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3o^/.7^.S^
M
MUSIC LIBRARY
HARVARD
COLLEGE
LIBRARY
LAMONT LIBRARY
TRANSFERRED
. — T
H
J
|-(aydn.
BIOGRAPHIES OF MUSICIANS
Life of Haydn
BT
LOUIS NOHL.
TBAN8LATBD FBOM THE QBBMAIT
BT
GEORGE P. UPTON.
' Eeaxt amd SotU rn^t be freeJ*
CHICAGO
A- C. McCLURG & COMPANY
1893
Uui ^t-'il.-ij.^'
l^M
Biographies of Musicians.
JAKSEH, UcCLtJBQ. & CO.. PublishibIi.
nfTRODUOTION.
Thb abridged Life of Haydn, by Dr. Nohl, pre-
pared originally as a contribution to a series of
biographies, which is issued in popular form in
Germany, is so simple in its narrative, that it would
hardly need an introduction, were its subject-mat-
ter confined to the record of Haydn's life, with its
many musical triumphs, or to the portraiture of
this genial, child-like and lovable master. The
trials and troubles of his youth, their intensification
in his married life, his marvelous musical progress,
his seclusion at Eisenstadt, his visits to London
and his introduction to its gay world in his old age,
followed by such wonderful musical triumphs, make
a story of extraordinary personal interest, which
the author has heightened with numerous anecdotes,
illustrating his rare sweetness and geniality. There
are many discursions, however, in the work, in
which Dr. Nohl analyzes the component parts of
Haydn's musical creations, and traces the effect of
his predecessors as well as of his co temporaries upon
his developnaent as an artist. To understand these,
it must be remembered that the author deals with
music from a philosophical standpoint, choosing
(3)
INTKODUCTION.
Schopenhauer for his authority, the philosopher
whom Wagner admires so much, and who makes
the Will the basis of all phenomena. Applied in a
musical sense therefore, music is not a matter of
sweet sounds, whether melody or harmony, nor is
its principal office the creation of pleasure by these
sounds, but it is the chief agent of the Will in giving
expression to its impulses. What this theory is, has
been stated by Richard Wagner himself in his ** Es-
say on Beethoven," in the following words: " The
mere element of music, as an idea of the world, is
not beheld by us, but felt instead, in the depths of
consciousness, and we understand that idea to be
an immediate revelation of the unity of the Will,
which, proceeding from the unity of human nature,
incontrovertibly exhibits itself to our consciousness,
as unity with universal nature also, which indeed
we likewise perceive through sound." The defini-
tion will afford a clue to some of the author's state-
ments, and may help to make clearer some of his
musical analyses. The rest of the work may safely
be left to the reader. It is the record of the life
not only of a great musician, but of a lovable man,
who is known to this day among his own people,
though almost a century has elapsed since his
death, by the endearing appellation of " Papa."
G. R U.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
ms YOUTH AND EAKLY STUDDB.
Haydn*! Birth and Family— Hii Early Talent— Fint Stadies with
Frankh— Chapel-boy at St. Stephens'— Ruetter*! In8tniotion»— Early
Compositions— His Mischieyons Tricks and Dismissal— Anecdote of
Maria Theresa— Acquaintance with Metastasio— Influence of Philip
Bmanuel Bach— The Origin of his First Opera, ** The Devil on Two
Sticks." ••.:..•••••. 7-89
CHAPTER 11.
AT PRINCE ESTERHAZY*8.
Haydn's Studies with Porpora— His Italian Operas— Engagement with
Count Von Morzin— His First String Quartet— An Unfortunate Mar-
riage—Domestic Troubles without End— Appointment as Capell-
meister at Esterhas— His Orchestra and Chorus— Rapid Musical Prog-
ress—His Most Important Earlier Compositions— Deyelopment of the
Quartet— Personal Characteristics and Anecdotes— The Sorpilse Sym-
phony—Influence of his Life at Esterhaz upon his Music . 40-9
(5)
INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER IIL
THE FIRST LONDON JOURNEY.
4 Winter Adyenture— The Relations of Mozart and Haydn— Mozarfi
Dedication— The Emperor Joseph's Opinions— Letteis to Frau Von
Qenzinger— A Catalogue of Complaints— His Engagement with Salo-
mon—The London Journey— Scenes on the Way— A Brilliant Recep-
tion-Rivalry of the Professional Concerts— The Hftndel Festival-
Honors at Oxford— Pleyel's Arrival— Royal Honors— His Benefit Con-
cert— Return to Vienna. 90-186
CHAPTER IV.
THE EMPEROR'S HYMN— THE CREATION AND THE SEASONS.
CriticismsatHome— His Relations to Beethoven— Jealousy of theOreat
Mogul— His Second London Journey— The MUitary Symphony— His
Longings for Home— Great Popularity in England— Reception by the
Royal Family— His Gifts— Return to Vienna— Origin of the Emper-
or's Hymn— The Creation and the Seasons— Personal Characteristic
—His Death— Haydn's Place in Music. . . . • . 186-196
THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
CHAPTEE I.
1782—1763.
HIS YOUTH AND EAELY STUDIES.
Haydn^s Birth and Family— His Early Talent— First Stadies
with Frankh — Chapel-boy at St. Stephen's — Reutter's In-
fitmctions — Early Compositions — ^His Mischievous Tricks and
Dismissal — ^Anecdote of Maria Theresa— Acquaintance with
Metastasio — Influence of Philip Emanuel Bach— The Ori-
gin of his First Opera, "The Devil on Two Sticks.'*
"See, my dear Hummel, the house in which
Haydn was born; to think that so great a man
should have first seen the light in a peasant's
wretched cottage.^' Such were the words of
Beethoven, upon his death-bed in 1827, as he
spoke of the father of the symphony and quar-
tet, both of which he himself brought to their
highest perfection.
Joseph Haydn was born March 31, 1732, at
the market-town of Rohrau, near Brack, on
the river Leitha, which at that point separates
(7)
8 THE J.IFE OF HAYDN.
Lower Austria from Hungary. The little
place belonged to the Counts Harrach, who
erected a memorial to his honor in their park
upon his return from his London triumphs in
1796.
Haydn's father was a wheelwright, and the
craft had long been followed by the family.
He had traveled as a master-workman, and in
his wanderings had been, it is said, as far as
Frankfort-on-Main. His marriage was blessed
with twelve children, six of whom died very
young. They were brought up religiously in
the Catholic faith, and as they were poor, they
were also accustomed to economy and industry.
In his old age, Haydn said : " My parents
were so strict in their lessons of neatness and or-
der, even in my earliest youth, that at last these
habits became a second nature.^^ His moth-
er watched over him most tenderly, but his
father alone lived to enjoy the recompense of
such care, when his son was installed as Capell-
meister. The manner in which he remember-
ed his mother's grave many years later in his
will reveals the strength of her influence.
His father, who was " by nature a great lover
of music/' had a fair tenor voice, and during
HIS EARLY TALENT.
his travels accompanied himself on the harp
without knowing a note. After the day's toil,
the family sang together, and even when an
old man, Haydn recalled with much emotion
these musical pleasures of his boyhood. The
little "Sepperl/' as he was called, astonished
them all with the correctness of his ear and
the sweetness of his voice, and always sang
his short simple pieces to his father in a cor-
rect manner. More than this, he closely imi-
tated the handling of a violin-bow with a lit-
tle stick, and upon one such occasion a relative,
from the neighborhood, observed the remark-
able feeling for strict tone and time, in the five-
year-old boy. This relative, who was the
schoolmaster and choir-leader in the neigh-
boring town of Hainburg, took the lad, who
was intended for the priesthood, to that place,
that he might study the art which it was
thought would undoubtedly open a way to the
accomplishment of this purpose. After this,
Haydn only returned home as a visitor, but
that he remembered it and his poor relatives
all his Ufe with esteem and affection, is evi-
denced by this remark in his old age: "I live
not so much for myself as for my poor rela-
10 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
tives to whom I would leave something after
my death." His " Biographical Notices " say
he was so little ashamed of his humble origin
that he often spoke of it himself. In his will,
he remembers the parish priest and school-
teacher as well as the poor children of his hum-
ble birth-place. 'In 1795, when he revisited
it, upon the occasion of the dedication of the
Harrach memorial, before alluded to, he knelt
down in the familiar old sitting-room, kissed
its threshold, and pointed out the settle where
he had once displayed in sport that childish
musical skill which was the indication of liis
subsequent grand artistic career. " The young
may learn from my example that something
may come out of nothing; what I am is en-
tirely the result of the most pressing necessi-
ty," he once said, as he recalled his humble
antecedents.
In Hainburg, Haydn learned the musical
rudiments and studied other branches neces-
sary to youth, with his cousin Matthias Frankh.
In an autobiographical sketch, about the year
1776, which may be found in the ** Musiker-
brief e^'* (Leipsic, 1873, second edition), he
says : " Almighty God, to whom I give thanks
A PERSONAL TRAIT. 11
for all His uanunabered mercies, bestowed upon
me such musical facility that even in my sixth
year I sang with confidence several masses in
the church choir, and could play a little on the
piano and violin." Besides this, he learned
there the nature of all the ordinary instruments,
and could play upon most of them. "I thank
this man, even in his grave, for making me
work so hard, though I used to get more blows
than food," runs one of his later humorous con-
fessions. Unfortunately, the latter complaint
corresponded to the rest of his treatment in
his cousin's house. "I could not help observ-
ing, much to my distress, that I was getting
very dirty, and though I was quite vain of my
person, I could not always prevent the spots
upon my clothes from showing, of which I
was greatly ashamed — in fact, I was a little
urchin," he says at another time. Even at
that time he wore a wig, " for the sake of clean-
liness," without which it is almost impossible
to imagine "Papa Haydn."
Of the style of musical instruction in Hain-
burg, we have at least one example. It was
in Passion week, a time of numerous proces-
sions, Frankh was in great trouble^ owing to
12 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
the death of his kettle-drummer, but espying
little " Sepperl," he bethought himself that
he could quickly learn. He showed him how
to play and then left him. The lad took a
basket, such as the peasants use for holding
flour in their baking, covered it over with a
cloth, placed it upon a finely upholstered chair,
and drummed away with so much spirit that
he did not observe the flour had sifted out and
ruined the chair. He was reprimanded, as
usual, but his teacher's wrath was apjieased
when he noticed how quickly Joseph had be-
come a skillful drummer. As he was at that
time very short in stature, he could not reach
up to the man who had been accustomed to
carry the drum, which necessitated the employ-
ment of a smaller man, and, aa unfortunately
he was a hunchback, it excited much laughter
in the procession. But Haydn in this manner
gained a thoroughly practical knowledge of the
instrument and, as is well known, the drum-
parts in his symphonies are of special impor-
tance. He was the first to give to this instru-
ment a thorough individuality and a separate
artistic purpose in instrumental music. He
was very proud of his skill, and, as we shall see
INTERVIEW WITH REUTTEB. 18
farther on, his ideas were of great assistance to
a kettle-drummer in London,
This first practical result convinced his teach*
er that Haydn was destined for a musical ca-
reer. His systematic industry was universal-
ly praised, and his agreeable voice was his best
personal recommendation. The result was,
that after two years of study he went to Vien-
na, under happy, we may even say the happi-
est, of auspices.
The Hainburg pastor was a warm friend of
Hofcapellmeister Reutter. It happened that
the latter, journeying from Vienna on busi-
ness, passed through Hainburg and made the
pastor a short visit. During his stay he men-
tioned the purpose of his journey, namely, the
engagement of boys with sufficient talent as
well as good voices for choir service. The pas-
tor at once thought of Joseph. Beutter desired
to see this clever lad. He made his appearance.
Reutter said to him : " Can you trill, my little
man?" Joseph, thinking perhaps that he
ought not to know more than people above him,
replied to the question : '* My teacher even
can not do that.'' " Look here," said Reutter,
"I will trill for you. Pay attention and see
14 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
how I do it." He had scarcely finished, when
Haydn stood before him with the utmost con-
fidence and after two attempts trilled so per-
fectly that Reutter in astonishment cried out,
" bravo," drew out of his pocket a seventeen-
kreuzer piece, and presented it to the little
virtuoso. This incident is related by Dies, the
painter, who was intimate with Haydn from
1805 until his death, and who published in
1810 the very interesting " Biographical No-
tices" of him.
The little fellow meanwhile devoted himself
to vocal practice until his eighth year, when he
was to enter the chapel, for the Hofcapellmeis-
ter had made this stipulation when he prom-
ised the father to advance his son. As he
could find no teacher who was versed in the
rules, he studied by himself, and following the
natural method, learned to sing the scales and
made such rapid progress that when he went
to Vienna, Reutter was astonished at his facilitv.
The chapel was that of St. Stephen. In
addition to frequent religious services, the boys
were also obliged to work at various kinds of
outside labor, so that their musical improve-
ment was considerably hindered. In spite of
STUDIES AT ST. STEPHEN'S. 15
this, Haydn says that besides his vocal prac-
tice, he studied the piano and violin with very
good masters, and received much praise for his
singing, both at church and court. The gen-
eral course of studies included only the scant-
iest instruction in religion, writing, ciphering
and Latin ; and art, the most important of all
to him, was so much worse off that at last he
became his own teacher again. Reutter troub-
led himself very little about his chapel-schol-
ars, and was a very imperious master besides;
" and yet," said Haydn afterward, '^ I was not
a complete master of any instrument, but I knew
the quality and action of all. I was no mean
pianist and singer, and could play violin con-
certos." Singing chiefly occupied his time
and strength, for he contended that a German
instrumental composer must first master vocal
study in order to write melodies. He consid-
ered this all his life as of the greatest impor-
tance and often complained because so few com-
posers understood it. Among all the results of
his youthful artistic training, secured in his
ten years' chapel service in Vienna, these two
were the most important. He continually
heard a capelhy that is, pure choral music
,^
V
ff
16 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
with its coatrapuatal texture, and also learn-
ed all forms of solo singing and instrumental
music, and so thoroughly also that he was at
home in all of them. And yet, " honest Reut-
ter^' had only given him two lessons in mu-
sical theory!
Dies relates other characteristic anecdotes
of his youthful time. Notwithstanding his
advancement had been neglected, Joseph wag
contented with his position, and for this rea-
son only, that Reutter was so delighted with
his talent that he told his father if he had
twelve sons he would take care of all of them.
Two of his brothers indeed came to the chap-
el, one of them Michael Haydn, afterward
Capellmeister at Salzburg, with whom Mo-
zart's biography has made us acquainted,
and Joseph had the "infinite pleasure" of
being compelled to instruct them. Even
under such circumstances, he busily occu-
pied himself with composition. Every piece
of paper that came into his hands he covered
with staves, though with much trouble, and
stuck them full of notes, for he imagined it was
all right if he only had his paper ftill. At one
time Reutter surprised him just at the moment
J
AN AMBITIOUS SALVE BEGIN A. 17
wiien he had stretched out before him a paper
more than a yard long, with a Salve Regina
for twelve voices, sketched upon it. "Ha!
what are you doing, ray little fellow ?" said he.
But when he saw the long paper he laughed
heartily at the plentiful rows of 8alveSj and
still more at the ridiculous idea of a boy writ-
ing for twelve voices, and exclaimed : "0,you
silly youngsterl are not two voices sufficient for
you?" These curt rebuflfe were profitable to
Haydn. Reutter advised him to write varia-
tions to his own liking upon the pieces he
heard in church, and this practice gave him
fresh and original ideas which Reutter correct-
ed. " I certainly had talent, and by dint of
hard work I managed to get on. When my
comrades were at their sports, I went to my
own room, where there was no danger of dis-
turbance, and practiced," says Haydn.
Dies, speaking further of this time in Hay-
dn's youth, says: "I must guess at many
details, for Haydn always spoke of his teacher
with a reserve and respect which did honor to
his heart" — ^feelings all the more to his credit
when we consider the following statements,
from the same authority: " What was very
2
18 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
embarrassing to him and at his age must have
been painful, was the fact that it looked as if
they were trying to starve him, soul and body.
Joseph's stomach observed a perpetual fast.
He went to the occasional * academies,' where
refreshments were provided as compensation
for the choir-boys, and once having made this
valuable discovery, his propensity to attend
was irresistible. He tried to sing as beauti-
fully as he could that he might acquire a rep-
utation and thus secure invitations which
would give him the opportunity of appeasing
his gnawing hunger." At such times, when
not observed, he would fill his pockets with
" nadeln " or other delicacies. Keutter him-
self had very little income from which to pay
his choir-boys, so they had to famish.
Notwithstanding he sensitively felt the
misery of his condition, Haydn's youthful
buoyancy did not desert him. Dies says : " At
the time the court was building the Summer
Palace at Schonbrunn, Haydn had to sing there
with the church musicians in the Whitsuntide
holidays. When not engaged in the church
he joined the other boys, climbing the scaffold-
ing and made considerable noise on the boards.
MARIA THERESA AND HAYDN. 19
One day the boys suddenly perceived a lady;
it was Maria Theresa herself, who at once or-
dered some one to drive away the noisy young-
sters, and threaten them with a whipping if
they were caught there again. On the very
next day, urged on by his temerity, Haydn
climbed the scaffolding alone, was caught and
received the promised punishment which he
deserved. Many years afterward, when
Haydn was engaged in Prince Esterhazy's
service, the Empress came to Esterhaz. Hay-
dn presented himself and offered his humble
thanks for the punishment received on that
occasion. He had to relate the whole story,
which occasioned much merriment."
At that time we behold our hero in an ex-
alted and dignified position, but how thorny
was the upward course !
" The beautiful voice with which he had so
often satisfied his hunger, suddenly became
untrue and commenced to break," says Dies.
The Empress was accustomed to attend the
festival of St. Leopold at the neighboring
monastery of Klosternenburg. She had al-
ready intimated to Reutter, in sport, that
Haydn " could not sing any more, he crowed."
20 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
At this festival, therefore, he selected the
younger brother, Michael, for the singing.
He pleased the Empress so much that she sent
him twenty-four ducats. As Haydn was no
longer of any service to Reutter in a pecuniary
way, and particularly as his place was now
filled, he decided to dismiss his superfluous
boarder, Haydn's boyish folly accelerated
his departure. One of the other choir-boys
wore his hair in a queue, contrary to the style,
and Havdn had cut it off. Keutter decided
that he should be feruled. The time of pun-
ishment came. Haydn, now eighteen years of
age, sought in every way to escape, and at last
declared that he would not be a choir-boy any
longer if he were punished : " That will not
help you. You shall first be punished and
then march."
Reutter kept his word, but he counseled
his dismissed singer to become a soprano, as
they were very well paid at that time. Haydn,
with genuine manliness, would not consent to
the tempting proposal, and late in the autumn
of 1749 he started out in the great world in
which he was such a stranger, " helpless, with-
out money, with three poor shirts and a thread-
A MUSICIAL TENDENCY. 21
bare coat." After wandering about the
streets, distressed with hunger, he threw him-
self down on the nearest bench and spent his
first night in the damp November air, under
the open heavens. He was lucky enough to
meet an acquaintance, also a choir-singer, and
an instructor as well. Though he and his
wife and child occupied one small chamber,
he gave the helpless wanderer shelter — a trait
of that Austrian humanity which, at a later
period, was reflected in the exquisite tones of
Haydn's art. " His parents were very much
distressed," says Dies again ; " his poor moth-
er, especially, expressed her solicitude with
tearful eyes. She begged her son to yield to
the wishes and prayers of his parents and de-
vote himself to the church. She gave him no
rest, but Haydn was immovable. He would
give them no reasons. He thought he ex-
pressed himself clearly enough when he com-
pressed his feelings into the few words : * I
can never be a priest.' " In his seventy -sixth
year, he said to the choir-boys who were pre-
sented to him : " Be really honest and indus-
trious and never forget God." It is evident,
therefore, that it was not the lack of sincere
22 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
piety that kept him from the priesthood. He
felt that he was called to another and more
fitting sphere, and we now know that his feel-
ings and impulses did not deceive him.
Necessity, however, came near forcing him
into the life he had so resolutely refused, for
he got little money from the serenades and
choir-work in which he took part, though at
other times it left him the wished-for leisure
for study and composition. The quiet loneli-
ness in that little dark garret under the tiles,
the complete lack of those things which can
entertain an unoccupied mind, and the utter
piteousness of his condition, at times led him
into such unhappy reveries that he was driven
to his music to chase awaty his troubles. " At
one time," says Dies, " his thoughts were so
gloomy, or more likely his hunger was so
keen, that he resolved, in spite of his preju-
dices, to join the Servite Order so that he
could get sufficient to eat. This, however,
was only a fleeting impulse, for his nature
would never allow him to really take such a
step. His disposition happily inclined to joy-
ousness and saved him from any serious out-
breaks of melancholy. When the summer
A CLOISTER INCIDENT, 23
rain or the winter snow, leaking through the
cracks of the roof, awoke him, he regarded such
little accidents as natural, and made sport of
them."
For some time he was not positively sure
what course to pursue, and he projected a
thousand plans, which were abandoned almost
as soon as they were formed. For the most
part hunger was the motive that urged him
on to rash resolves, for instance, a pilgrimage
to the Maria cloister in Styria. There he
went at once to the choir-master, announced
himself ag a chapel-scholar, produced some of
his musical sketches, and offered his services.
The choir-master did not believe his story and
dismissed him, as he became more importunate,
saying: "There are too many ragamuffins
coming here from Vienna, claiming to be
chapel-boys, who can't sing a note." Another
day, Haydn went to the choir, made the ac-
quaintance of one of the singers and begged of
him his music-book. The young man excused
himself on the ground that it was against the
rules. Haydn pressed a piece of money into
his hand and stood by him until the music
commenced. Suddenly he seized the book
24 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
out of his hands and sang so beautifully
that the chorus-master was amazed, and after-
ward apologized to him. The priests also in-
quired about him and invited him to their
table. Haydn remained there eight days, and,
as he said, filled his stomach for a long time
to come, and afterward was presented with a
little purse made up for him.
Among the bequests in Haydn's will of
1802 is the following: " To the maiden, Anna
Buchholz, one hundred florins, because her
grandfather in my youth and at a time of
urgent necessity lent me one hundred and
fifty florins, without interest, which I repaid
fifty years ago/' This, for him a considerable
loan, enabled him for the first time to have a
room of his own where he could work quietly.
This was not far from the year 1760. Dies re-
lates, in the year 1805: " Chance placed in
Haydn's hands, a short time before, one of his
youthful compositions which he had utterly
forgotten — a, short four-voiced mass with two
obligato soprano parts. The discovery of
this lost child, after fifty-two years of absence,
was the occasion of true joy to the parent.
* What particularly pleases me in this little
ACQUAINTANCE WITH METASTASIO. 25
work,' said he, 'is its melody and positive
youthful spirit,' and he decided to give it a
modern dress." The mass was by this means
preserved and may be regarded as his first
large work. We are thus enabled to date it
at the beginning of the year 1750.
At that time Haydn lived in the Miehaeler
house (which is still preserved), in the Kohl-
market, one of the choicest sections pf the city,
but was again under the roof and exposed to
the inclemency of the weather. At one time
the room had no stove, and winter mornings he
had to bring water from the well, as that in
his wash-basin was frozen. There were some
distinguished occupants in the house; the
princess Esterhazy, whose son, Paul Anton,
became Haydn's first patron, and the famous
and talented poet Metastasio, who not long
after confided to him his little friend Marianna
Martines as a piano scholar, and paid his board
as compensation. The child must have been
well grounded in music, for thirty years later
Mozart frequently played four-handed pieces
with her. Her instruction, after the style of
the time, obliged Haydn to write little com-
positions. These early pieces circulated freely
26 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
but they have all been lost. He considered it
a compliment for people to accept them, and
did not know that the music-dealers were doing
a flourishing business with them. Many a
time he stopped with delight before the win-
dows to gaze at oneoranother of the published
copies. That this work, however, was very
distasteful to him is evident from his own
words : " After my voice was absolutely gone,
I dragged myself through eight miserable
years, teaching the young. It is this wretched
struggle for bread which crushes so many men
of genius, taking the time they should devote
to study. It was my own bitter experience
and I should have accotnplished little or noth-
ing if I had not zealously worked at night
upon my compositions." Urgent as his ne-
cessity was, he declined to take a permanent
and good paying position in a Vienna band,
and thereby sell his entire time. " Freedom !
what more can one ask for? " said Beethoven.
Haydn insisted upon having it at least for his
genius. Many times in his life he gave expres-
sion to this feeling. In his old age he said to
Griesinger : " When I sat at my old worm-
eaten piano, I envied no king his happiness."
HIS MISCHIEVOUS CHARACTER. 27
We shall see that he had more of real inward
happiness as a composer, than as a pianist.
With such a disposition he easily retained
his good humor and equanimity, and many of
his youthful traits clearly reflect the Haydn of
the genial minuets and humorous finales. For
the entertainment of his comrades, who were
never lacking, he once tied a chestnut roaster's
hand-cart to the wheels of a fiacre, and then
called to the driver of the latter to go on, while
he quietly made off, followed by the curses of
the two victims. At another time he conceiv-
ed the idea of inviting several musicians at a
specified hour to a pretended serenade. The
rendezvous was in the Tiefengraben, where
Beethoven lived for a few years after his arriv-
al in Vienna. They were instructed to dis-
tribute themselves before different houses and
at the street-corners. Even in the High Bridge
street, where Mozart lived at a later period,
stood a kettle-drummer. Very few of the mu-
sicians knew why they were there, and each had
permission to play what he pleased. Dies con-
cludes his description of this roguish trick as
follows: " Scarcely had the horrible concert
begun when the astonished occupants threw
28 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
«
open their windows and commenced to curse
the infernal music. In the meantime the
watchmen approached. The players scamper-
ed off at the right time, except the drummer
and one violinist, who were arrested. As they
would not name the ringleader, they were dis-
charged after a few days' imprisonment."
It was at this time of his early struggles that
he went out one day to purchase some piano
work suitable for study, and acting upon the
advice of the music-dealer took a volume of the
sonatas of Philip Emanuel Bach, the compos-
er, who first placed piano music upon an inde-
pendent and so to speak, poetical foundation.
" It appears to me," says this gifted son of the
great Bach, in an autobiographical sketch," that
it is the special province of music to move the
heart." To such an one the genial and imag-
inative nature of our genuine Austrian musi-
cian did involuntary homage from the very first.
" I never left my piano until I had played the
sonatas through," said Haydn, when old, with
all the enthusiasm of youth, "and he who
knows me thoroughly can not but find that I
owe very much to Bach, for I understood
and studied him profoundly. Indeed, upon
INFLUENCE OF BACH. 29
one occasion he complimented me upon it."
Bach once said that he was the only one who
completely understood him and could make
good use of his knowledge. Rochlitz informs
us that Haydn said: " I played these sonatas
innumerable times, especially when I felt troub-
led, and I always left the instrument refreshed
and in cheerful spirits." A sketch of this
same Bach, dated 1764, says: "Always rich
in invention, attractive and spirited in melody,
bold and stately in harmony, we know him al-
ready by a hundred master-pieces, but not as
yet do we fully know him."
In reality, instrumental music was now for
the first time entering with self-confidence and
strength upon the freer path of the opera. The
end of that path, though far distant, was indi-
vidual characterization. Bach himself once
wrote a preface to a trio for strings. He says
in it that he has sought to express some-
thing which otherwise would require voices
and words. It may be regarded as a conver-
sation between a sanguine and a melancholy
person who dispute with one another through
the first and second movements, until the mel-
ancholy man accepts the assertion of the other.
30 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
At last, they are reconciled in the finale. The
melancholy man commences the movement
with a certain feeble cheerfulness, mixed with
sadness, which at last threatens tobecome act-
ual grief, but after a pause, is dissipated in a
figure of lively triplets. The sanguine man
follows steadily along, " out of courtesy," and
they strengthen their agreement, while the one
imitates the other even to his identity. From
such germs, in which the intellectual idea is more
than its artistic expression, Haydn evolved that
which made him the founder of modern instru-
mental music, the extreme limit of which is the
representation of the world's vital will.
Melody, in other words, the vital will illu-
minated by reason, also begins at this point to
assert its sure mastery, as the song and the
dance were then the essential type of this mod-
ern instrumental music. Key, accent, rhythm,
even the rests, now became the conscious
means of fixed color and tone, in which every
emotion, every aspiration, every exertion of
our powers has its full value. Harmonic mod-
ulations help to maintain and to deepen the
given tone-color. Above all else, the disso-
nance is no longer a matter of mere chance or
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SONATA. 31
transient charm to the ear, but the road to an
absolute eflfect, designed by the composer.
Bach many a time sought for it, but Haydn
gave it poetical effect. He does not hesitate,
for example, in the finale of the great E flat
major sonata, to introduce the augmented triad,
which Richard Wagner uses in such a striking-
ly characteristic manner, bringing it in as a
prepared dissonance^, but at the same time al-
lowing it to enter freely • And still more, they
had before them the boundless treasures of Se-
bastian Bach, which Mozart and Beethoven at
a later period opened so fully and which they
emphasized with such heart-stirring power.
The difference of keys moreover became
recognized as of greater value, and the ground-
color of pieces is more individual. It does not
follow, however, on this account that the mar-
velous gifts of native counterpoint were thrown
aside. On the other hand, Haydn, in his
treatment of the so-called thematic develop-
ment in the second part of the first movement
and in the finale of the sonata, brings them
out according to their proper intellectual value,
so that this music also must be " heard with
the understanding." Finally, the salient
32 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
points of the whole style, which was called the
"galante," because it did not belong to the
church or to the erudite but to the salon, is
as, we may say, the grand architectural gra-
dations and building up of the whole, which
gives to it an arrangement of parts like the
symmetry of the Renaissance art, and the
same similarity modern music in general holds
to the Gothic of the German counterpoint.
Haydn by nature and every vital function, be-
longed to active life, with its manifold forms
of thought and changing mental conditions,
and, therefore, found the sonata-form the very
best for the depositing of his musical wealth,
and for the magnifying of his own inner pow-
ers and capacities by its further development.
It was for this reason that he played the Bach
"Sonatas for Students and Amateurs" with
such delight and sat at his piano so gladly, for
it aroused in him a freer activity of fancy and
heart-felt emotions of similar form.
Philip Emanuel Bach's instruction book,
the " Versuch uber die wahre Art das Clavier
zu spielen," published in Berlin in 1753, with
which Haydn became acquainted shortly af-
terward, was, in his judgment, "the best, most
bach's relations to HAYDN, 33
thorough and useful work which had ever ap-
peared as an instruction book," and Mozart as
well as Beethoven expressed the same opinion,
and yet the ridiculous accusation was made
after this that Haydn had copied and carica-
tured Bach, because Bach was not on good
terms with him. The story may perhaps have
arisen from the fact that Bach in his autobi-
ography (1773) sought to attribute the decline
of the music of his day to " the comedian so
popular just now." This, however, referred
to something entirely different, and in 1783,
Bach publicly wrote : " I am constrained by
news I have received from Vienna to believe
that this worthy man, whose works give me
more and more pleasure, is as truly my friend
as I am his. Work alone praises or condemns
its masters, and I therefore measure every one
by that standard." Dies even declares that
Haydn, in 1795, returned from London by
way of Hamburg to make the personal ac-
quaintance of Bach, but arrived too late, for
he was dead. Bach died in 1788, and could
it be possible that Haydn was not aware of it ?
The journey by way of Hamburg had another
purpose.
3
34 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
Haydn still kept up his violin practice, and
received further instruction from his country-
man and friend, Dittersdorf, afterward the
composer of " The Doctor and Apothecary."
Dies says: '*Once they strolled through the
streets at night and stopped before a common
beer-house, ia which some half drunk and
sleepy musicians were wretchedly scraping
away on a Haydn minuet. *Let us go in,' said
Haydn. They entered the drinking-room.
Haydn stepped up to the first fiddler and very
coolly asked : ' Whose minuet is this ? ' The
fiddler replied still more coolly, and even
fiercely: * Haydn's.' Haydn strode up to
him, saying with feigned anger: 'It is a
worthless thing.' ' What ! what ! what !'
shrieked the interrupted fiddler, in his wrath,
springing up from his seat. The rest of the
players imitated their leader, and would have
beaten Haydn over the head with their in-
struments, had not Dittersdorf, who was of
larger stature, seized him in his arms and
shoved him out of doors."
Dittersdorf himself, in his biography, nar-
rates another instance of this intimacy. In
1762, he accompanied Gluck to Italy. Dur-
THE DEVIL ON TWO STICKS. 35
ing his absence, the famous Lolli appeared in
Vienna with great success. On his return, he
resolved to surpass Lolli's fame, and feigning
sickness he kept his room for an entire week,
and practiced incessantly. Then he reappeared
and achieved a success. The universal ver-
dict was, that Lolli excited wonder and Dit-
tersdorf too, but that the latter played to the
heart also. He adds : " The rest of the sum-
mer and the following winter, I was frequent-
ly in the society of the gracious Haydn. Ev-
ery new piece of other composers which we
heard we criticised between ourselves, com-
mending what was good and condemning
what was bad."
But let us return to the year 1750. Dies
says : " When about twenty-one years of age,
Haydn composed a comic opera with German
text. It was called *Der Krumme Teufel,'
(* The Devil on Two Sticks ') and originated in
a singular way. Kurtz, a theatrical genius, was
at that time the manager of the old Karnth-
nerthor theater, and amused the public as
Bemardon. He had heard Haydn very fa-
vorably mentioned, which induced him to seek
his acquaintance. A happy chance soon fur-
36 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
nished the opportunity. Kurtz had a beauti-
ful wife, who condescended to receive sere-
nades from the young artists. The young
Haydn (who called this ' Gassatim gehen,'
and composed a quintet for just such an oc-
sion in 1753) brought her a serenade, whereat
not only the lady but Kurtz also felt honored.
He sought Haydn's closer acquaintance, and
after this, the following scene occurred in his
house. * Sit down at the piano,' said Kurtz,
* and accompany the pantomime which I will
perform for you, with fitting music. Imagine
that Bemardon has fallen into the water and
is trying to save himself by swimming ! '
Kurtz calls an attendant and sprawls across a
chair, while it is drawn here and there about
the room, flinging out his arms and legs like
a swimmer, Haydn meantime imitating the
motion of the waves and the action of swim-
ming in I time. Bemardon suddenly sprang
up, embraced Haydn, and, nearly smothering
him with kisses, exclaimed: * Haydn, you
are the man for me. You must write me an
opera ! This was the origin of * Der Krumme
Teufel.' Haydn received twenty-five ducats
for it, and thought himself very rich. It was
MELODY AND HUMOR. 37
brought out twice with great applause and
was then prohibited on account of the offensive
personality of the text."
Here, therefore, we have an example of the
fruitful germs of invention which Haydn dis-
played in motives and melodies, showing us,
as it were, a personal presence possessing those
musical characteristics which Mozart and Bee-
thoven developed with such striking fidelity to
life, and which by their efforts again invested
dramatic representation with a new language.
What the Italian had accomplished only
in the way of a certain native grace of melody,
and the French, on the other hand, with too
partial a study in their dramatic recitative and
piano music, German intelligence, and above
all, German feeling, accomplished by the un-
prejudiced acceptance of melody itself. We
also observe, mingled with these elements,
that vein of German humor which first welled
up in complete spontaneity and fullness in
Haydn's music, so that we have, as it were, all
the successive steps of development in the
building up of his artistic individuality. At
this point his youth and the main part of his
early education close. We have reached the
38 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
period of his first original creation, but it may
be of interest, before we close this first chap-
ter, to add a few words about the opera itself,
in order that we may appreciate the real nat-
ure of this first original accomplishment of
the artist as it deserves,
We observe, first of all, that in the test of his
skill he was to illustrate a storm at sea and the
struggle of a drowning man, and that Haydn's
fingers at last involuntarily fell into the move-
ment, (I time), which the comedian wished.
In the piece itself, an old, love-sick dotard was
to be be cured and the good-natured devil must
help. The details of this story and many other
incidents of that period of art in Vienna may
be found in C. F. Pohl's " Joseph Haydn," Vol.
I (Berlin, 1875). But the principal point
to be observed here is the close union of
absolute music with the dramatic element, es-
pecially with the action, and that it was the
perfection of the genuine humor of the popu-
lar Vienna comedies of that time which first
directed Haydn's fancy to the expression of
pantomime in tones. When the " Krumme
Teufel" was finished, Haydn brought it to
Kurtz, but the maid would not let him in, so
VIENNA COMEDY. 39
we are told, because her master was " study-
ing." What was Haydn's astonishment when
looking through a glass door he beheld Ber-
nardon standing before a large mirror, making
faces and acting comical pantomime 1 It was
the " free, sprightly comedy " which the Vi-
enna harlequin possessed, and which was now
revealed to Haydn in its complete individuali-
ty by personal observation. But finally, while
this humor was kept down at this time by its
own crudeness and narrowness, as soon as the
higher dramatic poetry of the German lan-
guage sprung up in Austria, it reappeared in
a nobler form in music, and it is Haydn who
represented this genuine German popular hu-
mor in our art. The last Vienna harlequin,
Bemardon^ and his buffoonery disappeared,
but the comedy was preserved in full and per-
manent inheritance by Haydn in his comic
opera, " Der Krumme Teufel." The opera it-
self we do not possess, but its healthy and no-
ble promise is realized all through Haydn's
instrumental music, to the origin of which we
now come.
CHAPTER II.
1754—1781.
AT PRINCE ESTERHAZY'S.
Haydn's Studies with Porpora — His Italian Operas — Engage-
ment with Count Von Morzin — His First String Quartet —
An Unfortunate Marriage — Domestic Troubles without
End— Appointment as Capellmeister at Esterhaz— His Orches-
tra and Chorus — ^Rapid Musical Growth — His Most Import-
ant Earlier Compositions — ^Development of the Quartet —
Personal Characteristics and Anecdotes — ^The Surprise Sym-
phony — Influence of his Life at Esterhaz upon his Music.
" His hours were occupied with lesson-giv-
ing and studies. Music so far monopolized his
tirae that at this period no other than musical
books came into his hands. The only excep-
tions were the works of Metastasio, and these
can hardly be called an exception, as Metas-
tasio always wrote for music, and therefore a
Capellmeister who had determined to try his
powers in opera ought to have been acquainted
with his writings," says Dies. We know from
Haydn himself that an Italian singer and op-
era composer was his last instructor in thor-
(40)
PORPOKA AND HAYDN. 41
ougb-bass ; and tbat he bad composed mucb
but was not firmly grounded, that is, was not
correct and strong until be bad tbe good for-
tune to study tbe fundamental principles of
composition, with tbe famous Porpora.
The Neapolitan, Nicolo Porpora was in Vi-
enna from 1753 to 1757. He belonged to that,
early scbool of Italian opera which dominated
nearly all Europe. The charm of melody pre-
dominated at this time and with it, the art of
singing. Tbey had reached their highest point.
Smoothly flowing melody, however, was consid-
ered the main essential, and above all things,
clearness and very simple harmonic structure
characterized this school. Haydn played the
accompaniments when Porpora gave singing
lessons to the ten-year-old Martines and to the
mistress of an ambassador, and was paid with les-
sons in composition from tbe impetuous and
supercilious old master. " Ass, vagabond,
blockhead/* alternating with blows, greeted
this not very accomplished " Tedesco" ( Ger-
man). For three months he filled the posi-
tion of servant and blacked his master's shoes.
" But I improved in singing, in composition
and in Italian very much," says the modest
f
42 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
mechanic's son, who, plain and simple himself,
loved his art above all else. In fact, compared
with the German music before him, or even
with Philip Emanuel Bach's sonatas, Haydn's
style at once shows not only that he had aban-
doned the "Tudesk" (German), of which the
Italians complained, but that he had obtained
a more refined phrasing of melody and a great-
er clearness of harmony, whereas the art of
Bach had not advanced beyond the intellectual
and characteristic. He also gave up embel-
lishments and manifested a strong desire for
the pure lines, and above all recognized that
symmetry of construction which was rare
among the Germans themselves, and yet con-
stitutes an essential feature of modern German
instrumental music.
The first larger works of Haydn were also
Italian operas. He prized them very much
himself, and they were also very pleasing to
others ; and it was only a deep, inward feeling
for the calling he had chosen and a happy
chance, which gave him the opportunity of sat-
isfying that feeling, that saved him from a
course which certainly might have secured him
speedy fame and fortune, but not that immor-
THEORETICAL NOTES. 43
tal halo of glory which crowns the " Father of
the Symphony." He even declined an invi-
tation from Gluck, at that time the most cele-
brated of the Italian opera-composers, to go to
Italy ! Apart from this, it may be said inci-
dentally, we learn of no nearer relations between
these two artists. Temperament, character an d
the objects of their ambition kept them widely
apart.
Haydn now devoted himself still more ear-
nestly to studies of a theoretical nature. From
sixteen to eighteen hours daily work was his
rule, two-thirds of the time being devoted to
the necessities of life. Mattheson's "VoU-
kommener Capellmeister " and the " Gradus
ad Parnassum '' of Fux, the Vienna Hofcap-
pellmeister, were his text-books. "With un-
wearied determination Haydn sought to mas-
ter the theory of Fux," says Griesinger, the
councilor, who met him frequently in 1800,
and in 1810 published the *' Biographical Noti-
ces" of him. He says : " Haydn studied out the
problems, laid them aside some weeks, then
looked them over again and reviewed them
often enough to make sure he was master of
them. Haydn called this work (" Fux's The-
44 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
orie ") , a classic, and kept a much worn copy
of it all his life. Mattheson's book was found
among his relics, "completely gone." This
work certainly did not extend his knowledge
of composition, but he prized the method, and
educated many a scholar in it during his life>
and among those scholars was — Beethoven.
" He oflSiciated as organist at a church in the
suburbs, wrote quartets and other pieces which
commended him still more favorably to ama-
teurs, so that he was universally recognized as
a genius," says Dies. One of these amateurs
was the councilor, Von Furnberg, "from whom
I received special marks of favor," says Haydn
himself. Von Furnberg, who was already in-
debted to Haydn for several trios, was accus-
tomed to have chamber-music at his villa in
Weinzerl, played by the pastor of the place,
his own steward, a violoncellist, and Haydn,
and one day encouraged the latter to write a
string quartet. Thus an accident of his sur-
roundings turned his inventive spirit toward
that particular form of chamber-music, the
string-quartet, which was destined to be so
wonderful in results. This occurred in 1750.
Much had been already written for the four
-^4
THE STRING QUARTET. 45
stringed instruments, but Haydn gave to the
quartet the movements and organic form which
he had found in the sonatas. By the force of
his knowledge of harmony he gave a more
spontaneously melodious capacity to the divis-
ions of the quartet which had hitherto been
merely vague and sketchy, so that their devel-
opment captivated the player and listener. It
was, as it were, a scene in which four individ-
ualities, acting together, play out a complete
and concrete life-picture, — artistic perform-
ances, which appeal to the player, as well as to
the artist and poet, in a higher degree than the
simple, plain sonata. Hence the invention of
the string-quartet marked an epoch in the his-
tory of music.
The first quartet (B flat, |), met with such
an instant success and so actively inspired
Haydn himself, that in a short time he pro-
duced eighteen works in this style. And yet
a Prussian major who had been made a pris-
oner in the Seven Years* War, who heard these
early productions, says that although every one
was in raptures over his compositions, Haydn
was modest even to timidity, and could not
I
46 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
bring himself to believe that they were of any
account. Twenty years later, even, he looked
up to Hasse, at that time indeed famous through-
out the world, as a great composer, and de-
clared he would treasure his praise of his " Sta-
bat Mater " like gold, though it was undeserv-
ed, ** not on account of the opinion itself, but
for the sake of a man so estimable." Who
knows Hasse to-day, and who that knows any-
thing of music is not familiar with Joseph
Haydn and his quartets ? The English music-
hunter, Burney, mentions that in 1772 he
heard them played at Gluck'sl
It contributed greatly to his activity in com-
position that he was now in better circumstan-
ces. Fumberg had secured for him the ap-
pointment of " director " in the establishment
of a music-loving count. The first quartets
breathe the full, joyous humor of his child-like
spirit. Though at first many a one protested
against the lowering of music to mere trifling
and was of the opinion that there was no ear-
nest effort in his compositions, the verdict this
time declared itself in favor of the creator of
this style, and many a deeply earnest tone in
these works is a souvenir of happy hours, which
HAYDN 'S SYMPHONIES. 47
even now a quartet-evening with Haydn af-
fords.
The Count, who in 1759 had installed Haydn
as his director — ^and one in that position must
also be a composer — was the Bohemian noble-
man, Franz von Morzin. He passed his win-
ters in Vienna and his summers at his country
house at Lukavec, where he kept his orchestra,
and while with him Haydn wrote his first sym-
phony. There were symphonies indeed long
before Haydn. Originally, all music in sev-
eral parts was thus designated — ^at first, vocal
pieces with instrumental accompaniments, but
after the seventeenth century, instrumental
music only. The instrumental preludes to the
Italian operas, in particular, were called sym-
phonies. The symphony in regular form con-
sisted of an Allegro, an Adagio and a second
Allegro. Haydn made the three movements,
which he had transferred from the sonata-form
to the quartet, richer and more independent,
and added to them the Minuet, so that four
movements became the rule. Haydn's progress,
therefore, was exemplified in the symphony by
the freedom and vivacity which he gave to the
separate instruments, but above all, by their
48 THE LIFE OP HAYDN,
skillful combination and the dynamic grada-
tions of the ensemble. For these he had his
modeLs in the compositions of the Mannheim
school, which Mozart so much admired after-
ward.
Haydn's first symphony, in D major, is a
prominent example of the clearness of his
method in such larger orchestral work. We
shall soon see that he developed it still far-
ther. His position with the Count, satisfacto-
ry so far as compensation was concerned,
might have been the source of prolific crea-
tion, for the Count and his young son were
enthusiastic musical amateurs, but the contract
stipulated that he should remain unmarried.
Haydn was then twenty-seven years of age,
and it was not until that time that the charms
of the other sex attracted his attention, and it
happened then only by an accident which re-
veals to us the innocence of his youth. In
his later years he was fond of telling the story
that once when he was accompanying the young
Countess in her singing, she stooped over, so as
to see better, and her neckerchief became dis-
arranged. " It was the first time I had ever
witnessed such a sight. I was embarrassed,
HAYDN 'S MAERIAGE. 49
my playing ceased, and my fingers lay idly
on the keys," he told Griesinger. "What
has happened, Haydn," said the Countess,
" what are you doing ?" With perfect respect,
Haydn replied : " Who could retain his self-
command in your gracious ladyship^s pres-
ence?" The sequel to such an unexpected
revelation was not long in following.
In the autumn of 1760, Haydn was again
with his scholars in Vienna. Among them
were two daughters of Keller, a wig-maker, in
the Ungargasse, who had frequently assisted
him before this time. The younger daughter
was so attractive to him, that in spite of the
Count's order, which only made her still more
alluring to the fiery young fellow, he deter-
mined to marry her, but to his sorrow, she
chose to enter a convent. "Haydn, you
ought to marry my eldest daughter," jokingly
said the father one day, for he was particular-
ly pleased with the smart and gifted young
director; — ^and Haydn did so. Whatever may
have been the reason— gratitude, ignorance,
helplessness in practical matters, or the wish
to h«Te a wife right away — whatever may have
4
50 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
been the motive, he married, and sorely he
had to suffer for it.
His wife was older than he, and this of it-
self made the relations between them very un-
certain. Besides this, Dies says that she was
an imperious and unfeeling woman, who was
incapable of any consideration, and had earned
the reputation of being a spendthrift. The
proofe of her quarrelsomeness and of her heart-
less treatment of her husband reveal to us a
perfect Xantippe. As compared with the sim-
ple, frank and joyous-hearted Haydn, she was
an extreme bigot and prude. Only a person
of his disposition could have endured such a
wretched, and above all, childless marriage.
"We were affectionate together, but for all
that, I soon discovered that my wife was ex-
tremely frivolous," he very mildly said to Dies.
He told Griesinger that he was obliged to
carefully conceal his earnings from her on ac-
count of her passion for finery. She was also
fond of inviting priests to dine, urging them
to say many masses, and giving more money
to them for charity than she could afford.
Very many of Haydn's masses, and smaller
church-pieces, especially those scattered about
CHABACTER OF HIS WIFE. 61
in the Austrian convents, are due to the fact
that she availed herself of her husband's talent
to appear generous. Under such circumstances
he naturally did not accomplish his best work,
but wrote in a careless style. Once, when
Griesinger, for whom he had done some favor
for which he would not accept anything, asked
permission to make his wife a present, he reso-
lutely replied : '* She does not deserve anything.
It is little matter to her whether her husband is
an artist or a cobbler." She was also particu-
larly malicious, and purposely tried to offend
her husband, using his notes, for instance, as
curl-papers, and in pie dishes, occasioning the
loss, undoubtedly, of many of his earlier scores.
One day, when she complained that there was
not money enough in the house to bury him,
in case he died suddenly, Haydn called her
attention to arow of canons which were framed
and hung upon the wall of his chamber, in lieu
of any other decoration, and told her that they
would bring enough for his funeral expenses.
Notwithstanding his patience and good-heart-
edness, he could not overcome an intuitive feel-
ing of repugnance for his wife. In the year
1805, when the violinist Baillot was visiting
62 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
him, they happened to pass a picture in the
hall. Haydn stopped, and grasping Baillot
by the arm, said : " That is my wife. Many
a time she has maddened me."
Is it not natural, then, and excusable also,
that at times he sought solace away from
home ? * * ♦ ^n Italian singer, in partic-
ular, Luigia Polzelli, won his affections in later
years, and bestowed upon him a loving sympa-
thy. He writes to her from London in 1792,
thirty-two years after his unfortunate mar-
riage, in furious terms: " My wife, bestia
infemaUy has written so much stuff, that I
had to tell her I would not come to the house
any more, which has brought her again to her
senses." A year later he says, in a gentler
and almost sorrowful tone : " My wife is ail-
ing most of the time and is always in the same
miserable temper, but I do not let it distress
me any longer. There will sometime be an
end of this torment." The remark in Les-
sing's " Jungere Gelehrten," " I am obliged
to admit that I have had no other aim than
this : to practice those virtues which enable
one to endure such a woman," exactly apply
to Haydn's case. At last he could bear it no
HER INFLUENCE ON HIS MUSIC. 53
longer. He procured board for ber with the
teacher StoU, at Baden, who is spoken of in
Mozart's letters, and she died there in 1800.
Haydn dearly earned that exquisite peace
which characterized so many of his adagios,
but it was the true rest of the soul, and it is
only here and there that a softly sighing chord
reminds us of Wotan's words : "The victory
was won through toil and trouble from morn-
ing until night." The unrestrained outpour-
ings of love Haydn could not express. When
Adam and Eve in " The Creation," or Hann-
chen and Lucas sing their fond strains, you
never think of Constance and Pamina, and yet
Haydn wrote both these works long after Mo-
zart was dead. The fullness and dignity of
true womanly nature, in which his own wife
was wanting, he was elsewhere to learn and
value, as we shall yet see. The tenderer and
deeper notes of the heart are not wanting in
his compositions; on the contrary, he was the
first to introduce them in music in all their
perfection.
We now resume the course of our narrative.
Dies says: "Six months passed by before
Count Morzin knew that his Capellmeistei
64 THE LIFE OP HAYDir,
was married. Circuinstaiices occurred which
changed Haydn's affairs. ^ It became necessary
for the Count to reduce his large expenses and
to dismiss his musicians, and thus he lost his
position." Prince Esterhazy, however, a short
time before, had become acquainted with some
of his orchestral pieces and admired them.
His growing fame, his admirable personal
character, besides Morzin's hearty commenda-
tions, secured for him the position of Capell-
meister to the Prince in the same year (1761) ,
and he held it nearly to the close of his life.
This position settled Haydn's future as a com-
poser.
The Esterhazy residence is in the little town
of Eisenstadt, in Hungary, where the Prince's
castle supplied accommodation for every style
of musical and dramatic performances. Music
in particular had been patronized by the fam-
ily for many generations. Here, in undis-
turbed quiet, Haydn actively devoted himself
to those remarkable compositions which de-
servedly proclaim him the founder of modern
instrumental music. The Prince had a pretty
complete orchestra, though it was small, and a
modest chorus, with two soloists. It was also
THE ESTEBHAZY OBCHESTBA. 55
expected that the servante and attendants, after
the custom of that time, would assist as mu-
sicians. The entire force of musicians was
placed under the direction of the new Capell-
meister, who was raised to an oflBcial position.
By virtue of his rank, he was obliged to ap-
pear daily in the antechamber and receive in-
structions with regard to the music. He was
also expected to compose what music was
necessary and drill the'singers. His contract
of May 1, 1761, commends the duty required
of him to his skill and zeal, and hopes that he
will keep the orchestra up to such a standard
as will reflect honor upon him and entitle him
to further marks of princely favor.
Rarely, indeed, has a hope been more fully
realized. The orchestra was soon a superior
one, and it was not long before the works writ-
ten for it by Haydn became famous through-
out the world. The very first of the Ester-
hazy symphonies in C major, known as " The
Noon," showed that he was determined to
bring the Prince as well as the orchestra to a
realization of the work before them. It makes
demands upon the orchestra which tikis one
could not supply till much later, as it was
66 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
written in a very large and broad style. It
also has in it a foreshadowing of Beethoven's
dramatic style, in a^ recitative for violin with
orchestra, introduced in one movement. He
himself was also more thoroughly grounded in
his own artistic work. The ever increasing
interest which the Prince took in him (to
Paul Anton, succeeded the next year, Nicho-
las, Anton following him in 1790, and a second
Nicholas following Anton in 1795) was a fresh
incentive to his creative talent, so that the
confinement in his rural situation during the
twenty years that ho passed with the first two
Princes did not weigh very heavily upon him.
After 1766, he spent many of the winter
months with his Prince in Vienna. "My
Prince was always satisfied with my works. I
not only had the encouragement of steady ap-
probation, but as leader of the orchestra, I
could experiment, observe what produced and
what weakenec effects, and was thus enabled to
improve, change, make additions or omissions,
and venture upon anything. I was separated
from the world, there was no one to distract or
torment me, and I was compelled to become
original/' Such a statement as this, which
LOVE OP NATURE. 67
was made to Griesinger, shows what an im-
portant influence his life at this period had up-
on his artistic development.
There are many other interesting details of
this Esterhazy life* Griesinger says : " Fish-
ing and hunting were Haydn's favorite pleas-
ures during his stay in Hungary." Think
for a moment what an influence such an un-
broken, restful life in God's free nature must
have had upon him, especially when it is con-
sidered that this had continued for thirty years
and had been his only recreation outside of
his own profession. "The dew-dropping
mom, O how it quickens all," says Eve in
"The Creation." In the early morning, the
best time for his favorite pleasure, when the
sun rose, shining in its full splendor, " a giant
proud and joyous," or at evening the moon
** stole upon " the home-returning hunter with
" soft step and gentle shimmer," how his heart
must have expanded as the sublime solitude of
Nature revealed itself to him and spoke its
own language ! It was a time when the sense
of nature rose superior to all the artifices of
custom, and her majesty and chaste purity made
a deep impression upon every noble feeling.
68 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
In this sacred solitude, which with his beloved
art filled his life with its only happiness and
contentment, he stripped off his powdered wig
and stood up clothed in his own pure man-
hood. What the result was may be seen in
his exuberant melodies, earnest as well as pas-
sionate, which picture the innocent joy of
Nature.
Many other things he learned to picture at
this time. It was only that free and appre-
ciative contemplation of Nature, which contin-
ual intimate intercourse with her produces,
which enabled him to keenly observe the char-
acteristics of every one of her phenomena and
to give them conscious expression in his old
age, in "The Creation" and "The Seasons."
The " Noon " symphony was soon followed by
the " Morning." That he intended to express
in this music the " awakening of impressions
upon arriving in the country," is shown by a
concerto which appeared soon afterward, "The
Evening," and which closes with a storm. Ac-
cording to Dies, his Prince had commissioned
him to make the divisions of the day subjects
for composition. We know by their recep-
tion that these works revealed an entirely new
CHAKACTEB OP THE PBINCE. 69
world of music. Beethoven, with his incom-
parably deeper feeling for Nature, received
his first impulses of that feeling from this mu-
sic. The original can only be found in Hay-
dn's quiet life at Eisenstadt with Prince Es-
terhazy. We shall find further confirmation
of the influence of this life in the following de-
tails:
The bearing of Prince Nicholas, then in his
fortieth year, corresponded with his surround-
ings. Bich and distinguished as he was, he had
noble passions. His appearance at Court was
brilliant, while the richness of his jewels was
proverbial. But his love of art and science
was far greater than his fondness for show and
court display, and in true Hungarian fashion,
music was the dearest of all to him. He was
a genuine Austrian cavalier of the best old
times. Goodness of heart, magnanimity and
kindly feeling were his prominent traits of
character, and he manifested these qualities
especially toward his orchestra. " During the
entire period of his rule, his records, nearly
all of which begin with the declaration, * God
be with us,' are a continuous series of releases
from moneyed as well as other obligations, and
60 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
rarely was a request refused," says Pohl, in
his reliable biography of Haydn. Still he
could be severe without retaining animosity.
His own instrument was the baryton, at that
time very much admired, which has long since
been superseded by the noble violoncello.
Apropos of this instrument, the following char-
acteristic event occurred :
The Prince played only in one key. Haydn
practiced for six months, day and night, upon
the instrument, often disturbed by the abuse
of his wife, and upon one occasion incurred the
censure of the Prince for neglecting his com-
positions. Thereat, impelled by a fit of van-
ity, he played upon the instrument at one of
the evening entertainments in several keys.
The Prince was not at all disturbed, and only
said: "Haydn, you ought to have known
better." At first he was pained by the indif-
ference of his honored master, but he imme-
diately felt it was a gentle reproof, because he
had wasted so much time and neglected his
proper work to become a good baryton player,
and turned to his compositions again with re-
newed earnestness. For the baryton alone,
-h
haydn's eelations to the prince. 61
lie has written upwards of one hundred and
seventy-five pieces.
Haydn^s real feelings towards the Prince
are shown by his words in his autobi-
ography of 1776:— "Would that I could
live and die with him." Upon the accession
of the new administration, his salary was in-
creased one-half, and afterward six hundred
florins were added, besides which he received
frequent gifts from the Prince. This helped
to appease his longing to go abroad, particu-
larly to Italy — a, longing which many a time
must have arisen in his soUtude. He recalled,
even in his old age, with grateful feelings the
good and generous Prince Nicholas, who had
twice rebuilt his little house after it had been
reduced to ashes by fires in the city. Though
he wrote much, very much, simply for the
Prince's personal gratification, and consequent-
ly much that had little value, yet the Prince's
knowledge of music was sufficient to realize
Haydn's constant development and to actively
foster it. Haydn was not under personal re-
straint, at least not more than was customary
in a court at that time of " literal, primitive
despotisms." Though he was not the less a
62 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
courtling, he remained an artist, and clove to
his own rank. " I am surrounded by emper-
ors, kings and many exalted persons, and I
have had much flattery from them, but I will
not live upon familiar terms with them ; I pre-
fer the people of my own station," he said to
Griesinger. In his later years, indeed, he per-
sonally asserted his dignity before his Prince
and master. On his return from London, he
bitterly complained because he was addressed
by the customary "Er," as an inferior, and after
that he was always called " Herr von Haydn,"
and *' Respected Sir," or " Dear Capellmeister
von Haydn." Upon one occasion the young
Prince Nicholas expressed his disapproval of
a rehearsal, and Haydn replied: **Your
EUghness, it is my duty to attend to these mat-
ters." A glance of displeasure was the only
response of His Highness.
With the orchestra itself, which numbered
many excellent players, Haydn had trouble
many a time. The easy lenity of the Prince
made it careless, and what the habits of mu-
sicians were at that time Mozart's biography
shows. " The appeals of Haydn are touching
and heart-reaching when he intercedes for
ITALIAN OPEBAS. 63
those who have erred only through careless-
ness," says Pohl. He also helped to appease
the Prince with specially arranged composi-
tions. To these probably belongs the sym-
phony in five movements, called " Le Midi,"
with a recitative for the first violinist, Toma^
sini, who was a special favorite of the Prince —
a proof that the images of his fancy were al-
ready influencing him, and that, like Gluck, he
was determined not to be '* a mason," but an
" architect." That he put his whole soul into
these compositions is shown by the inscrip-
tions at the beginning and end — " In nomine
Domini,'* " Laus Deo," etc.
His most important compositions during his
earlier years at Esterhaz were Italian operas.
The Prince had engaged foreign actors, and
the festival occasions at the palace, which as
we know were often attended by royal per-
sonages, were made brilliant by these theat-
rical performances. During his thirty years
stay at Esterhaz more than a dozen of these
works were brought out, some of which Haydn
himself esteemed. They certainly show a
copiousrichness of detail, of harmonic beauty
and of instrumental effects. "When Cheru-
64 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
bini looked through some of my manuscripts,
he always hit upon places which were deserving
of attention," said Haydn to Griesinger, and
Cherubini, at that time an opera composer par
eoMiellencej might well be concerned about the
superiority of Hayda's operas. But the
qualities which were conspicuous in Haydn's
instrumental music, the sure movement of the
whole work and the freedom of the intellectual
development, were wanting in his operas.
This was Gluck's contribution to the opera.
Haydn had no part in it. He recognized
himself that his operas in originality of form
could scarcely equal those of Gluck in the
more modern period. And yet we shall find
that one of his operas was performed in
London.
A criticism in the Vienna Zeitung during
the year 1766 gives us another picture of his
varied acquirements and of his successful ac-
tivity as well as of the character of his genius.
He is enumerated among the distinguished
composers of the imperial city at that time un-
der the title of "Herr Joseph Haydn, the
favorite of the nation, whose gentle character
is reflected in every one of his pieces. His
QUALITIES OP HIS MUSIC. 65
compositions possess beauty, symmetry, clear-
ness, and a delicate and noble simplicity, which
impress themselves upon the listener even be-
fore he has become specially attentive. His
quartets, trios and other works of this class are
like a pure, clear strip of water, ruflBed by a
southern breeze, quickly agitated and rolling
with waves but preserving its depth. The
doubling of the melody by octaves originated
with him and one can not deny its charm. In
the symphony, he is robust, powerful and in-
genious; in bis songs, charming, captivating and
tender; in his minuets, natural, merry and
graceful."
One can see that in all his leading qualities
Haydn was recognized in his own time. Rigid
masters, like Haydn's predecessor in service,
the Capellmeister Werner, a genuine repre-
sentative of the old contrapuntal school, were
freely at hand with such epithets as " fashion-
hunter " and "song-scribbler." But the acute
Berlin Critic^ at that time hostile to everything
South German, declared of Haydn's quartet,
op. 19, and the symphony, op. 18, that they
displayed the most '^original humor and
6
66 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
sprightly agreeable spirit." It is J. F. Keieli-
ardt who says this: "Never," says he, "has
there been a composer who combines so much
unity and variety with so much agreeableness
and popularity. It is extremely interesting
to consider Haydn's works in their successive
order. His first works, twenty years ago, show-
ed that he had an agreeable humor of his own,
and yet it was rather merepertness and extrav-
agant mirth, without much harmonic depth.
But by degrees his humor became more manly
and his work more thoroughly considered,
until through elevated and earnest feeling, ri-
per study, and above all, effect, the matured,
original man and trained artist were manifest."
"If we had only a Haydn and Philip Emanuel
Bach, we Germans could boldly assert that we
have a style of our own, and that our instru-
mental music is the most interesting of all," he
says in conclusion.
Haydn had also transferred to the richer
string quartet and full orchestra, the sonata-
form founded by Philip Emanuel Bach, the
organic character of which is shown by the
theory and history of music. How he devel-
oped this form in its final perfection it is not
PEVELOPMENT OF THE SYMPHONY. 67
necessary to consider in detail at this time.
He established, as we know, its four-part form
in the Allegro, Adagio, Minuet and Finale,
and by his great productivity and popularity
brought this form into universal use. He was
the first to give to the Minuet, which is at-
tractive in itself, a popular, genial, and above
all, a cheerful, humorous spirit He very ma-
terially broadened, arranged and elevated the
first movement of the sonata-form, gave to it
more fullness and meaning through the organ-
ic development of its own motive substance,
deepened the Adagio from a simple song (cav-
atina), to a completely satisfying tone-picture,
and above all, by thematic treatment, pro-
duced in the Finale the veritable wonders of
the mind and of life. That Haydn greatly
heightened the effect of the symphony by giv-
ing to the various instruments their full de-
velopment is apparent at once in his music,
and yet it should not be forgotten that Mozart,
who had studied the performances of the or-
chestras at Mannheim and Paris, also influen-
ced him, above all in his operas. But the
crowning result of Haydn's work will always
remain the germ of active life which he im-
68 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
parted to this form, and which he developed so
freely that it presented a definite and finished
shape. Haydn first gave the quartet and sym-
phony that style which may be called its own.
Philip Emanuel Bach's " Sonatas for Stu-
dents and Amateurs," always have something
which may be called studied about them.
They are thoughtful and considered, above all
skillful and intellectual ; but the free expression
of feeling only appears at intervals, especially
in the Adagio where Bach could depend for
his effect upon the operatic aria and the feel-
ing of the original German Lied. The great
Sebastian Bach's instrumental works are Cy-
clopean structures, pelasgic monuments, often
the elementary mountains themselves. Many
a time there looks out of the stone, as it were,
a visage, but it is a stony-face, like that on the
Loreley or the romantic Brocken — apparition :
** And the long rocky noses, how they snore,
how they blow." They are stone giant-bodies,
mighty Sphynx-images, which conceal more
than they tell. In the sharpest contrast with
this music was the opera of that time, in which
fashionable puppets affected an outward, stilted
appearance of dramatic activity. Gluck first
PERSO]SrAL CHARACTERISTICS. 69
stripped off the gaudy tinsel and revealed the
concealed earnestness of the reality. The in-
strumental music of the French and Italians
suffered also from this affectation and superfi-
ciality of the theatrical music, and Scarlatti,
Corelli and Couperin made the utmost effort
to restore the free expression of feeling and
unrestrained nature to their own place in
music.
He who first revealed this " natural," this
inborn, and therefore spontaneous art, in
music, speaking through its own nature and
with its own voice, was our Haydn, and it was
for this that Beethoven called him great and
posterity has called him immortal. And, as the
Italians say, that no man can paint a more
beautiful head than he has himself, so,
though we have seen this Haydn physically
and intellectually, what matters it, if his por-
trait appears to us reversed in his music?
Haydn was slender but strong, and below
the medium height, with legs disproportion-
ately short, and seeming all the shorter, ow-
ing to his old-fashioned style of dress. His
features were tolerably regular, his face
serious and expressive, but at the same
70 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
time attractive for its benignity. " Kindliness
and gentle earnestness showed themselves in
his person and bearing," says Griesinger.
When he was in earnest, his countenance was
dignified, and in pleasant conversation he had
a laughing expression, though Dies says he
never heard him laugh aloud. His large
aquiline nose, disfigured by a polypus, was,
like the rest of his face, deeply pitted by small-
pox, so that the nostrils were differently shaped.
The under lip, which was strong and some-
what coarse, was very prominent. His com-
plexion was W brown. One of his biograph-
ical sketches mentions that he was called a
Moor. He considered himself ugly, and men-
tioned two Princes who could not endure his
appearance, because he seemed deformed to
them. He stuck to his wig, which has been
already mentioned, in spite of all the changing
modes, through two generations, even to his
death, but it concealed, to the disadvantage of
the general expression of his physiognomy, a
large part of his broad and finely developed
forehead. Lavater, looking at his silhouette,
said : "I see something more than common in
his nose and eyebrows. The forehead also
GENIAL DISPOSITION. 71
is good. The moath has something of the
Philistine about it."
" There was great joyousness and mirth in
his character," says Dies, and in his old age
he said himself: " Life is a charming affair."
Joy in life was the fundamental characteristic
of his existence and his compositions. His
individual lot and his satisfaction with com-
mon things contributed to this. "Content-
ment is happiness," says the philosopher. The
unvarying simplicity of his life secured him
the luxury of good health, and next to that,
the feeling of joy in living. But in reality it
is not this life-joyousness alone that is re-
flected in his works. Though the influence
of his outward life and of his inner develop-
ment were conducive to quiet reflection and
earnest thought, he preferred to give a spright-
ly turn to conversation. We have already
learned how deep were his personal attach-
ments and gratitude. He was also very
beneficent and kindly disposed. "Haydn's
humanity was exhibited to the high and low,"
Dies once said, and modesty was his simple
Austrian virtue. Griesinger justly attributes
religion as the basis of all these qualities^ which
72 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
with him was the simple piety of the heart —
not a mere passing impulse, but the All and
the Eternal reflected in him. The result of
this beautiful influence upon him was that he
was never imperious or haughty, notwith-
standing all the fame that was so profusely
showered upon him during his life. " Honor
and fame were the two powerful elements that
controlled him, but I have never known an
instance," says Dies, " where they degenerated
into immoderate ambition." He regarded his
talent as a blessed gift from Heaven, and no
one was more ready to give new comers their
just deserts. He always spoke of Gluck and
Handel with the most grateful reverence, just
as he did of Philip Emanuel Bach. Of his
incomparably beautiful relations with Mozart
we shall soon learn. Nevertheless he was not
ignorant of his own worth. " I believe I have
done my duty, and that the world has been
benefited by my works. Let others do the
same," he used to say. He could not endure
personal flattery and when it was offered
would resent it. He never allowed his good-
ness to be abused and if it were attempted
he would grow irritated and satirical.
BOMANTIC ATTACHMENTS. 73
"A harmless waggishness, or what the
English call humor, was a leading trait in
Haydn's character. He delighted in dis-
covering the comical side of things, and after
spending an hour with him you could not
help observing that he was full of the spirit
of the Austrian national cheerfulness," says
Griesinger. We may well conceive that in
his younger days he was very susceptible to
love, and in his old age he always had com-
pliments for the ladies ; but we must under-
stand his remark that " this is a part of my
business," in the same sense that Goethe's
"Elegie Amor "is "stuff for song," and the
*' higher style" to the romantic poets. In
fact, without some such personal inspiration,
like the ever-glowing and universal fire that
animates humanity, many of his pieces, espe-
cially his adagios, can not be understood. " It
has a deep meaning ; it is rather difficult, but
full of feeling," he once said of a sonata, to his
highly esteemed friend, Frau von Genzinger,
whom we shall soon meet. It is the one,
according to all the indications, which the
letters give, whose Adagio Cantabile is in B
sharp major, i, and has in the second part a
74 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
grand and mystical modulation, with shifting
of melody in the treble and bass by means of
the crossed hands. The first Allegro is also
constructed like a quiet conversation between
a male and female voice. " I had so much to
say to Your Grace and so much to confess,
from which no one but Your Grace could
absolve me," he writes. He begs that he
may call her a friend "for ever," and the
Minuet^ which she had asked of him in a
letter a short time before, wonderfully ex-
presses the request.
At a later period in London, he took an
English singer. Miss Billington, under his
protectiod, whose conduct was not highly re-
garded and had even been severely criticised
in the public press. " It is said that her char-
acter is faulty, but in spite of all this, she is a
great genius, though hated by all the women
because she is handsome," he writes in his
diary. The diary also contains letters from
an English widow, Madame Schroter, who
loved him devotedly. " She was still a beau-
tiful and attractive woman, though over sixty,
and had I been free, I should certainly have
married her," he said upon one occasion to
AN ELDEBLY ADMIRER. 75
Dies, with his peculiar roguish laugh. A
single extract from these tender letters is
enough for us to understand the depth of her
devotion : " My dearest Haydn, I feel for you
the deepest and warmest love of which the
human heart is capable." Unless it has some-
thing to feed upon, however, the hottest fire
will be extinguished. He could not compre-
hend in his later life, how so many beautiful
women had fallen in love with him. " My
beauty could not have attracted them," he
said in 1805, to Dies, and when the latter re-
plied, " you have a certain genial something
in your face," he answered : " One may see
that I am on good terms with every one."
" He did not fancy that he was made of any
better material, nor did he seek, through as-
sumed purity, to place himself on any higher
plane of morality than his own opinion justi-
fied," explains Dies. He was the unafiected
child of his Austrian home in a time when
one seemed still to wander in Paradise and
life had no thorns.
Thus, from every point of view, Joseph
Haydn stands before us an original, well de-
fined personality, passing, as his life-long bear-
76 THE LIFE OP HAYDX.
ing shows us, from an artificial and unnatural
time in every way, to a period of the re-
newed free assertion of individuality and its
involuntary expression of feeling. He tells
us with the utmost naivete, that it was not
composition but inclination and enthusiasm
that had been his inspiration. " Haydn always
sketched out his works at the piano," says
Griesinger. " I seated myself and began to
compose," says Haydn, whatever my mood
suggested, sad or joyous, earnest or trifling. ,
As soon as I seized upon an idea, I used my
utmost efforts to develop and hold it fast in
conformity with every rule of the art The
reason why so many composers fail is that they
string fragments together. They break off
almost as soon as they have commenced, and
nothing is left to make an impression upon the
heart." He always wrote, impelled by in-
spiration, but at first only the outlines of the
whole. That it was this poetico-musical im-
pulse that urged him on, is shown by the fol-
lowing anecdote :
"About the year 1770, Haydn was prostrat-
ed with a burning fever, and his physician had
expressly forbidden him to do any musical
A SONATA IN BED. 77
work during his convalescence," says Grie-
singer. " His wife shortly afterward went to
church one day, leaving strict instructions with
the servant about the doctor's orders. Scarce-
ly had she gone, when he sent the servant
away upon some errand, and hurriedly rushed
to the piano* At the very first touch the idea
of a whole sonata presented itself in his mind,
and the first part was finished while his wife
was at church. When he heard her coming
back he quickly threw himself into bed again
and composed the rest of the sonata there.
Mozart and Beethoven certainly did not at
first need the piano in composing, and it is by
no means certain that Haydn also did not find
that first movement in bed. In any case, the
anecdote shows the simple, artistic, involunta-
ry power that moved him.
From the same source also proceeded the
vital personal impulse of his joyous expression,
and the individual physiognomy of the themes
and motives in his compositions. His mel-
ody throughout reminds one of the aria, not
in the affected rococo style of Louis Four-
teenth's time, but based upon grammatical
78 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
declamation; and it is only a certain regularly
recurring pattern of the melody that makes us
feel it belongs to the very time in which he
was living. The separate parte of the sonata-
form were infused with a stronger vitality by
this virile humor and elevated and refined
feeling. In this connection Griesinger's re-
mark is specially pertinent. " This humor is
extremely striking in his compositions, and
this is specially characteristic of his Allegros
and Finales, which playfully keep the listener
alternating from what has the appearance of
seriousness to the highest style of humor, un-
til it reaches unrestrained joyousness." Dies
calls it "popular and refined, but in the
highest sense, original musical wit." This
musical frolicsomeness opened in reality a new
and richly profitable province for art. It
aroused a spirit which had hitherto slumbered,
and from Mozart and Beethoven, even to
Schumann and Wagner, we find this simplest
soul-voice and these wonderfully expressive
tones, ravishing and at the same time sorrow-
fill in their nature, springing up; for the
basis of this voice is the involuntary but deep
feeling for human life, sorrowing with its
SYMPHONIC ATTRIBUTES. 79
sorrow, merry with its folly, and always inti-
mately associated with all human actions.
Haydn himself attributes to this state of
mind many features of his Adagios as well as
of his Minuets and Finales. The increasing
intellectual progress brought in time ** ideas
which swept through his mind and which he
strove to express in the language of tones."
He himself told Griesinger that in his sym-
phonies he often pictured " moral attributes/'
In one of the oldest the prominent idea was
that Qod spoke to a hardened sinner, beseech-
ing him to repent, but the careless sinner gave
no heed to the admonition. A symphony of
the year 1767 is called " The Philosopher ; "
a divertimento, "The Beloved Schoolmaster;"
and another work of a later period, " The
Distracted One."
An anecdote of the year 1772 shows us a
characteristic illustration of this artistic life-
work. After the year 1766 the Prince made
a summer-residence of the castle at Esterhaz,
on the Neusiedler-See, where he remained
fully half the year, accompanied by the best
of his musicians. " I was at that time young
and lively, and consequently not any better off
80 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
than the others," said Haydn with a laugh,
especially in reference to the longing of his
musicians to go home to their wives and
children. " The Prince must have known of
their very natural home-sickness for some
time, and the ludicrous appearance they pre-
sented when he announced to them that he
had suddenly decided to remain there two
months longer, amused him very much," says
Dies. The order plunged the young men
into despair. They besieged the Capell-
meister, and no one sympathized with them
more than Haydn. Should he present a
petition? That would only expose them to
laughter. He put a multitude of similar
questions to himself, but without answer.
What did he do? Not many evenings after,
the Prince was surprised in a very extraordi-
nary manner. Eight in the midst of some
passionate music one instrument ceased, the
player noiselessly folded up his music, put
out his light and went away. Soon a second
finished and went off also ; a third and fourth
followed, all extinguishing their lights and
taking their instruments away. The orches-
tra grew smaller and more indistinct The
THE SUBPBISE SYMPHONY. 81
Prince and all present sat in silent wonder.
Finally the last but one extinguished his
light, and then Haydn took his and went also.
Only the first violinist remained. Haydn had
purposely selected this one, as his playing was
very pleasing to the Prince and therefore he
would be constrained to wait to the end. The
end came. The last light was extinguished
and even Tomasini disappeared. Then the
Prince arose and said, " If all go, we may as
well go too." The players meanwhile had
collected in the anteroom, and the Prince said
smiling, "Haydn, the gentlemen have my
consent to go to-morrow." It was the com-
position which afterward became well known
under the name of "The Surprise Symphony."
In like manner Haydn through his music,
so to speak, could reduce his ideas and emo-
tions to practical reality. The Chapter of the
Cathedral at Cadiz desired some music for
Good Friday which should follow at the end
of and complete the interpretation of the Seven
Words of the Savior on the Cross, after they
had been spoken and explained by the priest.
Haydn himself says in a letter to London, that
6
82 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
any text of the nature of the Seven Words can
only be expressed by instrumental music ; that
it made the deepest impression upon his mind ;
and that he justly esteemed it as one of his
best works. It was performed twice at a later
period in London under his own direction. In
the Finale he has an earthquake effect, which
was called for the third time at his own benefit
concert there, and is the precursor of the im-
agery of "The Creation." The work as a
whole is of decidedly characteristic quality.
This was in the year 1780 and that Haydn
was selected for the work, shows not only how
far his fame had extended at that time, but
above all, that his artistic ability to invest
instrumental music with the gift of language
was unmistakably recognized. Thus the mas-
ter's art was firmly established abroad, and
he did not have to wait long before grander
themes of larger proportions were tendered
him.
We close with a selection of characteristic
expressions made by Haydn in these earlier
years of his work, about his art and artistic
progress, most of which are to be found in tie
" Musical Letters."
HIS INDEPENDENCE. 83
la the year 1776, he says in that autobiog-
raphy which was requested of him for a
" Learned National Society " in Vienna, that in
chamber-music he has had the good fortune
to please almost all people except the Berlin-
ers. His only wonder was that " these judi-
cious Berlin gentlemen " kept no medium in
their criticisms, at one time elevating him to
the stars, and at another " burying him seventy
fathoms deep in the earth," and this without
any good reason. But he knew the source of
all these attacks upon his artistic work.
The Vienna Pensions Verein for artists'
widows which to-day bears the name of Haydn,
and for which he had written the oratorio
" The Return of Tobias," stipulated as a con-
dition of his admission to membership, that
besides the above work, he should bind him-
self to furnish some composition every year for
the benefit of the Society, and in case of failure
to do so should be dismissed. Haydn at once
demanded his deposit back, and addressed them
in the following manner : " Dear friends, I am
a man of too much feeling to constantly expose
myself to the risk of being cashiered. Th^
free arts and the beautiful science of compoDi-
84 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
tion can endure no fetters upon their handi-
work. Heart and soul must be free I "
This was in the year 1779. It marks the
full development of his artistic consciousness.
He was more and more convinced of the lofty-
mission of an art which has its source in such
creations. In the year 1781, he expressed the
wish to have the opinion of the Councilor
Von Greiner, one of the most distinguished
connoisseurs in Vienna, often mentioned in
Mozart's biographies, with regard to the ex-
pression of his songs, and assures his publisher,
Artaria, that for variety, beauty and simplicity,
they excel any other he has written. The
French admired exceedingly the pleasing
melody of his " Stabat Mater," work of that
kind not having been heard in Paris, and very
rarely indeed in Vienna. This is all the more
remarkable, as Gluck at that time had already
written and brought out his great dramatic
works collectively. Some of his songs had
been " wretchedly " set to music by the Vienna
Capellmeister HojBFmann, Haydn goes on to
relate, and as this swaggerer believed that
he alone had scaled Parnassus, and sought to
crush Haydn down in certain circles of the
haydn's songs. 85
great world, he had set the same sougs to show
this pretended great world the difference.
** They are only songs, but not Hoffmannish
street-songs, without ideas, expression, and
above all, melody," he closes. We can no
longer doubt from this that he would not
suffer his creations to be despoiled of their
spiritually-poetic nature. He would not allow
his songs to be sung by any one until he him-
self had brought them out in the concert-
room. "The master must maintain his rights
by his own presence and correct performance,"
says he. It is this distinctive nature and form
of modern music which is fully revealed for
the first time in Mozart and Beethoven, and
music which has been created by the intellect
can only be properly judged by the intellect.
There was also that inner something, " the
musical nature," which impelled him and
urged him on to his most characteristic crea-
tions. "One is seized upon by a conscious
mood which will not endure restraint," he
once said. In like manner at another time he
made the characteristic remark : " The music
plays upon me as if I were a piano." Apro-
pos of the technical side of music, he char-
86 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
acteristically remarked to Dies in 1805 : " If
an idea struck me as beautiful and satisfactory
to the ear and the heart, I would far rather let
a grammatical error remain than sacrifice
what is beautiful to mere pedantic trifling."
Finally, that we may point out to the
player some instances of this actual life-paint-
ing in tones, let us take the well known
Peters' Edition, which is easily accessible to
every one. First of all, among the thirty-
four piano sonatas, the one in C sharp minoi
is a beautiful piece of earnest work and full
of character, the Minuet very melancholy
and illustrating the national melody of that
southern people. No. 5 is the clearest pict-
ure of buoyant health. One can see young
life at play in the spring-meadows. In No. 7
the music assumes a strange capriciousness,
and in the Largo in D minor, notwithstand-
ing it is barely eighteen measures long, shows
the grand tragic style of Beethoven, as well as
its humor, which recalls the variations in F
minor, whose color and rhythm suggest the
ftmeral march in the Eroica. The Adagio of
the A flat major sonata, No. 8, is a gem of the
intellectual development of all harmonic and
THE QUARTETS. 87
contrapuntal means, and in the Larghetto of
No. 20, surely all the nightingales of life are
deliciously warbling. Both of these are com-
plete lyric scenes. Above all, the first as well
as the last sonata of Haydn's shows a plastic
touch, which clearly reveals this master's nat-
ural and artistic feeling, and often fills us with
overwhelming astonishment at the power of
genius, which in such small limits and with
such simple means can utter things that to-
day are immediately recognized, wherever
feeling exists and is capable of manifesting
itself in the comprehension of the mission of
human life.
Eicher, greater, more inwardly finished,
if not always esthetic in the highest sense
throughout, this appears in the quartets,
and here, above all else, we first discover that
Haydn in that style was the forerunner of Mo-
zart and Beethoven alike, and still further, that
he was the original source of the success of the
later Italians who copied his sprightliness, his
thoughtful style, amiability and natural spirit,
while the German heroes found their native
power and their free mental conception and
method in his own inner life, culminating
88 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
in the matchless melody of Franz Schubert,
These spirited first movements, these flowing
Finales, these Minuets, these Adagios, full of
ever-increasing and exuberant wit, how irre-
sistibly they seize upon one! How their warm
affection satisfies I It is, in fact, " Idea, Ex-
pression, Melody." Glance only at the pieces
which may be found in the Peters' Edition :
Op. 54, with the highly characteristic Minuet
and the Finale, is remarkable in itself
for a Presto contained in the Adagio, as well
as for being the precursor of the Adagio of
Beethoven's sonata, op. 31, No. 1. The Adag-
ios in op. 74, op. 76 and op. 77, are still
grander in tone, but not more beautiful or
fervent than those of op. 54 and op. 64. The
Adagio in op. 103 has in its concluding meas-
ures somewhat of the blessed and elevated
nature of the close of that most beau ti Ail of all
soul-poems which pure music has created, —
the Lento of op. 135, Beethoven's grave-song.
We need not mention the symphonies, those
well known works of Haydn. Everywhere
in his music we meet what Goethe calls the
absolute source of all life — " Idea and Love."
We have seen that isolation enriched and
MOZART. 89
prospered Haydn. We arrive now at a peri-
od when by his intimate personal association
with Mozart, and his entrance into the great
changing outer world, he was destined to de-
velop his genius to its fullest extent.
CHAPTEK III.
THE FIRST LONDON JOURNEY.
1781—1792.
A Winter Adventure— The Relations of Mozart and Haydn —
Mozart's Dedication — ^The Emperor Joseph's Opinions —
Letters to Fran von Glenzinfirer — A Catalogrue of Com-
plaints — ^His Engagement with Salomon— The London
Journey — Scenes on the Way — A Brilliant Reception —
Rivalry of the Professional Concerts — ^The Hftndel Festival —
Honors at Oxford — Pleyel's Arrival — ^Royal Honors — His
Benefit Concertr— Return to Vienna.
" I am already at home in Vienna by my
few works, and if the composer is not there
his children always are in all the concerts,"
replied Haydn to that Charity for artists' wid-
ows, which wished to elect him as a " foreign-
er/' upon such severe conditions. We meet
with a characteristic instance of this populari-
ty about the year 1770, when he once, as was
his habit, went to Vienna on business.
It was winter. Over his somewhat shabby
garments he had thrown a fur cloak, whose
age was also conspicuous. An uncombed wig
(90)
AN ADVENTURE. 91
and an old hat completed his costume. Haydn,
so great a friend of neatness, on this occasion
would hardly have been recognized. He
looked like a masquerader, when he entered
Vienna. At the residence of a Count ia
Kamthner Street he heard the music of one
of his own symphonies. The orchestra was
powerful, the players good. "Stop, coach-
man, stop." Haydn sprang out of the car-
riage, hurried up to the house, ascended the
steps, entered the vestibule and listened quiet-
ly at the door. A servant approached, sur-
veyed the strange apparition from head to
foot, and at last thundered out : " What are
you doing here, sir ?" " I would like to listen
a little." "This is no place for listening; go
about your business." Haydn pretended not
to hear the abuse. The servant at last seized
him by the cloak with the words: "You
have heard enough, now pack off or I will
pitch you out doors." Haydn handed him a
couple of Kreuzer pieces. As soon as the Al-
legro was finished the servant again urged him
to go. Haydn wanted to hear the Adagio,
and was searching his pocket anew, when by
chance the door was opened, and he was rec-
92 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
ognized by one of the players. In an in-
stant the hall resounded with a loud greeting.
" Haydn, Haydn/' was on every lip ! The
doors were thrown open and more than twenty
persons surrounded the revered master and
bore him into the salon, a part of them greet-
ing him as an acquaintance and the rest seek-
ing an introduction. In the midst of the loud
acclamation, a shrill voice above them cried
out: "That is not Haydn; it is impossible.
Haydn must be larger, handsomer and strong-
er, not such a little insignificant man as that
one there in the circle." Universal laughter
ensued. Haydn, more astonished than any
of the rest, looked about him to see who had
disputed his identity. It was an Italian
Abbe who had heard of Haydn and admired
him very much. He had mounted a table in
order to see him. The universal laughter only
ended with the commencement of the Adagio
but Haydn remained until the close of the
symphony.
" My only misfortune is my country life,''
Haydn writes in the spring of 1781, but he
could be in Vienna two of the winter months
at least, and there it was he found the artist,
MOZART AND HAYDN. 93
who more than all others, not excepting even
Philip Emanuel Bach, influenced him and
helped to raise his fame " to the stars " —
Mozart.
Their personal acquaintance first com-
menced in the spring of 1781, when Mozart
came to Vienna and permanently remained
there. The letters of Mozart^s father, during
the journeys of 1764 and 1768, make no men-
tion of Haydn, and in the summer of 1773,
when Mozart passed a short time in Vienna,
Haydn as usual was at Esterhaz. Mozart^s
own letters however show that even as a boy
he knew and admired Haydn. He sent for
his Minuets from Italy, and also created a taste
for the German Minuet among the Italians.
The actual acquaintance between these two
artists, so widely apart in years, the true foun-
dation of which both in life and in their works,
rested above all upon that cordiality which is
so intimate a part of German life, must have
brought them very closely together. How
Mozart felt towards Haydn, a statement of
Griesinger's shows. Haydn once brought out
a new quartet in the presence of Mozart and
his old enemy, the Berliner, Leopold Kozeluch,
94 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
in which some bold changes occurred. " That
sounds strange. Would you have written that
so ? " said Kozeluch to Mozart. " Hardly " was
the reply, " but do you know why ? Because
neither you nor I could have hit upon such
an idea." At another time, when this talent-
less composer would not cease his fault-finding,
Mozart excitedly exclaimed : " Sir, if we were
melted down together, we would be far from
making a Haydn."
Association with the circles, in which at this
golden time of music in Vienna, Haydn^s com-
positions were cherished with pleasure and love,
and even with actual devotion, by artists and
connoisseurs, inspired him to accomplish some-
thing of equivalent value. As early as the
autumn of 1782, he commenced to write a
series of six quartets, and the Italian dedication
of them to Haydn is the most beautiful in-
stance of unselfish admiration that can be
conceived. It was written in the autumn of
1785, and the translation reads :
My dbab friend Haydn:
When a father sends his sons out into the wide
world, he should, I think, confide them to the proteo-
tion aud guidance of a highly celebrated man, who by
THE MOZART DEDICATION. 96
some happy dispensation is also the best among his
friends. So to this famous man and most precious
friend, to thee, I bring my six sons. They are, it is
true, the fruit of long and laborious toil, but the hope
which my friends hold out to me leads me to antici-
pate that these works, a part at least, will compensate
me, and it gives me courage and persuades me that
some day they will be a source of happiness to me.
You, yourself, dearest friend, expressed your satisfac-
tion with them during your last visit to our capital.
Your judgment above all inspires me with the wish
to offer them to you, and with the hope that they will
not seem wholly unworthy of your favor. Take them
kindly, and be to them a father, guide and friend.
From this moment I resign all right in them to you,
and beg you to regard with indulgence the faults
which may have escaped the loving eyes of their
father, and in spite of them to continue your generous
friendship towards one who so highly appreciates it.
Meantime I remain with my whole heart, your sin-
cere friend.
W. A. MOZABT.
He called Haydn " Papa," and when some
one spoke of his dedication, replied: "That
was duty, for I first learned from Haydn how
one should write quartets.*' How Haydn with
his simple modesty always bowed to divinely
inspired genius, is shown by a letter from
Mozart's father, of the fourteenth of Februarj
96 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
of the same year, 1785, which may be found
complete in the book : " Mozart, after Sketches
by his Cotemporaries/' (Leipsic, 1880). It
reads : " On Saturday evening Herr Joseph
Haydn was with us. The new quartets were
played, which complete the other three we have.
They are a little easier but delightfully written.
Herr Haydn said to me : * I declare to you,
before God and upon my honor, your son is
the greatest composer with whom I am per-
sonally acquainted. He has taste and pos-
sesses the most consummate knowledge of com-
position.' " That was truly an expression of
" satisfaction," and to such a " father " Mozart
might well entrust his " children." He un-
derstood their merits and character. "If
Mozart had composed nothing else but his
quartets and his * Requiem ' he would have
been immortal," the Abbe Stadler heard
Haydn remark afterwards. During a discus-
sion of the well-known discord in thfintroduc-
tion to the C major quartet, he declared that
if Mozart vnrote it so, he had some good rea-
son for it. He never neglected an opportunity
of hearing Mozart^s music, and declared that
he could not listen to one of his works with-
LETTER TO PRAGUE. 97
out learning something. Kelly in his Remin-
iscences, tells of a quartet performance about
the year 1786, in which Haydn, Dittersdorf
Mozart and Banhall took part — certainly
an unprecedented gathering. Dittersdorf, of
whose virtuoso playing mention has already
been made, must have played the first violin.
In the year 1787, "Don Juan" was brought
out in Prague, and as Mozart could not enter-
tain a proposition for a second opera, applica-
tion was made to Haydn. He wrote from
Ester haz, in December, one of the most beau-
tiful of all his letters. It is contained in Mo-
zart's Biography : " You desire a comic opera
from me," he says. " Gladly would I furnish
it, if you desired one of my vocal compositions
for yourself alone, but if it is to be brought
out in Prague, I could not serve you, because
all my operas are so closely connected with our
personal circle at Esterhaz, and they could not
produce the proper effect which I calculated
in accordance with the locality. It would be
different, if I had the inestimable privilege of
composing an entirely new work for your the-
ater. Even then, however, the risk would be
great, for scarcely any one can bear compari-
7
98 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
son with the great Mozart. Would that I
could impress upon every friend of music, and
especially upon great men, the same deep sym-
pathy and appreciation for Mozart's inimita-
ble works that I feel and enjoy ; then, the na-
tions would vie with each other in the posses-
sion of such a treasure. Prague should hold
fast to such a dear man, and also remunerate
him, for without this the history of a great man
is sad indeed, and gives little encouragement
to posterity for effort. It is for the lack of
tbis, so many promising geniuses are wrecked.
It vexes me that this matchless man is not yet
engaged by some imperial or royal court.
Pardon me if I am excited, for I love the
man very dearly."
The above reproach was superfluous so far as
Mozart was concerned, for he had at that time
been appointed chamber-composer at the im-
perial court, though Haydn, being in Eisen-
stadt, did not know it; but without any doubt
the reproach was applicable in another case —
that of Haydn himself. The recognition of
his special work had as yet made but little
progress among the professional musicians,
critics and influential circles. His letters are
THE emperor's VIEWS, 99
full of protests against this injustice and mis-
fortune, and the statements of Mozart, already-
quoted, show how just they were. The ele-
gant leaders of Italian fashion and Spanish
etiquette were not more likely to encourage a
low-born Esterhaz Capellmeister in uncivilized
Hungary than they were the national humor,
pleasantry and vivacity which had for the first
time found proper expression in music, and
the liberties which these qualities permitted,
contrary to the accepted style, were either not
recognized at all, or looked upon as mistakes.
It was all the more unfortunate for him that
Joseph II was the very embodiment of this
foreign manner. The well known Reichardt,
who met the Emperor in Vienna in 1783, re-
lates : " I thought at least in a conversation
about Haydn, whom I named with reverence,
and whose absence I regretted, we should
agree. 'I thought,' said the Emperor, *you
Berlin gentlemen did not care for such trifling.
I do n't care much for it, and so it goes pretty
hard with the excellent artist.' " This in a
measure is confirmed by a conversation be-
tween Joseph and Dittersdorf, two years later :
"What do you think of his chamber-muric ?^
100 THE MFE OF HAYDN.
'' That it is making a sensation all over the
world, and with good reason," " Is he not too
much addicted to trifling ?*' " He has the gift
of trifling without degrading his art." " You
are right there/'
While such malicious partiality and mis-
comprehension must have distressed Haydn
very much, it secured for him the renewed
good opinion of Mozart and recognition of his
elevated character, and he did not refrain
from giving expression to it. "It was truly
touching when he spoke of the two Haydns
and other great masters. One would have
thought ho was listening to one of his scholars
rather than to the all-powerful Mozart," says
Niemetscheck, speaking of Mozart's visit to
Prague. Rochlitz also reports the following
opinion which Mozart expressed: "No one
can play with and profoundly move the feel-
ings, excite to laughter and stir the deepest
emotions, each with equal power, like Joseph
Haydn." Such reverence must have given
the master the fiiUest conviction of his artistic
power, for who was hetter qualified to pass
such judgment than such a genius? Mean-
while this judgment was confirmed by un-
MUSICAL THIEVES, 101
prejudiced hearers all over the world. As we
learn from Gyrowetz's Autobiography, a sym-
phony of this young master was played in
Paris as a favorite composition in all the
theaters and concerts, because it was mistaken
for a work of Haydn's. He also had to spe-
cially protect his music from being clandes-
tinely copied and engraved.
It is not surprising therefore to hear him
say at the close of a letter in 1787, in which
he offers a London publisher the " Seven
Words," six "splendid" symphonies, and
three " very elegant " nocturnes : " I hope to
see you by the close of this year, as I have
not yet received any reply from Herr Cramer
as to an engagement for myself this winter in
Naples." The London invitation concerned
the so-called professional concerts. A year
afterward, J. P. Salomon contracted with him
for concert-engagements in the Haymarket
theater. Mozart writes to his father in 1783
as follows : " I know positively that Hofstetter
has twice copied Haydn's music," and Haydn
himself in 1787 writes to Artaria: "Your
own copyist is a rascal, for he offered mine
eight ducats this winter to let him have the
102 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
* Seven Words/" He justly complains that
he is not paid sufficiently for his works, and
on one occasion thanks Artaria ^' without end
for the unexpected twelve ducats." " I have
until now kept it from my readers that Haydn
declared on the occasion of my first visit to
him he had been in straightened circum-
stances to his sixtieth year," says Dies, and he
adds that in spite of all his economy and the
generosity of Prince Nicholas at his death,
and thirty years of hard toil, his entire proper-
ty consisted of a small house and five hun-
dred florins in gold. Besides this he had
about two thousand florins in public funds
which he had laid aside against a time of
need. Dies rightly attributes such penury
after such industry to the extravagance of his
wife. But notwithstanding the Esterhazy
goodness, the fact remains that Haydn often
found himself longing for a change. It mat-
tered little that he had equal fame with Gluck
and Mozart. Such a Prince should have kept
the purse of a man of such sensitive and ex-
alted feeling well filled.
" My greatest ambition is to be recognized
by all the world as the honest man which I
GEATITUDE TO HIS PBINCE. 103
really am/' he writes about the year 1776,
and dedicates all the praises he had received
•* to Almighty God, for to Him alone are they
due." His wish was neither to oflfend his
neighbor nor his gracious Prince, and above
all, the merciful God. Now that he realized
the beautiful divine pleasure of reverence, and
that his unworthy situation with its con-
stant restrictions and distress pressed upon his
artistic feeling, he longed for a change more
ardently than ever. "I had a good Prince,
but at times had to be dependent on base
souls; I often sighed for release," he writes
from London in 1791. His determination to
accept the London invitation must have been
very strong, for a letter of 1781 closes:
" Meanwhile I thank you very much for the
lodgings offered me." His gratitude actually
prevented him from traveling, though he was
literally besieged by his friends, and, as we
have seen, was invited from abroad. "He
swore to the Prince to serve him until death
should separate them and not to forsake him
though he were offered millions," Dies heard
him say. The Prince in times of pressing ne-
cessity allowed him to draw upon his credit,
104 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
but Haydn availed himself of this privilege as
seldom as possible, and was always satisfied
with small sums.
Among impressions so varied in their nature,
the letters were written which belong to the
following year and from which we must pre-
sent a few short extracts. They are addressed
to Frau von Genzinger in Vienna, the wife of
a physician who was also physician in ordinary
to Prince Esterhazy. She was very intimate
with our master in his later years, for she had
made his friendship in connection with his art,
having arranged symphonies of his for the
piano. In reading these letters, one truly feels
the noble aspirations of Haydn's soul. The in-
fluence which this excellent lady had upon the
poetical character of his works is evident in the
beautiful sonata whose Adagio "meant so
much.'* Here indeed vibrate accords as full
of life and longing as music was capable of
expressing at that time in her soft measures.
In the house of this " ladies' doctor," as he
was universally called in Vienna, Mozart,
Dittersdorf, Albrechtsberger, afterward Bee-
thoven's teacher, and Haydn, when he was in
Vienna, met regularly on Sundays, and it
FRAU VON GENZINGER. 105
must have been doubly painful to him to go
back to his wretched solitude from these de-
lightful gatherings where he could sit near her
ladyship and hear the master-pieces of Mozart
played. Alas ! the separation came sooner than
Haydn wished. " The sudden resolution of
my Prince to withdraw from Vienna, which is
hateful to him, is the cause of my precipitate
journey to Esterhaz," he writes in 1789. In
contrast with the other magnates, who were
fond of displaying their splendor and gratify-
ing their tastes, and nowhere was this so true
as in Vienna, Prince Nicholas with his in-
creasing years grew more and more unpopular
in that city. Haydn himself gives the most
forcible expression to his dissatisfaction with
his surroundings.
The address : " High and nobly bom, high-
ly esteemed, best of all, Frau von Genzinger,"
shows us the style of the time, and the follow-
ing letter of February 9, 1790, tells us the
whole story :
" Here I sit in my wilderness, deserted like
a poor orphan, almost without human society,
sad, full of the recollections of past happy
days, yes, past, alas ! And who can say when
i06 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
those delightful days will return — ^those pleas-
ant gatherings, when the whole circle were of
one heart and soul — ^all those charming mu-
sical evenings which can only be imagined, not
described? Where are all those inspired mo-
ments? All are gone, and gone for a long
time," he writes, and it was only his native
cheerfulness that could allay this feeling of
loneliness. " Wonder not, dear lady, that I
have delayed so long in writing my gratitude.
I found every thing at home torn up. For
three days I was uncertain whether I was
Capellmeister or Capell- servant. Nothing
consoled me. My entire apartment was in
confusion. My piano, which I love so much,
was inconstant and disobedient, and it vexed
instead of tranquilizing me. I could sleep
but little, my dreams troubled me so. When
I dreamed of hearing * The Marriage of Fig-
aro,' a fatal north -wind awoke me and al-
most blew my night-cap off my head." In
his next remarks we learn of a composition >
about which he had written a short time be-
fore to his publisher, saying that he had in
his leisure hours composed a new capriccio for
the piano, which by its taste, originality and
A MOURNFUL LETTER. 107
close finish would be sure to receive universal
applause. " I became three pounds thinner
on the way," he continues, " because of the loss
of my good Vienna fare. Alas, thought I to
myself, when in my restaurant I had to eat a
piece of fifty-year-old cow instead of fine beef,
an old sheep and yellow carrots instead of a
ragout and meat balls, a leathery grill in-
stead of a Bohemian pheasant! alas, alas,
thought I, would that I now had many a
morsel which I could not have eaten in Vi-
enna! Here, in Esterhaz, no one asks me,
'Would you like chocolate? Do you desire
cofiee with or without milk ? With what can
I serve you, my dear Haydn ? Will you have
vanilla or pine-apple ice?' Would that I
had only a piece of good Parmesan cheese, so
that I might the more easily swallow the
black dumplings I Pardon me, most gracious
lady, for taking up your time in my first
letter with such piteous stuff. Much allow-
ance must be made for a man spoiled by the
good things in Vienna. But I have already
commenced to accustom myself to the country
by degrees, and yesterday I studied for the
first time quite in the Haydn manner."
108 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
An event shortly after occurred which
for the time greatly stimulated his creative
ability. The Princess died, and the Prince
sank into such melancholy that he wanted
music every day. At this time he would not
allow him to be absent for twenty-four hours.
He speaks often of his deep distress of heart
and of his many disappointments and ill hu-
mors. " But, thank God, this time will also
pass away," he says at the close of a letter, in
which he is looking forward to the winter.
'* It is sad always to be a slave, but Providence
so wills it," he says on another occasion. " I
am a poor creature, continually tormented
with hard work, and with but few hours for
recreation. Friends? What do I say? One
true friend? There are no longer any true
friends, save one, oh I yes, I truly have one,
but she is far away from me ; I can take ref-
uge, however, in my thoughts ; God bless her
and so order that she shall not forget me."
" My friendship for you is so tender that it
can never become culpable, since I always
have before my eyes reverence for your
exalted virtue," he also wrote in reply to
Frau von Genzinger, concerning a letter
which to his regret had been lost.
A SUDDEN CHANGE. 109
We now come to a time when the "ill-*
humors " ceased, and Haydn secured a better
situation, and, more than all, complete free-
dom. The Prince died and crowned his gen-
erosity with the legacy of a pension of one
thousand gulden. The new Prince, Paul An-
ton, added four hundred gulden more to it,
so that Haydn could now live comfortably up-
on a stipend of two thousand eight hundred
marks. He discharged the orchestra and only
required of Haydn that he should retain the
title of Capellmeister at Esterhaz. Haydn
called this position "poorly requited" and
added that he was on horseback, "without
saddle or bridle," but hoped one day or other
by his own service, " for I can not flatter or
beg," or by the personal influence of his gra-
cious Prince, to be placed in a higher posi-
tion. But this did not occur until a later
time, and then by the help "of his fourth
Prince," He soon removed to Vienna, and
declined the invitation of Prince Grassalko-
wic to enter his service. It was not long be-
fore his affairs took a happy turn in another
direction, and in the place of rural restraint
he enjoyed the widest and most unrestricted
public liberty.
110 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
The violinist, J. P. Salomon, a native of
Bonn, who had played in Haydn's quartets
long before and occupied a distinguished place
in the musical world of London, entered his
room one evening and curtly said : " I am Sal-
omon, of London, and have come to take you
away. We will close the bargain to-morrow."
He was on his travels engaging singers for the
theatrical manager GUUini, and on his return
to Cologne, heard of the death of Prince Es-
terhazy. Haydn at first offered various objec-
tions — his ignorance of foreign languages, his
inexperience in traveling and his old age; but
Salomon's propositions were so brilliant that
he wavered. Five thousand gulden, and the
sale of his compositions were something worth
unusual consideration in the straightened cir-
cumstances of a simple musician, entering upon
old age. Besides, he had plenty of composi-
tions finished which no one knew of outside
of Esterhaz. He made his assent conditional
upon the Prince's permission and gave no fur-
ther heed to Salomon's persuasions. Mozart
himself, who had traveled much about the
world, interposed his objections with the best
intentions. " Papa " was too old. He was
FAREWELL PREPARATiONS. Ill
not fitted for the great world. He spoke too
few languages. A man of fifty-eight ought to
remain quietly among his old and sure friends.
" I am still active and strong, and my language
is understood all over the world," he replied.
The Prince did not refuse his permission,
and the expenses of the journey were advanced.
Haydn sold his little house at Eisenstadt, took
the five hundred gulden which he had saved'
up, consigned his bonds to his " highly cher-
ished " Vienna friend to whom he commended
his wife, and made all his preparations for the
journey which was to establish his fame all
over the world. He started Dec. 15, 1790.
Mozart did not leave his beloved " Papa " the
whole day. He dined with him, and tear-
fully exclaimed at the moment of separation :
"We are saying our last farewell to-day."
Haydn was also deeply moved. He was
twenty-four years older, and the thought of
his own death alone occurred to him. It was
but a year later that he heard of Mozart's
death, and shed bitter tears. " I shall rejoice
in my home and in embracing my good friends
like a child," he wrote at a later time to Frau
von Genzinger, " only I lament that the great
112 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
Mozart will not be among them, if it be true,
which I hope not, that he is dead. Posterity
will not find euch talent again for a century."
He was the one who was destined to be the
heir of Mozart, and it was his London visit
which broadened his intellectual horizon and
gave his fancy freer development. He was
then the direct guide of Beethoven, whose so-
natas, quartets and symphonies were more
closely developed and patterned upon the
works which Haydn had then written than up-
on Mozart's, the marvelous beauty of whose
music was more like an inspiration from above,
which could scarcely be appropriated or imi-
tated by his followers.
His letters to Frau von Grenzinger abound
in information about the events of this jour-
ney, and, thanks to the detailed investigation
of C. F. Pohl in his little book, " Mozart and
Haydn in London " (Vienna: 1867), we are
now placed in full possession of them, but we
shall confine ourselves only to those details
which are indispensable to a record of Haydn's
progress.
In Munich, Haydn became acquainted with
Cannabich, who had so greatly promoted sym-
HONORS FROM THE ELECTOR. 113
phony performances in Germany— an ac-
quaintance which must have been of two-fold
interest to the founder of the symphony. In
Bonn, particularly, where his music had many
friends, and had been played exceedingly often
in churches, theaters, public and chamber-
concerts (see Beethoven's Life, Vol. I), he was
astonished on one occasion, according to Dies'
narrative. Salomon took him on Christmas
night to the mass. "The first chords revealed
a work of Haydn's. Our Haydn regarded it
as an accident, though it was very agreeable
to him to listen to one of his own works/' it is
said. Towards the close, a person approach-
ed him and invited him to enter the oratory.
Haydn was not a little astonished when he
saw that the Elector* Maximilian had sum-
moned him. He took him by the hand and
addressed his musicians in these words : " Let
me make you acquainted with your highly
cherished Haydn." The Elector allowed him
time for them to become acquainted, and then
invited him to his table. The invitation
caused him a little embarrassment, for he and
Salomon had arranged a little dinner in their
own house. Haydn took refuge in excuses,
8
114 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
and thereupon withdrew and betook himself
to his residence, where he was surprised by an
unexpected proof of the good will of the Elect-
or. At his quiet command, the little dinner
had changed into a large one for twelve per-
sons, and the most skillful of the musicians had
been invited. Could the Elector's court or-
ganist, Beethoven, have been among the guests?
He was at that time twenty years old, and cer-
tainly was among the most skillful of the mu-
sicians.
Haydn writes about the remainder of the
journey and his arrival in London, to his friend
in Vienna. He remained on deck during the
entire passage, that he might observe to his
heart's content that huge monster, the sea.
He might have thought with an ironical smile
of the storm in " The Devil on Two Sticks."
He was completely overwhelmed *' with the
endlessly great city of London, which aston-
ishes me with its varied beauties and wonders,"
but it still further broadened his experience
to see with his own eyes the representatives of
a great free people like those of England. His
arrival had already caused a great sensation ,
and for three days he went the rounds of all
A BRILLIANT WELCOME. 115
the newspapers. After a few days he was in-
vited to an amateur concert, and leaning upon
the arm of the director, passed through the
hall to the front of the orchestra amid univer-
sal applause, " stared at by all and greeted with
a multitude of English compliments." After-
ward he was conducted to a table set for two
hundred guests, where he was requested to sit
at the head, but he declined the honor, since he
had already dined out, that noon, and eaten
more than usual ; but in spite of this he was
obliged to drink the harmonious good health
of the company in Burgundy.
This brilliancy of welcome characterized
Haydn's London visit until its close. Both so-
cially and as an artist he knew how to win
hearts to himself. His countryman, Gyrowetz,
introduced him to fashionable families which
gave entertainments, where Haydn was the cen-
ter of attraction. His simple and cordial man-
ner and its great contrast with the imperious
manner which the Italian artists assumed upon
the strength of their long residence, suited the
English, and when he rose from the table,
seated himself at the piano and sang the
cheerful German songs, all, e^en the most /
/
116 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
prejudiced, circulated his fame. Instances
like that of the insulting slur of the once so
celebrated, but at that time old and conceited,
Italian violinist, Giardini, who received the
announcement of his visit with the remark,
" there is nothing for me to learn from the
German dog," were rare, but Haydn instead
of being angry only laughed at his folly. In
contrast with such arrogance, he cherished
genuine artists, as we know from his association
with the great organ-player, Dupuis. Sir G.
Smart, so well known to us from " Beethoven's
Life," relates that he saw him listening with
close attention to Dupuis' playing at St. James
church, and that when the latter came out of
the chapel, Haydn embraced and kissed him.
The unanimous recognition of others' merits
was a natural characteristic of Haydn as well
as of Mozart. The newspapers had something
to say about him every day, but already that
envy and malice began, against which he, like
every other one of prominence, had had to
contend from youth up. They discovered that
his powers were in their decadence, and on that
account it was useless to longer expect any-
thing like his earlier productions. And
THE PROFESSIONAL CX)NCERT3. 117
this, too, when the Salomon concerts had com-
menced and achieved the highest success, since
every new work of the master brought him
new fame. The Professional Concerts, un-
der the direction of the violinist Cramer,
who had offered him an engagement in 1787,
were his worst enemies. It was the professors,
or the professional musicians, who arranged
these, and society rivalry led them to look upon
his success with an envious eye. And yet
Haydn was present at their first concert of the
season which preceded the Salomon concerts,
and had complimented them upon performing
his symphonies so well without having had
the opportunity of hearing them.
Salomon's first concert met with decided
success. It was of special advantage that
Haydn in his judicious way knew how to se-
cure a particular freedom of performance from
his orchestra. He would flatter his players
and delicately mingle blame and praise. He
invited the best among them to dine, and be-
sides all this, he took pains to practically ex-
plain his ideas to them, so that the result, as
Dies emphatically says, was affection and
inspiration. He would induce the Italian
118 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
singers themselves, who sedulously avoided
every difficulty and discord, to execute his fre-
quently surprising modulations and intona-
tions. " Never, perhaps, have we had richer
musical enjoyment," says the Morning Chron-'
icfo, speaking of the concert, "and the Adagio
of his symphony in D was encored —a very
rare occurrence." His opera " Orpheus and
Eurydice " for Gallini's new theater, though
nearly completed, was not performed, as the
opening of the stage was not allowed. It has
numbers of equal merit with the best that
Haydn has written, but as a whole it is mod-
eled upon the usual Italian pattern of separate
airs. Haydn's genius revealed itself other-
wise in his own special sphere, and except the
quartets, the most of his instrumental music
which has come down to us had its origin at
this time in London, especially the twelve
London symphonies. They display in the
clearest manner the increased development of
his ideas and fancy, the deepening of his
thought and the rich and firm handling of
instruments which place Haydn on the same
plane as Mozart and Beethoven. He had an
orchestra which in strength and skill was sec-
THE HANDEL FESTIVAL. 119
ond to none in the world at that time; at the
same time, the efforts to produce artistic im-
pressions, which seize upon the mind and heart,
aroused and invigorated his large and sym-
pathetic, if not always really musical, audi-
ences. It was Haydn who first created the
love of pure instrumental music in the heart
of the great public of London, where vocal
music since HandePs time had been more
highly valued than elsewhere, and this, too,
not alone for its earnest, but for its humorous
moods, which were more readily appreciated
by Englishmen. It was, however, his quartets
which were sought by the real friends and
students of music, and the best of these also
were written in and for London.
At the end of May, Haydn attended the
great Handel Festival, which had been given
every year since 1784, and in which over one
thousand musicians took part. Even the
sight of the great assemblage was brilliant and
^ Agnificent, but beyond all this, he had the
opportunity of hearing Handel's music in its
full majesty. More than twenty of his large
and minor works were performed, and the pow-
erful personal influence of the master domi-
120 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
nated the performance. When the world-
renowned " Hallelujah " rose in great waves
of sound, and the thousands, with the king at
their head, stood up, there was scarcely a dry
eye. Haydn, who stood near the king's box,
wept like a child, and completely overcome,
exclaimed : " He is the master of us all." The
sublimity of the all-overmastering Eternal he
never displays in his own works. He was, so
to speak, forced out of the church into life,
and never found his way back again to its sub-
lime earnestness, but the religious feeling and
simple piety of the heart were active, living
principles in Haydn's nature, and gave to his
forms that breath of living creation which
transforms them into the "divine likeness."
The perfect innocence and the touching and
beautiful earnestness which often appear in
his works, come from the same source as Han-
del's majestic sublimity. His " Creation '' is a
still more convincing illustration of this. Its
origin was due to the London visit, and many
a large and important choral piece bears wit-
ness to the fact that Haydn had now met and
seen this Handel face to face. He was to him
what Sebastian Bach was to Mozart and Bee-
HONORS AT OXFORD. 121
thoven, whom he had not known so well as
they. On the 8th of July, 1791, after his
brilliant season had come to a close, Haydn re-
ceived a special mark of distinction. The de-
gree of Doctor of Mnsic was conferred upon
him by the University of Oxford. At the last
festival concert, when he entered, clad in his
black silk doctor's gown and four-cornered
cap, he was enthusiastically received. He
seized the skirt of his gown, and held it up
with a loud " I thank you," which simple ex-
pression of gratitude was greeted with univer-
sal applause. This respect for England served
to make him still more famous. Salomon was
warranted in announcing, a month later, that
they would continue their concerts in the same
style as those which had made such a success
in the winter.
Meanwhile, an entirely unexpected sum-
mons to return to Esterhaz reached him. He
was expected to write the opera for a festivity
at the Prince's court. Evidently he could not
comply, for he had signed new terms of agree-
ment with Salomon, and thus had to encounter
the Prince's anger for his desertion of duty.
" Alas, I now expect my discharge, but I
122 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
hope that God will be gracious and help me
in some measure to efface my losses by my
industry/' he wrote to Frau von Genzinger,
September 17, 1791, and this industry was
made less burdensome as he had spent the
summer in the country, amid beautifiil scen-
ery, with a family whose hearts, he writes, re-
semble the Genzingers. How much must he»
who was so accustomed to Nature, have appre-
ciated such a country visit! "I am, God be
thanked, in good health, with the exception
of my customary rheumatism. I am working
industriously, and think every morning, as I
walk alone in the woods with my English
grammar, of my Creator, of my family, and
of all the friends I have left behind," he
writes in his seclusion, which, as we see,
brought him the most beautiful outward and
inward happiness. Added to this was his
consciousness of being free. "O, my dear
gracious lady, what a sweet relish there is in
absolute liberty," he writes again; "I have it
now in some degree ; I appreciate its benefits,
although my mind is burdened with more
work. The consciousness that I am no longer
a servant requites all my toil." He realized
PBOFESSIONAL RIVALRY. 123
there also a striking confirmation of the hap-
piness of rising -from nothing.- His land-
lord, a rich banker, was so impressed with his
narrative of his youthful trials, that he once
swore that he was getting on too well in the
world. He realized for the first time that he
was not happy. " I have only an abundance
and I loathe it," he exclaimed, and wished he
had a pistol that he might shoot himself, an
event, however, which did not happen, much to
Haydn's pleasure.
After his return to London he encountered
exciting times, for the Professional musicians
bent all their energies to surpass the Salomon
concerts, and their public assaults had such
an extended influence that inquiries came
from Vienna about the actual condition of his
circumstances. Even Mozart believed these
reports and thought he must have depreciated
very much. " I can not believe it," Haydn
simply writes, and refers him to his banker,
Count Fries, in whose hands he had placed
five hundred pounds. " I am aware that there
is a multitude of envious persons in London,
the most of whom are Italians, but they can
not hurt me, for my credit with the people
124 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
has been settled many years," he says, and
adds with confident feeling : " Those above
them are my support."
As their next move, the Professionals sought
to secure him for themselves by higher offers,
but he would not break his word or injure his
manager, whose outlay had been so large, by
the gratification of sordid motives. So they
renewed their assaults upon his age and the
pretended decadence of his ability, and an-
nounced that they had secured his pupil Pleyel.
The latter, a neighbor and countryman of
Haydn, was at that time thirty-four years of
age and twenty-five years the younger. Mo-
zart had expressed a favorable opinion of his
talent. He writes to his father in 1784 about
Pleyel's new quartets: "If you do not yet
know them, try to get them ; it is worth the
trouble. You will at once recognize his mas-
ter. It will be a good and fortunate thing for
music if Pleyel in his day is able to supply
Haydn's place for us.'* He was unquestiona-
bly innocent in the matter of the invitation to
come to London, and really made his appear-
ance in the season of 1792.
Meanwhile, Haydn had spent two days with
THE PRINCE OF WALES. 125
the Duke of York, who bad married the seven-
teen-year-old Princess Ulrica, of Prussia,
daughter of King Frederick William 11. In
1787, her music-loving father had sent him a
ring, which he wore as a talisman, and a very
complimentary letter, for six new quartets.
" She is the most charming lady in the world,
is very intelligent, plays the piano and sings
very agreeably," writes Haydn. " The dear
little lady sat near me and hummed all the
pieces, which she knew by heart, having heard
them so often in Berlin. The Duke's broth-
er, the Prince of Wales, played the 'cello ac-
companiment very acceptably. He loves mu-
sic exceedingly, has very much feeling but
very little money. His goodness, however,
pleases me more than any self-interest," he
says in conclusion. The Prince also had
Haydn's portrait painted for his cabinet
Many more personal attentions of a similar
kind were paid him. One Mr. Shaw made a
silver lid for a snuff-box which Haydn had
given him, and inscribed thereon, " Presented
by the renowned Haydn." His very beauti-
ful wife — " the mistress is the most beautiful
woman I have ever seen," he writes in his
126 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
diaxy— embroidered his name in gold upon a
ribbon which he preserved even when a very
old man. It was at this time he received
with bitter tears the news of Mozart's death.
" Mozart died December 5, 1791/' he simply
writes in his diary, but we know the beautiful
remark he made to his friend in Vienna who
had so often played Mozart's masterpieces for
him. At a later period he said in a similar
strain to Griesinger : " Mozart's loss is irre-
trievable. I can never forget his playing in
my life. It went to the heart." In the year
1807, speaking to other musical friends in
Vienna, he said with tears ia his eyes : « Par-
don me, I must always weep at the name of
my Mozart." Indeed, at this time he must
have deeply felt the contrast between the
brilliancy of this genius and the darkness of
his own outer life in these declining years.
And yet he felt all the more the importance
of preserving the respect for German art. In
the midst of such times as these Pleyel ar-
rived. " So there will now be a bloody har-
monious war between master and scholar," he
writes, but on the other hand they were fre-
quently together. " Pleyel displayed so much
HAYDN AND PLEYEL. 127
modesty upon his arrival that he won my
love anew. We are very often together,
which is to his credit, and he knows how to
prize his father. We will share our fame
alike, and each one will go home contented,"
he says. He too must have longed for his
Austrian home, or he would have acted dif-
ferently towards " Papa."
One of the newspapers rightly understood
the situation. " Haydn and Pleyel are oflfeet
against each other this season, and both
parties are earnest rivals, yet as both belong
to the same rank as composers, they will not
share the petty sentiments of their respective
admirers," says the Public Advertiser^ and so
it eventuated, though not until after many
painful experiences for both the men, for
with the others' plans there was mingled very
much of personal animosity. The Profes-
sionals announced twelve new compositions of
Pleyel's. Early in 1792 Haydn writes to
Vienna : " In order to keep my word and
support poor Salomon, I must be the victim,
and work incessantly. I really feel it. My
eyes suffer the most. My mind is very weary,
and it is only the help of Qod that will sup-
\
128 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
ply what is wanting in my power. I daily
pray to Him, for without His assistance I am
but a poor creature." The best hours of the
day he was compelled to devote to visits and
private musicals. " I have never written in
any one year of my life as much as in the
last." he says, and yet his works show all the
charming freshness of youth, with the con-
trast of greater depth and richer illustration.
He found time to arrange twelve Scotch songs,
and he says, "I am proud of this work, and
flatter myself that it will live many years
after I am gone." But they made a complete
failure, and the publishers therefore made a
subsequent application to Beethoven.
The professional concerts at this time again
had the precedence, and it is a fair illustra-
tion of their rivalry, that at the commence-
ment they brought out a symphony of his and
sent him a personal invitation. " They criti-
cise Pleyel's presumption very much, but I
admire him none the less. I have been to all
his concerts, and was the first to applaud him,"
he writes to Vienna. In his first concert he
also brought out a symphony of PleyePs.
His own new symphony, notwithstanding he
THE DBUM SYMPHONY. 129
thought the last movement was weak, made
"the deepest impression upon his audience."
The Adagio had to be repeated, and the en-
tire work was performed again in the eighth
and eighteenth concerts, by " request." For
the second concert he wrote a chorus, " The
Storm." It was the first which he had com-
posed with English text, and it met with ex-
traordinary success, because in it were united
the most striking qualities of his art, skill, and
good humor. As he himself writes, he gained
considerable credit with the English in vocal
music and this was destined to have a decisive
result.
At the sixth concert, March 23, 1792, the
symphony with the kettle-drum effect was
given. Haydn says of it : " It was a convenient
opportunity for me to surprise the public with
something new. The first Allegro was receiv-
ed with innumerable bra vas, but the Andante
aroused the enthusiasm to the highest pitch.
* Encore, encore,' resounded on every side, and
Pleyel himself complimented me upon my
effects." Gyrowetz visited him after its com-
pletion to hear it upon the piano. At the
drum-passage, Haydn, certain of its success,
9
y
130 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
with a roguish laugh, exclaimed : " There
the women will jump." Dies gives the current
version of the original cause of the work as
follows : The ladies and gentlemen in the
concerts, which took place after the late En-
glish dinners, often indulged in a nap, and
Haydn thought he would waken them in this
comic manner. The English call the sym-
phony, " The Surprise," and among all the
twelve, it is to this day, the favorite.
How deeply Haydn's music impressed his
English hearers, and how clearly it appears
that they for the first time recognized the soul
of music, disclosing to the popular mind its
mysterious connection with the Infinite, is evi-
dent from a strange entry in Haydn's diary.
A clergyman, upon hearing the Andante of
one of his symphonies, sank into the deepest
melancholy, because he had dreamed the night
before its performance, that the piece an-
nounced his death. He immediately left the
assemblage, and took to his bed. "I heard to-
day, April 25, that this clergyman died,"
writes Haydn. It is the elementary revela-
tions of the deepest feeling and individual spir-
itual certitude that speak to us in Haydn's
INFLUENCE UPON THE ENGLISH. 131
music, and they have, so to speak, the most
powerful grasp upon our individual existence.
Indeed, they explain the irresistible and im-
measurable influence of music. It is the
image of Infinity itself, while the other arts
are only the images of its phenomena. Ite
influence is so much more ^werful and im-
pressive than that of the other arts, because, aa
the philosopher would say, they represent only
the shadow of things, while music represents
their actual existence. A people so pre-em-
inently metaphysical and serious in charac-
ter as the English, must have taken this sim-
ple, but deeply thoughtful Haydn and his
symphonies into their very hearts. How
could they have awarded the palm to any one
living at that time over him ? He had him-
self thoroughly comprehended the deep-lying
genius of this nation, and in the province of
his genius he could lead it to a point its own
nature could not reach. Every one of his
compositions written for London, as well as
those subsequently, show this, and many of
his utterances illustrate his esteem for the
English public. " The score was much more
acceptable to me because much of it I had to
132 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
change to suit the English taste," he writes in
March, 1792, when his long wished for sym-
phony in E major had been forwarded to him
from Vienna. And it should be remembered
among all these events that Handel had
written all his oratorios in and for London,
and Beethoven's Ninth was " the symphony
for London."
In May, 1792, Haydn had a benefit concert,
at which two new symphonies were performed,
and this, like the last concert, met with such
favor, that Salomon offered the public an extra
concert with the works that had been most
admired during the season. " Salomon closed
his season with the greatest eclat,'* says the
Morning Herald^ and Pohl simply and appro-
priately adds : " Haydn was in all his glory,
beloved, admired and courted. His name was
the main stay of every concert-giver. Paint-
ers and engravers immortalized their art by his
picture." One such, a highly characteristic
profile portrait, by George Dance, is given
with the English edition (1867) of the " Mu-
sical Letters.*' * It confirms the description of
* [This portrait, copied from the original, will be found in the
frontispiece of this volume. — ^Tbanslator.]
THE children's FESTIVAL. 133
his appearance, which has already been given,
in every feature.
Before his departure, he had another ex-
perience, which clearly indicates and reveals
the source of music in his nature. At the
yearly gathering of the Charity Scholars at
St Paul's cathedral, he heard four thousand
children sing a simple hymn. "I was more
touched by this devout and innocent music
than by any I ever heard in my life," he says
in his diary, and he adds in confirmation of it:
" I stood and wept like a child."
With this impression were unconsciously
associated the most active memories of his own
home, from which he had been absent so long.
The home-image never rises so vividly in our
hearts as when we see these little ones who
are so particularly the active genii of the house
and home. He stated, as the principal reason
for his return, his wish to enjoy the pleasure
of his fatherland ; and he wrote in December,
1791, that he could not reconcile himself to
spend his life in London, even if he could
amass millions. Other artists have also borne
testimony to the influence of the Festival allud-
ed to above. In 1837, Berlioz attended it with
y^
134 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
the violinist Duprez aadJohn Cramer. "Never
have I seen Duprez in such a state ; he stam-
mered, wept, and raved," says Berlioz. The
latter, in order to get a better view of the whole
scene, donned a surplice, and placed himself
among the accompanying basses, where, more
than once, " like Agamemnon with his toga,"
he covered his face with his music sheets,
overcome with the sight of the children and
the sound of their voices. As they were going
out, Duprez exclaimed in delight, speaking in
Italian instead of French, in his excitement :
" Marvelous ! marvelous ! The glory of En-
gland ! "
Haydn might well have thought the same,
for he had already made a deep impression
upon the nation, and touched its heart with the
kindly feelings of life.
It was his last great experience" in the vast
city of London," and to Haydn's inner nature
it gave in brief all that he had given and all
that was due to him. It was the first time he
had seen a vast multitude of human beings in
a great and eagerly listening throng, and it
expanded his own nature, which had been re-
stricted, to the widest bounds, without in any
MKS. SCHROTEB's ATTACHMENT. 135
way modifying its power. He had experienc-
ed the full measure of English humor, mani-
festing itself in those relations of personal
affection which the " beautiful and gracious '^
Mrs. Schroter had expressed for him and his
" sweet *' compositions — ^an affection which she
herself regarded as " one of the greatest bless-
ings of her life," and which had bound her to
him in an indissoluble attachment. " My
heart was, and still is, fiill of tenderness for
you, yet words can not express half the love
and affection which I feel for you. You are
dearer to me every day of my life," she says at
another time. That it was the deep principle
and character of his life which had aroused
such a passionate affection in the already aged
lady, these words confess : " Truly, dearest, no
tongue can express the gratitude which I feel
for the unbounded delight your music has
given me." The fact that this loving esteem
was meant for Haydn himself, makes it all the
more beautiful.
Such were the satisfying and grateful feel-
ings which filled his soul at the moment of
parting. Outwardly and inwardly blessed, he
returned to Vienna in July, 1792, and not
two years later, he was again on the Thames.
CHAPTER IV.
THE EMPEROR'S HTMN— THE CREATION AND THE
SEASONS.
1793—1809.
Criticism at Home — ^His Relations to Beetbo^en— Jealousy of
the Great Mogul— His Second London Journey — The
Military Symphony — ^His Lon^^ings for Home — Great Pop-
ularity in England — ^Reception by the Royal Family—
His Gifts — ^Return to Vienna — Origin of the Emperor^s
Hymn — ^The Creation and the Seasons — Personal Char-
acteristics — ^His Death — Haydn^s place in Music.
On his journey back, in July, 1792, Haydn
again visited Bonn. The court musicians
gave him a breakfast at the suburb of Godes-
burg, and Beethoven laid before him a can-
tata, probably the one written on the death of
Leopold II, to which the master gave special
attention and " encouraged its author to assid-
uous study." The arrangements were unques-
tionably made at that time, by which the
young composer afterward became Haydn's
scholar, " for Beethoven even then had sur-
prised every one with his remarkable piano
playing."
(136)
FAME AT HOME. 137
Since the death of Gluck and Mozart,
Haydn had been recognized in Vienna, and
indeed in all Germany, as the first master. In
the spring of 1792 the Musikalische Gorres^
pondenz declared that his services were so
universally recognized, and the influence of
his numerous works was so effective, that his
style appeared to be the sole aim of compo-
sers, and they approached more closely to per-
fection the nearer they approached him. The
fame he had won in England was no longer
doubted or disputed. Every account spoke
of him in a manner that betrayed a feeling of
national pride, says Dies, and all the more
was this the case after he had brought out his
six new symphonies in the Burg Theater, on
the 22nd and 23rd of December, to which
very naturally, eager attention was given in
Vienna. His success was of great advantage
to that same Tonkunstler Societat which had
once treated him so shabbily. He was elected
a member, exempt from dues, but it was never
necessary to make any claim upon him.
The " country of wealth " had so materially
improved his fortune that he bought a little
house in a " retired, quiet place " in the sub-
138 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
urb of Gumpendorf, which his wife, with the
utmost naivete, had picked out for herself,
when she should become a widow, but which
became his own resting-place in his old age.
He added a story to it afterward and lived
there until his death, surviving his wife about
nine years.
Composition and instruction still remained
his regular quiet work. The lessons at this
time, in the case of one scholar at least, were
pretty troublesome. " Haydn has announced
that he shall give up large works to him, and
must soon cease composing," one writes from
Bonn, at the beginning of 1793, referring to
Beethoven. It was a characteristic of the old
master that he advised the young scholar,
three of whose trios (op. 1) had been played
before him and about which he had said
many complimentary things, not to publish
the third, in C minor. He feared that the rest
of the music, in contrast with such "storm
and stress," would appear tame and spiritless,
and that it would rather hurt than help him
in the estimation of the public. This made a
bad impression upon the easily suspicious
Beethoven. He believed Haydn was envious
HAYDN AND BEETHOVEN. 139
and jealous and meant no good to him. Thus it
appears, that from the very beginning all con-
fidence in the instruction was destroyed, and,
besides this, it had little prospect of success,
since the still more revolutionary youth had
gone far beyond his fame-crowned senior in
his innovations. Still he remained until the
end of the year 1793, and the greater youth
never forgot what he owed the great master.
"Coffee for Haydn and myself," and other
observations of a like character in Beethoven's
diary, show, that besides the matter of instruc-
tion there was a personal friendly intercourse
between them. Ostensibly it discontinued
when Haydn's second journey offered a fitting
pretext, but, as a matter of fact, he was at
that time a scholar of Schenk, who is men-
tioned in Mozart's biography. He had very
often complained to other musicians that he
did not get on well with his studies, since
Haydn was occupied altogether too much with
his work and could not devote the requisite
attention to him. Schenk, who had . already
heard Beethoven extemporize at one of his
associates,' the abbe Gtelinek, met him one day,
as he was returning from Haydn, with his
140 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
music under his arm, glanced it over and
found that several errors remained uncorrected.
This decided Beethoven's change and choice.
Notwithstanding all this, it was reported in
Bonn from Vienna, in the summer of 1793,
that the young countryman made great
progress in art, and this was to Haydn's credit,
who, with the help of his Fux and Philip
Emanuel Bach, was able to collect and arrange
the well acquired theoretical knowledge of the
*^ genial stormer," in a practical manner, and
thereby substantially raised him to his own
rank, although he did not comply with the
understood wish of his teacher that he would
place " Scholar of Haydn'' upon the sonatas
(op. 2), dedicated to him, because, as he de-
clared in justification of his refusal, that he
had not learned anything from him. This re-
mark refers to the higlier instruction in com-
position, where their ideas diflfered. Yet in
1793, he went with Haydn to Eisenstadt, and
he had even intended to go with him the next
winter to England. Beethoven's pupil, Bies,
also expressly says that Haydn highly esteem-
ed Beethoven, but as he was so stubborn and
self-willed, he called him "the great Mogul."
PREPARING FOR THE SECOND VISIT. 141
How entirely free from envy Haydn was to-
wards younger artists at this time, is shown by
a note to his godson, Joseph Weigl, afterward
the composer of the " Schweizer FamiKe." " It
is long since I have felt such enthusiasm for
any music as yesterday in hearing your * Prin-
cess of Amalfi,' " he writes to him, January
11, 1794. " It is full of good ideas, sublime,
expressive, in short, a master piece ; I felt the
warmest interest in the well deserved applause
that greeted it. Keep a place for an old boy
like me in your memory." He had always
helped to open the way for the young scholar
into the best musical circles of Vienna, and
now that the teacher was again about to de-
part, the scholar could seek his own fortune
without going astray.
The preparation of the necessary works for
this second journey had been the too constant
occupation of the old man. It must have
been undertaken however for other reasons
than these; for Haydn knew that he must have
something to live upon, even in his simple
manner, in his unemployed old age. It was
not right that a self-willed young beginner,
who paid nothing for his instruction, as he had
142 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
no other means of support except his salary
from the Elector, should take up too much of
his valuable time. It was enough to impart
the main points of instruction without giving
any attention to little and merely incidental
errors which would disappear of themselves in
time. We know Haydn's views of such things,
and there was a characteristic illustration of
them in his later days. The contrapuntist, Al-
brechtsberger, Beethoven's subsequent teach-
er, who, according to the latter's witty state-
ment, at best only created musical skeletons
with his art, insisted that consecutive fourths
should be banished from strict composition.
"What is the good of that?" said Haydn.
" Art is free and should not be tied down with
mechanical rules. Such artifices are of no value.
I would prefer instead that some one would
try to compose a new minuet." Beethoven
actually did this, and called it, in his op. 1,
Scherzo. " Haydn rarely escaped without a
side cut," says Ries of Beethoven — ^but how-
ever all this may be, we may not only imagine
but we know that this opposition between
the two artists, which arose from their diflFer-
ent temperaments, made no real difference in
Beethoven's respect for Haydn.
THE SECOND LONDON JOUKNEY. 143
We now come to the second London jour-
ney. This time the Prince interposed objec-
tions. He desired indeed no personal service,
but he had a pride in Haydn and his fame,
and thought he had secured sufficient glory.
He may also have thought that a man sixty
years old ought not to expose himself to the
hardships of a distant journey, and the perse-
cutions of envy. Haydn appreciated his good
intentions, but he 'still felt strong, and prefer-
red an active life to the quiet in which his
Prince had placed him. Besides, he knew
that the English public would still recognize
his genius, and he had engaged with Salomon
to write six more symphonies, and had many
profitable contracts with various publishers in
London. The Prince at last gave way and
allowed Haydn to go, never to see him again,
for he died shortly afterward, and Haydn
had the fourth of the Esterhazys for patron
and master, upon whose order he composed a
requiem while in London as a tribute to the
departed.
On the 19th of January, 1794, the journey
began. While at Scharding, an incident hap-
pened which clearly shows Haydn's good hu-
144 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
mor. The customs officers asked what his
occupation was. Haydn informed them, " A
tone-artist;" (Tonkunstler), "What is that?"
they replied. " Oh I yes, a potter, (Thonkunst-
ler), said one. "That's it/' averred Haydn,
" and this one," (his faithful servant, Elssler)
" is my partner.'^ At Wiesbaden, he realized
with much satisfaction the greatness of his
fame. At the inn his Andante with the kettle-
drum effect, which had so quickly become a fa-
vorite, was played in a room near by him.
Dies says: "He regarded the player as his
friend, and courteously entered the room. He
found some Prussian officers, all of whom were
great admirers of his works, and when he at
last disclosed himself they would not believe
he was Haydn. ' Impossible ! impossible !
you, Haydn ! a man already so old I this does
not agree with the fire in your music' The
gentlemen continued so long in this strain that
at last he exhibited the letter received from
his king, which he always carried in his chest
for good luck. Thereupon the officers over-
whelmed him with their attentions, and he
was compelled to remain in their company
until long after midnight."
DRUM PLAYING. 145
This time Hayda lived very near to his
friend and admirer, Frau Schroter, yet we
learn nothing further of their relations to each
other. The leading accounts of this second
visit have not been kept, but in reality they
repeat the events of the first. His name this
time was free from detraction. They agreed
that his power had increased, and that one of
the new symphonies was his best work. His
name was in request for every concert-pro-
gramme, and the repetition of his pieces was
as frequent as during his first visit. " In geni-
ality and talent who is like him? " says the
OracUy March 10, 1794.
Sir G. Smart in 1866, then in his ninetieth
year, and who was a violin player with Salo-
mon, relates a neat story of this time, to Pohl,
the biographer. At a rehearsal there was
need of a drummer. Haydn asked: "Is
there any one here who can play the kettle-
drum?" "I can," quickly replied young
Smart, who never had had a drum stick in his
hand, but thought that correct time was all
that was necessary. After the first movement,
Haydn went to him and praised him, but in-
timated to him that in Germany they required
10
146 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
strokes which would not stop the vibrations of
the drum. At the same time he took the
sticks and exhibited to the astonished orches-
tra an entirely new style of drumming.
" Very well," replied the undaunted young
Smart, " if you prefer to have this style, we
can do it just as well in England." Haydn's
first drum lessons with his cousin Frankh, in
Hamburg, will readily occur to the reader.
On the 12th of May, 1794, the Military
Symphony, another favorite among all Hay-
dn's friends, was performed for the first time.
It overflows with genial merriment, and often
with genuine frolicsome humor. Not long
afterward, the news reached him that the new
Prince Nicholas wished to reorganize the or-
chestra at Eisenstadt, and had appointed him
anew as Capellmeister. Haydn received this
news with great pleasure. This princely house
had assured him a living, and, what was of
still more importance, had given him the op-
portunity of fully developing his talent as
a composer. His profits in London far ex-
ceeded his salary in the Fatherland, and a
persistent effort was made to keep him in En-
gland, but he decided as soon as his existing
THE ENGLISH TASTE. 147
engagements were concluded to return to his
old position.
A secret but very powerfully operating
reason may also have been the same which to-
day actuates that greatest of natural tone art-
ists, Franz Liszt— wherever he may go, he
always returns to Germany. It is the spirit
of music itself which permeates every fiber of
our life, in the earnest feeling of which we
bathe and find health. Notwithstanding the
attractive performance of the orchestra and of
the virtuosi, the most of whom were Germans,
the master did not find London and England
peculiarly musical. What he thought of the
theater is recorded in his diary : " What
miserable stufi* at Saddler's Wells ! A fellow
screamed an aria so frightfully and with such
ridiculous grimaces that I began to sweat all
over. N. B. He had to repeat the aria!
che bestie / " There yet remained much of the
English jockey style in these musico-theatric-
al performances, and the value of music was
reckoned upon another standard than that
which belongs to intellectual things. Thus
we may readily believe, though Haydn him-
self pretended not fco hear it, that the rough
148 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
mob in the gallery, hissing and whistling,
cried out, "Fiddler, Fiddler,** when the or-
chestra rose to honor him, an artist and a for-
eigner, upon his first appearance, in the thea-
ter. After these not very agreeable experi-
ences of English musical taste, Haydn looked
upon it as a comical proof of his reputation,
when, as Griesinger relates. Englishmen would
approach him, measure him from head to foot,
and leave him with the exclamation, "You
are a great man."
Still another circumstance shows how abso-
lutely he preferred his Austrian home. In
August, 1794, he visited the ruins of the old
abbey of Waverly. "I must confess," he
writes in his diary, that every time I look up-
on this beautiful ruin, my heart is troubled as I
think that all this once occurred among those
of my religion." His continual abode among
people of the Protestant confession, so opposed
to his own Catholicism, disturbed those feelings
and ideas of the simple man in these later
years which had swayed his inner nature for
two generations. This is a matter of personal
feeling, and does not affect that toleration
which in all religious matters characterized his
INCREASING FAME. 149
beautiful nature. Finally, political freedom,
which had made England so powerful, was
not agreeable to his primitive manner of life.
While he says not a word of the excellencias
of the life of a great free people, he several
times alludes to the rude noises and frantic
shouts of the " sweet mob" (suessen Poebels) in
London festivals and at the theaters. Social-
ly considered, notwithstanding the political
freedom, the barriers that separated classes
were just as distinct and insurmountable as
they are to-day. Nowhere in the world,
indeed, is custom more formal— reason enough
in itself to make him love his Fatherland all
the more fervently.
His fame in England, however, continually
increased. He was already called a genius in-
ferior to no one, and this, too, in the same
connection with the mention of a performance
of Hamlet, which he had attended. His
sportive humor allied him very closely to
the great English tragic poet: if not so
deep and so quickly moving to tears, he still
derived his power doubtless from the same sim-
ple source of feeling. He himself mentions one
instance of his roguish humor while in Lon-
150 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
don, according to Dies and others. He was
intimately acquainted with a German who had
acquired boundless dexterity in the violin
technique, and was addicted to the common
practice of always making effects in the ex-
tremely high tones. Haydn wished to see if he
could not disgust him with this dilettantist
weakness and induce a feeling for legitimate
playing. The violinist often visited one Miss
Janson, who played the piano very skillfully*
and was accustomed to accompany him. Hay-
dn wrote a sonata for them, called it " Jacob's
Dream," and sent it anonymously to the lady,
who did not hesitate to perform it with the
violinist, as it appeared to be an easy little
work. At first it flowed easily through pas-
sages which were begun in the third position
of the violin. The violinist was in ecstasies.
" Very well written. One can see the com-
poser knows the instrument," he murmured.
But in the close, instead of lowering to a prac-
tical place, it mounted to the fifth, sixth, and
at last to the seventh position. His fingers
continually crowded against and through each
other like ants. Crawling around the instru-
ment and stumbling over the passages, he ex-
Jacob's ladder. 151
claimed with the sweat of misery on his brow :
" Who ever heard of such scribbling ? The
man knows nothing about writing for the
violin." The lady soon discovered that the
composer meant to illustrate by these high
passages the heavenly ladder which Jacob saw
in his dream, and the more she observed her
companion stumbling around unsteadily upon
this ladder, reeling and jumping up and down,
the thing was so comical that she could not
conceal her laughter, which at length broke
out in a storm, from which we may fancy that
it cured the dilettante of his foolish passion. It
was not discovered until five or six months
afterward who the composer was, and Miss
Janson sent him a gift.
Haydn's influence upon the public during
his second visit to London is observed even in
stiU higher degree. Salomon, indeed, said,
though somewhat figuratively, yet openly, to
" proud England," that these Haydn concerts
were not without their influence upon the
public interests, since they had created a per-
manent taste for music. In the spring of 1795,
Haydn saw the royal pair several times. The
first time it was at the house of the young and
162 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
musical Duchess of York, whom the Prince
of Wales had introduced to him. The Han-
overian George III, was already prepossessed in
Handel's favor. Philip Emanuel Bach writes
of him in 1786 : " The funniest of all is the
gracious precautions that are taken to preserve
HandePs youthful works with the utmost care,"
But on this evening, when only Haydn's works
were played by the royal orchestra, under
Salomon's direction, and of course, excellently,
he showed great interest in them also. " Dr.
Haydn,*^ said he, " you have written much."
" Yes, Sire, more than is good." "Certainly
not; the world disputes that." The King then
presented him to the Queen, and said he knew
that Haydn had once been a good singer and
he would like to hear some of his songs."
"Your Majesty, my voice is now only so
large," said Haydn, pointing to the joint of
his little finger. The King smiled, and Hay-
dn sang his song, " Ich bin der Verliebteste."
Two days afterward, there was a similar en-
tertainment at the residence of the Prince of
Wales, who required his presence very often.
He related to Griesinger that upon that oc-
casion he directed twenty-six musicians, and the
FINANCIAL TROUBLES. 153
orchestra often had to wait several hours until
the Prince rose from the table. As there was
no compensation for all this trouble, when
Parliament settled up the bills of the Prince,
he sent in an account of one hundred guineas,
which was promptly paid. Haydn was not
very well pleased about the matter, although
upon the occasion of his first acquaintance in
1791, he had written that the Prince loved
music exceedingly, had very much feeling, but
very little money, and that he desired his good
will more than any self-interest. Still he had,
as his will shows, many poor relatives, who
had claims upon him, and was it right that he
should lose at the hands of the princely son
of the richest land in the world, upon whom
he had bestowed such faithful artistic services ?
While yet in London he met with a bitter
proof of what he was to endure on account of
these relatives. He was compelled to imme-
diately settle the debt of a married nephew, who
was the major-domo of the Esterhazy family,
and we see by his will that these relatives
had squandered more than six thousand florins
of his through his great kindness. His re-
markable goodness was as much an obligation
164 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
in his esdmatioQy as nobility or genius in
others, and he never allowed any possible
means of practicing it to escape without some
good cause.
He was repeatedly invited to the Queen^s
concerts, and was also presented by her with
the manuscript of Handel's "Savior at the
Cross.'* As Grermans, both she and the King
were eager to keep him in England. " I will
give you a residence at Windsor for the sum-
mer," said the Queen, "and then" with a
roguish glance at the King, "we can some
times have tete-a-tete music." " O, I am not
jealous of Haydn," said the King, " he is a
good and noble German." "To maintain
^at reputation is my highest ambition,"
quickly exclaimed Haydn. After repeated
eflforts to persuade him, he replied that he was
bound by gratitude to the house of his Prince,
and that he could not always remain away
from his fatherland and his wife. The King
begged him to let the latter come. "She
never crosses the Danube, still less the sea,"
replied Haydn. He remained inflexible on
this point, and he believed that it was on this
account that he received no gift from the
BENEFIT CONCERT. 165
King, and that no further interest was mani-
fested in him by the court. The real and
deeper reason for his decision we have already
learned.
The concerts of the year 1795 were laid out
upon a more magnificent scale than before, as
political events upon the continent had dis-
turbed the interest in them in various ways.
Haydn, Martini, Clementi, and the most dis-
tinguished players and singers from all coun-
tries — London had never witnessed more bril-
liant concert-schemes. Haydn opened the
second part of every concert with a symphony*
The Oracle says of one of these : " It shows
the fancy and style of Haydn in forms that
are not at the command of any other genius."
After he gave his benefit concert, May 4, 1795,
upon which occasion the Military Symphony
and the Symphony in D major, the last of the
twelve London series, were played, he wrote
in his diary : " The hall was filled with a se-
lect company. They were extremely pleased
and so was I. I made this evening four thou-
sand florins. It is only in England one can
make so much." These pleasant experiences
gave him the idea of writing a work of the
156 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
style which was very popular and greatly es-
teemed in England — the oratorio. He had
begun one such with Etiglish text, which was
unfinishedi however, because he could not ex-
press himself with sufficient feeling in that
language.
He was the recipient of many gifts at this
time, among them a cocoanut cup with a sil-
ver standard from Clementi ; a silver dish, a
foot in width, from the well known Tattersall,
for his help in the work of improving the
English church music ; and even nine years
later, the influences of his London visit were
apparent in a gift sent to him of six pairs of
woolen stockings, upon which were embroid-
ered six themes of his music, like the Andante
from the drum symphony, the *' Emperor's
Hymn," etc. He was the first, since HandePs
time, who had universally and permanently
succeeded with his music in London, and
had impressed his listeners with an earnest
and realizing sense of the real meaning of
music. He was the first, for when Mozart,
and afterward Beethoven, were known in
London, a new dynasty began. Now Haydn
ruled as firmly as Handel had previously.
EETUEN TO VIENNA, 157
He had established his pre-eminence by the
immense number of works of all kinds he had
written. Griesinger gives a list in his own
catalogue comprising in all seven hundred
and sixty-eight pages, among which, besides
the opera of "Orpheus " and the twelve Lon-
don symphonies, whose subjects are given in
the volume, " Haydn in London," there are
six quartets, eleven sonatas, and countless
songs, dances and marches — ^indeed, there is no
end to them. The work that made his sway
absolute was " The Creation,'' the text of which
had been given to him by Salomon while still
in London, where he had acquired "much
credit in vocal music," and the crowning
close, so to speak, of his London visit was
made at home.
In August, 1795, Haydn returned to Vien-
na by way of Hamburg and Dresden, as
the French held possession of the Rhine.
This time his journey had been very profita-
ble. His second visit had added an equal
amount to the twelve thousand florins made in
his first, and he also retained his publisher's
royalties in England as well as in Germany and
Paris. He could now contemplate his old age
158 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
■ '
without any apprehensions since he had a cer-
tainty to live upon, though a modest one.
"Haydn often insisted that he first became fa-
mous i n Germany after he had been in England/
says Griesinger. The value of his ^orks wae
recognized, but that public homage, which sur-
passing talent usually enjoys, first came to him
in old age, and for this reason now we call
him " our immortal Haydn." On the 18th
of December, 1795, he gave a concert again in
Vienna with his new compositions, but this
time for his own personal profit. Three new
symphonies were played. He was over-
whelmed with attentions and his receipts were
more than a thousand guldens. Beethoven
assisted in this concert, a proof of the good
feeling existing at this time between teacher
and scholar.
One day the Baron Van Swieten, who is
well known in connection with the time of
Beethoven and Mozart, and whom he had
known for twenty years or more, said to him :
"We must now have an oratorio from you
also, dear Haydn." " He assisted me at times
with a couple of ducats and sent me also an
easy traveling carriage on my second journey
A MUSICAL ARISTOCRACY. 159
to England," says Haydn. The Emperor's
librarian, Van Swieten, was secretary of an
aristocratic society, whose associates illustrated
the real meaning of that term, as they com-
prised the entire musical nobility of Europe —
Esterhazy, Lobkowitz, Kinsky, Lichnowsky,
Schwarzenberg, Auersperg, Trautmannsdorf
and others. They had been accustomed for
years to bring out large vocal works in the
beautiful library-hall of the imperial city.
Handel was the chosen favorite, and Mozart
had arranged for these concerts the " Acis and
Galatea," " Ode to St. Cecilia," " Alexander's
Feast" and " The Messiah." They did not pos-
sess or they did not yet know anything of this
style in Germany, for Sebastian Bach had not
been discovered in Vienna. Haydn's "Ruck-
kehr des Tobias," like Mozart's "Davidde
penitente," was written in a style which be-
longed to the opera, and the " Requiem " was
already at hand and had been performed, but
they were the only things of their class. On
the other hand the " Zauberfloete " had drawn
thousands to the theater, year in and year out.
Why could they not hear this characteristic
pure Grerman music in the concert-hall ? In
160 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
this work there was, so to speak, a specimen
of the " Creation " with animals, beings and the
Paradise on every hand, in which the loving
pair, Pamina and Tamino, are solemnly tested.
How much more varied appear the life-pict-
ures in Lidley's " Creation " — 2, poem which
Haydn had placed in Van Swieten's hands I
The society, without doubt upon Swieten's
suggestion, guaranteed the sum of five hundred
ducats and the latter made the translation of the
English text. Three years later the most pop-
ular of all oratorios, "The Creation," was
completed.
Meanwhile, with the exception of the Mass,
which was the product of the war-time of
1796, in which the Agnus Dei commences
with kettle-drums as if one heard the enemy
already coming in the distance, an artistic
event occurred which, if not reaching the
limits of musical art as such, yet in the most
beautiful manner fulfilled its lofty mission of
welding together the conceptions and feelings
of all times and peoples, and directing them to
a high mission — ^it was the composition of
" God Save the Emperor Francis.''
This song has its origin in the revolutionary
THE emperor's HYMN, 161
agitations of the year (1796), brought over
from France, which determined the Imperial
High Chancellor, Count Saurau, to have a
national song written which should display
" before all the world the true devotion of the
Austrian people to their good and upright
father of his country, and to arouse in the
hearts of all good Austrians that noble na-
tional pride which was essential to the energet-
tic accomplishment of all the beneficial meas-
ures of the sovereign." He then applied to
our immortal countryman, Haydn, whom he
regarded as the only one competent to write
something like the English *' God Save the
King." In reality this minister aroused the
noblest German popular spirit, and established
it in a beautiful setting, far exceeding his re-
stricted purpose at the outset. Haydn him-
self had already arranged the English na-
tional hymn in London. More than once,
upon the occasion of public festivals, it had
afforded him the opportunity of learning in
the most convincing manner the strong at-
tachment of the English to their royal house,
the embodiment of their State. He had also
preserved his own devotion to his Fatherland
11
162 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
through many a sharp test. His long contin-
ued stay in a foreign land had only served to
fully convince him what his Austrian home
and Germany were to him. Above all, the
music represents not merely his own most orig-
inal utterance of the people, and he, who had
already learned the Lied in the childhood of
the people itself, had been the first to intro-
duce it in a becoming and all-joyous manner
in the art of music.
Thus his full heart was in this composition,
and the commission came to him, as it were,
direct from his Emperor. Far more than
" God Save the King," this Emperor's Hymn
is an outburst of universal popular feeling.
The "Heil dir im Siegerkranz," or any
special Fatherland-song, could not be the
German people's hymn, and the "Deutsch-
land, Deutschland uber Alles " has only be-
come so, because it was set to Haydn's melody,
which accounts for its speedy and universal
adoption as the people's hymn. The German
people realize in it the spirit of their own life,
in its very essence, as closely as music can ex-
press it. In reality, there is no people's hymn
richer, or, we might say, more satisfying in
ITS MUSICAL CONSTKUCTION. 163
feeling, than this. The '* God Save the King,"
so fine in itself, of which Beethoven said he
must sometime show the English what a
blessing they had in its melody, appears poor
and thin in contrast with such fullness of mel-
odic rhythm and manifold modulation. In
the second verse the melody produces with
most beautiful effect that mysterious exaltation
which enthralls us when in accord with the
grandest impulses of the people, and the re-
sponsive portion of the second part — the cli-
max of the whole — carries this exalted feeling,
as it were, upon the waves of thousands and
thousands of voices to the very dome of
Eternity, The construction of the melody is
a masterpiece of the first order. Never has a
grander or more solid development been ac-
complished in music with such simple materi-
al. "God Save the Emperor Francis," as a
worldly choral, stands by the side of " Eine
feste Burg." It reveals the simplest and most
popular, but at the same time in the most
graphic manner, the characteristic mental nat-
ure of our people, and in like manner has
compressed it within the narrowest compass,
just as music for centuries has been the depos-
.y
164 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
itory of the purest and holiest feelings of the
Germans. Had Haydn written nothing but
this song, all the centuries of the German
people^s life would know and mention hia
name. We shall yet hear how much he
esteemed the song himself. Not long after-
ward he revealed his musical " blessing " in
the variations upon its theme in one of his
best known works, the so-called "Kaiser
Quartet."
" On the 28th of January, 1797, Haydn's
people's hymn received the imprimatur of
Count Saurau," says a chronology of his life.
The people, however, set its real seal of uni-
versal value upon this song when they affec-
tionately and enthusiastically appropriated it
as their own property. "On the 12th of Feb-
ruary, the birthday of the Emperor Francis,
Haydn's people's hymn was sung in all the
theaters of Vienna, and Haydn received a
handsome present in compensation," it is
fiirther related. We recognize him in all his
modesty in the following note to Count Sau-
rau : " Your Excellency ! Such a surprise and
mark of favor, especially as regards the por-
trait of my good monarch, I never before
POPULARITY OF THE HYMN. 165
received in acknowledgment of my poor talent.
I thank Your Excellency with all my heart
and am under all circumstances at your com-
mand." To this day there is generally no
patriotic festival in all Grermany at which this
song is not sung or played as an expression
of genuine Grerman popular or patriotic feel-
ing. It is a part of our history as it is of our
life. Richard Wagner's " Kaiser March " is
the first that corresponds with it as an ex-
pression of popular feeling. In its poesy it is
a hymn in contrast with that mere Lied, and,
notwithstanding its most powerful and soaring
style as a composition, it is, like the Marseil-
laise, a set scene which arouses the national
pride of our time in a glittering sort of way ;
but Haydn's song, though belonging to the
more primitive era of the nation, still remains
as the expression of our most genuine national
feeling. Finally it accomplishes a most im-
portant work in its special province of art.
It reflects the heartiness of the Grerman people
in a grand composition, as Mozart had already
done in the " Magic Flute," and is set in a
crystalline vase, as it were, for the permanent
advantage of art This is the historical signif-
166 THE LIF£ OF HATDN.
icance of Hayda^s creation. Together with
Mozart's '^ Magic Flute/' it marks the con-
summate triumph of German music, and has,
like the deep purpose of the preceding epoch
of the North German organ-school, especially
Sebastian Bach, gradually opened the way to
the transcendent dramatic creations of Bichard
Wagner.
" Haydn wrote ' The Creation * in his sixty-
fifth year, with all the spirit that usually dwells
in the breast of youth," says Griesinger. "I had
the good fortune to be a witness of the deep emo-
tions and joyous enthusiasm which several per-
formances of it under Haydn^s own direction
aroused in all listeners. Haydn also confessed
to me that it was not possible for him to de-
scribe the emotions with which he was filled
as the performance met his entire expectation,
and his audience listened to every note. * One
moment I was as cold as ice, and the next I
seemed on fire, and more than once I feared
I should have a stroke.' " How deeply he in-
fiised his own spirit into this composition is
shown by another remark : " I was never so
pious as during the time I was working upon
* The Creation.' Daily I fell upon my knees
THE CBEATION. 167
■ ■ '
and prayed God to grant me strength for
the happy execution of this work."
One may see that his heart was in his work.
" Accept this oratorio with reverence and de-
votion,'' wrote his brother Michael, himself no
ordinary church-composer. The most re-
markable characteristic of the work is not,
that his choruses rise to the Infinite, as his
brother expresses it. Handel has accomplish-
ed this, and Bach also, with inexpressibly
greater majesty and spiritual power. The
heartfelt nature of his music, its incomparable
naturalness, its blissful joyousness, its inno-
cence of purpose, like laughter in childhood's
eyes — ^these are the new and beautiful features
of it. A spring fountain of perennial youth
gushes forth in melodies like " With Verdure
Qad," "And Cooing Calls the Tender Dove,"
" Spring's Charming Image." And how full
of genuine spirit is some of the much talked
of " painting " in this work. The rising of the
moon, for instance, is depicted so perceptibly
that it almost moves us to sadness. How well
Haydn knew the value of discords is shown
by the introductory " Chaos I " How his
modulations add to the general effects, as for
168 THE LIFE OP HAYDN. '
"^ - .^— — ^^^^— — — ^
instance, in the migbty climax in the finale of
the chorus, "The Heavens are telling the i
Glory of God ! " The stately succession of
triads in the old style never fails at the right
moment
This new development of the spontaneous
emotions of life, from the fascinating song of
the nightingale to the natural expression of
love's happiness in Adam and Eve, could
only come from a heart full of goodness, piety,
and purity of thought. It is a treasure which
Austria has given to the whole German peo-
ple out of its very heart, and is as meritorious
as our classical poetry, and as permanent.
This enduring merit of the work transcends
all that the esthetic or intellectual critics can
find to criticise in the painting of subjects not
musical. The ground tone is musical through-
out, for it comes from the heart of a man who
regards life and the creation as something
transcendently beautiful and good, and there-
fore cleaves to his Creator with childlike
purity and thankful soul.
" The Divinity should always be expressed
by love and goodness," Dies heard him say
very expressively. This all-powerful force in
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CREATION. 169
human existence is the source of the lovely
fancies which float about us in the melodies of
tlie "Creation," enchanting every ear and
familiar to every tongue. A criticism made
at that time upon Haydn's measures is to the
effect that their predominant characteristics
are happy, contented devotion, and a blissful
self-consciousness of the heavenly goodness.
This is the fundamental trait in aU of Haydn's
music, particularly of the " Creation." He
was always certain that an infinite God would
have compassion upon His infinite creation,
and such a thought filled him with a steadfast
and abiding joyousness. That Handel was
grand in choruses, but only tolerable in song,
he says himself; and this is a proof of his deep
feeling for natural life and its individual traits
Still, on the other hand, he guards himself in
these pure lyric works from dramatic pathos,
and is right when he leaves this to the stage.
He acknowledges in his exact recognition of
the various problems and purposes of art, that
Gluck surpassed others in his poetic intensity
and dramatic power. He, himself, with his
artistic sense, could sketch the ideal types of
nature, inspire them with the breath of life,
170 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
give them the sparkle of the eye, and the in-
ward gracious quality of his own true, loving
and soulful nature. This places him above
even his renowned predecessors, contemporaries
and followers — ^Graun, Hasse, Philip Emanuel
Bach, Salieri, Cherubini, and the rest, and in
this province of art exalts him to the height of
the classic. Many of these melodies will cer-
tainly live as long as German feeling itself,
particularly among youth and the people
whose manhood ever freshly renews itself.
The scope and style of the work were also
in consonance with its performance. It was
first given with astonishing success at the
Schwartzenberg Palace, and then, March 19,
1799, at the Burg Theater, and brought him in,
according to Dies, four thousand florins. A
year later, Beethoven's very picturesque and
attractive Septet was played for the first time
at the Schwartzenberg and much admired.
" That is my Creation," Beethoven is said to
have remarked at that time. In fact, the form
and substance of the " Creation " melodies are
Daij.nifest in it, but he has gained the power of
dev^ilopinff them with greater effect ; and yet
Beethoven composed one Creation piece, which
Beethoven's opinions. 171
was unquestionably the result of Haydn's
work — ^the ballet, " Creations of Prometheus."
The following conversation occurred between
the two composers not long afterward : " I
heard your ballet yesterday; it pleased me
very much," said Haydn. (It was in the year
1801 that the work was performed.) Bee-
thoven replied : " O, dear Papa, you are very
good, but it is far from being a 'Creation.'"
Haydn, surprised at the answer and almost
hurt, said, after a short pause: "That is true.
It is not yet a * Creation,' and I hardly believe
that it will ever reach that distinction," where-
upon they took leave of each other in mutual
embarrassment.
If the prejudices of the old master on this
occasion against the conceited " Great Mogul "
appear to be somewhat too actively displayed,
we see him on the other hand in all his
modesty, in a letter to Breitkopf and Haertel,
the publishers of the Allgemeine Mudkalische
Zeitung: "I only wish and hope, now an
old man, that the gentleman critics may not
handle my * Creation ' too severely nor deal
too hardly with it," he wrote, in sending them
the work in the summer of 1799. "They
172 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
may find the musical grammar faulty in some
places, and perhaps other things also, which I
have been accustomed for many years to re-
gard as trifles. But a true connoisseur will
see the real cause as quickly as myself, and
willingly throw such stumbling stones one side.
This is, however, between ourselves, or I might
be accused of conceit and vanity, from which
my heavenly Father has preserved me all my
life."
In the same letter he writes : " Unfortu-
nately my business increases with my years,
and yet it almost seems as if my pleasure and
inclination to work increase with the dimin-
ishing of my mental powers. Oh, God ! how
much yet remains to be done in this glorious
art, even by such a man as I. The world
pays me many compliments daily, even upon
the spirit of my last works, but no one would
believe how much effort and strain they cost
me, since many a time my feeble memory and
unstrung nerves so crush me down that I fall
into the most melancholy state, so that for
days afterward, I am unable to find a single
idea until at last Providence encourages me.
I seat myself at the piano and hammer away,
OTHEB COMPOSITIONS, 173
then all goes well again, God be praised."
Griesinger speaks of another method which
he employed in his old age to arouse himself
to renewed labor : " When composition does
not get on well, I go to my chamber, and, with
rosary in hand, say a few Aves, and then the
ideas return," said Haydn.
What further remains ? We have spoken
of the Kaiser Quartet, and we know that there
were several other pieces, among them the op.
82, which has onlv two movements. "It is
my last child," said he, '* but it is still very
like me." As a Finale, he appended to it, in
1806, the introduction of his song, " Hin ist
alle meine Kraft " (" Gone is all my power"),
which he also had engraved as a visiting card
in answer to friends who made inquiries about
his condition. In a letter to Artaria, in 1799,
he also speaks of twelve new and very charm-
ing minuets and trios. His principal composi-
tion, however, was a second oratorio, which the
Society before spoken of desired, after the suc-
cess of the "Creation," and for which Van
Swieten again translated the text. It was
the " Seasons," after Thomson.
"Haydn often complained bitterly of the
174 THE LIFE OF HAYDN,
unpoetical text," says Griesinger, " and how
diflScult it was for him to compose the * Heisa-
sa, Hopsasa, long live the Vine, and long live
the Cask which holds it, long live the Tank-
ard out of which it flows.' " He was frequent-
ly very fretful over the many picturesquely
imitative passages, and, in order to relieve the
continual monotony, he hit upon the expedi-
ent of representing a drinking scene in the
closing fugue of the ** Autumn." " My head
was so full of the nonsensical stuff that it all
went topsy-turvy, and I therefore called the
closing fugue the drunken fugue," he said.
He may have been thinking of the scene he
witnessed at the Lord Mayor's Feast in Lon-
don, where " the men, as was customary, kept
it up stoutly all night, drinking healths amid
a crazy uproar and clinking of glasses, with
hurrahs."
He especially disliked the croaking of the
frogs and realized how much it lowered his
art. Swieten showed him an old piece of
Qretry's in which the croak was imitated with
striking effect. Haydn contended that it
would be better if the entire croak were omit-
ted, though he yielded to Swieten's importu-
THE SEASONS. 175
nities. He wrote afterward, however, that
this entire piece, imitating the frog, did not
come from his pen. " It was urged upon me
to write this French croak. In the orchestral
setting the wretched idea quickly disappears,
and on the piano it can not be done. I trust
the critics will not treat me with severity. I
am an old man and liable to make mistakes.^'
At the place "Oh! Industry, O noble Indus-
try, from thee comes all Happiness," he re-
marked that he had been an industrious man
all his life, but it had never occurred to him
to set industry to music. Notwithstanding
his displeasure, he bestowed all his strength
upon the work in the most literal sense, for
shortly after its completion, he was attacked
with a brain-fever from which he suffered tor-
ments, and during which his fancies were in-
cessantly occupied with music. A weakness
ensued which constantly increased. "The
' Seasons ' have brought this trouble upon me.
I ought not to have written it. I have over-
done," he said to Dies.
The imperious Swieten, who thought he
understood things better than the teacher and
professor, annoyed him very much. He com-
176 THE LIFE OF HAYDN,
plained of the aria where the countryman be-
hind his plow sings the melody of the An-
dante with the kettle-drum, and wanted to sub-
stitute for it a song from a very popular opera.
Haydn felt offended at the request, and re-
plied with just pride : " I change nothing.
My Andante is as good and as popular any-
how as a song from that opera." Swieten took
offense at this, and no longer visited Haydn.
After a lapse of ten or twelve days, actuated
by his overmastering magnanimity, he sought
the haughty gentleman himself, but was kept
waiting a good half hour in an ante-room.
At last he lost his patience and turned to the
door, when he was called back and admitted.
He could no longer restrain his passion, and
addressed the Director as follows : " You called
me back at just the right time. A little more
and I should have seen your rooms to-day for
the last time." As we think of the " Great
Mogul," and the scene with Goethe at Carls-
bad, we feel, especially from a social point of
view, that a full century lies between Haydn
and Beethoven. Art was become of age and
with it the artist. Haydn himself had helped
open the way to an expression of the deeper val-
FIRST PERFORMANCE OF THE SEASONS. 177
ue of our nature, and brought it, as he did pure
iDStrumental music, to a higher standard of
merit. Swieten had already personally ex-
perienced Haydn^s anger. That epistolary
complaint about the " frog-croak" had cer-
tainly not been made public from anything of
his doing, but yet it was very sincerely intend-
ed. Swieten made him experience his dis-
pleasure for a long time afterward, but there
is nowhere any indication that he took it
specially to heart.
The first performance of the "Seasons"
took place April 24, 1801. Opinions were
divided about the work. At this time occur-
red the meeting of Haydn with his scholar,
Beethoven, and the conversation about the
"Prometheus." "Beethoven manifested a de-
cided opposition to his compositions, although
he laughed repeatedly at the musical painting,
and found special fault with the littleness of
his style. On this account the * Creation,' and
the * Seasons * would many a time have suffer-
ed had it not been that Beethoven recog-
nized Haydn's higher merits," relates his
scholar. Dies. Haydn himself expressed the
difference between his two oratorios very
12
178 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
nicely. At a performance of the " Seasons,"
the Emperor Francis asked him to which of
the two works he gave the preference. " The
Creation ! " answered Haydn. " And why ? "
"In the * Creation' the angels speak and tell
of God, but in the ' Seasons ' only peasants
talk," said he. " In his mouth there is some-
thing of the Philistine," said Lavater of
Haydn's face. In comparison with the ideal
types of the " Creation " melodies, we find
again in the "Seasons" the melodious and
modulatory effects of the good old times, and
the humor itself is home-made. Notwith-
standing this, there is much of the genuine
Haydn geniality and freshness in this his last
work, and the tone-painting is much in the
style of the " Creation." In these two ora-
torios of Haydn, and in Mozart's " Magic
Flute," we constantly recognize the remote
precursors of the powerful musical painting in
Richard Wagner's " Ring des Nibelungen,"
From this period Haydn's biography is no
longer the record of his creative power, but of
his outer life, though his fame continually in-
creased. In 1798 the Academy of Stockholm,
and in 1801 that at Amsterdam, elected him
HONORS FROM ABROAD. 179
to their membership. In the year 1800,
copies of the " Creation " were circulated in
Europe, and the musicians of the Paris opera,
who were the first to perform it, sent him a
large gold medal with his likeness on it. " I
have often doubted whether my name would
survive me, but your goodness inspires me
with confidence, and the tribute with which
you have honored me, perhaps justifies me in
the belief that I shall not wholly die," he re-
plied to them. The Institut National, the
Concert des Amateurs and the French Con-
servatory, also sent him medals. In 1804 he
received the civic diploma of honor from the
city of Vienna, while the year before, in con-
sideration of the performance of his works for
the benefit of the city hospitals, a gold medal
had been presented him. These concerts
brought in over thirty-three thousand florins,
so great was Haydn's popularity at that time.
In 1805 the Paris Conservatory elected him
a member, which was followed by election
to the societies of Laybach, Paris and St.
Petersburg.
He was thoughtful of his end, and in 1806
made his will, which is characterized by many
180 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
beautiful and humane features. No one at his
home, or in its immediate neighborhood, was
forgotten, and there were very many in
the list which may be found in the " Musical
Letters." It closes : " My soul I give to its
all-merciful Creator ; I desire my body to be
buried in the B.oman Catholic form, in conse-
crated ground. For my soul I bequeathe No.
1, * namely,' for holy masses twelve florins."
" I am of no more use to the world ; I must
wait like a child and be taken care of. Would
it were time for God to call me to Him," he
said to Griesinger. The agreeable change to
this retired life in his quiet little house, for
his wife was no longer living, showed him
in what respect, friendship and love he was
held, both by visits and letters. A striking
proof of the source from which his creations
arose is his letter of 1802 to distant Rugen,
where his " Creation " had been performed
with piano accompaniment. "You give me
the pleasing assurance, which is the most
fruitful consolation of my old age, that I am
often the enviable source from which you dind
so many families, susceptible to true feeling,
obtain pleasure and hearty enjoyment in their
HIS OLD COMPOSITIONS, 181
domestic life — ^a thought which causes me
great happiness," he writes to those musical
friends. "Often, when struggling with ob-
stacles opposed to my works^-often, when
strength failed and it was difl&cult for me to
persevere in the course upon which I had
entered — a secret feeling whispered to me,
* there are few joyful and contented people
here below ; everywhere there is trouble and
care ; perchance your labor sometime may be
the source from which those burdened with
care may derive a moment's relief."
He no longer cared much for his youthful
works. " Dearest EUsler : Be so good as to
send me at the very first opportunity the old
symphony, called " Die Zerstreute/' as Her
Majesty, the Empress, expresses a desire to
hear the old thing," he humorously writes to
Eisenstadt in 1803. He composed nothing
more after this time, although he sent
twelve pieces to Artaria in 1805, and thought
the old Haydn deserved a little present for
them, though they belonged to his younger
davs.
In the spring of 1804, C. M. Von Weber
writes : " I have spent some time with Hay-
182 THE LIFE OF HATDN.
dn. The old man is exceedingly feeble. He
is always cheerful and in good humor. He
likes to talk of his adventures, and is special-
ly interested in young beginners in art He
gives you the impression of a great man, and
so does Vogler (the abbe), with this differ-
ence, that his literary intelligence is much
more acute than Haydn's natural power. It
is touching to see full grown men approach
him, call him ^papa/ and kiss his hand/' At
this time also, he received a letter from
Goethe's friend, Zelter, at Berlin, in which he
wished Haydn could hear with what '* repose,
devotion, purity and reverence," his choruses
were sung at the Sing Akademie. "Your
spirit has entered into the sanctuary of divine
wisdom. You have brought down fire from
heaven, to warm our earthly hearts, and guide
us to the Infinite. 0, come to us ! You shall
be received as a god among men." Thus
writes with enthusiastic rapture this dry old
master mason, wedded to forms, who could nev-
ertheless appreciate the special quality of
Haydn's music — its popular and simple hu-
mor. Griesinger tells us how he regarded
flattery. A piano player began in this wise :
HIS SIMPLICITY, 183
"You are Haydn, the great Haydn. One
should fall upon his knees before you. You
ought to live in a splendid palace, etc." " Ah !
my dear sir," replied Haydn, " do not speak
so to me. You see only a man to* whom God
has granted talent and a good heart. It went
very hard with me in my young days, and,
even at that time, I wearied myself with the
struggle to preserve my old age from the cares
of life. I have my comfortable residence,
enough to eat and a good glass of wine. I
can dress in fine cloth, and, if I wish to ride,
a hackney coach is good enough for me."
For the thorough quiet of his life at this
time he was indebted to his last Prince, more
than to any other. " The friends of harmony
often flatter me and bestow excessive praise
upon me. If my name deserves commenda-
ble distinction, it dates from that moment
when the Prince conceded larger scope to my
liberty," he said to Dies, when the latter asked
him how he could, in addition to his regular
service, have written two oratorios. The fam-
ily of his illustrious patron frequently visited
him, and, in order to spare his feelings as much
as possible, they personally brought him the
184 THE LIFE OF HAYDN.
news of the death of his beloved brother, Jo-
hann, who had also been in their service. In
1806, the Prince increased his compensation
fully six hundred gulden, so that he could en-
joy still more comfort. His excellent servant,
EUsler, father of the famous danseuse, took
most faithful care of him. He had such a
feeling of affectionate reverence for Haydn,
that many a time when he was fumigating the
sick chamber, he would stop before his mas-
ter's picture and fumigate it. Tomaschek, at
that time a young musician from Prague, who
is mentioned in the work " Beethoven, accord-
ing to the description of his Cotemporaries,"
visited him in the summer of 1808, and has
given us a very detailed picture of his style
and appearance.
"He sat in an arm-chair. A prim and
powdered wig with side locks, a white collar
with golden buckle, a richly embroidered
white waistcoat of heavy silk stuff, a stately
frill, a state dress of fine coffee-brown materi-
al, embroidered ruffles at the wrist, black silk
knee breeches, white silk hose, shoes with
large curved silver buckles over the instep,
and upon the little table standing on one side,
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS, 185
near his hat, a pair of white leather gloves —
such were the items of his dress upon which
shone the dawn of the 17th (18th?) century,"
says Tomaschek. To this we may add Grie-
singer's remark : " When he expected com-
pany, he placed his diamond ring on his fin-
ger, and ornamented his attire with the red
ribbon to which the Burgher medal was at-
tached." "The tender feelings inspired by
the sight of the fame-crowned tone-poet dis-
posed me to sadness," continues Tomaschek,
" Haydn complained of his failing memory,
which compelled him to give up composition
altogether. He could not retain an idea long
enough to write it out. He begged us to go
into the next room and see his souvenirs of
the "Creation." A bust by Gyps induced
me to ask Haydn whom it represented. The
poor man, bursting into tears, moaned rather
than spoke, *My best friend, the sculptor
Fischer; O, why dost thou not take me to thy-
self?' The tone with which he said it pierced
me to the heart, and I was vexed with myself
for having made him mournful. At sight of
his trinkets, however, he grew cheerful again.
In short, the great Haydn was already a child
186 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
in whose arms grief and joy often reposed to*
getlier."
The 27 th of March witnessed one of the
grandest displays of respect Haydn had ever
experienced, " The old man at all times loved
his fatherland, and he set an inestimable value
upon the honors he received in it,'' so Dies be-
gins an account of the performance of the
"Creation" in Italian, which took place in
this year (1808), under Salieri's direction.
On alighting from the Prince's carriage, he
was received by distinguished personages of
the nobility, and — by his scholar Beethoven.
The crowd was so great that the military had
to keep order. He was carried, sitting in his
arm chair, into the hall, and was greeted upon
his entrance with a flourish of trumpets and
joyous shouts of "long live Haydn." He oc-
cupied a seat next his Princess, the Prince
being at court that day, and on the other side
sat his favorite scholar, Fraulein Kurzbeck.
The highest people of rank in Vienna select-
ed seats in his vicinity. The French ambas-
sador noticed that Haydn wore the medal of
the Paris Concert des Amateurs. " Not alone
this, but all the medals which have been
A MEMO£ABL£ PERFOBMANCE. 187
awarded in France you ought to have re-
ceived," said he. Haydn thought he felt a
little draft. The Princess threw her shawl
about him, many ladies following her example,
and in a few moments he was covered with
shawls. Eibler, Gyrowetz and his godson,
Weigl, were also present. Poems by Collin and
Carpani, the adapter of the text, were present-
ed to him. " He could no longer conceal his
feelings. His overburdened heart sought and
found relief in tears," continues Dies. " He
was obliged to refresh himself with wine to
raise his drooping spirits." When the pas-
sage, " And there was Light," came, and the
audience broke out into tumultuous applause,
he made a motion of his hands towards Heaven
and said, " it came from thence." He con-
tinued in such an agitated condition that he
was obliged to take his leave at the close of
the first part. "His departure completely
overcame him. He could not address the
audience, and could only give expression to his
heartfelt gratitude with broken, feeble utter-
ances and blessings. Upon every countenance
there was deep pity, and tearful eyes followed
him as he was taken to his carriage."
188 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
" It was as if an electric fire flowed through
Haydn's veins, so powerfully had the events
of that day excited his spirits/* says Dies,
speaking of a visit to him eight days after-
ward. But Tomaschek declares : " The
tremendous applause which was given to the
* Creation ' soon cost the old man his life."
We are now perceptibly approaching that
event, and yet he was permitted to live to ex-
perience still another honor — the brilliant suc-
cess of his scholar, Beethoven, in the grand
concert given in December of that same year.
" As Haydn's illness increased, Beethoven
visited him less frequently," says Van 8ey-
fried, and he adds, with a correct knowledge
of the circumstances, " chiefly from a kind of
reserve, since he had already struck out upon
a course which Haydn did not entirely ap-
prove." Notwithstanding this, the amiable old
man eagerly inquired after his Telemachus,
and often asked : " What is our great Mogul
doing?" Above all things else, well defined
formalism in artistic work suited him, like
that of Cherubini, who, after repeated visits,
begged for one of his scores upon the occasion
of his departure from Vienna, in the spring of
CHEKUBINI AND HAYDN, 189
1806. " Permit me to call myself your mu-
sical father and you my son," said Haydn,
and Cherubini " burst into tears/' In 1788,
Cherubini heard for the first time, in Paris, a
Haydn symphony, and was so greatly excited
by it, that it forcibly moved him from his seat.
" He trembled all over, his eyes grew dim, and
this condition continued long after the sym-
phony was ended," it is said. " Then came
the reaction. His eyes filled with tears, and
from that instant the direction of his work was
decided." He could all the more easily come
to an understanding with the old " papa," as
he had declared with reference to the " Leono-
ra overture/* brought out this year, he could
not, on account of the confused modulations,
discover the kev note.
In characteristic fashion, neither Dies nor
Griesinger devote more than a word to Hay-
dn's relations to Beethoven, and yet the quar-
tets op. 18, had appeared some time before,
and were admired in Vienna by the side of
Haydn's and Mozart's. "Fidelio," and the
first symphonies had also met with success.
The Fifth and Sixth were brought out in
the concert of December, 1808, and surely
190 THK LIFE OP HAYDN.
friends told him of the powerful works of the
new master, who was really " thoughtful, sub-
lime, and full of expression," and it could only-
increase Haydn' s own fame as the creator of
this kind of music. He himself was now too
old to rightly appreciate the character of a
Beethoven, who represented an entirely new
world.
He occupied the long and often tedious time
with prayers and reminiscences of his old ad-
ventures, particularly of those days in England,
which he cherished as the happiest of his life.
He had a particular little box, which was
filled with his gifts from potentates and mu-
sical societies. " When life is at times verv
irksome, I look upon all these and rejoice that
I am held in honor all over Europe," he
said to Griesinger. Then he would occupy
himself with the newspapers, go through the
little house accounts, entertain himself with
the neighbors and the servants, particularly
with his faithful Ellsler, play cards with them
in the evening, and was very happy if he won
a couple of kreutzers. Music was a trouble to
him at last, and there is a very remarkable
illustration of this in connection with his
THE WAB TIME. 191
" Kaiserlied," " I am actually a human piano,"
he said to Dies in 1806. "For several days, an
old song, 'O Herr, wie lieb ich Dich von
Herzen' is played in me. Wherever I go or
stay, I hear it above all else, but when it tor-
ments me and nothing will deliver me from it,
if only my song, * God save the Emperor,' oc-
curs to me, then I am easier. It cures me."
" That does not surprise me. I have always con-
sidered your song a master-piece," replied Dies.
" I have always had the same opinion, though
I ought not to say it," said Haydn. During
this mentally as well as physically weak con-
dition of the old man, then in his 77th year,
occurred the Austrian war of Freedom of
1809. •* The unhappy war crushes me to the
earth," he complained with tearful eyes. He
was continually occupied with thoughts of his
death during his last year, and prepared him-
self for it every day," says Griesinger. In
April of that year he read his will to his de-
pendants, and asked them if they were satisfied.
They thanked him with tearful eyes for his
kind provision for their future. On the 10th
of May, while engaged in dressing, the sound
of a cannon-shot was suddenly heard in
192 THE LIFE or HAYDN.
the near suburb of Mariahilf. A violent
shudder overcame him. After three more
shots, he fell into convulsions. Then he ral-
lied all his strength and cried out : "Children,
fear not. Where Haydn is, nothing can hap-
pen to you." In fact, during the next four-
teen days he pursued his customary manner
of life, only it was noticed afi«r the actual oc-
cupation by the French, he maintained a se-
vere aspect, which he managed to forget while
he played his favorite composition, " The Em-
peror's Hymn." As he had long been accus-
tomed to see distinguished foreigners, and had
received men like Admiral Nelson and Mar-
shal Soult, he in like manner accepted visits
from several of the French officers, one of
whom he received while enjoying his after-
noon rest in bed. It was the last visit. He
was Sulemy, a French captain of hussars.
He sang to the master, whom he so greatly
revered that he would have been contented if
only to see him through the key-hole, the aria
" In Native Worth," and so beautifully that
Haydn burst into tears, sprang up and em-
braced him with kisses. On the 26th of May
he played his "Kaiserlied" three times in
HIS DEATH. 193
succession, with an expression that surprised
himself. He died May 31st, 1809, and passed
away in an unconscious state. His funeral
ceremonies were very simple, on account of
the war time, yet the French authorities no-
ticed his death in a very respectful manner.
Eleven years later his remains were taken to
Eisenstadt.
Haydn's works, according to a catalogue
made by himself in 1805, which however is
not complete, consist of 118 symphonies, 83
quartets, 19 operas, 5 oratorios, 15 masses, 10
small church pieces, 24 concertos for various
instruments, 163 (?) pieces for the bariton, 44
sonatas, 42 songs, 39 canons, 13 songs for
several voices, 365 old Scotch songs artd nu-
merous five-and-nine-part compositions in va-
rious instrumental forms — truly, a genuine
fruitfulness of the creative spirit. " There are
good and badly brought up children among
them, and here and there a changeling has
crept in," said he. There could have been no
more suitable epitaph for him than " Vixi,
Scripsi, Dixi," though he earnestly declared,
" I was never a rapid writer, and always com-
posed with deliberation and industry.'' Above
13
194 THE LIFE OP HAYDN.
all things, it commends his works to the con-
noisseur that they in good part have the en-
during form. " The record of Haydn's life
is that of a man who had to struggle against
manifold obstacles, and by the power of his
talent and untiring eflfort worked his way up,
in spite of them, to the rank of the most prom-
inent men of his profession," Griesinger
truly says. He also makes a just estimate of
his works as follows : " Originality and rich-
ness of ideas, genial feeling, a fancy dominated
by close study, versatility in the development
of simple thoughts, calculation of effects by
the proper division of light and shade, profu-
sion of roguish humor, the easy flow and free
movement of the whole." Were one to add
to thefij the specially prominent characteristic
Oi his music, it would be the distinct German
character of his works which on the one hand
is reflected in refreshing heartiness and nat-
uralness, and on the other in spirited humor ;
and which essentially embodies the earnestness
and loftiness of those two older Germans,
Bach and Handel, and founded that era in
which German instrumental music achieved
the mastery of the world. In form as well as
HIS CBEATIOKS. 195
in substance, Haydn created the artistic patterji
of the symphony and the quartet, and, never
let it be forgotten, was the one who from
his genuine nature and his lore of the people,
evolved the first German National Hymn.
THE END.
TTHE STANDARD OPERAS. Their Plots,
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** The story of Mozart's life is told in language that fascinates
by a simplicity and directness which impart delightful color to
the attending recital of facts. . . We consider it advisable for
every student in music to possess this book, for it is one of the
most pleasing and instructive biographies of a musical composer
that hias been published for a long time. It is convenient in form
and exquisitely tasteful in dress." — Home Journal y Boston,
** It is scarcely possible to write about Mozart without some
warmth of enthusiasm, but Herr Nohl has an intelligent appre-
ciation of the greatness of his genius, and of the important influ-
ence of his work upon modern dramatic music, so that he gives
us some genuine criticism along with his fine writing." — Times ^
Philadelphia,
" It IS a translation from the German of Louis Nohl, a writer
who adds to literary tastes the familiarity with music which is
especially desirably in the biography of a musical genius like Mo-
zart. The brevity of the biography has not been secured at the
expense of its style or of its fullness as a personal record — the for-
mer being clear, elegant and unambitious, and the latter a rounded
and sympathetic outline of the incidents of Mozart's brief and
checkered life, particularly of those that exerted a formative or
modifying influence upon his character as a man, or upon the
development of his genius as an artist." — Harpet^s Monthly,
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A vivid picture of his life J^— The Naticn.
LIFE OF BEETHOVEN.
From the German of Dr. Louis Nohl. With portrait.
Price, $i.oo.
(€
It gives in small compass a sympathetic and successful pic-
ture of the struggles and successes of this great but melancholy
genius." — Christian Advocate, New York,
i(
In this book there is much for music students to linger over,
and those who love to follow the great masters' career will find
this story of the life of the greatest of them all peculiarly fascin-
ating. No student can fully understand the great works of musi-
cal art until he knows and can sympathize with the inner nature
of the worker. " — Musical Visitor y Cincinnati,
*• Nohl has a devoted love for the great composer and musician,
and this he most beautifully imparts to his enthusiastic tribute,
which is, nevertheless, a carefully written and just biography." —
Home Journal, Boston.
*' The biography is accurate, and it has the especial value of
connecting each one of Beethoven's important works quite clearly
with the circumstances and moods under which it was composed.
It meets the purpose of a popular biography unusually well." —
limeSy Philadelphia.
** The reader of this biography will stand in awe before the
transcendent genius of the grand artist, and sorrowfully remember
how poorly he was compensated for his great services during the
sorrowful years of his life upon the earth. The book is one of
absorbing interest, clearly and concisely written, and deserving of
an honored place in every library." — Inter Ocean, Chicago.
*' How he lived and moved and acted in the flesh, and his suc-
cessive trials, triumphs, and crowning glories are set forth in this
acceptable volume with accuracy, graphic power, and most, inter-
esting particularity of detail. Whosoever hath music in his soul
will read the work with avidity." — Evening Post^ San Francisco.
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^^A worthy companion to the other biographiea
of I>r. Nohl.^^'^Mujical Visiter^ CincinnaH,
LIFE OF WAGNER.
From the German of Dr. I.ouis Nohl, by George P. Upton, With
portrait. Price $i.oo.
"The translation is excellent. The portrait of Wagner in-
cluded in this book is the finest we have seen. The face looks
inspired." — Boston Globe,
'* Herr Nohl's biography is terse, concise, enthusiastic, and at
the same time just. Anyone who wishes to get a clear idea of the
'Music of the Future' and Wagner's life work will do well to read
this volume." — Philadelphia Press.
** It is a very concise biography, and gives in vigorous outlines
those events of the life of the tone-poet which exercised the great-
•est influence upon his artistic career, his youth, his early studies,
his first works, his sufferings, disappointments, his victories. It
is a story of a strong life devoted to lofty aims." — Baltimore
American,
"So well considered and discriminating a record of his life as is
here presented by Dr. Nohl, has something of value, therefore,
for all classes of readers. . . . Careful analyses of Wagner's
compositions are essential portions of the story, and are so skill-
fully accomplished as to give additional value to the book." —
Buffalo Express.
** It gives the story of Wagner's career with all necessary detail;
traces the influences under which his works were produced, and
analyzes with perspicuity his various masterpieces. . . . The
volume is one that every lover of music may read with advantage,
for it provides a very clear idea of the mission which the composer
sought to fulfill." — Literary World, Boston.
" Dr. Nohl's Biographies of Musicians consist of the Lives of
Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Liszt, and Wagner —
5 volumes, in box. Cloth. Price, - $5 oo
5 " " half Calf. " - - 12 50
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^An enthuHastio biography of the great tnuHciU
magician of to-day.'*— CAtisiiaH C/nion, New York,
LIFE OF LISZT.
From the German of Dr. Louis Nohl, by George P. Upton. With
portrait. Price, $i.oo.
** It is a most interesting and irkstructive volume, the only
biography of Liszt, in English, which has appeared thus far in
this country. We recommend it to all lovers of music." — Musical
World, CUvelamL
** It is more than a mere biography of the great musician ; it
is a comprehensive, sympathetic review of his personal and musi-
cal characteristics, and is a thoroughly entertaining volume from
beginning to end." — Post^ Boston,
*' This volume is the fifth in the ' Biographies of Musicians,*
by the same author, and is treated in that finished and polished
style of criticism and review which characterises his preceding
volumes. The book is prepared with a fine, clean cut engraving
of Liszt." — Post, San Francisco,
*' In this Life of Liszt, Dr. Nohl had an attractive subject fw
a musical enthusiast. * * It is refreshed by incident and nar-
rative, and is not overweighted by a too subtle analysis which a
musical critic is often tempted to make, especially when dealing
with such a phenomenon as Liszt." — Christian Register, Boston,
" This biography of the * Hungarian Wonder Child ' is writ-
ten with great simplicity and in perfect taste. Very interesting
mention is made of the gypsies and how strongly these children
of nature with their one art of music impressed Liszt as boy and
man. He visited them in their out-door kingdom, slept with
them under the open heavens, played with the children, made
presents to the maidens, gossiped with their chiefs, and listened to
their g^sy orchestras. At the age of twelve, he was, as a pianist,
without a rival, and extraordinary as a composer. This biography
is wholly successful in all that it undertakes to portray. A strong
idea is formed in the mind of the reader of the might of his
genius and the beauty of his character.'* — Herald^ Boston,
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^Stirring events are graphically told in this series
of ronna'nces.^^—'Home Journal, New York,
TIMES OF GUSTAF ADOLF,
An Historical Romance of the Exciting
Times of the Thirty Years' War.
From the Original Swedish.
BY Z. TOPELIUS.
\2mo^ extra cloih^ black and gilt. Price 75 cents.
<«
A vivid, romantic picturing of one of the most fascinating
periods of human history." — The Times, Philadelphia,
"Every scene, every character, every detail, is instinct with
life. * * From beginning to end we are aroused, amused,
absorbed." — The Tribune^ Chicago,
** The author has a genuine enthusiasm for his subject, and
stirs up his readers' hearts in an exciting manner. The old times
live again for us, and besides the interest of great events, there is
the interest of humble souls immersed in their confusions. ' Scott,
the delight of glorious boys,' will find a rival in these Surgeon
Stories." — The Christian Register^ Boston,
'* It is difficult to give an idea of the vividness of the descrip-
tions in these stories without making extracts which would be
entirely too long. It is safe to say, however, that no one could
possibly fail to be carried along by the torrent of fiery narration
which marks these wonderful tales. * * Never was the mar-
velous deviltry of the Jesuits so portrayed. Never were the horrors
of war painted in more lurid colors." — The Press, Philadelphia,
" The style is simple and agreeable. * * There is a natu-
ral truthfulness, which appears to be the characteristic of all
these Northern authors. Nothing appears forced; nothing
indicates that the writer ever thought of style, yet the style is such
as could not well be improved upon. He is evidently thoroughly
imbued with the loftiest ideas, and the men and women whom he
draws with the novelist's facility and art are as admirable as his
manner of interweaving their lives with their country's battles
and achievements." — The Graphic, New York,
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ceipt of price by the publishers.
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^ Mo8t exquisitely wHtten and translated.^*
— Transcript, Boston.
TIMES OF BATTLE AND REST.
An Historical Romance of the Times of Charles X. and Charles
XI. From the Swedish of Prof. Z. Topelius. (Vol. II.
of " The Surgeon's Stories.") Price, 75 cents.
**One of the most absorbing and fascinating books we have
ever read. Its literary work is as perfect as the subject matter.*'
"^Home Journal, New York.
*'It excels in exciting incidents, fascinative narration and
striking delineations of events and characters with which it has
to deal." — Western Christian Advocate^ Cincinnati.
"These historical romances are some of the best literary
work of our time, and the excellent translation of the volume be-
fore us leaves nothing to be desired by the English reader."
Manhattan, New York.
**In the newly published second volume of Topelius* 'Sur-
geon's Stories' are to be praised the same wealth and originality
of material and superior literary qualities which characterized the
first cycle. The admirer of lofty romance cannot fail to be grate-
ful for an introduction through this careful and spirited English
version to the * Scandinavian Scott, ' as Professor Topelius has
often been called. His works are glorious books for young peo-
ple to read." — Independent, New York.
"The second cycle of the ' Surgeon's Stories * covers the
reigns of the Swedish kings Charles X. and Charles XI., and
gives a stirring and graphic account of the conquests of the first
in Poland and Denmark, with the famous march of his army
across the ice of Little Belt in 1658, and the more peaceful but
important events of the reign of the second, especially the
Witchcraft persecutions and the great Reduction. Prof. Topelius
deals with the rich material before him like a true master of his-
torical romance. * * * He displays great versatility, com-
bining vivacious narrative, historic fidelity, and ready humor." —
Good Literature, New York.
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^ Surely it is delightfully told.^-Pioneer Pres^, St, Paul,
TIMES OF CHARLES XII.
An Historical Romance of the times of Charles XII. From the
Swedish of Prof. Z. Topelius. (Vol. III. of " The
Surgeon's Stories.") Price, 75 cents.
In this volume the admirable and popular series of ** The
Surgeon's Stories " has perhaps the richest subject in all Swedish
history— the world-famous monarch, Charles XII., to whom Dr.
Johnson applied his celebrated lines :
** He left the name at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral and adorn a tale."
*' The work is the most brilliant in the series thas far, and
imparts a knowledge of the history of the period in the most
delightful manner." — Gazette, Boston.
** For strong and vivid scenes, dramatic power and effect, for
novelty and enthusiastic interest, the stories are masterpieces.
They ought to be read by every lover of fiction ; they will reveal
to him new and artistic work.** — Boston Globe.
" All who enjoyed (and who that read it did not enjoy it ? )
• The Times of Gustaf Adolf,' will be eager to read this the third
of the series ; a thrilling story of the thrilling times of ' The Lion
of the North,' written by the Walter Scott of the North."
— Living Church, Chicago.
** We would much prefer teaching a youth Swedish history
from the novels of Topelius than from any book of strict historical
narrative. In the one case w« are confident the events will be
remembered and the times will live ; in the other the chances are
that the first will be forgotten and the second never realized."—
New York Sun.
** We know of no author with whom to compare Topelius.
He is vigorous and graphic, never verbose, never failing in interest.
His books will attrrct the mature reader, and absorb the attention
of children, and we commend them most heartily to all of these
classes." — Courier, Cincinnati,
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^Swedish history has never been so aUr€tetiv^y
recorded.^ — Advance^ Chicago,
TIMES OF FREDERICK I.
An Historical Romance of the period succeeding the reign of
Charles XII. From the Swedish of Prof. Z. Topelius.
(Vol. IV. of " The Surgeon's Stories.") Price,75 cents.
" The portrayal is that of a master hand, and the stirring tale
of passion, the thread of the king's ring romance, running through
it make a captivating and intensely thrilling production of literary
genius." — Times^ Troy, N, Y,
'*The * Times of Frederick I.* is wholly worthy the com-
panionship of its predecessors. The characters are drawn with
much of the picturesque force of Walter Scott, and the narrative
is almost as animated and as genial as that of the elder Dumas
in his historical novels." — Gauttte^ Boston,
" Even more than former volumes does this book show a strik-
ing resemblance to Scott in the power to make an historical epoch
real and vivid to the reader's eyes. There is nothing finer in
Scott than the scene in which the young count discovers the
woman whom he loves in the wayside inn, surrounded by drunken
noblemen, and rescues her by fighting three duels with the
carottsers." — Chronicle^ San Francisco,
" Its chief value is in its graphic description of the political
feeling and action in the first years of peace after the war of
twenty-one-years, and in its very perfect photographs of three
leaders, Count Horn, Count Bertelskold, and Larsson. There are
present, with undiminished force, the same knowledge of men
and motives, the same skillful art and eloquent expression that
have been exhibited so remarkably in the preceding works. The
stories are classic in theme, treatment and style, and afford a
satisfaction to literary taste that it seldom experiences in their
class of fiction. Their qualities are entitled to conscientious
study, and the time given to them will be repaid by the discovery
of some rare beauties." — Globe^ Boston,
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paid, on receipt of price, by the publishers,
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** It deserves a place with the very best fiction.^
— Standard t Chicago,
TIMES OF Lmi^^US.
An Historical Romance of the Times of the great Naturalist
Linnaeus. From the Swedish of Prof. Z. Topelius. (Vol.
V. of ** The Surgeon's Stories.") Price, 75 cents.
*' Like its predecessors, the work bears a romantic charm and
beauty of style that is rarely exceeded even in unmixed fiction." —
Interior^ ChUago.
'* The freshness, purity, and learning which have given these
stories their exceptional reputation are all present in the latest.
For the lover of flowers and plants this, is as enjoyable as a ro-
mance of botany, without any unnecessaiy intrusion of unknown
terms." — Herald^ Chicago,
" The beauty, delicacy and tenderness of description in these
stories can only be compared to the work of Sir Walter Scott.
The subtle emotions of the human mind are sketched with a
master hand. The heroic element combines the courage of a
soldier, with the gentleness of a lover. The reader is tempted
to exclaim in rapture, * Why have we never known this people
before ? ' **^-Frec PtesSy Detroit,
** In the other four stories, Topelius has described part of the
political as well as the social history of Sweden, and we have
learned some things no other history has taught us, about the
splendid campaigns of Gustaf Adolf and Charles the XII., but
the author in the Times of Linnaeus, introduces us to far nobler
battle fields, and to a conqueror whose name is, and forever will
be, held in love and admiration by the students of natural science.
As we follow with uninterrupted interest the course of this story,
we are more than ever impressed with the clear, picturesque and
dramatic style of its author. He records the history and charac-
ter of the great naturalist, and at the same time portrays the
romance of human passion with a skill which few modern novel-
ists possess. We have on other occasions advised our readers to
buy these stories. We more decidedly than ever before repeat
this counsel." — Courier^ Cincinnati.
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A
* The completion of * The Surgeon's Stories' fomu^
an event in nwdem literature*''— Express, Buffalo.
TIMES OF ALCHEMY.
An Historical Romance of the Dawn of the Gnstavian Period of
Swedish History. From the Swedish of Prof. Z.
Topelius. (Vol. VI., and last of "The Sur-
geon's Stories.") Price; 75 cents.
" As abundant in charm as the delightful historical romances
of the elder Dumas.'*— (/az^//^, Boston.
** This volume completes a charming series of stories, possess*
ing not merely fine fancy, but having within them such faithful
pictures of northern European life as can be found in no other
books." — Christian Advocate^ Chicago^
*' Perhaps in knowledge of the quiet expression of the heart,
under influence of love, and in the beauty of its lessons, this is
superior to all. * * They may be classed among the best books
of contemporary fiction, and should be carefully read." — Globe^
Boston,
'* The first conclusion— the only one (for who can criticise so
charming a series as this has been ?)— is that there is not quite
enough * Alchemy/ for what there is makes us want more — in
the unpretentious little book. But it is a clever wind up, never*
theless, of an exceedingly clean and clever series, for the intro-
duction of which the publishers deserve large credit." — Pioneer^
Presst St. Paul,
In the concluding volume of these great romances we are
shown a striking picture of the superstition that prevailed amongst
all classes of Swedish society before its clouds had yet been pene-
trated and dissolved by the sunlight of exact science that followed
the career of Linnaeus. This superstition is exemplified in the
person of a mysterious alchemist and his experiments in search of
the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life. Many of the char-
acters of the preceding volume appear in this, and the threads of
all the stories are here united and brought to a fitting close.
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i 111
3 2044 041 113
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