much more serious entertainment. It dated +from the seventeenth century, if we are to trust Praetorius, and +consisted of solos and concerted vocal music in various forms, +accompanied sometimes by full orchestra and sometimes by wind +instruments alone. Great composers occasionally honoured their +patrons and friends with the serenade; and composers who hoped to +be great found it advantageous as a means of gaining a hearing +for their works. It proved of some real service to Haydn later +on, but in the meantime it does not appear to have swelled his +lean purse. With all his industry he fell into the direst straits +now and again, and was more than once driven into wild projects +by sheer stress of hunger. + +Joins a Pilgrim Party + +One curious story is told of a journey to Mariazell, in Styria. +This picturesquely-situated village has been for many years the +most frequented shrine in Austria. To-day it is said to be visited +by something like 100,000 pilgrims every year. The object of +adoration is the miraculous image of the Madonna and Child, +twenty inches high, carved in lime-wood, which was presented to +the Mother Church of Mariazell in 1157 by a Benedictine priest. +Haydn was a devout Catholic, and not improbably knew all about +Mariazell and its Madonna. At any rate, he joined a company of +pilgrims, and on arrival presented himself to the local +choirmaster for admission, showing the official some of his +compositions, and telling of his eight years' training at St +Stephen's. The choirmaster was not impressed. "I have had enough +of lazy rascals from Vienna," said he. "Be off!" But Haydn, after +coming so far, was not to be dismissed so unceremoniously. He +smuggled himself into the choir, pleaded with the solo singer of +the day to be allowed to act as his deputy, and, when this was +refused, snatched the music from the singer's hand, and took up +the solo at the right moment with such success that "all the +choir held their breath to listen." At the close of the service +the choirmaster sent for him, and, apologizing for his previous +rude behaviour, invited him to his house for the day. The +invitation extended to a week, and Haydn returned to Vienna with +money enough--the result of a subscription among the choir--to +serve his immediate needs. + +An Unconditional Loan + +But it would have been strange if, in a musical city like Vienna, +a youth of Haydn's gifts had been allowed to starve. Slowly but +surely he made his way, and people who could help began to hear +of him. The most notable of his benefactors at this time was a +worthy tradesman named Buchholz, who made him an unconditional +loan of 150 florins. An echo of this unexpected favour is heard +long years after in the composer's will, where we read: "To +Fraulein Anna Buchholz, 100 florins, inasmuch as in my youth her +grandfather lent me 150 florins when I greatly needed them, +which, however, I repaid fifty years ago." + +"Attic" Studies + +One hundred and fifty florins was no great sum assuredly, but at +this time it was a small fortune to Haydn. He was able to do a +good many things with it. First of all, he took a lodging for +himself--another attic! Spangler had been very kind, but he could +not give the young musician the privacy needed for study. It +chanced that there was a room vacant, "nigh to the gods and the +clouds," in the old Michaelerhaus in the Kohlmarkt, and Haydn +rented it. It was not a very comfortable room--just big enough to +allow the poor composer to turn about. It was dimly lighted. It +"contained no stove, and the roof was in such bad repair that the +rain and the snow made unceremonious entry and drenched the young +artist in his bed. In winter the water in his jug froze so hard +during the night that he had to go and draw direct from the +well." For neighbours he had successively a journeyman printer, a +footman and a cook. These were not likely to respect his desire +for quiet, but the mere fact of his having a room all to himself +made him oblivious of external annoyances. As he expressed it, +he was "too happy to envy the lot of kings." He had his old, +worm-eaten spinet, and his health and his good spirits; and +although he was still poor and unknown, he was "making himself +all the time," like Sir Walter Scott in Liddesdale. + +An Early Composition + +Needless to say, he was composing a great deal. Much of his +manuscript was, of course, torn up or consigned to the flames, +but one piece of work survived. This was his first Mass in F (No. +11 in Novello's edition), erroneously dated by some writers 1742. +It shows signs of immaturity and inexperience, but when Haydn in +his old age came upon the long-forgotten score he was so far from +being displeased with it that he rearranged the music, inserting +additional wind parts. One biographer sees in this procedure "a +striking testimony to the genius of the lad of eighteen." We need +not read it in that way. It rather shows a natural human +tenderness for his first work, a weakness, some might call it, +but even so, more pardonable than the weakness--well illustrated +by some later instances--of hunting out early productions and +publishing them without a touch of revision. + +Metastasio + +It was presumably by mere chance that in that same rickety +Michaelerhaus there lived at this date not only the future +composer of "The Creation," but the Scribe of the eighteenth +century, the poet and opera librettist, Metastasio. Born in 1698, +the son of humble parents, this distinguished writer had, like +Haydn, suffered from "the eternal want of pence." A precocious +boy, he had improvised verses and recited them on the street, and +fame came to him only after long and weary years of waiting. In +1729 he was appointed Court poet to the theatre at Vienna, for +which he wrote several of his best pieces, and when he made +Haydn's acquaintance his reputation was high throughout the whole +of Europe. Naturally, he did not live so near the clouds as +Haydn--his rooms were on the third story--but he heard somehow of +the friendless, penniless youth in the attic, and immediately +resolved to do what he could to further his interests. This, as +events proved, was by no means inconsiderable. + +A Noble Pupil + +Metastasio had been entrusted with the education of Marianne von +Martinez, the daughter of a Spanish gentleman who was Master of +the Ceremonies to the Apostolic Nuncio. The young lady required a +musicmaster, and the poet engaged Haydn to teach her the +harpsichord, in return for which service he was to receive free +board. Fraulein Martinez became something of a musical celebrity. +When she was only seventeen she had a mass performed at St +Michael's Church, Vienna. She was a favourite of the Empress +Maria Theresa, and is extolled by Burney--who speaks of her +"marvelous accuracy" in the writing of English--as a singer and a +player, almost as highly as Gluck's niece. Her name finds a place +in the biographies of Mozart, who, at her musical receptions, +used to take part with her in duets of her own composition. +Several of her manuscripts are still in the possession of the +Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Something of her musical +distinction ought certainly to be attributed to Haydn, who gave +her daily lessons for three years, during which time he was +comfortably housed with the family. + +Porpora + +It was through Metastasio, too, that he was introduced to Niccolo +Porpora, the famous singing-master who taught the great +Farinelli, and whose name is sufficiently familiar from its +connection with an undertaking set on foot by Handel's enemies in +London. Porpora seems at this time to have ruled Vienna as a sort +of musical director and privileged censor, to have been, in fact, +what Rossini was for many years in Paris. He was giving lessons +to the mistress of Correr, the Venetian ambassador--a "rare +musical enthusiast"--and he employed Haydn to act as accompanist +during the lessons. + +Menial Duties + +We get a curious insight into the social conditions of the +musicians of this time in the bearing of Haydn towards Porpora +and his pupil. That Haydn should become the instructor of +Fraulein Martinez in no way compromised his dignity; nor can any +reasonable objection be raised against his filling the post of, +accompanist to the ambassador's mistress. But what shall be said +of his being transported to the ambassador's summer quarters at +Mannersdorf, and doing duty there for six ducats a month and his +board--at the servants' table? The reverend author of Music and +Morals answers by reminding us that in those days musicians were +not the confidential advisers of kings like Wagner, rich banker's +sons like Meyerbeer, private gentlemen like Mendelssohn, and +members of the Imperial Parliament like Verdi. They were "poor +devils" like Haydn. Porpora was a great man, no doubt, in his own +metier. But it is surely odd to hear of Haydn acting the part of +very humble servant to the singing-master; blackening his boots +and trimming his wig, and brushing his coat, and running his +errands, and playing his accompaniments! Let us, however, +remember Haydn's position and circumstances. He was a poor man. +He had never received any regular tuition such as Handel received +from Zachau, Mozart from his father, and Mendelssohn from Zelter. +He had to pick up his instruction as he went along; and if he +felt constrained to play the lackey to Porpora, it was only with +the object of receiving in return something which would help to +fit him for his profession. As he naively said, "I improved +greatly in singing, composition, and Italian." [The relations of +Haydn and Porpora are sketched in George Sand's "Consuelo."] + +Emanuel Bach + +In the meantime he was carrying on his private studies with the +greatest assiduity. His Fux and his Mattheson had served their +turn, and he had now supplemented them by the first six Clavier +Sonatas of Philipp Emanuel Bach, the third son of the great +composer. The choice may seem curious when we remember that Haydn +had at his hand all the music of Handel and Bach, and the masters +of the old contrapuntal school. But it was wisely made. The +simple, well-balanced form of Emanuel Bach's works "acted as well +as a master's guidance upon him, and led him to the first steps +in that style of writing which was afterwards one of his greatest +glories." The point is admirably put by Sir Hubert Parry. He +says, in effect, that what Haydn had to build upon, and what was +most congenial to him, through his origin and circumstances, was +the popular songs and dances of his native land, which, in the +matter of structure, belong to the same order of art as +symphonies and sonatas; and how this kind of music could be made +on a grander scale was what he wanted to discover. The music of +Handel and Bach leaned too much towards the style of the choral +music and organ music of the church to serve him as a model. For +their art was essentially contrapuntal--the combination of +several parts each of equal importance with the rest, each in a +sense pursuing its own course. In modern music the essential +principle is harmonic: the chords formed by the combination of +parts are derived and developed in reference to roots and keys. +In national dances few harmonies are used, but they are arranged +on the same principles as the harmonies of a sonata or a +symphony; and "what had to be found out in order to make grand +instrumental works was how to arrange more harmonies with the +same effect of unity as is obtained on a small scale in dances +and national songs." Haydn, whose music contains many +reminiscences of popular folk-song, had in him the instinct for +this kind of art; and the study of Philipp Emanuel's works taught +him how to direct his energies in the way that was most agreeable +to him. + +A Disciple of Emanuel Bach + +Although much has been written about Emanuel Bach, it is probable +that the full extent of his genius remains yet to be recognized. +He was the greatest clavier player, teacher and accompanist of +his day; a master of form, and the pioneer of a style which was a +complete departure from that of his father. Haydn's enthusiasm +for him can easily be explained. "I did not leave the clavier +till I had mastered all his six sonatas," he says, "and those who +know me well must be aware that I owe very much to Emanuel Bach, +whose works I understand and have thoroughly studied. Emanuel +Bach himself once complimented me on this fact." When Haydn began +to make a name Bach hailed him with delight as a disciple, and +took occasion to send him word that, "he alone had thoroughly +comprehended his works and made a proper use of them." + +This is a sufficient answer to the absurd statement which has +been made, and is still sometimes repeated, that Bach was jealous +of the young composer and abused him to his friends. A writer in +the European Magazine for October 1784, says that Bach was +"amongst the number of professors who wrote against our rising +author." He mentions others as doing the same thing, and then +continues: "The only notice Haydn took of their scurrility and +abuse was to publish lessons written in imitation of the several +styles of his enemies, in which their peculiarities were so +closely copied and their extraneous passages (particularly those +of Bach of Hamburg) so inimitably burlesqued, that they all felt +the poignancy of his musical wit, confessed its truth, and were +silent." Further on we read that the sonatas of Ops. 13 and 14 +were "expressly composed in order to ridicule Bach of Hamburg." +All this is manifestly a pure invention. Many of the +peculiarities of Emanuel Bach's style are certainly to be found +in Haydn's works--notes wide apart, pause bars, surprise +modulations, etc., etc.--but if every young composer who adopts +the tricks of his model is to be charged with caricature, few can +hope to escape. The truth is, of course, that every man's style, +whether in music or in writing, is a "mingled yarn" of many +strands, and it serves no good purpose to unravel it, even if we +could. + +Violin Studies + +Haydn's chief instrument was the clavier, but in addition to that +he diligently practiced the violin. It was at this date that he +took lessons on the latter instrument from "a celebrated +virtuoso." The name is not mentioned, but the general opinion is +that Dittersdorf was the instructor. This eminent musician +obtained a situation as violinist in the Court Orchestra at +Vienna in 1760; and, curiously enough, after many years of +professional activity, succeeded Haydn's brother, Michael, as +Capellmeister to the Bishop of Groswardein in Hungary. He wrote +an incredible amount of music, and his opera, "Doctor and +Apotheker," by which he eclipsed Mozart at one time, has survived +up to the present. Whether or not he gave Haydn lessons on the +violin, it is certain that the pair became intimate friends, and +had many happy days and some practical jokes together. One story +connected with their names sounds apocryphal, but there is no +harm in quoting it. Haydn and Dittersdorf were strolling down a +back street when they heard a fiddler scraping away in a little +beer cellar. Haydn, entering, inquired, "Whose minuet is that you +are playing?" "Haydn's," answered the fiddler. "It's a--bad +minuet," replied Haydn, whereupon the enraged player turned upon +him and would have broken his head with the fiddle had not +Dittersdorf dragged him away. + +Attempts at Programme Music + +It seems to have been about this time--the date, in fact, was +1751--that Haydn, still pursuing his serenading practices, +directed a performance of a quintet of his own composition under +the windows of Felix Kurz, a well-known Viennese comedian and +theatrical manager. According to an old writer, Kurz amused the +public by his puns, and drew crowds to his theatre by his +originality and by good opera-buffas. He had, moreover, a handsome +wife, and "this was an additional reason for our nocturnal +adventurers to go and perform their serenades under the +harlequin's windows." The comedian was naturally flattered by +Haydn's attention. He heard the music, and, liking it, called the +composer into the house to show his skill on the clavier. Kurz +appears to have been an admirer of what we would call "programme" +music. At all events he demanded that Haydn should give him a +musical representation of a storm at sea. Unfortunately, Haydn +had never set eyes on the "mighty monster," and was hard put to +it to describe what he knew nothing about. He made several +attempts to satisfy Kurz, but without success. At last, out of +all patience, he extended his hands to the two ends of the +harpsichord, and, bringing them rapidly together, exclaimed, as +he rose from the instrument, "The devil take the tempest." +"That's it! That's it!" cried the harlequin, springing upon his +neck and almost suffocating him. Haydn used to say that when he +crossed the Straits of Dover in bad weather, many years +afterwards, he often smiled to himself as he thought of the +juvenile trick which so delighted the Viennese comedian. + +His First Opera + +But the comedian wanted more from Haydn than a tempest on the +keyboard. He had written the libretto of an opera, "Der Neue +Krumme Teufel," and desired that Haydn should set it to music. +The chance was too good to be thrown away, and Haydn proceeded to +execute the commission with alacrity, not a little stimulated, +doubtless, by the promise of 24 ducats for the work. There is a +playfulness and buoyancy about much of Haydn's music which seems +to suggest that he might have succeeded admirably in comic opera, +and it is really to be regretted that while the words of "Der +Neue Krumme Teufel" have been preserved, the music has been lost. +It would have been interesting to see what the young composer +had made of a subject which--from Le Sage's "Le Diable Boiteux" +onwards--has engaged the attention of so many playwrights and +musicians. The opera was produced at the Stadt Theatre in the +spring of 1752, and was frequently repeated not only in Vienna, +but in Berlin, Prague, Saxony and the Breisgau. + +An Aristocratic Appointment + +An event of this kind must have done something for Haydn's +reputation, which was now rapidly extending. Porpora seems also +to have been of no small service to him in the way of introducing +him to aristocratic acquaintances. At any rate, in 1755, a +wealthy musical amateur, the Baron von Furnberg, who frequently +gave concerts at his country house at Weinzierl, near Vienna, +invited him to take the direction of these performances and +compose for their programmes. It was for this nobleman that he +wrote his first string quartet, the one in B flat beginning-- + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +This composition was rapidly followed by seventeen other works +of the same class, all written between 1755 and 1756. + +Taken for an Impostor + +Haydn's connection with Furnberg and the success of his +compositions for that nobleman at once gave him a distinction +among the musicians and dilettanti of Vienna. He now felt +justified in increasing his fees, and charged from 2 to 5 florins +for a month's lessons. Remembering the legend of his unboylike +fastidiousness, and the undoubted nattiness of his later years, +it is curious to come upon an incident of directly opposite +tendency. A certain Countess von Thun, whose name is associated +with Beethoven, Mozart and Gluck, met with one of his clavier +sonatas in manuscript, and expressed a desire to see him. When +Haydn presented himself, the countess was so struck by his shabby +appearance and uncouth manners that it occurred to her he must be +an impostor! But Haydn soon removed her doubts by the pathetic +and realistic account which he gave of his lowly origin and his +struggles with poverty, and the countess ended by becoming his +pupil and one of his warmest friends. + +A Count's Capellmeister + +Haydn is said to have held for a time the post of organist to the +Count Haugwitz; but his first authenticated fixed engagement +dates from 1759, when, through the influence of Baron Furnberg, +he was appointed Capellmeister to the Bohemian Count Morzin. This +nobleman, whose country house was at Lukavec, near Pilsen, was a +great lover of music, and maintained a small, well-chosen +orchestra of some sixteen or eighteen performers. It was for him +that Haydn wrote his first Symphony in D-- + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] + +Falls in Love + +We now approach an interesting event in Haydn's career. In the +course of some banter at the house of Rogers, Campbell the poet +once remarked that marriage in nine cases out of ten looks like +madness. Haydn's case was not the tenth. His salary from Count +Morzin was only 20 pounds with board and lodging; he was not +making anything substantial by his compositions; and his teaching +could not have brought him a large return. Yet, with the +proverbial rashness of his class, he must needs take a wife, and +that, too, in spite, of the fact that Count Morzin never kept a +married man in his service! "To my mind," said Mozart, "a +bachelor lives only half a life." It is true enough; but Mozart +had little reason to bless the "better half," while Haydn had +less. The lady with whom he originally proposed to brave the +future was one of his own pupils--the younger of the two +daughters of Barber Keller, to whom he had been introduced when +he was a chorister at St Stephen's. According to Dies, Haydn had +lodged with the Kellers at one time. The statement is doubtful, +but in any case his good stars were not in the ascendant when it +was ordained that he should marry into this family. + +Marries + +It was, as we have said, with the younger of the two daughters +that he fell in love. Unfortunately, for some unexplained reason, +she took the veil, and said good-bye to a wicked world. Like the +hero in "Locksley Hall," Haydn may have asked himself, "What is +that which I should do?" But Keller soon solved the problem for +him. "Barbers are not the most diffident people of the world," as +one of the race remarks in "Gil Blas," and Keller was assuredly +not diffident. "Never mind," he said to Haydn, "you shall have +the other." Haydn very likely did not want the other, but, +recognizing with Dr Holmes's fashionable lady that "getting +married is like jumping overboard anyway you look at it," he +resolved to risk it and take Anna Maria Keller for better or +worse. + +His Wife + +The marriage was solemnized at St Stephen's on November 26, 1760, +when the bridegroom was twenty-nine and the bride thirty-two. +There does not seem to have been much affection on either side to +start with; but Haydn declared that he had really begun to "like" +his wife, and would have come to entertain a stronger feeling for +her if she had behaved in a reasonable way. It was, however, not +in Anna Maria's nature to behave in a reasonable way. The +diverting Marville says that the majority of women married to men +of genius are so vain of the abilities of their husbands that +they are frequently insufferable. Frau Haydn was not a woman of +that kind. As Haydn himself sadly remarked, it did not matter to +her whether he were a cobbler or an artist. She used his +manuscript scores for curling papers and underlays for the +pastry, and wrote to him when he was in England for money to buy +a "widow's home." He was even driven to pitifully undignified +expedients to protect his hard-earned cash from her extravagant +hands. + +There are not many details of Anna Maria's behaviour, for Haydn +was discreetly reticent about his domestic affairs; and only two +references can be found in all his published correspondence to +the woman who had rendered his life miserable. But these +anecdotes tell us enough. For a long time he tried making the +best of it; but making the best of it is a poor affair when it +comes to a man and woman living together, and the day arrived +when the composer realized that to live entirely apart was the +only way of ending a union that had proved anything but a +foretaste of heaven. Frau Haydn looked to spend her last years in +a "widow's home" provided for her by the generosity of her +husband, but she predeceased him by nine years, dying at Baden, +near Vienna, on the 20th of March 1800. With this simple +statement of facts we may finally dismiss a matter that is best +left to silence--to where "beyond these voices there is peace." + +Whether Count Morzin would have retained the services of Haydn in +spite of his marriage is uncertain. The question was not put to +the test, for the count fell into financial embarrassments and +had to discharge his musical establishment. A short time before +this, Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy had heard some of Haydn's +compositions when on a visit to Morzin, and, being favourably +impressed thereby, he resolved to engage Haydn should an +opportunity ever present itself. The opportunity had come, and +Haydn entered the service of a family who were practically his +life-long patrons, and with whom his name must always be +intimately associated. + +CHAPTER III + +EISENSTADT--1761-1766 + +The Esterhazy Family--Haydn's Agreement--An "Upper Servant"?-- +Dependence in the Order of Nature--Material and Artistic +Advantages of the Esterhazy Appointment--Some Disadvantages-- +Capellmeister Werner--A Posthumous Tribute--Esterhazy "The +Magnificent"--Compositions for Baryton--A Reproval--Operettas and +other Occasional Works--First Symphonies. + +The Esterhazy Family + +As Haydn served the Esterhazys uninterruptedly for the long +period of thirty years, a word or two about this distinguished +family will not be out of place. At the present time the +Esterhazy estates include twenty-nine lordships, with twenty-one +castles, sixty market towns, and 414 villages in Hungary, besides +lordships in Lower Austria and a county in Bavaria. This alone +will give some idea of the power and importance of the house to +which Haydn was attached. The family was divided into three main +branches, but it is with the Frakno or Forchtenstein line that we +are more immediately concerned. Count Paul Esterhazy of Frakno +(1635-1713) served in the Austrian army with such distinction as +to gain a field-marshal's baton at the age of thirty. He was the +first prince of the name, having been ennobled in 1687 for his +successes against the Turks and his support of the House of +Hapsburg. He was a musical amateur and a performer of some +ability, and it was to him that the family owed the existence of +the Esterhazy private chapel, with its solo singers, its chorus, +and its orchestra. Indeed, it was this prince who, in 1683, built +the splendid Palace of Eisenstadt, at the foot of the Leitha +mountains, in Hungary, where Haydn was to spend so many and such +momentous years. + +When Prince Paul died in 1713, he was succeeded by his son, +Joseph Anton, who acquired "enormous wealth," and raised the +Esterhazy family to "the height of its glory." This nobleman's +son, Paul Anton, was the reigning prince when Haydn was called to +Eisenstadt in 1761. He was a man of fifty, and had already a +brilliant career behind him. Twice in the course of the Seven +Years' War he had "equipped and maintained during a whole +campaign a complete regiment of hussars for the service of his +royal mistress," and, like his distinguished ancestor, he had +been elevated to the dignity of field-marshal. He was +passionately devoted to the fine arts, more particularly to +music, and played the violin with eminent skill. Under his reign +the musical establishment at Eisenstadt enjoyed a prosperity +unknown at any other period of its history. + +Haydn's Agreement + +As there will be something to say about the terms and nature of +Haydn's engagement with Prince Paul Anton, it may be well to +quote the text of the agreement which he was required to sign. It +was in these terms: + +FORM OF AGREEMENT +AND +INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE VICE-CAPELLMEISTER + +"This day (according to the date hereto appended) Joseph Heyden +[sic] native of Rohrau, in Austria, is accepted and appointed +Vice-Capellmeister in the service of his Serene Highness, Paul +Anton, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, of Esterhazy and +Galantha, etc., etc., with the conditions here following: + +"1st. Seeing that the Capellmeister at Eisenstadt, by name +Gregorius Werner, having devoted many years of true and faithful +service to the princely house, is now, on account of his great +age and infirmities, unfit to perform the duties incumbent on +him, therefore the said Gregorious Werner, in consideration of +his long services, shall retain the post of Capellmeister, and +the said Joseph Heyden as Vice-Capellmeister shall, as far as +regards the music of the choir, be subordinate to the +Capellmeister and receive his instructions. But in everything +else relating to musical performances, and in all that concerns +the orchestra, the Vice-Capellmeister shall have the sole +direction. + +"2nd. The said Joseph Heyden shall be considered and treated as a +member of the household. Therefore his Serene Highness is +graciously pleased to place confidence in his conducting himself +as becomes an honourable official of a princely house. He must be +temperate, not showing himself overbearing towards his musicians, +but mild and lenient, straightforward and composed. It is +especially to be observed that when the orchestra shall be +summoned to perform before company, the Vice-Capellmeister and +all the musicians shall appear in uniform, and the said Joseph +Heyden shall take care that he and all members of his orchestra +do follow the instructions given, and appear in white stockings, +white linen, powdered, and either with a pig-tail or a tie-wig. + +"3rd. Seeing that the other musicians are referred for directions +to the said Vice-Capellmeister, therefore he should take the more +care to conduct himself in an exemplary manner, abstaining from +undue familiarity, and from vulgarity in eating, drinking and +conversation, not dispensing with the respect due to him, but +acting uprightly and influencing his subordinates to preserve +such harmony as is becoming in them, remembering how displeasing +the consequences of any discord or dispute would be to his Serene +Highness. + +"4th. The said Vice-Capellmeister shall be under an obligation to +compose such music as his Serene Highness may command, and +neither to communicate such compositions to any other person, nor +to allow them to be copied, but to retain them for the absolute +use of his Highness, and not to compose anything for any other +person without the knowledge and permission of his Highness. + +"5th. The said Joseph Heyden shall appear in the ante-chamber +daily, before and after mid-day, and inquire whether his Highness +is pleased to order a performance of the orchestra. After receipt +of his orders be shall communicate them to the other musicians +and shall take care to be punctual at the appointed time, and to +ensure punctuality in his subordinates, making a note of those +who arrive late or absent themselves altogether. + +"6th. Should any quarrel or cause of complaint arise, the +Vice-Capellmeister shall endeavour to arrange it, in order that +his Serene Highness may not be incommoded with trifling disputes; +but should any more serious difficulty occur, which the said +Joseph Heyden is unable to set right, his Serene Highness must +then be respectfully called upon to decide the matter. + +"7th. The said Vice-Capellmeister shall take careful charge of +all music and musical instruments, and shall be responsible for +any injury that may occur to them from carelessness or neglect. + +"8th. The said Joseph Heyden shall be obliged to instruct the +female vocalists, in order that they may not forget in the +country what they had been taught with much trouble and expense +in Vienna, and, as the said Vice-Capellmeister is proficient on +various instruments, he shall take care to practice himself on +all that he is acquainted with. + +"9th. A copy of this agreement and instructions shall be given to +the said Vice-Capellmeister and to his subordinates, in order +that he may be able to hold them to their obligations therein +laid down. + +"10th. It is considered unnecessary to detail the services required +of the said Joseph Heyden more particularly, since his Serene +Highness is pleased to hope that he will of his own free will +strictly observe not only these regulations, but all others that may +from time to time be made by his Highness, and that he will place +the orchestra on such a footing, and in such good order, that he +may bring honour upon himself, and deserve the further favour of the +Prince, his master, who thus confides in his zeal and discretion. + +"11th. A salary of four hundred florins to be received quarterly +is hereby bestowed upon the said Vice-Capellmeister by his Serene +Highness. + +"12th. In addition, the said Joseph Heyden shall have board at +the officers' table, or half a gulden a day in lieu thereof. + +"13th. Finally, this agreement shall hold good for at least three +years from May 1st, 1761, with the further condition that if at +the conclusion of this term the said Joseph Heyden shall desire +to leave the service, he shall notify his intention to his +Highness half-a-year beforehand. + +"14th. His Serene Highness undertakes to keep Joseph Heyden in +his service during this time, and should he be satisfied with +him, he may look forward to being appointed Capellmeister. This, +however, must not be understood to deprive his Serene Highness of +the freedom to dismiss the said Joseph Heyden at the expiration +of the term, should he see fit to do so. + +"Duplicate copies of this document shall be executed and +exchanged. + +"Given at Vienna this 1st day of May 1761, + +"Ad mandatum Celsissimi Principis. + +"JOHANN STIFFTELL, Secretary." + + +An "Upper Servant"? + +The situation indicated by this lengthy document has afforded +matter for a good deal of comment, and not a little foolish +writing. With some it is the old case of Porpora and the blacking +of the boots. Thus Miss Townsend remarks: "Our indignation is +roused at finding a great artist placed in the position of an +upper servant, and required to perform duties almost menial in their +nature." That is essentially a modern view. These things have to be +judged in relation to the ideas of the age. It was only a few years +before this that Johnson had contemptuously thrown away a pair of +boots which some pitying soul had placed at the door of his rooms +at Pembroke. The British mind likes to think of the sturdy +independence of the man who struck the death-blow at patronage in +literature. But Johnson himself had the meanest opinion of fiddlers. + +Dependence in the Order of Nature + +There was no talk in Haydn's native country of the dignity of +art, at any rate so far as musicians were concerned. When Mozart +first arrived in Vienna in 1781, he had to live with the +archbishop's household, and dine at the servants' table. Nay, he +was known as "the villain, the low fellow." And is it altogether +certain even now, in free Britain, that the parish organist +is very clearly distinguished in the squire's mind from the +peripatetic organ-grinder? Public opinion does not seem to have +commiserated Haydn on his position of dependence; and, as for +Haydn himself, he was no doubt only too glad to have an assured +income and a comfortable home. We may be certain that he did not +find the yoke unbearably galling. He was of humble birth; of a +family which must always have looked up to their "betters" as +unspeakably and immeasurably above them. Dependence was in the +order of nature, and a man of Haydn's good sense was the last in +the world to starve and fret because his freedom to practice his +art and develop his powers was complicated with a sort of feudal +service. Some strong souls may find an empty purse the truest +source of inspiration, as Mr Russell Lowell declares it to be; +but it is very much to be doubted whether a careful investigation +would show that a great man's best work was done with the wolf +at the door. + +Material Advantages + +Haydn had no self-pity: why should we pity him? He had free +quarters at the palace, with liberty to enjoy the company of his +wife when she chose to favour him--an event of rare occurrence. +His salary was raised from time to time. The old prince, his +first employer, paid him 400 florins; his successor increased the +amount first to 600 and then to 782 florins (78 pounds); and +finally he had 1400 florins, which last sum was continued to him +as a pension when he left the Esterhazy service. Although money +had a much higher purchasing value in those days, the figures +here quoted do not seem princely when we consider the extent and +nature of Haydn's duties, but to a man of Haydn's simple tastes +they would appear ample enough. At least, they would save him +from lying on straw and drinking bad whisky, which Wagner +regarded as among the things that are inimical to the creative +genius. + +Artistic Advantages + +These were the material advantages of the Eisenstadt appointment. +The artistic advantages were even more important, especially to a +young and inexperienced artist who, so far, had not enjoyed many +opportunities of practically testing his own work. Haydn had a +very good band always at his disposal, the members of which were +devoted to him. If he wrote part of a symphony over-night he +could try it in the morning, prune, revise, accept, reject. Many +a young composer of to-day would rejoice at such an opportunity, +as indeed Haydn himself rejoiced at it. "I not only had the +encouragement of constant approval," he says, speaking of this +period of his career, "but as conductor of an orchestra I could +make experiments, observe what produced an effect and what +weakened it, and was thus in a position to improve, alter, make +additions and omissions, and be as bold as I pleased." + +Some Disadvantages + +No doubt there were some disadvantages in counterpoise. After the +gay life of Vienna, Eisenstadt must have been dull enough, and +there is plenty of evidence to show that the young artist +occasionally fell into the dumps. In one letter he complains that +he "never can obtain leave, even for four-and-twenty hours, to go +to Vienna." In another he writes: "I am doomed to stay at home. +What I lose by so doing you can well imagine. It is indeed sad +always to be a slave, but Providence wills it so. I am a poor +creature, plagued perpetually by hard work, and with few hours +for recreation." Haydn clearly recognized the necessities of the +artist. A quiet life is all very well, but no man ever yet +greatly touched the hearts of men if he kept himself too strictly +segregated from his kind. Music, like every other art, would +perish in a hot-house. Reckon up to-day the composers who are +really a force in the emotional life of the people, and ask which +of them was reared in the serene, cold air of the academies. A +composer to be great must live with his fellows, and open his +soul to human affluences. "I was cut off from the world," says +Haydn. "There was no one to confuse or torment me, and I was +forced to become original." But his originality was that of an +active mind working upon material already stored, and the store +had to be replenished in occasional excursions, all too few, from +the palace. + +The Eisenstadt appointment, then, provided for Haydn's material +wants, and gave him opportunities for the peaceful pursuit of his +studies, for experiment and self-criticism. He was treated with +great consideration by the Esterhazys, and, menial or not, he +lived on their bounty and in the friendliest relations with them. + +Capellmeister Werner + +From his agreement with Prince Esterhazy it will have been +gathered that, though virtually entrusted with the direction of +the Eisenstadt musical establishment, Haydn was really under the +control of an old official. Such arrangements seldom work well. +The retention of Joseph Werner was presumably due to the +thoughtful kindness of his noble patron, but it was bound to +lead to awkward situations. Werner had served the Esterhazys for +thirty-two years, and could not be expected to placidly accept +his supersession by a young and as yet almost unknown musician. +True, he was not a very distinguished man himself. He had +composed a large amount of music, chiefly sacred, including +thirty-nine masses and twelve "Oratorios for Good Friday," +besides some grotesque pieces intended as burlesques of the +musical life of Vienna. Not one of his works has any real musical +value; but, as is usually the case with the talent which stops +short of genius, he thought a great deal of himself, and was +inclined to look down upon Haydn as an interloper, unskilled +in that rigid counterpoint which was the "heaven's law" of +the old-time composer. Indeed, he described his associate as +"a mere fop" and "a scribbler of songs." + +A Posthumous Tribute + +It is but fair to Haydn to say that, if he did not suffer his +nominal superior gladly, he at least treated him with respect and +a certain deference. He did more. Werner died in 1766, having +thus seen only five years of the new order of things, but Haydn's +regard for his memory was such that, so late as 1804, he +published six of his fugues arranged as string quartets, "out of +sincere esteem for this celebrated master." A kindness of heart +and a total absence of professional jealousy characterized Haydn +throughout his whole career, and never more than in this action. + +Esterhazy "the Magnificent" + +The composer had been rather less than a twelvemonth in his +service when Prince Paul Anton died on the 18th of March 1762. He +was succeeded by his brother Nicolaus, a sort of glorified "Grand +Duke" of Chandos, who rejoiced in the soubriquet of "The +Magnificent." He loved ostentation and glitter above all things, +wearing at times a uniform bedecked with diamonds. But he loved +music as well. More, he was a performer himself, and played the +baryton, a stringed instrument not unlike the viola-da-gamba, in +general use up to the end of the eighteenth century. Haydn +naturally desired to please his prince, and being perpetually +pestered to provide new works for the noble baryton player, he +thought it would flatter him if he himself learnt to handle the +baryton. This proved an unfortunate misreading of "The +Magnificent's" character, for when Haydn at length made his debut +with the instrument, the prince lost no time in letting him +understand that he disapproved of such rivalry. An amusing story +is told of Kraft, the Eisenstadt 'cellist, at this time, who +occasionally played the second baryton. Kraft presented the +prince with a composition into which he had introduced a solo for +himself as second baryton. The prince asked to see the part, and +proceeded to try it over. Coming to a difficult passage, he +exclaimed indignantly: "For the future, write solos only for my +part; it is no credit to you to play better than I; it is your +duty." + +Compositions for Baryton + +Haydn, so far as we can make out, never essayed the baryton +again, but he wrote a surprising amount of music for it, +considering its complicated mechanism and the weakness of its +tone. In the catalogue of his works there are no fewer than 175 +compositions for the instrument--namely, six duets for two +barytons, twelve sonatas for baryton and violoncello, twelve +divertimenti for two barytons and bass, and 125 divertimenti for +baryton, viola and violoncello; seventeen so-called "cassations"; +and three concertos for baryton, with accompaniment of two +violins and bass. There is no need to say anything about these +compositions, inasmuch as they have gone to oblivion with the +instrument which called them into being. At the best they can +never have been of much artistic importance. + +A Reproval + +A new epoch began at Eisenstadt with the rule of Prince Nicolaus. +He was a man of unbounded energy himself, and he expected +everybody in his service to be energetic too. There is nothing to +suggest that Haydn neglected any of his routine duties, which +certainly gave him abundant opportunity to "break the legs of +time," but once, at least--in 1765--his employer taxed him with +lack of diligence in composition, as well as for failing to +maintain the necessary discipline among the musicians under his +charge. It is likely enough that Haydn was not a rigid +disciplinarian; but it must have been a mere whim on the part of +Prince Nicolaus to reprove him on the score of laziness in +composing. In any case, it seems to have been only a solitary +reproof. There is no evidence of its having been repeated, and we +may assume that even now it was not regarded as a very serious +matter, from the fact that three weeks after the prince was +requesting his steward to pay Haydn 12 ducats for three new +pieces, with which he was "very much pleased." + +Operettas + +Life at Eisenstadt moved on in "calm peace and quiet," but now +and again it was stirred into special activity, when Haydn had to +put forth his efforts in various new directions. Such an occasion +came very early in his service of Prince Nicolaus, when that +pompous person made triumphant entry into Eisenstadt. The +festivities were on a regal scale and continued for a whole +month. A company of foreign players had been engaged to perform +on a stage erected in the large conservatory, and Haydn was +required to provide them with operettas. He wrote several works +of the kind, one of which, "La Marchesa Nepola," survives in the +autograph score. Later on, for the marriage of Count Anton, the +eldest son of Prince Nicolaus, in 1763, he provided a setting of +the story which Handel had already used for his "Acis and +Galatea." This work, which was performed by the Eisenstadt +Capelle, with the orchestra clad in a new uniform of crimson and +gold, bore the name of "Acide e Galatea." Portions of the score +still exist--a section of the overture, four arias, and a finale +quartet. The overture is described as being "in his own style, +fresh and cheerful, foreshadowing his symphonies. The songs are +in the Italian manner, very inferior in originality and +expression to Handel's music; the quartet is crude in form and +uninteresting in substance." [See Miss Townsend's Haydn, p. 44.] + +It would seem rather ungracious, as it would certainly be +redundant to discuss these "occasional" works in detail. For one +thing, the material necessary to enable us to form a correct +estimate of Haydn's powers as a dramatic composer is wanting. The +original autograph of "Armida," first performed in 1783, is, +indeed, preserved. "Orfeo ed Euridice," written for the King's +Theatre in the Haymarket in 1791, but never staged, was printed +at Leipzig in 1806, and a fair idea of the general style of the +work may be obtained from the beautiful air, "Il pensier sta +negli oggetti," included in a collection entitled "Gemme +d'Antichita." But beyond these and the fragments previously +mentioned, there is little left to represent Haydn as a composer +of opera, the scores of most of the works written expressly for +Prince Esterhazy having been destroyed when the prince's private +theatre was burned down in 1779. What Haydn would have done for +opera if he had devoted his serious attention to it at any of the +larger theatres it is, of course, impossible to say. Judging from +what has survived of his work in this department, he was notable +for refinement rather than for dramatic power. We must, however, +remember the conditions under which he worked. He confessed +himself that his operas were fitted only for the small stage at +Esterhaz and "could never produce the proper effect elsewhere." +If he had written with a large stage in view, it may reasonably +be assumed that he would have written somewhat differently. + +Occasional Works + +In 1764 Prince Nicolaus made a journey to Frankfort for the +coronation of the Archduke Joseph as King of the Romans. After +the festivities connected with that imposing function were over +he extended his journey to Paris, where he created some sensation +by his extravagant displays of wealth and circumstance. During +the Prince's absence Haydn busied himself on a couple of +compositions intended to celebrate his home-coming. One was a Te +Deum, the other a cantata. The latter work is the more worthy of +remark, not because of its music, but because of the fulsomely +obsequious manner in which it celebrates the graces and virtues +of Nicolaus the Magnificent. The cantata is made up of choruses +and duets, a recitative and two arias. Parts of it were +afterwards employed in church services. The Te Deum is in C +major, and is for four voices with orchestra. It is interesting +as an early work, especially if we compare it with the greater Te +Deum in the same key composed in the year 1800. + +First Symphonies + +At this point a summary may perhaps be made of the compositions +written by Haydn during these five years a Eisenstadt. The list, +as given by Pohl, comprises, in addition to the works already +named, about thirty symphonies six string trios, a few +divertimenti in five parts, a piece for four violins and two +'celli, entitled "Echo," twelve minuets for orchestra, concertos, +trios, sonatas and variations for clavier, and, in vocal music, a +"Salve Regina" for soprano and alto, two violins and organ. It +would serve no useful purpose to deal with these works in detail. +The symphonies are, of course, the most important feature in the +list, but of these we shall speak generally when treating of +Haydn as the father of instrumental music. The first Symphony in +C Major, usually called "Le Midi," is of special interest. + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] + +The autograph score, dated 1761, and preserved at Eisenstadt, +is superscribed, "In Nomine Domini," and closes with Haydn's +customary "Laus Deo" after the final signature The work is in +the usual four movements. The symphonies of this date included +also those known in England as "Le Matin" and "Le Soir," the +one beginning-- + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] and the other-- + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +Of the string quartets and other instrumental compositions of the +period nothing need be said. In all these the composer was simply +feeling his way towards a more perfect expression, and as few of +them are now performed, their interest for us is almost entirely +antiquarian. + +CHAPTER IV + +ESTERHAZ--1766-1790 + +Haydn's Fame extending--Haydn and Mozart compared--Esterhaz--Its +Puppet Theatre--A Busy Life--Opera at Esterhaz--First Oratorio-- +Opponents and Intriguers--"L'Isola Disabitata"--A Love Episode-- +Correspondence with Artaria and Forster--Royal Dedicatees-- +The "Seven Words"--The "Toy" and "Farewell" Symphonies. + +To crowd the details of a professional career covering close upon +a quarter of a century into a single chapter would, in the case +of most of the great composers, be an altogether impossible task. +In Haydn's case the difficulty is to find the material for even +so slight a record. His life went on smoothly, almost sleepily, +as we should now think, in the service of his prince, without +personal incident and with next to no disturbance from the +outside world. If he had not been a genius of the first rank the +outside world would, in all probability, never have heard of his +existence. + +Haydn's Fame extending + +As it was, his fame was now manifestly spreading. Thus the +Wiener Diarum for 1766 includes him among the most distinguished +musicians of Vienna, and describes him as "the darling of our +nation." His amiable disposition, says the panegyrist, "speaks +through every one of his works. His music has beauty, purity, +and a delicate and noble simplicity which commends it to every +hearer. His cassations, quartets and trios may be compared to a +pure, clear stream of water, the surface now rippled by a gentle +breeze from the south, and anon breaking into agitated billows, +but without ever leaving its proper channel and appointed course. +His symphonies are full of force and delicate sympathy. In his +cantatas he shows himself at once captivating and caressing, and +in his minuets he is delightful and full of humour. In short, +Haydn is in music what Gellert is in poetry." This comparison +with Gellert, who died three years later, was at that date, as +Dr Pohl remarks, the most flattering that could well be made. +The simplicity and naturalness of Gellert's style were the very +antithesis of the pedantries and frigid formalities of the older +school; and just as he pioneered the way for the resuscitation of +German poetry under Goethe and Schiller, so Haydn may be said to +have prepared the path for Beethoven and the modern school. + +Haydn and Mozart compared + +Very likely it was this comparison of the magazine writer that +suggested Dittersdorf's remark to Joseph II in 1786, when the +emperor requested him to draw an analogy between Haydn's and +Mozart's chamber music. Dittersdorf shrewdly replied by asking +the emperor in his turn to draw a parallel between Gellert and +Klopstock; whereupon Joseph made answer by saying that both were +great poets, but that Klopstock's works required attentive study, +while Gellert's beauties were open to the first glance. The analogy, +Dittersdorf tells us, "pleased the emperor very much." Its point is, +however, not very clear--that is to say, it is not very clear +whether the emperor meant to compare Klopstock with Haydn and +Gellert with Mozart or vice versa, and whether, again, he regarded +it as more of a merit that the poet and the composer should require +study or be "open to the first glance." Joseph was certainly +friendly towards Mozart, but by all accounts he had no great love +for Haydn, to whose "tricks and nonsense" he made frequent sneering +reference. + +The first noteworthy event of 1766 was the death of Werner, which +took place on March 5. It made no real difference to Haydn, who, +as we have seen, had been from the first, in effect, if not in +name, chief of the musical establishment; but it at least freed +him from sundry petty annoyances, and left him absolutely master +of the musical situation. Shortly after Werner's death, the +entire musical establishment at Eisenstadt was removed to the +prince's new palace of Esterhaz, with which Haydn was now to be +connected for practically the whole of his remaining professional +career. + +Esterhaz + +A great deal has been written about Esterhaz, but it is not +necessary that we should occupy much space with a description of +the castle and its surroundings. The palace probably owed its +inception to the prince's visit to Paris in 1764. At any rate, it +is in the French Renaissance style, and there is some +significance in the fact that a French traveller who saw it about +1782 described it as having no place but Versailles to compare +with it for magnificence. The situation--about three and a half +miles from Eisenstadt--was anything but suitable for an erection +of the kind, being in an unhealthy marsh and "quite out of the +world." But Prince Nicolaus had set his heart upon the scheme, as +Scott set his heart upon Abbotsford; and just as "Clarty Hole" +came in time to be "parked about and gated grandly," so Esterhaz, +after something like 11,000,000 gulden had been spent upon it, +emerged a veritable Versailles, with groves and grottoes, +hermitages and temples, summer-houses and hot-houses, and deer +parks and flower gardens. There were two theatres in the grounds: +one for operas and dramatic performances generally; the other +"brilliantly ornamented and furnished with large artistic +marionettes, excellent scenery and appliances." + +A Puppet Theatre + +It is upon the entertainments connected with the latter house +that the French traveller just mentioned chiefly dwells. "The +prince," he says, "has a puppet theatre which is certainly unique +in character. Here the grandest operas are produced. One knows +not whether to be amazed or to laugh at seeing 'Alceste,' +'Alcides,' etc., put on the stage with all due solemnity, and +played by puppets. His orchestra is one of the best I ever heard, +and the great Haydn is his court and theatre composer. He employs +a poet for his singular theatre, whose humour and skill in +suiting the grandest subjects for the stage, and in parodying the +gravest effects, are often exceedingly happy. He often engages a +troupe of wandering players for a month at a time, and he himself +and his retinue form the entire audience. They are allowed to +come on the stage uncombed, drunk, their parts not half learned, +and half-dressed. The prince is not for the serious and tragic, +and he enjoys it when the players, like Sancho Panza, give loose +reins to their humour." + +Prince Nicolaus became so much attached to this superb creation +of his own, that he seldom cared to leave it. A small portion of +the Capelle remained at Eisenstadt to carry on the church service +there, but the prince seldom went to Eisenstadt, and more seldom +still to Vienna. Most of the Hungarian grandees liked nothing +better than to display their wealth in the Imperial city during +the winter season; but to Haydn's employer there was literally +"no place like home." When he did go to Vienna, he would often +cut short his visits in the most abrupt manner, to the great +confusion of his musicians and other dependants. These +eccentricities must have given some annoyance to Haydn, who, +notwithstanding his love of quiet and seclusion, often longed for +the change and variety of city life. It is said that he was +specially anxious to make a tour in Italy about this time, but +that ambition had, of necessity, to be abandoned. + +A Busy Life + +There was certainly plenty for him to do at Esterhaz--more than +he had ever been required to do at Eisenstadt. Royalties, nobles +and aristocrats were constantly at the palace; and music was one +of the chief diversions provided for them. The prince was very +proud of his musical establishment, and desired to have it +considered the best of its kind in Europe. The orchestra of the +opera was formed of members of the Capelle; "the singers were +Italian for the most part, engaged for one, two, or more years, +and the books of the words were printed. Numerous strolling +companies were engaged for shorter terms; travelling virtuosi +often played with the members of the band. Special days and hours +were fixed for chamber music, and for orchestral works; and in +the interval the singers, musicians and actors met at the cafe, +and formed, so to speak, one family." Something more than +creative genius was obviously required to direct the music of an +establishment of this kind. A talent for organization, an eye for +detail, tact in the management of players and singers--these +qualities were all indispensable for the performance of duties +such as Haydn had undertaken. That he possessed them we may +fairly assume from more than one circumstance. In the first +place, his employer was satisfied with him. He raised his salary, +listened attentively to all his suggestions, and did everything +that he could to retain his services. In the second place, his +band and singers were sincerely attached to him. They saw that he +had their interests, personal and professional, at heart, and +they "loved him like a father." The prince paid them well, and +several of them were sufficiently capable to receive appointments +afterwards in the Imperial Chapel. Pohl gives a list of the names +about this time, but, with one or two exceptions, they are quite +unfamiliar. J. B. Krumpholtz, the harpist, was engaged from 1773 +to 1776, and Andreas Lidl, who played in London soon after +leaving the band, was in the service of the prince from 1769 to +1774. + +The sum paid to Haydn at this date was not large as we should now +consider it, but it was sufficient to free him from financial +worry had it not been for the extravagance and bad management of +his wife. The prince gave him about 78 pounds, in addition +to which he had certain allowances in kind, and, as we have +already said, free quarters for himself and his wife when +she thought fit to stay with him. Probably, too, he was now +making something substantial by his compositions. Griesinger +declares that he had saved about 200 pounds before 1790, +the year when he started for London. If that be true, he must +have been very economical. His wife, we must remember, was making +constant calls upon him for money, and in addition he had to meet +the pressing demands of various poor relations. His +correspondence certainly does not tend to show that he was +saving, and we know that when he set out for London he had not +only to draw upon the generosity of his prince for the costs of +the journey, but had to sell his house to provide for his wife +until his return. + +Opera at Esterhaz + +It is time, however, to speak of some of Haydn's compositions +during this period. At Esterhaz he "wrote nearly all his operas, +most of his arias and songs, the music for the marionette +theatre--of which he was particularly fond--and the greater part +of his orchestral and chamber works." The dramatic works bulk +rather largely during the earlier part of the period. In 1769, +for example, when the whole musical establishment of Esterhaz +visited Vienna, a performance of his opera, "Lo Speciale," was +given at the house of Freiherr von Sommerau, and was repeated in +the form of a concert. Other works of the kind were performed at +intervals, particularly on festival occasions, but as most of +them have perished, and all of them are essentially pieces +d'occasion, it is unnecessary even to recall their names. In 1771 +Haydn wrote a "Stabat Mater" and a "Salve Regina," and in 1773 +followed the Symphony in C which bears the name of the Empress +Maria Theresa, having been written for the empress's visit to +Esterhaz in September of that year. In the course of the visit +Haydn was naturally introduced to Her Majesty, when, as we have +stated, he took occasion to remind her of the "good hiding" she +had ordered him to have at Schonbrunn during the old chorister +days at St Stephen's. "Well, you see, my dear Haydn," was the +reply, "the hiding has borne good fruit." + +First Oratorio + +In 1775 came his first oratorio, "Il Ritorno di Tobia." This is +an exceedingly interesting work. It was first performed under +Haydn's direction by the Tonkunstler Societat, with solo singers +from Esterbaz, at Vienna, on April 2, 1775. In 1784 Haydn added +two choruses, one a "Storm Chorus," which is sometimes confused +with the "Storm Chorus" (in the same key, but in triple time) +composed during his sojourn in London. It is from "Il Ritorno di +Tobia" that the so-called motet, "Insanae et Vanae Curae," is +adapted, and the "Storm Chorus" immediately follows a fine +soprano air in F minor and major, sung by Anna in the original +work, a portion of which forms the beautiful second subject (in +F) of the "Insanae." The original words of this chorus--"Svanisce +in un momento"--are to the effect that the soul threatens to +yield to the fury of its enemies, yet trust in God keeps one +steadfast. The music admirably reflects these contrasting +sentiments, first in the tumultuous D minor section, and then in +the tranquillity of the F major portion which follows, no less +than in the trustful quietude of the D major conclusion. Latin +words were adapted to three of the original choruses, but nothing +seems to be known as to the origin of the "Insanae" adaptation. A +full score of the motet, published by Breitkopf & Hartel in 1809, +was reviewed in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung of August 15, +1810, as if it were an entirely original work. The source of the +Latin words also remains a mystery. They were presumably put +together to fit Haydn's music, but by whom we have no means of +ascertaining. + +It is interesting to know that Haydn brought the score of his "Il +Ritorno di Tobia" with him to England on the occasion of his +first visit in 1791, probably with a view to its performance +here. Messrs Novello's private library contains an oblong volume +in the handwriting of Vincent Novello, in which he has copied +some numbers from "Tobia," including the air of Anna already +mentioned, but not the "Insanae" chorus. The inside cover of the +book bears the following note in Novello's hand, written, not +later than 1820, under the contents of the volume: + +"The whole of the above are unpublished manuscripts, and were +copied from an extremely rare volume, containing the full +orchestral score of the entire oratorio, kindly lent to me for +the purpose by my friend, Mr Shield, who had obtained it from +Haydn himself during the visit of the latter to England in +the year 1791.--VINCENT NOVELLO, 240 Oxford St." + +[See an interesting account of "Il Ritorno di Tobia" in The +Musical Times for September 1901, p. 600.] + +Some of our musical societies in search of novelties might do +worse than revive this almost completely forgotten oratorio. +The airs are exceedingly melodious, and the choruses bold and +tuneful, with well-developed fugue subjects. The "Insanae" +already referred to is frequently performed. + +Opponents + +In 1776 Haydn composed "La Vera Costanza" for the Court Theatre +of Vienna, but owing to certain intrigues it was declined by the +management and produced at Esterhaz instead. The opera was +subsequently staged at Vienna in 1790, and six of its airs and a +duet were published by Artaria. This incident makes it +sufficiently plain that Haydn had his opponents among the +musicians and critics of Vienna as well as elsewhere. Burney says +a friend in Hamburg wrote him in 1772 that "the genius, fine +ideas and fancy of Haydn, Ditters and Filitz were praised, but +their mixture of serious and comic was disliked, particularly as +there is more of the latter than the former in their works; and +as for rules, they knew but little of them." If we substitute +"humorous" for "comic," this may be allowed to fully represent +the views of the critics and amateurs of Vienna in regard to +Haydn's music. + +And, unfortunately, the incident just mentioned was not a +solitary one. In 1778 Haydn applied for membership to the +Tonkunstler Societat, for whom he had in reality written his "Il +Ritorno di Tobia." One would have expected such a body to receive +him with open arms, but instead of that they exacted a sum of 300 +florins on the ground of his non-residence in Vienna! Not only +so, but they would fain have brought him under a promise to +compose for them whenever they chose to ask him. This latter +condition Haydn felt to be impossible in view of his engagement +at Esterhaz, and he withdrew his admission fee. That the society +were not ashamed of themselves is obvious from a further episode. +Some years after this they desired Haydn to rearrange his "Tobia" +for a special performance, and when he demanded payment for his +trouble they promptly decided to produce Hasse's "Elena" instead. +Everything comes to the man who waits. After his second visit to +London the Tonkunstler Societat welcomed Haydn at a special +meeting, and with one voice appointed him "Assessor Senior" for +life. In return for this distinction he presented the society +with "The Creation" and "The Seasons," to which gifts, according +to Pohl, its prosperity is mainly owing. + +"L'Isola Disabitata" + +If Haydn was thus less highly appreciated at home than he +deserved to be, there were others who knew his sterling worth. In +1779 he composed one of his best operas, "L'Isola Disabitata," +the libretto of which was by his old benefactor Metastasio, and +this work procured his nomination as a member of the Philharmonic +Society of Modena. The following extract of a letter written to +Artaria in May 1781 is interesting in this connection. He says: +"M. le Gros, director of the 'Concerts Spirituels' [in Paris], +wrote me a great many fine things about my Stabat Mater, which +had been given there four times with great applause; so this +gentleman asked permission to have it engraved. They made me an +offer to engrave all my future works on very advantageous terms, +and are much surprised that my compositions for the voice are so +singularly pleasing. I, however, am not in the least surprised, +for, as yet, they have heard nothing. If they could only hear my +operetta, 'L'Isola Disabitata,' and my last Shrove-tide opera, +'La Fedelta Premiata,' I do assure you that no such work has +hitherto been heard in Paris, nor, perhaps, in Vienna either. My +great misfortune is living in the country." It will be seen from +this what he thought of "L'Isola," which was not heard in Vienna +until its performance at a concert given at the Court Theatre by +Willmann the 'cellist in 1785. Haydn sent the score to the King +of Spain, who showed his sense of the honour by the gift of a +gold snuff-box, set in brilliants. Other marks of royal attention +were bestowed upon him about this time. Thus, in 1784, Prince +Henry of Prussia sent him a gold medal and his portrait in return +for the dedication of six new quartets, while in 1787 King +Frederick William II gave him the famous gold ring which he +afterwards always wore when composing. + +A Love Episode + +But we have passed somewhat out of our chronological order. The +absence of love at home, as we all know, often encourages love +abroad. Haydn liked to have an occasional flirtation, as ardent +as might be within the bounds of decorum. Sometimes, indeed, +according to our insular ideas of such things, he exceeded the +bounds of decorum, as in the case of which we are now compelled +to speak. Among the musicians who had been engaged for the +Esterhazy service in 1779 were a couple named Polzelli--the +husband a violinist, the wife a second-rate vocalist. Luigia +Polzelli was a lively Italian girl of nineteen. She does not seem +to have been happy with Polzelli, and Haydn's pity was roused for +her, much as Shelley's pity was roused for "my unfortunate +friend," Harriet Westbrook. The pity, as often happens in such +cases, ultimately ripened into a violent passion. + +We are not concerned to adopt an apologetic tone towards Haydn. +But Signora Polzelli was clearly an unscrupulous woman. She first +got her admirer into her power, and then used her position to dun +him for money. She had two sons, and the popular belief of the +time that Haydn was the father of the younger is perpetuated in +several of the biographies. Haydn had certainly a great regard +for the boy, made him a pupil of his own, and left him a small +sum in his first will, which, however, he revoked in the second. +Signora Polzelli's conduct was probably natural enough in the +circumstances, but it must have been rather embarrassing to +Haydn. After the death of her husband, she wheedled him into +signing a paper promising to marry her in the event of his +becoming a widower. This promise he subsequently repudiated, but +he cared for her well enough to leave her an annuity in his will, +notwithstanding that she had married again. She survived him for +twenty-three years, and her two daughters were still living at +Pesth in 1878. + +Returning to 1779, an untoward event of that year was the +destruction by fire of the theatre at Esterhaz. The re-building +of the house was set about at once, the prince having meanwhile +gone to Paris, and the re-opening took place on October 15, 1780, +when Haydn's "La Fedelta Premiata," already mentioned, was +staged. + +Correspondence + +It was about this time that he began to correspond with Artaria, +the Vienna music-publisher, with whom he had business dealings +for many years. A large number of his letters is given in an +English translation by Lady Wallace. [See Letters of Distinguished +Musicians. Translated from the German by Lady Wallace. London, +1867]. They treat principally of business matters, but are not +unimportant as fixing the chronological dates of some of his +works. They exhibit in a striking way the simple, honest, +unassuming nature of the composer; and if they also show him +"rather eager after gain, and even particular to a groschen," we +must not forget the ever-pressing necessity for economy under +which be laboured, and his almost lavish benevolence to +straitened relatives and friends. In one letter requesting an +advance he writes: "I am unwilling to be in debt to tradesmen, +and, thank God! I am free from this burden; but as great people +keep me so long waiting for payments, I have got rather into +difficulty. This letter, however, will be your security...I will +pay off the interest with my notes." There is no real ground for +charging Haydn with avarice, as some writers have done. "Even +philosophers," as he remarked himself, "occasionally stand in +need of money"; and, as Beethoven said to George Thomson, when +haggling about prices, there is no reason why the "true artist" +should not be "honourably paid." + +A London Publisher + +It was about this time too that Haydn opened a correspondence +with William Forster of London, who had added to his business +of violin-maker that of a music-seller and publisher. Forster +entered into an agreement with him for the English copyright +of his compositions, and between 1781 and 1787 he published +eighty-two symphonies, twenty-four quartets, twenty-four solos, +duets and trios, and the "Seven Last Words," of which we have +yet to speak. Nothing of the Forster correspondence seems to +have survived. + +Royal Dedicatees + +Among the events of 1781-1782 should be noted the entertainments +given in connection with two visits which the Emperor Joseph II +received from the Grand Duke Paul and his wife. The Grand Duchess +was musical, and had just been present at the famous combat +between Clementi and Mozart, a suggestion of the Emperor. She had +some of Haydn's quartets played at her house and liked them so +well that she gave him a diamond snuff-box and took lessons from +him. It was to her that he afterwards--in 1802--dedicated his +part-songs for three and four voices, while the Grand Duke was +honoured by the dedication of the six so-called "Russian" +quartets. It had been arranged that the Duke and Duchess should +accompany the Emperor to Eisenstadt, but the arrangement fell +through, and an opera which Haydn had written for the occasion +was only produced at Esterhaz in the autumn of 1782. This was his +"Orlando Paladino," better known in its German form as "Ritter +Roland." Another work of this year (1782) was the "Mariazell" +Mass in C major (Novello, No. 15), which derives its name from +the shrine of the Virgin in Styria, the scene of an incident +already related. The mass was written to the order of a certain +Herr Liebe de Kreutzner, and the composer is said to have taken +special pains with it, perhaps because it reminded him of his +early struggling days as a chorister in Vienna. It was the eighth +mass Haydn had written, one being the long and difficult +"Cecilia" Mass in C major, now heard only in a curtailed form. No +other work of the kind was composed until 1796, between which +year and 1802 the best of his masses were produced. To the year +1783 belongs the opera "Armida," performed in 1784 and again in +1797 at Schickaneder's Theatre in Vienna. Haydn writes to Artaria +in March 1784 to say that "Armida" had been given at Esterhaz +with "universal applause," adding that "it is thought the best +work I have yet written." The autograph score was sent to London +to make up, in a manner, for the non-performance of his "Orfeo" +there in 1791. + +The "Seven Words" + +But the most interesting work of this period was the "Seven Words +of our Saviour on the Cross," written in 1785. The circumstances +attending its composition are best told in Haydn's own words. In +Breitkopf & Hartel's edition of 1801, he writes: + +About fifteen years ago I was requested by a Canon of Cadiz to +compose instrumental music on the Seven Words of Jesus on the +Cross. It was the custom of the Cathedral of Cadiz to produce an +oratorio every year during Lent, the effect of the performance +being not a little enhanced by the following circumstances. The +walls, windows and pillars of the Church were hung with black +cloth, and only one large lamp, hanging from the centre of the +roof, broke the solemn obscurity. At mid-day the doors were +closed and the ceremony began. After a short service the bishop +ascended the pulpit, pronounced one of the Seven Words (or +sentences) and delivered a discourse thereon. This ended, he +left the pulpit and knelt prostrate before the altar. The +pause was filled by the music. The bishop then in like manner +pronounced the second word, then the third, and so on, the +orchestra falling in at the conclusion of each discourse. My +composition was to be subject to these conditions, and it was +no easy matter to compose seven adagios to last ten minutes +each, and follow one after the other without fatiguing the +listeners; indeed I found it quite impossible to confine +myself within the appointed limits. + +This commission may be taken as a further evidence of the growing +extent of Haydn's fame. He appears to have been already well +known in Spain. Boccherini carried on a friendly correspondence +with him from Madrid, and he was actually made the hero of a poem +called "The Art of Music," published there in 1779. The "Seven +Words" created a profound impression when performed under the +circumstances just detailed, but the work was not allowed to +remain in its original form, though it was printed in that form +by Artaria and by Forster. Haydn divided it into two parts, and +added choruses and solos, in which form it was given for the +first time at Eisenstadt in October, 1797, and published in 1801. +The "Seven Words" was a special favourite of the composer +himself, who indeed is declared by some to have preferred it +to all his other compositions. + +The "Toy" Symphony + +The remaining years of the period covered by this chapter being +almost totally devoid of incident, we may pause to notice briefly +two of the better-known symphonies of the time--the "Toy" +Symphony and the more famous "Farewell." The former is a mere jeu +d'esprit, in which, with an orchestral basis of two violins and a +bass, the solo instruments are all of a burlesque character. +Mozart attempted something of a kindred nature in his "Musical +joke," where instruments come in at wrong places, execute +inappropriate phrases, and play abominably out of tune. This kind +of thing does not require serious notice, especially in the case +of Haydn, to whom humour in music was a very different matter +from the handling of rattles and penny trumpets and toy drums. + +The "Farewell" Symphony + +The "Farewell" Symphony has often been described, though the +circumstances of its origin are generally mis-stated. It has been +asserted, for example, that Haydn intended it as an appeal to the +prince against the dismissal of the Capelle. But this, as Pohl +has conclusively shown, is incorrect. The real design of the +"Farewell" was to persuade the prince to shorten his stay at +Esterhaz, and so enable the musicians to rejoin their wives and +families. Fortunately, the prince was quick-witted enough to see +the point of the joke. As one after another ceased playing and +left the orchestra, until only two violinists remained, he +quietly observed, "If all go, we may as well go too." Thus +Haydn's object was attained--for the time being! The "Farewell" +is perfectly complete as a work of art, but its fitness for +ordinary occasions is often minimized by the persistent way in +which its original purpose is pointed out to the listener. + +Free from Esterhaz + +Haydn's active career at Esterhaz may be said to have closed with +the death, on September 28, 1790, of Prince Nicolaus. The event +was of great importance to his future. Had the prince lived, +Haydn would doubtless have continued in his service, for he +"absolutely adored him." But Prince Anton, who now succeeded, +dismissed the whole Capelle, retaining only the few members +necessary for the carrying on of the church service, and Haydn's +occupation was practically gone. The new prince nominally held +the right to his services, but there was no reason for his +remaining longer at the castle, and he accordingly took up his +residence in Vienna. Thus free to employ his time as he +considered best, Haydn embraced the opportunity to carry out a +long-meditated project, and paid the first of his two visits to +London. With these we enter upon a new epoch in the composer's +life, and one of great interest to the student and lover of +music. + +CHAPTER V + +FIRST LONDON VISIT--1791-1792 + +English Music about 1791--Salomon--Mozart and Haydn--Terms for +London--Bonn and Beethoven--Haydn Sea-Sick--Arrives in London-- +An Enthusiastic Welcome--Ideas of the Metropolis--At Court-- +Unreasoning Rivalries--Temporarily eclipsed--Band and Baton-- +A Rehearsal Incident--Hanover Square Rooms--Hoops and Swords-- +The "Surprise" Symphony--Gallic Excitement--New Compositions-- +Benefit and Other Concerts--Haydn on Handel--Oxford Doctor of +Music--The "Oxford" Symphony--Relaxations--Royalty again--Pleyel +--Close of Season--Herschel--Haydn at St Paul's--London +Acquaintances--Another Romance--Mistress Schroeter--Love-Letters +--Haydn's Note-Book. + +English Music about 1791 + +Haydn came to England in 1791. It may occur to the reader to ask +what England was doing in music at that time, and who were the +foremost representatives of the art. The first question may be +partially answered from the literature of the period. Thus +Jackson, in his Present State of Music in London, published the +year after Haydn's arrival, remarks that "instrumental music has +been of late carried to such perfection in London by the +consummate skill of the performers that any attempt to beat the +time would be justly considered as entirely needless." Burney, +again, in his last volume, published in 1789, says that the great +improvement in taste during the previous twenty years was "as +different as civilized people from savages"; while Stafford +Smith, writing in 1779, tells that music was then "thought to be +in greater perfection than among even the Italians themselves." +There is a characteristic John Bull complacency about these +statements which is hardly borne out by a study of the lives +of the leading contemporary musicians. Even Mr Henry Davey, +the applauding historian of English music, has to admit the +evanescent character of the larger works which came from +the composers of that "bankrupt century." Not one of these +composers--not even Arne--is a real personality to us like Handel, +or Bach, or Haydn, or Mozart. The great merit of English music +was melody, which seems to have been a common gift, but "the only +strong feeling was patriotic enthusiasm, and the compositions that +survive are almost all short ballads expressing this sentiment +or connected with it by their nautical subjects." When Haydn +arrived, there was, in short, no native composer of real genius, +and our "tardy, apish nation" was ready to welcome with special +cordiality an artist whose gifts were of a higher order. + +Salomon + +We have spoken of Haydn's visit as a long-meditated project. In +1787 Cramer, the violinist, had offered to engage him on his own +terms for the Professional Concerts; and Gallini, the director of +the King's Theatre in Drury Lane, pressed him to write an opera +for that house. Nothing came of these proposals, mainly because +Haydn was too much attached to his prince to think of leaving +him, even temporarily. But the time arrived and the man with it. +The man was Johann Peter Salomon, a violinist, who, having fallen +out with the directors of the professional concerts, had started +concerts on his own account. Salomon was a native of Bonn, and +had been a member of the Electoral Orchestra there. He had +travelled about the Continent a good deal, and no one was better +fitted to organize and direct a series of concerts on a large +scale. In 1790 he had gone abroad in search of singers, and, +hearing of the death of Prince Esterhazy, he set off at once for +Vienna, resolved to secure Haydn at any cost. "My name is +Salomon," he bluntly announced to the composer, as he was shown +into his room one morning. "I have come from London to fetch you; +we will settle terms to-morrow." + +The question of terms was, we may be sure, important enough for +Haydn. But it was not the only question. The "heavy years" were +beginning to weigh upon him. He was bordering on threescore, and +a long journey in those days was not to be lightly undertaken. +Moreover, he was still, nominally at least, the servant of Prince +Anton, whose consent would have to be obtained; and, besides all +this, he was engaged on various commissions, notably some for the +King of Naples, which were probably a burden on his conscience. +His friends, again, do not appear to have been very enthusiastic +about the projected visit. There were Dittersdorf and +Albrechtsberger, and Dr Leopold von Genzinger, the prince's +physician, and Frau von Genzinger, whose tea and coffee he so +much appreciated, and who sent him such excellent cream. Above +all, there was Mozart--"a man very dear to me," as Haydn himself +said. + +Mozart and Haydn + +He had always greatly revered Mozart. Three years before this he +wrote: "I only wish I could impress upon every friend of mine, +and on great men in particular, the same deep musical sympathy +and profound appreciation which I myself feel for Mozart's +inimitable music; then nations would vie with each other to +possess such a jewel within their frontiers. It enrages me to +think that the unparalleled Mozart is not yet engaged at any +Imperial Court! Forgive my excitement; I love the man so dearly." +The regard was reciprocal. "Oh, Papa," exclaimed Mozart, when he +heard of Haydn's intention to travel, "you have had no education +for the wide, wide world, and you speak too few languages." It +was feelingly said, and Haydn knew it. "My language," he replied, +with a smile, "is understood all over the world." Mozart was +really concerned at the thought of parting with his brother +composer, to whom he stood almost in the relation of a son. When +it came to the actual farewell, the tears sprang to his eyes, and +he said affectingly: "This is good-bye; we shall never meet +again." The words proved prophetic. A year later, Mozart was +thrown with a number of paupers into a grave which is now as +unknown as the grave of Moliere. Haydn deeply lamented his loss; +and when his thoughts came to be turned homewards towards the +close of his English visit his saddest reflection was that there +would be no Mozart to meet him. His wretched wife had tried to +poison his mind against his friend by writing that Mozart had +been disparaging his genius. "I cannot believe it," he cried; "if +it is true, I will forgive him." It was not true, and Haydn never +believed it. As late as 1807 he burst into tears when Mozart's +name was mentioned, and then, recovering himself, remarked: +"Forgive me! I must ever weep at the name of my Mozart." + +Terms for London + +But to return. Salomon at length carried the day, and everything +was arranged for the London visit. Haydn was to have 300 pounds +for six symphonies and 200 pounds for the copyright of them; 200 +pounds for twenty new compositions to be produced by himself at +the same number of concerts; and 200 pounds from a benefit +concert. The composer paid his travelling expenses himself, being +assisted in that matter by an advance of 450 florins from the +prince, which he refunded within the year. In order to provide +for his wife during his absence he sold his house at Eisenstadt, +the gift of Prince Nicolaus, which had been twice rebuilt after +being destroyed by fire. + +Salomon sent advance notices of the engagement to London, and on +the 30th of December the public were informed through the Morning +Chronicle that, immediately on his arrival with his distinguished +guest, "Mr Salomon would have the honour of submitting to all +lovers of music his programme for a series of subscription +concerts, the success of which would depend upon their support +and approbation." Before leaving for London Haydn had a tiff with +the King of Naples, Ferdinand IV, who was then in Vienna. The +composer had taken him some of the works which he had been +commissioned to write, and His Majesty, thanking him for the +favour, remarked that "We will rehearse them the day after +to-morrow." "The day after to-morrow," replied Haydn, "I shall be +on my way to England." "What!" exclaimed the King, "and you +promised to come to Naples!" With which observation he turned on +his heel and indignantly left the room. Before Haydn had time to +recover from his astonishment Ferdinand was back with a letter of +introduction to Prince Castelcicala, the Neapolitan Ambassador in +London; and to show further that the misunderstanding was merely +a passing affair he sent the composer later in the day a valuable +tabatiere as a token of esteem and regard. + +Bonn and Beethoven + +The journey to London was begun by Haydn and Salomon on the 15th +of December 1790, and the travellers arrived at Bonn on Christmas +Day. It is supposed, with good reason, that Haydn here met +Beethoven, then a youth of twenty, for the first time. Beethoven +was a member of the Electoral Chapel, and we know that Haydn, +after having one of his masses performed and being complimented +by the Elector, the musical brother of Joseph II, entertained the +chief musicians at dinner at his lodgings. An amusing description +of the regale may be read in Thayer's biography of Beethoven. +From Bonn the journey was resumed by way of Brussels to Calais, +which was reached in a violent storm and an incessant downpour +of rain. "I am very well, thank God!" writes the composer to +Frau Genzinger, "although somewhat thinner, owing to fatigue, +irregular sleep, and eating and drinking so many different +things." + +Haydn Sea-Sick + +Next morning, after attending early mass, he embarked at 7:30, and +landed at Dover at five o'clock in the afternoon. It was his first +acquaintance with the sea, and, as the weather was rather rough, he +makes no little of it in letters written from London. "I remained on +deck during the whole passage," he says, "in order to gaze my full +at that huge monster--the ocean. So long as there was a calm I had +no fears, but when at length a violent wind began to blow, rising +every minute, and I saw the boisterous high waves running on, I was +seized with a little alarm and a little indisposition likewise." +Thus delicately does he allude to a painful episode. + +Arrives in London + +Haydn reached London in the opening days of 1791. He passed his +first night at the house of Bland, the music-publisher, at 45 +High Holborn, which now, rebuilt, forms part of the First Avenue +Hotel. Bland, it should have been mentioned before, had been sent +over to Vienna by Salomon to coax Haydn into an engagement in +1787. When he was admitted on that occasion to Haydn's room, he +found the composer in the act of shaving, complaining the while +of the bluntness of his razor. "I would give my best quartet for +a good razor," he exclaimed testily. The hint was enough for +Bland, who immediately hurried off to his lodgings and fetched a +more serviceable tool. Haydn was as good as his word: he +presented Bland with his latest quartet, and the work is still +familiarly known as the "Rasirmesser" (razor) Quartet. The +incident was, no doubt, recalled when Haydn renewed his +acquaintance with the music-publisher. + +But Haydn did not remain the guest of Bland. Next day he went to +live with Salomon, at 18 Great Pulteney Street, Golden Square, +which--also rebuilt--is now the warehouse of Messrs Chatto & +Windus, the publishers. [See Musical Haunts in London, by F.G. +Edwards, London, 1895] He described it in one of his letters as +"a neat, comfortable lodging," and extolled the cooking of his +Italian landlord, "who gives us four excellent dishes." But his +frugal mind was staggered at the charges. "Everything is terribly +dear here," he wrote. "We each pay 1 florin 30 kreuzers [about +2s. 8d.] a day, exclusive of wine and beer." This was bad enough. + +An Enthusiastic Welcome + +But London made up for it all by the flattering way in which it +received the visitor. People of the highest rank called on him; +ambassadors left cards; the leading musical societies vied with +each other in their zeal to do him honour. Even the poetasters +began to twang their lyres in his praise. Thus Burney, who had +been for some time in correspondence with him, saluted him with +an effusion, of which it will suffice to quote the following +lines: + +Welcome, great master! to our favoured isle, +Already partial to thy name and style; +Long may thy fountain of invention run +In streams as rapid as it first begun; +While skill for each fantastic whim provides, +And certain science ev'ry current guides! +Oh, may thy days, from human suff'rings, free, +Be blest with glory and felicity, +With full fruition, to a distant hour, +Of all thy magic and creative pow'r! +Blest in thyself, with rectitude of mind, +And blessing, with thy talents, all mankind! + +Like "the man Sterne" after the publication of Tristram Shandy, +he was soon deep in social engagements for weeks ahead. "I could +dine out every day," he informs his friends in Germany. Shortly +after his arrival he was conducted by the Academy of Ancient +Music into a "very handsome room" adjoining the Freemasons' Hall, +and placed at a table where covers were laid for 200. "It was +proposed that I should take a seat near the top, but as it so +happened that I had dined out that very day, and ate more than +usual, I declined the honour, excusing myself under the pretext +of not being very well; but in spite of this, I could not get off +drinking the health, in Burgundy, of the harmonious gentlemen +present. All responded to it, but at last allowed me to go home." +This sort of thing strangely contrasted with the quiet, drowsy +life of Esterhaz; and although Haydn evidently felt flattered by +so much attention, he often expressed a wish that he might escape +in order to have more peace for work. + +Ideas of London + +His ideas about London were mixed and hesitating. He was chiefly +impressed by the size of the city, a fact which the Londoner of +to-day can only fully appreciate when he remembers that in Haydn's +time Regent Street had not been built and Lisson Grove was a +country lane. Mendelssohn described the metropolis as "that smoky +nest which is fated to be now and ever my favourite residence." +But Haydn's regard was less for the place itself than for the +people and the music. The fogs brought him an uncommonly severe +attack of rheumatism, which he naively describes as "English," +and obliged him to wrap up in flannel from head to foot. The +street noises proved a great distraction--almost as much as they +proved to Wagner in 1839, when the composer of "Lohengrin" had to +contend with an organ-grinder at each end of the street! He +exclaimed in particular against "the cries of the common people +selling their wares." It was very distracting, no doubt, for, as +a cynic has said, one cannot compose operas or write books or +paint pictures in the midst of a row. Haydn desired above all +things quiet for his work, and so by-and-by, as a solace for the +evils which afflicted his ear, he removed himself from Great +Pulteney Street to Lisson Grove--"in the country amid lovely +scenery, where I live as if I were in a monastery." + +Haydn at Court + +For the present the dining and the entertaining went on. The 12th of +January found him at the "Crown and Anchor" in the Strand, where the +Anacreonatic Society expressed their respect and admiration in the +usual fashion. The 18th of the same month was the Queen's birthday, +and Haydn was invited to a Court ball in the evening. This was quite +an exceptional distinction, for he had not yet been "presented" at +Court. Probably he owed it to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George +IV. The Prince was a musical amateur, like his father and his +grandfather, whose enthusiasm for Handel it is hardly necessary to +recall. He played the 'cello--"not badly for a Prince," to parody +Boccherini's answer to his royal master--and liked to take his part +in glees and catches. Haydn was charmed by his affability. "He is +the handsomest man on God's earth," wrote the composer. "He has an +extraordinary love for music, and a great deal of feeling, but very +little money." These courtesies to Haydn may perhaps be allowed to +balance the apparent incivility shown to Beethoven and Weber, who +sent compositions to the same royal amateur that were never so much +as acknowledged. + +But even the attentions of princes may become irksome and +unprofitable. Haydn soon found that his health and his work were +suffering from the flood of social engagements which London +poured upon him. The dinner hour at this time was six o'clock. He +complained that the hour was too late, and made a resolve to dine +at home at four. He wanted his mornings for composition, and if +visitors must see him they would have to wait till afternoon. +Obviously he was beginning to tire of "the trivial round." + +Unreasoning Rivalries + +The Salomon concerts should have begun in January, but London, as +it happened, was suffering from one of those unreasoning +rivalries which made a part of Handel's career so miserable, and +helped to immortalize the names of Gluck and Piccini. It is +hardly worth reviving the details of such ephemeral contests now. +In the present case the factionists were to some extent swayed by +financial interests; to a still greater extent by professional +jealousies. The trouble seems to have arisen originally in +connection with Gallini's preparations for the opening of a new +Opera House in the Haymarket. Salomon had engaged Cappelletti and +David as his principal vocalists; but these, it appeared, were +under contract not to sing in public before the opening of the +Opera House. One faction did not want to have the Opera House +opened at all. They were interested in the old Pantheon, and +contended that a second Italian Opera House was altogether +unnecessary. + +Temporarily eclipsed + +Salomon's first concert, already postponed to February 25, had +been fixed for the 11th of March, on which date David, by special +permission, was to appear "whether the Opera house was open or +not." The delay was extremely awkward for both Haydn and Salomon, +particularly for Haydn. He had been brought to London with beat +of drum, and here he was compelled to hide his light while the +directors of the professional concerts shot ahead of him and +gained the ear of the public before he could assert his +superiority. By this time also the element of professional +jealousy had come into free play. Depreciatory paragraphs +appeared in the public prints "sneering at the composer as 'a +nine days' wonder,' whom closer acquaintance would prove to be +inferior to either Cramer or Clementi; and alluding to the +'proverbial avarice' of the Germans as tempting so many artists, +who met with scanty recognition from their own countrymen to +herald their arrival in England with such a flourish of trumpets +as should charm the money out of the pockets of easily-gulled +John Bull." These pleasantries were continued on rather different +lines, when at length Haydn was in a position to justify the +claims made for him. + +Band and Baton + +Haydn, meanwhile, had been rehearsing the symphony for his +opening concert. Two points are perhaps worth noting here: First, +the size and strength of the Salomon Orchestra; and second, the +fact that Haydn did not, as every conductor does now, direct his +forces, baton in hand. The orchestra numbered between thirty-five +and forty performers--a very small company compared with our Handel +Festival and Richter Orchestras, but in Haydn's time regarded as +quite sufficiently strong. There were sixteen violins, four tenors, +three 'celli, four double basses, flutes, oboes, bassoons, trumpets +and drums. + +Salomon played the first violin and led the orchestra, and +Haydn sat at the harpsichord, keeping the band together by +an occasional chord or two, as the practice then was. Great +composers have not always been great conductors, but Haydn +had a winning way with his band, and generally succeeded in +getting what he wanted. + +A Rehersal Incident + +An interesting anecdote is told by Dies of his first experience +with the Salomon Orchestra. The symphony began with three single +notes, which the orchestra played much too loudly; Haydn called for +less tone a second and a third time, and still was dissatisfied. He +was growing impatient. At this point he overheard a German player +whisper to a neighbour in his own language: "If the first three +notes don't please him, how shall we get through all the rest?" +Thereupon, calling for the loan of a violin, he illustrated his +meaning to such purpose that the band answered to his requirements +in the first attempt. Haydn was naturally at a great disadvantage +with an English orchestra by reason of his ignorance of the +language. It may be true, as he said, that the language of music +"is understood all over the world," but one cannot talk to an +orchestra in crotchets and semi-breves. + +The Hanover Square Rooms + +At length the date of the first concert arrived, and a brilliant +audience rewarded the enterprise, completely filling the Hanover +Square Rooms, at that time the principal concert hall in London. +It had been opened in 1775 by J. C. Bach, the eleventh son of the +great Sebastian, when the advertisements announced that "the +ladies' tickets are red and the gentlemen's black." It was there +that, two years after the date of which we are writing, "Master +Hummel, from Vienna," gave his first benefit; Liszt appeared in +1840, when the now familiar term "recital" was first used; +Rubinstein made his English debut in 1842; and in the same year +Mendelssohn conducted his Scotch Symphony for the first time in +England. In 1844 the "wonderful little Joachim," then a youth of +thirteen in a short jacket, made the first of his many subsequent +visits to London, and played in the old "Rooms." + +Hoops and Swords + +So much for the associations of the concert hall in which Haydn +directed some of his finest symphonies. And what about the +audiences of Haydn's time? It was the day of the Sedan chair, +when women waddled in hoops, like that of the lady mentioned in +the Spectator, who appeared "as if she stood in a large drum." +Even the royal princesses were, in Pope's phrase, "armed in ribs +of steel" so wide that the Court attendants had to assist their +ungainly figures through the doorways. Swords were still being +worn as a regulation part of full dress, and special weapons were +always provided at a grand concert for the use of the +instrumental solo performers, who, when about to appear on the +platform, were girt for the occasion by an attendant, known as +the "sword-bearer." [See Musical Haunts in London, F. G. Edwards, +quoting Dr W. H. Cummings.] + +Haydn's first concert, we have said, was an immense success. +Burney records that his appearance in the orchestra "seemed to +have an electrical effect on all present, and he never remembered +a performance where greater enthusiasm was displayed." A wave of +musical excitement appears to have been passing through London, +for on this very evening both Covent Garden and Drury Lane +Theatres were packed with audiences drawn together by the +oratorio performances there. Haydn was vastly pleased at having +the slow movement of his symphony encored--an unusual occurrence +in those days--and he spoke of it afterwards as worthy of mention +in his biography. Fresh from the dinner-table, the audience +generally fell asleep during the slow movements! When the novelty +of the Salomon concerts had worn off, many of the listeners +lapsed into their usual somnolence. Most men in Haydn's position +would have resented such inattention by an outburst of temper. +Haydn took it good-humouredly, and resolved to have his little +joke. + +The "Surprise" Symphony + +He wrote the well-known "Surprise" Symphony. The slow movement of +this work opens and proceeds in the most subdued manner, and at +the moment when the audience may be imagined to have comfortably +settled for their nap a sudden explosive fortissimo chord is +introduced. "There all the women will scream," said Haydn, with +twinkling eyes. A contemporary critic read quite a different +"programme" into it. "The 'Surprise,'" he wrote, "might not be +inaptly likened to the situation of a beautiful shepherdess who, +lulled to slumber by the murmur of a distant waterfall, starts +alarmed by the unexpected firing of a fowling-piece." One can +fancy the composer's amusement at this highly-imaginative +interpretation of his harmless bit of waggery. + +Gallic Excitement + +The same success which attended Haydn's first concert marked the +rest of the series. The Prince of Wales's presence at the second +concert no doubt gave a certain "lead" to the musical public. We +read in one of the Gallic newspapers: "It is truly wonderful what +sublime and august thoughts this master weaves into his works. +Passages often occur which it is impossible to listen to without +becoming excited--we are carried away by admiration, and are +forced to applaud with hand and mouth. The Frenchmen here cannot +restrain their transports in soft adagios; they will clap their +hands in loud applause and thus mar the effect." + +In the midst of all this enthusiasm the factionists were keeping +up their controversy about the opening of Gallini's Theatre. +Gallini had already engaged the services of Haydn, together with +an orchestra led by Salomon, but nothing could be done without +the Lord Chamberlain's license for the performance of operas. To +prevent the issue of that license was the avowed object of the +Pantheon management and their friends. The fight was rendered all +the more lively when the Court divided itself between the +opposing interests. "The rival theatre," wrote Horace Walpole, +"is said to be magnificent and lofty, but it is doubtful whether +it will be suffered to come to light; in short the contest will +grow political; 'Dieu et mon Droit' (the King) supporting the +Pantheon, and 'Ich dien' (the Prince of Wales) countenancing the +Haymarket. It is unlucky that the amplest receptacle is to hold +the minority." + +Cantatas, Catches and Choruses + +That was how it turned out. The Lord Chamberlain finally refused +his license for operatic performances, and Gallini had to be +content with a license for "entertainments of music and dancing." +He opened his house on the 20th of March, and continued during +the season to give mixed entertainments twice a week. Various +works of Haydn's were performed at these entertainments, +including a cantata composed for David, an Italian catch for +seven voices, and the chorus known as "The Storm," a setting of +Peter Pindar's "Hark, the wild uproar of the waves." An opera, +"Orfeo ed Euridice," to which we have already referred, was almost +completed, but its production had necessarily to be abandoned, a +circumstance which must have occasioned him considerable regret +in view of the store he set upon his dramatic work. + +Benefit and Other Concerts + +On the 16th of May he had a benefit concert, when the receipts +exceeded by 150 pounds the 200 pounds which had been guaranteed. A second +benefit was given on May 30, when "La Passione Instrumentale" +(the "Seven Words" written for Cadiz) was performed. This work +was given again on June 10, at the benefit concert of the +"little" Clement, a boy violinist who grew into the famous artist +for whom Beethoven wrote his Violin Concerto. On this occasion +Haydn conducted for Clement, and it is interesting to observe +that Clement took the first violin at the last concert Haydn ever +attended, in March 1808. + +Haydn on Handel + +In the note-book he kept while in London, one of the entries +reads: "Anno 1791, the last great concert, with 885 persons, was +held in Westminster, Anno 1792, it was transferred to St +Margaret's Chapel, with 200 performers. This evoked criticism." +Haydn here refers to the Handel Commemoration Festival, the sixth +and last of the century. He attended that of 1791, and was much +impressed with the grandeur of the performances. A place had been +reserved for him near the King's box, and when the "Hallelujah +Chorus" was sung, and the whole audience rose to their feet, he +wept like a child. "Handel is the master of us all," he sobbed. +No one knew the value of Handel's choral work better than Haydn. +After listening at the Concert of Antient Music to the chorus, +"The Nations tremble," from "Joshua," he told Shield that "he had +long been acquainted with music, but never knew half its powers +before he heard it, as he was perfectly certain that only one +inspired author ever did, or ever would, pen so sublime a +composition." [See the Appendix to Shield's +Introduction to Harmony.] + +Oxford Doctor of Music + +Haydn was no Handel, either as man or artist. Handel declined the +Doctor of Music degree with the characteristic remark: "What the +devil I throw my money away for that the blockhead wish?" Haydn +did not decline it, though probably enough he rated the +distinction no higher than Handel did. In the month of July he +went down to the Oxford Commemoration, and was then invested with +the degree. Handel's latest biographer, Mr W. S. Rockstro, says +that the Oxford fees would have cost Handel 100 pounds. Haydn's +note of the expense is not so alarming: "I had to pay one and a +half guineas for the bell peals at Oxforth [sic] when I received +the doctor's degree, and half a guinea for the robe." He seems to +have found the ceremonies a little trying, and not unlikely he +imagined himself cutting rather a ridiculous figure in his +gorgeous robe of cherry and cream-coloured silk. At the concert +following the investiture he seized the gown, and, raising it in +the air, exclaimed in English, "I thank you." "I had to walk +about for three days in this guise," he afterwards wrote, "and +only wish my Vienna friends could have seen me." Haydn's +"exercise" for the degree was the following "Canon cancrizans, a +tre," set to the words, "Thy voice, O harmony, is divine." + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +This was subsequently used for the first of the Ten Commandments, +the whole of which he set to canons during his stay in London. +Three grand concerts formed a feature of the Oxford +Commemoration. + +The "Oxford" Symphony + +At the second of these a symphony in G, written in 1787 or 1788, +and since known as the "Oxford," was performed, with the composer +at the organ. He had taken a new symphony with him for the +occasion, but owing to lack of time for rehearsals, the earlier +work was substituted. Of this latter, the Morning Chronicle wrote +that "a more wonderful composition never was heard. The applause +given to Haydn was enthusiastic; but the merit of the work, in +the opinion of all the musicians present, exceeded all praise." + +Holiday Relaxations + +The London season having now come to an end, Haydn proceeded to +recruit his energies by paying visits to distinguished people at +their country quarters, taking part in river excursions, picnics, +and the like. Prince Esterhazy had sent him a pressing summons to +return for a great fete which was being organized in honour of +the Emperor, but having entered into new engagements with Salomon +and others, he found it impossible to comply. A less indulgent +employer would have requited him with instant dismissal, but all +that the prince said when they afterwards met was, "Ah, Haydn! +you might have saved me 40,000 florins." His longest visit at +this time was spent with Mr Brassey, a Lombard Street banker, +and ancestor of the present peer. "The banker," he says, "once +cursed because he enjoyed too much happiness in this world." He +gave lessons to Miss Brassey, and "enjoyed the repose of country +life in the midst of a family circle all cordially devoted to +him." In November he was the guest at two Guildhall banquets--that +of the outgoing Lord Mayor on the 5th and that of his successor +on the 9th. Of these entertainments he has left a curious account, +and as the memorandum is in English it may, perhaps, be reproduced +here. It runs as follows in Lady Wallace's translation of the +letters: + +I was invited to the Lord Mayor's banquet on November 5. At the +first table, No. 1, the new Lord Mayor and his wife dined, the +Lord Chancellor, the two sheriffs, the Duke of Lids [Leeds], the +minister Pitt, and others of the highest rank in the Cabinet. I was +seated at No. 2 with Mr Sylvester, the most celebrated advocate and +first King's counsel in London. In this hall, called the Geld Hall +[Guildhall], were six tables, besides others in the adjoining room. +About twelve hundred persons altogether dined, and everything was +in the greatest splendour. The dishes were very nice and well +dressed. Wines of every kind in abundance. We sat down to dinner at +six o'clock and rose from table at eight. The guests accompanied +the Lord Mayor both before and after dinner in their order of +precedence. There were various ceremonies, sword bearing, and a +kind of golden crown, all attended by a band of wind instruments. +After dinner, the whole of the aristocratic guests of No. 1 +withdrew into a private room prepared for them, to have tea and +coffee, while the rest of the company were conducted into another +room. At nine o'clock No. 1 repaired to a small saloon, when the +ball began. There was a raised platform in this room, reserved for +the highest nobility, where the Lord Mayor and his wife were seated +on a throne. Dancing then commenced in due order of precedence, +but only one couple at a time, just as on January 6, the King's +birthday. There were raised benches on both sides of this room +with four steps, where the fair sex chiefly prevailed. Nothing +but minuets were danced in this saloon, but I could only remain for +a quarter of an hour, first, because the heat of so many people +assembled in such a narrow space was so oppressive, and, secondly, +on account of the bad music for dancing, the whole orchestra +consisting of two violins and a violoncello; the minuets were more +in the Polish style than in our own, or that of the Italians. +I proceeded into another room, which really was more like a +subterranean cave than anything else; they were dancing English +dances, and the music here was a degree better, as a drum was +played by one of the violinists! [This might be effected by the +violin player having the drumstick tied to his right foot, which +was sometimes done.] + +I went on to the large hall, where we had dined, and there the +orchestra was more numerous, and the music more tolerable. They +were also dancing English dances, but only opposite the raised +platform where the four first sets had dined with the Lord Mayor. +The other tables were all filled afresh with gentlemen, who as +usual drank freely the whole night. The strangest thing of all was +that one part of the company went on dancing without hearing a +single note of the music, for first at one table, and then at +another, songs were shouted, or toasts given, amidst the most crazy +uproar and clinking of glasses and hurrahs. This hall and all the +other rooms were lighted with lamps, of which the effluvia was most +disagreeable, especially in the small ballroom. It was remarkable +that the Lord Mayor had no need of a carving-knife, as a man in the +centre of the table carved everything for him. One man stood before +the Lord Mayor and another behind him, shouting out vociferously +all the toasts in their order according to etiquette, and after +each toast came a flourish of kettledrums and trumpets. No health +was more applauded than that of Mr Pitt. There seemed to be no +order. The dinner cost 6,000 pounds, one-half of which is paid +by the Lord Mayor, and the other half by the two sheriffs. + +Royalty Again + +In this same month--November--he visited the Marionettes at the +Fantoccini Theatre in Saville Row, prompted, no doubt, by old +associations with Esterhaz. On the 24th he went to Oatlands to +visit the Duke of York, who had just married the Princess of +Prussia. "I remained two days," he says, "and enjoyed many marks +of graciousness and honour... On the third day the Duke had me +taken twelve miles towards town with his own horses. The Prince +of Wales asked for my portrait. For two days we made music for +four hours each evening, i.e., from ten o'clock till two hours +after midnight. Then we had supper, and at three o'clock went to +bed." After this he proceeded to Cambridge to see the university, +thence to Sir. Patrick Blake's at Langham. Of the Cambridge visit +he writes: "Each university has behind it a very roomy and +beautiful garden, besides stone bridges, in order to afford +passage over the stream which winds past. The King's Chapel is +famous for its carving. It is all of stone, but so delicate that +nothing more beautiful could have been made of wood. It has +already stood for 400 years, and everybody judges its age at +about ten years, because of the firmness and peculiar whiteness +of the stone. The students bear themselves like those at Oxford, +but it is said they have better instructors. There are in all 800 +students." + +From Langham he went to the house of a Mr Shaw, to find in his +hostess the "most beautiful woman I ever saw." Haydn, it may be +remarked in passing, was always meeting the "most beautiful +woman." At one time she was a Mrs Hodges, another of his London +admirers. When quite an old man he still preserved a ribbon which +Mrs Shaw had worn during his visit, and on which his name was +embroidered in gold. + +Pleyel in Opposition + +But other matters now engaged his attention. The directors of the +Professional Concerts, desiring to take advantage of his popularity, +endeavoured to make him cancel his engagements with Salomon and +Gallini. In this they failed. "I will not," said Haydn, "break my +word to Gallini and Salomon, nor shall any desire for dirty gain +induce me to do them an injury. They have run so great a risk and +gone to so much expense on my account that it is only fair they +should be the gainers by it." Thus defeated in their object, the +Professionals decided to bring over Haydn's own pupil, Ignaz Pleyel, +to beat the German on his own ground. It was not easy to upset +Haydn's equanimity in an affair of this kind; his gentle nature, +coupled with past experiences, enabled him to take it all very +calmly. "From my youth upwards," he wrote, "I have been exposed to +envy, so it does not surprise me when any attempt is made wholly +to crush my poor talents, but the Almighty above is my support.... +There is no doubt that I find many who are envious of me in London +also, and I know them almost all. Most of them are Italians. But +they can do me no harm, for my credit with this nation has been +established far too many years." As a rule, he was forbearing enough +with his rivals. At first he wrote of Pleyel: "He behaves himself +with great modesty." Later on he remarked that "Pleyel's presumption +is everywhere criticized." Nevertheless, "I go to all his concerts, +for I love him." It is very pleasant to read all this. But how far +Haydn's feelings towards Pleyel were influenced by patriotic +considerations it is impossible to say. + +The defeated Professionals had a certain advantage by being first +in the field in 1792. But Haydn was only a few days behind them +with his opening concert, and the success of the entire series +was in no way affected by the ridiculous rivalry. Symphonies, +divertimenti for concerted instruments, string quartets, a +clavier trio, airs, a cantata, and other works were all produced +at these concerts, and with almost invariable applause. Nor were +Haydn's services entirely confined to the Salomon concerts. He +conducted for various artists, including Barthelemon, the +violinist; Haesler, the pianist; and Madam Mara, of whom he +tells that she was hissed at Oxford for not rising during the +"Hallelujah" Chorus. + +Close of the Season + +The last concert was given on June 6 "by desire," when Haydn's +compositions were received with "an extasy of admiration." Thus +Salomon's season ended, as the Morning Chronicle put it, with the +greatest eclat. Haydn's subsequent movements need not detain us +long. He made excursions to Windsor Castle and to Ascot "to see +the races," of which he has given an account in his note-book. + +Herschel and Haydn + +From Ascot he went to Slough, where he was introduced to Herschel. +In this case there was something like real community of tastes, for +the astronomer was musical, having once played the oboe, and later +on acted as organist, first at Halifax Parish Church, and then at +the Octagon Chapel Bath. The big telescope with which he discovered +the planet Uranus in 1781 was an object of great interest to Haydn, +who was evidently amazed at the idea of a man sitting out of doors +"in the most intense cold for five or six hours at a time." + +Visits were also paid to Vauxhall Gardens, where "the music is +fairly good" and "coffee and milk cost nothing." "The place and +its diversions," adds Haydn, "have no equal in the world." + +At St Paul's + +But the most interesting event of this time to Haydn was the +meeting of the Charity Children in St Paul's Cathedral, when +something like 4000 juveniles took part. "I was more touched," he +says in his diary, "by this innocent and reverent music than by +any I ever heard in my life!" And then he notes the following +chant by John Jones: [Jones was organist of St Paul's Cathedral at +this time. His chant, which was really in the key of D, has since +been supplanted. Haydn made an error in bar 12.] + +[Figure: a musical score excerpt] + +Curiously enough Berlioz was impressed exactly in the same way +when he heard the Charity Children in 1851. He was in London as a +juror at the Great Exhibition; and along with his friend, the +late G. A. Osborne, he donned a surplice and sang bass in the +select choir. He was so moved by the children's singing that he +hid his face behind his music and wept. "It was," he says, "the +realization of one part of my dreams, and a proof that the +powerful effect of musical masses is still absolutely unknown." +[See Berlioz's Life and Letters, English edition, Vol. I., p. +281.] + +London Acquaintances + +Haydn made many interesting acquaintances during this London +visit. Besides those already mentioned, there was +Bartolozzi, the famous engraver, to whose wife he dedicated three +clavier trios and a sonata in E flat (Op. 78), which, so far +unprinted in Germany, is given by Sterndale Bennett in his +Classical Practice. There was also John Hunter, described by +Haydn as "the greatest and most celebrated chyrurgus in London," +who vainly tried to persuade him to have a polypus removed from +his nose. It was Mrs Hunter who wrote the words for most of his +English canzonets, including the charming "My mother bids me bind +my hair." And then there was Mrs Billington, the famous singer, +whom Michael Kelly describes as "an angel of beauty and the Saint +Cecilia of song." There is no more familiar anecdote than that +which connects Haydn with Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of this +notorious character. Carpani is responsible for the tale. He says +that Haydn one day found Mrs Billington sitting to Reynolds, who +was painting her as St Cecilia listening to the angels. "It is +like," said Haydn, "but there is a strange mistake." "What is +that?" asked Reynolds. "You have painted her listening to the +angels. You ought to have represented the angels listening to +her." It is a very pretty story, but it cannot possibly be true. +Reynolds's portrait of Mrs Billington was painted in 1789, two +years before Haydn's arrival, and was actually shown in the +Academy Exhibition of 1790, the last to which Sir Joshua +contributed. [The portrait, a whole length, was sold in 1798 +for 325 pounds, 10s., and again at Christie's, in 1845, for 505 +guineas--to an American, as usual.] Of course Haydn may have made +the witty remark here attributed to him, but it cannot have been +at the time of the painting of the portrait. That he was an +enthusiastic admirer of Mrs Billington there can be no doubt. + +Another Romance + +There was another intimacy of more import, about which it is +necessary to speak at some length. When Dies published his +biography of Haydn in 1810 he referred to a batch of love-letters +written to the composer during this visit to London. The +existence of the letters was known to Pohl, who devotes a part of +his Haydn in London to them, and prints certain extracts; but the +letters themselves do not appear to have been printed either in +the original English or in a German translation until Mr Henry +E. Krehbiel, the well-known American musical critic, gave them to +the world through the columns of the New York Tribune. Mr +Krehbiel was enabled to do this by coming into possession of a +transcript of Haydn's London note-book, with which we will deal +presently. Haydn, as he informs us, had copied all the letters +out in full, "a proceeding which tells its own story touching his +feelings towards the missives and their fair author." He +preserved them most carefully among the souvenirs of his visit, +and when Dies asked him about them, he replied: "They are letters +from an English widow in London who loved me. Though sixty years +old, she was still lovely and amiable, and I should in all +likelihood have married her if I had been single." Who was the +lady thus celebrated? In Haydn's note-book the following entry +occurs: "Mistress Schroeter, No. 6 James Street, Buckingham +Gate." The inquiry is here answered: Mistress Schroeter was the +lady. + +Mistress Schroeter + +Haydn, it will be seen, describes her as a widow of sixty. +According to Goldsmith, women and music should never be dated; +but in the present case, there is a not unnatural curiosity to +discover the lady's age. Mr Krehbiel gives good grounds for +doubting Haydn's statement that Mistress Schroeter was sixty when +he met her. She had been married to Johann Samuel Schroeter, an +excellent German musician, who settled in London in 1772. +Schroeter died in 1788, three years before the date of Haydn's +visit, when he was just thirty-eight. Now Dr Burney, who must +have known the family, says that Schroeter "married a young lady +of considerable fortune, who was his scholar, and was in easy +circumstances." If, therefore, Mrs Schroeter was sixty years old +when Haydn made her acquaintance, she must have been nineteen +years her husband's senior, and could not very well be described +as a "young" lady at the time of her marriage. + +It is, however, unnecessary to dwell upon the matter of age. The +interesting point is that Haydn fell under the spell of the +charming widow. There is no account of their first meeting; but +it was probably of a purely professional nature. Towards the end +of June 1791 the lady writes: "Mrs Schroeter presents her +compliments to Mr Haydn, and informs him she is just returned to +town, and will be very happy to see him whenever it is convenient +to him to give her a lesson." A woman of sixty should hardly have +been requiring lessons, especially after having been the wife of +a professor who succeeded the "English Bach" as music-master to +the Queen. But lessons sometimes cover a good deal of love-making, +and that was clearly the case with Haydn and Mrs Schroeter. + +Love Letters + +There is indeed some reason to doubt if the lessons were +continued. At any rate, by February 1792, the affair had ripened +so far as to allow the lady to address the composer as "my dear," +and disclose her tender solicitude for his health. On the 7th of +the following month she writes that she was "extremely sorry" to +part with him so suddenly the previous night. "Our conversation +was particularly interesting, and I had a thousand affectionate +things to say to you. My heart was and is full of tenderness for +you, but no language can express half the love and affection I +feel for you. You are dearer to me every day of my life." + +This was pretty warm, considering that Haydn was still in the +bonds of wedlock. We cannot tell how far he reciprocated the +feeling, his letters, if he wrote any, not having been preserved; +but it may be safely inferred that a lady who was to be "happy to +see you both in the morning and the evening" did not do all the +love-making. On the 4th of April the composer gets a present of +soap, and is the "ever dear Haydn" of the "invariable and truly +affectionate" Mistress Schroeter. He had been working too hard +about this particular date (he notes that he was "bled in London" +on the 17th of March), and on the 12th the "loveress," to use +Marjorie Fleming's term, is "truly anxious" about her "dear +love," for whom her regard is "stronger every day." An extract +from the letter of April 19 may be quoted as it stands: + +I was extremely sorry to hear this morning that you were +indisposed. I am told you were five hours at your studies +yesterday. Indeed, my dear love, I am afraid it will hurt +you. Why should you, who have already produced so many +wonderful and charming compositions, still fatigue yourself +with such close application? I almost tremble for your +health. Let me prevail on you, my much-loved Haydn, not +to keep to your studies so long at one time. My dear love, +if you could know how very precious your welfare is to me, +I flatter myself you would endeavour to preserve it for my +sake as well as your own. + +Come Early + +The next letter shows that Haydn had been deriving some profit +from Mistress Schroeter's affections by setting her to work as an +amanuensis. She has been copying out a march, and is sorry that +she has not done it better. "If my Haydn would employ me oftener +to write music, I hope I should improve; and I know I should +delight in the occupation." Invitations to dine at St James's +Street are repeatedly being sent, for Mistress Schroeter wishes +"to have as much of your company as possible." When others are +expected, Haydn is to come early, so that they may have some time +together "before the rest of our friends come." Does the adored +Schroeter go to one of her "dearest love's" concerts, she thanks +him a thousand times for the entertainment. "Where your sweet +compositions and your excellent performance combine," she writes, +"it cannot fail of being the most charming concert; but, apart +from that, the pleasure of seeing you must ever give me infinite +satisfaction." As the time drew near for Haydn's departure, +"every moment of your company is more and more precious to me." +She begs to assure him with "heart-felt affection" that she will +ever consider the acquaintance with him as one of the chief +blessings of her life. Nay, she entertains for her "dearest +Haydn" "the fondest and tenderest affection the human heart is +capable of." And so on. + +An Innocent Amourette + +One feels almost brutally rude in breaking in upon the privacy of +this little romance. No doubt the flirtation was inexcusable +enough on certain grounds. But taking the whole circumstances +into account--above all, the loveless, childless home of the +composer--the biographer is disposed to see in the episode merely +that human yearning after affection and sympathy which had been +denied to Haydn where he had most right to expect them. He +admitted that he was apt to be fascinated by pretty and amiable +women, and the woman to whom he had given his name was neither +pretty nor amiable. An ancient philosopher has said that a man +should never marry a plain woman, since his affections would +always be in danger of straying when he met a beauty. This +incident in Haydn's career would seem to support the +philosopher's contention. For the rest, it was probably harmless +enough, for there is nothing to show that the severer codes of +morality were infringed. + +The biographers of Haydn have not succeeded in discovering how +the Schroeter amourette ended. The letters printed by Mr +Krehbiel are all confined to the year 1792, and mention is +nowhere made of any of later date. When Haydn returned to London +in 1794, he occupied rooms at No. 1 Bury Street, St James', and +Pohl suggests that he may have owed the more pleasant quarters to +his old admirer, who would naturally be anxious to have him as +near her as possible. A short walk of ten minutes through St +James' Park and the Mall would bring him to Buckingham Palace, +and from that to Mrs Schroeter's was only a stone-throw. Whether +the old affectionate relations were resumed it is impossible to +say. If there were any letters of the second London visit, it is +curious that Haydn should not have preserved them with the rest. +There is no ground for supposing that any disagreement came +between the pair: the facts point rather the other way. When +Haydn finally said farewell to London, he left the scores of his +six last symphonies "in the hands of a lady." Pohl thinks the +lady was Mrs Schroeter, and doubtless he is right. At any rate +Haydn's esteem for her, to use no stronger term, is sufficiently +emphasized by his having inscribed to her the three trios +numbered 1, 2 and 6 in the Breitkopf & Hartel list. + +Haydn's Note-Book + +Reference has already been made to the diary or note-book kept by +Haydn during his visit. The original manuscript of this curious +document came into the hands of his friend, Joseph Weigl, whose +father had been 'cellist to Prince Esterhazy. A similar diary was +kept during the second visit, but this was lost; and indeed the +first note-book narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of a +careless domestic. Haydn's autograph was at one time in the +possession of Dr Pohl. A copy of it made by A. W. Thayer, the +biographer of Beethoven, in 1862, became, as previously stated, +the property of Mr Krehbiel, who has printed the entries, with +running comment, in his "Music and Manners in the Classical +Period" (London, 1898). Mr Krehbiel rightly describes some of +the entries as mere "vague mnemonic hints," and adds that one +entry which descants in epigrammatic fashion on the comparative +morals of the women of France, Holland and England is unfit for +publication. Looking over the diary, it is instructive to observe +how little reference is made to music. One or two of the entries +are plainly memoranda of purchases to be made for friends. There +is one note about the National Debt of England, another about the +trial of Warren Hastings. London, we learn, has 4000 carts for +cleaning the streets, and consumes annually 800,000 cartloads of +coals. That scandalous book, the Memoirs of Mrs Billington, +which had just been published, forms the subject of a long entry. +"It is said that her [Mrs Billington's] character is very +faulty, but nevertheless she is a great genius, and all the women +hate her because she is so beautiful." + +Prince of Wale's Punch + +A note is made of the constituents of the Prince of Wales's +punch--"One bottle champagne, one bottle Burgundy, one bottle +rum, ten lemons, two oranges, pound and a half of sugar." A +process for preserving milk "for a long time" is also described. +We read that on the 5th of November (1791) "there was a fog so +thick that one might have spread it on bread. In order to write I +had to light a candle as early as eleven o'clock." Here is a +curious item--"In the month of June 1792 a chicken, 7s.; an +Indian [a kind of bittern found in North America] 9s.; a dozen +larks, 1 coron [? crown]. N.B.--If plucked, a duck, 5s." + +Haydn liked a good story, and when he heard one made a note of it. +The diary contains two such stories. One is headed "Anectod," and +runs: "At a grand concert, as the director was about to begin the +first number, the kettledrummer called loudly to him, asking him to +wait a moment, because his two drums were not in tune. The leader +could not and would not wait any longer, and told the drummer to +transpose for the present." The second story is equally good. "An +Archbishop of London, having asked Parliament to silence a preacher +of the Moravian religion who preached in public, the Vice-President +answered that could easily be done: only make him a Bishop, and he +would keep silent all his life." + +On the whole the note-book cannot be described as of strong +biographical interest, but a reading of its contents as +translated by Mr Krehbiel will certainly help towards an +appreciation of the personal character of the composer. + +CHAPTER VI + +SECOND LONDON VISIT--1794-1795 + +Beethoven--Takes Lessons from Haydn--The Relations of the Two +Composers--The Haydn Museum--Haydn starts for London--His Servant +Elssler--The Salomon Concerts--A "Smart" Drummer--New +Acquaintances--Haydn at Bath--Opera Concerts--Kingly Courtesies-- +A Valuable Parrot--Rohrau Reminiscences--Esterhaz once more--The +"Austrian Hymn"--Haydn's Love for It--A Charge of Plagiarism. + +Haydn left London some time towards the end of June 1792. He had +intended to visit Berlin, in response to an invitation from King +Frederick William II., but he altered his route in order to meet +Prince Anton Esterhazy, who was at Frankfort for the coronation +of the Emperor Francis II. + +Beethoven + +A more interesting meeting took place at Bonn. Beethoven, then a +young man of twenty-two, was still living with his people in the +Wenzegasse, but already arrangements had been made by the Elector +for his paying a somewhat lengthened visit to Vienna in order to +prosecute his studies there. Since the death of Mozart, Haydn had +become the most brilliant star in the musical firmament, and it +was only natural that the rising genius should look to him for +practical help and encouragement. It so happened that the +Elector's Band, of which Beethoven was a member, gave a dinner to +Haydn at Godesberg. The occasion was opportune. Beethoven +submitted a cantata to the guest of the evening which Haydn +"greatly praised, warmly encouraging the composer to proceed with +his studies." The name of the cantata has not been ascertained, +though Thayer conjectures it to have been on the death of the +Emperor Leopold II. + +Whatever it was, the fact of Haydn's approval would make it an +easy matter to discuss the subject of lessons, whether now or +later. Beethoven did not start for Vienna until November, and +it appears that immediately before that date some formal +communication had been made with Haydn in reference to his +studies. On the 29th of October Count Waldstein wrote: + +"DEAR BEETHOVEN,--You are travelling to Vienna in fulfillment of +your long-cherished wish. The genius of Mozart is still weeping +and bewailing the death of her favourite. With the inexhaustible +Haydn she found a refuge, but no occupation, and is now waiting to +leave him and join herself to someone else. Labour assiduously, +and receive Mozart's spirit from the hands of Haydn." + +This was not exactly complimentary to Haydn, but Beethoven +doubtless had the good sense not to repeat the count's words. +When the young artist arrived in Vienna, he found Haydn living at +the Hamberger Haus, No. 992 (since demolished), and thither he +went for his lessons. From Beethoven's own notes of expenses we +find that his first payment was made to Haydn on December 12. The +sum entered is 8 groschen (about 9 1/2 d.), which shows at least +that Haydn was not extravagant in his charges. + +Master and Pupil + +Beethoven's studies were in strict counterpoint, and the text-book +was that same "Gradus ad Parnassum" of Fux which Haydn had himself +contended with in the old days at St Stephen's. How many exercises +Beethoven wrote cannot be said, but 245 have been preserved, of +which, according to Nottebohm, Haydn corrected only forty-two. +Much ink has been wasted in discussing the relations of these +distinguished composers. There is no denying that Haydn neglected +his young pupil, but one may find another excuse for the neglect +besides that of his increasing age and his engrossing occupations. +Beethoven was already a musical revolutionist: Haydn was content +to walk in the old ways. The two men belonged almost to different +centuries, and the disposition which the younger artist had for +"splendid experiments" must have seemed to the mature musician +little better than madness and licentious irregularity. "He will +never do anything in decent style," was Albrechtsberger's dictum +after giving Beethoven a series of lessons. + +Haydn's opinion of Beethoven's future was not so dogmatically +expressed; but he must have been sorely puzzled by a pupil who +looked upon even consecutive fifths as an open question, and +thought it a good thing to "learn occasionally what is according +to rule that one may hereafter come to what is contrary to rule." +It is said that Haydn persisted in regarding Beethoven, not as a +composer at all but as a pianoforte player; and certainly +Beethoven regarded Haydn as being behind the age. That he was +unjust to Haydn cannot be gainsaid. He even went so far as to +suspect Haydn of willfully trying to retard him in his studies, a +proceeding of which Haydn was altogether incapable. For many +years he continued to discharge splenetic remarks about his +music, and he was always annoyed at being called his pupil. "I +never learned anything from Haydn," he would say; "he never would +correct my mistakes." When, the day after the production of his +ballet music to Prometheus, he met Haydn in the street, the old +man observed to him: "I heard your music last night; I liked it +very well." To which Beethoven, alluding to Haydn's oratorio, +replied: "Oh! dear master, it is far from being a CREATION." +The doubtful sincerity of this remark may be inferred from an +anecdote quoted by Moscheles. Haydn had been told that Beethoven +was speaking depreciatingly of "The Creation." "That is wrong of +him," he said. "What has HE written, then? His Septet? Certainly +that is beautiful; nay, splendid." + +Beethoven on Haydn + +It is hardly necessary to say who comes out best in these +passages at arms. Yet we must not be too hard on Beethoven. That +he recognized Haydn's genius as a composer no careful reader of +his biography can fail to see. As Pohl takes pains to point out, +he spoke highly of Haydn whenever opportunity offered, often +chose one of his themes when improvising in public, scored one +of his quartets for his own use, and lovingly preserved the +autograph of one of the English symphonies. That he came in the +end to realize his true greatness is amply proved by the story +already related which represents him as exclaiming on his +death-bed upon the fact of Haydn having been born in a common +peasant's cottage. + +In the meantime, although Beethoven was dissatisfied with his +progress under Haydn, there was no open breach between the two. +It is true that the young musician sought another teacher--one +Schenck, a well-known Viennese composer--but this was done +without Haydn's knowledge, out of consideration, we may assume, +for his feelings. That master and pupil were still on the best of +terms may be gathered from their having been at Eisenstadt +together during the summer of 1793. In the January of the +following year Haydn set out on his second visit to England, and +Beethoven transferred himself to Albrechtsberger. + +The Haydn Museum + +Haydn's life in Vienna during the eighteen months which +intervened between the two London visits was almost totally +devoid of incident. His wife, it will be remembered, had written +to him in England, asking for money to buy a certain house which +she fancied for a "widow's home." Haydn was astute enough not to +send the money, but on his return to Vienna, finding the house +in every way to his liking, he bought it himself. Frau Haydn died +seven years later, "and now," said the composer, speaking in +1806, "I am living in it as a widower." The house is situated in +the suburb of Vienna known as Gumpendorf. It is No. 19 of the +Haydngasse and bears a marble memorial tablet, affixed to it in +1840. The pious care of the composer's admirers has preserved it +almost exactly as it was in Haydn's day, and has turned it into +a kind of museum containing portraits and mementoes of the master, +the original manuscript of "The Creation," and other interesting +relics. + +Starts for London + +Haydn started on his journey to England on January 19, 1794, +Salomon having brought him, under a promise to return with six +new symphonies which be was to conduct in person. This time he +travelled down the Rhine, and he had not been many days on the way +when news reached him of the death of Prince Anton Esterhazy, who +had very reluctantly given him leave of absence. On the occasion of +the first London visit Salomon had been his travelling companion; +now, feeling doubtless the encumbrance of increasing years, Haydn +took his servant and copyist, Johann Elssler, along with him. + +Honest Elssler + +It may be noted in passing that he entertained a very warm regard +for Elssler, whose father had been music copyist to Prince +Esterhazy. He was born at Eisenstadt in 1769, and, according to +Pohl, lived the whole of his life with Haydn, first as copyist, and +then as general servant and factotum. It was Elssler who tended the +composer in his last years, a service recompensed by the handsome +bequest of 6000 florins, which he lived to enjoy until 1843. No +man, it has been said, is a hero to his valet, but "Haydn was to +Elssler a constant subject of veneration, which he carried so far +that when he thought himself unobserved he would stop with the +censer before his master's portrait as if it were the altar." This +"true and honest servant" copied a large amount of Haydn's music, +partly in score, partly in separate parts, much of which is now +treasured as the autograph of Haydn, though the handwritings of +the two are essentially different. It is a pity that none of the +earlier writers on Haydn thought of applying to Elssler for +particulars of the private life of the composer. He could have +given information on many obscure points, and could have amplified +the details of this second London visit, about which we know much +less than we know about the former visit. + +The Salomon Concerts + +Salomon's first concert had been arranged for the 3rd of +February, but Haydn did not arrive until the 4th, and the series +accordingly began upon the 10th. Twelve concerts were given in +all, and with the most brilliant success. The six new symphonies +commissioned by Salomon were performed, and the previous set were +also repeated, along with some new quartets. Of the many +contemporary notices of the period, perhaps the most interesting +is that which appears in the Journal of Luxury and Fashion, +published at Weimar in July 1794. It is in the form of a London +letter, written on March 25, under the heading of "On the Present +State and Fashion of Music in England." After speaking of +Salomon's efforts on behalf of classical music and of the praise +due to him for his performance of the quartets of "our old +favourite, Haydn," the writer continues: "But what would you now +say to his new symphonies composed expressly for these concerts, +and directed by himself at the piano? It is truly wonderful what +sublime and august thoughts this master weaves into his works. +Passages often occur which render it impossible to listen to them +without becoming excited. We are altogether carried away by +admiration, and forced to applaud with hand and mouth. This is +especially the case with Frenchmen, of whom we have so many here +that all public places are filled with them. You know that they +have great sensibility, and cannot restrain their transports, so +that in the midst of the finest passages in soft adagios they +clap their hands in loud applause and thus mar the effect. In +every symphony of Haydn the adagio or andante is sure to be +repeated each time, after the most vehement encores. The worthy +Haydn, whose personal acquaintance I highly value, conducts +himself on these occasions in the most modest manner. He is +indeed a good-hearted, candid, honest man, esteemed and beloved +by all." + +Several notable incidents occurred at the Salomon Concerts. It +has been remarked, as "an event of some interest in musical +history," that Haydn and Wilhelm Cramer appeared together at one +concert, Cramer as leader of the orchestra, Haydn conducting from +the pianoforte. But Cramer was not a genius of the first rank-- +his compositions are of the slightest importance--and there was +nothing singular about his appearing along with Haydn. He had +been leader at the Handel Festivals at Westminster Abbey in 1784 +and 1787, and was just the man to be engaged for an enterprise +like that of Salomon's. + +A "Smart" Drummer + +An anecdote told of Haydn in connection with one of the rehearsals +is better worth noting. The drummer was found to be absent. "Can +anyone here play the drum?" inquired Haydn, looking round from +his seat at the piano. "I can," promptly replied young George +(afterwards Sir George) Smart, who was sitting among the +violinists. Smart, who lived to become the doyen of the musical +profession in England, had never handled a drumstick before, +and naturally failed to satisfy the conductor. Haydn took the +drumstick from him and "showed to the astonished orchestra a new +and unexpected attitude in their leader." Then, turning to Smart, +he remarked: "That is how we use the drumsticks in Germany." +"Oh, very well," replied the unabashed youth, "if you like it +better in that way we can also do it so in London." + +New Acquaintances + +Haydn made several new acquaintances during this visit, the most +notable being, perhaps, Dragonetti, the famous double-bass +player, who had accompanied Banti, the eminent prima donna, to +London in 1794. Banti had been discovered as a chanteuse in a +Paris cafe, and afterwards attracted much notice by her fine +voice both in Paris and London. "She is the first singer in +Italy, and drinks a bottle of wine every day," said one who knew +her. In her journeys through Germany, Austria and Italy she won +many triumphs. Haydn composed for her an air, "Non Partir," in E, +which she sang at his benefit. As for "Old Drag," the familiar +designation of the distinguished bassist, his eccentricities must +have provided Haydn with no little amusement. He always took his +dog Carlo with him into the orchestra, and Henry Phillips tells +us that, having a strange weakness for dolls, he often carried +one of them to the festivals as his wife! On his way to Italy in +1798 Dragonetti visited Haydn in Vienna, and was much delighted +with the score of "The Creation," just completed. Several eminent +violinists were in London at the time of Haydn's visit. The most +distinguished of them was perhaps Felice de Giardini, who, at the +age of fourscore, produced an oratorio at Ranelagh Gardens, and +even played a concerto. He had a perfectly volcanic temper, and +hated Haydn as the devil is said to hate holy water. "I don't +wish to see the German dog," he remarked in the composer's +hearing, when urged to pay him a visit. Haydn, as a rule, was +kindly disposed to all brother artists, but to be called a dog +was too much, He went to hear Giardini, and then got even with +him by noting in his diary that he "played like a pig." + +The accounts preserved of Haydn's second visit to England are, as +already remarked, far less full than those of the first visit. +Unconnected memoranda appear in his diary, some of which are +given by Griesinger and Dies; but they are of comparatively +little interest. During the summer of 1794 he moved about the +country a good deal. Thus, about the 26th of August, he paid a +visit to Waverley Abbey, whose "Annales Waverliensis" suggested +to Scott the name of his first romance. The ruined condition of +the venerable pile--it dates from 1128--set Haydn moralizing on +the "Protestant heresy" which led the "rascal mob" to tear down +"what had once been a stronghold of his own religion." + +Haydn at Bath + +In the following month he spent three days in Bath with Dr Burney, +and Rauzzini, the famous tenor, who had retired to the fashionable +watering-place after a successful career of thirteen years as a +singer and teacher in London. Rauzzini is little more than a name +now, but for Haydn's sake it is worth recalling his memory. Born at +Rome in 1747, his striking beauty of face and figure had drawn him +into certain entanglements which made it expedient for him to leave +his native land. He was as fond of animals as Dragonetti was of +dolls, and had erected a memorial tablet in his garden to his "best +friend," otherwise his dog. "Turk was a faithful dog and not a +man," ran the inscription, which reminds one of Schopenhauer's +cynical observation that if it were not for the honest faces of +dogs, we should forget the very existence of sincerity. When Haydn +read the inscription he immediately proceeded to make use of the +words for a four-part canon. It was presumably at this time that he +became acquainted with Dr Henry Harington, the musician and author, +who had removed to Bath in 1771, where he had founded the Harmonic +Society. Haydn dedicated one of his songs to him in return for +certain music and verses, which explains the following otherwise +cryptic note of Clementi's, published for the first time recently +by Mr J. S. Shedlock: "The first Dr [Harington] having bestowed +much praise on the second Dr [Haydn], the said second Dr, out of +doctorial gratitude, returns the 1st Dr thanks for all favours +recd., and praises in his turn the said 1st Dr most handsomely." +The title of Haydn's song was "Dr Harington's Compliments." + +Opera Concerts + +The composer returned to London at the beginning of October for +the winter season's concerts. These began, as before, in +February, and were continued once a week up to the month of May. +This time they took the form of opera concerts, and were given +at the "National School of Music" in the new concert-room of the +King's Theatre. No fresh symphonies were contributed by Haydn for +this series, though some of the old ones always found a place in +the programmes. Two extra concerts were given on May 21 and June 1, +at both of which Haydn appeared; but the composer's last benefit +concert was held on May 4. On this occasion the programme was +entirely confined to his own compositions, with the exception of +concertos by Viotti, the violinist, and Ferlendis, the oboist. Banti +sang the aria already mentioned as having been written expressly for +her, but, according to the composer, "sang very scanty." The main +thing, however, was that the concert proved a financial success, +the net receipts amounting to 400 pounds. "It is only in England," +said Haydn, "that one can make 4000 gulden in one evening." + +Haydn did indeed remarkably well in London. As Pohl says, "he +returned from it with increased powers, unlimited fame, and a +competence for life. By concerts, lessons, and symphonies, not +counting his other compositions, he had again made 1200 pounds, enough +to relieve him from all anxiety as to the future. He often said +afterwards that it was not till he had been to England that he +became famous in Germany; by which he meant that although his +reputation was high at home, the English were the first to give +him public homage and liberal remuneration." + +Kingly Courtesies + +It is superfluous to say that Haydn was as much of a "lion" in +London society during his second visit as he had been on the +previous occasion. The attention bestowed on him in royal circles +made that certain, for "society" are sheep, and royalty is their +bell-wether. The Prince of Wales had rather a fancy for him, and +commanded his attendance at Carlton House no fewer than twenty-six +times. At one concert at York House the programme was entirely +devoted to his music. George III and Queen Caroline were present, +and Haydn was presented to the King by the Prince. "You have +written a great deal, Dr Haydn," said the King. "Yes, sire," +was the reply; "more than is good for me." "Certainly not," +rejoined His Majesty. He was then presented to the Queen, and +asked to sing some German songs. "My voice," he said, pointing +to the tip of his little finger, "is now no bigger than that"; +but he sat down to the pianoforte and sang his song, "Ich bin +der Verliebteste." He was repeatedly invited by the Queen to +Buckingham Palace, and she tried to persuade him to settle in +England. "You shall have a house at Windsor during the summer +months," she said, and then, looking towards the King, added, +"We can sometimes make music tete-a-tete." "Oh! I am not jealous +of Haydn," interposed the King; "he is a good, honourable German." +"To preserve that reputation," replied Haydn, "is my greatest +pride." + +Most of Haydn's appearances were made at the concerts regularly +organized for the entertainment of royalty at Carlton House and +Buckingham Palace, and Haydn looked to be paid for his services. +Whether the King and the Prince expected him to give these +services in return for the supposed honour they had conferred +upon him does not appear. At all events, Haydn sent in a bill for +100 guineas sometime after his return to Vienna, and the amount +was promptly paid by Parliament. + +A Valuable Parrot + +Among the other attentions bestowed upon him while in London, +mention should be made of the present of a talking parrot. Haydn +took the bird with him, and it was sold for 140 pounds after his +death. Another gift followed him to Vienna. A Leicester +manufacturer named Gardiner--he wrote a book on The Music of +Nature, and other works--sent him half a dozen pairs of cotton +stockings, into which were woven the notes of the Austrian Hymn, +"My mother bids me bind my hair," the Andante from the "Surprise" +Symphony, and other thematic material. These musical stockings, +as a wit has observed, must have come as a REAL surprise to +Haydn. It was this same Leicester manufacturer, we may remark +parenthetically, who annotated the translation of Bombet's Life +of Haydn, made by his fellow-townsman, Robert Brewin, in 1817. + +Haydn's return from London was hastened by the receipt of a +communication from Esterhaz. Prince Anton had been succeeded by +his son Nicolaus, who was as fond of music as the rest of his +family, and desired to keep his musical establishment up to the +old standard. During the summer of 1794 he had written to Haydn, +asking if the composer would care to retain his appointment as +director. Haydn was only too glad to assent; and now that his +London engagements were fulfilled, he saw no reason for remaining +longer in England. Accordingly he started for home on the 15th of +August 1795, travelling by way of Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden, +and arriving at Vienna in the early days of September. + +Rohrau Reminiscences + +Soon after his return he was surprised to receive an invitation +to visit his native Rohrau. When he arrived there he found that a +monument, with a marble bust of himself, had been erected to his +honour in a park near his birthplace. This interesting memorial +consists of a square pillar surmounting three stone steps, with +an inscription on each side. The visit was productive of mingled +feelings to Haydn. He took his friends to see the old thatch-roofed +cottage, and, pointing to the familiar stove, still in its place, +modestly remarked that there his career as a musician began--a +reminiscence of the now far-away time when he sat by his father's +side and sawed away on his improvised fiddle. + +Esterhaz once more + +There is little to say about Haydn's labours as Capellmeister of +the Esterhazy household at this time. Apparently he was only at +Eisenstadt for the summer and autumn. Down to 1802, however, he +always had a mass ready for Princess Esterhazy's name-day in +September. These compositions are Nos. 2, 1, 3, 16, 4 and 6 of +the Novello edition. No. 2, Pohl tells us, was composed in 1796, +and called the "Paukenmesse," from the fact of the drums being +used in the Agnus. No. 3 was written in 1797. It is known in +England as the Imperial Mass, but in Germany as "Die +Nelsonmesse," on account of its having been performed during +Nelson's visit to Eisenstadt in 1800. On that occasion Nelson +asked Haydn for his pen, and gave him his own gold watch in +exchange. + +The Austrian Hymn + +It was shortly after his return to Vienna--in January 1797, to be +precise--that he composed his favourite air, "God preserve the +Emperor," better known as the Austrian Hymn. The story of this +celebrated composition is worth telling with some minuteness. Its +inception was due to Count von Saurau, Imperial High Chancellor +and Minister of the Interior. Writing in 1820, the count said: + +I often regretted that we had not, like the English, a national +air calculated to display to all the world the loyal devotion of +our people to the kind and upright ruler of our Fatherland, and +to awaken within the hearts of all good Austrians that noble +national pride so indispensable to the energetic fulfillment of +all the beneficial measures of the sovereign. This seemed to me +more urgent at a period when the French Revolution was raging +most furiously, and when the Jacobins cherished the idle hope of +finding among the worthy Viennese partisans and participators +in their criminal designs. [The scandalous Jacobin persecutions +and executions in Austria and Hungary took place in 1796]. +I caused that meritorious poet Haschka to write the words, +and applied to our immortal countryman Haydn to set them to +music, for I considered him alone capable of writing anything +approaching in merit to the English "God save the King." Such +was the origin of our national hymn. + +It would not have been difficult to match "God save the King," +the mediocrity of which, especially as regards the words, has +been the butt of countless satirists. Beethoven wrote in his +diary that he "must show the English what a blessing they have" +in that "national disgrace." If Haydn regarded it as a +"blessing," he certainly did not take it as a model. He produced +an air which, looking at it from a purely artistic point of view, +is the best thing of the national anthem kind that has ever been +written. The Emperor was enchanted with it when sung on his +birthday, February 12, 1797, at the National Theatre in Vienna, +and through Count Saurau sent the composer a gold box adorned +with a facsimile of the royal features. "Such a surprise and such +a mark of favour, especially as regards the portrait of my +beloved monarch," wrote Haydn, "I never before received in +acknowledgment of my poor talents." + +Haydn's Love for It + +We have several indications of Haydn's predilection for this fine +air, which has long been popular as a hymn tune in all the +churches. He wrote a set of variations for it as the Andante of +his "Kaiser Quartet." Griesinger tells us, too, that as often as +the warm weather and his strength permitted, during the last few +years of his life, he used to be led into his back room that he +might play it on the piano. It is further related by Dies that, +during the bombardment of Vienna in May 1809, Haydn seated +himself at his instrument every forenoon to give forth the sound +of the favourite song. Indeed, on May 26, only five days before +his death, he played it over three times in succession, and "with +a degree of expression that astonished himself." As one writer +puts it, the air "seemed to have acquired a certain sacredness +in his eyes in an age when kings were beheaded and their crowns +tossed to the rabble." + +Haydn's first sketch of the melody was found among his papers +after his death. We reproduce it here, with an improvement +shown in small notes. There are, it will be observed, some slight +differences between the draft and the published version of the air: + +[figure: a musical score excerpt from the draft] + +[figure: a musical score excerpt from the published version] + +The collecting of what Tennyson called "the chips of the +workshop" is not as a rule an edifying business, but the +evolution of a great national air must always be interesting. + +Plagiarism or Coincidence? + +It might perhaps be added that Dr Kuhac, the highest authority +on Croatian folk-song, asserted in an article contributed to the +Croatian Review (1893) that the Austrian National Hymn was based +on a Croatian popular air. In reviewing Kuhac's collection of +Croatian melodies, a work in four volumes, containing 1600 +examples, Dr Reimann signifies his agreement with Kuhac, and +adds that Haydn employed Croatian themes not only in "God +preserve the Emperor," but in many passages of his other works. +These statements must not be taken too seriously. Handel purloined +wholesale from brother composers and said nothing about it. The +artistic morality of Haydn's age was different, and, knowing his +character as we do, we may be perfectly sure that if he had of +set purpose introduced into any of his compositions music which +was not his own he would, in some way or other, have acknowledged +the debt. This hunting for plagiarisms which are not plagiarisms +at all but mere coincidences--coincidences which are and must be +inevitable--is fast becoming a nuisance, and it is the duty of +every serious writer to discredit the practice. The composer of +"The Creation" had no need to borrow his melodies from any +source. + +CHAPTER VII + +"THE CREATION" AND "THE SEASONS" + +Haydn's Crowning Achievement--"The Creation" suggested--The +"Unintelligible Jargon" of the Libretto--The Stimulating Effect +of London--Haydn's Self-Criticism--First Performance of "The +Creation"--London Performances--French Enthusiasm--The Oratorio +criticized--"The Seasons." + +Haydn's Crowning Achievement + +Haydn rounded his life with "The Creation" and "The Seasons." +They were the summit of his achievement, as little to be expected +from him, considering his years, as "Falstaff" was to be expected +from the octogenarian Verdi. Some geniuses flower late. It was +only now, by his London symphonies and his "Creation," that +Haydn's genius blossomed so luxuriantly as to place him with +almost amazing suddenness among the very first of composers. +There is hardly anything more certain than this, that if he had +not come to London he would not have stood where he stands to-day. +The best of his symphonies were written for London; and it was +London, in effect, that set him to work in what was for him +practically a new direction, leading to the production of an +oratorio which at once took its place by the side of Handel's +master-pieces, and rose to a popularity second only to that of +"The Messiah" itself. + +"The Creation" suggested + +The connection thus established between the names of Handel and +Haydn is interesting, for there can be little question that Haydn +was led to think of writing a large choral work chiefly as the +result of frequently hearing Handel's oratorios during his visits +to the metropolis. The credit of suggesting "The Creation" to +Haydn is indeed assigned to Salomon, but it is more than probable +that the matter had already been occupying his thoughts. It has +been explicitly stated [See note by C.H. Purday in +Leisure Hour for 1880, p. 528.] that, being greatly impressed +with the effect produced by "The Messiah," Haydn intimated to his +friend Barthelemon his desire to compose a work of the same kind. +He asked Barthelemon what subject he would advise for such a +purpose, and Barthelemon, pointing to a copy of the Bible, +replied: "There! take that, and begin at the beginning." This +story is told on apparently good authority. But it hardly fits in +with the statements of biographers. According to the biographers, +Salomon handed the composer a libretto originally selected for +Handel from Genesis and Paradise Lost by Mr Lidley or Liddell. +That this was the libretto used by Haydn is certain, and we may +therefore accept it as a fact that Haydn's most notable +achievement in choral music was due in great measure to the man +who had brought him to London, and had drawn from him the finest +of his instrumental works. + +"The Creation" Libretto + +Before proceeding further we may deal finally with the libretto +of "The Creation." The "unintelligible jargon" which disfigures +Haydn's immortal work has often formed the subject of comment; and +assuredly nothing that can be said of it can well be too severe. +"The Creation" libretto stands to the present day as an example of +all that is jejune and incongruous in words for music. The theme +has in itself so many elements of inspiration that it is a matter +for wonder how, for more than a century, English-speaking audiences +have listened to the arrant nonsense with which Haydn's music is +associated. As has been well observed, "the suburban love-making of +our first parents, and the lengthy references to the habits of the +worm and the leviathan are almost more than modern flesh and blood +can endure." Many years ago a leading musical critic wrote that +there ought to be enough value, monetarily speaking, in "The +Creation" to make it worth while preparing a fresh libretto; for, +said he, "the present one seems only fit for the nursery, to use in +connection with Noah's ark." At the Norwich Festival performance of +the oratorio in 1872, the words were, in fact, altered, but in all +the published editions of the work the text remains as it was. It +is usual to credit the composer's friend, Baron van Swieten, with +the "unintelligible jargon." The baron certainly had a considerable +hand in the adaptation of the text. But in reality it owes its very +uncouth verbiage largely to the circumstance that it was first +translated from English into German, and then re-translated back +into English; the words, with the exception of the first chorus, +being adapted to the music. Considering the ways of translators, +the best libretto in the world could not but have suffered under +such transformations, and it is doing a real injustice to the +memory of Baron Swieten, the good friend of more than one composer, +to hold him up needlessly to ridicule. [In one of George Thomson's +letters to Mrs Hunter we read: "It it is not the first time that +your muse and Haydn's have met, as we see from the beautiful +canzonets. Would he had been directed by you about the words to +'The Creation'! It is lamentable to see such divine music joined +with such miserable broken English. He (Haydn) wrote me lately that +in three years, by the performance of 'The Creation' and 'The +Seasons' at Vienna, 40,000 florins had been raised for the poor +families of musicians."] + +The Stimulus of London + +Haydn set to work on "The Creation" with all the ardour of a first +love. Naumann suggests that his high spirits were due to the +"enthusiastic plaudits of the English people," and that the birth +of both "The Creation" and "The Seasons" was "unquestionably owing +to the new man he felt within himself after his visit to England." +There was now, in short, burning within his breast, "a spirit of +conscious strength which he knew not he possessed, or knowing, was +unaware of its true worth." This is somewhat exaggerated. Handel +wrote "The Messiah" in twenty-four days; it took Haydn the best part +of eighteen months to complete "The Creation," from which we may +infer that "the sad laws of time" had not stopped their operation +simply because he had been to London. No doubt, as we have already +more than hinted, he was roused and stimulated by the new scenes +and the unfamiliar modes of life which he saw and experienced in +England. His temporary release from the fetters of official life +had also an exhilarating influence. So much we learn indeed from +himself. Thus, writing from London to Frau von Genzinger, he says: +"Oh, my dear, good lady, how sweet is some degree of liberty! I had +a kind prince, but was obliged at times to be dependent on base +souls. I often sighed for freedom, and now I have it in some +measure. I am quite sensible of this benefit, though my mind is +burdened with more work. The consciousness of being no longer a +bond-servant sweetens all my toils." If this liberty, this contact +with new people and new forms of existence, had come to Haydn twenty +years earlier, it might have altered the whole current of his +career. But it did not help him much in the actual composition +of "The Creation," which he found rather a tax, alike on his +inspiration and his physical powers. Writing to Breitkopf & +Hartel on June 12, 1799, he says: "The world daily pays me many +compliments, even on the fire of my last works; but no one could +believe the strain and effort it costs me to produce these, +inasmuch as many a day my feeble memory and the unstrung state of +my nerves so completely crush me to the earth, that I fall into the +most melancholy condition, so much so that for days afterwards I am +incapable of finding one single idea, till at length my heart is +revived by Providence, when I seat myself at the piano and begin +once more to hammer away at it. Then all goes well again, God be +praised!" + +Self-Criticism + +In the same letter he remarks that, "as for myself, now an old +man, I hope the critics may not handle my 'Creation' with too +great severity, and be too hard on it. They may perhaps find the +musical orthography faulty in various passages, and perhaps other +things also which I have for so many years been accustomed to +consider as minor points; but the genuine connoisseur will see +the real cause as readily as I do, and will willingly cast aside +such stumbling blocks." It is impossible to miss the significance +of all this. + +[At this point in the original book, a facsimile of a letter +regarding "The Creation" takes up the entire next page.] + +Certainly it ought to be taken into account in any critical +estimate of "The Creation"; for when a man admits his own +shortcomings it is ungracious, to say the least, for an outsider +to insist upon them. It is obvious at any rate that Haydn +undertook the composition of the oratorio in no light-hearted +spirit. "Never was I so pious," he says, "as when composing 'The +Creation.' I felt myself so penetrated with religious feeling +that before I sat down to the pianoforte I prayed to God with +earnestness that He would enable me to praise Him worthily." In +the lives of the great composers there is only one parallel to +this frame of mind--the religious fervour in which Handel +composed "The Messiah." + +First Performance of the Oratorio + +The first performance of "The Creation" was of a purely private +nature. It took place at the Schwartzenburg Palace, Vienna, on +the 29th of April 1798, the performers being a body of +dilettanti, with Haydn presiding over the orchestra. Van Swieten +had been exerting himself to raise a guarantee fund for the +composer, and the entire proceeds of the performance, amounting +to 350 pounds, were paid over to him. Haydn was unable to describe +his sensations during the progress of the work. "One moment," he +says, "I was as cold as ice, the next I seemed on fire; more than +once I thought I should have a fit." A year later, on the 19th of +March 1799, to give the exact date, the oratorio was first heard +publicly at the National Theatre in Vienna, when it produced the +greatest effect. The play-bill announcing the performance (see +next page) had a very ornamental border, and was, of course, in +German. + +[At this point in the original book, a facsimile of the first +play-bill for "The Creation" takes up the entire next page.] + +Next year the score was published by Breitkopf & Hartel, and no +fewer than 510 copies, nearly half the number subscribed for, +came to England. The title-page was printed both in German and +English, the latter reading as follows: "The Creation: an +Oratorio composed by Joseph Haydn, Doctor of Musik, and member of +the Royal Society of Musik, in Sweden, in actuel (sic) service of +His Highness the Prince of Esterhazy, Vienna, 1800." Clementi had +just set up a musical establishment in London, and on August 22, +1800, we find Haydn writing to his publishers to complain that +he was in some danger of losing 2000 gulden by Clementi's +non-receipt of a consignment of copies. + +London Performances + +Salomon, strangely enough, had threatened Haydn with penalties +for pirating his text, but he thought better of the matter, and +now wrote to the composer for a copy of the score, so that he +might produce the oratorio in London. He was, however, +forestalled by Ashley, who was at that time giving performances +of oratorio at Covent Garden Theatre, and who brought forward the +new work on the 28th of March (1800). An amusing anecdote is told +in this connection. The score arrived by a King's messenger from +Vienna on Saturday, March 22, at nine o'clock in the evening. It +was handed to Thomas Goodwin, the copyist of the theatre, who +immediately had the parts copied out for 120 performers. The +performance was on the Friday evening following, and when Mr +Harris, the proprietor of the theatre, complimented all parties +concerned on their expedition, Goodwin, with ready wit, replied: +"Sir, we have humbly emulated a great example; it is not the +first time that the Creation has been completed in six days." +Salomon followed on the 21st of April with a performance at the +King's Theatre, Mara and Dussek taking the principal parts. Mara +remarked that it was the first time she had accompanied an +orchestra! + +French Enthusiasm + +Strange to say--for oratorio has never been much at home in +France--"The Creation" was received with immense enthusiasm in +Paris when it was first performed there in the summer of this +same year. Indeed, the applause was so great that the artists, in +a fit of transport, and to show their personal regard for the +composer, resolved to present him with a large gold medal. The +medal was designed by the famous engraver, Gateaux. It was +adorned on one side with a likeness of Haydn, and on the other +side with an ancient lyre, over which a flame flickered in the +midst of a circle of stars. The inscription ran: "Homage a Haydn +par les Musiciens qui ont execute l'oratorio de la Creation du +Monde au Theatre des Arts l'au ix de la Republique Francais ou +MDCCC." The medal was accompanied by a eulogistic address, to +which the recipient duly replied in a rather flowery epistle. "I +have often," he wrote, "doubted whether my name would survive me, +but your goodness inspires me with confidence, and the token of +esteem with which you have honoured me perhaps justifies my hope +that I shall not wholly die. Yes, gentlemen, you have crowned my +gray hairs, and strewn flowers on the brink of my grave." Seven +years after this Haydn received another medal from Paris--from +the Societe Academique des Enfants d'Apollon, who had elected him +an honorary member. + +A second performance of "The Creation" took place in the French +capital on December 24, 1800, when Napoleon I. escaped the +infernal machine in the Rue Nicaise. It was, however, in England, +the home of oratorio, that the work naturally took firmest root. +It was performed at the Worcester Festival of 1800, at the +Hereford Festival of the following year, and at Gloucester in +1802. Within a few years it had taken its place by the side of +Handel's best works of the kind, and its popularity remained +untouched until Mendelssohn's "Elijah" was heard at Birmingham in +1847. Even now, although it has lost something of its old-time +vogue, it is still to be found in the repertory of our leading +choral societies. It is said that when a friend urged Haydn to +hurry the completion of the oratorio, he replied: "I spend much +time over it because I intend it to last a long time." How +delighted he would have been could he have foreseen that it would +still be sung and listened to with pleasure in the early years of +the twentieth century. + +"The Creation" criticized + +No one thinks of dealing critically with the music of "The +Messiah"; and it seems almost as thankless a task to take the +music of "The Creation" to pieces. Schiller called it a +"meaningless hotch-potch"; and even Beethoven, though he was not +quite innocent of the same thing himself, had his sardonic laugh +over its imitations of beasts and birds. Critics of the oratorio +seldom fail to point out these "natural history effects"--to +remark on "the sinuous motion of the worm," "the graceful +gamboling of the leviathan," the orchestral imitations of the +bellowing of the "heavy beasts," and such like. It is probably +indefensible on purely artistic grounds. But Handel did it in +"Israel in Egypt" and elsewhere. And is there not a crowing cock +in Bach's "St Matthew Passion"? Haydn only followed the example +of his predecessors. + +Of course, the dispassionate critic cannot help observing that +there is in "The Creation" a good deal of music which is +finicking and something which is trumpery. But there is also much +that is first-rate. The instrumental representation of chaos, for +example, is excellent, and nothing in all the range of oratorio +produces a finer effect than the soft voices at the words, "And +the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Even the +fortissimo C major chord on the word "light," coming abruptly +after the piano and mezzoforte minor chords, is as dazzling to-day +as it was when first sung. It has been said that the work is +singularly deficient in sustained choruses. That is true, if we +are comparing it with the choruses of Handel's oratorios. But +Haydn's style is entirely different from that of Handel. His +choruses are designed on a much less imposing scale. They are +more reflective or descriptive, much less dramatic. It was not in +his way "to strike like a thunderbolt," as Mozart said of Handel. +The descriptive effects which he desired to introduce into his +orchestration made it necessary that he should throw the vocal +element into a simpler mould. Allowance must be made for these +differences. Haydn could never have written "The Messiah," but, +on the other hand, Handel could never have written "The +Creation." + +The chief beauty of Haydn's work lies in its airs for the solo +voices. While never giving consummate expression to real and deep +emotion, much less sustained thought, they are never wanting in +sincerity, and the melody and the style are as pure and good as +those of the best Italian writing for the stage. With all our +advance it is impossible to resist the freshness of "With verdure +clad," and the tender charm of such settings as that of "Softly +purling, glides on, thro' silent vales, the limpid brook." On the +whole, however, it is difficult to sum up a work like "The +Creation," unless, as has been cynically remarked, one is +prepared to call it great and never go to hear it. It is not +sublime, but neither is it dull. In another fifty years, perhaps, +the critic will be able to say that its main interest is largely +historic and literary. [See J. F. Runciman's Old Scores and New +Readings, where an admirably just and concise appreciation of +Haydn and "The Creation" may be read.] + +A New Work + +After such an unexpected success as that of "The Creation," it +was only in the nature of things that Haydn's friends should +persuade him to undertake the composition of a second work of the +kind. Van Swieten was insistent, and the outcome of his +importunity was "The Seasons." This work is generally classed as +an oratorio, but it ought more properly to be called a cantata, +being essentially secular as regards its text, though the form +and style are practically the same as those of "The Creation." +The libretto was again due to Swieten, who, of course, adapted +the text from James Thomson's well-known poem. + +"The Seasons" + +It would certainly have been a pity to lose such a fresh, +melodious little work as "The Seasons"; but it is only too +apparent that while there was no appreciable failure of Haydn's +creative force, his physical strength was not equal to the strain +involved by a composition of such length. In 1806, when Dies +found him rather weaker than usual, he dolorously remarked: "You +see it is all over with me. Eight years ago it was different, but +'The Seasons' brought on this weakness. I ought never to have +undertaken that work. It gave me the finishing stroke." He +appears to have started on the work with great reluctance and +with considerable distrust of his own powers, but once fairly +committed to the undertaking he entered into it with something of +his old animation, disputing so manfully with his librettist over +certain points in the text that a serious rupture between the two +was at one time imminent. The subject was probably not very +congenial to Haydn, who, as the years advanced, was more and more +inclined towards devotional themes. That at least seems to be the +inference to be drawn from the remark which he made to the +Emperor Francis on being asked which of his two oratorios he +himself preferred. "'The Creation,'" answered Haydn. "In 'The +Creation' angels speak and their talk is of God; in 'The Seasons' +no one higher speaks than Farmer Simon." + +"The Seasons" criticized + +But whether he liked the theme or not, in the end he produced a +work as fresh and genial and melodious as if it had been the work +of his prime. If anyone sees in it an evidence of weakness, he is +seeing only what he had expected to see. As Mr Rockstro remarks, +not a trace of the "failing power" of which the grand old man +complained is to be found in any part of it. It is a model of +descriptive, contemplative work, and must please by its +thoughtful beauty and illustrative power. True to Nature in its +minutest details, it yet never insults her by trivial attempts at +outward imitation where artistic suggestion of the hidden truth +was, possible. The "delicious softness" of the opening chorus, +and the perfection of rustic happiness portrayed in the song +which describes the joy of the "impatient husbandman" are alone +sufficient to prove that, whatever he may have thought about it +himself, Haydn's genius was not appreciably waning. + +The first performance of "The Seasons" took place at the +Schwartzenburg Palace on the 24th of April 1801. It was repeated +twice within a week; and on the 29th of May the composer +conducted a grand public performance at the Redoutensaal. The +work proved almost as successful as "The Creation." Haydn was +enraptured with it, but he was never really himself again. As he +said, it gave him the finishing stroke. + +CHAPTER VIII + +LAST YEARS + +Failing Strength--Last Works--A Scottish Admirer--Song +Accompaniments--Correspondence with George Thomson--Mrs Jordan-- +A Hitch--A "Previous" Letter of Condolence--Eventide--Last Public +Appearance--The End--Funeral Honours--Desecration of Remains. + +Failing Strength + +Little is left to be told of the years which followed the +production of "The Seasons." Haydn never really recovered from +the strain which that last great effort of his genius had +entailed. From his letters and the reminiscences of his friends +we can read only too plainly the story of his growing infirmity. +Even in 1799 he spoke of the diminution of his mental powers, and +exclaimed: "Oh, God! how much yet remains to be done in this +splendid art, even by a man like myself!" In 1802 he wrote of +himself as "a gradually decaying veteran," enjoying only the +feeble health which is "the inseparable companion of a gray-haired +man of seventy." In December 1803 he made his last public exertion +by conducting the "Seven Words" for the hospital fund at the +Redoutensaal, and shortly afterwards wrote sadly of his "very +great weakness." In 1804 he was asked to direct a performance of +"The Creation," but declined on the score of failing strength. +Gradually he withdrew himself almost entirely from the outside +world, his general languor broken only by the visits of friends +and by moods of passing cheerfulness. Cherubini, the Abbe Vogler, +Pleyel, the Weber family, Hummel, Reichardt, and many others came +to see him. Visits from members of the Esterhazy family gave him +much pleasure. Mozart's widow also brought her son Wolfgang, to +beg his blessing on the occasion of his first public concert in +April 1805, for which he had composed a cantata in honour of +Haydn's seventy-third birthday. But the homage of friends and +admirers could not strengthen the weak hands or confirm the feeble +knees. In 1806 Dies notes that his once-gleaming eye has become +dull and heavy and his complexion sallow, while he suffers from +"headache, deafness, forgetfulness and other pains." His old +gaiety has completely gone, and even his friends have become a +bore to him. "My remaining days," he said to Dies, "must all be +spent in this lonely fashion.... I have many visitors, but it +confuses me so much to talk to them that at last I scarcely know +what I am saying and only long to be left in peace." The condition +of a man of naturally genial and optimistic temperament can easily +be imagined from all this--perhaps even more from the fact of his +having a card printed to hand to inquirers who called, bearing +the words: + +Hin ist alle meine Kraft; +Alt and schwach bin ich. + +[Fled for ever is my strength; +Old and weak am I.] + +Last Works + +But while Haydn was thus suffering from the natural disabilities +of his years, he was not wholly divorced from his art. It is true +that nothing of any real importance came from his pen after "The +Seasons," but a good deal of work of various kinds was done, some +of which it is impossible for the biographer to ignore. One +rather novel undertaking carries us back to the end of 1799, +about which time he was first asked by George Thomson, the friend +of Burns, to write accompaniments for certain Scottish songs to +be published in Thomson's well-known national collections. The +correspondence which followed is interesting in many ways, and as +it is not noticed in any other biography of Haydn, we propose to +deal with it here. [The letters passed through the +present writer's hands some five years ago, when he was preparing +his Life of George Thomson(1898). They are now in the British +Museum with the other Thomson correspondence.] + +A Scottish Admirer + +George Thomson engaged at one time or other the services of +Beethoven, Pleyel, Weber, Hummel, Bishop and Kozeluch. But Haydn +was his first love. A genius of the kind, he writes in 1811 +"never before existed and probably never will be surpassed." He +is "the inimitable Haydn," the "delectable," the "father of us +all," and so on. On the other hand, Haydn was proud of what he +did for Thomson. "I boast of this work," he said, "and by it I +flatter myself my name will live in Scotland many years after my +death." Nay, if we may trust an authority cited by Thomson, so +highly did he think of "the symphonies and accompaniments which +he composed for my melodies as to have the original score of each +framed and hung all over the walls of his bedroom." Little wonder +that Thomson "loved the dear old man" and regretted that his +worldly circumstances did not allow him to erect a statue to the +composer at his own expense! + +We have called this writing of symphonies and accompaniments for +George Thomson a novel undertaking. It was, however, only novel +in the sense of being rather out of Haydn's special "line." He +had already been employed on work of the kind for the collection +of William Napier, to which he contributed the accompaniments of +150 songs. Later on, too (in 1802-1803), he harmonized and wrote +accompaniments for sixty-five airs, for which he received 500 +florins from Whyte of Edinburgh. The extent of his labours for +George Thomson we shall now proceed to show. + +Song Accompaniments + +Thomson addressed his first letter to Haydn in October 1799. +There is no copy of it, but there is a copy of a letter to Mr +Straton, a friend of Thomson's, who was at this time Secretary to +the Legation at Vienna. Straton was to deliver the letter to +Haydn, and negotiate with him on Thomson's behalf. He was +authorized to "say whatever you conceive is likely to produce +compliance," and if necessary to "offer a few more ducats for +each air." The only stipulation was that Haydn "must not speak of +what he gets." Thomson does not expect that he will do the +accompaniments better than Kozeluch--"that is scarcely +possible"(!); but in the symphonies he will be "great and +original." Thomson, as we now learn from Straton, had offered 2 +ducats for each air (say 20s.); Haydn "seemed desirous of having +rather more than 2 ducats, but did not precisely insist upon the +point." Apparently he did not insist, for the next intimation of +the correspondence is to the effect that thirty-two airs which he +had just finished had been forwarded to Thomson on June 19, 1800. +They would have been done sooner, says Straton, but "poor Haydn +laboured under so severe an illness during the course of this +spring that we were not altogether devoid of alarm in regard to +his recovery." Thomson, thus encouraged, sent sixteen more airs; +and Straton writes (April 30, 1801) that Haydn at first refused +to touch them because the price paid was too low. But in the +course of conversation Straton learnt that Haydn was writing to +Thomson to ask him to procure a dozen India handkerchiefs, and it +struck him that "your making him a present of them might mollify +the veteran into compliance respecting the sixteen airs." Straton +therefore took upon himself to promise in Thomson's name that the +handkerchiefs would be forthcoming, and "this had the desired +effect to such a degree that Haydn immediately put the sixteen +airs in his pocket, and is to compose the accompaniments as soon +as possible on the same terms as the former." + +Mrs Jordan + +The handkerchiefs duly arrived--"nice and large"--and Haydn made +his acknowledgments in appropriate terms. At the same time (in +January 1802) he wrote: "I send you with this the favourite air +'The Blue Bells of Scotland,' and I should like that this little +air should be engraved all alone and dedicated in my name as a +little complimentary gift to the renowned Mrs Jordan, whom, +without having the honour of knowing, I esteem extremely for her +great virtue and reputation." Mrs Jordan has been credited with +the air of "The Blue Bells of Scotland." She certainly +popularized the song, whether it was her own or not. In the note +just quoted Haydn must have used the term "virtue" in the Italian +sense. + +A Hitch + +After this a little hitch occurred in the Thomson correspondence. +Haydn, being asked by Whyte, the publisher of a rival collection, +to do something for his work, at once agreed. Thomson, not +unnaturally, perhaps, felt hurt. He made his complaint through +Mr Straton's successor at the Embassy, Mr Charles Stuart; and +in August 1803 Stuart writes to say that he had broached the +matter to Haydn "in as delicate terms as possible for fear he +might take offence." Haydn frankly admitted that he had done the +accompaniments for Whyte, but said the airs were different from +those he had done for Thomson. After "a long conversation, he +informed me," says Mr Stuart, "that being now seventy-four years +of age and extremely infirm, he found himself wholly incapable of +further application to study; that he must therefore beg leave to +decline all offers, whether on your part or from any other person +whatsoever. He even declared that notwithstanding the repeated +requests of Prince Esterhazy, he felt himself utterly incapable +of finishing several pieces of music he had undertaken, and being +possessed of a competency he desired nothing so much as to pass +the short time he has yet to live in repose and quiet." From this +letter we learn that Thomson had unluckily sent a present of a +handkerchief for Frau Haydn, who had now been dead for three +years! + +A "Previous" Letter of Condolence + +In spite of the little misunderstanding just referred to Haydn +was brought round once more, and on the 20th of December 1803 +Thomson sends twenty-four airs, "which will most certainly be the +last." Haydn's work delights him so much that he "really cannot +bear the idea of seeking an inferior composer to finish a work +already so nearly finished by you." He would pay 4 ducats for +each air rather than have the mortification of a refusal. After +this there is little of interest to note in the correspondence, +unless it be a very "previous" letter of condolence which Thomson +sent to Vienna. A false rumour had reached him that Haydn was +dead. The following extract from a note which Haydn dictated to +be sent to the friend who received Thomson's letter will explain +the matter: + +Kindly say to Mr Thomson that Haydn is very sensible of +the distress that the news of his alleged death has caused +him, and that this sign of affection has added, if that +were possible, to the esteem and friendship he will always +entertain for Mr Thomson. You will notice that he has put +his name and the date on the sheet of music to give better +proof that he is still on this nether world. He begs you +at the same time to be kind enough to have Mr Thomson's +letter of condolence copied and to send him the copy. + +Haydn's experience in this way was perhaps unique. Burney says he +was reported dead in 1778; and the false rumour which reached +Thomson in 1805 led Cherubini to compose a sacred cantata for +three voices and orchestra, which was duly performed in Paris +when his death actually occurred. + +Haydn furnished in all some 250 airs with symphonies and +accompaniments for Thomson. In the packet of letters from the +composer, docketed by Thomson himself, the latter has placed a +slip of paper indicating the various payments he had made. +According to this statement Haydn had 291 pounds, 18s. for his +work from first to last--not by any means an insignificant sum to +make out of a side branch of his art. + +Eventide + +This interesting correspondence takes us up to the year 1806, by +which time Haydn's work was entirely over. His eventide, alas! +was darkened by the clouds of war. The wave of the French +Revolution had cast its bloody spray upon the surrounding +nations, and 1805 saw the composer's beloved Vienna occupied by +the French. Haydn was no politician, but love of country lay deep +down in his heart, and he watched the course of events, from his +little cottage, with the saddest forebodings. + +The Last Public Appearance + +Once only was he drawn from his seclusion. This was on the 27th +of March 1808, when he appeared in public for the last time at +a performance of "The Creation" at the University. The scene +on this remarkable occasion has been described by many pens. +Naumann, writing of it, says that "such an apotheosis of the +master was witnessed as has but few parallels," and this is no +exaggeration. The performance, which was under the direction +of Salieri, had been arranged in honour of his approaching +seventy-sixth birthday. All the great artists of Vienna were +present, among them Beethoven and Hummel. Prince Esterhazy had +sent his carriage to bring the veteran to the hall, and, as he +was being conveyed in an arm-chair to a place among the princes +and nobles, the whole audience rose to their feet in testimony of +their regard. It was a cold night, and ladies sitting near swathed +him in their costly wraps and lace shawls. The concert began, and +the audience was hushed to silence. When that magnificent passage +was reached, "And there was light," they burst into loud applause, +and Haydn, overcome with excitement, exclaimed, "Not I, but a +Power from above created that." The performance went on, but it +proved too much for the old man, and friends arranged to take him +home at the end of the first part. As he was being carried out, +some of the highest of the land crowded round to take what was +felt to be a last farewell; and Beethoven, forgetting incidents of +early days, bent down and fervently kissed his hand and forehead. +Having reached the door, Haydn asked his bearers to pause and turn +him towards the orchestra. Then, lifting his hand, as if in the +act of blessing, he was borne out into the night. + +Next year Vienna was bombarded by the French, and a cannon-ball +fell not far from Haydn's house. He was naturally much alarmed; +but there is no ground for the statement, sometimes made, that +his death was hastened by the fright. On the contrary, he called +out to his servants, who were assisting him to dress: "Children, +don't be frightened; no harm can happen to you while Haydn is +here." + +The End + +But his days were numbered. "This miserable war has cast me down +to the very ground," he would say, with tears in his eyes. And +yet it was a French officer who last visited him on his death-bed, +the city being then actually occupied by the enemy. The officer's +name is not given, but he sang "In native worth" with such +expression that Haydn was quite overcome, and embraced him +warmly at parting. On May 26 he seems to have felt that his end +was fast approaching. He gathered his household around him, and, +being carried to the piano, at his own special request, played +the Emperor's Hymn three times over, with an emotion that fairly +overpowered himself and all who heard him. Five days later, on +the 31st of May 1809, he breathed his last. + +Funeral services were held in all the churches, and on June 15 +Mozart's Requiem was given in his honour at the Scots Church, +when several generals and administrators of the French army were +present. Many poems were also written in his praise. + +Haydn was buried as a private individual in the Hundsthurm +Churchyard, which was just outside the lines, and close to the +suburb of Gumpendorf, where he had lived. The grave remained +entirely undistinguished till 1814--another instance of Vienna's +neglect--when Haydn's pupil, Chevalier Neukomm, erected a stone +bearing the following inscription, which contains a five-part +canon for solution: + +HAYDN + +NATUS MDCCXXXIII. OBIIT MDCCCIX. + +CAN. AENIGM. QUINQUE. VOC. + +[figure: a musical score excerpt to the syllables non om - nis +mo - ri - ar] + +D. D. D. + +Discp. Eius Neukom Vindob. Redux. Mdcccxiv. + +Desecration of Haydn's Remains + +In 1820 the remains were exhumed by order of Prince Esterhazy, +and re-interred with fresh funeral honours in the Pilgrimage +Church of Maria-Einsiedel, near Eisenstadt, on November 7. A +simple stone, with a Latin inscription, is inserted in the wall +over the vault. When the coffin was opened, the startling +discovery was made that the skull had been stolen. The +desecration took place two days after the funeral. It appears +that one Johann Peter, intendant of the royal and imperial +prisons of Vienna, conceived the grim idea of forming a +collection of skulls, made, as he avowed in his will, to +corroborate the theory of Dr Gall, the founder of phrenology. +This functionary bribed the sexton, and--in concert with Prince +Esterhazy's secretary Rosenbaum, and with two Government +officials named Jungermann and Ullmann--he opened Haydn's grave +and removed the skull. Peter afterwards gave the most minute +details of the sacrilege. He declared that he examined the head +and found the bump of music fully developed, and traces in the +nose of the polypus from which Haydn suffered. The skull was +placed in a lined box, and when Peter got into difficulties and +his collection was dispersed, the relic passed into the +possession of Rosenbaum. That worthy's conscience seems to have +troubled him in the matter, for he conceived the idea of erecting +a monument to the skull in his back garden! When the desecration +was discovered in 1820 there was an outcry, followed by police +search. Prince Esterhazy would stand no nonsense. The skull must +be returned, no questions would be asked, and Peter was offered a +reward if he found it. The notion then occurred to Rosenbaum of +palming off another skull for Haydn's. This he actually succeeded +in doing, the head of some unfortunate individual being handed to +the police. Peter claimed the reward, which was very justly +refused him. When Rosenbaum was dying he confessed to the +deception, and gave the skull back to Peter. Peter formed the +resolution of bequeathing it, by will, to the Conservatorium at +Vienna; but he altered his mind before he died, and by codicil +left the skull to Dr Haller, from whose keeping it ultimately +found its way to the anatomical museum at Vienna. We believe it +is still in the museum. Its proper place is, of course, in +Haydn's grave, and a stigma will rest on Vienna until it is +placed there. + +[The great masters have been peculiarly unfortunate in the matter +of their "remains." When Beethoven's grave was opened in 1863, +Professor Wagner was actually allowed to cut off the ears and +aural cavities of the corpse in order to investigate the cause of +the dead man's deafness. The alleged skeleton of Sebastian Bach +was taken to an anatomical museum a few years ago, "cleaned up," +and clothed with a semblance of flesh to show how Bach looked in +life! Donizetti's skull was stolen before the funeral, and was +afterwards sold to a pork butcher, who used it as a money-bowl. +Gluck was re-buried in 1890 beside Mozart, Beethoven and +Schubert, after having lain in the little suburban churchyard of +Matzleinsdorf since 1787.] + +A copy of Haydn's will has been printed as one of the appendices +to the present volume, with notes and all necessary information +about the interesting document. Two years before his death he had +arranged that his books, music, manuscripts and medals should +become the property of the Esterhazy family. Among the relics +were twenty-four canons which had hung, framed and glazed, in his +bedroom. "I am not rich enough," he said, "to buy good pictures, +so I have provided myself with hangings of a kind that few +possess." These little compositions were the subject of an +oft-quoted anecdote. His wife, in one of her peevish moods, +was complaining that if he should die suddenly, there was not +sufficient money in the house to bury him. "In case such a +calamity should occur," he replied, "take these canons to the +music-publisher. I will answer for it, that they will bring +enough to pay for a decent funeral." + +CHAPTER IX + +HAYDN: THE MAN + + + +Face and Features--Portraits--Social Habits--Partial to Pretty +Women--His Letters--His Humour--His Generosity--Unspoiled by +Success--His Piety--His Industry--Habits of Composition-- +Impatient of Pedantry. + +Face and Features + +Something of Haydn's person and character will have already been +gathered from the foregoing pages. He considered himself an ugly +man, and, in Addison's words, thought that the best expedient was +"to be pleasant upon himself." His face was deeply pitted with +small-pox, and the nose, large and aquiline, was disfigured by +the polypus which he had inherited from his mother. In complexion +he was so dark as to have earned in some quarters the familiar +nickname of "The Moor." His underlip was thick and hanging, his +jaw massive. "The mouth and chin are Philistine," wrote Lavater +under his silhouette, noting, at the same time, "something out of +the common in the eyes and the nose." The eyes were dark gray. +They are described as "beaming with benevolence," and he used +to say himself: "Anyone can see by the look of me that I am a +good-natured sort of fellow." + +In stature he was rather under the middle height, with legs +disproportionately short, a defect rendered more noticeable by +the style of his dress, which he refused to change with the +changes of fashion. Dies writes: "His features were regular, his +expression animated, yet, at the same time, temperate, gentle and +attractive. His face wore a stern look when in repose, but in +conversation it was smiling and cheerful. I never heard him laugh +out loud. His build was substantial, but deficient in muscle." +Another of his acquaintances says that "notwithstanding a cast of +physiognomy rather morose, and a short way of expressing himself, +which seemed to indicate an ill-tempered man, the character of +Haydn was gay, open and humorous." From these testimonies we get +the impression of a rather unusual combination of the attractive +and the repulsive, the intellectual and the vulgar. What Lavater +described as the "lofty and good" brow was partly concealed by a +wig, with side curls, and a pig-tail, which he wore to the last. +His dress as a private individual has not been described in +detail, but the Esterhazy uniform, though frequently changing in +colour and style, showed him in knee-breeches, white stockings, +lace ruffles and white neckcloth. This uniform he never wore +except when on actual duty. + +Portraits + +After his death there were many portraits in chalks, engraved, +and modeled in wax. Notwithstanding his admission of the lack of +personal graces, he had a sort of feminine objection to an artist +making him look old. We read that, in 1800, he was "seriously +angry" with a painter who had represented him as he then +appeared. "If I was Haydn at forty," said he, "why should you +transmit to posterity a Haydn of seventy-eight?" Several writers +mention a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and even give details +of the sittings, but he never sat to Reynolds, whose eyesight had +begun to fail before Haydn's arrival in England. During his first +visit to London Hoppner painted his portrait at the special +request of the Prince of Wales. This portrait was engraved by +Facius in 1807, and is now at Hampton Court. Engravings were also +published in London by Schiavonetti and Bartolozzi from portraits +by Guttenbrunn and Ott, and by Hardy from his own oil-painting. A +silhouette, which hung for long at the head of his bed, was +engraved for the first time for Grove's Dictionary of Music. This +was said by Elssler, his old servant, to have been a striking +likeness. Of the many busts, the best is that by his friend +Grassi, the sculptor. + +[figure: Haydn's silhouette by Lavater] + +Social Habits + +Very little has been recorded of his social habits. Anything like +excess in wine is not once mentioned; but it is easy to see from +his correspondence that he enjoyed a good dinner, and was not +insensible to creature comforts. Writing to Artaria from Esterhaz +in 1788, he says: "By-the-bye, I am very much obliged to you for +the capital cheese you sent me, and also the sausages, for which +I am your debtor, but shall not fail when an opportunity offers +to return the obligation." In a subsequent letter to Frau von +Genzinger he comically laments the change from Vienna to +Esterhaz: "I lost twenty pounds in weight in three days, for the +effect of my fare at Vienna disappeared on the journey. 'Alas! +alas!' thought I, when driven to eat at the restaurateurs, +'instead of capital beef, a slice of a cow fifty years old; +instead of a ragout with little balls of force-meat, an old sheep +with yellow carrots; instead of a Bohemian pheasant, a tough +grill; instead of pastry, dry apple fritters and hazelnuts, etc.! +Alas! alas! would that I now had many a morsel I despised in +Vienna! Here in Esterhaz no one asks me, Would you like some +chocolate, with milk or without? Will you take some coffee, with +or without cream? What can I offer you, my good Haydn? Will you +have vanille ice or pineapple?' If I had only a piece of good +Parmesan cheese, particularly in Lent, to enable me to swallow +more easily the black dumplings and puffs! I gave our porter this +very day a commission to send me a couple of pounds." Even amid +the social pleasures and excitements of London, where he was +invited out six times a week and had "four excellent dishes" at +every dinner, he longs to be back in his native land so that he +may have "some good German soup." + +Partial to Pretty Women + +We read that in Austria he "never associated with any but the +musicians, his colleagues," a statement which cannot be strictly +true. In London he was, as we have seen, something of a "lion," +but it is doubtful if he enjoyed the conventional diversions of +the beau monde. Yet he liked the company of ladies, especially +when they were personally attractive. That he was never at a loss +for a compliment may perhaps be taken as explaining his frequent +conquests, for, as he frankly said himself, the pretty women +"were at any rate not tempted by my beauty." Of children he was +passionately fond, a fact which lends additional melancholy to +his own unhappy and childless home life. + +His Letters + +He was not highly educated, and he does not seem to have taken +much interest in anything outside his own profession. This much +may be gathered from his correspondence, upon which it is not +necessary to comment at length. Mr Russell Lowell remarks that a +letter which is not mainly about the writer loses its prime +flavour. Haydn's letters are seldom "mainly about the writer." +They help us very little in seeking to get at what Newman called +"the inside of things," though some, notably those given at the +end of this volume, embody valuable suggestions. He habitually +spoke in the broad dialect of his native place. He knew Italian +well and French a little, and he had enough Latin to enable him +to set the Church services. Of English he was almost entirely +ignorant until he came to London in 1791, when we hear of him +walking the country lanes with an English grammar in hand. There +is an amusing story of a dinner at Madame Mara's, at which he was +present during his first visit. Crossdill, the violoncellist, +proposed to celebrate him with "three times three." The +suggestion was at once adopted, all the guests, with the +exception of Haydn himself, standing up and cheering lustily. +Haydn heard his name repeated, but not understanding what was +going on, stared at the company in blank bewilderment. When the +matter was explained to him he appeared quite overcome with +diffidence, putting his hands before his face and not recovering +his equanimity for some minutes. [See Records of My Life, by +John Taylor: London, 1832.] + +His Humour + +Of hobbies or recreations he appears to have had none, though, to +relieve the dull monotony of life at Eisenstadt or Esterhaz, he +occasionally indulged in hunting and fishing and mountain +rambles. A leading trait in his character was his humour and love +of fun. As he remarked to Dies: "A mischievous fit comes over me +sometimes that is perfectly beyond control." The incident of the +removal of the fellow chorister's pig-tail will at once recur to +the memory. The "Surprise" Symphony is another illustration, to +say nothing of the "Toy" Symphony and "Jacob's Dream." + +His Generosity + +Of his generosity and his kindness to fellow artists there are +many proofs. In 1800 he speaks of himself as having "willingly +endeavoured all my life to assist everyone," and the words were +no empty boast. No man was, in fact, more ready to perform a good +deed. He had many needy relations always looking to him for aid, +and their claims were seldom refused. A brother artist in +distress was sure of help, and talented young men found in him a +valuable friend, equally ready to give his advice or his gold, as +the case might require. That he was sometimes imposed upon goes +without saying. He has been charged with avarice, but the charge +is wholly unfounded. He was simply careful in money matters, and +that, to a large extent, because of the demands that were +constantly being made upon him. In commercial concerns he was +certainly sharp and shrewd, and attempts to take advantage of him +always roused his indignation. "By heavens!" he writes to +Artaria, "you have wronged me to the extent of fifty ducats.... +This step must cause the cessation of all transactions between +us." The same firm, having neglected to answer some business +proposition, were pulled up in this fashion: "I have been much +provoked by the delay, inasmuch as I could have got forty ducats +from another publisher for these five pieces, and you make too +many difficulties about a matter by which, in such short +compositions, you have at least a thirty fold profit. The sixth +piece has long had its companion, so pray make an end of the +affair and send me either my music or my money." + +The Haydn of these fierce little notes is not the gentle recluse +we are apt to imagine him. They show, on the contrary, that he +was not wanting in spirit when occasion demanded. He was himself +upright and honest in all his dealings. And he never forgot a +kindness, as more than one entry in his will abundantly +testifies. He was absolutely without malice, and there are +several instances of his repaying a slight with a generous deed +or a thoughtful action. His practical tribute to the memory of +Werner, who called him a fop and a "scribbler of songs," has been +cited. His forbearance with Pleyel, who had allowed himself to be +pitted against him by the London faction, should also be +recalled; and it is perhaps worth mentioning further that he put +himself to some trouble to get a passport for Pleyel during the +long wars of the French Revolution. He carried his kindliness and +gentleness even into "the troubled region of artistic life," and +made friends where other men would have made foes. + +Unspoiled by Success + +His modesty has often been insisted upon. Success did not spoil +him. In a letter of 1799 he asks that a certain statement in his +favour should not be mentioned, lest he "be accused of conceit +and arrogance, from which my Heavenly Father has preserved me all +my life long." Here he spoke the simple truth. At the same time, +while entirely free from presumption and vanity, he was perfectly +alive to his own merits, and liked to have them acknowledged. +When visitors came to see him nothing gave him greater pleasure +than to open his cabinets and show the medals, that had been +struck in his honour, along with the other gifts he had received +from admirers. Like a true man of genius, as Pohl says, he +enjoyed distinction and fame, but carefully avoided ambition. + +High Ideals + +Of his calling and opportunities as an artist he had a very high +idea. Acknowledging a compliment paid to him in 1802 by the +members of the Musical Union in Bergen, he wrote of the happiness +it gave him to think of so many families susceptible of true +feeling deriving pleasure and enjoyment from his compositions. + +"Often when contending with the obstacles of every sort opposed +to my work, often when my powers both of body and mind failed, +and I felt it a hard matter to persevere in the course I had +entered on, a secret feeling within me whispered, 'There are but +few contented and happy men here below; everywhere grief and care +prevail, perhaps your labours may one day be the source from +which the weary and worn or the man burdened with affairs may +derive a few moments' rest and refreshment.' What a powerful +motive to press onwards! And this is why I now look back with +heartfelt, cheerful satisfaction on the work to which I have +devoted such a long succession of years with such persevering +efforts and exertions." + +With this high ideal was combined a constant effort to perfect +himself in his art. To Kalkbrenner he once made the touching +remark: "I have only just learned in my old age how to use the +wind instruments, and now that I do understand them I must leave +the world." To Griezinger, again, he said that he had by no means +exhausted his genius: that "ideas were often floating in his +mind, by which he could have carried the art far beyond anything +it had yet attained, had his physical powers been equal to the +task." + +His Piety + +Closely, indeed inseparably, connected with this exalted idea of +his art was his simple and sincere piety. He was a devout +Christian, and looked upon his genius as a gift from God, to be +freely used in His service. His faith was never assailed with +doubts; he lived and died in the communion of the Catholic +Church, and was "never in danger of becoming either a bigot or a +free-thinker." When Carpani, anticipating latter-day criticism, +hinted to him that his Church compositions were impregnated with +a light gaiety, he replied: "I cannot help it; I give forth what +is in me. When I think of the Divine Being, my heart is, so full +of joy that the notes fly off as from a spindle, and as I have a +cheerful heart He will pardon me if I serve Him cheerfully." + +His reverent practice during the composition of "The Creation" +has been mentioned. "Never was I so pious," he said. There are +many proofs of the same feeling in his correspondence and other +writings. Thus he concludes an autobiographical sketch with the +words: "I offer up to Almighty God all eulogiums, for to Him +alone do I owe them. My sole wish is neither to offend against my +neighbour nor my gracious prince, but above all not against our +merciful God." Again, in one of his later letters, he says "May +God only vouchsafe to grant me the health that I have hitherto +enjoyed, and may I preserve it by good conduct, out of gratitude +to the Almighty." The note appended to the first draft of his +will is also significant. Nor in this connection should we +forget the words with which he inscribed the scores of his more +important compositions. For the conclusion he generally adopted +Handel's "Soli Deo Gloria" or "Laus Deo," with the occasional +addition of "et B.V. Mae. et Oms. Sis. (Beatae Virgini Mariae +et Omnibus Sanctis)." Even his opera scores were so inscribed, +one indeed having the emphatic close: "Laus omnipotenti Deo et +Beatissimae Virgini Mariae." The superscription was uniformly "In +nomine Domini." It is recorded somewhere that when, in composing, +he felt his inspiration flagging, or was baulked by some +difficulty, he rose from the instrument and began to run over +his rosary. In short, not to labour the point, he had himself +followed the advice which, as an old man, he gave to the +choirboys of Vienna: "Be good and industrious and serve God +continually." + +His Industry + +The world has seen many an instance of genius without industry, as +of industry without genius. In Haydn the two were happily wedded. +He was always an early riser, and long after his student days were +over he worked steadily from sixteen to eighteen hours a day. +He lived strictly by a self-imposed routine, and was so little +addicted to what Scott called "bed-gown and slipper tricks," that +he never sat down to work or received a visitor until he was fully +dressed. He had none of Wagner's luxurious tastes or Balzac's +affectations in regard to a special attire for work, but when +engaged on his more important compositions he always wore the ring +given him by the King of Prussia. In Haydn's case there are no +incredible tales of dashing off scores in the twinkling of an +eye. That he produced so much must be attributed to his habit of +devoting all his leisure to composition. He was not a rapid worker +if we compare him with Handel and Mozart. He never put down +anything till he was "quite sure it was the right thing"--a habit +of mind indicated by his neat and uniform handwriting ["His +notes had such little heads and slender tails that he used, very +properly, to call them his, flies' legs."--Bombet, p. 97.]--and +he assures us: "I never was a quick writer, and always composed +with care and deliberation. That alone," he added, "is the way to +compose works that will last, and a real connoisseur can see at a +glance whether a score has been written in undue haste or not." He +is quoted as saying that "genius is always prolific." However the +saying may be interpreted, there does not seem to have been about +him anything of what has been called the irregular dishabille of +composers, "the natural result of the habit of genius of watching +for an inspiration, and encouraging it to take possession of the +whole being when it comes." + +Habits of Composition + +His practice was to sketch out his ideas roughly in the morning, +and elaborate them in the afternoon, taking pains to preserve +unity in idea and form. "That is where so many young composers +fail," he said in reference to the latter point. "They string +together a number of fragments; they break off almost as soon as +they have begun, and so at the end the listener carries off no +definite impression." The importance of melody he specially +emphasized. "It is the air which is the charm of music," he +remarked, "and it is that which is most difficult to produce. The +invention of a fine melody is the work of genius." In another +place he says: "In vocal composition, the art of producing +beautiful melody may now almost be considered as lost; and when a +composer is so fortunate as to throw forth a passage that is +really melodious, he is sure, if he be not sensible of its +excellence, to overwhelm and destroy it by the fullness and +superfluity of his instrumental parts." [Compare Mozart's words +as addressed to Michael Kelly: "Melody is the essence of music. I +should liken one who invents melodies to a noble racehorse, and a +mere contrapuntist to a hired post-hack."] + +He is stated to have always composed with the aid of the +pianoforte or harpsichord; and indeed we find him writing to +Artaria in 1788 to say that he has been obliged to buy a new +instrument "that I might compose your clavier sonatas +particularly well." This habit of working out ideas with the +assistance of the piano has been condemned by most theorists as +being likely to lead to fragmentariness. With Haydn at any rate +the result was entirely satisfactory, for, as Sir Hubert Parry +points out, the neatness and compactness of his works is perfect. +It is very likely, as Sir Hubert says, that most modern composers +have used the pianoforte a good deal--not so much to help them to +find out their ideas, as to test the details and intensify their +musical sensibility by the excitant sounds, the actual sensual +impression of which is, of course, an essential element in all +music. The composer can always hear such things in his mind, but +obviously the music in such an abstract form can never have quite +as much effect upon him as when the sounds really strike upon his +ear. [See Studies of Great Composers, by C. Hubert H. Parry, p. +109.] + +No Pedant + +Like all the really great composers, Haydn was no pedant in the +matter of theoretical formulae, though he admitted that the rigid +rules of harmony should rarely be violated, and "never without +the compensation of some inspired effect." When he was asked +according to what rule he had introduced a certain progression, +he replied "The rules are all my very obedient humble servants." +With the quint-hunters and other faddists who would place their +shackles on the wrists of genius, he had as little patience as +Beethoven, who, when told that all the authorities forbade the +consecutive fifths in his C Minor Quartet, thundered out: "Well, +I allow them." Somebody once questioned him about an apparently +unwarranted passage in the introduction to Mozart's Quartet in C +Major. "If Mozart has written it, be sure he had good reasons for +doing so," was the conclusive reply. That fine old smoke-dried +pedant, Albrechtsberger, declared against consecutive fourths in +strict composition, and said so to Haydn. "What is the good of +such rules?" demanded Haydn. "Art is free and must not be +fettered by mechanical regulations. The cultivated ear must +decide, and I believe myself as capable as anyone of making laws +in this respect. Such trifling is absurd; I wish instead that +someone would try to compose a really new minuet." To Dies he +remarked further: "Supposing an idea struck me as good and +thoroughly satisfactory both to the ear and the heart, I would +far rather pass over some slight grammatical error than sacrifice +what seemed to me beautiful to any mere pedantic trifling." These +were sensible views. Practice must always precede theory. When we +find a great composer infringing some rule of the old text-books, +there is, to say the least, a strong presumption, not that the +composer is wrong, but that the rule needs modifying. The great +composer goes first and invents new effects: it is the business +of the theorist not to cavil at every novelty, but to follow +modestly behind and make his rules conform to the practice of the +master. [Compare Professor Prout's Treatise on Harmony.] + +Thus much about Haydn the man. Let us now turn to Haydn the +composer and his position in the history of music. + +CHAPTER X + +HAYDN: THE COMPOSER + +The Father of Instrumental Music--The Quartets--The Symphonies-- +The Salomon Set--The Sonatas--Church Music--Songs--Operas-- +Orchestration--General Style--Conclusion. + +The Father of Instrumental Music + +Haydn has been called "the father of instrumental music," and +although rigid critics may dispute his full right to that title, +on broad grounds he must be allowed to have sufficiently earned +it. He was practically the creator of more than one of our modern +forms, and there was hardly a department of instrumental music in +which he did not make his influence felt. This was emphatically +the case with the sonata, the symphony and the string quartet. +The latter he brought to its first perfection. Before his time +this particular form of chamber music was long neglected, and for +a very simple reason. Composers looked upon it as being too +slight in texture for the display of their genius. That, as has +often been demonstrated, was because they had not mastered the +art of "writing a four-part harmony with occasional transitions +into the pure polyphonic style--a method of writing which is +indispensable to quartet composition--and also because they did +not yet understand the scope and value of each individual +instrument." + +The Quartet + +It would be too much to say that even Haydn fully realized the +capacities of each of his four instruments. Indeed, his quartet +writing is often bald and uninteresting. But at least he did +write in four-part harmony, and it is certainly to him that we +owe the installation of the quartet as a distinct species of +chamber music. "It is not often," says Otto Jahn, the biographer +of Mozart, "that a composer hits so exactly upon the form suited +to his conceptions; the quartet was Haydn's natural mode of +expressing his feelings." This is placing the Haydn quartet in a +very high position among the products of its creator. But its +artistic value and importance cannot well be over-estimated. Even +Mozart, who set a noble seal upon the form, admitted that it was +from Haydn he had first learned the true way to compose quartets; +and there have been enthusiasts who regarded the Haydn quartet +with even more veneration than the Haydn symphony. No fewer than +seventy-seven quartets are ascribed to him. Needless to say, they +differ considerably as regards their style and treatment, for the +first was written so early as 1755, while the last belongs to his +later years. But they are all characterized by the same +combination of manly earnestness, rich invention and mirthful +spirit. The form is concise and symmetrical, the part-writing is +clear and well-balanced, and a "sunny sweetness" is the +prevailing mood. As a discerning critic has remarked, there is +nothing in the shape of instrumental music much pleasanter and +easier to listen to than one of Haydn's quartets. The best of +them hold their places in the concert-rooms of to-day, and they +seem likely to live as long as there are people to appreciate +clear and logical composition which attempts nothing beyond +"organized simplicity." [See W. J. Henderson's How Music +Developed, p. 191: London, 1899]. In this department, as Goethe +said, he may be superseded, but he can never be surpassed. + +The Symphony + +For the symphony Haydn did no less than for the quartet. The +symphony, in his young days, was not precisely the kind of work +which now bears the name. It was generally written for a small +band, and consisted of four parts for strings and four for wind +instruments. It was meant to serve no higher purpose, as a rule, +than to be played in the houses of nobles; and on that account it +was neither elaborated as to length nor complicated as to +development. So long as it was agreeable and likely to please the +aristocratic ear, the end of the composer was thought to be +attained. + +Haydn, as we know, began his symphonic work under Count Morzin. +The circumstances were not such as to encourage him to "rise to +any pitch of real greatness or depth of meaning"; and although he +was able to build on a somewhat grander scale when he went to +Eisenstadt, it was still a little comfortable coterie that he +understood himself to be writing for rather than for the musical +world at large. Nevertheless, he aimed at constant improvement, +and although he had no definite object in view, he "raised the +standard of symphony--writing far beyond any point which had been +attained before." + +"His predecessors," to quote Sir Hubert Parry, "had always +written rather carelessly and hastily for the band, and hardly +ever tried to get refined and original effects from the use of +their instruments, but he naturally applied his mind more +earnestly to the matter in hand, and found out new ways of +contrasting and combining the tones of different members of his +orchestra, and getting a fuller and richer effect out of the mass +of them when they were all playing. In the actual style of the +music, too, he made great advances, and in his hands symphonies +became by degrees more vigorous, and, at the same time, more +really musical." + +But the narrow limits of the Esterhazy audience and the numbing +routine of the performances were against his rising to the top +heights of his genius. + +The Salomon Set + +It was only when he came to write for the English public that he +showed what he could really do with the matter of the symphony. +In comparison with the twelve symphonies which he wrote for +Salomon, the other, and especially the earlier works are of +practically no account. They are interesting, of course, as +marking stages in the growth of the symphony and in the +development of the composer's genius. But regarded in themselves, +as absolute and individual entities, they are not for a moment to +be placed by the side of the later compositions. These, so far as +his instrumental music is concerned, are the crowning glory of +his life work. They are the ripe fruits of his long experience +working upon the example of Mozart, and mark to the full all +those qualities of natural geniality, humour, vigour and +simple-heartedness, which are the leading characteristics of his +style. + +[figure: a musical score excerpt] + +The Sonata + +Haydn's sonatas show the same advance in form as his symphonies +and quartets. The older specimens of the sonata, as seen in the +works of Biber, Kuhnau, Mattheson and others, contain little more +than the germs of the modern sonata. Haydn, building on Emanuel +Bach, fixed the present form, improving so largely upon the +earlier, that we could pass from his sonatas directly to those of +Beethoven without the intervention of Mozart's as a connecting +link. Beethoven's sonatas were certainly more influenced by +Haydn's than by Mozart's. Haydn's masterpieces in this kind, like +those of Mozart and Beethoven, astonish by their order, +regularity, fluency, harmony and roundness; and by their splendid +development into full and complete growth out of the sometimes +apparently unimportant germs. [See Ernst Pauer's +Musical Forms.] Naturally his sonatas are not all masterpieces. +Of the thirty-five, some are old-fashioned and some are quite +second-rate. But, like the symphonies, they are all of historical +value as showing the development not only of the form but of the +composer's powers. One of the number is peculiar in having four +movements; another is equally peculiar--to Haydn at least--in +having only two movements. Probably in the case of the latter the +curtailment was due to practical rather than to artistic reasons. +Like Beethoven, with the two-movement sonata in C minor, Haydn +may not have had time for a third! In several of the sonatas the +part-writing strikes one as being somewhat poor and meagre; in +others there is, to the modern ear, a surfeiting indulgence in +those turns, arpeggios and other ornaments which were inseparable +from the nature of the harpsichord, with its thin tones and want +of sustaining power. If Haydn had lived to write for the richer +and more sustained sounds of the modern pianoforte, his genius +would no doubt have responded to the increased demands made upon +it, though we may doubt whether it was multiplex enough or +intellectual enough to satisfy the deeper needs of our time. As +it is, the changes which have been made in sonata form since his +day are merely changes of detail. To him is due the fixity of the +form. [See "The Pianoforte Sonata," by J. S. Shedlock: London, +1895. Mr Shedlock, by selecting for analysis some of the most +characteristic sonatas, shows Haydn in his three stages of +apprenticeship, mastery and maturity.] + +Church Music + +Of his masses and Church music generally it is difficult to speak +critically without seeming unfair. We have seen how he explained +what must be called the almost secular style of these works. But +while it is true that Haydn's masses have kept their place in the +Catholic churches of Germany and elsewhere, it is impossible, to +Englishmen, at any rate, not to feel a certain incongruity, a +lack of that dignity and solemnity, that religious "sense," which +makes our own Church music so impressive. We must not blame him +for this. He escaped the influences which made Bach and Handel +great in religious music--the influences of Protestantism, not to +say Puritanism. The Church to which he belonged was no longer +guided in its music by the principles of Palestrina. On the +contrary; it was tainted by secular and operatic influences; and +although Haydn felt himself to be thoroughly in earnest it was +rather the ornamental and decorate side of religion that he +expressed in his lively music. He might, perhaps, have written in +a more serious, lofty strain had he been brought under the noble +traditions which glorified the sacred choral works of the earlier +masters just named. In any case, his Church music has nothing of +the historical value of his instrumental music. It is marked by +many sterling and admirable qualities, but the progress of the +art would not have been materially affected if it had never come +into existence. + +Songs + +As a song-writer Haydn was only moderately successful, perhaps +because, having himself but a slight acquaintance with +literature, he left the selection of the words to others, with, +in many cases, unfortunate results. The form does not seem to +have been a favourite with him, for his first songs were not +produced until so late as 1780. Some of the later compositions +have, however, survived; and one or two of the canzonets, such as +"My mother bids me bind my hair" and "She never told her love," +are admirable. The three-part and the four-part songs, as well as +the canons, of which he thought very highly himself, are also +excellent, and still charm after the lapse of so many years. + +Operas + +On the subject of his operas little need be added to what has +already been said. Strictly speaking, he never had a chance of +showing what he could do with opera on a grand scale. He had to +write for a small stage and a small audience, and in so far he +was probably successful. Pohl thinks that if his project of +visiting Italy had been fulfilled and his faculties been +stimulated in this direction by fresh scenes and a larger +horizon, we might have gained "some fine operas." It is doubtful; +Haydn lacked the true dramatic instinct. His placid, easy-going, +contented nature could never have allowed him to rise to great +heights of dramatic force. He was not built on a heroic mould; +the meaning of tragedy was unknown to him. + +Orchestration + +Regarding his orchestration a small treatise might be written. +The terms which best describe it are, perhaps, refinement and +brilliancy. Much of his success in this department must, of +course, be attributed to his long and intimate association with +the Esterhazy band. In 1766, six years after his appointment, +this band numbered seventeen instruments--six violins and viola, +one violoncello, one double bass, one flute, two oboes, two +bassoons and four horns. It was subsequently enlarged to +twenty-two and twenty-four, including trumpets and kettledrums on +special occasions. From 1776 to 1778 there were also clarinets. +This gradual extension of resources may be taken as roughly +symbolizing Haydn's own advances in the matter of orchestral +development. When he wrote his first symphony in 1759 he employed +first and second violins, violas, basses, two oboes and two +horns; in his last symphony, written in 1795, he had at his +command "the whole symphonic orchestra as it had stood when +Beethoven took up the work of orchestral development." Between +these two points Mozart had lived and died, leaving Haydn his +actual debtor so far as regards the increased importance of the +orchestra. It has been said that he learnt from Mozart the use of +the clarinet, and this is probably true, notwithstanding the fact +that he had employed a couple of clarinets in his first mass, +written in 1751 or 1752. Both composers used clarinets rarely, +but Haydn certainly did not reveal the real capacity of the +instrument or establish its position in the orchestra as Mozart +did. + +From his first works onwards, he proceeded along the true +symphonic path, and an orchestra of two flutes, two oboes, two +clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, drums, and the +usual strings fairly represents the result of his contributions +to its development up to the first successful experiments of +Mozart. The names of Mozart and Haydn ought in reality to be +coupled together as the progenitors of the modern orchestral +colouring. But the superiority must be allowed to attach to +Haydn, inasmuch as his colouring is the more expansive and +decided. Some of his works, even of the later period, show great +reticence in scoring, but, on the other hand, as in "The +Creation," he knew when to draw upon the full resources of the +orchestra. It has been pointed out as worthy of remark that he +was not sufficiently trustful of his instrumental army to leave +it without the weak support of the harpsichord, at which +instrument he frequently sat during the performance of his +symphonies, and played with the orchestra, with extremely bad +effect. [Compare The Orchestra and Orchestral Music, by W. J. +Henderson: London, 1901.] In this, however, he merely followed +the custom of his day. + +General Style + +Of Haydn's general style as a composer it is hardly necessary to +speak. To say that a composition is "Haydnish" is to express in +one word what is well understood by all intelligent amateurs. +Haydn's music is like his character--clear, straightforward, +fresh and winning, without the slightest trace of affectation or +morbidity. Its perfect transparency, its firmness of design, its +fluency of instrumental language, the beauty and inexhaustible +invention of its melody, its studied moderation, its child-like +cheerfulness--these are some of the qualities which mark the +style of this most genial of all the great composers. + +That he was not deep, that he does not speak a message of the +inner life to the latter-day individual, who, in the Ossianic +phrase, likes to indulge in "the luxury of grief," must, of +course, be admitted. The definite embodiment of feeling which we +find in Beethoven is not to be found in him. It was not in his +nature. "My music," says Schubert, "is the production of my +genius and my misery." Haydn, like Mendelssohn, was never more +than temporarily miserable. But in music the gospel of despair +seldom wants its preachers. To-day it is Tschaikowsky; to-morrow it +will be another. Haydn meant to make the world happy, not to tear +it with agony. "I know," he said, "that God has bestowed a talent +upon me, and I thank Him for it. I think I have done my duty, and +been of use in my generation by my works. Let others do the +same." + + + +APPENDIX A: HAYDN'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT + + + +The following draft of Haydn's will is copied from Lady Wallace's +Letters of Distinguished Musicians (London, 1867), where it was +published in full for the first time. The much-corrected original +is in the Court Library at Vienna. Dies says: "Six weeks before +his death, in April 1809, he read over his will to his servants +in the presence of witnesses, and asked them whether they were +satisfied with his provisions or not. The good people were quite +taken by surprise at the kindness of their master's heart, seeing +themselves thus provided for in time to come, and they thanked +him with tears in their eyes." The extracts given by Dies vary in +some particulars from the following, because Haydn's final +testamentary dispositions were made at a later date. But, as Lady +Wallace says, it is not the legal but the moral aspect of the +affair that interests us. Here we see epitomized all the goodness +and beauty of Haydn's character. The document runs as follows: + + FLORINS. + +1. For holy masses,........................................12 + +2. To the Norman School,....................................5 + +3. To the Poorhouse,........................................5 + +4. To the executor of my will.............................200 + And also the small portrait of Grassi. + +5. To the pastor,..........................................10 + +6. Expenses of my funeral, first-class,...................200 + +7. To my dear brother Michael, in Salzburg,..............4000 + +8. To my brother Johann, in Eisenstadt,..................4000 + +9. To my sister in Rohrau (erased, and written + underneath): "God have mercy on her soul! To the + three children of my sister,".........................2000 + +10. To the workwoman in Esterhazy, Anna Maria Moser, + nee Frohlichin,........................................500 + +11. To the workwoman in Rohrau, Elisabeth, nee Bohme,......500 + +12. To the two workwomen there (erased, and replaced + by: "To the shoemaker, Anna Loder, in Vienna"),........200 + Should she presume to make any written claims, I + declare them to be null and void, having already + paid for her and her profligate husband, Joseph + Lungmayer, more than 6000 gulden. + +13. To the shoemaker in Garhaus, Theresa Hammer,............500 + +14. To her son, the blacksmith, Matthias Frohlich,..........500 + +15.&16. To the eldest child of my deceased sister, + Anna Wimmer, and her husband, at Meolo, in Hungary,.....500 + +17. To her married daughter at Kaposwar,....................100 + +18. To the other three children (erased),...................300 + +19. To the married Dusse, nee Scheeger,.....................300 + +20. To her imbecile brother, Joseph (erased),...............100 + +21. To her brother, Karl Scheeger, silversmith, and his + wife,...................................................900 + +22. To the son of Frau von Koller,..........................300 + +23. To his son (erased),....................................100 + +24. To the sister of my late wife (erased). + +25. To my servant, Johann Elssler,.........................2500 + Also one year's wages, likewise a coat, waistcoat + and a pair of trousers. (According to Griesinger, + Haydn bequeathed a capital of 6000 florins to this + faithful servant and copyist.) + +26. To Rosalia Weber, formerly in my service,...............300 + (She has a written certificate of this from me.) + +27. To my present maid-servant, Anna Kremnitzer,...........1000 + And a year's wages in addition. Also, her bed and + bedding and two pairs of linen sheets; also, four + chairs, a table, a chest of drawers, the watch, + the clock and the picture of the Blessed Virgin in + her room, a flat-iron, kitchen utensils and crockery, + one water-pail, and other trifles. + +28. To my housekeeper, Theresia Meyer,......................500 + And one year's wages,.................................20 + +29. To my old gardener, Michel,..............................24 + +30. To the Prince's Choir for my obsequies, to share + alike (erased),......................................100 + +31. To the priest (erased),..................................12 + +32. To the pastor in Eisenstadt for a solemn mass,............5 + +33. To his clerk,.............................................2 + +34. To the beneficiary,.......................................2 + +35. To Pastor von Nollendorf,.................................2 + +36. To Pastor von St Georg,...................................2 + +37. To the sexton (erased from 33),...........................1 + +38. To the organ-bellows' blower,.............................1 + +39. To the singer, Babett,...................................50 + +40. To my cousin, the saddler's wife, in Eisenstadt,.........50 + To her daughter,........................................300 + +41. To Mesdemoiselles Anna and Josepha Dillin,..............100 + +42. To the blind daughter of Herr Graus, leader of + the choir in Eisenstadt (erased),.......................100 + +43. To the four sisters Sommerfeld, daughters of + the wigmaker in Presburg,...............................200 + +44. To Nannerl, daughter of Herr Weissgerb, my + neighbour (erased),......................................50 + +45. To Herr Art, merchant in the Kleine Steingasse,..........50 + +46. To the pastor in Rohrau,.................................12 + +47. To the schoolmaster in Rohrau,............................6 + +48. To the school children,...................................3 + +49. To Herr Wamerl, formerly with Count v. Harrach,..........50 + +50. To his present cashier,..................................50 + +51. To Count v. Harrach for the purpose of defraying + the bequests Nos. 51 and 52, I bequeath an + obligation of 6000 florins at 5 per cent., the + interest to be disposed of as follows: + + To the widow Aloysia Polzelli, formerly + singer at Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy's, payable + in ready money six weeks after my death,................100 + + And each year, from the date of my death, for + her life, the interest of the above capital,............150 + + After her death her son, Anton Polzelli, to + receive 150 florins for one year, having always + been a good son to his mother and a grateful + pupil to me. N.B.--I hereby revoke the obligation + in Italian, signed by me, which may be produced + by Mdme. Polzelli, otherwise so many of my poor + relations with greater claims would receive too + little. Finally, Mdme. Polzelli must be satisfied + with the annuity of 150 florins. After her death + the half of the above capital, viz., 3000 + florins, to be divided into two shares--one-half + (1500) to devolve on the Rohrau family, for the + purpose of keeping in good order the monument + erected to me by Count von Harrach, and also + that of my deceased father at the door of the + sacristy. The other half to be held in trust by + the Count, and the annual interest of the sum, + namely, 45 florins, to be divided between any + two orphans in Rohrau. + +52. To my niece, Anna Lungmayer, payable six weeks + after my death,..........................................100 + Likewise a yearly annuity to her husband and herself,....150 + All these legacies and obligations, and also + the proceeds of the sale of my house and legal + costs, to be paid within one year of my death; + all the other expenses to be deducted from the + sum of ready money in the hands of the executors, + who must account to the heir for the same. On + their demise this annuity to go to their children + until they come of age, and after that period the + capital to be equally divided among them. Of + the remaining 950 florins, 500 to become the + property of my beloved Count v. Harrach, as the + depositary of my last will and testament, and + 300 I bequeath to the agent for his trouble. + The residue of 150 florins to go to my stepmother, + and, if she be no longer living, to her + children. N.B.--Should Mdme. Lungmayer or + her husband produce any document signed by + me for a larger sum, I wish it to be understood, + as in the case of Mdme. Polzelli, that it is to be + considered null and void, as both Mdme. Lungmayer + and her husband, owing to my great kindness, lavished + more than 6000 florins of mine during my life, which + my own brother and the citizens in Oedenberg and + Eisenstadt can testify. + +(From No. 51 is repeatedly and thickly scored out.) + +53. To the widow Theresia Eder and her two daughters, + lacemakers,...............................................150 + +54. To my pupil, Anton Polzelli,..............................100 + +55. To poor blind Adam in Eisenstadt,..........................24 + +56. To my gracious Prince, my gold Parisian medal and + the letter that accompanied it, with a humble + request to grant them a place in the museum at + Forchtentein. + +57. To Mdlle. C. Czeck, waiting-woman to Princess + Graschalkowitz (erased),.................................1000 + +58. To Fraulein Anna Bucholz,.................................100 + Inasmuch as in my youth her grandfather lent + me 150 florins when I greatly needed them, + which, however, I repaid fifty years ago. + +59. To the daughter of the bookkeeper, Kandler, my + piano, by the organ-builder Schanz. + +60. The small Parisian medal to Count v. Harrach, and + also the bust a l'antique of Herr Grassi. + +61. To the widow Wallnerin in Schottenhof,....................100 + +62. To the Father Prior Leo in Eisenstadt, of the + "Brothers of Mercy,".......................................50 + +63. To the Hospital for the Poor in Eisenstadt (erased),.......75 + +For the ratification of this my last will and testament, I have +written it entirely in my own hand, and earnestly beg the +authorities to consider it, even if not strictly or properly legal, +in the light at least of a codicil, and to do all in their power +to make it valid and binding. + +JOSEPH HAYDN. +May 5, 1801. + +Should God call me away suddenly, this my last will and testament, +though not written on stamped paper, to be considered valid in +law, and the stamps to be repaid tenfold to my sovereign. + +In the name of the Holy Trinity. The uncertainty of the +period when it may please my Creator, in His infinite wisdom, +to call me from time into eternity has caused me, being in sound +health, to make my last will with regard to my little remaining +property. I commend my soul to my all-merciful Creator; my +body I wish to be interred, according to the Roman Catholic +forms, in consecrated ground. A first-class funeral. For my +soul I bequeath No. 1. + +Joseph Haydn + +Vienna, Dec. 6, 1801 + + + +APPENDIX B: CATALOGUE OF WORKS + + + +There are unusual difficulties in the way of compiling a +thoroughly satisfactory catalogue of Haydn's instrumental works. +From the want of any generally-accepted consecutive numbering, +and the fact that several are in the same key, this is +particularly the case with the symphonies. Different editions +have different numberings, and the confusion is increased by a +further re-numbering of the piano symphonic scores arranged for +two and four hands. In Breitkopf & Hartel's catalogue many works +are included among the symphonies which are also found among the +smaller compositions, and others are catalogued twice. Even the +composer himself, in compiling his thematic catalogue, made +mistakes. In the present list we have been content for the most +part to state the numbers of the various instrumental works, +without attempting to notify each individual composition. Indeed, +to do otherwise would have called for an extensive use of music +type. Nor have we thought it necessary to include the +supposititious and doubtful works, for which Pohl's list may be +consulted. + +INSTRUMENTAL + +125 symphonies, including overtures to operas and plays. +Of these 94 are published in parts, 40 in score; 29 remain in +MS. About 40 have been arranged for pianoforte 2 hands, 60 +for 4 hands, 10 for 8 hands. + +Pohl gives a thematic list of the 12 symphonies composed for +Salomon, numbered in the order of their occurrence in the +catalogue of the London Philharmonic Society. These include: + + +TITLE OF WORK KEY DATE + +"The Surprise" G major 1791 + +"The Clock," referring D minor 1794 +to the Andante + +"The Military" G major 1794 + + +Other symphonies known by their titles are: + + +TITLE OF WORK KEY DATE + +"Le Matin" D major +"Le Midi" C major +"Le Soir" G major 1761 +"The Farewell" A major 1772 +"Maria Theresa" C major 1773 +"The Schoolmaster" E flat 1774 +"Feuer Symphonie" (probably +overture to "Die Feuersbrunst") A major 1774 +"La Chasse" D major 1780 +"Toy" Symphony C major 1780 +"La Reine de France" B major for Paris, 1786 +"The Oxford" G major 1788 + +"The Seven Words from the Cross." Originally for orchestra. +Arranged first for 2 violins, viola and bass; afterwards for soli, +chorus and orchestra. + +66 various compositions for wind and strings, separately and +combined, including divertimenti, concerted pieces, etc. + +7 notturnos or serenades for the lyre. +7 marches. +6 scherzandos. +1 sestet. +Several quintets. +1 "Echo" for 4 violins and 2 'cellos. +"Feld-partien" for wind instruments and arrangements from +baryton pieces. +12 collections of minuets and allemands. +31 concertos: 9 violin, 6 'cello, 1 double bass, 5 lyre, 3 baryton, +2 flute, 3 horn, 1 for 2 horns, 1 clarino (1796). +175 baryton pieces. Arrangements were published of several +of these in 3 parts, with violin (or flute), viola or 'cello as +principal. +1 duet for 2 lutes. +2 trios for lute, violin and 'cello. +1 sonata for harp, with flute and bass. +Several pieces for a musical clock. +A solo for harmonica. +6 duets for violin solo, with viola accompaniments. The +numerous printed duets for 2 violins are only arrangements from +his other works. +30 trios: 20 for 2 violins and bass, 1 for violin solo, viola +concertante and bass, 2 for flute, violin and bass, 3 for 3 flutes, +1 for corno di caccia, violin and 'cello. +77 quartets. The first 18 were published in 3 series; the +next is in MS.; then 1 printed separately; 54 in 9 series of 6 +Nos. each; 2 more and the last. + +CLAVIER MUSIC + +20 concertos and divertimenti: 1 concerto is with principal +violin, 2 only (G and D) have been printed; the last alone +survives. +38 trios: 35 with violin and 'cello, 3 with flute and 'cello +Only 31 are printed. +53 sonatas and divertimenti. Only 35 are printed: the one +in C, containing the adagio in F included in all the collections +of smaller pieces, only in London. +4 sonatas for clavier and violin. 8 are published, but 4 of +these are arrangements. +9 smaller pieces, including 5 Nos. of variations, a capriccio, a +fantasia, 2 adagios and "differentes petites pieces." +1 duet (variations). + +VOCAL + +Church Music + +14 masses. +1 Stabat Mater. +2 Te Deums. +13 offertories. 10 of these are taken from other compositions +with Latin text added. +4 motets. +1 Tantum Ergo. +4 Salve Reginas. +1 Regina Coeli. +2 Aves Reginas; Responsoria de Venerabili. +1 Cantilena pro Aventu (German words). +6 sacred arias. +2 duets. + +ORATORIOS AND CANTATAS + +"The Creation." +"The Seasons." +"Il Ritorno di Tobia." +"The Seven Words." +"Invocation of Neptune." +"Applausus Musicus." For the festival of a prelate, 1768. +Cantata for the birthday of Prince Nicolaus, 1763. +Cantata "Die Erwahlung eines Kapellmeisters." + +OPERAS + +Italian Operas: + +"La Canterina," 1769; +"L'Incontro Improviso," 1776; +"Lo Speciale," 1768; +"Le Pescatrice," 1780; +"Il Mondo della Luna," 1877; +"L'Isola Disabitata," 1779; +"Armida," 1782; +"L'Infedelta Delusa," 1773; +"La Fedelta Premiata," 1780; +"La Vera Constanza," 1786; +"Acide e Galatea," 1762; +"Orlando Paladino," 1782; +"Orfeo," London, 1794. + +German Opera or Singspiel, "Der Neue Krumme Teufel." +5 marionette operas. +Music for "Alfred," a tragedy, and various other plays. + +MISCELLANEOUS + +SONGS: + +12 German lieder, 1782; +12 ditto, 1784; +12 single songs; +6 original canzonets, London, 1796; +6 ditto; +"The Spirit Song," Shakespeare (F minor); +"O Tuneful Voice" (E flat), composed for an English lady of position; +3 English songs in MS.; +2 duets; +3 three-part and 10 four-part songs; +3 choruses, MS.; +1 ditto from "Alfred"; +The Austrian National Anthem, for single voice and in 4 parts; +42 canons in 2 and more parts; +2 ditto; +"The Ten Commandments" set to canons; the same +with different words under the title "Die zehn Gesetze der Kunst"; +symphonies and accompaniments for national songs +in the collections of Whyte, Napier and George Thomson. +22 airs mostly inserted in operas. +"Ariana a Naxos," cantata for single voice and pianoforte, 1790. +"Deutschlands Klage auf den Tod Friedrichs der Grossen," +cantata for single voice, with baryton accompaniment, 1787. + + + +APPENDIX C: BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + +The Haydn literature is almost entirely Continental. With the +exceptions of Pohl's article in Grove's "Dictionary of Music" and +Miss Townsend's "Haydn," nothing of real importance has appeared +in English. The following list does not profess to be complete. +It seems futile in a book of this kind to refer amateurs and +students to foreign works, many of which are out of print and +others generally inaccessible. For the benefit of English readers +the English works have been placed first and apart from the +Continental. It has not been thought necessary to follow Pohl in +giving a separate list of German and other Continental critiques. +His plan of citing works in the order of their publication has, +however, been adopted as being perhaps preferable to an +alphabetical order of writers. + + + +TITLE OF WORK AUTHOR PLACE AND DATE + + +"History of Music," Vol. IV. Burney London, 1789 + +"Reminiscences," Vol. I, p. 190 Michael Kelly London, 1826 + +"Musical Memoirs" Parke London, 1830, + 2 vols. + +"Letters of Distinguished Musicians." ... London, 1867 +Translated from the German by Lady +Wallace. Haydn's Letters, pp. 71-204, +with portrait + +"Musical Composers and their Works" Sarah Tytler London, 1875 +--Haydn, pp. 57-75 + +"Music and Morals"--Haydn, Haweis London, 1876 +pp. 241-263 + +Leisure Hour, p. 572. Article, ... London, 1877 +"Anecdotes of Haydn" + +"The Great Composers Sketched Joseph Bennett London, Musical +by Themselves"--No. 1, Haydn. Times, Sept. 1877 +An estimate of Haydn drawn mainly +from his letters + +Article on Haydn in Grove's Pohl London, 1879 +"Dictionary of Music" + +"Studies of Great Composers"--Haydn, Parry London, 1887 +pp. 91-118, with portrait + +"History of Music," English edition, Naumann London (Cassell), +Vol. IV., pp. 852-882. 1888 +Portraits and facsimiles + +"Musical Reminiscences"--Music and William Spark London, 1892 +Sunshine, pp. 141-149, with quotations +from Haydn's music to show "the happy +state of his mind whilst composing" + +"Musical Haunts in London"--Haydn in F. G. Edwards London, 1895 +London, pp. 32-36 + +"The Pianoforte Sonata"--Haydn, J. S. Shedlock London, 1895 +pp. 111-120 + +"Music and Manners from Pergolese Krehbiel London, 1898 +to Beethoven"--Haydn in London: +(1) His Note-book; (2) His English +Love, pp. 57-95 + +"George Thomson, the Friend of Burns" Cuthbert Hadden London, 1898 +--Correspondence with Haydn, +pp. 303-308 + +"Old Scores and New Readings"--Haydn J. F. Runciman London, 1899 +and his "Creation," pp. 85-92 + +"The Birthplace of Haydn: Dr Frank Merrick London, Musical +a Visit to Rohrau" Times, July 1899 + +"Joseph Haydn" Miss Pauline London, N.D. +in Great Musicians series D. Townsend + +Article on Haydn in "Dictionary Riemann London, +of Music." English ed. translated Augener & Co. +by J. S. Shedlock + + + +Autobiographical Sketch by himself. ... 1776 +This was made use of by (1) De Luca +in "Das gelehrte Oesterreich," 1778; +(2) in Forkel's "Musikalischer +Almanach fur Deutschland," 1783; +and (3) in the European Magazine +for October 1784. The latter includes +a portrait + +"Lexicon." Additional particulars Gerber 1790 +are given in 2nd edition, 1812 + +Musik Correspondenz der teutschen Gerber 1792 +Filarm. Gesellschaft, Nos. 17 and 18 + +Article in Journal des Luxus und Bertuch Weimar, 1805 +der Moden + +"Brevi notizie istorchie della vita Mayer Bergamo, 1809 +e delle opere di Guis. Haydn." + +Obituary in the Vaterland. Blatter ... Vienna, 1809 +fur den ost Kaiserstaat + +"Der Nagedachtenis van J. Haydn" Kinker Amsterdam, 1810 + +"Biographische Notizen uber Griezinger Leipzig, 1810 +Joseph Haydn" + +"Biographische Nachrichten von Dies Vienna, 1810 +Joseph Haydn" + +"Joseph Haydn" Arnold Erfurt, 1810; + 2nd ed., 1825 + +"Notice sur J. Haydn" Framery Paris, 1810 + +"Notice historique sur la vie et les Le Breton Paris, 1810 +ouvrages de Haydn" in the Moniteur. +This was reprinted in the +"Bibliographie Musicale," Paris, 1822. +It was also translated into Portuguese, +with additions by Silva-Lisboa. +Rio Janeiro, 1820 + +"Essai Historique sur la vie ... Strassburg, 1812 +de J. Haydn" + +"Le Haydine," etc. Carpani Milan, 1812; +This work was essentially reproduced, 2nd edition, +without acknowledgment, in "Lettres enlarged, +ecrites de Vienne en Autriche," etc., Padua, 1823 +by L. A. C. Bombet, Paris, 1814; +republished as "Vie de Haydn, Mozart +et Metastase," par Stendhal, Paris, +1817. Bombet and Stendhal are both +pseudonyms of Henri Beyle. An English +translation of the 1814 work was +published in London by John Murray, +in 1817, under the title of "The Life +of Haydn in a Series of Letters," etc. + +"Biogr. Notizen" Grosser Hirschberg, 1826 + +"Allg. Encyclopadie der Ersch und Gruber Leipzig, 1828 +Wissenschaften und Kunste," +2nd section, 3rd part, with a +biographical sketch by Frohlich + +"Allg. Wiener Musikzeitung" ... 1843 + +"J. Haydn in London, 1791 and 1792" Karajan Vienna, 1861 + +"Joseph Haydn und sein Bruder Michael" Wurzbach Vienna, 1861 + +"Joseph Haydn" Ludwig Nordhausen, 1867 + +"Mozart and Haydn in London" Pohl Vienna, 1867 + +"Joseph Haydn." Pohl ... +This, the first comprehensive +biography of Haydn, was published +--the first half of Vol. I. in +1875, the second half in 1882. +After the death of Pohl in 1887 +it was completed (1890) by +E. V. Mandyczewski + +Notice in "Biographie Universelle" Fetis ... + + + +APPENDIX D: HAYDN'S BROTHERS + + + +Of the large family born to the Rohrau wheelwright, two, besides +the great composer, devoted themselves to music. + +The first, JOHANN EVANGELIST HAYDN, made some little reputation +as a vocalist, and was engaged in that capacity in the Esterhazy +Chapel. His health had, however, been delicate from the first, +and his professional career was far from prosperous. + +JOHANN MICHAEL HAYDN was much more distinguished. Born in 1737, +he became, as we have seen, a chorister and solo-vocalist at St +Stephen's, Vienna. He was a good violinist, and played the organ +so well that he was soon able to act as deputy-organist at the +cathedral. In 1757 he was appointed Capellmeister to the Bishop +of Grosswardein, and in 1762 became conductor, and subsequently +leader and organist to Archbishop Sigismund of Salzburg. There he +naturally came in contact with Mozart, in whose biography his +name is often mentioned. Mozart on one occasion wrote two +compositions for him which the archbishop received as Michael +Haydn's. The Concertmeister was incapacitated by illness at the +time, and Mozart came to his rescue to save his salary, which the +archbishop had characteristically threatened to stop. Mozart also +scored several of his sacred works for practice. + +Michael Haydn remained at Salzburg till his death in 1806. He had +the very modest salary of 24 pounds, with board and lodging, which +was afterwards doubled; but although he was more than once offered +preferment elsewhere, he declined to leave his beloved Salzburg. +He was happily married--in 1768--to a daughter of Lipp, the +cathedral organist; and with his church work, his pupils--among +whom were Reicha and Weber--and his compositions, he sought +nothing more. When the French entered Salzburg and pillaged the +city in 1801 he was among the victims, losing some property and +a month's salary, but his brother and friends repaired the loss +with interest. This misfortune led the Empress Maria Theresa to +commission him to compose a mass, for which she rewarded him +munificently. Another of his masses was written for Prince +Esterhazy, who twice offered him the vice-Capellmeistership +of the chapel at Eisenstadt. Joseph thought Michael too +straightforward for this post. "Ours is a court life," he said, +"but a very different one from yours at Salzburg. It is +uncommonly hard to do what you want." If any appointment could +have drawn him away from Salzburg it was this; and it is said +that he refused it only because he hoped that the chapel at +Salzburg would be reorganized and his salary raised. + +Michael Haydn is buried in a side chapel of St Peter's Church, +Salzburg. A monument was erected in 1821, and over it is an +urn containing his skull. He is described by Pohl as "upright, +good-tempered and modest; a little rough in manners, and in later +life given to drink." His correspondence shows him to have been +a warm-hearted friend; and he had the same devout practice of +initialing his manuscripts as his brother. The latter thought +highly of him as a composer, declaring that his Church +compositions were superior to his own in earnestness, severity of +style and sustained power. When he asked leave to copy the canons +which hung in Joseph's bedroom at Vienna, Joseph replied: "Get +away with your copies; you can compose much better for yourself." +Michael's statement has often been quoted: "Give me good +librettos and the same patronage as my brother, and I should not +be behind him." This could scarcely have been the case, since, +as Pohl points out, Michael Haydn failed in the very qualities +which ensured his brother's success. As it was, he wrote a very +large number of works, most of which remained in manuscript. +A Mass in D is his best-known composition, though mention should +be made of the popular common-metre tune "Salzburg," adapted +from a mass composed for the use of country choirs. Michael +Haydn was nominated the great composer's sole heir, but his +death frustrated the generous intention. + + + +APPENDIX E: A SELECTION OF HAYDN LETTERS + + + +The greater number of Haydn's extant letters deal almost +exclusively with business matters, and are therefore of +comparatively little interest to the reader of his life. The +following selection may be taken as representing the composer in +his more personal and social relations. It is drawn from the +correspondence with Frau von Genzinger, which was discovered by +Theodor Georg von Karajan, in Vienna, and published first in the +Jahrbuch fur Vaterlandische Geschichte, and afterwards in his J. +Haydn in London, 1791 and 1792 (1861). The translation here used, +by the courtesy of Messrs Longman, is that of Lady Wallace. + +The name of Frau von Genzinger has been mentioned more than once +in the biography. Her husband was the Esterhazy physician. In +that capacity he paid frequent visits to Eisenstadt and Esterhaz +(which Haydn spells Estoras) and so became intimate with the +Capellmeister. He was fond of music, and during the long winter +evenings in Vienna was in the habit of assembling the best +artists in his house at Schottenhof, where on Sundays Mozart, +Haydn, Dittersdorf, Albrechtsberger, and others were often to be +found. His wife, Marianne--nee von Kayser--was a good singer, and +was sought after by all the musical circles in Vienna. She was +naturally attracted to Haydn, and although she was nearly forty +years of age when the correspondence opened in 1789, "a personal +connection was gradually developed in the course of their musical +intercourse that eventually touched their hearts and gave rise to +a bright bond of friendship between the lady and the old, though +still youthful, maestro." Some brief extracts from the letters +now to be given have of necessity been worked into the biography. +The correspondence originated in the following note from Frau von +Genzinger: + + + +January 1789. + +DEAR M. HAYDN, + +With your kind permission I take the liberty to send a pianoforte +arrangement of the beautiful adagio in your admirable +composition. I arranged it from the score quite alone, and +without the least help from my master. I beg that, if you should +discover any errors, you will be so good as to correct them. I do +hope that you are in perfect health, and nothing do I wish more +than to see you soon again in Vienna, in order to prove further +my high esteem. + +Your obedient servant, + +MARIA ANNA V. GENZINGER. + + + +To this Haydn replies as follows: + +ESTORAS, Janr. 14, 1789. + +DEAR MADAM, + +In all my previous correspondence, nothing was ever so agreeable +to me as the surprise of seeing your charming writing, and +reading so many kind expressions; but still more did I admire +what you sent me--the admirable arrangement of the adagio, which, +from its correctness, might be engraved at once by any publisher. +I should like to know whether you arranged the adagio from the +score, or whether you gave yourself the amazing trouble of first +putting it into score from the separate parts, and then arranging +it for the piano, for, if the latter, such an attention would be +too flattering to me, and I feel that I really do not deserve it. + +Best and kindest Frau v. Genzinger! I only await a hint from you +as to how, and in what way, I can serve you; in the meantime, I +return the adagio, and hope that my talents, poor though they be, +may ensure me some commands from you. + +I am yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +The next letter is from the lady: + +VIENNA, Oct. 29, 1789. + +DEAR HERR V. HAYDN, + +I hope you duly received my letter of September 15, and also the +first movement of the symphony (the andante of which I sent you +some months ago), and now follows the last movement, which I have +arranged for the piano as well as it was in my power to do; I +only wish that it may please you, and earnestly beg that, if +there are any mistakes in it, you will correct them at your +leisure, a service which I shall always accept from you, my +valued Herr Haydn, with the utmost gratitude. Be so good as to +let me know whether you received my letter of September 15, and +the piece of music, and if it is in accordance with your taste, +which would delight me very much, for I am very uneasy and +concerned lest you should not have got it safely, or not approve +of it. I hope that you are well, which will always be a source +of pleasure to me to hear, and commending myself to your further +friendship and remembrance. + +I remain, your devoted friend and servant, + +MARIA ANNA V. GENZINGER. nee v. Kayser. + +My husband sends you his regards. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Nov. 9, 1789. + +DEAR MADAM, + +I beg your forgiveness a million times for having so long delayed +returning your laborious and admirable work: the last time my +apartments were cleared out, which occurred just after receiving +your first movement, it was mislaid by my copyist among the mass +of my other music, and only a few days ago I had the good fortune +to find it in an old opera score. + +Dearest and kindest Frau v. Genzinger! do not be displeased with +a man who values you so highly; I should be inconsolable if by +the delay I were to lose any of your favour, of which I am so +proud. + +These two pieces are arranged quite as correctly as the first. +I cannot but admire the trouble and the patience you lavish on my +poor talents; and allow me to assure you in return that, in my +frequent evil moods, nothing cheers me so much as the flattering +conviction that I am kindly remembered by you; for which favour +I kiss your hands a thousand times, and am, with sincere esteem, +your obedient servant, + +JOSEPH HAYDN. + +P.S.--I shall soon claim permission to wait on you. + + + +The next letter is again from Frau v. Genzinger: + +VIENNA, Nov. 12, 1789. + +MY VALUED HERR V. HAYDN, + +I really cannot tell you all the pleasure I felt in reading your +highly-prized letter of the 9th. How well am I rewarded for my +trouble by seeing your satisfaction! Nothing do I wish more +ardently than to have more time (now so absorbed by household +affairs), for in that case I would certainly devote many hours +to music, my most agreeable and favourite of all occupations. +You must not, my dear Herr v. Haydn, take it amiss that I plague +you with another letter, but I could not but take advantage of +so good an opportunity to inform you of the safe arrival of your +letter. I look forward with the utmost pleasure to the happy day +when I am to see you in Vienna. Pray continue to give me a place +in your friendship and remembrance. + +Your sincere and devoted friend and servant. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, Nov. 18, 1789. + +DEAR LADY, + +The letter which I received through Herr Siebert gave me another +proof of your excellent heart, as instead of a rebuke for my late +remissness, you express yourself in so friendly a manner towards +me, that so much indulgence, kindness and great courtesy cause me +the utmost surprise, and I kiss your hands in return a thousand +times. If my poor talents enable me to respond in any degree to +so much that is flattering, I venture, dear madam, to offer you +a little musical potpourri. I do not, indeed, find in it much +that is fragrant; perhaps the publisher may rectify the fault +in future editions. If the arrangement of the symphony in it +be yours, oh! then I shall be twice as much pleased with the +publisher; if not, I venture to ask you to arrange a symphony, +and to transcribe it with your own hand, and to send it to me +here, when I will at once forward it to my publisher at Leipzig +to be engraved. + +I am happy to have found an opportunity that leads me to hope +for a few more charming lines from you. + +I am, etc., + +JOSEPH HAYDN. + +Shortly after the date of this letter Hadyn was again in Vienna, +when the musical evenings at Schottenhof were renewed. The Herr +v. Haring referred to in the following note is doubtless the +musical banker, well known as a violinist in the Vienna of the +time. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Jan. 23, 1790. + +DEAR, KIND FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I beg to inform you that all arrangements are now completed for +the little quartet party that we agreed to have next Friday. Herr +v. Haring esteemed himself very fortunate in being able to be of +use to me on this occasion, and the more so when I told him of +all the attention I had received from you, and your other merits. + +What I care about is a little approval. Pray don't forget to +invite the Pater Professor. Meanwhile, I kiss your hands, and am, +with profound respect, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +A call to return to Esterhaz put an end to these delights of +personal intercourse, as will be gathered from the following +letter: + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Feb. 3, 1790. + +NOBLEST AND KINDEST LADY, + +However flattering the last invitation you gave me yesterday to +spend this evening with you, I feel with deep regret that I am +even unable to express to you personally my sincere thanks for +all your past kindness. Bitterly as I deplore this, with equal +truth do I fervently wish you, not only on this evening, but ever +and always, the most agreeable social "reunions"--mine are all +over--and to-morrow I return to dreary solitude! May God only +grant me health; but I fear the contrary, being far from well +to-day. May the Almighty preserve you, dear lady, and your worthy +husband, and all your beautiful children. Once more I kiss your +hands, and am unchangeably while life lasts, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +The next letter was written six days later, evidently in the most +doleful mood: + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, Feb. 9, 1790. + +MUCH ESTEEMED AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER,-- + +Well! here I sit in my wilderness; forsaken, like some poor +orphan, almost without human society; melancholy, dwelling on the +memory of past glorious days. Yes; past, alas! And who can tell +when these happy hours may return? those charming meetings? where +the whole circle have but one heart and one soul--all those +delightful musical evenings, which can only be remembered, and +not described. Where are all those inspired moments? All gone--and +gone for long. You must not be surprised, dear lady, that I have +delayed writing to express my gratitude. I found everything at +home in confusion; for three days I did not know whether I was +capell master, or capell servant; nothing could console me; my +apartments were all in confusion; my pianoforte, that I formerly +loved so dearly, was perverse and disobedient, and rather +irritated than soothed me. I slept very little, and even my +dreams persecuted me, for, while asleep, I was under the pleasant +delusion that I was listening to the opera of "Le Nozze di +Figaro," when the blustering north wind woke me, and almost blew +my nightcap off my head. + +[The portion of the letter deleted is that given at page 161, +beginning, "I lost twenty pounds in weight."] + +...Forgive me, dear lady, for taking up your time in this very +first letter by so wretched a scrawl, and such stupid nonsense; +you must forgive a man spoilt by the Viennese. Now, however, +I begin to accustom myself by degrees to country life, and +yesterday I studied for the first time, and somewhat in the +Haydn style too. + +No doubt, you have been more industrious than myself. The +pleasing adagio from the quartet has probably now received its +true expression from your fair fingers. I trust that my good +Fraulein Peperl [Joseph A., one of the Genzinger children.] may +be frequently reminded of her master, by often singing over the +cantata, and that she will pay particular attention to distinct +articulation and correct vocalization, for it would be a sin if +so fine a voice were to remain imprisoned in the breast. I beg, +therefore, for a frequent smile, or else I shall be much vexed. +I advise M. Francois [Franz, author of the Genzinger children.] +too to cultivate his musical talents. Even if he sings in his +dressing-gown, it will do well enough, and I will often write +something new to encourage him. I again kiss your hands in +gratitude for all the kindness you have shown me. I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, March 14, 1790. + +MOST VALUED, ESTEEMED AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I ask forgiveness a million times for having so long delayed +answering your two charming letters, which has not been caused +by negligence (a sin from which may Heaven preserve me so long as +I live), but from the press of business which has devolved on me +for my gracious Prince, in his present melancholy condition. The +death of his wife overwhelmed the Prince with such grief that we +were obliged to use every means in our power to rouse him from +his profound sorrow. I therefore arranged for the three first +days a selection of chamber music, but no singing. The poor +Prince, however, the first evening, on hearing my favourite +Adagio in D, was affected by such deep melancholy that it was +difficult to disperse it by other pieces. On the fourth day we +had an opera, the fifth a comedy, and then our theatre daily +as usual... + +You must now permit me to kiss your hands gratefully for the +rusks you sent me, which, however, I did not receive till last +Tuesday; but they came exactly at the right moment, having just +finished the last of the others. That my favourite "Ariadne" has +been successful at Schottenhof is delightful news to me, but I +recommend Fraulein Peperl to articulate the words clearly, +especially in the words "Che tanto amai." I also take the liberty +of wishing you all possible good on your approaching nameday, +begging you to continue your favour towards me, and to consider +me on every occasion as your own, though unworthy, master. I must +also mention that the teacher of languages can come here any day, +and his journey will be paid. He can travel either by the +diligence or by some other conveyance, which can always be heard +of in the Madschaker Hof. As I feel sure, dear lady, that you +take an interest in all that concerns me (far greater than I +deserve), I must inform you that last week I received a present +of a handsome gold snuff-box, the weight of thirty-four ducats, +from Prince Oetting v. Wallerstein, accompanied by an invitation +to pay him a visit this year, the Prince defraying my expenses, +His Highness being desirous to make my personal acquaintance +(a pleasing fillip to my depressed spirits). Whether I shall +make up my mind to the journey is another question. + +I beg you will excuse this hasty scrawl. + +I am always, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--I have just lost my faithful coachman; he died on the +25th of last month. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, May 13, 1790. + +BEST AND KINDEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I was quite surprised, on receiving your esteemed letter, to find +that you had not yet got my last letter, in which I mentioned +that our landlord had accepted the services of a French teacher, +who came by chance to Estoras, and I also made my excuses both +to you and your tutor on that account. My highly esteemed +benefactress, this is not the first time that some of my letters +and of others also have been lost, inasmuch as our letter bag, +on its way to Oedenburg (in order to have letters put into it), +is always opened by the steward there, which has frequently been +the cause of mistake and other disagreeable occurrences. For +greater security, however, and to defeat such disgraceful curiosity, +I will henceforth enclose all my letters in a separate envelope to +the porter, Herr Pointer. This trick annoys me the more because you +might justly reproach me with procrastination, from which may Heaven +defend me! At all events, the prying person, whether male or female, +cannot, either in this last letter or in any of the others, have +discovered anything in the least inconsistent with propriety. And +now, my esteemed patroness, when am I to have the inexpressible +happiness of seeing you in Estoras? As business does not admit of +my going to Vienna, I console myself by the hope of kissing your +hands here this summer. In which pleasing hope, I am, with high +consideration, etc., yours, + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, May 30, 1790. + +KINDEST AND BEST FRAU V. GENZINGER, + +I was at Oedenburg when I received your last welcome letter, +having gone there on purpose to enquire about the lost letter. +The steward there vowed by all that was holy that he had seen no +letter at that time in my writing, so that it must have been lost +in Estoras! Be this as it may, such curiosity can do me no harm, +far less yourself, as the whole contents of the letter were an +account of my opera "La Vera Costanza," performed in the new +theatre in the Landstrasse, and about the French teacher who was +to have come at that time to Estoras. You need, therefore, be +under no uneasiness, dear lady, either as regards the past or the +future, for my friendship and esteem for you (tender as they are) +can never become reprehensible, having always before my eyes +respect for your elevated virtues, which not only I, but all +who know you, must reverence. Do not let this deter you from +consoling me sometimes by your agreeable letters, as they are so +highly necessary to cheer me in this wilderness, and to soothe +my deeply wounded heart. Oh! that I could be with you, dear lady, +even for one quarter of an hour, to pour forth all my sorrows, +and to receive comfort from you. I am obliged to submit to many +vexations from our official managers here, which, however, I +shall at present pass over in silence. The sole consolation left +me is that I am, thank God, well, and eagerly disposed to work. I +only regret that, with this inclination, you have waited so long +for the promised symphony. On this occasion it really proceeds +from absolute necessity, arising from my circumstances, and the +raised prices of everything. I trust, therefore, that you will +not be displeased with your Haydn, who, often as his Prince +absents himself from Estoras, never can obtain leave, even for +four-and-twenty hours, to go to Vienna. It is scarcely credible, +and yet the refusal is always couched in such polite terms, and +in such a manner, as to render it utterly impossible for me to +urge my request for leave of absence. Well, as God pleases! This +time also will pass away, and the day, return when I shall again +have the inexpressible pleasure of being seated beside you at the +pianoforte, hearing Mozart's masterpieces, and kissing your hands +from gratitude for so much pleasure. With this hope, I am, etc., + +J. HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, June 6, 1790. + +DEAR AND ESTEEMED LADY, + +I heartily regret that you were so long in receiving my last +letter. But the previous week no messenger was despatched from +Estoras, so it was not my fault that the letter reached you so +late. + +Between ourselves! I must inform you that Mademoiselle Nanette +has commissioned me to compose a new sonata for you, to be given +into your hands alone. I esteem myself fortunate in having +received such a command. You will receive the sonata in a +fortnight at latest. Mademoiselle Nanette promised me payment +for the work, but you can easily imagine that on no account would +I accept it. For me the best reward will always be to hear that +I have in some degree met with your approval. I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, June 20, 1790. + +DEAR, KIND FRIEND, + +I take the liberty of sending you a new pianoforte sonata with +violin or flute, not as anything at all remarkable, but as a +trifling resource in case of any great ennui. I only beg that +you will have it copied out as soon as possible, and then return +it to me. The day before yesterday I presented to Mademoiselle +Nanette the sonata commanded by her. I had hoped she would +express a wish to hear me play it, but I have not yet received +any order to that effect; I, therefore, do not know whether you +will receive it by this post or not. The sonata is in E flat, +newly written, and always intended for you. It is strange enough +that the final movement of this sonata contains the very same +minuet and trio that you asked me for in your last letter. This +identical work was destined for you last year, and I have only +written a new adagio since then, which I strongly recommend to +your attention. It has a deep signification which I will analyze +for you when opportunity offers. It is rather difficult, but full +of feeling. What a pity that you have not one of Schanz's pianos, +for then you could produce twice the effect! + +N.B.--Mademoiselle Nanette must know nothing of the sonata being +already half written before I received her commands, for this +might suggest notions with regard to me that I might find most +prejudicial, and I must be very careful not to lose her favour. +In the meanwhile I consider myself fortunate to be the means of +giving her pleasure, particularly as the sacrifice is made for +your sake, my charming Frau v. Genzinger. Oh! how I do wish that +I could only play over these sonatas once or twice to you; how +gladly would I then reconcile myself to remain for a time in my +wilderness! I have much to say and to confess to you, from which +no one but yourself can absolve me; but what cannot be effected +now will, I devoutly hope, come to pass next winter, and half of +the time is already gone. Meanwhile I take refuge in patience, +and am content with the inestimable privilege of subscribing +myself your sincere and obedient friend and servant + +J. HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, June 27, 1790. + +HIGHLY ESTEEMED LADY, + +You have no doubt by this time received the new pianoforte sonata, +and, if not, you will probably do so along with this letter. +Three days ago I played the sonata to Mademoiselle Nanette in the +presence of my gracious Prince. At first I doubted very much, +owing to its difficulty, whether I should receive any applause, +but was soon convinced of the reverse by a gold snuff-box being +presented to me by Mademoiselle Nanette's own hand. My sole wish +now is, that you may be satisfied with it, so that I may find +greater credit with my patroness. For the same reason, I beg that +either you or your husband will let her know "that my delight was +such that I could not conceal her generosity," especially being +convinced that you take an interest in all benefits conferred on +me. It is a pity that you have not a Schanz pianoforte, which is +much more favourable to expression; my idea is that you should +make over your own still very tolerable piano to Fraulein Peperl, +and get a new one for yourself. Your beautiful hands, and their +brilliant execution, deserve this, and more. I know that I ought +to have composed the sonata in accordance with the capabilities +of your piano, but, being so unaccustomed to this, I found it +impossible, and now I am doomed to stay at home. What I lose by +so doing you can well imagine: It is indeed sad always to be a +slave--but Providence wills it so. I am a poor creature, plagued +perpetually by hard work, and with few hours for recreation. +Friends? What do I say? One true friend; there are no longer any +true friends, but one female friend. Oh yes! no doubt I still have +one, but she is far away. Ah well! I take refuge in my thoughts. +May God bless her, and may she never forget me! Meanwhile I kiss +your hands a thousand times, and ever am, etc., + +HAYDN. + +Pray forgive my bad writing. I am suffering from inflamed eyes +to-day. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +ESTORAS, July 4, 1790. + +MOST ESTEEMED AND VALUED LADY, + +I this moment receive your letter, and at the same time the post +departs. I sincerely rejoice to hear that my Prince intends to +present you with a new piano, more especially as I am in some +measure the cause of this, having been constantly imploring +Mademoiselle Nanette to persuade your husband to purchase one for +you. The choice now depends entirely on yourself, and the chief +point is that you should select one in accordance with your +touch and your taste. Certainly my friend, Herr Walter, is very +celebrated, and every year I receive the greatest civility from +him; but, entre nous, and to speak candidly, sometimes there is +not more than one out of ten of his instruments which may be +called really good, and they are exceedingly high priced besides. +I know Herr Nickl's piano; it is first-rate, but too heavy for +your touch; nor can every passage be rendered with proper +delicacy on it. I should, therefore, like you to try one of Herr +Schanz's pianos, for they have a remarkably light and agreeable +touch. A good pianoforte is absolutely necessary for you, and my +sonata will also gain vastly by it. + +Meanwhile I thank you much, dear lady, for your caution with +regard to Mademoiselle Nanette. It is a pity that the little gold +box she gave me, and had used herself, is tarnished, but perhaps +I may get it polished up in Vienna. I have as yet received no +orders to purchase a pianoforte. I fear that one may be sent to +your house, which may be handsome outside, but the touch within +heavy. If your husband will rely on my opinion, that Herr Schanz +is the best maker for this class of instruments, I would then +settle everything at once. In great haste, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +Estoras, August 15. + +I ought to have written to you last week in answer to your +letter, but as this day has been long enshrined in my heart, I +have been striving earnestly all the time to think how and what I +was to wish for you; so thus eight days passed, and now, when my +wishes ought to be expressed, my small amount of intellect comes +to a standstill, and (quite abashed) I find nothing to say; why? +wherefore? because I have not been able to fulfill those musical +hopes for this particular day that you have justly the right to +expect. Oh, my most charming and kind benefactress! if you could +only know, or see into my troubled heart on this subject, you +would certainly feel pity and indulgence for me. The unlucky +promised symphony has haunted my imagination ever since it +was bespoken, and it is only, alas! the pressure of urgent +occurrences that has prevented its being hitherto ushered into +the world! The hope, however, of your lenity towards me for the +delay, and the approaching time of the fulfillment of my promise, +embolden me to express my wish, which, among the hundreds offered +to you to-day and yesterday, may perhaps appear to you only an +insignificant interloper; I say perhaps, for it would be too bold +in me to think that you could form no better wish for yourself +than mine. You see, therefore, most kind and charming lady, that +I can wish nothing for you on your nameday, because my wishes are +too feeble, and therefore unproductive. As for me, I venture to +wish for myself your kind indulgence, and the continuance of your +friendship, and the goodness that I so highly prize. This is my +warmest wish! But if any wish of mine may be permitted, then +mine shall become identical with your own, for thus I shall feel +assured that none other remains, except the wish once more to be +allowed to subscribe myself your very sincere friend and servant, + +HAYDN. + + + +No further letters appear to have been addressed to the lady +until Haydn started on his first visit to London in December +1790. One or two extracts from these London letters have been +used in Chapter V., but as the repetitions will be very slight, +we allow the letters to stand as they are. + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +CALAIS, Decr. 31, 1790. + +HIGHLY HONOURED LADY, + +A violent storm and an incessant pour of rain prevented our +arriving at Calais till this evening (where I am now writing to +you), and to-morrow at seven in the morning we cross the sea to +London. I promised to write from Brussels, but we could only +stay there an hour. I am very well, thank God! although somewhat +thinner, owing to fatigue, irregular sleep, and eating and +drinking so many different things. A few days hence I will +describe the rest of my journey, but I must beg you to excuse +me for to-day. I hope to heaven that you and your husband and +children are all well. + +I am, with high esteem, etc., yours, + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Jan. 8, 1791. + +I thought that you had received my last letter from Calais. I +ought, indeed, according to my promise, to have sent you some +tidings of myself when I arrived in London, but I preferred +waiting a few days that I might detail various incidents to you. +I must now tell you that on New Year's Day, after attending early +mass, I took ship at half-past seven o'clock a.m., and at five +o'clock in the afternoon arrived safe and well at Dover, for +which Heaven be praised! During the first four hours there was +scarcely any wind, and the vessel made so little way that in +that time we only went one English mile, there being twenty-four +between Calais and Dover. The ship's captain, in the worst +possible humour, said that if the wind did not change we should +be at sea all night. Fortunately, however, towards half-past +eleven o'clock such a favourable breeze began to blow that by +four o'clock we had come twenty-two miles. As the ebb of the +tide prevented our large vessel making the pier, two small boats +were rowed out to meet us, into which we and our luggage were +transferred, and at last we landed safely, though exposed to a +sharp gale. The large vessel stood out to sea five hours longer, +till the tide carried it into the harbour. Some of the +passengers, being afraid to trust themselves in the small boats, +stayed on board, but I followed the example of the greater +number. I remained on deck during the whole passage, in order to +gaze my fill at that huge monster, the Ocean. So long as there +was a calm I had no fears, but when at length a violent wind +began to blow, rising every minute, and I saw the boisterous high +waves running on, I was seized with a little alarm, and a little +indisposition likewise. But I overcame it all, and arrived safely +in harbour, without being actually ill. Most of the passengers +were ill, and looked like ghosts. I did not feel the fatigue of +the journey till I arrived in London, but it took two days before +I could recover from it. But now I am quite fresh and well, and +occupied in looking at this mighty and vast town of London, +its various beauties and marvels causing me the most profound +astonishment. I immediately paid the necessary visits, such as +to the Neapolitan Minister and to our own. Both called on me in +return two days afterwards, and a few days ago I dined with the +former--nota bene, at six o'clock in the evening, which is the +fashion here. + +My arrival caused a great sensation through the whole city, and +I went the round of all the newspapers for three successive days. +Everyone seems anxious to know me. I have already dined out six +times, and could be invited every day if I chose; but I must in +the first place consider my health, and in the next my work. +Except the nobility, I admit no visitors till two o'clock in the +afternoon, and at four o'clock I dine at home with Salomon. I +have a neat, comfortable lodging, but very dear. My landlord is +an Italian, and likewise a cook, who gives us four excellent +dishes; we each pay one florin thirty kreuzers a day, exclusive +of wine and beer, but everything is terribly dear here. I was +yesterday invited to a grand amateur concert, but as I arrived +rather late, when I gave my ticket, they would not let me in, but +took me to an ante-room, where I was obliged to remain till the +piece which was then being given was over. Then they opened the +door, and I was conducted, leaning on the arm of the director, +up the centre of the room to the front of the orchestra amid +universal clapping of hands, stared at by everyone, and greeted +by a number of English compliments. I was assured that such +honours had not been conferred on anyone for fifty years. After +the concert I was taken into a very handsome room adjoining, +where tables were laid for all the amateurs, to the number of two +hundred. It was proposed that I should take a seat near the top, +but as it so happened that I had dined out that very day, and ate +more than usual, I declined the honour, excusing myself under the +pretext of not being very well; but in spite of this, I could +not get off drinking the health, in Burgundy, of the harmonious +gentlemen present; all responded to it, but at last allowed me to +go home. All this, my dear lady, was very flattering to me; still +I wish I could fly for a time to Vienna, to have more peace to +work, for the noise in the streets, and the cries of the common +people selling their wares, is intolerable. I am still working at +symphonies, as the libretto of the opera is not yet decided on, +but in order to be more quiet, I intend to engage an apartment +some little way out of town. I would gladly write more at length, +but I fear losing this opportunity. With kindest regards to your +husband, Fraulein Pepi, and all the rest, I am, with sincere +esteem, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--I have a request to make. I think I must have left my +symphony in E flat, that you returned to me, in my room at home, +or mislaid it on the journey. I missed it yesterday, and being +in pressing need of it, I beg you urgently to procure it for me, +through my kind friend, Herr v. Kees. Pray have it copied out in +your own house, and send it by post as soon as possible. If Herr +v. Kees hesitates about this, which I don't think likely, pray +send him this letter. My address is, M. Haydn, 18 Great Pulteney +Street, London. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Sept. 17, 1791. + +MY HIGHLY ESTEEMED FRIEND, + +I have received no reply to my two letters of July 3, entrusted +to the care of a composer, Herr Diettenhofer, by whom I likewise +sent the pianoforte arrangement of an andante in one of my new +symphonies. Nor have I any answer either about the symphony in +E flat, that I wished to get. I can now no longer delay inquiring +after your own health, as well as that of your husband, and all +your dear family. Is that odious proverb, "Out of sight, out of +mind," to prove true everywhere? Oh no! urgent affairs or the +loss of my letter and the symphony are, no doubt, the cause of +your silence. I feel assured of Herr von Kees's willingness to +send the symphony, as he said he would do so in his letter; so +it seems we shall both have to deplore a loss, and must trust to +Providence. I flatter myself I shall receive a short answer to +this. Now, my dear, good, kind lady, what is your piano about? +Is a thought of Haydn sometimes recalled by your fair hand? Does +my sweet Fraulein Pepi ever sing poor "Ariadne"? Oh yes! I seem +to hear it even here, especially during the last two months, when +I have been residing in the country, amid lovely scenery, with a +banker, whose heart and family resemble the Genzingers, and where +I live as in a monastery. God be praised! I am in good health, +with the exception of my usual rheumatic state. I work hard, and +in the early mornings, when I walk in the wood alone with my +English grammar, I think of my Creator, of my family, and of all +the friends I have left--and of these you are the most valued of +all. + +I had hoped, indeed, sooner to have enjoyed the felicity of +seeing you again; but my circumstances, in short, fate so wills +it that I must remain eight or ten months longer in London. Oh, +my dear, good lady, how sweet is some degree of liberty! I had +a kind Prince, but was obliged at times to be dependent on base +souls. I often sighed for release, and now I have it in some +measure. I am quite sensible of this benefit, though my mind is +burdened with more work. The consciousness of being no longer a +bond-servant sweetens all my toils. But, dear as liberty is to +me, I do hope on my return again to enter the service of Prince +Esterhazy, solely for the sake of my poor family. I doubt much +whether I shall find this desire realized, for in his letter my +Prince complains of my long absence, and exacts my speedy return +in the most absolute terms; which, however, I cannot comply with, +owing to a new contract I have entered into here. I, alas! expect +my dismissal; but I hope even in that case that God will be +gracious to me, and enable me in some degree to remedy the loss +by my own industry. Meanwhile I console myself by the hope of +soon hearing from you. You shall receive my promised new symphony +two months hence; but in order to inspire me with good ideas, +I beg you will write to me, and a long letter too. + +Yours, etc. + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Oct. 13, 1791. + +I take the liberty of earnestly entreating you to advance 150 +florins for a short time to my wife, provided you do not imagine +that since my journey I have become a bad manager. No, my kind, +good friend, God blesses my efforts. Three circumstances are +alone to blame. In the first place, since I have been here, I +have repaid my Prince the 450 florins he advanced for my journey; +secondly, I can demand no interest from my bank obligations, +having placed them under your care, and not being able to +remember either the names or the numbers, so I cannot write a +receipt; thirdly, I cannot yet apply for the 5883 florins (1000 +of which I recently placed in my Prince's hands, and the rest +with the Count v. Fries), especially because it is English money. +You will, therefore, see that I am no spendthrift. This leads me +to hope that you will not refuse my present request, to lend my +wife 150 florins. This letter must be your security, and would be +valid in any court. I will repay the interest of the money with +a thousand thanks on my return. + +I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + +...I believe you received my letter the very same day that I was +reading your cruel reproach that Haydn was capable of forgetting +his friend and benefactress. Oh! how often do I long to be beside +you at the piano, even for a quarter of an hour, and then to have +some good German soup. But we cannot have everything in this +world. May God only vouchsafe to grant me the health that I have +hitherto enjoyed, and may I preserve it by good conduct and out +of gratitude to the Almighty! That you are well is to me the most +delightful of all news. May Providence long watch over you! I +hope to see you in the course of six months, when I shall, +indeed, have much to tell you. Good-night! it is time to go to +bed; it is half-past eleven o'clock. One thing more. To insure +the safety of the money, Herr Hamberger, a good friend of mine, +a man of tall stature, our landlord, will bring you this letter +himself, and you can with impunity entrust him with the money; +but I beg you will take a receipt both from him and from my wife. + +Among other things, Herr v. Kees writes to me that he should like +to know my position in London, as there are so many different +reports about me in Vienna. From my youth upwards I have been +exposed to envy, so it does not surprise me when any attempt is +made wholly to crush my poor talents; but the Almighty above is +my support. My wife wrote to me that Mozart depreciates me very +much, but this I will never believe. If true, I forgive him. +There is no doubt that I find many who are envious of me in +London also, and I know them almost all. Most of them are +Italians. But they can do me no harm, for my credit with this +nation has been firmly established far too many years. Rest +assured that, if I had not met with a kind reception, I would +long since have gone back to Vienna. I am beloved and esteemed +by everyone, except, indeed, professors [of music]. As for my +remuneration, Mozart can apply to Count Fries for information, +in whose hands I placed 500 pounds, and 1000 guilders in those +of my Prince, making together nearly 6000 florins. I daily thank +my Creator for this boon, and I have good hope that I may bring +home a couple of thousands besides, notwithstanding, my great +outlay and the cost of the journey. I will now no longer intrude +on your time. How badly this is written! What is Pater --- doing? +My compliments to him. + +Yours, etc. + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Nov. 17, 1791. + +I write in the greatest haste, to request that you will send the +accompanying packet, addressed to you, to Herr v. Kees, as it +contains the two new symphonies I promised. I waited for a +good opportunity, but could hear of none; I have therefore been +obliged to send them after all by post. I beg you will ask Herr +v. Kees to have a rehearsal of both these symphonies, as they +are very delicate, particularly the last movement in D, which I +recommend to be given as pianissimo as possible, and the tempo +very quick. I will write to you again in a few days. Nota bene, +I was obliged to enclose both the symphonies to you, not knowing +the address of Herr v. Kees. + +I am, etc. + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--I only returned here to-day from the country. I have been +staying with a mylord for the last fortnight, a hundred miles +from London. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Dec. 20, 1791. + +I am much surprised that you did not get my letter at the same +time as the two symphonies, having put them myself into the post +here, and given every direction about them. My mistake was not +having enclosed the letter in the packet. This is what often +happens, dear lady, with those who have too much head work. I +trust, however, that the letter reached you soon afterwards, but +in case it did not, I must here explain that both symphonies were +intended for Herr v. Kees, but with the stipulation that, after +being copied by his order, the scores were to be given up to you, +so that you may prepare a pianoforte arrangement of them, if you +are so disposed. The particular symphony intended for you will be +finished by the end of February at latest. I regret much having +been obliged to forward the heavy packet to you, from not knowing +Herr v. Kees's address; but he will, of course, repay you the +cost of postage, and also, I hope, hand you over seven ducats. +May I, therefore, ask you to employ a portion of that sum in +copying on small paper my often-applied-for symphony in E minor, +and forward it to me by post as soon as possible, for it may +perhaps be six months before a courier is despatched from Vienna, +and I am in urgent need of the symphony. Further, I must plague +you once more by asking you to buy at Artaria's my last +pianoforte sonata in A flat, that is, with 4 B flat minor, with +violin and violoncello, and also another piece, the fantasia in +C, without accompaniment, for these pieces are not yet published +in London; but be so good as not to mention this to Herr Artaria, +or he might anticipate the sale in England. I beg you will deduct +the price from the seven ducats. To return to the aforesaid +symphonies, I must tell you that I sent you a pianoforte +arrangement of the andante in C minor by Herr Diettenhofer. It is +reported here, however, that he either died on the journey, or +met with some serious accident. You had better look over both +pieces at your leisure. The principal part of the letter I +entrusted to Herr Diettenhofer was the description of a Doctor's +degree being conferred on me at Oxford, and all the honours I +then received. I must take this opportunity of mentioning that +three weeks ago the Prince of Wales invited me to his brother's +country seat. The Prince presented me to the Duchess (a daughter +of the King of Prussia), who received me very graciously, and +said many flattering things. She is the most charming lady in the +world, possesses much intelligence, plays the piano, and sings +very pleasingly. I stayed two days there, because on the first +day a slight indisposition prevented her having any music; on the +second day, however, she remained beside me from ten o'clock at +night, when the music began, till two hours after midnight. No +compositions played but Haydn's. I directed the symphonies at the +piano. The sweet little lady sat close beside me at my left hand, +and hummed all the pieces from memory, having heard them so +repeatedly in Berlin. The Prince of Wales sat on my right hand, +and accompanied me very tolerably on the violoncello. They made +me sing too. The Prince of Wales is having me painted just now, +and the portrait is to be hung up in his private sitting-room. +The Prince of Wales is the handsomest man on God's earth; he has +an extraordinary love of music, and a great deal of feeling, but +very little money. Nota bene, this is entre nous. His kindness +gratifies me far more than any self-interest; on the third day, +as I could not get any post-horses, the Duke of York sent me +two stages with his own. + +Now, dear lady, I should like to reproach you a little for +believing that I prefer London to Vienna, and find my residence +here more agreeable than in my fatherland. I am far from hating +London, but I could not reconcile myself to spend my life there; +no, not even to amass millions; my reasons I will tell you when +we meet. I think of my home, and embracing once more all my old +friends, with the delight of a child; only I deeply lament that +the great Mozart will not be of the number, if it be true, which +I trust it is not, that he is dead. Posterity will not see such +talent as his for the next hundred years! I am happy to hear that +you and yours are all so well. I, too, have hitherto been in +excellent health, till eight days since, when I was attacked by +English rheumatism, and so severely that sometimes I could not +help crying out aloud; but I hope soon to get quit of it, as I +have adopted the usual custom here, and have wrapped myself up +from head to foot in flannel. Pray excuse my bad writing. In the +hope of soon being gratified by a letter, and with all esteem +for yourself, and best regards to your husband, my dear Fraulein +Pepi, and the others. + +I am, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--Pray give my respects to Herr v. Kreybich [chamber music +director to Joseph II]. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Jan. 17, 1792. + +DEAREST AND KINDEST LADY, + +I must ask your forgiveness a thousand times; and I own and +bemoan that I have been too dilatory in the performance of my +promise, but if you could only see how I am importuned to attend +private concerts, causing me great loss of time, and the mass of +work with which I am burdened, you would indeed, dear lady, feel +the utmost compassion for me. Never in my life did I write so +much in one year as during the last, which has indeed utterly +exhausted me, and it will do me good to be able to take a little +rest when I return home. At present I am working for Salomon's +concerts, and feel bound to take all possible trouble, for our +rivals of the Professional Society have sent for my pupil Pleyel +from Strassburg, to direct their concerts. So a bloody harmonious +war will now commence between master and scholar. All the +newspapers have begun to discuss the subject, but I think an +alliance will soon ensue, my reputation here being so firmly +established. Pleyel, on his arrival, displayed so much modesty +towards me that he gained my goodwill afresh. We are very often +together, which is much to his credit, and he knows how to +appreciate his "father"; we will share our laurels fairly, and +each go home satisfied. Professional Concerts met with a great +misfortune on the 14th of this month, by the Pantheon being +entirely burned down, a theatre only built last year. It was the +work of an incendiary, and the damage is estimated at more than +100,000 pounds sterling; so there is not a single Italian theatre +in London at this moment. Now, my dear angelic lady, I have a +little fault to find with you. How often have I reiterated my +request to have my symphony in E minor, of which I sent you the +theme, copied out on small paper, and sent to me by post? Long +have I sighed for it, and if I do not get it by the end of next +month I shall lose twenty guineas. Herr v. Kees writes that the +copy may possibly arrive in London three months hence, or three +years, for there is no chance of a courier being sent off at +present. I also told Herr v. Kees in the same letter to take +charge of this, and if he could not do so, I ventured to transfer +the commission to you, flattering myself that my urgent request +would certainly be fulfilled by your kindness. I also desired +Herr v. Kees to repay you the cost of the postage you paid for +his packet. Kindest and most charming Frau v. Genzinger, I once +more beg you to see to this matter, for it is really a work of +mercy, and when we meet I will explain my reasons, respectfully +kiss your fair hands, and repay my debt with gratitude. The +celebration you mention in honour of my poor abilities touched me +deeply, but still not so profoundly as if you had considered it +more perfect. Perhaps I may supply this imperfection by another +symphony which I will shortly send you; I say perhaps, because +I (or rather my brain) am in truth weary. Providence alone can +repair the deficiency in my powers, and to Him I daily pray for +aid, for without His support I should indeed be a poor creature! +And now, my kind and dear friend, I venture to hope for your +indulgence. Oh yes! your portrait is at this moment before me, +and I hear it say, "Well, for this time, you odious Haydn, I will +forgive you, but--but!" No, no, I mean henceforth strictly to +fulfill my duties. I must conclude for to-day by saying that now, +as ever, I am, with the highest esteem, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, Feb. 2, 1792. + +I have to-day received your kind letter, and also the fantasia, +and sonata a tre. I was, however, rather vexed, on opening the +packet, not to find the long-looked-for symphony in E minor, +which I had fully hoped for, and expected. Dear lady, I entreat +you to send it at once, written on small post paper, and I will +gladly pay all expenses, for Heaven alone can tell when the +symphonies from Brussels may arrive here. I cannot dispense with +this one, without incurring great loss. Pray forgive my plaguing +you so often on the subject, but I shall indeed be truly grateful +if you will send it. Being overwhelmed with work at present, I +cannot as yet write to Herr v. Kees. Pray, then, apply to him +yourself for the said symphony. + +With my kind respects, I am, yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + +You shall have a good portion of the sewing needles. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, March 2, 1792. + +Yesterday morning I received your valued letter, and also the +long-looked-for symphony. I humbly kiss your hands for sending +it so safely and quickly. I had indeed received it six days +previously from Brussels, through Herr v. Kees; but the score +was more useful, as a good deal must be altered in it to suit +the English taste. I only regret that I must trouble you so +frequently with my commissions, especially as at present I cannot +adequately testify my gratitude. I do positively assure and +declare to you that this causes me great embarrassment, and +indeed often makes me feel very sad; the more so that, owing to +various urgent causes, I am unable to send you as yet the new +symphony dedicated to you. First, because I wish to alter and +embellish the last movement, which is too feeble when compared +with the first. I felt this conviction myself quite as much as +the public, when it was performed for the first time last Friday; +notwithstanding which, it made the most profound impression on +the audience. The second reason is that I really dread the risk +of its falling into other hands. I was not a little startled when +I read the unpleasant intelligence about the sonata. By Heavens! +I would rather have lost twenty-five ducats than have suffered +such a theft, and the only one who can have done this is my own +copyist; but I fervently hope to supply the loss through Madame +Tost, for I do not wish to incur any reproaches from her. You +must therefore, dear lady, be indulgent towards me, until I can +towards the end of July myself have the pleasure of placing in +your hands the sonata, as well as the symphony. Nota bene, the +symphony is to be given by myself, but the sonata by Madame Tost. +It is equally impossible for me to send Herr v. Kees the promised +symphonies at present, for here too there is a great want of +faithful copyists. If I had time, I would write them out myself, +but no day, not a single one, am I free from work, and I shall +thank the good Lord when I can leave London; the sooner the +better. My labours are augmented by the arrival of my pupil +Pleyel, who has been summoned here by the Professional Society +to direct their concerts. He brought with him a number of new +compositions, which were, however, written long ago! He +accordingly promised to give a new piece every evening. On seeing +this, I could easily perceive that there was a dead set against +me, so I also announced publicly that I would likewise give +twelve different new pieces; so in order to keep my promise, and +to support poor Salomon, I must be the victim, and work +perpetually. I do feel it, however, very much. My eyes suffer +most, and my nights are very sleepless, but with God's help I +will overcome it all. The Professors wished to put a spoke in my +wheel because I did not join their concerts, but the public is +just. Last year I received great applause, but this year still +more. Pleyel's presumption is everywhere criticized, and yet I +love him, and have gone to his concert each time, and been the +first to applaud him. I sincerely rejoice that you and yours +are well. My kind regards to all. The time draws near to put my +trunks in travelling order. Oh! how delighted shall I be to see +you again, and to show personally all the esteem that I felt for +you in absence, and that I ever shall feel for you. + +Yours, etc., + +HAYDN. + +P.S.--Please apologize to Herr v. Kees for want of time +preventing my sending him the new symphonies. I hope to have +the honour of directing them myself in your house, at our next +Christmas music. + + + +To Frau v. Genzinger. + +LONDON, April 24, 1792. + +I yesterday evening received with much pleasure your last letter +of 5 April, with the extract from the newspaper, extolling my +poor talents to the Viennese. I must confess that I have gained +considerable credit with the English in vocal music, by this +little chorus, [The "Storm Chorus," see p. 91.] my first attempt +with English words. It is only to be regretted that, during my +stay here, I have not been able to write more pieces of a similar +nature, but we could not find any boys to sing at our concerts, +they having been already engaged for a year past to sing at other +concerts, of which there are a vast number. In spite of the great +opposition of my musical enemies, who are so bitter against me, +more especially leaving nothing undone with my pupil Pleyel this +winter to humble me, still, thank God! I may say that I have kept +the upper hand. I must, however, admit that I am quite wearied +and worn out with so much work, and look forward with eager +longing to the repose which will soon take pity on me. I thank +you, dear lady, for your kind solicitude about me. Just as you +thought, I do not require to go to Paris at present, from a +variety of reasons, which I will tell you when we meet. I am in +daily expectation of an order from my Prince, to whom I wrote +lately, to tell me where I am to go. It is possible that he may +summon me to Frankfort; if not, I intend (entre nous) to go by +Holland to the King of Prussia at Berlin, thence to Leipzig, +Dresden, Prague, and last of all to Vienna, where I hope to +embrace all my friends. + +Ever, with high esteem, etc., + +HAYDN. + + + +*********END OF "HAYDN," FROM THE MASTER MUSICIAN SERIES********* + + + +INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + + + +The preceding is the text of "Haydn," a biography of the composer +Franz Joseph Haydn, from the Master Musicians series. The book +itself was authored by J. Cuthbert Hadden, while the Master +Musicians series itself was edited by Frederick J. Crowest. +"Haydn" was published in 1902 by J.M. Dent & Co. (LONDON), +represented at the time in New York by E.P. Dutton & Co. Each +page was cut out of the original book with an X-acto knife and +fed into an Automatic Document Feeder Scanner to make this e- +text, so the original book was, well, ruined in order to save it. + +Some adaptations from the original text were made while +formatting it for an e-text. Italics in the original book were +ignored in making this e-text, unless they referred to proper +nouns, in which case they are put in quotes in the e-text. +Italics are problematic because they are not easily rendered +in ASCII text. + +Words enclosed in brackets [ ] are original footnotes inserted +into the text. + +This electronic text was prepared by John Mamoun with help from +numerous other proofreaders, including those associated with +Charles Franks' Distributed Proofreaders website. Thanks to +R. Zimmermann, S. Morrison, B. Wyman, V. Walker, N. Harris, +T. Mills, C. Franks, F. Clowes, T. Mills, E. Beach, D. McKee, +D. Levy, D. Bindner, R. Rowe, K. Rieff, J. Cardillo, K. Peterson, +H. Dank and several others for proof-reading. + +Version 11 of this text prepared by Andrew Sly. Numerous changes +and corrections made by comparison with the original book. + +This e-text is public domain, freely copyable and distributable +for any non-commercial purpose, and may be included without +royalty or permission on a mass media storage product, such as a +cd-rom, that contains at least 50 public domain electronic texts, +whether offered for non-commercial or commercial purposes. Any +other commercial usage requires permission. + +Use of the Project Gutenberg Trademark requires separate +permission. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg eText of Haydn, by J. Cuthbert Hadden*** + diff --git a/old/hhmms11.zip b/old/hhmms11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed8ed27 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/hhmms11.zip |