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MUSIC LIBRARY 




HARVARD 

COLLEGE 
LIBRARY 



LAMONT LIBRARY 



TRANSFERRED 

. — T 



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|-(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. 



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contemporary criticism. 

An additional interest is given by an appendix containing a list 
of the prominent female composers of the past three centuries, and 
a list of the women to whom the great masters have dedicated 
their more important works. 

The book is the result of a very wide gleaning in the out-of-the- 
way fields of musical literature, and will be very fascinating to 
all who are interested in the more romantic phases of musical his- 
tory and biography. 

Sold by all booksellers, or mailed, postpaid, on 
receipt of price by the publishers, 

A. C- McCLURG & COMPANY, 
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*^A very charming sketch of a most interesting 

character.^^-^BosUm OmgregatumaRsU 



LIFE OF MOZART. 

From the Gennan of Dr. Louis Nohl. With portrait. 

Price, $i.oo. 

** The work was well worthy of translation, for it is a model of 
short biography, containing all that the student need know to un- 
derstand fully the works of the great composer. The translator 
has done his work in a very creditable manner, and the publishers 
have given it an appropriate dress." — Traveller^ Boston, 

** 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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receipt of price by the publishers, 

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4€ 



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. 

Sold by all booksellers, or mailed, postpaid, on 
receipt of price by the publishers, 

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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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receipt of price by the publishers, 

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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, 

Sold by all booksellers, or mailed, post-paid, ox% 
receipt of price, by the publishers. 

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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, 

Sold by all booksellers, or mailed postpaid, on re- 
ceipt of price by the publishers. 

A. C- McCLURG & COMPANY, 
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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. 

Sold by all books^ellers, or sent by mall, post- 
paid, on receipt of price by the publishers, 

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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, 

Sold by all booksellers, or sent by mall, post-paid, 
on receipt of price, by the publishers, 

A. C. McCLURG & COMPANY, 
Cor. Wabash Ave. and Madison St.. Chlcagro. 



^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, 

Sold by all booksellers, or sent by mail, post- 
paid, on receipt of price, by the publishers, 

A. C. MCCLURG & COMPANY, 
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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. 

Sold by all booksellers, or sent by mail, post- 
paid, on receipt of price by the publishers, 

A. C. McCLURG & COMPANY, 
Cor. Wabash Ave. and Madison St., Chlcafiro. 



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. 

Sold by all booksellers, or sent by mall, post- 
paid, on receipt of price by the publishers, 

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Cor. Wabash Ave. and Madison St., Chicago. 



i 111 

3 2044 041 113 



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