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diff --git a/3788.txt b/3788.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1807969 --- /dev/null +++ b/3788.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7102 @@ +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: 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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