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Uniform wiili this Volumej price 35. each. 
 
 TH_hJ GKEAT MUSICIANS 
 
 A SERIES OF BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 FRANCIS HUEFFER. 
 
 WAGNER. 
 
 HANDEL. 
 
 "WEBER. 
 
 MENDELSSOHN. 
 
 SCHUBERT. 
 
 SCHUMANN. 
 
 Rossiisri. 
 
 BERLIOZ. 
 
 PURGE LL. 
 
 BEETHOVEN. 
 
 HAYDN. 
 
 CHERUBINL 
 
 MOZART. 
 
 
 ENGLISH CHURCH COMPOSERS. 
 
Cljf <0ifat ilflusiinani) 
 
 Edited by Fkancis HuEfPEB 
 
 JOSEPH HAYDN 
 
 BY 
 
 PAULINE D. TOWNSEND 
 
 TRANSLATOR OF JAHN's " MOZART " 
 
 jp^KTMENT Of 
 
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 ' ' * >o* i " i 
 
 LONDON 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY 
 
 Limited 
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PHEFACE. 
 
 Great musical learning and indefatigable ardour oF 
 research have enabled Herr C. F. Pohl (Librarian to 
 the Gesellschaft der Mnsikfreunde, Vienna) to accomplish 
 for Haydn what Spitta has done for Bach_, Jahn for Mozart, 
 and Chry Sander for Handel. The two volumes of his 
 '^ Joseph Haydn/' already published (Leipzig, 1878 and 
 1882) J bring the story of the composer's life down to the 
 end of the year 1790, the date of his departure for England. 
 The second part of the same writer's '^ Mozart und Haydn 
 in London '^ (Vienna, 1867) continues the narrative to 1795, 
 the close of Haydn's musical career. 
 
 The present writer desires to make full acknowledg- 
 ment of her indebtedness to Herr Pohl's work, and at the 
 same time to indicate, as her further principal authorities 
 on all matters of fact contained in this volume, Haydn's 
 Autobiographical Sketch written for ^' Das gelehrte 
 Oesterreich '' in ,1776, and first published in the '^ Wiener 
 Zeitschrift fiir Kunst, Literatur und Mode,'' in 1836; 
 Griesinger's ^^ Biographische Notizen iiber J. Haydn'' 
 (Leipzig, 1810); Dies's " Biographische Nachrichten von 
 J. Haydn" (Vienna, 1810) ; von Karajan's '' J. Haydn in 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Loudon, 1791 iind 1792 '' (Vienna, 1861) ; Carpani's '^Le 
 Haydine'^ (2nd edit., 1823); tlie article on Haydn in 
 Fitis^s ^^ BiograpMe Univ. des Musiciens;" and last, 
 though not least, the article ^^ J. Haydn,'^ by Herr 
 Pohl, in Grove's ^' Dictionary of Music and Musicians.^' 
 The list of Haydn's compositions given at the end 
 of the volume is mainly based upon that in Grove's 
 dictionary. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chil-dhood and Eaely Life, 1732 — 1750— Eoheau — IIai]!^bueg 
 
 — YiENNA 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Study in Vienna, 1750—1760 ..,.•. 14 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Capellmeister at Eisenstadt, 1760—1766 • . • .30 
 
 CHAPTER ly. 
 Works at Eisenstadt, 1760 — 1766 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 JIsTEEHAZ, 1766—1790 60 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 First Yisit to London, 1790—1792 80 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 Second Yisit to London, 1794, 1795 . . * . . 102 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The " Creation " — The " Seasons " — Haydn's Last Teaes — 
 Conclusion ....•..,, Ill 
 
 List oe Haydn's CoMrosiiiONS ....,, 121 
 
HAYDN, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND EAELY LIFE, 1732 — 1750. 
 EOHRAU — HAINEUKG —VIENNA. 
 
 The interest of tlie life of Joseph Haydn centres almost 
 exclusively in liis career as a musician. As we trace his 
 artistic progress step by step, we do not, as is the case 
 with Mozart, come across pleasant side glimpses of home 
 interiors, bright with the love of wife or sister and welcome 
 to the observer as showing the man as he was in his best 
 and truest moods. Nor do Haydn\s letters which have 
 been preserved possess much general or human interest, 
 although they are valuable, as letters always must be, in 
 helping us to form a true estimate of his character. 
 
 His disposition would seem to have fitted him admira- 
 bly for a domestic life, but this blessing was denied him. 
 His childhood ended at six years old, and from that time 
 until he was sixty-five he had, properly speaking, no 
 home nor home life. His life and his art were indissolu- 
 bly bound together ; his friendships, though the view we 
 get of these is so pleasant and life-like as almost to con- 
 tradict what we have been saying, were all with his fellow- 
 artists or his patrons. 
 
 He cared for nothing, lived for nothing but music, and 
 his sole regret in extreme old age was that he must die 
 before having carried his art to greater perfection than it 
 
 B 
 
Z HAYDN. 
 
 liad yet atfcai'ned. This being so, it beLoyes the 
 biographer of Haydn to centre the interest of his life in 
 the work of his life, and, while eagerly gathering such 
 crumbs as he may find of information as to Haydn the 
 man, to strive to give his readers a clear and accurate 
 portrait of Haydn the musician. To do this, however, 
 imperfectly, will be the aim of the present sketch, and it 
 will involve a description of Haydn's surroundings, 
 physical and human, and of the times in which he lived 
 and worked, which, it is hoped, will supply that element 
 of general interest which a mere record of dates, events, 
 and compositions would certainly lack. 
 
 Haydn's birthplace was the little village of Rohrau, 
 lying, as its name implies, in a flat, marshy district close 
 to the Eiver Leitha, which here forms the boundary 
 between Lower Austria and Hungary, and later falls into 
 a tributary of the Danube. The house in which the great 
 composer first saw the light stands at the end of the long 
 village street nearest to the Leitha and the bridge spanning 
 the river, and was consequently at the mercy of the floods, 
 which laid the low-lying country under water as often as 
 the river overflowed its banks. Twice since the cottage 
 was built by Haydn's father has it been swept away ; 
 first in 1813, and again in 1833. Twice has it been 
 rebuilt, each time in its original form, so that the present 
 single-storied, straggling little house, with its thatched 
 roof and over-shadowing tree, may be accepted as a very 
 faithful presentment of Haydn's earliest home. 
 
 The wo rlc shop in which Mathias -Haydn, the father, 
 carried on his trade as a wheelwright has disappeared, 
 bat the orchard and kitchen garden, stretching almost to 
 the banks of the Leitha, are still to be seen, and here we 
 may imagine Joseph, like any other sturdy little German 
 peasant, passing the first six years of his life, playing, 
 shouting, tumbling, and getting into all the mischief 
 within his reach. << Not only his father, but four or five of 
 his six uncles also were wheelwrights by trade. The family 
 came originally from Hainburg on the Danube, about 
 four leagues from Rohrau. There most of Mathias Haydn's 
 brothers still pursued their calling, and there also a 
 
CHILDHOOD AND EAKLY LIFE. 3 
 
 connection by marriage named Frankli was sclioolmastcr 
 
 and Chorregent. 
 
 Mathias Haydn may be described as a last-century 
 
 German peasant of tlie best type. An bonest, God-fearing*, 
 
 liard-workinsr man, content with his own lot in life, but 
 
 • • • 1 
 
 not without a spark of ambition for his sons ; so that as 
 
 liis little Joseph's talent for music became more and mOrc 
 marked, he liked to imagine him a future Capellmeister 
 or Chorregent. Ignorant enough, doubtless, he was of all 
 outside his trade, but not absolutely uncultivated either, 
 since during a visit to Frankfort in his youth, undertaken 
 for some purpose connected with his trade, he had learned 
 to play the harp by ear, and was fond of singing to its 
 accompaniment, sometimes alone, sometimes iu duets with 
 his wife. As the children grew up they were allowed to 
 join in these family concerts, and their father took pride 
 in teaching them to sing in parts correctly. In after- 
 years, when Joseph and his younger brother Michael, 
 both studying music in Vienna, were spending their 
 holidays at home, the evening music was resumed. Oue 
 can imao-ine how eag-erlv the old man would produce his 
 instrument and uplift his still pleasing tenor voice, as 
 one who would say, '^ And I, too, am a musician ! '^ Then 
 the sons, with all the arrogance of youthful knowledge, 
 would question this or that point in the father's rendering 
 of voice part or accompaniment, and the dispute waxing* 
 warm, Mathias would finally close it with the angry and 
 unanswerable remark, "' You are a set of donkeys! " 
 
 Mathias Haydn married in 1728 Maria Koller, daughter 
 of the '' Marktrichter '' and cook to Count Harrach, lord 
 of the castle and village of Rohrau. She was a girl 
 of twenty-one when her husband brought her home to 
 his newly-built cottage, and here she bore him twelve 
 children, and lived a faithful wife and mother till her 
 death in 1754. 
 
 Joseph's love for his mother was deep and lasting, and, 
 considering the early age at which he left her side never 
 to return as an inmate of the home, this fact points to a 
 more than ordinary maternal influence. 
 
 The habits of order, regularity, and hard work which 
 
 s 2 
 
4 HAYDN. 
 
 she inculcated, lasted to tlie end of his life, and to a 
 visitor who expressed surprise at finding him when over 
 seventy years of age fully dressed and with freshly 
 powdered periwig on early in the morning, he gratefully 
 declared that the strictness with which his mother had 
 insisted on neatness and order in her children from 
 tho earliest youth had made these habits second nature 
 to him. 
 
 Franz Joseph Haydn, known to the world as Joseph 
 Haydn, the second child of this worthy couple, was born 
 in 1732. The exact day of his birth is variously given 
 as the 31st of March or the 1st of April. He himself held 
 to the latter date, and declared that his brother Michael 
 had invented the earlier, lest people should call him a 
 born April fool ! The probability is that his birth took 
 place during the night between the last day of March 
 and the first of April. 
 
 There is little to tell of Haydn's early childhood. It 
 differed in no respect from that of the other village 
 children with whom he played in the meadows, and went 
 to and from the village school, sent there no doubt as 
 soon as he could toddle to be safe out of the way of the 
 busy mother and the younger babies, who followed each 
 other into the world in rapid succession. The little 
 fellow soon began to give signs of a good musical ear ; 
 his special treats were the evening duets of the father 
 and mother, and one can imagine him perched on a stool 
 in the corner of the low, dark living-room, listening with 
 all his ears, and occasionally venturing to join in with a 
 pretty childish treble. We may imagine him, too, loiter- 
 ing behind the other children when school was over, 
 listening with open-eyed wonder to the performances 
 upon the violin with which the village schoolmaster solaced 
 his evening leisure. " That must be such easy music to 
 make ! " thinks little Joseph. " One has only to find two 
 nice smooth pieces of wood and rub one of them gently up 
 and down the other -/' and, provided with his instrument, 
 he set himself gravely by his father's side and joined in 
 the evening concert, keeping strict time, and imitating 
 the schoolmaster's handling of the bow to admiration. 
 
CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 5 
 
 The delighted father began to imagine a brilliant 
 future for his eldest son. Who could tell that he might 
 not, with industry and good luck, rise to be a Capell- 
 meister, or at least Chorregent, like cousin Frankh 
 at Hainburg ? The mother had other and less worldly- 
 dreams, and would fain have seen the boy devoted to a 
 priestly career. But Mathias's stronger will prevailed, 
 and at Frankh's next visit to Rohrau, he was pressed to 
 give his judgment on Joseph's voice and ear. With an eye 
 to his own advantage as well as to his little cousin's future 
 fame, he offered to take entire charge of him and begin 
 his musical education without delay. The father's eager 
 consent was given, the mother's hesitation overcome; 
 solacing herself with the thought that as Chorregent or 
 Capellmeister it would still be open to Joseph to enter 
 the priesthood and fulfil her dearest wish, she began with 
 all a mother's hopes and fears to prepare her little son 
 for his early flight from the parent nest. Sepperl,^ find- 
 ing himself suddenly the centre of the family interest, 
 betrayed little grief at parting, but listened dutifully to 
 his mother's exhortations as to cleanliness and good be- 
 haviour ; and when the morning of his departure arrived, 
 having bid adieu to his friend the schoolmaster, and 
 sought the blessing of the good priest of the village, he 
 bravely mounted the waggon by his father's side, and 
 made his first plunge into the wide world. 
 
 Early as he left his home, Haydn never forgot it, nor 
 did the friendship and flattery of the great ever tempt 
 him in after-years to feel ashamed of his lowly origin 
 On the contrary, he was proud of having, as he expressed 
 it, ^^ made something out of nothing j" and his poo'^er 
 relations, of whom he had plenty, had no cause to cf-ai- 
 plain of his want of generosity. The actual place of tus 
 birth was dear to him, and we are told by an eye-witness 
 that in 1795, when he was making his triumphal return 
 from his second visit to London, and was invited by 
 Count Harrach to inspect the monument erected to his* 
 honour in the grounds of Castle Rohrau, Haydn stopped 
 
 ^ The Austrian diminutive for " Joseph." 
 
6 HAYDN. 
 
 sliort on tlie threshold of the little cottage that had 
 been his home_, and kneeliug down, kissed the gronnd 
 made sacred to him by the footsteps of his father and 
 mother. 
 
 The short journey from Rohrau to Hainburg is an 
 interesting one to the lover of antiquity or the student of 
 history ; the country around is thickly strewn with Roman 
 remains, and the little town of Petronell, which lies about 
 half-way bet^veen the two, covers the site of the Roman 
 city Carnuntum, destroyed by Attila. A mile south of 
 Petronell is the Heidenthor, the ruins of a triumphal 
 arch erected by Augustus to commemorate the conquest 
 of Pannonia by Tiberius. 
 
 Mathias Haydn and his little son, however, were little 
 likely to feel any association with these relics of a past 
 age, or to have an eye for anything but the first sight of 
 the schoolhouse which was to be the end of their journey. 
 The father^s heart must have beat high with hopes and 
 fears when the picturesque old town, wdth its walls and 
 towers, came in sight, and his mind must have been full 
 of the memories of his own early youth as the humble 
 conveyance passed slowly through the Wienerthor, one 
 of the two castellated gateways planted at the extremi- 
 ties of the principal street. Fifty-five years before, on 
 July 11th, 1G83, Hainburg had been stormed and pillaged 
 by the Turks, and Haydn's great-great-grandfather had 
 barely escaped with his life. Since then it had been 
 rebuilt, and was now a flourishing market-town. The 
 school, in which the elements of an ordinary education 
 were given to the boys, together with special training as 
 choristers, was, as we have seen, at that time under the 
 direction of Johann Mathias Frankh, who united the offices 
 of schoolmaster and Chorregent, and bore the title of 
 Schulrector. He was a man of about thirty, possessed 
 of considerable musical knowledge, and a severe, though 
 by no means conscientious teacher. He was more than 
 once called to account by the authorities for neglect of 
 his duties as schoolmaster, and later on was ■ dismissed 
 (though afterwards reinstated in his office) on a charge 
 of gambling with loaded dice. To Haydn he s:ave, as 
 
CniLDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 7 
 
 the latter declared^ more blows than victuals; but he 
 earned his gratitude as a teacher nevertheless, as is 
 proved by a bequest in Haydn's will to the daughter of 
 Frankh and her husband, Philipp Schimpel, at that time 
 Chorregent, of 100 florins and a portrait of Frankh, '' my 
 first instructor in music" 
 
 It was on the side of Frankh's wife that the relation- 
 ship with the Haydn family existed. She was Julie Rosine, 
 daughter of Mathias Seefranz, who was the second 
 husband of Haydn's grandmother. She seems to have 
 neglected her duty towards the little fellow confided to 
 her care, and the change to poor Joseph must have been 
 great. He has recorded his distress at finding himself, 
 for want of his mother^s care, becoming ^^a dirty little 
 urchin," and the fact of a child of six years old being 
 compelled to wear a wig ^' for the sake of cleanliness,'^ 
 gives one a pathetic idea of his forlorn state. Haydn 
 had, fortunately for himself and the world, a naturally 
 buoyant and cheerful disposition, which sustained him 
 under the petty oppressions and annoyances, which are 
 the inevitable lot of a youth of genius struggling up- 
 ward, and he seems even at this early age to have taken 
 Frankh^s cuffs and hard words, and his wife^s neglect 
 with all the philosophy possible to him. Dies relates the 
 only musical anecdote of him which has come down to us 
 from this time, and which reminds us of many such 
 stories told of the young Mozart. 
 
 There was to be a great church festival, including a! 
 procession through the streets of the town, in which, the 
 choristers were, as a matter of course, to take part. But 
 the drummer falling ill, no one could be found to take his 
 place, till Frankh called for Joseph Haydn, showed him 
 how to make the stroke, and left him to practise it alone. 
 Joseph found a meal tub, stretched a cloth over the top, 
 set it on a stool, and began to drum away with such 
 vigour that the stool was soon overturned and himself 
 covered with meal dust. But the stroke was learnt, and 
 the spectators of the melancholy procession found their 
 gravity unduly taxed by the sight of a little fellow of six 
 years old beating a big drum, carried before him by a 
 
HAYDN. 
 
 huncliback, as a bearer of ordinary stature would have 
 raised the instrument far out of his reach. The drums 
 on which he performed this feat are still preserved in the 
 choir of the church at Hainburg. 
 
 Joseph had been two years at Hainburg, and. was 
 consequently between seven and eight years old, when an 
 event occurred, which marks the commencement of the 
 second epoch of his musical career. Georg E,eutter, 
 Capellmeister of the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Vienna, 
 passed through Hainburg in the course of a journey 
 undertaken in search of boys' voices to recruit his choir. 
 Hearing from Frankh of the musical talent of his little 
 cousin, he singled him out from among the choristers 
 summoned, to sing before him, and, charmed by his "weak 
 but pleasing voice '^ (as Haydn himself says), he sent for 
 him to the house where he was staying. Placing a canon 
 before the boy, he desired him to sing it at sight, and 
 Haydn obeyed with so much readiness and correctness of 
 ear that Eeutter "was delighted. He saw the little fellow 
 as he sang cast longing glances at a plate of cherries ou 
 the table, and throwing a handful into his cap, he said, 
 " Well done, you little rascal ! Can you make a shake t^' 
 
 " No,'' answered Sepperl, unabashed. ^' But no more 
 can my cousin Frankh." 
 
 Eeutter laughed at the ready answer, and taking 
 Joseph between his knees he explained to him shortly 
 how to take the intervals that compose a shake, and bade 
 him try. The first attempt was sufficiently good to show 
 that here was a pupil who would do honour to his teacher, 
 and Reutter at once offered to take Haydn into the 
 Cantorei of St. Stephen, and charge himself with his 
 musical future. Provided the parents consented to this 
 arrangement, Haydn was to remain at Hainburg until he 
 had completed his eighth year, and then at once to proceed 
 to Vienna. The consent of the parents, as may be 
 supposed, was not difficult to obtain. The father saw his 
 highest ambition on the way to be realized, and the 
 mother, who still cherished secret hopes of the priesthood 
 for Joseph, looked upon this step as one in the right 
 direction. The boy himself was not too young to feel 
 
CHILDHOOD AND EAELY LIFE. 9 
 
 pride in Ms advancement, but lie used to say afterwards 
 that lie never saw a plate of cherries without thinking* of 
 that day, and his first introduction to Capellmeister 
 Eeutter. 
 
 The Vienna of Haydn's day contained about a fifth of 
 the number of its present inhabitants. The city has been 
 variously compared to a ring with a centre of brilliants 
 surrounded by a row of emeralds, and a further row of 
 parti-coloured gems ; and to a spider's web, the centre 
 near St. Stephen's Cathedral, whence the streets radiate 
 outwards in every direction and are encircled mid-way 
 by a belt of boulevards called Einge. This green belt 
 (the emeralds of the ring) is laid out upon the ground 
 that was the Glacis of the city until 1858, when the 
 fortifications were destroyed. It forms the boundary of 
 Vienna proper, and beyond it are the thirty- four suburbs 
 (Vorstadte), stretching further into the country as the 
 city increases year by year. In the centre and older 
 quarter are all the principal churches, the palaces of the 
 emperor and the nobility, the public offices, and the 
 best shops. Here stands the Cathedral of St. Stephen, 
 with its wonderful spire and beautiful doorways, and 
 here — one of a row of small houses built close over aofainst 
 the principal doorway (Riesenthor) — was at that time the 
 Cantorei, or choir school, where the next ten years of 
 Haydn's life, the most important of his artistic career, 
 were to be spent. The Cantorei of St. Stephen's was of 
 very ancient foundation. It is mentioned in official 
 documents as early as 1441, and the constitution of the 
 school may be gathered from directions given concerning 
 it in 1558 — 1571. It was newly constituted in 1663, and 
 many alterations were made then and afterwards, but in 
 its main points it was the same in Haydn's day as it had 
 been for nearly a century before. The school consisted 
 of a Cantor (made Capellmeister in 1663), a Subcantor, 
 two ushers, and six scholars. The number had been, 
 thirteen, but was reduced in 1715. They all lived 
 together, and had meals in common. All expenses were 
 paid by the town, and a fairly liberal allowance was made 
 for the board, lodging, and clothing of the scholars. 
 
10 HAYDN. 
 
 But tlie cost of living had increased since tliis sum Lad 
 been fixed_, and the boys of Haydn^s time were poorly 
 fed and scantily clothed. 1'hey rejoiced greatly when 
 they were summoned to sing at private banquets, for 
 then they were sure of a good meal and a small present 
 in money, which was always put into a box to form a 
 common fund for the supply of any little luxuries granted 
 to the boys. 
 
 The teachers had formerly been obliged to give in- 
 struction in music to the pupils of the neighboariug* 
 town schools, but this obligation had been removed, and 
 their duties were now confined to the Cantorei. Here 
 they taught their boys religion and Latin, together 
 with the ordinary subjects of school education, and 
 in music the violin, clavier, and singing. Singing 
 must have been very carefully taught to enable the boys 
 to perform as they did difficult masses and other church 
 compositions at first sight. Haydn's musical instructors 
 at St. Steplien^s were Gegenbauer and Finsterbusch; 
 little but their name is known of either, except that the 
 former also taught the violin, and the latter had, according 
 to Haydn, " a fine tenor voice/' The more advanced 
 scholars instructed the younger ones, and Joseph's 
 delight was great when his younger brother Michael 
 joined the choir and was placed under his care. 
 
 The labours of the choir might be considered severe. 
 There were two full choral services daily in the cathe- 
 dral, viz. High Mass and Vespers, with all their sub- 
 divisions; special Te Deums were constantly sung", and 
 the singing boys had to take part in the numerous 
 solemn processions of religious brotherhoods through tho 
 city, as well as in the thanksgiving services for tho 
 deliverance of Vienna from the siege of the Turks, for 
 royal birthdays, and other such occasions. During Holy 
 Week the labours of the choir were continuous. On PmIui 
 Sunday the archbishop and clergy went in solemn pro- 
 cession, carrying palms, while the choristers and priests 
 sang alternate verses from the Gospel account of Christ's 
 entry into Jerusalem, and the boys spread their church 
 vestments on the floor of the cathedral. The Passion 
 
CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 11 
 
 Play formerly given in the cathedral on Good Friday^ 
 had been discontinued, and in its place there was now a 
 procession bearing an image of Christ to be laid in a 
 sepulchre prepared in one of the side chapels ; on the 
 following day a similar representation of the Resurrection 
 took place. Children's processions were very frequent, 
 and Haydn's delight in after-years at the performance of 
 the charity children at St. Paul's, may have been partly 
 owing to the reminiscences awakened by it of these 
 early days. 
 
 All this, it will be seen, left very little time for the 
 study of theory and composition, even if Reutter (or Von 
 Reutter after 1740, when he was ennobled) had felt any 
 conscientious desire to make thorough musicians of the 
 boys. Haydn could not remember having more than 
 two lessons in composition from him, but this very 
 neglect, which would have been fatal to any but a fine 
 genius, stimulated the boy's ardour by throwing him 
 back upon his own resources, and forcing him to exert 
 his powers of originality and invention. 
 
 Music became his passion. Fond as he was of play 
 and fun, he would leave his companions in the midst of 
 the most enticing game whenever St. Stephen's organ 
 sounded from within the cathedral, and he tried to play 
 every instrument that he could lay his hands on. At 
 thirteen the ardour of composition seized him, and sheet 
 after sheet was covered with notes, "the fuller the 
 better," till at length Reutter, finding him hard at work 
 at a mass in thirteen parts, asked him scornfully if he had 
 not better make two serve his purpose as a beginning, 
 and learn to write music before he began to compose it. 
 Undaunted, Joseph took the hint. Debarred from verbal 
 instruction, he sought the aid of such books as he could 
 obtain. An appeal for money to his father brought six 
 florins from the worthy Mathias, which were speedily 
 laid out on Fux's '^ Gradus ad Parnassum," and Matthe- 
 son's " Yollkommener Capellmeister." These books, 
 especially the former, became Joseph's constant study, 
 " The talent was in me," he says, " and by dint of hard 
 work I managed to get on.'^ He was fond of recalling 
 
12 HAYDN. 
 
 in his old age these days of study and self-improvement. 
 In 1808, a year before his death, having come to Vienna 
 for some church festival, the boys of the Cantorei were 
 brought before him, introduced by Hummel and Haydn's 
 favourite pupil, Anton Polzelli. The old man looked 
 kindly at the boys, and addressed them in the words : 
 " I was once a singing boy. Reutter brought me from 
 Hainburg to Vienna. I was industrious when my com- 
 panions were at play ; I used to take my little clavier 
 under my arm, and go off to practise 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. '^ 
 
 Haydn's musical zeal, however, did not prevent occa- 
 sional outbursts of fun and mischief. On one occasion, 
 the boys of the Cantorei having been sent for to sing at 
 Schonbrunn, where the court was then residing, enjoyed 
 the fuller liberty of the palace gardens, after their close 
 quarters at St. Stephen's. The Empress Maria Theresa 
 was then completing the building of the palace begun 
 by Leopold I., and the workmen's scaffolding presented 
 an overpowering temptation to the boys, who were soon 
 astride on the beams as high up as they dared to climb. 
 Prohibitions were of little avail, and the ringleader and 
 most adventurous of the band, pointed out to Capell- 
 meister Eeutter by the empress herself, proved to be 
 none other than Joseph Haydn. " Give him a good 
 hiding,'' was the imperial command, forthwith executed ; 
 and in after-years, Haydn took an opportunity of thank- 
 ing the empress for this her first proof of royal favour. 
 
 Haydn's progress and performances were so creditable 
 to the Cantorei that Reutter had no hesitation in making 
 an offer to Mathias Haydn of the same advantages for 
 his younger son Michael, who accordingly joined his 
 brother at St. Stephen's to their mutual delight. His 
 advent, however, was destined to cut short Joseph's 
 career as a chorister. Hi» voice was stronger and of 
 better quality than Joseph's, which was about breaking ; 
 and on one occasion the empress, declaring that '* Joseph 
 Haydn sang like a crow," desired that Michael might 
 
CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 13 
 
 take liis place. Michael accordingly sang a Salve 
 Eegina with such sweetness and pathos, that Maria 
 Theresa sent for him and rewarded him with twenty- 
 four ducats. When Reutter asked him what he meant 
 to do with so much money, he promptly answered, ^' I 
 shall send half to my father, and keep the other half till 
 my voice breaks." Eeutter applauded so prudent a 
 resolution, and offered to take charge of the twelve 
 ducats himself; but he seems to have forgotten to pro- 
 duce them when the appointed time came. 
 
 Henceforth Reutter was only upon the watch for an 
 excuse for discharging Joseph, now in his eighteenth 
 year. A boyish freak, showing the somewhat thought- 
 less love of fun which distinguished him through life, 
 gave the desired opportunity. The possession of a new 
 pair of scissors tempted Joseph to try their quality on 
 every object that came within his reach. A school- 
 fellow's pigtail hung temptingly before him ; snap went 
 the scissors, down fell the pigtail, and the decree went 
 forth from the Capellmeister that for this offence Joseph 
 Haydn must be caned on the palm of his hand. Furious 
 at the proposed indignity, Joseph declared that he would 
 leave the Capellhaus rather than submit to it. '^ So you 
 shall/' said Reutter, '' but you shall be caned first, and 
 then off with you, as soon as you like ! ^' And so it befell 
 that Joseph Haydn found himself in the streets of 
 Vienna on a November evening of the year 1 749, penni- 
 less, homeless, and with no future prospects whatever. 
 
14 HAYDN. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 STUDY IN VIENNA. 
 
 1750—1700. 
 
 The turning-point in Haydn's career tlius reachedj i 
 will be well^ before entering uptfn tlie struggles^ priva- 
 tions, and earnest labours of his early manhood, to gain 
 a clear idea, however slight may be the sketch which 
 affords it, of the stage on which the second act of his 
 life's drama was to be played. The Vienna of the second 
 half of the eighteenth century was the capital of the most 
 ancient and glorious, if not still the most powerful 
 empire of Europe, inhabited by a proud and wealthy 
 nobility, a prosperous middle-class, and a silent, if not a. 
 contented, lower class. 
 
 Vienna was essentially a city of pleasure. That bril- 
 liant display of intellect and wit which was to be found 
 in the salons of Paris before the Revolution, was wanting 
 in the palaces of the Viennese nobility ; the presence of 
 the court, and the prudent policy of the House of 
 Austria, excluded all subjects of interest which might 
 result in calling into question the divine right and supre- 
 macy of ^^ the powers that be." Sensual pleasures alone 
 remained to gratify the taste and kindle the emotions of 
 society, and the natural result was a general lowering of 
 the moral tone, and an absolute dearth of high aims or 
 noble achievements either in individuals or the commu- 
 nity at large. ^ 
 
 A sort of artificial stimulus to the cultivation of 
 science and art was given by the Emperor Joseph II., 
 the son and successor of Maria Theresa. Himself a man 
 of considerable refinement and even learning, he founded 
 
STUDY IN VIENNA. 15 
 
 several valuable scientific institutions, and liberally 
 patronized the arts, especially music, the taste for which 
 was hereditary in his family. Following the example of 
 the court, the great nobles vied with each other in main- 
 taining expensive musical establishments ; but that the 
 Viennese generally were not enthusiastic for art, the 
 following description of them, written in 1768 by that 
 shrewd observer, Leopold Mozart, will sufficiently show: — 
 
 *^ The Viennese public, as a whole, has no love of any- 
 thing serious or sensible, they cannot even understand 
 it, and their theatres furnish abundant proof that 
 nothing but utter trash, such as dances, burlesques, har- 
 lequinades, ghost tricks, and deviFs antics will go down 
 with them. You may see a fine gentleman, even with an 
 order on his breast, laughing till the tears run down his 
 face, and applauding with all his might some piece of 
 Bsnseless buffoonery; whilst in a most pathetic scene, 
 where the situation and action are alike irresistibly fine 
 and pathetic, and where the dialogue is of the highest 
 order, he will chatter so loud with a lady that his better 
 informed neighbours can scarcely hear a word of the play.*^ 
 
 Music was an exotic imported from Italy, not of home 
 growth ; it was the art of the court, not of the people, 
 and its fortunes rose and fell with the fortunes and ca- 
 prices of the court. All musical compositions, great or 
 small, were commanded either by the court or the 
 nobility, or composed in the hope of gaining royal or 
 noble patronage. The two theatres of Vienna proper, 
 the Burg or Palace Theatre, and the Karnthnerthor 
 Theatre, were both under imperial control, and the 
 strong predilection of the imperial family for Italian 
 music caused the failure of all attempts to introduce 
 German opera or German singers. Even so late as 1785, 
 when, the Karnthnerthor Theatre being freed from its 
 connection with the court, it was decided to place 
 German opera there in competition with Italian opera, 
 the want of national life and feeling again produced 
 failure, as the following characteristic outburst from 
 Mozart, disappointed at the short career of his 
 *"' Entfiihrung,'^ will show : — 
 
1 6 HAYDN. 
 
 ^'1 can give you" (lie writes to the librettist Klein) *^no 
 present information as to the intended German opera^ as 
 (with the exception of the alterations at the Karnthner- 
 thortheater) everything goes on very quietly. It is to 
 be opened at the beginning of October, I do not pro- 
 phesy a very successful result. It seems to me that the 
 plans now formed are more likely to end in the final 
 overthrow of the temporarily depressed German opera 
 than in its elevation and support. My sister-in-law, 
 Lange, alone is to be allowed to join the German com- 
 pany. Cavalieri, Adamberger, Teyber, all pure Germans, 
 of whom our fatherland may be proud, are to stay in the 
 Italian theatre to oppose and rival their own countrymen. 
 German singers at present may be easily counted ! And 
 even if they be as good as those I have named, which I 
 very much doubt, the present management appears to 
 me too economical and too little patriotic to think of 
 paying the services of strangers, when they can have as ^ 
 good or better on the spot. The Italian troupe has no 
 need of them in point of numbers ; it can stand alone. 
 
 If only a single patriot were to come to 
 
 the fore, it would give the affair another aspect. But 
 in that case, perhaps, the budding national theatre 
 would break forth into blossom ; and what a dis- 
 grace it would be to Germany if we Germans once began 
 in earnest to think, or act, or speak, or even — to siiig 
 German. Do not blame me, my dear sir, if I go too far 
 in my zeal. Convinced that I am addressing a fellow- 
 German, I give my tongae free course, which unfortu- 
 nately is so seldom possible, that after such an outpouring 
 of the heart one feels that he might get drunk without 
 any risk of injuring his health." 
 
 In church music Germany was destined to triumph in 
 the end, although its rules and forms were determined 
 by the Neapolitan school, and at the time of which we 
 are speaking church music was composed of much the 
 same materials as Italian operatic music, and exercised 
 much the same effect. This does not, of course, imply 
 that operatic forms were directly imported into church 
 music, which must necessarily be subordinate to the 
 
STUDY IN VIENNA. 17 
 
 liturgical forms of Divine service ; but tlie character of 
 the music, its moral and artistic elements, became more 
 and more secular, as the art strove to free itself from the 
 fetters of tradition ; the sway of the singer too was as 
 mighty in the churcli as elsewhere, and demanded as 
 many opportunities for display ; and the idea that the 
 worship of the Almighty was best promoted by satisfying 
 the prevailing taste was united to the pleasure afforded 
 by the actual performance of a first-rate vocalist. 
 
 Instrumental music, as a distinct branch of tbe art, 
 and apart from the voice, was still in its infancy. AVe 
 shall trace its progress as identified with that of Haydn 
 himself, and we shall see how his genius succeeded in 
 combining the natural strength and youthful freshness of 
 musical Germany with the refinement, ease, and grace of 
 the more matured art of Italy. 
 
 There was, however, one point at which the art of 
 music and the daily life of the Viennese came into direct 
 contact with each other. Xo amusement was so com- 
 pletely to the taste of the gay and laughter-loving public 
 as that of dancing, and during the latter half of the 
 eighteenth century it became an absolute rage. Dance 
 music, at first minuets and ^^ allemands " only, later on 
 country dances, landler and waltzes, developed into an 
 important branch of composition, and the suite, consisting 
 of a succession of dances in tbe same key, but differing in 
 time, measure, and expression, no doubt suggested the 
 division of the modern symphony and sonata form into 
 separate movements, and also the direct importation of 
 the minuet into serious orchestral compositions. The 
 popular and individual character which Haydn took pains 
 to give to his minuet movements proves that he considered 
 the composition of dance music as such, in no way deroga- 
 tory to bis dignity as a musician, and we are told that 
 Mozart's ofiicial duties as Chamber Composer to the 
 Emperor were limited to the production of dance music 
 for the masked balls in the Imperial Redoutensale. 
 
 After the erection of tlie Burg or Palace Theatre in 
 1752, the old Hof Theatre was converted into the large and 
 small Redoutensale now existing, and concerts, balls, &c. 
 
 c 
 
18 nAYDN. 
 
 were given tliere. The balls were masked, and took place 
 on every Carnival Sunday, or Shrove Tuesday, and on 
 the three last days of Carnival. Joseph IT. favoured 
 them as a means of drawing classes together, and frequently 
 appeared at them with his court. All classes mixed 
 freely, and considerable licence was allowed. The usual 
 dances were minuets, country dances, and waltzes, from 
 the last of which the higher classes held aloof on accouut 
 of the crowding (just as is the case in " Don Giovanni^'). 
 The management of the Redoute was generally in the 
 same hands as that of the Opera Theatre, the two being 
 farmed out together. The court monopolized both the 
 Opera Theatre and the Karnthnerthor Theatre, and kept 
 the control over them until 1794. Thus it came about 
 that the court theatrical director ordered the dance 
 music, and although the pay was only a few ducats for a 
 set of dances, the services of good composers were 
 claimed for the purpose ; Haydn, Gyrowetz, Hummel, 
 ^lozart, and Beethoven all composed for the Redoute. 
 "W^ell might Mozart write bitterly after the customary 
 entry on the official return of his income as Court 
 Composer, — " Too much for what I do ; too little for 
 what I could do." ^ 
 
 Haydn^s reflections as he turned penniless, and with no 
 clothes but those on his back, from the house which had 
 been all that he had for home for the last ten years, must 
 have been gloomy and hopeless enough to depress even 
 his cheerful spirit. He could see little prospect of being- 
 able to support himself until by dint of hard study and 
 many failures he could succeed in showing the talent- that 
 was '^ in him " by the composition of a work original and 
 important enough to gain him the post of Capellmeister, 
 which was the object of his ambition. As an instru- 
 mentalist he had neither hope nor intention of doing more 
 than master some instrument sufficiently to gain a partial 
 livelihood by teaching during his years of study; it was 
 as a composer that he felt himself destined to succeed, 
 and his confidence in his own powers urged him to waste 
 
 ^ Jahn's Life of Mozart (Eng Edit.), vol. ii. p. 276 
 
STUDY IN VIENNA. 19 
 
 no time in empty regrets, but at once to adapt Lis life 
 to the end which he had in view. This feeling prevented 
 his seeking a refuge witli his parents^ which otherwise 
 might have been the most natural course for him to 
 take. His mother had never ceased importuning him to 
 enter the Church, and this he had firmly resolved not to 
 do; it would scarcely have been possible for him to 
 burden his parents with his maintenance, and refuse to 
 embrace so ready a means of becoming independent. 
 Home, therefore, Joseph could not go. Those friends 
 that he had in Vienna were little if any better off than 
 himself; but they were all musical or connected with 
 music, and if he could but find a temporary home with 
 one of them, he might with industry and good fortune 
 soon earn enough to supply his frugal needs and enable 
 him to pursue his studies. Life at the Cantorei had 
 taught him to limit his desires to the barest necessaries, 
 and a life of privation and hardship would be no novelty 
 to him. 
 
 It was on a November evening of the year 1749 that 
 Haydn was dismissed the Cantorei, and the following 
 morning found him still wandering through the streets of 
 Vienna, worn out with hunger and fatigue. In this plight 
 he fell in with an acquaintance named Spangler, a tenor 
 singer at the Church of St. Michael, who, taking natural 
 pity on the desolate condition of the youth, off'ered him 
 shelter in the garret which he inhabited with his wife 
 and child. Here Joseph remained through the rest of 
 the winter, cold and hunger his constant companions, 
 music his only and unfailing comfort. And though 
 nature would now and then assert her sway, and sheer 
 hunger drive him to doubt whether he would not do 
 better to find some certain way of earning enough at all 
 events to give him bread to eat, his buoyant spirit soon 
 rose above the temptation, and his face was steadily set 
 again towards a musical career. But Spangler's hos- 
 pitality could not last for ever, nor was real and continued 
 study possible in such close quarters. Haydn got through 
 the winter as best he could, earning a scanty living by 
 playing the violin at balls and elsewhere, by arranging 
 
 c 2 
 
20 EAYDN. 
 
 compositions for one or more instruments, and by giving 
 lessons for a trifling sum. With the return of spring his 
 hopes rose, and numerous projects for the future flitted 
 through his brain. One of these_, impelled by hunger, 
 he put into actual execution. Joining a party of pilgrims 
 to the shrine of the Virgin at Mariazell, he presented 
 himself to the choir-master as a former pupil at St. 
 Stephen's, and showed some of his own attempts at 
 sacred music as proofs of his fitness for admission into 
 the choir. The choir-master roughly dismissed him, 
 saying that he had lazy rascals enough from Vienna and 
 ■wanted no more, whereupon Haydn mingled unperceived 
 with the choir, and having vainly endeavoured to persuade 
 the solo-singer to let him take his part, suddenly snatched 
 the music out of the astonished youth's hand, and sang 
 the solo in so finished a style that all the choir held their 
 breath to listen. The choir-master sent for Joseph after 
 the service, to apologize for his rude dismissal and invite 
 him to remain at Mariazell over the day. The invitation 
 was extended to a week, and Haydn returned to Vienna 
 strengthened with food, and possessed of a small sum of 
 money collected among the choir to supply his immediate 
 needs. 
 
 It was not long after this adventure that an event 
 occurred which placed Haydn above the pressure of actual 
 want, and enabled him to devote himself to the study for 
 which he longed so ardently. A good tradesman of 
 Vienna, named Buchholz, out of sheer Christian charity, 
 and perhaps with faith in the young man's future, lent 
 him unconditionally 150 florins. An extract from 
 Haydn's first will (dated 1801) will show how opportune 
 was the favour, and how gratefully remembered : " To 
 the Jungfrau Anna Buchholz 100 florins, in remembrance 
 that in my youth and extreme need her grandfather 
 made me a loan of 150 florins without interest, which I 
 faithfully repaid fifty years ago." 
 
 Who now so happy as Joseph Haydn ? The first step 
 in his fortunes was made, and henceforward his progress, 
 though slow, was steady and assured. In possession of 
 what must have seemed to his inexperience inexhaustible 
 
STUDY IN VIENNA. 21 
 
 wealth, liis first care was to secure a habitable chamber ; 
 this he found in the old ^^3Iichaelerhaus/^ formerly 
 attached to a religious foundation, and at that time let out 
 in tenements. The room of which Haydn took possession 
 with much delight was a garret, partitioned off from a 
 larger room, with scarcely space to turn round in, and 
 hardly any light. It contained no stove, and the roof 
 was in such bad repair that the rain and snow made uncere- 
 monious entry, and drenched the young artist in his bed. 
 In winter the water in his jug froze so hard during tlio 
 night, that he had to go and draw direct from the well. 
 His immediate neighbours, successively a journeyman 
 printer, a *' Kammerheizer '' (a functionary whose busi- 
 ness it was to make up the fires in the apartments of a 
 prince or nobleman), a footman, and a cook, were not of a 
 class to respect his desire for quiet study ; but none of 
 these drawbacks succeeded in damping the ardour of as- 
 piring genius, and with his little worm-eaten clavier as a 
 constant companion Haydn was, as he himself expressed 
 it, '^ too happy to envy the lot of kings.''^ Fortune 
 favoured while she frowned on him ; for in bringing him 
 to the Michaelerhaus she had placed him within reach of 
 the two people who perhaps in all Vienna were most 
 calculated to further his career as a musician. On the 
 third story dwelt the renowned Italian poet Metastasio, 
 who could not fail to take notice of the youth's ardour 
 and genuine talent, and who later entrusted to Haydn 
 the musical instruction of his favourite pupil, Marianne 
 Martinez, He conferred on him a still greater benefit by 
 introducing him to Porpora, the most eminent teacher of 
 siuging and composition of the day. But this was not 
 yet. For eighteen long months Haydn lived and worked 
 alone, supporting himself by giving lessons for a trifling 
 payment, and by playing the violin in orchestras, and the 
 organ in churches or private chapels when he could. 
 Every spare moment was devoted to study and composi- 
 tion and his clavier. His Mattheson and his Fux were his 
 only friends until one lucky day that he found himself 
 with savings suflBcient to enable him to invest in a new 
 musical work. He selected, from the small stock sub- 
 
22 HAYDN. 
 
 mitted to him^ tlie six first sonatas of C. Pb. Emanuel 
 Bach, and tlie choice exercised an important influence on 
 his future studies. He says himself, " I did not leave 
 the clavier until I had mastered them all_, 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 compli- 
 mented me on this fact.'^ ^ 
 
 It was the case, that as soon as Haydn's works began 
 to be publicly known, Bach hailed him with delight as a 
 disciple, and took occasion to send him word that " he 
 alone had thoroughly understood his works and made a 
 proper use of them." A later theoretical work of 
 Emanuel Bach's, the "Treatise on the Eight Method of 
 playing the Clavier," soon after fell into Haydn's hands, 
 and strengthened the impression made by the sonatas. 
 The spirit of the work may be summed up in a very few 
 words by Bach himself : " A musician cannot move others 
 unless he be first moved himself." And again: ^^It 
 seems to me that the first object of music is to touch the 
 heart, and this can never be done by mere thumping, 
 flourishing, and arpeggio-ing." Bach declared that the 
 chief and best quality of music was melody, and he advised 
 clavier-players to hear as much good singing as possible : 
 '^ It gives the habit of thinking in song, and it is always 
 well to sing a new idea aloud to oneself, so as to catch the 
 right delivery." How strong an influence such teaching 
 as this must have exercised on an ardent young spirit 
 striving to free itself from the swathing-bands of tradi- 
 tion and ecclesiastical authority can be readily imagined, 
 and it is pleasant to find Haydn at the end of his long 
 life acknowledging his constant obligation to Emanuel 
 Bach,^ and Bach indignantly repudiating the calumny 
 w^hich accused them of jealousy and meanness in their 
 professional dealings with each other.^ 
 
 Haydn's devotion to his clavier was not so exclusive 
 as to cause him to neglect his study of the violin, and the 
 
 r 
 
 ' GriesiiTiger, Biog. Notizen iibcr J, Haydn, p. 13. 
 '' T)irs. Biogr. Nachr. von J. Haydn, p. 33. 
 4 F'-.hl T(Ksenh Hajdt), p. 138. 
 
STUDY IN VIENNA. 23 
 
 ^' celebratcJ virtuoso " who was liis instructor on tlie 
 instrument can have been no other than Dittersdorf, 
 with whom he now formed an acquaintance destined 
 to ripen into close and intimate friendship. It is likely 
 that Haydn's superior knowledge of composition enabled 
 him. to return Dittersdorf benefits in kind. To the 
 world Dittersdorf is known chiefly as an instrumental 
 and operatic composer ; his popularity in Vienna was at 
 one time enormous, but it fell with the fall of German 
 opera, and he died in poverty and neglect. Haydn and 
 Dittersdorf had many a merry prank together during 
 these years of struggling poverty. One evening*, at a 
 time when Haydn^s works were just beginning to be 
 popular, as the friends were strolling down one of the 
 narrow streets of Vienna, they heard the strains of a 
 fiddle proceeding from a little beer-cellar. Haydn enter- 
 ing, asked the performer in a scornful tone, " Whose 
 minuet is that you are playing ? " " Haydn's/' answered 
 the fiddle-player triumphantly. '' It's a d — d bad 
 minuet," replied Haydn drily, whereupon the enraged 
 musician turned upon him, and would have broken his 
 head with the fiddle had not Dittersdorf dragged him 
 laughing away. 
 
 A favourite form of instrumental music in Vienna 
 during the last century was the Serenata (or Nacht- 
 musik), performed by night under the window of the 
 person in whose honour it was composed. It did not 
 consist, as in Italy and Spain, in a mere accompaniment 
 to the voice of a guitar or a mandoline ; solos, quartets, 
 and choruses, sometimes accompanied by wind instru- 
 ments alone, sometimes by a full orchestra, were per- 
 formed, and great composers were fond of thus doing 
 honour to their patrons and friends. Younger artists 
 found this also a convenient way of securing an audience 
 for their works, and it was perhaps with some such view 
 that we find Haydn one evening during the autumn of 
 1751 directing the performance of a quintet of his own 
 composition under the windows of Frau Franziska Kurz, 
 the pretty wife of the favourite comedian and theatrical 
 manager, Joseph Kurz. I^urz was too wide awake and 
 
24 HAYDN. 
 
 experienced an entre/prenenr not to come to tlie imme- 
 diate conclusion that a man who could write music so 
 full of life and spirit as this might be useful to him ; he 
 called Haydn into the house, and setting him down to the 
 clavier bade him show his skill. The test chosen to 
 put the young artist to was somewhat extraordinary. 
 Extending himself at full length on two chairs, Kurz 
 imitated the motions of a swimmer in distress, and 
 desired Ilaydn, with this assistance to his imagination, 
 to give a musical representation of a storm at sea. 
 Haydn, who had never even seen the sea, could only 
 shake his head and stare in blank amazement. At last, 
 as Kurz began to grow impatient, he sat down in despair, 
 and almost involuntarily fell into the measure which 
 Kurz had intended to suggest. The comedian springing 
 up embraced him^ and declared that he and no other 
 should compose the music to his new comic opera " Der 
 neue krumme Teufel.^' 
 
 The subject thus given to Haydn for his first essay in 
 dramatic composition was originated by the French poet 
 Le Sage in his novel " Le Diable boiteux,^^ and has been 
 a favourite one with play-writers almost up to the 
 present day. It details the love adventures of a Spanish 
 student_, and the assistance therein afforded him by the 
 Prince of Darkness. It is the less necessary to enter 
 upon any analysis of the work here, since Haydn's music 
 to it has entirely disappeared, nor does it seem that 
 Kurz ever employed him again, for which indeed 
 posterity may be thankful, for who would have heard of 
 Haydn had fate doomed him to the career of a composer 
 of comic operas ? For his share in the work he received 
 twenty-four ducats^ which he no doubt considered very 
 ample payment. 
 
 It is not unlikely that it was the performance of this 
 work which first drew the attention of Metastasio to the 
 young musician living under the same roof with himself, 
 and induced him to engage Haydn as music-master to 
 his own favourite pupil, Marianne Martinez. 
 
 Metastasio had begun his career as a dramatic poet 
 iu Italy j his '' Didone Abandonnata '^ was published at 
 
STUDY IN VIENNA. 25 
 
 ITaples inl 724, and laid the foundation of his fame. In 1 730 
 he went to Vienna as court poet to the Emperor Charles 
 VI., and from that time until his death his fame as a 
 librettist and writer of songs was unrivalled. He was a 
 man of deep sensibility and exquisite taste; he had a 
 passionate love of music, and said himself that he never 
 wrote a song without composing it according to his own 
 conception of its character. 
 
 Metastasio took up his residence in Vienna with 
 Kicolai Martinez, Master of the Ceremonies to the 
 Apostolic Nuncio. He became the intimate friend of 
 the family, and carefully superintended the education of 
 the children. Marianne (born about 1740) was his 
 special favourite, and he instructed her in the Italian, 
 French, and English languages. She possessed con- 
 siderable musical talent, which afterwards made her 
 house a favourite resort of many distinguished musi- 
 cians. Mozart was very intimate with her, and they 
 used to play duets of her composition at her musical 
 receptions. 
 
 Haydn was engaged to give Marianne daily lessons on 
 the clavier, and for this he was boarded free for three 
 years, a more important result beiug his introduction to 
 Porpora, from whom Marianne received singing-lessons. 
 Haydn went with her to Porpora^ s house to play her 
 accompaniments, and in return for his services the gruff 
 old Maestro threw at him a certain amount of instruction 
 in composition which Haydn only too gratefully picked 
 up and treasured until he could turn it to good account. 
 He even condescended to act as valet to Porpora, black- 
 ing his boots, and brushing his clothes, and putting up 
 with many hard words in return for the instruction which 
 was so valuable to him. 
 
 Porpora's fame has come down to the present day 
 chiefly as a teacher of singing, in which department of 
 his art he has probably had no equal, before or since ; 
 but he himself aspired to be remembered by his compo- 
 sitions, and his restless ambition would not suffer him to 
 be content with the less brilliant lot in which consisted 
 his true usefulness. 
 
26 HAYDN. 
 
 At fhe time wlien Haydn became acquainted with him 
 he was giving lessons to the mistress of the Venetian 
 Ambassador Correr. Here again Haydn's services as 
 accompanist were required, and were in fact found so 
 valuable^ that when Correr with all his establishment, 
 including the lady and her music-master, migrated to the 
 favourite baths of Mannersdorf for the summer, Joseph 
 must needs go too. 
 
 Mannersdorf is a charmiug spot, surrounded by 
 woods which are the favourite haunt of the nightingale. 
 Haydn, who always found his inspiration in the quiet 
 and retirement of a country life, enjoyed the release from 
 his comfortless garret and the dingy streets of the city 
 with all the strength of his nature-loving heart. Here, 
 too, he became acquainted with Gluck, Bonno, Wagenseil, 
 and other musicians, and was intimately associated witii 
 them in the musical soirees which were the evening enter- 
 tainment of the noble visitors to Mannersdorf. For his 
 services as accompanist he received six ducats a month 
 and his board at the servants^ table. 
 
 Returned to Vienna, Haydn devoted himself with fresh 
 ardour to his studies, of which we know little except 
 that they were entirely without external help or guidance. 
 No genius was ever more emphatically self-taught than 
 Haydn. Thrown back upon his own resources, it was 
 only, as he said, the talent that was in him, and his indo- 
 mitable industry, that made him what he afterwards be- 
 came. Long after his fame was firmly established, he 
 devoted sixteen to eighteen hours a day to steady work, 
 conscious that further progress in his art was always 
 attainable. As time went on, he made friends who were 
 not long in recognizing his talent, and auguring well for 
 his future. Among these was Baron von Fiirnberg, a great 
 lover of music, who possessed a country seat a short 
 distance from Vienna, and invited Haydn to take the 
 direction of his musical parties there. For this nobleman 
 Haydn wrote several string trios, six scherzandi for wind 
 instruments, the precursors of his symphonies, and what 
 is more important, his first quartets (Trautwein, Nos. 
 58-75j, for performance by the priest of the village, the 
 
STUDY IN VIENNA. 27 
 
 steward^ Ha3'dn himself, and the violoncellist Albrechts- 
 berger. These compositions bear the impress of the 
 pleasanter lines upon which the young artist's life had 
 fallen. Although not wanting in earnestness and occa- 
 sional depth of thought, they are chiefly distinguished by 
 their cheerful light-hearted tone, at times approaching 
 actual jollity. Their originality won them speedy recog- 
 nition as the work of a man of genius, as well as a fair 
 share of the disapprobation and gloomy forebodings of the 
 decay of an art so treated, which originality is sure to 
 incur. 
 
 Haydn was now (1756-59) so much in request as a 
 music-master in Vienna, that he was able to raise his 
 terms, and on the strength of his improved income to 
 move to a more comfortable lodging. It was soon after 
 this that he became acquainted with the accomplished 
 and noble-minded Countess von Thun, who, meeting 
 with some of his compositions, expressed a desire to know 
 their author. Hearing this, Haydn presented himself 
 before the countess ; she, seeing before her a young man 
 shabbily clothed, and somewhat uncouth in manner, 
 suspected an imposition, and questioned Haydn closely as 
 to whether he were indeed the composer of the works 
 she admired. His natural and touching account of his 
 early life and struggle with poverty convinced and in- 
 terested her, and she became from that time for5h his 
 warm friend and supporter. Her influence was doubt- 
 less joined to that of Flirnberg to procure for Haydn the 
 post which, in 1759, put an end for ever to his struggles 
 for daily bread. In the winter of this year he was 
 appointed Capellmeister to Count Morzin, a Bohemian 
 nobleman of great wealth and a passionate lover of 
 music. It would seem that in Haydn's time the musical 
 establishment (which the prince kept at his country house 
 at Lukavec, near Pilsen) did not exceed sixteen or eighteen 
 performers, occasionally strengthened by members of 
 his household and servants. For this orchestra Haydn 
 wrote several Divertimenti for wind and strings, various 
 occasional compositions, and his first symphony in D, a 
 work which, small and light as it is, betrays the hand of 
 
28 HAYDN. 
 
 the master in its clearness of expression and unity of 
 design. 
 
 During his winter residence in Vienna, Haydn was 
 enabled to add to his income as Capellmeister by giving 
 lessons. Being now twenty-eight years of age, and of a 
 somewhat susceptible nature, it was little wonder that he 
 should fall in love with one of his pupils, the younger 
 daughter of a hairdresser named Keller. According to 
 some of his biographers he had known the family for long, 
 and had even lodged in the house/ So far, however, 
 from finding his passion returned, Joseph learnt to his 
 sorrow that the object of it was bent upon entering a 
 cloister. She carried out her design, and the father, un- 
 willing to lose the prospect of securing a rising musician 
 as a son-in-law, persuaded Joseph to console himself with 
 his elder daughter, Maria Anna. 
 
 In no particular is the laxity of morals among the 
 Viennese of that day more apparent than in the lightness 
 with which the marriage tie was regarded. Marriage 
 seems to have been looked upon as a mere matter of 
 convenience, and those who found no happiness in such 
 unions thought themselves entitled to seek for pleasure 
 and distraction elsewhere. Of love between Haydn and 
 his wife there was never any question, but it is not 
 probable that he knew beforehand that he was marrying 
 a shrew. The whole picture of his married life is a 
 lamentable one. A childless union where there is no 
 love is the veriest purgatory upon earth ; and while it is 
 impossible to acquit Haydn of blame in his after-relations 
 with his wife and other women, we may at least surmise 
 that so easy-natured and amiable a man would have made 
 the happiness of a wife who understood his character and 
 appreciated his genius. Maria Anna did neither ; as 
 Haydn once said, '^ It was all the same to her whether he 
 were an artist or a cobbler," and it was fortunate perhaps 
 for them both, it was certainly fortunate for the world, 
 that circumstances prevented their living together during 
 great part of their married life. They were not formally 
 separated until after Haydn^s return from London in 
 
 » Dies, p. 43, 
 
STUDY IN VIENNA. 29 
 
 1 792. Frau Haydn spent the last years of her life at 
 Baden, near Vienna, and died there March 20th, 1800. 
 
 Haydn^s good mother did not live to mourn over her 
 eldest son's hastj^and ill-considered marriage, nor to rejoice 
 in the opening for him of a career more brilliant than she 
 could have conceived in her most sanguine dreams. She 
 died Feb. 23rd, 1 754, in her forty-sixth year, and her 
 husband married again in the following year. Five children 
 were the fruit of this union, who all died in infancy. After 
 the death of Mathias Haydn, his second wife married 
 again, and seems to have been altogether lost sight of 
 by her stepson, w^ho, however, bequeathed her a small 
 sum in his first will, '^ to be transferred to her children 
 should she be no longer alive. '^ 
 
 Soon after Haydn's marriage Count Morzin found him- 
 self obliged to curtail his expenses by discharging his 
 musical establishment ; not, however, without interesting 
 himself to find a fresh post for his favourite Haydn. 
 Fortunately for the latter. Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy 
 had already been struck by the originality and youthful 
 vigour of some compositions that he had heard while on 
 a visit to Count Morzin. It was not difiicult, therefore, 
 to induce him to engage Haydn as second Capellmeister, 
 and with this appointment Haydn's '' Wanderjahre '' 
 came for ever to an end, his ^' Meisterjahre '^ began. 
 
80 UAYD^, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CAPELLMEISTEE AT EISENSTADT. 
 
 1760— 17G6. 
 
 No country in Europe could boast a nobility more 
 ancient and wealtliy than that of Hungary in tlie 
 eighteenth century. The position of the country, form- 
 ing, as it didj the bulwark of Christendom against the 
 Turks, had given it an importance out of proportion to 
 its size and political progress, and had served to foster 
 and maintain the power of the warlike nobles and the 
 principles of the feudal system longer in Hungary than 
 elsewhere. The burghers and peasants looked to their 
 lords for protection from their infidel and cruel foe, while 
 the lords exacted from them in return all the submission 
 and substantial support of subjects to a sovereign. The 
 close of the Thirty Years' War, and the final repulse of the 
 Turks at the close of the seventeenth century, had left 
 men weary of strife and bloodshed, and eager to turn to 
 the arts and pleasures of the peace to which they had 
 so long been strangers. The great nobles of the empire 
 requiring, as it were, a fresh raison d'etre for their 
 supremacy, vied with each other in the grandeur of 
 their palaces and establishments, and justified their pre- 
 tensions by the magnificence of their patronage. 
 
 The example of the imperial family turned the tide 
 of fashion more particularly in the direction of the art 
 of music, and, as we have already seen, no nobleman 
 considered his establishment complete without a body of 
 performers, vocal and instrumental, as large as his means 
 would allow, headed by a musician more or less distin- 
 guished as Capellmeister. 
 
CAPELLMEISTER AT EISENSTADT. 31 
 
 Among the Hungarian nobility no family could boast 
 fin earlier origin, or a more unbroken series of valiant 
 and distinguished heads than that of Esterhazy, and 
 there was no other^ perhaps^ that had evinced so genuine 
 and enlightened a preference for music apart from the 
 love of display and pre-eminence. The founder of the 
 princely line of the house of Esterhazy was Paul, son of 
 the first Count Nicholas. He was born in 1635, and was 
 raised to the dignity of a Prince of the Holy Koman 
 Empire by Leopold I., in consideration of his military 
 services. The latter part of his life was devoted to 
 science and art_, especially music, and to the construction 
 of the magnificent palace of Eisenstadt, interesting to 
 us mainly as the scene of the most fruitful years of 
 Haydn^s musical career. The palace, which was erected 
 on a scale of unprecedented magnificence, contains, be- 
 sides two hundred chambers for guests, a large hall 
 adorned with frescoes, which in Haydn\s time was used 
 as a theatre and for the performances of the full orches- 
 tra ; the ordinary daily music was given in a smaller 
 room. The pai^k, lying partly on the slope of the 
 Leitha hills, and overlooking the plain, is beautiful and 
 of great extent, and the gardens, hot-houses, and conser- 
 vatories are among the finest in Europe. Five or six 
 miles south of Eisenstadt is the fortress castle of Forch- 
 tenstein, given to Count Nicholas by Ferdinand II. in 
 1622, built on a steep rock of limestone 600 feet high, 
 and containing many memorials of the long struggle 
 with the Turks, notably a cistern 450 feet deep, hewn in 
 the solid rock by Turkish prisoners of war. The family 
 treasures used to be deposited at Forchtenstein, and an 
 old family statute compelled every head of the house of 
 Esterhazy to add to this treasure, and forbade his touch- 
 ing any part of it, except to redeem an Esterhazy frcoa 
 slavery. 
 
 Prince Paul died in 1713. His son, Joseph Anton, 
 acquired enormous wealth, raising the Esterhazy family 
 to the height of its glory. He left two sons, the elder 
 of whom, Paul Anton, was reigning prince at the time 
 that Haydn was discharged by Count Morzin. He it 
 
32 HAYDN. 
 
 was, therefore, wlio, admiring the originality and vigour 
 of one of Haydn's compositions which was performed 
 before him, consented to engage the young composer as 
 Vice-Capellmeister, a promise apparently forgotten as 
 soon as made. As months went by, and no summons 
 arrived for Haydn to enter upon his new duties, his 
 friend Friedberg, the leader of the prince's orchestra, 
 advised him to write a new symphony, and managed to 
 have it performed on the birthday of the prince. This 
 sufficed to call Haydn to remembrance, and his appoint- 
 ment was duly signed and ratified on May 1st, 1761. 
 
 No better way can, we venture to think, be found of 
 giving to English readers a clear idea of the duties and 
 position of a Capellmeister in the last century, and the 
 relation in which the musical establishment of a great 
 noble stood to himself and to the outside world, than by 
 presenting verbatim the text of the agreement between 
 Haydn and Prince Paul Anton. 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 ; while at the same time it cannot 
 be denied that the obligation to continued and varied 
 productive efforts, and the freedom from all immediate 
 care and distraction, were calculated to foster his indus- 
 try, and encourage him to efforts which were sure to be 
 appreciated. To have an orchestra, his own orchestra 
 too^ which he was allowed to strengthen and improve 
 until it was capable of rendering to perfection his 
 highest efforts, at his absolute disposal every day and at 
 any hour, was a boon for which many a musician would 
 barter a good deal of his independence, and Haydn him- 
 self fully appreciated the advantages of his situation 
 when he said, ^^ My prince was always satisfied with my 
 works. I not only had the encouragement of constant 
 approval, 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. I was cut off from the world, there was no one 
 to confuse or torment me, and I was forced to become 
 
CAPELLMEISTER AT EISENSTADT. 33 
 
 original/' The following is a translation of tbe agree- 
 ment in question^ which gives us more than one curious 
 picture of the manners and customs of the great men of 
 the day and their dependants : — 
 
 FoEM OF Agreement and Instructions for the Vice- 
 
 Capellmeister. 
 
 "This day (according to the date hereto appended) 
 Joseph Heyden^ 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, &c. &c., with the 
 conditions here following : — 
 
 *'l. 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 Gregorius 
 AVerner, 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. 
 
 ^' 2. 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 
 
 D 
 
Oi EAYDX 
 
 the instructions given, and appear in wLite stockiogB, 
 white linen, powdered, and either with a pigtail or a 
 tie-wig. 
 
 " 3. 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 ex- 
 emplary 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 pi^eserve 
 sach harmony as is becoming in them, remembering how 
 displeasing the consequences of any discord or dispute 
 would be to his Serene Highness. 
 
 "4. The said Vice-Capellmeister shall be under an 
 obligation to compose such music as his Serene Highness 
 may command, and neither to communicate such com- 
 positions 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. 
 
 *^ 5. The said Joseph Heyden shall appear in the 
 antechamber daily, before and after midday, and inquire 
 whether his Highness is pleased to order a performance 
 of the orchestra. After receipt of his orders he shall com- 
 municate 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 abse^it themselves altogether. 
 
 " 6. 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. 
 
 *' 7. 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. 
 
CAPELLMEISTER AT EISEKSTADT. 6 J 
 
 *^ 8 The said Joseph Heyden shull be obliged to instruct 
 the female vocalists, in order that they may not forget in 
 the country wliat they have 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 practise himself on all that he is 
 acquainted with. 
 
 ^' 9. A copy of this agreement and instructions shall 
 be given to the said Vice-Capellmeister and to his sub- 
 ordinates, in order that he may be able to hold them to 
 their obligations therein laid down. 
 
 '' ] 0. It is considered unnecessary to detail the services 
 required of the said Joseph Hey den, 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, wbo thus confides in his zeal 
 and discretion. 
 
 " 11. A salary of 400 florins to be received quarterly is 
 hereby bestowed upon the said Yice-Capellmeister by his 
 Serene Highness. 
 
 "12. In addition the said Joseph Heyden shall have 
 board at the oflScers^ table, or half a gulden a day in lieu 
 thereof. 
 
 " 13. 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 terra the said 
 Joseph Heyden shall desire to leave the service, he shall 
 notify his intention to his Highness half a year before- 
 hand. 
 
 " 14. 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. 
 
 D 2 
 
33 ilAYDN. 
 
 ^' Duplicate copies of this document sliall be executed 
 and exchanged. 
 
 '^ Given at Vienna this first day of May, 1761. 
 " Ad mandatum Celsissimi Principis, 
 
 '^ JoHANN Stifftell, Secretary.'* 
 
 It was a well-meant but somewhat mistaken kindness 
 that suffered so old a servant of the house as Werner to 
 retain his post as nominal head of the orchestra, while 
 virtually superseding him by one whom he must have 
 considered as a mere boy, and whose innovations and 
 reforms must have been a constant source of vexation to 
 him. Gregorius Josephus Werner had been appointed 
 Capellmeister in 1728 by the Princess Maria Octavia 
 Esterhazy, regent during the long minority of her son 
 Paul Anton. Of his private life nothing is known beyond 
 the fact that he was married to a wife accomplished 
 enough to give lessons in music, and that he had several 
 children, who all died young. His wife dying in 1753, 
 the rest of his life was devoted to his official duties, and, 
 after Haydn's appearance on the scene, to compositions 
 chiefly religious, and all in the strictest form of the old 
 school of counterpoint. Both he and Haydn seem to 
 have accepted their relative positions with considerable 
 good sense and forbearance. Although the elder and 
 less liberal man not unfrequently characterized his Yice- 
 Capellmeister as "a mere fop/' and '^a scribbler of 
 songs,'' he had the wisdom to retire gradually and 
 with a tolerably good grace from the active direction 
 of the music, seeking consolation in the works (now 
 almost forgotten) which were to carry his name down 
 to posterity. Haydn always expressed, and we cau 
 see no reason for doubting that he felt, a sincere re- 
 spect and admiration for his predecessor. Long years 
 after Werner's death, v^'hen Haydn himself was an old 
 man with a fame beyond the reach of rivalry, he published 
 *^ Six Fugues by G. J. Werner, formerly Capellmeister to 
 H.S.H. Prince N. Esterhazy, &c., arranged as string 
 quartets by his successor, Joseph Haydn, out of sincere 
 esteem for this celebrated master. Vienna : Artaria & Co., 
 
CAPELLMEISTER AT EISENSTALT. 37 
 
 1 804." Werner's industry as a composer is proved by the 
 number of his works preserved among the Esterhazy 
 archives^ of which the following is a summary: — 39 Masses, 
 
 3 Requiems, 1 2 Oratorios for Good Friday, 3 Te Deums, 
 
 4 Offertories, 12 Vespers, Psalms, Yeni Sancte, 16 Hymns, 
 20 Litanies, 133 Antiphones, 14 Regina Coeli, 14 Alma 
 Redemptoris, 5 Ave Regina, 9 Salve Regina, besides 
 Responses, Rorate Coeli, Sub tuum. Miserere, Lamenta- 
 tions, Advent and Christmas songs in one, two, or more 
 parts, pastorals, church sonatas, organ sonatas, &c. 
 
 Such fame, however, as Werner possesses at the present 
 day is founded not upon these serious compositions, which 
 are obsolete in style, and far too difficult ever to be well 
 known, but on his popular and somewhat boisterous 
 musical burlesques of Vienna life. Such are: 1. The 
 Old Clothes Market of Vienna (4 voices, 2 violins, and 
 bass) ; 2. The Election of a Village Justice (5 voices, 
 2 violins, and bass) ; 3. " A new and very curious 
 musical Instrumental Calendar, for 2 violins and bass, 
 divided into twelve parts denoting the twelve months, 
 each described according to its kind and qualities, with 
 oddities and original inventions by Gregorius Josephus 
 Werner/' All these were pubHshed at Augsburg in 1748. 
 Werner lived under the new regime for five years, dying 
 on March 3rd, 1766. His epitaph, written by himself, 
 prays that the discords which have crept into his life may, 
 by his contrition and penance, be resolved into harmonies, 
 and that the last chord which finds its echo in his grave 
 may die away into peace, until the trump of doom shall 
 summon the world to judgment, when he trusts that he 
 may find mercy, and ends by begging the passer-by to 
 F^op and pray for his soul. 
 
 At the time when Haydn entered upon his office. Prince 
 Paul Anton was a man of fifty years of age. His career 
 had been brilliant, and partly by inheritance, partly in re- 
 ward of his services during the Seven Years' War, he had 
 acquired immense possessions, and had been elevated to 
 the dignity of Field- Marshal. Twice he had equipped and 
 maintained during a whole campaign a complete regiment 
 of hussars for the service of his royal mistress, and to his 
 
38 HAYDN. 
 
 military fame was added a reputation for a genuine and 
 enlio-htened love of tlie fine arts. Inheriting a talent for 
 music from his mother, he acquired considerable skill on 
 the violiu, and spared no trouble to improve the condition 
 of his Capelle, setting himself not so much to streugthen 
 the numbers of his musicians, as to encourage them to 
 perfect performances. Haydn found only sixteen mem- 
 bers at his orders, including vocalists and instrumentalists. 
 The orchestra was strengthened on particular occasions 
 by pressing into the service any member of the household 
 who could play on an instrument. We find also the school- 
 masters of the neighbouring villages summoned to per- 
 form on the bassoon, and the tutor attached to the palace 
 and his wife were expressly engaged to sing in the choir. 
 The prosperous days of the Esterhazy Capelle began in 
 1760j when Prince Paul Anton took up his permanent 
 residence at Eisenstadfc. At no other point in its history 
 could it so well have served the purpose of a young and 
 aspiring genius, longing for materials on which to exer- 
 cise his inventive skill and develop the ideas that burned 
 within him for expression. 
 
 Prince Paul Anton was not destined to reap the reward 
 of his discriminating choice of a Yice-Capellmeister. He 
 died on March 18th, 1762, before Haydn had been in 
 office for a year, and was succeeded by his brother 
 Nicolaus, the Prince Esterhazy best known to the world 
 outside his own country, who by his lavish display of 
 wealth, and generous patronage of the fine arts, earned 
 for himself, like Lorenzo de Medici, the title of '^ The 
 Magnificent.''' The sensation that was created by his 
 well-known diamond- covered coat will occur to most of 
 our readers, although it would be doing him an injustice 
 to take for granted that either his own ambition or the 
 esteem of his contemporaries was bounded by such an 
 exhibition of mere barbaric pomp. He was, there can 
 be no doubt, a man of liberal mind and genial temper. 
 His friends loved him, his dependants adored him. 
 Haydn stood towards him in both these capacities, and 
 in all the years during which they lived under the same 
 roof, we can find no proof of anything happening to mar 
 
CArELLMElSTEE AT EI3ENSTADT. 39 
 
 tlie respect^ admiration, and sympathy of the master on 
 the one hand, and the genuine devotion and hearty zeal of 
 the servant on the other. Every now and then Haydn 
 would lament his inability to travel in Italy, and so en- 
 large his range of musical ideas. He felt his confinement 
 in Esterhaz as something like imprisonment, and longed 
 for companionship with his fellow-artists in Vienna. But 
 on such occasions he quickly consoled himself by remem- 
 bering his resolution '^ to live and die ^* in the service of 
 his prince, and, as we have seen, he was quite alive to the 
 counterbalancing advantages of his position. Prince 
 Nicolaus was of stately and commanding appearance, 
 with an open and amiable expression of face. Although 
 eminently fitted to shine at court, he withdrew more and 
 more from the circle of its attractions, and after the 
 completion of his palace at Esterhaz he hardly ever left 
 it for Vienna. When he was forced to appear there, his 
 anxiety to return caused him to break off his visits in the 
 most abrupt manner, to the despair of his Capelle, and 
 especially of Haydn, to whom these opportunities of inter- 
 course with other composers and interchange ot musical 
 ideas became increasingly precious. 
 
 Before proceeding to an account of Haydn's long years 
 of life and work at Eisenstadt and Esterhaz, it will be well 
 to give our readers some idea of his personal appearance, and 
 the impression he made upon those with whom he was 
 most closely associated. He was within a few days of his 
 thirtieth birthday when Prince ISTicolaus succeeded his 
 brother. We may imagine him as he appeared in his 
 uniform of light blue and silver, knee-breeches, w^hite 
 stockings, lace ruffles, and white neckcloth. He always 
 wore a wig with side curls and a pigtail, and retained the 
 same fashion to the day of his death. Dies, Griesinger, 
 and others of his biographers give a description of his 
 personal appearance which confirms the best portraits 
 extant. Dies says, '' Haydn was below the middle 
 height, and his legs were somewhat too short for his body, 
 a defect rendered more noticeable by the style of his dress, 
 which he steadily refused to change with the changes oi 
 fashion. His features were regular, his expression ani- 
 
40 HAYDN. 
 
 mated, yet at tlie same time temperate, geutle, 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." His nose was aquiline, and dis- 
 figured by a polypus, which he always refused to have 
 removed, and his face was deeply pitted with the small- 
 pox. This also was probably the cause of his dark 
 complexion, which earned him the sobriquet of '^tlie 
 Moor.'''' His under-lip was large and hanging, his jaw 
 massive, and this suggested to Lavater the lines which he 
 wrote, according to his custom, under the siUiouette of 
 Haydn in his collection of celebrities. 
 
 Something out of the common I see in the eyes and tlie nose : 
 The brow too is lofty and good, but the mouth and the chin are 
 Philistine. 
 
 Haydn considered himself an ugly man, and congratu- 
 lated himself on the fact that it must be for something" 
 deeper than beauty that so many women fell in love with 
 him. In truth, he took considerable pains to attract the 
 fairer sex, and was never at a loss for a compliment. He 
 carried neatness and cleanliness to an extreme, both in 
 his person and his house. To the day of his death he 
 would never receive visitors without being fully dressed, 
 and the arrangement of his room and his papers was so 
 exact and methodical, that any removal caused him much 
 annoyance. The plan of daily life which he laid down 
 for himself in his eighteenth year he continued with very 
 little alteration to the end of his life. It was one of in- 
 cessant industry with very little relaxation, and might 
 serve to prove the exception to the rule which charac- 
 terizes all genius as fitful and irregular. Haydn spoke in 
 the broad Austrian dialect, and his conversation was 
 sprinkled with the naive and humorous turns of expression 
 common to the Austrian people. He spoke Italian flu- 
 ently, French a little. He picked up some knowledge of 
 English during his two visits to England, and of Latin 
 he knew enough to compose the church services. He 
 was exceedingly fond of fun, which was sometimes not 
 
CAPELLMEISTER AT EISENSTADT. 41 
 
 over refined in its nature, but tliat lie tad a true sense of 
 humour is proved by such compositions as the Farewell 
 Symphony, or the " Surprise " Andante, which are the 
 musical expression of essentially humorous ideas. His 
 talent Haydn looked upon as the gift of God^ to be freely 
 used in His service. His piety was simple and sincere ; 
 when he was composing the " Creation,^' he said that he 
 knelt down every day and prayed to God to strengthen 
 him for his work. The cheerfulness of his church com- 
 positions is no sign of a frivolous mind, but, as he said to 
 Carpani, *^ at the thought of God his heart leapt for joy, 
 and he could not help his music doing the same.^' 
 Children were always fond of Haydn — Papa Haydn as 
 they called him, and there would doubtless have been 
 less to complain of in his conduct as a husband, if he had 
 been also a father. Of his generous appreciation of the 
 works of other composers, and his readiness to recognize 
 merit wherever it was to be found, many instances will 
 occur as his life proceeds ; and it is pleasant to think 
 that in this particular Haydn does not stand alone among 
 musicians. We have seen already how generously 
 Emanuel Bach recognized Hajdn^s genius, and we can 
 imagine no pleasanter picture than that of Mozart at the 
 Thomas Schule listening in rapt delight to the singing of 
 Bach''s motets, and exclaiming : '^ That is indeed some- 
 thing to take a lesson from ! '^ or Beethoven on his death- 
 bed roused into animation at the sight of a lithograph 
 of Haydn^s birthplace, murmuring to the bystanders, 
 ^' Strange that so great a man should have had so poor a 
 home ! " 
 
 But it is time that we returned to Haydn and his 
 orchestra at Eisenstadt. A new epoch began with the 
 rule of Prince Nicolaus, and neither Haydn nor his 
 musicians were suffered to find the time hang heavy on 
 their hands. Their zeal was stimulated by the enthu- 
 siasm and generosity of the prince. All the salaries 
 were raised ; Haydn received 600 florins instead of 400, 
 and this was soon after raised to 782 (about 78/.). The 
 Kapelle now numbered twenty-oiie members male and 
 female, seven vocalists, and fourteen instrumentalists. The 
 
42 HAYDN. 
 
 principal were Luigi Tomasiui (violin), Jos. Weigl 
 (cello), Thadaus Steiumiiller (French, horn), Anna Maria 
 Scheffstos (soprano), and Karl Friberfch (tenor). 
 
 Haj^dn had everything to arrange. Stage, instruments, 
 music-books, even the boxes to keep them in, all were 
 under his personal care. Compositions, rehearsals, con certs, 
 disputes to settle among the musicians and petitions to 
 present to the prince filled up his busy days, and it would 
 seem that even some portion of the copying of his com- 
 positions was done by his own hand to avoid applying for 
 more money to the prince. The mild and courteous rule 
 of Nicolaus was taken advantage of by some of his musi- 
 cians, who became careless in their attendance, and some- 
 times unseemly in their conduct. Then followed punish- 
 ments, fines, suspensions, and occasional dismissals, 
 almost invariably followed by a petition for pardon and 
 reinstatement for the culprit from Haydn, whose soft 
 heart was touched by the least sign of contrition. There 
 is still extant a petition on behalf of an offender from 
 the prince's '^most obedient and faithful Haydn,^^ with 
 a postscript following without a pause to allow the prince 
 to take breath : '' who will venture to submit to his 
 Highness immediately after the holidays a new trio for 
 tbe barytone." Happy the dependants of a prince who 
 could be so easily and innocently bribed to show mercy ! 
 
 For the first five years after his appointment Haydn's 
 life passed thus peacefully and busily at Eisenstadt. 
 Once indeed in 1765 he was taken to task by his princely 
 master for want of industry in composition, and for failing 
 to maintain proper discipline among his musicians ; but 
 as a very few weeks after we find the prince writing to 
 his steward to reward Haydn with twelve ducats for 
 three pieces he had just received, and with which he 
 was '* very much, pleased," we must conclude that the 
 reproof was taken in good part; certainly, as far as we 
 know, it was never repeated. 
 
 On three occasions the monotony of life in the palace 
 was broken by festivities which gave Haydn opportunity 
 for showing his skill in operatic compositions. Forgotten 
 as these now are^ he himself was not inclined to I'ank 
 
CAPELLMEISTER AT EISENSTADT. 43 
 
 them below his other works, although he acknowledged 
 that apart from their original surroundings they would 
 fail to produce their calculated effect. 
 
 As soon as the days of mourning for Prince Paul 
 Anton and for his mother Maria Octavia, who died in the 
 following month, were over, Prince Nicolaus made his 
 triumphal entry into Eisenstadt. The festivities con- 
 tinued for a whole month, during which a company of 
 ^' foreign players '* were lodged in the village inn, and 
 performed on a stage erected in the large conservatory. 
 For this company Ha3'dn wrote several operettas, of 
 which one, " La Marchesa Nepola ^^ still exists in auto- 
 graph score. The words are poor and unconnected, and 
 the music shows signs of haste and disinclination, even 
 the handwriting being far less careful than is usually the 
 case with Haydn. His second dramatic essay at Eisen- 
 stadt was on a larger scale. The occasion was the 
 betrothal of Prince Nicolaus's eldest son, Anton, in 
 January, 1763, with the Countess Maria Theresa, daughter 
 of Count Nicolaus Erdddy. The ceremony was per- 
 formed at Vienna by the Archbishop of Colossa, and the 
 festivities which immediately followed at Eisenstadt were 
 on a scale of regal magnificence. Banquets, illuminations, 
 balls, and masquerades continued without intermission for 
 several days, and the guests were at a loss whether to 
 admire most the splendour of the entertainments or the 
 high-bred ease and courtesy of their host. The people 
 had a considerable share in the general rejoicings. On 
 the day after the arrival of the company they were 
 entertained in the park, in the open air, and on the same 
 day after dinner Haydn's Italian operetta (Festa Teatrale) 
 '' Acide ^^ was performed by members of the Kapelle, 
 the orchestra being in all the glory of a new uniform of 
 crimson and gold. The subject was the old myth of the 
 loves of the sea-nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis, 
 and the jealous vengeance of Polyphemus. Handel had 
 already made it the text of one of his most charming com- 
 positions, but with a chorus at his disposal he was able 
 to render it a far more important work than that of 
 Haydn, who had to resort to an awkward, manoeuvring 
 
44 HAYDN. 
 
 of the text in order to close tlie last scene witli a 
 quartet. Of Haydn^s music to '' Acide " there still 
 remain in autograph score the overture (except the 
 first thirty-two bars)^ four arias, and the finale quartet. 
 The overture is in his own style, fresh and cheerful, fore- 
 shadowing 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 un- 
 interesting in substance. 
 
 In 1764, Prince Nicolaus left Eisenstadt to attend the 
 coronation of the Archduke Joseph at Frankfort, and as 
 soon as the festivities following the ceremony were at an 
 end, he continued his journey to Paris, where he made a 
 great sensation by his lavish display of wealth and 
 magnificence. It was during this visit no doubt that, 
 fired with the idea of emulating the splendour and beauty 
 of Versailles, he planned the conversion of his own estate 
 of Esterhaz into a rival of the French paradise. 
 
 The Prince's return to Eisenstadt was made an occa- 
 sion of rejoicing, and Haydn seems to have been specially 
 forward in displaying his zeal and devotion. He com- 
 posed a Te Deum for the chapel and a cantata for the 
 great hall. The actual performance of these works seems 
 to have been postponed until the celebration of the 
 prince's birthday, but the words of the cantata prove it 
 to have been written as a welcome home. In a long 
 recitative, two arias, duets, and choruses it glorifies the 
 power and the virtues of the prince, prays for his happi- 
 ness, and rejoices in his favour. Parts of the cantata 
 were afterwards made use of in church services, but the 
 work follows the traditional taste of the age in such 
 compositions too closely for the display of any originality 
 or real power. 
 
 Of Haydn's private life during the five years we are 
 considering there is little to be said. His wife was only 
 occasionally with him, one of the standing grievances of 
 the Capelle being that the prince's exceptional love of 
 his country residence separated them for long periods 
 from their families and homes. Haydn would scarcely 
 join in the complaint, although he afterwards proved hia 
 
CAPELLMEISTER AT E1SEN3TADT. 45 
 
 ability to S5'mpatliize with it. A pleasant event 76 ] 
 was the appointment of his brother Michael as Concert- 
 meister and director of the orchestra to Archbishop 
 Sigismundat Salzburg. Here in 1768 he married Maria 
 Magdalena Lipp, one of the court singers, and here, too, 
 he was thrown into close intercourse with Leopold Mozart 
 and his son Wolfgang, then ten years of age, and already 
 exciting astonishment by his compositions. The personal 
 relations between the two families were not over friendly. 
 Michael Haydn was a man of no refinement or cultivation, 
 and his wife's conduct was not free from reproach. But 
 personal differences never affected Mozart's judgment as 
 an artist, nor prevented his doing a kind action when 
 occasion arose. He admired and carefully studied Michael 
 Haydn's church music, much of which he copied with 
 his own hand, and twenty years later we have a pleasaut 
 glimpse of him seated by Haydn's sick-bed, writing in 
 the midst of a press of other work two duets, which 
 the composer's illness prevented his writing, and which 
 he was bound to have ready by a certain day, under 
 penalty of dismissal by the Archbishop. 
 
 One other family event belongs to this period, which, 
 to a heart so warm and with so tender a memory of early 
 days as that of Haydn, must have been a source of keen 
 sorrow. Mathias Haydn had had the satisfaction of seeing 
 his dearest hopes realized. He had visited his son at 
 Eisenstadt,had heard him addressed as Herr Capellmeister, 
 and been a witness of the respect and esteem in which he 
 was held by his prince and his orchestra. We can 
 imagine the pride with which he would dilate to his 
 friends at E-ohrau upon Joseph's fame, and the splendour 
 amidst which he lived. But no very long time after his 
 return home, a log of wood falling on him as he was 
 at w'oi'k, struck his chest, and broke several ribs. Of 
 the injuries thus inflicted he died on September 12th, 
 1763. Johann Evangelist, his youngest son by his first 
 marriage, was still at home, but two years later, he being 
 then twenty-two years of age, Joseph sent for him to 
 Eisenstadt, and he was admitted into the choir. He had 
 neither voice ncr talent, however, and his career was not 
 
46 HAYDN. 
 
 prosperous. His delicate healtli obliged him to make 
 coastant appeals for lielp to his brother^ who was never 
 deaf to such calls^ and aided him both in money and by 
 sending him pupils. Once, and once only, in 1801, the 
 three brothers met at Eisenstadt. They dined together, 
 and walked arm-in-arm through the streets. In the 
 evening a serenade composed for the occasion was per- 
 formed under their window by members of the orchestra. 
 
WORKS AT EISENSTADT. 47 
 
 CHAPTEE lY. 
 
 WORKS AT EISENSTADT. 
 
 1760— 17C6. 
 
 For the first five years following his appointment as 
 Yice-Capellmeister, Haydn's life at Eisenstadt continued 
 without any break, except his occasional visits to Vienna 
 in the train of his prince, or any noteworthy incident, 
 except such inspirations to composition as were afforded 
 by the princess absence and return from a short stay 
 abroad, or the marriage of his son, both of which events 
 we have already noted. The death of Capellmeister 
 Werner, and the completion of Prince Nicolaus^s palace 
 of Esterhaz mark the year 1766 as a fresh starting-point 
 in Haydn's career, and it will be well, before following 
 his fortunes in his new position and new home, briefly 
 to pass in review the compositions, vocal and instru- 
 mental, which were the fruit of his five years of labour 
 at Eisenstadt. Of his Italian operettas (1762), his 
 " Acide e Galatea ^^ (1763), and his cantata in honour of 
 Prince Nicolaus's return to Eisenstadt (1764), mention 
 has already been made. The only other vocal works of 
 importance which can with certainty be ascribed to this 
 period are the Te Deum in C major, composed for the 
 same occasion as the cantata just alluded to, and a Salve 
 Eegina in Gr major, of which a copy dated 1 766 is still in 
 existence. The Te Deum is a complete and carefully 
 worked-out composition for four voices and the somewhat 
 scanty orchestra at his command ; the instrumentation is 
 fresh and vigorous without undue elaboration, and it is 
 interesting to compare this early work with Haydn'^s great 
 Te Deum in C major, composed for four voices and a full 
 
43 HAYDN. 
 
 orcliestra in 1800, wlien lie was at tlie zenith of his fame. 
 The comparison will confirm its authorship as that of 
 Joseph Haydn, which has sometimes been disputed in 
 favour of his brother Michael. The Salve Kegina, for 
 soprano and alto solo voices, with violin and organ 
 accompanimentj is in three short movements, the middle 
 movement being for alto alone ; it is fall of grace and 
 melody, and breathes the gentle piety which befits a 
 petition to the Virgin. 
 
 The instrumental compositions falling within these five 
 years are very numerous, comprising about thirty sym- 
 phonies and cassations, six divertimenti, eighteen quartets, 
 six string trios, a piece for four violins and cello called 
 '^ Echo,'^ a concerto for the French horn, twelve minuets 
 for the orchestra, and concertos, trios, sonatas, and 
 variations for the clavier. 
 
 The circumstances under which Haydn's early sym- 
 phonies were composed must be taken into account before 
 commenting on the astonishing number which he pro- 
 duced, and the want of that depth of feeling and 
 solemnity of treatment which Mozart and Beethoven 
 to a still greater degree have taught us to look for in 
 what became under their hands the very highest expres- 
 sion of musical emotion, pure and simple. Haydn^s 
 symphonies were composed in groups of four, six, or 
 seven, for those musical performances which were the 
 customary evening entertainments of the wealthy nobility, 
 and ouly so much variety was required as should avoid 
 actual repetition or monotony in the successive groups of 
 movements. The performances were long, and included 
 a great deal of orchestral music. Count Firmian's 
 musical soirees lasted from five to eleven o'clock, and on 
 one evening several symphonies by J. C. Bach and four 
 symphonies by Martini were played. Dittersdorf tells 
 us in his autobiography that he once played twelve new 
 violin concertos by Benda on one evening, and at a private 
 concert in Dresden both parts contained a symphony, a 
 violin concerto, a flute concerto, and an oboe concerto. 
 Haydn's peculiar services to music can hardly be said 
 to have suffered from the obligation to fertility which 
 
WORKS AT Ei.^ENSTADT. 49 
 
 was the consequence of his position. Ifc was his mission 
 to stereotype the forms and develop the capacities of 
 instrumental music, more especially of its two chief ex- 
 ponents, the symphony and the quartet. Within his 
 own limits, his invention was inexhaustible, his originality 
 knew no bounds, but his aim was no higher than that of 
 other great composers before Beethoven, who sought to 
 display the beauties of music only within its own domain 
 of sound. Mozart's achievements are the highest and 
 greatest possible within those limits ; it was reserved for 
 Beethoven to break down the barrier between music and 
 poetry, and in his symphonies to celebrate, as it were, the 
 apotheosis of instrumental music, showing the aim of the 
 musician henceforth to be the expression iu sound of 
 the joys, aspirations, and longings of the poet. With 
 Beethoven the older school of iustrumental music, the 
 school of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, came to an 
 end ; no further progress in it was possible ; his genius, 
 " Titanically infantine," has been " laid at the breast of 
 the Divine," and for better, for worse, music has now 
 recognized its mission as an accompaniment to the drama 
 of humanity with its griefs, its joys, and its passions. 
 Recognizing this fact, however, to its fullest extent, it 
 will still remain the case that, as long as men have ears 
 that are refreshed by melody, as long as they can still 
 understand the definition of music as '^ a concord of sweet 
 sounds," they will not cease to find pleasure in Haydn's 
 symphonies and quartets. " How Haydn-ish ! " we say, 
 as the flood of melody comes pouring out, clear and fresh 
 and bright as a mountain stream ; our brows relax, and 
 our hearts lighten as we listen ; nor can our intellects 
 fail to be satisfied with the perfect design, the finished 
 workmanship, the subservience of all means to one end 
 which are unfolded as the work proceeds. When it ends 
 we feel that we have been in the presence of a master of 
 his art, and in proportion as our musical knowledge and 
 feeling are real and deep we can understand the reverence 
 with which Haydn's claims to be the father of instrumental 
 music have been acknowledged by his contemporaries and 
 successors. 
 
 E 
 
50 HAYDN. 
 
 Tlie term ^^sympliony '* was applied to more than one 
 form of instrumental composition in vogue daring the 
 last century. The word was used as synonymous with 
 overture, and it was some time before the connection be- 
 tween the symphony and the opera to which it served as 
 an introduction was severed. The French symphony, 
 introduced by Lulli (1633 — 1687), and established by 
 Scarlatti and his followers, began with an adagio, followed 
 by a quick movement, often in the form of a fugue, and 
 passed again into an adagio, which concluded the over- 
 ture. The Italian symphony had three movements : an 
 allegro at the beginning, and another quicker and more 
 animated at the end, separated by a slow movement. 
 Burney says that the composers of the celebrated 
 Mannheim Capelle, who were all of the first rank, first 
 overstepped the usual limits of the opera overture, which 
 hitherto had only consisted of a sort of summons to silence 
 and attention on the entry of the singers, and completed 
 the development of the symphony as an independent 
 composition. But Sammartini and Pallaviciui in Italy 
 had already done good service to orchestral music and to 
 the symphony as its principal exponent, and Haydn 
 surpassed them all in his inexhaustible wealth of produc- 
 tive power and thorough knowledge of his art, and may 
 justly be considered the creator of the symphony. 
 
 In the complete form thus given to the symphony, the 
 original three movements of the Italian overture were 
 preserved, but they were no longer (or only occasionally) 
 connected, and on the formation of the separate move- 
 mentSjthe clavier sonata in the perfect form given to it 
 by Ph. Emanuel Bach^ had a very considerable influence. 
 The few bars of adagio which precede the allegro in 
 many of Haydn^s symphonies is perhaps a reminiscence of 
 the French symphony. The allegro itself is always in 
 two parts ; in the first part the principal and secondary 
 subjects are set forth and cpntrasted, and sometimes 
 they are followed by a thii'd, the whole connected by 
 means of free passages. .' The first subject closes on the 
 sub-dominant, and the second is in the key of the domi- 
 nant, in which the first part of the movement concludes. 
 
WOEKS AT EISENSTADT. 61 
 
 The second part consists of an elaboration of the subjects 
 ab'eady given^ carried out in various ways, and without 
 any very definite rule. This " working out '' part asserts 
 itself more and more as the nucleus of the movement, 
 and has an important reaction on the formation and 
 phrasing of the first part ; this comes to be regarded as the 
 foundation prepared for the development which first 
 displays the whole extent of the conception. After the 
 working out, the first part is repeated with modifications 
 of key, and provides a clear and satisfying conclusion to 
 the movement, like the summing-up of a verbal argument. 
 The coda which ends the whole is usually confined to a 
 lengthened development of the closing phrase, and has 
 its counterpart in vocal music in the cadenza of the aria. 
 
 The middle movement is slow in tempo, and simple 
 in design and composition, following the lines of the 
 operatic cavatina, the romanze, or the Lied. It has 
 one main subject, either with variations or embellish- 
 ments, and is generally, though not necessarilj^, divided 
 into two parts, the second consisting of a new state- 
 ment of the subject rather than a development of it. 
 The slow movement long continued to be of minor im- 
 portance in instrumental compositions, and the adagio in 
 its most perfect form is a later and an essentially German 
 creation. Modern musicians do not excel in this particular 
 direction, and Schumann, who repeatedly remarks on the 
 phenomenon, considers that it is an extinct branch of 
 musical art, and that a new character must be invented 
 for middle movements. 
 
 The closing movement of the symphony is always in a 
 lively time and measure, generally in rondo form very 
 freely treated, and was expected to produce a feeling of 
 enjoyment and leave a pleasant impression on the mind. 
 But, curiously enough, this movement was sometimes 
 made the vehicle for a display of skill in counterpoint, 
 the very difficulty of rendering cheerfulness and unre- 
 strained musical fun in the strictest possible forms, making 
 the attraction of the task. 
 
 The introduction of the minuet as a fourth movement 
 of the symphony was probably suggested by the suite, 
 
 E 2 
 
52 HAYDN. 
 
 and whetlier or not Haydn first introduced it, it was 
 undoubtedly he who gave it an individual and typical 
 character. The minuet was the dance of good society, 
 the appropriate music suggesting the dignified deport- 
 ment and courtly grace of the age of powder and hoops. 
 
 Haydn divested his minuets of this high-bred air of 
 dignity, and filled them instead with the cheerful good- 
 huinour of the hourgeois oi his day, without a taint of vul- 
 garity or carelessness of construction. He retained the 
 form, but changed the spirit ; and the minuet, as he made 
 it, took its place in the symphony and kept it. In these 
 movements more, perhaps, than in any other, we are 
 delighted witb his humorous turns of expression, his 
 constant flow of cheerful melody, and a fertility of inven- 
 tion which is the more astonishing when we reflect that 
 his compositions of this particular kind must be numbered 
 by hundreds. 
 
 A careful study of Haydn's earlier symphonies shows 
 that he had spent his long years of struggle with poverty 
 in mastering the technicalities of his art, and that he had 
 already made up his mind on all essential points con- 
 nected with the forms of instrumental music. But it will 
 scarcely be expected that these works, composed for all 
 sorts of occasions, and often at very short notice, shall all 
 be found of equal merit and importance. Some of them 
 are not, properly speaking, symphonies at all, but should 
 rather be classed as divertimenti or cassations (a term 
 which has never been satisfactorily explained), composi- 
 tions not so fixed iu form as symphonies, containing 
 a greater number of movements, and in which the various 
 parts are more simply arranged. Anything like a detailed 
 account of Haydn's symphonies, or even a mere enumera- 
 tion of them under their separate titles would be impos- 
 sible within reasonable limits, but before passing on 
 to his other compositions of this period, it will be 
 found of interest to say a few words on the first symphony 
 (C major), composed at Eisenstadt, usually entitled " Le 
 Midi,'' to which Haydn afterwards added another, '^ Le 
 Matin," and a concertino, " Le Soir." Haydn seems to 
 have determined at once to take his prince, his orchestra, 
 
WORKS AT EISEXSTADT, 53 
 
 and Lis Capellmeister by storm. The unusual number 
 of parts in tlie score must have necessitated the 
 strengthening of the orchestra, as it was then constituted, 
 by the engagement of special musicians from Vienna; 
 and the constant and unusual employment of obbligato 
 instruments, especially the long dramatic recitative for 
 the violin inserted between the first allegro and the adagio, 
 must have caused poor old Werner to throw up his hands 
 in holy horror at such startling innovations. The symphony 
 is in the usual four movements, preceded by a few bars of 
 solemn adagio by way of introduction. The first allegro is 
 unusually rich in subjects and carefully worked out. The 
 violin recitative is very remarkable, the more so from its 
 want of connection with either of the neighbouring move- 
 ments. It is difficult to avoid imagining that Haydu 
 intended to embody in it some definite idea. Dr. Pohl, 
 with an apology for adopting the vicious practice of 
 attempting to give verbal expression to the musical 
 meaning of a composer, suggests the idea of an accused 
 person before his judge. It is, at any rate, full of dignity, 
 and has a breadth of dramatic expression not hitherto 
 displayed by Haydn. It was actually suggested, doubt- 
 less, by the recent engagement as first violin of Luigi 
 Tomasini, who, although then only in his twentieth year, 
 had already given promise of becoming a first-rate artist. 
 He remained a member of the Esterhazy Capelle until 
 his death in 1808, and his services to Haydn, and through 
 him to the world, can hardly be overrated, inasmuch as 
 his talent and zeal aS'orded the master an incentive to 
 compositions which were sure of being ably rendered by 
 the disciple. " No one plays my quartets as you do," 
 said Haydn to him, and their relations throughout were 
 those of mutual admiration and affection. 
 
 This first symphony in C major has, curiously enough, 
 never been included in Breitkopf's catalogue, and only 
 appeared in Hamburg in 1782, and in Vienna in 1799. 
 Haydn^s autograph score (dated 1761) is, however, pre- 
 served in Eisenstadt, and bears, like other of his early com- 
 positions, the superscription. In Nomine Domini, and after 
 the final signature, Laus Deo, Haydn's customary close. 
 
51- HATDX. 
 
 We are reminded of the J. J. (Jesu Juva)^ with, which J. 
 k^. Bach dedicated all his works to the service of God. 
 H.-ydn retained the custom, even for his secular works 
 and opera scores. Sometimes he merely added the 
 initials L.D. or S^D.G. (Soli Deo Gloria). Occasionally 
 we find B.V.M. (Beatse Yirgini Marise) ; and the most 
 emphatic close of all is that to his opera, '' L^Infedelta 
 delusa:^^ Laus omnipotenti Deo et Beatissimce Virgini 
 Alarice. 
 
 The smaller orchestral compositions of this period of 
 Haydn^s life, variously called Divertimenti, Cassations, 
 Serenate or Notturni, Concertino, Scherzaudi, and Partite, 
 are not very easily distinguishable in form and composi- 
 tion. They all consist of three, four, or sometimes more 
 movements grouped together without any fixed rule, and 
 the different names given to them seem to have applied 
 more to the occasions for which they were written than 
 to tlie works themselves. Written to order, and without 
 any pretence to high aim or great conception, they are 
 interesting to musicians mainly as forming an inter- 
 mediate step between the symphony and the quartet. 
 One divertimento, '' a Echo,^^ may be mentioned as an 
 example of the kind of musical fuu in which Haydn 
 excelled. It is composed for a double trio of instruments 
 (two violins and one violoncello), to be played in two 
 rooms adjoining, the musicians to be so placed that they 
 can see each other. The five movements (adagio, allegro, 
 minuet, adazio, and presto) never go beyond the limits 
 of a musical joke, composed for the amusement of a set 
 of amateurs ; but the number of times and the different 
 arrangements in which the piece was published, prove it 
 to have been an especial favourite not only in Vienna, 
 but in Paris, Italy, and Berlin. A word must also be 
 said here on a style of composition much in favour 
 towards the end of the 18th century, called " Harmonie- 
 musik,^' for wind instruments alone. Sometimes it was 
 in the form of serenades, and people of rank had per- 
 formances of six or eight-part Harmoniemusik during 
 meals. The Emperor Joseph, the Archduke Maximilian, 
 and other princes had special orchestras for these 
 
WORKS AT EISEXSTADT. OO 
 
 concerts ; and in after-years, during hh visit to London, 
 Haydn was greatly pleased with, the wind band of the 
 Prince of Wales under the condactorship of Christian 
 Cramer. Most of Haydn^s Harmonierausikj or Tafel- 
 musik, as it was sometimes called^ belonging to these 
 early years has been lost ; it is from a much, later com- 
 position of the kind that Johannes Brahms has taken 
 the subject for his orchestral variations. Of the dance 
 music composed by Haydn we have already spoken. 
 His minuets for dancing were gayer and lighter than 
 those for his symphonies, and although he lias not in- 
 cluded them in the autograph catalogue of his works, he 
 evidently set some store by them. In 1790, he writes to 
 his publisher, Artaria, oS'ering h.im twelve '^ very capital 
 minuets and trios ^^ in payment of a debt of twelve 
 ducats. 
 
 The quartet has long been acknowledged as the noblest 
 and most perfect form of instrumental ckamber music, 
 and it was Haydn who gave to tlie quartet its character- 
 istic form and developed it to such a degree of perfection 
 that, as Goethe says, " he may be superseded, he can 
 never be surpassed.^^ The quartet became for Haydn 
 the spontaneous expression of his musical nature, the 
 fullest result of his life-work, and it is seldom indeed 
 that an artist has been so successful in discovering the 
 fittest outcome for his individual genius. Others before 
 him had written compositions for four instruments ; his 
 contemporaries, J. C. Bach, Jomelli, Stamitz, Boccheriui, 
 and others, published quartets in the same collections in 
 which his appeared ; but it was his inexhaustibly fertile in- 
 vention, his freedom in the treatment of form, his unerring 
 judgment concerning the relative powers and capacities 
 of each instrument which caused the qaartet to become 
 one of the most beautiful productions of German musical 
 art. It was only by degrees that Haydn's contemporaries 
 learned to appreciate the services rendered by his genius 
 to this branch of his art. But he gradually gained the 
 favour of the public, and secured the homage of his fellow- 
 artists by an unbroken series of works advancing in depth 
 of conception and finish of execution, until at last who- 
 
Ob HAYDN. 
 
 ever ventured on tlie same field was obliged to serve 
 under his banner. Here, again, Haydn acknowledged 
 bis obligations to Ph. Emanuel Bach, rather than to those 
 of his predecessors who had actually composed for four 
 instruments. The clavier sonata was again made his 
 model, and the rules for the quartet became as definitely 
 fixed as those for the symphony. 
 
 The quartet, as Haydn found it, differed little from the 
 orchestral compositions of which we have just spoken. 
 In fact, Haydn himself called his first quartets Cassations, 
 Divertinienti, and Kotturni. How he must have rejoiced 
 to find them growing under his hand into what he could 
 not but feel to be the truest and best expression of the 
 genius that, as he said, was " in him^' ! The uniformity 
 of the material element of sound in the string quartet, 
 combined with an almost infinite capacity for variety of 
 tone-colouring and individual movement among the 
 instruments, render this the most agreeable development 
 of chamber music. 
 
 - " The favourite comparison of the quartet with a con- 
 versation between four intellectual persons holds good in 
 some degree,^' says Otto Jahn,' " if it is kept in mind that 
 the intellectual participation and sympathy of the interlocu- 
 tors, although not necessarily languishing in conversation, 
 are only audibly expressed by turns, whereas the musical 
 embodiment of ideas must be continuous and simultaneous. 
 The comparison is intended to illustrate the essential point 
 that every component part of the quartet stands out inde- 
 pendently according to its character, but so diffidently 
 that all cooperate to produce a whole which is never at 
 any moment out of view ; an effect so massive as to 
 absorb altogether the individual parts would be as much 
 out of place as the undue emphasizing of any one part, and 
 the subordination of the others to it.^^ 
 
 The eighteen quartets composed by Haydn during the 
 years of which we are speaking, and those immediately 
 following, display in a striking manner his gradual deve- 
 lopment in inventive power, definite aim, and breadth of 
 
 ^J' Life of Mozart " (Ecg. Edit.), vol. iii. p. 9. 
 
WORKS AT EISENSTADT. 57 
 
 treatment. It lias been questioned whether he wislied tliem 
 to be included among his later works of the same kind, 
 which are in strict quartet form, and Artaria's thematic 
 catalogue of the quartets begins, according to Haydn's 
 desire, Artaria said, with the nineteenth (Op. 9, No. 1). 
 But the total omission of these earlier works in any study 
 of Haydn's quartets would be a very great mistake. They 
 are absolutely necessary to a right understanding of his 
 method and progress in this species of composition, nor 
 will they ever cease to be sought after by all true lovers 
 of music, not on account of their historic interest only, but 
 for the wealth of melody, the purity of thought, and the 
 innocent desire to give pleasure, which breathe from 
 every movement. 
 
 Haydn's string trios were almost all composed early, 
 and are wanting in individuality and breadth of design, 
 throwing into striking relief the great advance in origi- 
 nality and power of expression made by him as soon as 
 he had adopted the quartet for his own. The greater 
 number of the twenty-one trios for two violins and one 
 violoncello, which he includes in his catalogue, were com- 
 posed before 1767. They are generally in three move- 
 ments, adagio or allegro, minuet and presto, and the first 
 violin is often made so prominent that they might rather 
 be considered as violin solos with accompaniments for the 
 other two instruments. 
 
 Haydn spent much of his time at Eisenstadt and 
 Esterhaz in composing for the barytone, a stringed instru- 
 ment closely resembling the viola di gamba, upon his 
 skill on which Prince Nicolaus piqued himself con- 
 siderably. It was Haydn's duty to compose as many 
 pieces for the barytone as the prince required, and that it 
 vv^as somewhat of a forced task may be inferred from the 
 reproof for idleness administered by the prince, of which 
 mention has already been made, wherein Vice-Capell- 
 meister Haydn was commanded to show himself more 
 industrious than heretofore in the composition chiefly of 
 "such pieces as could be played on the gamba." The 
 reproof was almost immediately followed by a reward of 
 twelve ducats for three pieces, with which the prince was 
 
68 HAYDN. 
 
 ''very well pleased/' Haydn's zealous attempt to sur- 
 prise and delight his master by learning to perform on 
 the instrument himself was by no means so successful. 
 His intended surprise was received witb a cold indifference 
 •which amounted to disapprobation ; he took tlie hint and 
 never again sought to rival the prince. Of the 163 
 barytone compositions included in his own thematic cata- 
 logue, the greater number were written after 1 766 ; but 
 it may be as well to consider them all together here, as 
 they show no marked difference in style and treatment. 
 Many of them are trios for barytone, viola, and violoncello, 
 generally in three movements, among which a minuet 
 and trio are invariably included. Others are duets for two 
 barytones,^ or barytone and cello, or cassations for three 
 or more instruments, but the larger number are diverti- 
 mento for baryton, viola, and violoncello. 
 
 Haydn did not suffer himself to compose carelessly 
 even such trifling pieces as these. He made them serve 
 as studies for larger works, and many of them surpass in 
 interest and variety his earlier quartets, being capable, 
 even now, of affording real pleasure to amateurs of instru- 
 mental chamber music. 
 
 It now only remains to consider the music for the 
 clavier which Haydn composed before 1766. His most 
 youthful compositions were probably for this instrument 
 written for his pupils in the days of his early struggle 
 with poverty. Here, again, his knowledge and style 
 were grounded on the works of Emanuel Bach, whose 
 influence is as marked in this direction as in any other 
 At the same time, a comparison between his clavier con- 
 certos and his quartets and symphonies shows very 
 plainly that the clavier was not the instrument best fitted 
 
 ^ The second barytone was often played by Kraft, the violoncel- 
 list, who was no more fortunate than Haydn in an attempt to rival 
 his master. Having introduced a solo for the second barytone in a 
 composition which he presented to the prince, the latter asked to 
 look at the part and began to try it over. Coming to a passage 
 which he could not master, he exclaimed angrily, " For the future, 
 write solos only for my part ; it is lo credit to you to play better 
 than I ; it is your duty." 
 
AYOEIvS AT EISENSTADT. 50 
 
 for Haydn's genius. His indiviLlualitj disappears as 
 soon as lie sets himself to write mere show pieces, and 
 we can scarcely recognize as his the long movements 
 spun out to tediousness with old-fashioned runs and 
 ornamental passages which were put together with evident 
 want of interest or care to form his earlier concertos. 
 They are all in three movements, the slow one in the 
 middle, the form which was adopted by J. S. Bach for 
 /liis concertos, and which has remained the basis of such 
 compositions to the present day. The solo instrument 
 is accompanied by two violins, viola, and bass, with 
 occasional horns or trumpets, and drums ad lib. One 
 concerto (composed in 1768) has a solo violin, which 
 plays alternate passages with the clavier, the accompani- 
 ment being somewhat fuller than usual. Another is 
 catalogued by Haydn as " per V organo ;" but it has no- 
 thing sacred or ecclesiastical about it, and could at most 
 have served as a voluntary for dismissal. It affords no 
 standard for judging of Haydn's merits as an organ- 
 player. 
 
CO HAYDN, 
 
 CHAPTER y. 
 
 ESTERHAZ. 
 
 17G6— 1790, 
 
 During tlie year 1766 two events of considerable im- 
 portance broke the monotony of Haydn's life, wliicli 
 afterwards flowed on in the same even current as before. 
 The first was the death of Capellmeister Werner, to 
 which allusion has already been made. Haydn now 
 became in name what he had long been in fact, absolute 
 head of the Esterhazy Capelle, and the relief must have 
 been great from the small daily annoyances of his former 
 position, and the want of artistic sympathy between him 
 and his nominal superior. 
 
 His promotion may be said to have placed Haydn at 
 the goal of his early ambition, and a glow of pardonable 
 pride may well have thrilled his heart as he read the 
 following paragraph in the ^' Wiener Diarium " for 1766, 
 and remembered that his own hard study and self-denial 
 and his own inexhaustible fund of cheerful hopefulness 
 and genial love of his art had placed him where he was, 
 and given him already a fame and popularity spread- 
 ing far beyond his own narrow sphere of duty. The 
 paragraph in question, giving an account of the most 
 noted musicians of Vienna, includes Haydn among the 
 number, and describes him as '' Herr Joseph Hayden, the 
 favourite of our nation (der Liebliog unserer Nation), 
 whose amiable disposition speaks through every one of 
 his works. His music has beauty, style, purity, and a 
 delicate and noble simplicity which commends it to every 
 hearer. His cassations, quartets, and trios may be com- 
 
ESTERHAZ. 61 
 
 pared to a pure, clear stream of water, tlie 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 liis cantatas 
 
 be 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 was at that time the most flattering that 
 
 could be made, and may have suggested Dittersdorf^s 
 
 answer to Joseph II. in 1786, when the emperor requested 
 
 him to draw an analogy between Haydn's and Mozart's 
 
 chamber music. Dittersdorf answered by requesting the 
 
 emperor in his turn to draw a parallel between Gellert 
 
 and Klopstock ; whereupon Joseph replied that both 
 
 were great poets^ but that Klopstock's works needed 
 
 attentive study, while Gellert's beauties were open to the 
 
 first glance. The analogy, Dittersdorf tells us^ pleased 
 
 the emperor very much. 
 
 Of still greater influence upon Haydn's well-being and 
 musical progress, was the second event of the year 1766, 
 the completion of Prince Nicolaus's famous Palace of 
 Esterhaz, and the removal thither of his establishment, 
 including the Capelle except the few voices necessary 
 to conduct the church services at Eisenstadt. Ever 
 since the prince's visit to Versailles, then, with its park 
 and gardens and interior decorations, one of the wonders 
 of the world, it had been his dream to construct for 
 himself a palace, on entering which his visitors should 
 spontaneously exclaim, ''• This is a second Versailles ! '^ 
 Nay, more than this, he chose for his purpose that one of 
 all his numerous estates which offered least facility for 
 transformation into a paradise. Esterhaz, or Siittor, as 
 it had hitherto been called, lies on the south-east side of 
 theNeusiedler See, that enormous salt-water lake, which on 
 this side terminates in a morass called the Hansag, as 
 great in extent as the lake itself. On this unhealthy 
 marsh, the haunt of the wild fowl, and the scene of per- 
 petual floods. Count Joseph Anton had built in 1720 a 
 small and unpretentious hunting-lodge, and his passion 
 
C2 HAYDN. 
 
 for wild-fowl shooting, shared by his brother and suc- 
 cessor^ Prince Michael_, made Siittor a favourite resort 
 with them both. No improvement was made in the 
 condition of the estate under the son of Prince Michael, 
 Paul Anton, also an enthusiastic sportsman. Provided 
 their passion for sport was allowed free indulgence, it 
 mattered little to these princely autocrats that the few of 
 their subjects who were forced to inhabit this deadly 
 region crept about emaciated shadows, racked with ague 
 and malaria, and only able to get a scanty subsistence from 
 the ground. The improvement of the land would have 
 been the destruction of their amusement, therefore the 
 land remained a pestilential swamp until a prince reigned 
 whose ambition it was to raise a second Versailles in the 
 desert. The works, executed by order of Prince Nicolaus, 
 were almost fabulous in their extent and magnificence, 
 but many years passed before they were actually com- 
 pleted. It was not until 1781 — 1782, long after the 
 palace was built and inhabited, that the district was 
 drained by the construction of a dam across the marsh 
 from the village of Pomaggen to the palace, upwards of 
 five miles long, planted with trees on either side, and by 
 the cutting of three canals, the chief of which is between 
 seventeen and eighteen miles in length, and capable of 
 bearing ships of considerable size. The plague-stricken 
 swamp was by this means transformed into valuable pas- 
 ture-land, and the palace was no longer the unsafe place 
 of residence it had hitherto been. But it was impossible 
 to render it really healthy, and it has long since been 
 abandoned by the Esterhazys in favour of Eisenstadt. 
 The unpretentious hunting-lodge of Count Joseph Anton 
 was transformed by Prince Nicplaus into a palace contain- 
 ing 162 rooms, including a reception-hall in white marble, 
 magnificently decorated in the style of Louis XV., and a 
 still more beautiful summer hall, in which the musical 
 performances were htld on specially festive occasions. 
 Almost every room in the palace contained costly and 
 well-chosen examples of Japanese or Indian art, and the 
 picture-gallery, filled with masterpieces of Itahan and 
 Dutch artists, was almost eaualled in richness and in- 
 
ESTERHAZ. 63 
 
 terest by tlie library^ with its invaluable collection of 
 manuscripts, engraviugs, and rare prints. 
 
 The palace was surrounded by pleasure-gardens, laid 
 out in the taste of the day, while the dense wood beyond 
 was transformed into a perfect labyrinth of groves and 
 glades adorned with summer-houses, temples, cascades, 
 and statues, and intersected by paths in every direction. 
 Two noble avenues of chestuut-trees extended to right 
 and left of the palace. Facing the right avenue stood 
 the opera-house and coffee-house adjoining, the usual 
 rendezv^ous of the artistic world of Esterhaz. Opposite 
 this was the Marionette Theatre, built like a grotto 
 inside and out, the walls covered with sparkling stones 
 and shells of every hue, giving a weird impression not 
 unsuitable to the quaint drolleries of the performances 
 there held. The opera — or play-house — was a building 
 of considerable taste and importance, capable of seating 
 about 500 guests. The stage was deep and wide, the 
 scenery and costumes excellently appointed. Daily re- 
 presentations (entry being free to all the princess retainers 
 and servants, and to any strangers who might happen to 
 be in the neighbourhood) were held in the theatre while 
 the prince was in resideuce, and twice a week operatic 
 performances were given. 
 
 The affection of Prince Nicolaus for Esterhaz increased 
 as the years went on. He was never tired of altering, 
 extending, and improving the palace and grounds, and 
 his greatest ambition was to make the musical and 
 theatrical entertainments there given the best of their 
 kind in Europe. Eisenstadt he visited seldom; Vienna 
 only when summoned thither on occasions of state, his 
 only desire then being to return as quickly as possible 
 to his beloved Esterhaz. 
 
 Haydn's life at Esterhaz was, as will be seen, one of 
 almost complete retirement combined with incessant in- 
 dustry. The necessity of providing for two operatic 
 performances and one or two concerts in every week, 
 besides the daily music ; the immense amount of prepa- 
 ration necessary for the festivities given in honour of 
 distinguished visitors, of which music was the most pro- 
 
64 HAYDN. 
 
 minent feature^ besides the personal supervision of the 
 Capelle and everything connected with it, which we 
 know to have been expected from the Capellmeister; all 
 this must have required no ordioary amount of industry 
 and method to accompHsh as Haydn accomplished it. 
 His would seem to be an almost solitary instance of the 
 perfection of these qualities combined with great origiual 
 genius. 
 
 We are not surprised to find Prince Nicolaus raising 
 the salary of so valuable a servant, granting his every 
 request, and seeking by all the means in his power to 
 make him contented with his position. When the prince 
 went to Vienna, Haydn always accompanied him, and on 
 rare occasions he was allowed short leave of absence to 
 visit the capital alone. More and more precious, in pro- 
 portion to their rarity, grew these peeps at the outer 
 world of art and artists to the prisoner of Esterhaz. 
 The prince too often brought his visits to an abrupt ter- 
 mination long before Haydn had heard and seen his fill 
 of Vienna and music, and towards the close of his life 
 they ceased altogether. There were times when Haydn 
 felt his imprisonment sorely. His longing to visit Italy, 
 his belief that a wider fame would open to him could he 
 only reside in the capital, his distaste to the neighbour- 
 hood and climate of Esterhaz, are all poured out in his 
 letters to his faithful friend, Frau v. Genzinger, and a 
 glance at this shadier side of his life must lead us to 
 admire anew the genius and energy which could pro- 
 duce a never-failing succession of works sparkling with 
 originality and gaiety, under circumstances which would 
 have overwhelmed many lesser minds with ennui and 
 disgust. With his orchestra he was omnipotent and 
 heartily beloved ; he called them all his children, and to 
 them he was always " Father Haydn.^^ *' Friend ! go 
 back to the first allegro," he writes as a direction on 
 the music book of one of them, and the word was no 
 mere title, but a reality. Unwearied as a conductor, he 
 rehearsed until every passage went exactly to his mind, 
 but without ever raising his voice in anger or impatience. 
 He followed with gesture and expression every turn in 
 
ESTERHAZ. G5 
 
 tlie music, chuckling beforehand at the approach of a 
 humorous passage, and betraying deeper emotion when 
 it was called for. Interpolated embellishments he never 
 allowed either in singers or instrumentalists : '' I could 
 have written it so myself if I had wished/^ he used to 
 say when any such liberty was taken. 
 
 Haydn was not a proficient on any instrument, and 
 rarely played solo. He had studied the violin with his 
 early friend Dittersdorf sufficiently to take part in a 
 quartet, and during one of his visits to Vienna, Kelly 
 tells us of a quartet party at Storace's, when Haydn took 
 the first violin, Dittersdorf the second (more probably 
 these parts were reversed), Mozart tenor, and Vanhall 
 violoncello. The clavier remained to the end of his life 
 the instrument on which he tried his compositions, but 
 he is only once mentioned as having performed on it in 
 public, and that was during his visit to London in 1792. 
 We have already seen what ill-success attended his at- 
 tempt to please his prince by a performance on the bary- 
 tone, a performance never repeated. He was fond of 
 walking on Sunday mornings from Esterhaz to the vil- 
 lage church of Szeplak to play the organ there, and he 
 had a certain allowance in kind from the prince as 
 deputy organist at Eisenstadt. 
 
 In a life of such incessant and varied industry as that of 
 Haydn at Esterhaz, his habit of early rising must have 
 been of the greatest service to him. He valued the quiet 
 of the early morning hours, when he could seat himself at 
 his clavier and improvise until an idea struck him as being 
 worthy of elaboration. Then he would go about the 
 ordinary work of the day, returning to his idea in the after- 
 noon, elaborating it, giving it form and unity, and only be- 
 ginning to write when, as he said, he was '^ quite sure it 
 was the right thing.'' Thus his handwriting was rapid 
 and clear, and singularly free from corrections. This fact, 
 taken together with the immense number of his compo- 
 sitions, gave rise to the erroneous belief that he com- 
 posed quickly. This, however, was not the case. His 
 healthy industry and power of abstracting himself from 
 surrounding circumstances were qualities more valuable 
 
 F 
 
06 HAYDN. 
 
 and telling in the long-run than any mere rapidity of 
 production. When we remember how little of comfort 
 or repose Haydn^s home interior afforded, we can but 
 wonder at the power of an art which can raise its fol- 
 lower above the press and worry of daily life into the 
 higher and purer region of imagination and creation. 
 
 Haydn laid great stress on the importance of melody 
 in music. In his advice to the singer Kelly, whose am- 
 bition it was to be thought a composer, he urges upon 
 him that without invention there could be no true genius. 
 The mechanism of composition was of minor importance, 
 and could be perfected by study. ^^If you want to know 
 whether you have written anything worth preserving/^ 
 said he, ^' sing it to yourself without any accompani- 
 ment.^^ Master of his art as he was, Haydn would 
 never consent to be bound down by mere rules. Indeed, 
 he often wilfully transgressed in this respect for the sake 
 of producing the effect he intended, and he considered 
 the expression of a new idea of far more importance 
 than the adherence to arbitrary rules. His answer when 
 his attention was drawn to a passage in Mozart's C 
 major quartet showing a disregard of the rules of har- 
 "mony : '' If Mozart wrote it so, he must have had a good 
 reason for it,"*' shows the spirit in which he desired that 
 his own works should be approached. 
 
 Haydn's character was so simple and unpretending 
 that envy of other composers, or want of recognition of 
 true merit, wherever it might be found, were feelings 
 which had no place in his mind. His reverence for Ph. 
 Emanuel Bach was that of a disciple, and of Gluck and 
 Handel he always spoke with deep respect. Towards 
 contemporary artists he was generous and appreciative, 
 and the strongest instance of his genuine, and as it were 
 instinctive, admiration for true genius is afforded by 
 the attitude he assumed towards Mozart, while the 
 latter was still a young musician, whom a man of smaller 
 mind might naturally have regarded as a dangerous 
 rival and innovator. '' I assure you solemnly,'^ he said 
 to Leopold Mozart, '^ that I consider your son to be the 
 greatest composer of whom I have ever heard. His taste 
 
ESTERHAZ. 07 
 
 is excellent, and he Las a thorougfli knowledo^e of com- 
 position." This generous appreciation of others does not 
 by any means imply that Haydn under- estimated his own 
 powers as a composer. ^' I know/' he said to Griesin- 
 ger as an old man^ '' that God has bestowed talent upon 
 me, and I humbly acknowledge His goodness in so doing; 
 I think too, I have done my duty in giving to the world 
 the result of my labours ; it is for others to follow my 
 example.''^ It is, perhaps, not so singular as might ab 
 first sight appear, that Haydn should have set great store 
 by his operatic works, which did not rank high with his 
 contemporaries, and are now virtually forgotten. He 
 says of Jiis " Armida^' in March, 1784, that it has been 
 produced with signal success, and is considered his best 
 work, and he writes to his publisher, Artaria (May 27th, 
 1781):— 
 
 " Mons. Le Gros, Directeur of the Concert Spirituel, 
 writes me many compliments on my Stabat Mater, 
 which has been performed four times with great success. 
 The management were surprised at this revelation of my 
 powers as a vocal composer, but they had had no previous 
 opportunity of judging of them. If they could only 
 hear my operetta, ^ LMsola Disabitata,' and my last opera, 
 ' La Fedelta Premiata ' ! I assure you such works have 
 not been heartl in Paris, and perhaps not in Vienna; but 
 it is my misfortune to live retired in the country. '^ 
 
 Haydn's pecuniary position under Prince Nicolaus was 
 sufficiently good to have enabled him to devote himself 
 to his art with a mind free from anxiety, had not the ex- 
 travagance and bigotry of his wife brought him into con- 
 tinual difficulties. His salary was about lOOZ. a year, 
 besides his uniform, some allowances in kind, and free 
 quarters for himself and his wife, when she was with him. 
 Three rooms were apportioned to them in the house 
 which was expressly built for the accommodation of the 
 Capelle. Eleven of the musicians had two rooms, and 
 were allowed the company of their wives ; the others had 
 but one room, some of them being even lodged two in a 
 room. It is probable that Haydn nearly doubled his 
 saia7'y by the sale of his compositions, in which the prince 
 
 E 2 
 
()8 HAYDN. 
 
 left him perfectly free. His operas were his leasfc suc- 
 cessful works from this point of view. Griesinger says 
 that Haydn had saved about 200Z. before his journey to 
 London. When we remember his wife's incessant impor- 
 tunity for money, and the calls made upon his resources 
 by his poor relations, calls to which he always made ready 
 response, we can scarcely accept this statement. A less 
 worthy source of expenditure existed during twenty years 
 of Haydn's life in the person of one of the female singers 
 in the Capelle, Luigia Polzelli, who, with her husband, 
 Anton Polzelli, was engaged by Prince Nicolaus in 1779. 
 The vivacious Italian girl (she was only nineteen at the 
 time of her engagement) seems to have completely fas- 
 cinated Haydn, who was always very susceptible to 
 female influence. Her relations with her husband were 
 no more harmonious than those of Haydn with his wife, 
 and his pity for her soon ripened into a violent affection 
 devoid of any genuine respect or esteem, for which we 
 need the less condemn him since it undoubtedly brought 
 its own punishment, and became the torment of his life 
 for many years. Mdme. Polzelli was a heartless coquette. 
 She turned Haydn's affection to account by continually 
 extorting money from him, and actually induced him, 
 after the death of her husband, to sign a paper promising 
 to marry her, should he become a widower. This, how- 
 ever, he had strength of mind enough to repudiate, and 
 his eyes being at length opened to her true character, 
 his affection for her cooled, the last trace of it being found 
 in his bequest to her of a small annuity. Before Haydn's 
 death she married a singer, Luigi Franchi by name, 
 and died at Kaschau in 1832, at eighty-two years of age. 
 Now that we have gathered a general idea of Haydn's 
 manner of life and surroundings during the quarter of a 
 century which comprised the most fruitful and pro- 
 gressive years of his musical career, it will be necessary 
 to pass briefly in review the more important of his works 
 between 1766 and 1790, the date of his first visit to 
 London. In doing so we must remember, however, that 
 he is known to the world, especially to the English world 
 of music, principally by his later compositions. His 
 
ESTERHAZ. 
 
 69 
 
 popularity rests on the works of the last twenty years of 
 his life, or what may be called his post- Mozart period, 
 and in estimating his position among musicians we must 
 consider him not as Mozart^s predecessor, but as his 
 contemporary and successor. The works which we are 
 about to consider, with the exception of some of the 
 quartets, are now little known and rarely played. They 
 form, nevertheless, a strong foundation for his after-fame, 
 and would repay a far closer examination than we can 
 give as showing how gradually, and as it were uncon- 
 sciously, Haydn revealed himself as the liberator and 
 prophet of instrumental music. Fortunate as he was in 
 possessing the admiration and confidence of his prince, 
 and of those musicians with whom he was in immediate 
 contact, he did not escape the envy and detraction which 
 fall to the share of all who leave the beaten track to 
 follow their own path. The Viennese public enjoyed his 
 fresh and genial creations with unbounded delight* but 
 the artists and connoisseurs found grave faults with them. 
 The dispute as to whether and in what degree humour 
 could be recognized in music raged loud and long around 
 his works, and the freedom with which he treated con- 
 ventional rules was found unpardonable by the Vienna 
 critics. His very position with Prince Esterhazy and 
 his residence in Hungary caused him to be distrusted as 
 a foreigner, and the example of the Emperor Joseph II., 
 who disliked him and inveighed against the " tricks and 
 nonsense " with which he overlaid his music was widely 
 followed by the supporters of the older school of instru- 
 mental music. 
 
 Haydn's dramatic works were, as we know, all com- 
 posed for the festival occasions which, two or three times 
 in every year, broke the monotony of existence at Ester- 
 haz. A mere recital of the visits of distinguished per- 
 sonages, and of the operas and cantatas composed for 
 each, would be both tiresome and unnecessary. It will 
 be more in accordance with our present object to give au 
 account of one such visit and the entertainment pro- 
 vided for it, and let it serve as a type of all the rest. 
 The pure love of pleasure for its own sake, which was a 
 
70 HAYDN. 
 
 cUstiDguislimg cLaracteristfc of the Viennese nobility of 
 tlie last centuiy, is nowhere more strikingly displayed than 
 on such occasions, when two or three days were entirely 
 devoted to feasting and enjoyment, and neither money 
 nor trouble was spared to make the entertainments the 
 most perfect of their kind. 
 
 On August 28fch, 1777_, the Archduke Ferdinand (son 
 of Francis I. and Maria Theresa) with the Archduchess 
 IMaria Beatrice arrived at Esterhaz for a visit of three or 
 four days. As they drove from the village of Szeplak 
 to the palace, their carriages were followed by crowds 
 of peasants uttering shouts of welcome, flourishing 
 trumpets and waving flags. At the entrance to the 
 palace the W'hole of the prince's establishment was 
 drawn up to receive the visitors. The Esterhazy regi- 
 ment of grenadiers in full uniform, twenty liveried ser- 
 vants, six couriers, six Hungarian foot-soldiers, the 
 prince's body-guard, the Capelle, the huntsmen, all the 
 household oflicials, six Hungarian and German pages, lined 
 the steps and the entrance hall. Within the porch the 
 guests were welcomed by the Prince and Princess Ester- 
 hazy and a large party of Hungarian and Austrian 
 nobility, invited to meet them. After a short rest in their 
 apartments, which had been specially decorated for this 
 visit, the company repaired to the theatre, where a 
 German play w^as performed. Then followed an illumi- 
 nation of the palace and part of the park, and the even- 
 ing closed with a banquet. Early on the following 
 morning, hunting music was played under the windows 
 of the guests' apartments, and after a morning spent 
 in viewing the treasures of art and luxury scattered 
 through the palace, a midday banquet was served in 
 the great hall to the higher nobility, in the summer hall 
 to the lower nobility, and in the marionette theatre to the 
 rest of the company. At four in the afternoon they all 
 drove through the park in open carriages, visiting the 
 temples, grottoes, and other wonders there to be seen, 
 and ending their drive at the theatre, where an opera, 
 '' L'Incontro Improvviso," composed by Haydn for the 
 occasion, was performed with much applause. Then came 
 
ESTEEHAZ. 71 
 
 supper, and after tliat a masked ball, attended by about 
 1400 guests. On the next day, after dinner, the com- 
 pany walked iu the park, and were conducted, accom- 
 panied by a band of music, to an open space, where a 
 mimic country fair had been arranged for their amusement, 
 with stalls and booths, mountebanks, quack-doctors, 
 cheap-jacks, puppet-shows, singers and dancers, all in 
 full swing of noise and merriment. After fully enjoyiug 
 this not over-refined entertainment, the aristocratic guests 
 were served with refreshments and betook themselves to 
 the marionette theatre, where a parody of GlucVs 
 *' Alceste '' was given, after which came fireworks, 
 supper, and a second ball. The following morning was 
 devoted to the chase ; the afternoon to a concert by the 
 Capelle. Then a German comedy was played in the 
 theatre by a Viennese company of actors, and after this 
 and supper the guests were conducted to a cleared space 
 in the park, hung with garlands and planted with 
 rare exotics. A gun was fired, and at the signal the 
 space was filled by a crowd of the prince's peasant sub- 
 jects in national costume, who, with joyous shouts and 
 songs, danced Hungarian and Croatian dances to national 
 music. When they were tired of looking on, the guests, 
 leaving the peasantry to carry their feasting and dancing* 
 far into the night, returned through the park, all hung 
 with coloured lamps, to the palace, where the final banquet 
 and ball were given. Early next morning they took their 
 departure, leaving costly presents in memory of their 
 visit for the performers and officers of the prince's house- 
 hold. Similar entertainments were given in honour of 
 Prince Rohan, French Ambassador extraordinary, in 
 1772; of the Empress Maria Theresa, in 1773; and on 
 all the other numerous occasions when Esterhaz was 
 visited by royal or distinguished guests. When Haydn 
 was presented to the empress during her visit to Ester- 
 haz, he ventured to remind her Majesty of the " good 
 hiding '' he had received at her command long ago at 
 iSchonbrunn, and was answered by the good-natured 
 remark, '^ Well, my dear Haydn, the hiding has borne 
 good fruit, you see/' 
 
72 HAYDN. 
 
 In July, 1777, at the request of the empress, the 
 Esterhazy Capelle went in a body to Vienna. The occa- 
 sion was the visit to the Court of Vienna of the Elector 
 of Treves and his sister the Duchess of Saxony, and of 
 the Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Teschen. The perform- 
 ances of the Esterhazy musicians were among the chief of 
 the many costly entertainments given in honour of the 
 royal guests. Two operas during the week, and daily 
 concerts, for which he composed at least one new 
 symphony, can have left Haydn very little leisure for his 
 usual Vienna enjoyments ; and besides these a marionette 
 theatre had been specially erected at Schonbrunn for the 
 performance of a marionette opera, probably " Dido,^' 
 which had been previously produced at Esterhaz at a 
 cost of 6000 florins (about 600Z.), and which the empress 
 expressed a great desire to see. This visit to Vienna was 
 made while Haydn was still smarting under the failure 
 of his opera, " La Vera Costanza,^' which he had been 
 commissioned by the court to write for the new Italian 
 Opera in 1777. The strength of his opponents among 
 the musicians and critics was too great for him. and even 
 an appeal to the emperor was of no avail, Haydn with- 
 drew the opera and reproduced it at Esterhaz in 1779. 
 
 About this time Haydn sought admission into the 
 Society of Musicians of Vienna, for whose benefit he had 
 already (1776) composed his first oratorio, " II Ritorno di 
 Tobia.''' The society, with short-sighted rapacity, not 
 only exacted a sum of 300 florins on account of Haydn's 
 non-residence in the capital, but wished to bind him down 
 to compose for them whenever and whatever they chose 
 to demand. Tliis he at once declared to be incompatible 
 with his duty to Prince Esterhazy, and withdrew his 
 application for membership. Some years later, the society 
 requested him to rearrange his '^ Tobia " for a fresh 
 performance, but on his stipulating for a payment of 200 
 florins, they again, with incredible meanness, refused his 
 request, and Hasse's " Elena '^ was performed instead. 
 Haydn's day of triumph came at last, but not until his 
 second visit to London, when all Europe had hailed him 
 as the greatest musician of his age. Then he received an 
 
ESTERHAZ. 73 
 
 ovation at a special meeting of the society, and was unani- 
 mously appointed ^'Assessor Senior'^ for lite. He proceeded 
 to heap coals of fire on the society's head, by presenting- 
 it with the " Creation '^ and the '^ Seasons/' and thereby 
 laying the foundation of its after prosperity. Haydn 
 found earlier and more generous appreciation in other 
 countries. The Philharmonic Society of Modena elected 
 him a member in 1780, and in return for this honour he 
 presented the society with his dramatic cantata, ^^L'lsola 
 Disabitata," performed at Vienna in 1785. In 1784, 
 Prince Henry of Prussia, in return for six quartets dedi- 
 cated to him, sent Haydn a gold medal and his portrait ; 
 and in 1787, King Frederick William II. presented him 
 with a diamond ring in recognition of his merit as a com- 
 poser. He had just written his cantata, " Germany's 
 Lament on the Death of Frederick the Great." Haydn 
 valued this present exceedingly, and always wore the 
 ring when he was composing anything requiring special 
 pains. A stronger instance of his wide-spread reputa- 
 tion even while he was still confined at Esterhaz, was 
 the commission he received in 1785 to compose the 
 '^ Seven Last AVords of Christ " for the Cathedral of 
 Cadiz. This work Haydn himself esteemed as among 
 the best he had ever composed, and it may interest our 
 readers to have his own account of the circumstances of 
 its performance as prefixed to the edition of the score 
 published by Breitkopf and Hartel in 1801 . He writes : — > 
 ^' About fifteen years ago I was requested by a canou 
 of Cadiz to compose instrumental music on the Seven 
 Words of Jesus on the Cross. It was the custom at 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 midday 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 
 
74 HAYDN. 
 
 knelt prostrate before tlie 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 com- 
 position 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 impossi- 
 ble to confine myself within the appointed limits.*' 
 
 He solved the difficulty by making each instrumental 
 interlude expressive of the words that had preceded it, so 
 that in after-years he was able, by adding words to the 
 music, and dividing it into choruses and solos, to produce 
 it as a sacred cantata. The work made a great impres- 
 sion, and was very often performed. 
 
 Haydn's church music has often been characterized as 
 wanting in depth and dignity, and calculated to excite and 
 elate the worshippers, rather than to rouse in them feelings 
 of devotion and contrition. This very fact may account 
 for its wide-spread popularity, so that to this day Haydn's 
 masses and offertories are more frequently performed in 
 Germany than any others. For no one can be unconscious 
 that, underlying the cheerful, almost joyous spirit of his 
 sacred music, is a vein of piety which seeks rather to 
 glorify God's goodness than to deprecate His vengeance, 
 and which encourages the sinner to hope when others 
 might bid him despair. '^ God has given me a cheerful 
 heart,'' said Haydn to Carpani, '' so He will surely forgive 
 me if I serve Him cheerfully ;" and the spirit in which he 
 composed his sacred music shows itself in his simple 
 assertion, that when composing the ^^ Creation," he knelt 
 down every day and prayed to God to give him strength 
 for his work. Between 1766 and 1790 he composed 
 eight masses, besides those sacred compositions we have 
 already noticed and many smaller works. Of the masses 
 the most celebrated is the '^Mariazell " Mass in C major, 
 composed for a certain Herr von Kreutzner, apparently 
 as a thanksgiving for his elevation to the rank of a noble- 
 man. This is the only mass Haydn ever wrote to order 
 or for an outside church, and he may well have taken 
 
ESTERHAZ. 7o 
 
 particular pains with it, looldng back on his boyish at- 
 tempt to propitiate the choirmaster at Mariazell, and the 
 curt reception he then met with. The " Cecilia '^ Mass, 
 in C major, is the longest and most difficult of these 
 masses, and is now only performed in an abridged form. 
 
 Haydn^s progress as a composer is very strikingly 
 exhibited in the sixty-three symphonies which fall within 
 the period we are considering. The greater number of 
 them are in his earlier style, evidently written to order, 
 and only here and there containing movements of greater 
 depth and originality. As he becomes conscious of his 
 true mission and of its recognition by the world outside 
 his narrow sphere, his hand strengthens, his horizon 
 enlarges, and depth and earnestness become the rule, 
 weak movements the exception. Not yet, however, has 
 he reached the true level of his greatness, and between 
 the best of these symphonies and those written for his 
 London concerts, there is still the difference between 
 endeavour and achievement. 
 
 Our space will not allow of our entering upon any 
 detailed account of the symphonies, nor of the occasions 
 for which they were composed, but a word must be 
 given to that cleverest of musical jewx, d^ esprit, the 
 *' Farewell ^' Symphony, the object of which was to per- 
 suade the prince to shorten his stay at Esterhaz, and 
 allow his musicians to rejoin their wives and children. 
 We have already seen what a hardship the long separa- 
 tions became, and the Capelle, at last driven to revolt, 
 appealed to Haydn to find a way of making their com- 
 plaint known without running the risk of incurring the 
 prince's serious displeasure. Haydn pondered the matter 
 over, and the result was that the sixteen members of 
 the Capelle assembled one evening to perform for the 
 first time a symphony by Capellmeister Haydn. Up to 
 the last movement all went well, but in the middle of 
 the finale came a pause — two of the performers quietly 
 packed up their instruments, blew out their candles, and 
 walked out of the orchestra. A few bars further they 
 M'ere followed by another couple, and so it went on until 
 none were left in the orchestra but Tomasini, the 
 
76 HAYDN. 
 
 prince's prime favourite, and Hajdn. At last Tomasini 
 blew out his light and disappeared, and Haydn was in 
 the act of following, when the prince, who had been 
 gazing bewildered at the unexpected performance, 
 stepped forward, and seizing him by the hand, exclaimed, 
 ^' I see what you mean ! They want to go home — very 
 well then — to-morrow we will all be off/' We may ima- 
 gine the anxiety with which Haydn's appearance was 
 waited for in the musician's antechamber, and the jubi- 
 lation with which his report of the success of the experi- 
 ment was received. The " Toy " Symphony was doubt- 
 less suggested by the medley of noises heard at a village 
 fair. Indeed, Haydn is said to have bought the toy in- 
 struments at the fair, and, bringing them home, to have 
 arranged the music for them, supporting them with two 
 violins and a bass. He kept the whole thing a secret 
 from his orchestra, whose merriment at the novel parts 
 they were called upon to take must seriously have re- 
 tarded the progress of the rehearsal, to which they had 
 been summoned as usual. 
 
 Haydn's quartets, of which he wrote upwards of forty 
 during his residence at Esterhaz, were still the most in- 
 dividual expression of his musical genius, and on them 
 he concentrated all the best results of his talent, study, 
 and experience in composition. The estimation in which 
 they were held by those of his contemporaries who were 
 too generous to envy his greatness, is shown by Mozart's 
 affectionate dedication of his first six quartets to Haydn, 
 a compliment he declared to be only his duty, since it was 
 from Hajdn that he had learnt how quartets should be 
 written. Haydn's influence, too, is plainly traceable i;i 
 many of Beethoven's quartets. The lapse of a hundred 
 yeai's has but served to establish Haydn's claim to be 
 considered as the creator of modern chamber music, as 
 surely as his symphonies entitle him to be called the 
 father of the modern orchestra, and we appreciate the 
 vitality of his works the more, remembering the long 
 list of highly esteemed contemporaiy composers, of whom 
 nothing now remains but their names. 
 
 In the clavier music of this period we still find traces 
 
ESTERHAZ. 77 
 
 of Emanuel Bach's influence; we know, too, that Haydu 
 had become acquainted with dementi's works, although 
 it is not likely that his study of them was deep enough 
 to have any marked effect on his own. In any case, he 
 very soon outstripped his forerunners, and became a 
 model of clearness, precision, and judgment to all suc- 
 ceeding composers. His sonatas (twenty-eight are known 
 to belong to this period) still serve as the best founda- 
 tion for a thorough study of the instrument for which 
 they were written, immensely as this has improved since 
 Haydn's time ; and the charm of melody, the conscious- 
 ness of power, the delight in creating which run through 
 them, captivate the student in spite of himself, and give 
 the works a vitality which bids fair to be immortal. The 
 same may be said of the clavier trios, of which seventeen 
 belong to the Esterhaz period ; they, like the sonatas, 
 were composed for the most part for pupils, friends, and 
 special occasions, and still remain models of composition 
 and treatment of melody. 
 
 It was not until after 1780 that Haydn first began to 
 compose songs, and the twenty-four included in the first 
 collection are far inferior to those of later years. His 
 literary knowledge was not extensive, and he left the 
 choice of the words to be set to others, the result being 
 often an unfortunate one. His three and four-part songs 
 and his canons were on a higher level, and the latter 
 especially were among his most favourite compositions. 
 
 Before closing our account of Haydn's life and works 
 at Esterhaz, we must say a few words on his entry into 
 the order of Freemasons, and that principally because it 
 will lead us to speak of his friendship with Mozart — one 
 of the most genuinely beautiful features in the lives of 
 both these great artists. It was probably at Leopold 
 Mozart's instigation, and while he v/as visiting his son in 
 Vienna in 1785, that Haydn joined the order; whether 
 it gave him the entry into the select circle for which he 
 hoped, or whether it had any definite effect upon his 
 mental development, we do not know. The most impor- 
 tant result of the step was undoubtedly the strengthen- 
 ing of his intimacy with Mozart, himself an ardent Free- 
 
78 HAYDN. 
 
 mason. Haydn's generous acknowloclgmenfc of Mozart's 
 merit as a composer has already been alluded to; in- 
 stances of it occur again and again in his letters and 
 conversation. When it was proposed to produce an opera- 
 by Haydn at Prague,, together with " Figaro '' and " Don 
 Giovanni, '^ he refused to run the risk of putting him- 
 self in competition with Mozart, and ended a long eulogy 
 on his brother artist with the words, '^ Pardon my wan- 
 dering from the subject — Mozart is a man very dear to 
 me."" This was in December, 1787, and in the year 
 following, when controversy was rife in Vienna on the 
 subject of '^ Don (Jiovanni/'' Haydn was one evening 
 appealed to among a large company on some point 
 connected with the opera. *' I cannot decide the question 
 in dispute,'' said he, '^ but this I know, that Mozart is 
 the greatest composer in the world." Even where they 
 might justly have been considered as rivals, Haydn gave 
 way to the younger man, and declared that if Mozart 
 had written nothing but his violin- quartets and the 
 " Requiem," he would have sufficient claim to immor- 
 tality. He used to declare that he had never heard one 
 of Mozart's compositions without learning something 
 from it, and in 1790 he writes from his solitude at '^ Esto- 
 ras," that the north wind had waked him from a dream 
 of listening to the '' Nozze di Figaro." The personal 
 intercourse between the two was like that of father and 
 son, and their use to each other of the pronoun du was 
 then sufficiently remarkable to be observed by more than 
 one biographer. Mozart felt deeply the separation from 
 his friend when the latter undertook his journey to 
 London, and tried in vain to induce him to give it up, 
 urging his age, ignorance of the world, and want of ac- 
 quaintance with foreign languages. Haydn replied that 
 he was old certainly (he was fifty-nine), but strong and 
 of good courage, and that his language was understood 
 of all the world. Mozart spent the day of his depar- 
 ture with him, and bade him farewell with tears, saying, 
 " We shall see each other no more in this world ! " a 
 presentiment only too sadly to be fulfilled. When the 
 news of Mozart's death reached London, Haydn lamented 
 
ESTERHAZ. 79 
 
 it with many tears, and wrote to one of his friends 
 (December 20th, 1791) that his only regret in returning 
 home was that he should miss the greeting of the greati 
 Mozart. With this pleasant picture, as rare, alas ! as it 
 was pleasant in the art world of Vienna in those days^ 
 we close our account of Haydn at Esterhaz. 
 
80 HAYDN. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FIRST VISIT TO LONDON. 
 
 1790—1792. 
 
 Early in 1 790, Haydn paid a somewhat longer visit than 
 usual to Vienna, and his letters written to his friend 
 Erau von Genzinger after his return to the '' dreary 
 solitude '' of Esterhaz, show plainly enough that his 
 isolated position there was becoming more and more 
 irksome to him. He had already had many pressing 
 invitations to visit foreign countries. The King of Naples 
 was an ardent admirer of his music, and had been so 
 urgent upon him to go to Naples in 1787, that Haydn 
 had almost consented. Le Gros, conductor of the 
 Concerts Spirituels in Paris, wrote to him in 1781, telling 
 him of the enthusiasm with which his Stabat Mater had 
 been received in the French capital, and promising him 
 a brilliant reception if he would visit Paris. But it was 
 in London, perhaps, of all foreign capitals, that Haydn's 
 works found most wide-spread popularity, and the 
 London impresarii, and leaders of the musical world seem 
 to have made up their minds long before he left Esterhaz 
 that sooner or later they would secure his services and 
 his presence among them. W. Cramer, the violinist, 
 wrote to him in 1781, offering to engage him at any cost 
 for the Professional Concerts, and Gallini, owner and 
 manager of the King's Theatre in Drury Lane, pressed 
 him to write an opera for him. Salomon, the most enter- 
 prising and energetic of them all, went still further, and 
 in November, 1789, despatched Bland, the well-known 
 music publisher^ ostensibly to arrange for the purchase 
 
FIRST VISIT TO LOXDOX. 81 
 
 of some new compositions by Haydn, but in reality to 
 try whether personal inflaence would induce him to leave 
 his post for a wider field of renown. Bland failed_, how- 
 ever. Haydn^s discontent and chafing sense of servitude 
 always evaporated when he was ofi'ered the alternative of 
 leaving his well-loved prince. '^ My dearest wish is to 
 live and die with him/^ he wrote in 1776, and not by any 
 act or word of his did he ever show that he wavered in 
 his fidelity. He gave Bland the copyright of several of 
 his compositions, among them the Stabat Mater and 
 ''Ariadne '^ (a cantata for a single voice, with clavier accom- 
 paniment, composed in 1782), also the '^^ Razirmesser '* 
 (razor) Quartet, which is said to have gained its title from 
 a muttered exclamation of Haydn's while shaving one 
 morning : ^^ I would give my best quartet for a good 
 razor ! "" Bland, who happened to be entering the room 
 at the moment, immediately ran back to his lodging, and 
 returning with his own razors of good English steel, 
 presented them to Haydn, who gave him in exchange his 
 latest quartet (Trautwein, No. 2.) 
 
 As far as the main object of his visit was concerned, 
 however. Bland returned to London only to report 
 failure. 
 
 Fortunately for the world, and music, Haydn's devo- 
 tion was not destined to be put to a much longer test. 
 On the 28th of September, 1 790, in the seventy-sixth year of 
 his age. Prince Nicolaus died at Vienna, after a short illness. 
 He had been in a despondent state ever since the death 
 of his wife in February of the same year, and it is affect- 
 ing to see from Haydn's letters to Fran v. Genzinger 
 with what delicate and aff*ectionate tact he chose such 
 compositions for performance as would not awaken sad 
 memories, but would cheer his bereaved master, by turn- 
 ing his thoughts from his loss. We may be sure that 
 that master himself was mourned with, sincere sorrow. 
 He marked his sense of the faithful services of his 
 Capellmeister by leaving him an annual pension of 1000 
 florins, on condition that he retained the title of Capell- 
 meister to the Esterhazys. The prince doubtless foresaw, 
 what was actually the case, that the Capelle would be 
 
 G 
 
83 HAYDIT. 
 
 clis"bauded by liis successor, Prince Anton, wlio liad no 
 taste for music, and preferred spending Lis wealth in 
 otlier ways. He retained in his service only the wind 
 band to perform at banquets, &c., but behaved not un- 
 generously to the dismissed musicians, adding 400 florins 
 to the pensions of both Haydn and Tomasini. 
 
 At last, then, Haydn was free to turn his steps whither 
 he would, certain of welcome and honour wherever his 
 works were known, and secure from all anxiety as to the 
 support of his old age. A residence in Vienna and un- 
 restrained intercourse with his brother artists there, had 
 far more attractions for him than a journey in search of 
 wider fame, and in Vienna he accordingly took up his 
 abode in the quiet household of his old friend Johann 
 Kepomuk Bamberger. He had scarcely had time to 
 reahze the fact that he was his own master, when he 
 received an urgent invitation to enter the service of 
 Count Grassalcovics as Capellmeister. This he declined, 
 but had no sooner done so than his tranquillity was again 
 assailed, and this time in a way from which there was no 
 escape. As he sat at work one morning, a strange visitor 
 was announced, who introduced himself in the words, 
 " My name is Salomon. I have come from London to 
 fetch you ; we will settle terms to-morrow.-" He went 
 on to tell Haydn how, on his journey back from Italy, 
 where he had been engaging singers for the Italian 
 Opera in London, he had heard of the death of Prince 
 Nicolaus, and at once hastened to Vienna, resolved this 
 time to take no denial of his long cherished wish to in- 
 troduce Haydn to the London public. Salomon was the 
 most enterprising and successful entrepreneur of his day. 
 He was a native of Bonn, where he was early known as a 
 violin player, and after a short engagement as Concert- 
 meister to Prince Henry of Prussia, he travelled to Paris, 
 and thence to London, where he gradually made himself 
 famous as a performer and conductor, and at last even 
 ventured to announce subscription concerts to rival the 
 Professional Concerts. The years of his greatest pro- 
 sperity were from 1789 to 1796, when he was director of 
 the Academy of Ancient Music, and his engagement of 
 
FIRST VISIT TO LONDON. 83 
 
 Haydn was a master-stroke of musical enterprise for 
 those days, sliowiug him to have been worthy of the 
 position he had gained. 
 
 The '^ coming to terms " was not quite so simple as 
 might at first sight appear. Haydn's doubts, and those 
 of his friends, as to the wisdom of undertaking such a 
 journey at an advanced age had to be overcome ; the 
 consent of Prince Anton, whose servant he still was in 
 name, had to be obtained ; and the various compositious 
 he had in hand, notably some for the King of Naples, 
 who was then in Vienna, must be finished before he could 
 leave. At last, however, all was arranged. Salomon 
 promised to pay Haydn for one season : 300/. for an opera 
 for Gallini ; 300?. for six symphonies, and 200Z. more for 
 the copyright of them ; 200/. for twenty new composi- 
 tions to be produced by Haydn himself at the same 
 number of concerts ; and 200/. guaranteed proceeds of a 
 benefit concert. His travelling expenses were paid by 
 Haydn himself, out of his savings, with the addition 
 of 450 florins advanced by the prince. He had also to 
 provide for the maintenance of his wife during his 
 absence, and to assist in this he sold his house at Eisen- 
 stadtj which had been the gift of Prince Nicolaus, and 
 had been twice rebuilt after being destroyed by fire. On 
 the 8th of December, Salomon wrote to London to John 
 Baptist Mara, husband of the celebrated singer, and 
 musical critic of the St. James's Chronicle, requesting him 
 to insert in that journal a notice of Haydn's projected 
 visit to London. The notice appeared on the 30th of 
 December, and informed the public 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 su23porb 
 and approbation. 
 
 Two days before leaving Vienna, Haydn, after long delay, 
 secured an audience with the King of Naples, and presented 
 the compositions (seven notturni for two lyres) which 
 he had been commissioned to write. ^^ Good ! " said the 
 king, ^''we will rehearse them the day after to-morrow." 
 
 G 2 
 
84 HAYDN. 
 
 "The day after to-morrow/^ replied Haydn, "I shall be 
 on my way to England." " What ! " cried the king ; 
 *' and you had promised to come to me in Naples ! " and 
 he left the room angrily. Haydn waited a little, uncer- 
 tain whether to go or stay. In a short time the king 
 return edj having recovered from his ill-humour, and gave 
 Haydn a letter of introduction to the Neapolitan Ambas- 
 sador in London, with the request that at least he would 
 visit Naples on his return from England. He also sent 
 him the same evening a valuable gold snuff-box in return 
 for his compositions. 
 
 On the evening of the 15th of December, 1790, Haydn 
 and Salomon left Vienna. They journeyed by way of 
 Munich to Bonn, where they arrived on Christmas Day. 
 Salomon's visit to his native place, accompanied by so 
 distinguished a guest, could not fail to create a consider- 
 able sensation, especially as Bonn was then the residence 
 of the Elector of Cologne, Archbishop Maximilian Francis, 
 the youngest son of Maria Theresa, who had inherited a 
 full share of the family talent for music. On Sunday, 
 December 26th, Salomon took Haydn to hear mass sung 
 by the Elector's Capelle, one of the best in Europe. To 
 his great gratification one of his own masses was per- 
 formed, and after the service he was summoned to the 
 *' Oratorium," where he found the Elector, who received 
 him with a graceful compliment, and presented him to the 
 principal members of the Capelle. From Bonn the tra- 
 vellers proceeded to Brussels, and thence to Calais, where 
 they arrived in heavy rain on the evening of the last day 
 of the year. The following morning at half-past seven 
 they embarked for Dover, but were tossed about by con- 
 trary winds for several hours, not setting foot on English 
 ground until five in the afternoon. Haydn rejoiced to 
 make his first acquaintance with the sea, and remained on 
 deck during the whole voyage. But he acknowledges to 
 having felt " a little frightened, and a little uncomfort- 
 able" as the wind rose, most of the passengers being very 
 sea-sick and " looking like ghosts.''^ 
 
 It may be as well here to mention that almost all our 
 information concerning Haydn's impressions and opinions 
 
FIEST VISIT TO LONDON. 85 
 
 of England and the English during his first visit to London 
 is derived from his letters to Frau von Genzinger, which 
 were collected and published, with an introductory account 
 of the circumstances of his visit by Herr von Karajan, in 
 1861. The letters are otherwise interesting, as showing 
 the pure and elevating friendship which existed between 
 Haydn and this amiable and highly cultivated woman, a 
 friendship which stands in happy contrast to his relations 
 with Mdme. Polzelli. 
 
 Haydn's first two days in London were devoted to 
 recovering from the effects of his journey, which had no 
 doubt been a strange and fatiguing experience to one who 
 had led so quiet and uneventful a life. But he soon began 
 to look about him, and his shrewd, observant mind took in 
 the main characteristics of people and place with astonish- 
 ing rapidity. His first night was passed under the roof 
 of Bland, the music publisher, at 45, High Holborn, but 
 on the following day Salomon made arrangements for his 
 lodging in the same house with himself, 18, Great Pulteney 
 Street, Golden Square. Haydn calls it, "a nice, conve- 
 nient lodging, but very dear," and praises the cooking, 
 the landlord being an Italian cook. His first impression 
 seems to have been of the size of London, which appeared 
 to him enormous, even in those days, before Regent Street 
 was built, and when Lisson Grove was a country lane, to 
 which he afterwards retreated in search of quiet. Then 
 the noise, especially the multitude of discordant street 
 cries, oppressed him greatly, and must have caused him 
 many a time to sigh over his work for the sylvan reposo 
 of Esterhaz, or for the quiet of his little study in Vienna. 
 The hospitality with which he was received gratified him 
 extremely, and he writes to Frau v. Genzinger that his 
 presence in London having been announced in all the 
 newspapers within three days of his arrival, he had 
 received most flattering attentions from the nobility, had 
 visited, and received visits from the Austrian and Neapo- 
 litan Ambassadors, and had dined out six times in seven 
 days. But he goes on to lament the late hour (six o'clock) 
 at which dinner-parties were given in London, and resolves 
 to decline future invitations on account of his health, and 
 
R6 HAYDN. 
 
 to dine at home witli Salomon at four o'clock. He refused 
 iilso to receive visitors before two in the afternoon, devoting 
 bis mornings to work. He soon gauged the musical taste 
 of the English public^ and rearranged most of his compo- 
 sitions written earlier, before producing them in Loudon. 
 Our national manners in the concert-room would seem to 
 have descended to us from our grandfathers, for we find 
 Haydn doubting as to which of two evils he shall choose ; 
 whether to insist on his stipulated composition being 
 placed in the first or the second part of each concert's 
 programme. In the former case, its effect would be 
 marred by the continual noisy entrance of late comers ; 
 while in the latter case, a considerable portion of the 
 audience would probably be asleep before it began. 
 Haydn chose this, however, as the preferable alter- 
 native, and the loud chord (Paukenschlag) of the 
 andante in the '^ Surprise " Symphouy is said to have 
 been the comical device he hit upon for rousing the 
 slumberers. 
 
 In spite of his determination to secure tranquillity for 
 steady work, Haydn found his time taken up in receiving 
 the visits of all the principal musical celebrities then in 
 London, and in a multitude of social engagements from 
 Avhich there was no escape. In his old friend Gyrowetz 
 he was glad to greet a familiar face in a foreign land, and 
 he was pleased also to become personally acquainted with 
 the greatest authority of the English musical world. 
 Dr. Burney, with whom he had already corresponded 
 for several years. Burney mentions Haydn's arrival in 
 his diary as a blessing to the lovers of music, for which 
 they have to thank Salomon, and he celebrated the event 
 in a poem which appeared in the Monthly Review, the 
 last stanza of which we reproduce, as an example of the 
 literary homage of the day. 
 
 Welcome, great master ! to our favoured isle, 
 Already partial to tliy 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 ! 
 
FIRST VISIT TO LONDON. 87 
 
 O-h, 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 ! 
 
 The Salomon subscription concerts were announceJ to 
 take place on the 11th of February and every succeeding 
 Friday, the subscription for the series of twelve being 
 five guineas. Haydn was under contract to supply a 
 new composition for each evening, and the list of siagers 
 contained names which it was hoped would enable the 
 enterprise to compete successfully with the professional 
 concerts. In the meantime Haydn was the object of 
 admiring homage wherever he went. At the concert 
 given by the Academy of Ancient Music in the Free- 
 masons^ Hall on the 6th of January, the whole audience 
 applauded vehemently as he walked up the middle of the 
 hall to the orchestra, and at the conclusion of the per- 
 formance he was conducted into the banqueting-room, 
 where covers were laid for 200 musical amateurs, the 
 place of honour being reserved for Haydn. He excused 
 himself, however, from remaining longer than was ne- 
 cessary to drink to the health of those present in a 
 bumper of Burgundy. On the 12th of January he attended 
 the meeting of the Anacreontic Society at the " Crown 
 and Anchor, *'' in the Strand. Here, again, he was re- 
 ceived with every demonstration of respect and admira- 
 tion, and expressed much pleasure at the manner in 
 which one of his own symphonies was performed by the 
 orchestra. On the 18th of January the Qaeen^s birthday was 
 celebrated by the usual firing of cannons, decking of ships 
 on the river, and by a drawing-room, where the Prince of 
 Wales appeared wearing 80,000Z. worth of diamonds. In 
 the evening there was a court ball, to which Ha^'dn 
 was invited — an unprecedented honour, since he had not 
 yet been presented at court. He was flatteringly noticed 
 by the Prince of Wales, and was the object of attention 
 from all present. On the very next evening we find him 
 taking part in a concert at Carlton House^ and on the 
 
88 HAYDN. 
 
 2nd of February lie was present at tlie first Ancient Music 
 Concert for tlie season (tlieir Majesties' concerts)^ given 
 in the hall in Tottenham Street, now the Prince of 
 Wales's Theatre. These concerts were the most classical 
 and select of any in London, owing much of their success 
 to the constant and active patronage of the royal family. 
 Their fundamental rule, confining the performances to 
 the works of musicians who had been dead twenty years, 
 fettered the action of the management considerably, and 
 the royal interference did not tend to introduce a more 
 liberal spirit. On the present occasion, for instance, 
 Handel being still the reigning deity at court, fifteen out 
 of the eighteen pieces were by him, Corelli, Jomelli, and 
 Graun being each represented by one. It was Haydn's 
 great desire that one of his compositions should be per- 
 formed at an Ancient Music Concert. But the manage- 
 ment steadily refused to make any exception to their rule, 
 and it was not until forty-one years later that — the allotted 
 twenty years of posthumous fame being fulfilled — this 
 conservative body announced a work of Haydn's (" Let 
 there be Light," from the '^ Creation ") for performance 
 at one of their concerts. 
 
 In the meantime, Salomon had found himself obliged 
 to postpone his first concert, Cappelletti and David, the 
 two principal vocalists engaged, being under contract 
 not to sing in public before the opening of the new Opera 
 House in the Hay market, an event which met with so 
 much opposition that there was some doubt at last 
 whether it would take place at all. The first postpone- 
 ment was to February 25th, but the contest between 
 Gallini and his opponents who supported the Pantheon 
 and declared the opening of a second Italian Opera 
 House undesirable, was then at its height, and a further 
 postponement was necessary. The concert was finally 
 fixed for the lltli of March, and permission was given to 
 David to appear whether the Opera House was open or 
 not. The delay seemed likely to prove most injurious to 
 Haydn's interests. It allowed Salomon's opponents, the 
 directors of the Professional Concerts, to gain the start 
 of him, and gave them the ear of the public before Haydn 
 
FIRST VISIT TO LONDON. £9 
 
 had had an opportunity of justifying the pretensions with 
 which he had entered on his London season. The public 
 ardour was cooled by depreciatory paragraphs in the 
 newspapers^ 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. 
 
 The first Professional Concert took place on the 7th of 
 February, and their jealousy of Haydn, or, more truly, 
 their mortification at not havino^ succeeded in securino: 
 his services for themselves, did not prevent the directors 
 including in their programme two of his compositions, 
 a quartet and a MS. symphony. They even went so far 
 as to present him with a free ticket of admission to the 
 whole series of concerts, an attention which Haydn, who 
 throughout seems to have been in a great measure un- 
 conscious of the strength of their opposition, received 
 with great gratification. He also declared that he had 
 never heard his symphony so well performed. 
 
 On the 18th of February, Haydn^s " Ariadne a Naxos '' 
 (the cantata for solo voice, with piano accompaniment, 
 already mentioned, p. 81), was sung by Signer Pacchie- 
 rotti, accompanied by Haydn himself, at one of the ladies' 
 concerts in the house of Mrs. Blair, of Portland Place. 
 This composition was a favourite with Haydn, and became 
 very popular in London. The Morning Chronicle of the 
 23rd of February calls it, in a somewhat rhapsodical notice 
 of the concert, " the musical desideratum for the season."" 
 It was repeated at the concert of the new Musical Fund a 
 week later, and his performance of it added greatly to 
 Pacchierotti's reputation as a vocalist. 
 
 Meantime, Haydn was carefully rehearsing the sym- 
 phony for his first concert, on which so much depended, 
 and an anecdote told by Dies is worth repeating here as 
 an illustration of his demeanour towards his orchestra. 
 The symphony opens as usual with a short adagio begin- 
 
90 HAYDN. 
 
 mng witli three single notes. The orchestra played these 
 much too loud, and Haydn stopped them with a '^ St ! 
 st ! '^ and a request, which Salomon interpreted, that they 
 would try again. The second attempt, however, and even 
 a third were no more successful, and Haydn was begin- 
 ning to grow impatient, when he overheard one of the 
 musicians, a German, say to another in his own language, 
 " I say, if the first three notes don't please him, how shall 
 we get through all the rest?'^ Haydn thereupon checked 
 himself, and explained to the orchestra with great polite- 
 ness that he regretted very much not understanding their 
 language, but that the favour he asked of them was quite 
 within their power, as he would soon show if one of them 
 would be so kind as to lend him an instrument. Then, taking 
 a violin, he played the three notes so that the orchestra at 
 once understood and acted upon his wishes. His invari- 
 able habit, in London as in Esterhaz, was to coax rather 
 than to frighten his musicians into obeying him, but we 
 can imagine him many a time sighing for his " liebe 
 Kinder " at home, who understood his every gesture, and 
 had learned to interpret his works as though they were 
 their own. 
 
 At last the 11th of March arrived, and the first of the 
 Salomon-Haydn concerts took place. The reality of 
 Haydn^s popularity was put to the test, and the result was 
 an unquestionable success. Hanover Square Rooms, at 
 that time the principal concert-hall in London, was filled 
 with a brilliant and intelligent audience. Salomon led 
 tbe orchestra as first violin, and Haydn presided at the 
 pianoforte. In these days of giant effects, we may smile 
 at the appointments of Salomon's orchestra, but it was then 
 considered exceptionally strong. It contained sixteen 
 violins, four tenors, three violoncelli, four double basses, 
 flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets, and drums, in all 
 about forty performers. The principal vocalists were 
 Mdme. Storace and Signer David. Mdme. Gautherot, 
 a favourite with the London public, before whom she first 
 appeared in 1 789, was the solo violinist, and Dussek 
 accompanied Mdme. Krumpholz in a duet of his own 
 composition for piano and harp. Burney tells us that 
 
FIRST VISIT TO LONDON. 91 
 
 Haydn's appearance in tlie orcliestra seemed to have an 
 electrical effect on all present, and he never remembered a 
 performance where greater enthusiasm was displayed. 
 Haydn^s symphony was the second of the Salomon sym- 
 phonies. It was received with great applause, and the 
 adagio was encored, an event of so unusual occurrence 
 that Haydn remembered to tell it years after to Griesinger, 
 as a thing to be noted in his biography. Dr. Pohl 
 (^^ Haydn in London/^ p. 121) remarks on the enthusiasm 
 for good music existing in the smaller London of a cen- 
 tury ago, as proved by the fact that on the evening 
 of Haydn's first concert, crowded audiences attended 
 oratorio performances both in Covent Garden and in 
 Drury Lane theatres. 
 
 A mere enumeration of Haydn^s London concerts, with 
 a list of performers more or less forgotten or unknown to 
 the general reader of to-day, would serve only to weary 
 and confuse, and would answer our present purpose less 
 than a more comprehensive view of his social life and 
 doings duriog his stay in England. The success of the 
 first concert was maintained throughout the series. The 
 Prince of Wales was present at the second, when, ** by 
 special desire,^' the symphony already performed was 
 repeated. At the third, a new cantata by Haydn was 
 sung by Mdme. Storace. 
 
 In the meantime, the faction fight round the opening 
 of Gallini^s new theatre raged fiercer and fiercer. The 
 building was on a far larger scale than the old one it 
 replaced. As composers, Gallini had secured Haydn and 
 Federici, and his list of singers and ballet composed a 
 brilliant company, Salomon being leader of the orchestra. 
 One thing only was w^anting — the Lord Chamberlain^s 
 licence, without which no operatic or dramatic perform- 
 ance could be given. The management of the Pantheon 
 raised heaven and earth to prevent the establishment of 
 a rival theatre. The contest spread to newspapers, public 
 meetings, and even to families. The court took opposite 
 sides, as Horace Walpole writes to Miss Agnes Berry 
 (Feb^l8, 1791), '''The rival theatre is said to be magnifi- 
 cent and lofty, but it is doubtful whether it will be suffered 
 
92 HAYDN. 
 
 to come to liglit ; in shorty tlie contest will grow political, 
 ' Dieu et mon droit ' (tlie king) supporting tke Pantheon, 
 and ' Icli dien ' (the Prince of Wales) countenancing tlie 
 Haymarket. It is unlucky that the amplest receptacle is 
 to hold the minority/^ 
 
 The Pantheon opened on the 17th of February, and a 
 fortnight later, Gallini announced a public dress rehearsal 
 at the new King's Theatre, which on this occasion was 
 crowded with invited guests. They overflowed on to the 
 stage, and interfered with the performance of Mdme. 
 Yestris in the ballet of " Orfeo ed Eurydice.^^ But 
 all was in vain. The decision of the Lord Chamberlain 
 was finally and decidedly given against the opening of a 
 second house for operatic performances. All that Gallini 
 could obtain was a licence for '^ entertainments ^' of music 
 and dancing, with which he opened the theatre on the 
 26th of March. A series of mixed entertainments, half- 
 concert, half-ballet, were given twice a week during the 
 season, and many works by Haydn were there performed. 
 Among them were symphonies, quartets, and other instru- 
 mental pieces ; also various choruses (including the 
 '^ Storm '' to Peter Pindar's words, " Hark, the wild up- 
 roar of the waves "), and a cantata, specially composed 
 for Signer David, and accompanied by Haydn himself. 
 The opera, '' Orfeo," which he had been commissioned 
 before leaving Vienna to prepare for the new theatre, had 
 of course to be abandoned, and knowing how he had all 
 his life longed to be recognized as an operatic composer, 
 we cannot but sympathize in his disappointment. While 
 he was working at it, and still hoping for its performance, 
 he retired for quiet and seclusion to Lisson Grove, scarcely 
 a spot one would choose with such an object now- 
 a-days ! It was fortunate for Haydn that the agreement 
 as to the payment for the opera had been signed before 
 he left Vienna. He took the unfinished work back with 
 him, and, by way of compensation, sent to London the 
 autograph score of his ^^Armida" (composed in 1783), 
 which is now in the library of the Sacred Harmonic 
 Society. 
 
 Haydn's benefit concert was given on the lOtli of May, 
 
FIRST VISIT TO LONDON". 
 
 93 
 
 the receipts, guaranteed at 200Z., amounting to 350Z. 
 Two grand symphonies were included in the programme, 
 one of them the same that had ah-eady been twice played 
 at the Salomon concert, having apparently taken a firm 
 hold on the affections of the public. On the 30th of May 
 a performance of the " Seven Words/' composed for 
 Cadiz (p. 73), was given, also for Haydn's benefit, under 
 the title of ^' La Passione Instrumentale," and excited an 
 amount of enthusiasm which bid fair to rival that caused 
 by the Handel Festival which was taking place during 
 the same week in Westminster Abbey. The *^ Passione 
 Instrumentale '' was performed again on the 10th of June, 
 at the benefit concert of the boy violinist, F. Clement, 
 then ten years old. Haydn conducted the concert, which 
 also included one of his symphonies, a compliment which 
 Clement repaid seventeen years later by taking the first 
 violin at the last concert Haydn ever attended, a per- 
 formance of the "Creation'* at Vienna, on the 27th of 
 March, 1808. 
 
 The idea of commemorating the centenary of Handel's 
 birth (1684) by a grand performance of some of his 
 works had originated in 1783 with three musical 
 amateurs, Viscount Fitzwilliam, Sir Watkin Williams 
 Wynn, and Joah Bates, and was supported by the direc- 
 tors of the Ancient Music Concerts, and warmly entered 
 into by George III. Two performances were given in 
 Westminster Abbey in 1784, with a success so unprece- 
 dented as to establish beyond doubt Handel's claim to 
 the first place among musicians loved and honoured by 
 the English people. The commemoration of 1784 was 
 followed by others in 1785, 1786, 1787, 1790, and 1791, 
 the sixth and last of the century. 
 
 Haydn's presence at the Handel Festival was an im- 
 portant event in his musical career. He had never 
 before heard a performance on so grand a scale, the or- 
 chestra and chorus together numbering upwards of 
 1000 persons. Mdme. Mara, Mrs. Crouch, and Mdme. 
 Storace, Messrs. Pacchierotti, David, and Kelly were 
 among the solo singers, and the principal instrumen- 
 talists were the best of the day. A guinea was the price 
 
9 i HAYDl^. 
 
 of admission, and an advertisement in tlie Gazetteer an- 
 nounced that " ladies would not be admitted in hats, and 
 were particularly requested to come without feathers^ 
 and with very small hoops, if any.'^ Haydn had a good 
 seat close to the king's box, and the beauty and solemnity 
 of the scene and the performance appear to have aflPected 
 him strongly. When at the Hallelujah Chorus the whole 
 assembly, including the king, rose to their feet, he wept 
 like a child, exclaiming in overpowering emotion, " He 
 is the Master of us all ! '^ ^ 
 
 During the first week of July, Haydn attended the 
 Oxford Commemoration, in order that he might receive 
 the honorary degree of Doctor of Music, an honour 
 which he could hardly be expected to understand or care 
 very much about. It was, in fact, due to the suggestion 
 and determined partisanship of Dr. Burney, who no 
 doubt considered it as the crown and summit of all 
 earthly distinctions to be conferred on a musician. 
 Nevertheless, Haydn seems to have been greatly im- 
 pressed and even somewhat amused by the ceremonies 
 of his installation, and it is much to be regretted that a 
 letter to Frau von Genzinger, describing the affair in 
 detail, has been lost. Among the festivities of the week 
 were three grand concerts, for which all the principal 
 singers and instrumentalists in London were engaged. 
 At the first of these Haydn was led in by Dr. Hayes, 
 Professor of Music at Oxford, and was received '^ witli 
 the honour and attention due to his great and extraordi- 
 nary talent.^' He had written a symphony expressly for 
 the occasion, but having arrived in Oxford too late to 
 rehearse it, a better known one was substituted. At 
 the second concert the new symphony, the '^Oxford'' 
 Symphony as it is called, was performed with great 
 
 * The custom of rising for the Hallelujah Chorus originated at 
 its first performance in London in 1749, when the audience was 
 so transported by that part of it beginning, " For the Lord God 
 Omnipotent reigneth," that they all, including the king, started 
 to their feet, and remained standing to the end of the chorus. 
 Haydn says in one of his letters that Mdme. Mara was hissed at 
 Oxford because she had failed to rise during a performance of 
 the Hallelujah Chorus. 
 
FIEST VISIT TO LOXDuN. 95 
 
 applause, and Clement's violin play log and David's 
 singing excited immense enthusiasm among the under- 
 graduates. Of the symphony the Morning Chronicle of 
 the 11th of July says : "A more wonderful composition 
 never was heard. The applause given to Haydn, who 
 conducted this admirable effort of his genius, was enthu- 
 siastic ; but the merit of the work, in the opinion of all 
 the musicians present, exceeded all praise.'' On the 
 following day, the ceremony of conferring the degree 
 took place, and at the third and last concert, given the 
 same evening, Haydn appeared in his doctor's gown, 
 and amid a storm of applause rose, and seizing the gown, 
 raised it as high as he could, exclaiming in English, " I 
 thank you ! " at which the applause redoubled. ^' I had 
 to walk about for three days in this guise," he writes, 
 '' and only wish my Vienna friends could have seen 
 me." In acknowledgment of the honour done to him, 
 Haydn sent the university a three -part canon, after- 
 wards used for the first of the Ten Commandments, 
 the whole of which he set to canons during his stay in 
 London. 
 
 Haydn found himself on his return to London the 
 object of still greater attention and admiration than be- 
 fore. His doctor's degree had doubtless some influence 
 in causing him to be sought after and feted in circles to 
 which he might not otherwise have had access. He ap- 
 pears to have taken the lionizing very simply and as his 
 proper due, and to have enjoyed the river parties and 
 picnics given in his honour more than the lengthy din- 
 ners or evening entertainments in town, which must have 
 been particularly trying to a guest who, although the 
 object of universal remark, was unable to express him- 
 self in the language of his entertainers, or understand 
 their complimentary observations. Mr. John Taylor, in 
 his amusing "Records of my Life" (London, 1832), 
 gives an account of a dinner at Mdme. Mara's, where 
 the party consisted of Dr. Wolcot (Peter Pindar), Cros- 
 dill the violoncellist, Salomon, and Haydn. After dinner 
 Crosdill proposed to celebrate Haydn's presence with 
 three times three. The proposal was warmly adopted 
 
96 HAYDN. 
 
 all the guests but Haydn standing up and cheering 
 lustily. He, hearing his name, but not understanding 
 W'hat was going on, stared at them with surprise. When 
 it was explained to him by Salomon, he appeared quite 
 overcome with diffidence, putting his hands before his 
 face, and not recovering his equanimity for some 
 minutes. 
 
 It was probably early in August that Haydn received 
 a summons from Prince Esterhazy to return to Vienna at 
 once, in order to write an opera for some forthcoming 
 festivities there. He mentions the circumstance in a 
 letter to Frau v. Genzinger, dated September 17th, evi- 
 dently expecting that the refusal which, in view of the 
 engagements he had entered into for several months to 
 come, he was compelled to give, would cost him his posi- 
 tion and pension as Capellmeister to the prince. The 
 latter, however, perhaps hardly expected a more favour- 
 able answer, for he seems to have expressed no greater 
 disapprobation than was conveyed in his greeting to 
 Haydn when they met again : " Ah, Haydn ! you might 
 have saved me 40,000 florins.'^ 
 
 The London season being now quite over, Haydn 
 followed the example of the rest of the world, and left 
 town in search of rest and refreshment. His letter to 
 Frau V. Genzinger last mentioned, is written from the 
 country house of a banker of Lombard Street. Haydn 
 tells his friend how the seclusion (^'like a convent,^^ he 
 says) and country air have completely cured his rheuma- 
 tism, and how he wanders through the woods in the 
 early summer morning, his thoughts straying from the 
 English Grammar he holds in his hand, to his home in 
 Vienna, his family, his friends, and most of all to his 
 best and dearest friends in the Schottenhof. The only 
 personal anecdote preserved of this visit is given by 
 Dies on Haydn^s own authority, and must have been 
 accepted by his fellow-countrymen as a striking in- 
 stance of English '' spleen/' We cannot but think that 
 good father Haydn was quizzing his faithful Boswell 
 
 when he gravely related that Herr , having begged 
 
 him to tell the story of his early life, was so much struck 
 
FIRST VISIT TO LONDON. 97 
 
 by the contrast between the young musician's struggles 
 and privations, and his own unbroken prosperity that, 
 jumping up, he called for pistols, and would have put an 
 end to his existence then and there, had he not been re- 
 strained by the tearful solicitations of his wife and family. 
 ■ Haydn had need of all the refreshment and energy 
 which nature and the hospitality of his friends could 
 bestow. Stormy days awaited his return to town. The 
 *' Professionals/^ more than ever bent on overthrowing 
 Salomon^s undertaking, and finding that Haydn had 
 gained too firm a hold on the popular favour to be dis- 
 placed by any rival they had as yet produced, made 
 repeated and strenuous eiforts to win the master himself 
 over to their side, and induce him to abandon Salomon 
 and Gallini. Knowing Haydn's honesty of purpose, and 
 love of upright dealing as we do, we are not surprised to 
 find him firmly rejecting these overtures. " I will not,'' 
 he says, ^' 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 that 
 they should be the gainers by it." Driven to resort to 
 another and, if possible, a still meaner device, the enemy 
 all at once informed the newspaj)er-reading world that 
 Haydn having become far too old and infirm to produce 
 anything new worth hearing, and having long, since 
 come to an end of his musical ideas, and been forced to 
 repeat himself in all that he composed, it had been found 
 necessary to provide for the Professional Concerts a 
 composer of more original genius, who was presented to 
 the public in the person of Herr Ignaz Pleyel, himself 
 the most famous pupil of the worn-out master. 
 
 Pleyel had, in fact, taken lessons from Haydn in 1 770, 
 and was now Capellmeister at Strasburg. He was in his 
 thirty-fourth year, a clever and conscientious musician, 
 but one who had himself no idea of rivalling the master, 
 to whom he and all his contemporaries looked up as 
 disciples. He must have been astonished at the honour 
 thus suddenly thrust upon him. It does not appear 
 that he hrd much, if any, knowledge of the intrigues 
 
 H 
 
98 HAYDN. 
 
 in wliicli he was designed to act as tlie tool ; his whole 
 demeanour towards Haydn from first to last showed the 
 respect and affection due to the older and greater mu- 
 sician. Haydn, better informed than Pleyel as to the 
 true state of affairs, took the most efficient means of defeat- 
 ing his opponents* designs by appearing on the best terms 
 with his rival both in public and private. Curiously 
 enough, Pleyel took lodgings in the same street, exactly 
 opposite Haydn's rooms, and the laconic entries in the 
 diary of the latter for the 23rd of December, '' Pleyd came 
 to London,'' and the 24th., ^^ I dined luith him," are suffi- 
 ciently indicative of the discomfiture which awaited those 
 who strove to make their own profit by pitting one genius 
 against another. We do not say that occasions did not 
 arise when Haydn found it necessary to defend his pre- 
 tensions against those of his pupil. Dr. John Taylor, 
 whom we have already quoted (p. 95), tells us of an 
 occasion wdien he dined with Haydn and Salomon at 
 a coffee-house in Vere Street. Dr. Wolcot was again the 
 other guest present, and Salomon, who was an intelligent 
 and observant traveller, entertained the party with 
 anecdotes of various musicians whom he had met in 
 Germany. At length the name of Pleyel was mentioned, 
 and Dr. "Wolcot, who was apt to blunder, burst into 
 rapturous praise of his taste and genius as a musician. 
 Haydn listened with ready consent for some time, but at 
 length, as the doctor grew more and more enthusiastic in 
 Pleyel^s praises, he remarked with considerable warmth, 
 '^ But I hope it will be remembered that he was my 
 pupil,"" Ihe poor doctor, realizing his mistake, stam- 
 mered forth a confused apology, which Haydn no doubt 
 accepted with a good grace. 
 
 On November 5th, Haydn was present at the banquet 
 and ball at Guildhall, given to the outgoing Lord Mayor, 
 and again at the entertainment on the 9th, which con- 
 cluded the ceremony of Lord Mayor's Day. His diary 
 gives with graphic simplicity his impressions of the heat, 
 the smell of the lamps, the babel of tongues drowning 
 the dance music (fortunately enough, it would seem, for 
 when Haydn did hear it, it was so bad, he beat a hasty 
 
FIRST VISIT TO LONDON. 99 
 
 retreat), and tlie couvivlality of tlio male gussts, wlio sat 
 about in the ball-room drinking, singnng, waving their 
 glasses, — and shouting " Hurrah ! '"' without intermission 
 all through the night. 
 
 An entry in Haydn's diary for November 23rd records 
 a visit to a marionette theatre in Savile Row, whioli would 
 no doubt interest him by comparison with that of Esterhaz. 
 He thought the figures good, the singers bad, and the 
 orchestra tolerable. On the following day he left London 
 for a three days' visit to Oatlands Park, as the guest of 
 the Duke of York, who was spending his honeymoon 
 there with his young bride, the Princess of Prussia. The 
 sight of the kind German face, and the familiar sound of 
 the German tongue of the musician, whose name had 
 been a household word to her ever since she could speak, 
 must have been more than welcome to the little trans- 
 planted bride (she was only seventeen), and Haydn writes 
 tenderly to Frau v. Genzinger (December 20th) how the 
 *' liebe Kleine " sat close by his side all the time he was 
 playing his symphony, humming the familiar airs to her- 
 self, and urging him to go on playing until long past 
 midnight. Haydn's portrait was painted during this visit, 
 by order of the Prince of Wales. The artist was John 
 Hoppner, R.A., and the picture now hangs in the gallery 
 of Hampton Cor 't. Haydn next paid a visit to Sir 
 Patrick Blake at Langham, stopping on his way at Cam- 
 bridge, where he was exceedingly interested in all he 
 saw. He remained only three days at Langham, return- 
 ing to London in time to be present at a performance of 
 Shield's comic opera, *^The Woodman,"" at Covent Garden, 
 on December 10th, with Mrs. Billington as Emily. He 
 writes that she sang ^^ timidly, but very well/' The fogs 
 of a London November, or more probably, the chills and 
 fatigue incidental on lo ag and unaccustomed journeys so 
 late in the year, brought on a severe attack of rheumatism, 
 which Haydn expressively characterizes as " English " ia 
 its severity, and which obliged him, as he says, to clothe 
 himself from head to foot in flannel, by which means he 
 hopes the enemy will soon be overcome. 
 
 But before the year closed a sharper cry of pain was 
 
 H 2 
 
100 nAYDN. 
 
 to escape liim tlian any caused by bodily suffering, how- 
 ever severe. The entry in his diary, '' Mozart died on the 
 10th December, 1791," is pathetic in its brevity, and we 
 can well believe that at the moment Haydn could trust 
 himself to write no more than this. In his subsequent 
 letters his grief finds freer vent, and months after, when 
 time had softened the blow, he writes that his pleasure in 
 returning home is embittered by the thought that no 
 Mozart will be there to welcome him. 
 
 So ended the year 1791. The musical campaign of 
 1792 opened with an advantage to the Professionals. 
 They again had the start of Salomon, giving their first 
 concert on the 13th of February, and showing their 
 diplomacy by treating Haydn with every mark of respect, 
 both personally and as a composer. His name was the 
 first on the programme, and the symphony composed by 
 Pleyel specially for this concert was pretty severely criti- 
 cized as an instance of presumption on the part of the 
 pupil towards his master. The two musicians, however, 
 continued to be on the most friendly terms, and Salomon 
 repaid, the compliment paid to Haydn by the Professionals 
 by putting a symphony by Pleyel at the head of the 
 programme of his first concert, which took place on 
 February 17th. The programme is one of exceptional 
 variety for those days, containing solos for the oboe (Mr. 
 Harrington), and for the harp (Mdme. Delavalle), as well 
 as for the violin (Felix Yaniewicz).^ 
 
 At Salomon's second concert, on the 24th of February, 
 Haydn's " Storm Chorus," which has already been men- 
 tioned (p. 92), was performed with the greatest success. 
 Haydn was especially proud of this, his first achievement 
 in setting English words to music. At each of the six 
 concerts of the series some grand composition by Haydn, 
 either vocal or instrumental, was given, and at his benefit 
 concert, on the 3rd of May, every piece in the programme 
 was his, except a violin concerto, composed and played 
 
 * Grandfather of the present writer. He appeared in most of 
 Haydn's subsequent concerts, and always with great applause. 
 His playing was noted for its refinement and expressive delivery. 
 He afterwards settled in Edinburgh. 
 
FIEST VISIT TO. LON.D0|«'^ *> T,' l> ^ ; ,, 101 
 
 by Yanlewicz. Haydn twice conducted concerts for other 
 musicians during the spring — once for Barthelemon, the 
 well-known violinist (who had been settled in London for 
 forty-four years, and with whom Haydn formed a very 
 close friendship), and once for Haesler, the pianoforte 
 player and composer. One of the greatest pleasures he 
 enjoyed during his losideuce in London, was afforded him 
 by the Anniversary Meeting of Charity Children at St. 
 Paul's Cathedral in June of this year. The sight is 
 always one of the most impressive that can be, and the 
 sound of the young voices echoing through the aisles no 
 doubt recalled to Haydn the Cautorei and St. Stephen's, 
 where a little neglected boy had sent out all his heart 
 in the music which was its only language and its only joy. 
 
 Haydn's diary mentions his acquaintance with the 
 astronomer William Herschel and his sister as one of 
 great interest to him; but the friend who became more 
 dear to him than almost any other, including even 
 Frau V. Genzinger herself, was Mrs. Schroeter, widow 
 of the queen's music-master, John S. Schroeter. She 
 seems to have been an attractive, although, according 
 to modern taste, a somewhat vulgar woman of over 
 sixty years of age, and there is no disguising the fact 
 that she made violent love to Haydn, and succeeded in 
 inspiring him, on his side, with so much affection for 
 her that he declared he would certainly have married her 
 if he had been free. Her letters to Haydn are full of ten- 
 derness, and in questionable taste ; his to her have not 
 been preserved, but we can have little doubt that they 
 were warmer in tone than they would have been had not 
 the Channel rolled between him and Frau Haydn in 
 Vienna. It may, indeed, have been some rumour of the 
 affair reaching home which caused that good lady to write 
 and urge his return, mentioning that she had seen a little 
 house which she liked very much, and which would suit her 
 admirably as a residence dariruj her widowhood. She 
 begged Haydn at once to send her 2000 gulden, that she 
 might conclude the purchase. He did not accede to this re- 
 quest, but came himself, saw the house, bought it, and lived 
 in it for nine vears after his wife's death in the year 1800. _, 
 
 UNIVERSlTy OP CHUFORIIIA 
 
 nCO\L>TMt?YT nff 
 
102 irAvi)N> 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SECOND VISIT TO LONDON. 
 
 1794, 1795. 
 
 In one of Haydn's last letters from London, lie reviews 
 his difiSculties and triamplis there, and thanks God. that 
 he has been enabled to overcome the determined oppo- 
 sition of his enemies, and to retain the favour of the 
 public. " But/' he adds, ^' I must acknowledge that I 
 am tired and worn out with my many labours, and that I 
 look forward with intense longing to my return home to 
 rest." With this feeling he prepared for his journey to 
 Vienna, planning to arrive there at the end of July. He 
 altered his intended route, and gave up a visit to Berlin, 
 where he had been warmly invited by King Frederick 
 William II., in order to meet Prince Anton Esterhazy at 
 Bonn. A meeting here of more interest to us was that 
 with Beethoven, who submitted a cantata to Haydn, which 
 the latter warmly praised, encouraging the young com- 
 poser to continue his studies, and probably then making* 
 arrangements for receiving and instructing him in Vienna, 
 whither the Elector was on the point of sending him. 
 All who know Beethoven's life know that these lessons, 
 which extended over the first year of his residence in 
 Vienna, were practically a failure, and that Haydn's 
 influence on Beethoven, though undoubtedly very great, 
 was the indirect one resulting from the attraction 
 always exerted upon genius by genius, to which Beet- 
 hoven was perhaps more susceptible than any other 
 composer. In truth, Haydn had grown a little above 
 giving lessons in counterpoint, even to a young Beet- 
 
SECOND VISIT TO LONDON. 103 
 
 lioven. His London fame liad preceded lilra to Vienna, 
 and he found himself the idol of society. His time was 
 occupied by engagements of many kinds, and it cannot 
 be denied that he neglected his pupil (he was paid, by the 
 way, ohoatdhd. an hour for the lessons), who had recourse 
 to Schenk, a well-known composer, for additional in- 
 struction. The division between Haydn and Beethoven 
 gradually widened. Haydn abandoned the intention he 
 had once formed of taking the young musician with 
 him to England, and Beethoven, with characteristic im- 
 patience and want of tact, refused to call himself Haydn's 
 pupil, and lost no opportunity of naking irritating re- 
 marks hurtful to the old man^s vanity. In after-years 
 these unworthy feelings disappeared, and Beethoven's 
 later sentiments are proved by his exclamation already 
 quoted (p. 41), on being shown a view of Haydn^s birth- 
 place. 
 
 There is little to be said of Haydn's life in Vienna for 
 the next eighteen months. He took up his abode in the 
 house, situated in the suburb of Gumpendorf, about 
 which his wife had written to him in London. It was 
 quiet and retired, with a little garden round it, and Hayda 
 liked it so w^ell that he bought it, planning the addition 
 of another storey when he should be away in London 
 again. During the summer of 1793 Haydn visited his 
 birthplace, gazed with tender emotion on the spot which 
 was hallowed by the memories of his parents' love, bent 
 down and kissed the threshold their feet had so often 
 crossed, and audibly expressed the gratitude due to them 
 for those lessons of industry and rectitude which had 
 never faded from his mind. The occasion of Haydu's visit 
 to Rohrau was the inauguration of a monument erected in 
 his honour by Count Harrach, in one of the most beautiful 
 glades of his park. It consisted of a square pillar sur- 
 mounting three stone steps, with an inscription on each 
 side, and supporting a bust of Haydn in marble. 
 
 In the winter of this year Haydn produced his six 
 London symphonies at the concerts of the Musicians' 
 Benevolent Society, and the reception accorded to them 
 was most enthusiastic. 
 
104 HAYDN. 
 
 Before allowing Haydn to leave London, Salomon liad 
 stipulated with him for the composition of six new sym- 
 phonies, and had made him promise, if possible, to con- 
 duct them in person. Accordingly before the year closed 
 Haydn applied to Prince Anton for a second leave of ab- 
 sence, a leave most reluctantly given, and postponed as 
 long as possible, so loug indeed, that with all the haste 
 he could make on his journey, Haydn arrived in London 
 the day after that which had been fixed for Salomon's 
 first concert. It was postponed, therefore, from the 3rd 
 to the 10th of February, and before it took place Haydn 
 had the pain of hearing that Prince Anton was no more. 
 He had died three days after Haydn's departure, and was 
 succeeded by his son Nicolaus, who inherited his grand- 
 father's love of music and pride in his celebrated Capell- 
 meister. Haydn was accompanied on his second visit 
 to London by his favourite servant and copyist, Johann 
 Elssler,^ and took lodgings this time at 1, Bury Street, 
 St. James's, probably in order to be near Mrs. Schroeter. 
 Salomon's rivals, the Professionals, were now no more, and 
 Haydn was left in undisputed possession of the field as 
 the first composer of the day. Their series of twelve 
 
 * We extract the following from Groves' " Dictionary of Music 
 and Musicians," vol. i. p. 712, note : " The name of El^sler is closely 
 associated with that of Haydn from 1766, the date of Joseph 
 Elssler's marriage at Eisenstadt, at which Haydn assisted. Joseph 
 was a native of Silesia, and music copyist to Prince Esterhazy. 
 His children were taken into the Capelle on Haydn's recommenda- 
 tion, and the second son, Johannes (born at Eisensthat, 1769) 
 lived the whole of his life with him, first as copyist and then as 
 general servant and factotum. He accompanied Haydn on his 
 jsecond journey to London, and tended him in his last years 
 with the greatest care. Despite the proverb that ' no man is a 
 hero to his valet,' Haydn was to Elssler a constant subject of 
 veneration, which he carried so far that when he thought him- 
 self unobserved he would stop with the censer before his master's 
 portrait as if it were the altar. Elssler 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. He survived 
 his master thirty-four years, and died at Vienna, June 12th, 1843, 
 in the enjoyment ot 6000 florins which Haydn bequeathed to him 
 as 'a true and honest servant.' " 
 
SECOND VISIT TO LONDON. 105 
 
 concerts took place on Monday evenings, and were sup- 
 ported by an array of musical talent^ which proves that 
 London contained then, as it does now, the most gene- 
 rously appreciative, if not the most finely discriminating 
 musical public in Europe. Besides the six new sym- 
 phonies by Haydn which had been stipulated for, his 
 former set were repeated, and some new quartets were also 
 produced. At a rehearsal of one of the concerts, young 
 Smart (afterwards Sir George Smart) was among the 
 violinists in the orchestra. The drum-player failing to 
 appear, Haydn called out from his seat at the piano, 
 *' Can any one here play the drum ? '^ ^^ I can," promptly 
 answered Smart, who had never handled a drumstick in 
 his life, and he took his place at the instrument, believing 
 that all that was wanted was to count the bars and hit 
 the drum at the right time, hard or soft. After the first 
 movement Haydn called him down, praised his good in- 
 tention, but sarcastically remarked that in Germany they 
 had a way of stopping the vibrations of the drum after 
 each note, which added to the good effect of it in the 
 orchestra. He then took the drumstick and showed how 
 it was done (remembering, perhaps, his own early ex- 
 periment on Cousin Fraiikh^s meal-tub). "All right ! " 
 remarked Smart, with unmoved self-possession ; '' if you 
 like it better, I have no doubt we can do it that way in 
 England, too.'' 
 
 An event of some interest in musical history was the 
 appearance of Haydn and W. Cramer at the same con- 
 cert, Cramer as leader of the orchestra, Haydn conduct- 
 ing from the pianoforte. During the summer of 1 794, 
 Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy, who was then travelling in 
 Italy, took occasion to inform Haydn that he intended to 
 reconstitute his Capelle, and to ask whether he wished 
 still to consider himself as its head. Haydn promptly 
 and gladly replied in the affirmative, and declared that 
 as soon as his engagements in London were fulfilled, he 
 should place his talent at the absolute disposal of the 
 prince, whose faithful servant he had never ceased to be. 
 
 On the 26th of August Haydn paid a visit to Waverley 
 Abbey, as the guest of Sir Charles Rich^ and appears to 
 
103 HAYDN. 
 
 have indulged in some gloomy reflections on the exist- 
 ence of the Protestant heresy, which had reduced to 
 ruins what had once been a stronghold of his own reli- 
 gion. In September he went to Bath with Dr. Burney, 
 on a visit to the celebrated singer, Rauzzini, who re- 
 sided there. We can well believe that the three days 
 spent in the then most fashionable watering-place in 
 England with two such congenial companions, were 
 among the pleasantest of Haydn's stay in England. We 
 fancy we can see the trio, differing so widely in nation- 
 ality and temperament, but united in sympathy for that 
 art whose language, as Haydn said, was common to all 
 the world, seated in an arbour in Rauzzini's garden, 
 where Haydn has just inspected the memorial tablet 
 erected by the singer over the grave of '' his best friend/' 
 " Turh was a faithful dog, and not a man," runs the 
 inscription, and Haydn pulls out paper and pencil, and 
 then and there turns the words into a four-part canon, 
 treasured no doubt ever after by Rauzzini as a fitting 
 tribute to the memory of his departed favourite. All 
 the musical talent in London fled to Bath as soon as the 
 season was over. Mara and Braham among vocalists, 
 GiornovicLj and Yaniewicz as violinists, Ashe the flautist, 
 Mrs. Miles the pianoforte-player, all renewed their 
 triumphs in the Pump-room at Bath, and there Haydn 
 was lionized to his heart's content. But the three 
 days were soon over, and at the beginning of October 
 he was in London again for the winter season. This 
 was an exceptionally brilliant one, and Salomon's new 
 undertaking, the opera concerts, given in the new con- 
 cert-room of the King's Theatre, was supported by an 
 array of talent such as London had never before seen 
 collected at one time. The first concert was given on 
 February 2nd, 1795, and they were continued every 
 Monday evening up to the month of May. The music 
 was chiefly operatic, but one or sometimes two of 
 Haydn's symphonies formed a regular item in the pro- 
 gramme, the " Surprise " being always a special favourite. 
 These and other concerts at which he directed {'* sass 
 urn Clavier," as he always expresses it in his diary). 
 
SECOND VISIT TO LONDON. 107 
 
 togetlier wifh visiting and short excursions from town^ 
 filled the remainder of Haydn^s last season in London. 
 His last benefit concert was given on May 4th, and 
 he expressed great satisfaction at its pecuniary re- 
 sult. '^ It is only in England/^ he says, " that one can 
 make 4000 gulden (about 400/.) in one evening." His 
 last appearance before an English audience was at the 
 second of two extra opera concerts, given by Salomon 
 on the 21st May and the 1st June. There can bono 
 doubt that the success of the concerts was mainly owing 
 to the popularity of Haydn^s name and compositions. 
 Salomon was able to continue them until 1799, when the 
 undertaking died a natural death, one of Haydn^s sym- 
 phonies being an invariable feature of the programme 
 until the very end. 
 
 During the latter part of his second visit to London, 
 Haydn received many marks of favour from the royal 
 family, and especially from the Prince and Princess of 
 Wales. To be well received at Carlton House, and to be 
 summoned to take part in the concerts given in the 
 music-room, which Horace Walpole describes as the 
 '^ jewel of all '^ the sumptuously appointed palace, was 
 then the ultima Thule of the desires of every musician in 
 England. The princess taste for music was genuine and 
 intelligent. He played the violoncello, and took his 
 place in the orchestra, where his brothers, the Dukes of 
 Gloucester and Cumberland, played the violin and viola. 
 The evening concerts at Carlton House were given with 
 a considerable degree of state, and the soloists were the 
 best of the day. They were always ready to obey the 
 princess summons, although the payment for their ser- 
 vices was often long delayed, sometimes forgotten alto- 
 gether. Haydn himself, after waiting many months, at 
 last sent in from Vienna a bill for 100 guineas for 
 twenty-six attendances at Carlton House, a moderate 
 enough demand, which, it must be added, was discharged 
 at once. Beethoven, at a later time, was less fortunate. 
 His "Battle of Vittoria," which he dedicated to the 
 Prince Begent, w^as never paid for, nor was the receipt 
 of it by the prince even acknowledged. At one of the 
 
1 08 HAYDN. 
 
 prince's musical parties, which took place shortly after 
 his marriage, the princess sang with Haydn and played a 
 pianoforte concerto ^' fairly well,^'' he says. The king 
 and queen also admitted Haydn to a share of the favour 
 which they had hitherto reserved exclusively for Handel. 
 He was frequently invited to Buckingham Palace, and 
 found some difficulty in refusing without offence the 
 pressing invitation of the queen to remain and settle in 
 England. But, indeed, the time of his final departure 
 was very near. Prince Esterhazy was impatiently 
 awaiting the conclusion of those engagements, which 
 had been the only excuse alleged by Haydn for post- 
 poning the resumption of his duties as Capellmeister, 
 and the master himself was beginning to feel the need of 
 the quiet regularity of his home life. His last work 
 for an English audience remains unfinished. It was a 
 cantata for English words, Medham's '' Invocation to 
 Neptune,^'' poor stuff, and not sufficiently inspiring to 
 carry the composer on to the end. The only two num- 
 bers finished, a bass solo and a four-part chorus, are in 
 the British Museum. Haydn received many presents 
 from private and public friends before leaving England. 
 These he valued exceedingly, and was fond of displaying 
 them to his visitors in Vienna, and telling the anecdotes 
 attached to each. One of the most original souvenirs 
 followed him to Vienna from William Gardiner, a 
 I^eicester manufacturer and great lover of music (author 
 of ^' Music and Friends, or Pleasant Recollections of a 
 Dilettante,'^ London, 1838), who sent Haydn, through 
 Salomon, a complimentary letter accompanied by six 
 pairs of stockings, into which were woven airs from 
 Haydn's compositions, " Gott erhalte,'' the " Surprise ■'' 
 Andante, &c. Another curious gift was that of a talking 
 parrot, which was sold for 1400 florins after its master's 
 death. Haydn left London on the 15th of August, 
 1795. Independently of the lasting fame as a composer 
 and the increased popularity with the English public 
 which were the result of his second visit, he had made 
 by his concerts, lessons, and symphonies (without count- 
 ing his other compositions) about 1200Z., a sum sufficient 
 
SECOND VISIT TO LONDON. 109 
 
 to place a man so moderate in his wants beyond the 
 reach of any anxiety as to the future. He travelled this 
 time by way of Hamburg, Berlin, and Dresden, and was 
 warmly received everywhere. On his arrival in Vienna 
 he took up his temporary residence in the Neumarkt 
 (now No, 2), probably because the alterations to his own 
 house were still unfinished. In January, 1797, however, 
 he removed to Gumpendorf, and there remained until his 
 death, visiting Eisenstadt only during the summer and 
 autumn. He never neglected his duties as Capellmeister, 
 although the more menial of them were doubtless now 
 performed by subordinates. The prince's birthday and 
 other family festivities were always duly honoured by a 
 specially composed mass or symphony, and the long list 
 of Haydn's compositions between 1796 and 1803 proves 
 that his right hand had lost none of its cunning. In- 
 deed, the great work by which he is perhaps chiefly 
 known to the world in general, was still to come. But 
 before proceeding to an account of the "Creation'' and the 
 "Seasons," we must say a word on one of the best known 
 of Haydn's songs, and his own favourite work. While 
 in England he had always greatly admired our National 
 Anthem, and regretted that his fellow-countrymen had 
 no such inspiring expression for their feelings of fidelity 
 to their sovereign. The war with France and the 
 loyalty it evoked, intensified his regret and quickened 
 his genius. Consultation with his friend Freiherr van 
 Swieten led to the latter's suggesting the idea to tho 
 Austrian Prime Minister, Count von Saurau, who com- 
 missioned the poet Hauschka to provide Haydn with 
 the words of a national anthem. 
 
 In January 1797, Haydn composed " Gott erhalte 
 Franz den Kaiser," known to us as the Emperor's Hymn. 
 The air is sublime and simple enough to be truly national, 
 and so it has become. The devotional spirit displayed in 
 Haydn's service, both to his emperor and to his own 
 prince, is here faithfully reflected and the air is, as our 
 readers know, in use in all our churches as a hymn tune. 
 Haydn afterwards introduced a set of beautiful variations 
 on it as the andante to the " Kaihierquartett " (No. 77;. 
 
110 HAYD2T. 
 
 He was very fond of playing it himself on tlie clavier 
 when alone in his room, and on one of the last days of his 
 life, when too weak to stand, he had hiraself carried across 
 the room to the instrument, and solemnly played the 
 hymn three times. It was his farewell to his art, his 
 last expression of devotion and faithful service. 
 
THE ^^CEEATiON." Ill 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 THE *' CREATION " — THE " SEASONS " — HAYDN's LAST YEAES 
 
 — CONCLUSION. 
 
 Handel composed the ^' Messiah '^ in twenty-four days. 
 The "Creation" occupied Haydn during eighteen months. 
 Yet it can hardly be said that the latter composer was less 
 rapid or spontaneous than the former. The truth is, 
 that what in Handel was the natural and most fitting 
 expression of his genius was in Haydn an effort sug- 
 gested and urged upon him by others, not a work coming 
 straight from his heart because it was '^ in him/' like his 
 quartets and symphonies. We do not hesitate to say that 
 if the ^* Creation '^ had been written at the beginning of 
 Haydn's career, instead of the end, had it been the work 
 of an unknown composer, instead of that of a veteran 
 whose fame was too firmly established to be shaken, it 
 would certainly not have had the enthusiastic reception 
 which was accorded it as the child of the old age of the 
 great Haydn. As it is, its popularity, though brilliant, 
 has been less solid and less lasting than that of his other 
 works, and few of those whose knowledge of Haydn is 
 confined to the fact that he was the author of the " Crea- 
 tion *' would care to sit out a performance of the oratorio, 
 which we seldom now see included in the repertory of 
 choral societies. Even among his contemporaries there 
 were not wanting good judges like Schiller, who called 
 the "Creation'' ^^a meaningless hotch-potch," or Bee- 
 thoven, who made merry over its imitation of beasts and 
 birds, but did the same in his " Pastoral" Symphony. 
 
 It would lead us too far, and be a transgression of the 
 rule we have followed throughout this sketch of discussing 
 
112 HAYDN. 
 
 Haydn^s works only so far as they had a bearing on 
 his life, if we were to enter upon the much-debated 
 question of programme music in general, and the extent 
 to which it is justifiable or admissible. We need only 
 say that those parts of the '^ Creation *' which we still 
 admire, and shall admire as long as music has the power 
 of rousing the emotions and elevating the spirit of man- 
 kind, are not those which faithfully imitate natural 
 sounds or strive to depict concrete ideas, but those which 
 serve only to suggest the dawn of light, the rejoicing of 
 the sun to run his course, the peaceful wandering of the 
 moon across the heavens, the stormy upheaval of the 
 ocean, or the first rush of the stream down the mountain- 
 side. 
 
 The idea of composing a great oratorio as the crown of 
 his life's work was first suggested to Haydn by Salomon, 
 who showed him a poem compiled for the purpose from 
 Genesis and '* Paradise Lost"*' by Lidley. Haydn took the 
 book back with him to Vienna, and when his ardent 
 admirer, the great musical connoisseur and friend of 
 Mozart, Freiherr van Swieten, echoed Salomon's sugges- 
 tion, showed it to him and asked him to translate and 
 adapt it for the purpose. This Van Swieten rapidly 
 undertook ; he translated the poem into German with 
 many alterations, and exerted himself to raise a guaran- 
 tee fund among the Viennese nobility, in order to pay 
 Haydn for the work. The ardour and religious spirit 
 with which Haydn entered upon his task have already 
 been alluded to (p. 41). *' Never was I so pious," he 
 says, "as when composing the ^Creation.' I knelt down 
 every day, and prayed to God to strengthen me for my 
 work." His anxiety and nervousness during the first 
 performance of the oratorio show how earnestly he had 
 set his heart on excelling in this branch of composition. 
 " 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." 
 
 The first performance of the " Creation " was given in 
 Prince Schwarzenberg's palace by his private orchestra. 
 The entire proceeds (350/.) were handed over to Haydn. 
 
LAST YEARS. 113 
 
 The success of tlie work was nndoubted, and the audleuce 
 was moved to genuine emotion. It was first publicly 
 performed in Vienna on the 19th of March, 1799. After 
 that it was given everywhere and became the rage, choral 
 societies being formed for the purpose of studying it, and 
 foreign capitals vying with Vienna in their homage to 
 the work and its composer. Salomon at first threatened 
 Haydn with an action for pirating his text, but self- 
 interest speedily overcame his resentment, and we next 
 find him writing for a copy of the score to be sent 
 to him with all possible speed, in order that he may pro- 
 duce the work in London. Ashley, however, at that time 
 conductor of the oratorios given in Co vent Garden Theatre, 
 was before him, and gave the first performance of the*^ Crea- 
 tion ^^ on the 2nd of March, 1800. Salomon followed on 
 the 21st of April in the King's Theatre concert-room, with 
 Mara and Dussek in the principal parts. From that 
 time until about five-and-twenty years ago, the '^Creation" 
 held its own with the '^ Messiah'^ and ^^Israel in Egypt " in 
 the favour of the English public. In Paris the work was 
 received with enthusiasm, a fact of which Haydn received 
 a flattering proof in August, ISOl, in the form of a gold 
 medal struck in his honour after the design of the 
 celebrated engraver Gateaux, bearing on the face a very 
 tolerable likeness of Haydn, and on the reverse a Ijre of 
 ancient form, surrounded by a crown of stars. The in- 
 scription ran : '^ Hommage a Haydn par les Musiciens qui 
 ont execute l\)ratorio de la Creation du Monde au Theatre 
 des Arts Van IX. dela Repuhlupie Francaise ou MDCCC." 
 The medal was accompanied by a long complimentary 
 address. Similar honours were showered upon Haydn 
 during his later years, and it was evident from 
 the pride he took in displaying to his visitors the medals 
 that had been struck, and the poems that had been 
 written in his honour, that they afforded him great gratifi- 
 cation. His was a harmless and innocent vanitv, showinor 
 itself neither in his works nor in his life, which was 
 almost idyllic in its simplicity and absence of egotistical 
 display. 
 
 Encouraged by the success of the ^' Creation, '^ Van 
 
 I 
 
114 HATDIS. 
 
 Swieten persuaded Haydn to a second effort in the same 
 direction, and this time furnished him with a text adapted 
 from Thomson's *' Seasons.'^ The task was against the 
 grain, however, and the work, although it retains much 
 of the freshness and vigour which we are accustomed to 
 associate with the very name of Haydn, bears evident 
 signs of mental effort and fatigue. The subject was not 
 congenial, and some of the words were so unsuited to 
 music that he and Yan Swieten very nearly came to a 
 quarrel over them. The Emperor Francis once asked 
 Haydn which of the two oratorios he himself preferred. 
 ''The ' Creation,' '^ answered Haydn. "And why?'* 
 ''Because in the ' Creation^ angels speak, and their talk 
 is of God. In the * Seasons ' no one higher speaks than 
 Farmer Simon." The oratorio, however, was enthusias- 
 tically received. Like the " Creation," it was first pro- 
 duced at the Schwarzenberg Palace ; but public perform- 
 ances soon followed, and its success added considerably 
 to Haydn's fame and to his fortune. The effort, however, 
 was too much for him. An illness followed which left 
 him an old man, pathetically conscious of his failing 
 powers, and unwillingly relinquishing the active and in- 
 dustrious habits of his long and useful life. For the 
 details of his last years we are mainly indebted to the 
 landscape painter Dies, who sought his acquaintance 
 through the sculptor Grassi for the express purpose of 
 collecting from the veteran musician's own mouth 
 materials for the biographical sketch which was published 
 immediately after his death. Dies paid Haydn frequent 
 visits in his little house at Gumpendorf, and encouraged 
 the old man to forget his weakness and pain in recount- 
 ing the triumphs and labours of his past life, and more 
 particularly of his two visits to London, on which he 
 always dwelt with peculiar pleasure. Our readers will 
 pardon us for extracting a page from Dies's little book 
 as the readiest and most interesting means of setting 
 before them the musician and his biographer. The book 
 is written in diary form, the entry which follows being 
 dated August 17th, 1806 :— 
 
 "The longr-continued heat of the weather had caused 
 
LAST YEARS. 115 
 
 tliis visit to be somewhat delayed. I found Haydn weaker 
 than I had expected. His once gleaming eye was dull 
 and heavy, his complexion sallow, and he complained of 
 headache, deafness, forgetfulness, and other pains. I hid 
 my concern with some difficulty, and sought for a cheer- 
 ful subject of conversation. Where better could I find it 
 for Haydn than in music ? I succeeded happily in dis- 
 persing the cloud from his brow, and in answer to my 
 question, ^How long is it since you touched the piano? ' 
 he seated himself at the instrument, began to improvise 
 slowly and with difficulty, made a mistake, looked back 
 at me, tried to repair his error, and in so doing made 
 another. ^ Ah ! ' he exclaimed after about a minute, ^ 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 ! ' Haydn then stood up, and we 
 walked slowly up and down the room. A heavy melan- 
 choly settled again on his brow, unrelieved by any passing 
 ray of cheerfulness. ^ My remaining days must all be 
 spent in this lonely fashion,' said he. * That should not 
 be ; you should always have a friend with you to cheer 
 and amuse you.* ' But even that tires me. 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.' " 
 
 On his next visit, some months later. Dies found Haydn 
 much stronger and more cheerful, and eagerly ready to 
 tell him how a kind letter from Prince Esterhazy, pro- 
 mising him, at the instigation of the princess, an increase 
 of salary, and giving him warm assurance of the prince's 
 undiminished esteem and affection, had done him more 
 good than all the doctors' stuff in the world. 
 
 Haydn composed very little after the " Seasons." 
 Among his last works are several vocal quartets on 
 which he set great store. They are chiefly of a devotional 
 character, showiug the direction in which his thoughts 
 were turning. From one of these, " Der Greis,^'' he took 
 the first two lines, " Hin ist alle meine Kraft, Alt und 
 schwa ch bin ich" and used them as a finale to an un- 
 
 I 2 
 
116 HAYDN. 
 
 finislied quartet; of wliIcTi tlie first two movements liad 
 been composed some years before. '* It is my last cliild," 
 said he, as lie handed the quartet over to Griesiuger's 
 future custody ; " but I think it is not unhke me." Haydn 
 afterwards had the same passage printed as a visiting- 
 card, in answer to the inquiries of friends. 
 
 Molto adagio. 
 
 -«. 
 
 tez§ -i i „ ^ 
 
 -.m=.^ 
 
 -^- 
 
 '' " Ilin ist al - le mei - ne Kraft, 
 
 
 --,-t-h' 
 
 :^: 
 
 fill Alt uud schwach bin ich. 
 
 Joseph HaydN. 
 
 In 1802 and 1803 he harmonized and arranged a num- 
 ber of Scotch songs for the publisher Whyte of Edinburgh, 
 a work in which he took great pleasure, as likely to pre- 
 serve his memory in Scotland. He also arranged some 
 Welsh and Irish airs. 
 
 As long as he was able to rise from his bed at all, Hajdn's 
 daily routine continued as regular and frugal as we have 
 seen it to have been throughout his life. He rose at half- 
 past six or seven, shaved and dressed for the day at once; 
 sometimes, before old age finally settled upon him, giving 
 a lesson to a favourite pupil while these operations were 
 proceeding. At eight he breakfasted, and the rest of the 
 day was spent, according to his state of health, either in 
 complete seclusion, or in receiving the visits of his friends, 
 in improvising at the pianoforte, and in more or less suc- 
 cessful attempts to apply himself to composition. He 
 dined at two, supped sparely at ten, and retired to rest 
 between eleven and twelve. 
 
 Once more, and for the last time, after several years of 
 seclusion, Haydn appeared in public, and the occasion 
 is a sufficiently memorable one to be narrated in some 
 detail. On the 27th of March, 1808, the Society of 
 Amateurs in Vienna gave as their last concert for the 
 
LAST YEARS. 117 
 
 season a performance of Haydn's " Creation," wi fcli Carpaiii's 
 Italian text. The composer received a pressing invita- 
 tion to be present, and his health being better than usnal 
 he felt himself able to undergo the fatigue, particularly 
 as Prince Esterhazy sent his carriage to conduct him to 
 and from the hall of the University, where the concert 
 was given. Haydn's entrance was announced by a bnvst 
 of trumpets and drums and by the loud cheers of the 
 audience. He was carried to an arm-chair placed in front 
 of the orchestra, next to the seat occupied by Princess 
 Esterhazy. Here he found himself surrounded by his 
 most distinguished artist friends and pupils, and by 
 nobles and ladies, who all received him with every 
 mark of honour and esteem. Salieri conducted what all 
 acknowledged to be an excellent performance. At the 
 burst of music which accompanies the words, ^^ And there 
 was light ! '^ the audience could no longer contain their 
 enthusiasm, and applauded long and vehemently. Haydn, 
 much overcome, pointed upwards and exclaimed, ^' It 
 came from thence ! '' His excitement became so great 
 that it was thought well to take him home at the con- 
 clusion of the first part. As he was carried out, his 
 friends flocked round to take leave of him, among them 
 Beethoven, who stooped to kiss his hands and forehead. 
 At the door he bade his bearers pause and turn towards 
 the orchestra. Then, lifting his hands as if in the act of 
 blessing, he took his last, long farewell of his beloved 
 '' children '^ and of his still more beloved art. 
 
 Haydn's peaceful life was destined to end in the midst 
 of war and war's alarms. Twice, in 1805 and 1809, he 
 saw Vienna occupied by the French invaders. The trial 
 w^as too much for his loyalty and for his personal devotion 
 to his emperor and his prince. " This miserable war has 
 cast me down to the very ground ! " he would often say 
 with tears, and no consolation that his friends could offer 
 him sufficed to soften the blow. In 1809 the city was bom- 
 barded, and a cannon-ball fell close to Haydn's dwelling. 
 His servants w^ere assisting him to rise and dress, and 
 seeing their alarm to be greater than his own, he collected 
 all his strength and exclaimed in a loud and firm voice, 
 
US HAYDN. 
 
 " Do not be afraid, children ! no liarm can happen to you 
 while Haydn is here/^ Ov^ercome by the efltort, he fell 
 into a violent fit of trembling, which left him weaker than 
 before^ and it soon became evident to those around him 
 that the master's days were numbered. The last visit 
 he received was on May 17th from a French officer, 
 who sang ^^ In Native Worth " to him with so much ex- 
 pression that Haydn was deeply moved, and embraced 
 him warmly at parting. The fact is significant, as prov- 
 ing once more that art has no enmities, and that music 
 speaks that language of the heart which, as Haydn him- 
 self said, ^^is common to all the world." On the 26th of 
 May he called his servants round him and was carried 
 from his bed to the pianoforte. He then solemnly played 
 the Emperor's Hymn three times over, and bade them lay 
 him down again. He scarcely spoke after, and in five 
 days, at about midnight on the 31st of May, 1809, quietly 
 breathed his last. He was buried in the Hundsthurm 
 Churchyard, close to the suburb where he lived, but as 
 soon as peace was restored and the French had left 
 Austria, his remains were removed by Prince Bsterhazy 
 and solemnly re-interred in the parish church of Eisen- 
 stadt. When the coffin was opened for identification before 
 removal, the skull was found to be missing ; it had been 
 stolen two days after the funeral. A skull was after- 
 wards sent to the prince anonymously as Haydn's, and 
 was buried with his other remains ; but it is a well- 
 known fact that the real one was retained, and is now 
 in the possession of the family of a physician in Vienna.^ 
 
 On the 15th of June, Mozart's Requiem was performed 
 in Haydn's honour at the Schottenkirche. Many French 
 officers were among the mourners, and the guard of 
 honour was chiefly composed of French soldiers. 
 
 Haydn had made arrangements in 1807 that upon his 
 death all his books, music, manuscripts, and medals 
 should become the property of the Esterhazys. Among 
 the most interesting of the relics were twenty-four canons, 
 the majority on German popular songs, which hung, 
 
 * Grove's " Dictionary of Music," vol. i. p. 716. 
 
LAST YEARS. 119 
 
 framed and glazed, in Haydn^s bedroom. *'' I was nofc 
 rich enough," he said, '^ to buy good pictures, so I have 
 provided myself with hangings of a kind that few possess." 
 His wife was once complaining of want of means, and 
 wound up by saying that if he were to die to-morrow 
 there was not enough money in the house to bury him. 
 " In case such a calamity should occur," answered Haydn, 
 *' take those canons to the music publisher ; I will answer 
 for it, they will bring enough to pay for a decent funeral." 
 
 Haydn's will makes thoughtful provision not only for 
 his poor relations, but also for his faithful and attached 
 ser\ ants, Anna Kremnitzer and Johann Elssler. It con- 
 tains bequests to various friends and patrons, and provides 
 for the maintenance of the two poorest orphans of his 
 birthplace, Robrau. 
 
 Our task will have been undertaken in vain if it is 
 necessary to conclude it with any remarks on Haydn's 
 mental and moral characteristics, or on the place to be 
 assigned to him in the history of music. Our object 
 throughout the preceding sketch has been to present 
 him to our readers as he appeared to his contemporaries 
 and as he was, and to indicate his position in relation to 
 his art from the larger and wider point of view which the 
 rapid progress of music duriug the last century enables 
 us to occupy. The greatest step of all, perhaps, in this 
 progress was that taken by Haydn him self j his name 
 and his labours omitted from any work professing to deal 
 with the history of music would leave a gulf not by any 
 means to be bridged over, and though one is tired of 
 repeating the hackneyed phrase which hails him as '' the 
 creator of instrumental music," there seems no other 
 which so fitly describes his life's work. Valuable as was 
 his influence on composers of his own and succeeding 
 times, how^ever, Haydn did something more than found a 
 school or develop a branch of his art. He brought music 
 home to the hearts and minds of the people. He opened, 
 not only to the musician and the connoisseur, but to all 
 who have ears to hear, and hearts to be touched, a springs 
 of the purest and most elevating pleasure. He left the 
 world the hnppier and the better for his work in it. What 
 
120 HAYDN. 
 
 can a man do more witli the genius tliat heaven has 
 bestowed on him ? Music before Haydn's day was in 
 danger of becoming inextricably entangled in the toils of 
 pedantry and formalism. He boldly declared by his works 
 that rules were made for the musician, not the musician 
 for rules, and he might have adopted as his own Con- 
 dillac's maxim : " Les regies sent comme des garde- 
 fous mis sur les ponts, non pas pour faire marcher les 
 voyageurs, mais pour les empecher de tombeiV^ 
 
LIST OF HAYDN'S COMPOSITIONS, 
 INSTEUMENTAL AND VOCAL. 
 
 I. 
 
 INSTRUMENTAL.! 
 
 125 Symphonies, including overtures to operas and plays. 
 
 Pri7icipal symplionies Jcnown hy titles, ivitJi the approximate 
 dates of publication. 
 
 Le Matin (D major), Le Midi (C major), Le Soir (G major), 
 1761. 
 
 The Farewell (A major), 1772 (letter B. in Philharmonic 
 Catalogue). 
 
 Maria Theresa (C major), 1773. 
 
 Feuer Symphonie (probably overture to Die Feuersbrunst, A 
 major), 177-i. 
 
 La Chasse (D major), 1780. 
 
 Toy Symphony (0 major), 1780. 
 
 La Reine de France (B major), 1786, for Paris. 
 
 The Oxford (G major), 1788 (letter Q. in Philharmonic Cata- 
 logue). 
 
 The Surprise, No. 3 of Salomon set (G major), London, 1791 , 
 
 The Clock, No. 11 of Salomon set (D minor), 1794. 
 
 The Military, No. 12 of Salomon set (G major), 1794. 
 
 " The Seven Words from the Cross " (originally for orchestra, 
 
 ^ The difficulties in the way of compiling a complete and authentic list 
 of Haydn's instrumental works are very great. Breitkopf's catalogue in- 
 cludes among the s^nnphonies many works also to be found among the 
 smaller compositions (Scherzi, Divertimenti, &c.), and others (owing to a 
 transposition of the movements) are catalogued twice over. Haydn him- 
 self, in compiling his thematic catalogue, fell into the same error, and 
 owned to considerable difficulty in deciding on the genuineness of some of 
 the earlier instrumental pieces. 
 
 K 
 
122 LIST OF haydn's compositions. 
 
 afterwards arranged for two violins, vicla, and bass, then for 
 soli, chorus, and orchestra). 
 
 66 various compositions for wind and strings, separately or com- 
 bined, including divertimenti, cassationi, &c. 
 
 7 K'otturnos for the lyre or serenades. 
 
 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. 
 
 175 Baryton pieces. Arrangements of several of these were pub- 
 lished in three parts, with violin (or flute), viola or cello as 
 principal. 
 
 1 Duet for two 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. 
 
 30 Trios — 20 for 2 violins and bass, 1 for violin solo, viola, and 
 bass, 2 for flute, violin, and bass, 3 for 3 flutes, 1 for corno di 
 caccia, violin, and cello. 
 
 77 Quartets for 2 violins, viola, and cello. The first 18 were pub- 
 lished in 3 series, the next is in MS., then one printed sepa- 
 rately, 6i in 9 series of 6 nos. each, 2 more, and the last. 
 
 CLAVIER MUSIC. 
 
 20 Concertos and divertimenti. One concerto is with principal 
 
 violin ; two 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. Eight are published, but 4 of 
 
 these are arrangements. 
 9 Smaller pieces (including variations, adagios, and " differentes 
 
 petites pieces "). 
 1 Duet (variations). 
 
INSTRUMENTAL AND VOCAL. 123 
 
 II. 
 
 VOCAL. 
 
 Church Music. 
 
 14 Masses. 
 
 1 Sta'oat Mater. 
 
 2 Te Deums. 
 
 13 Offertories and 4 motets. Ten of the thirteen are taken from 
 other compositions, with Latin text added. 
 
 1 Tantum ergo. 
 
 4 Salve Keginas and 1 Eegina Coeli. 
 
 2 Ave Eeginas ; Eesponsoria de Venerabili. 
 
 1 Cantilena pro Adventu (German words). 
 6 Sacred arias. 
 
 2 Dnets. 
 
 Oratorios and Cantatas. 
 
 " The Creation," " The Seasons," " 11 Kitorno di Tobia," " The 
 Seven Words," "Invocation of Neptune," "Applausus Musi- 
 ens " (1768), Cantata for the birthday of Prince Nicolaus 
 (1763), " Die Erwahlung eines Kapellmeisters " (a cantata). 
 
 Operas. 
 
 *' Der neue krumme Teufel," German opera or Singspiel. 
 
 5 Marionette Operas. 
 
 Italian Operas: — " La Canterina," 1769; " L'Incontro Improvviso," 
 1776; "Lo Speciale," 1768; " Le Pescatrici," 1780; "II 
 Mondo della Luna," 1777; "L'Isola Disabitata," 1779; 
 " Armida," 1782 ; " L'lnfedelta Delusa," 1773 ; " La Fedelta 
 Premiata," 1780; "La Vera Costanza," 1786; " Acide e 
 Galatea," 1762 ; " Orlando Paladino," 1782 ; " Orfeo," Lom- 
 don, 1794. 
 
 Music for "Alfred," a tragedy, and various other plays. 
 
 22 Airs, mostly inserted in operas. 
 
 " Ariana a Naxos," cantata for single voice and pianoforte, 1790. 
 
 " Deutschlands Klage auf den Tod Friedrichs des Grossen," can- 
 tata for single voice with baryton accompanimeiit, 1787. 
 
 8onf/s:—12 German Lieder, 1782; 12 ditto, 1784; 1^ single ones ; 
 '6 original canzonets (London, 1796) ; 6 ditto; "The Spirit 
 Song," Shakespeare (F minor) ; " Tuneful Voice " (E tiat), 
 composed for an English lady of position ; 3 English songs in 
 MS. ; 2 duets ; 3 o-p'art and 10 4-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 ; 
 
124 LIST OF HAYDN S COMPOSITIONS. 
 
 2 ditto ; " The Ten Commandments," set to canons ; the same 
 with different words under the title " Die zehn Gesetze der 
 Kunst ;" a selection of original Scotch songs in 3 parts, with 
 violin and bass accompaniments and symphonies, London, 
 (Vol. I. contains 100, Vol. II. 100, Vol._ III. 47 —Haydn's own 
 catalogue mentions 364, some of which were published by 
 Thomson and Whyte, of Edinburgh) j a select collection of 
 original Welsh airs in 3 parts. 
 
 
 k 
 
 GILBERT AND HIVINGTON, LIMITED, ST JOHN'S SQUABE, LONDON. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 Music Library 
 
 University of California at 
 Berkeley