Joseph Haydn seems to us now a figure of the
remote past, so great have been the changes in the world of music since he
lived. But his name will always be read in the golden book of classical music,
and whatever the revolutionary processes of art may bring, the time will never
come when his most important works will be forgotten. Compared with Mozart,
however, we notice a strange dissimilarity. The popularity of Haydn has
decreased while that of Mozart has considerable increased since their day. In
fact, while Haydn in his lifetime became a dominating figure in the world of
music and reaped a rich harvest of fame and earthly goods, only a few of the
immense quantity of his works have preserved their vitality up to the present
time. On the contrary, Mozart, who had to fight with squalid misery and was
buried in the grave of the poor, has risen after his death to the most exalted
height and his instrumental works as well as his operas have still in cur modern
day a place of honor on the stage and on the concert platform. It will be
interesting to investigate the reasons for this odd dispensation of fortune.
Haydn's life was a long, sane and, on the
whole, fortunate existence. For many years he remained obscure, but if he had
his time of trial he never experienced a time of real failure.
With
practical wisdom he conquered the fates and became eminent. In the history of
art his position is of the first importance. He was the originator of the string
quartet and of the symphony and he established the basis of the modern
orchestra. Without him Beethoven would have been impossible.
Franz Joseph Haydn was born on the last day of March,
1732, at Rohrau, a small town on the confines of Austria and Hungary. His father
was a cartwright and his mother before her marriage had been a cook in the
family of Count Harrach, the lord of the village. The father united to his trade
the office of parish sexton. He had a fine tenor voice, was fond of the organ
and music in general. On one of those journeys which the artisans of Germany
often undertake, being at Frankfort0on-the-Main, he learned to play a little on
the harp and in holidays after church he used to play this instrument while his
wife sang. The birth of Joseph did not alter the habits of this peaceful family.
The little domestic concert was repeated every week and the child sawed an
accompaniment on an improvised fiddle.
A cousin of the cartwright, whose name was Frankh, a
schoolmaster at Hainburg, came to Rohrau one Sunday and assisted at the trio. He
remarked that the child, then scarcely six years old, kept the time with
astonishing precision, and as he was well acquainted with music he proposed to
his relations to take little Joseph to his home and to teach him the first
elements of music.
He set out accordingly for Hainburg in 1738. Frankh, who
gave his young cousin, to use Haydn's own expression, "more cuffs than
gingerbread," soon taught his young pupil not only to play the violin and
other instruments, but also to understand Latin and to sing at the parish desk
in a style which spread his reputation through the district.
A drummer being wanted for a local procession, young Haydn
undertook the part. Unfortunately he was so small of stature that the instrument
had to be carried before him on the back of a colleague. That this colleague
happened to be a hunchback only made the incident more ludicrous. Haydn had
rather a partiality for the drum, "a satisfying instrument," as
Meredith says, "because of its rotundity." According to Pohl, the
particular instrument upon which he performed on the occasion is still preserved
in the choir of the church of Hainburg.
The schoolmaster's wife seems to have had peculiar views
about cleanliness. She compelled the boy to wear a wig. "I could not help
it," Haydn remarked to Dies, his friend and biographer, "much to my
own distress, that I was gradually getting very dirty and though I thought a
good deal of my little person, I was not always able to avoid spots of dirt on
my clothes, of which I was dreadfully ashamed."
At all events, even if deplorable neglected in these
personal matters, he was really making progress with his art. Haydn himself,
looking back upon these days, says: "Our Almighty Father, to Whom above all
I owe the most profound gratitude, had endowed me with so much facility in music
that even in my sixth year I was bold enough to sing some masses in the
choir."
Haydn had been two years with Frankh when a piece of good
fortune befell him. Chance brought to Frankh's home Reutter, the Court
Capellmeister of St. Stephen cathedral church of Vienna. He was in search of
children to recruit his choir. The schoolmaster proposed his little relative.
Reutter gave him a canon to sing at sight. The precision, purity of tone, the
expression with which the child executed it, surprised him, but he was
especially charmed with the beauty of his voice. He only remarked that he did
not shake and asked him: "How is it that you cannot shake?" "How
can you expect me to shake," replied the boy, "when Herr Frankh
himself cannot shake?" The great man, then drawing the child toward him,
taught him to make the vibrations in his throat required to produce this special
effect. The boy immediately made a good shake and Reutter, enchanted with the
success of the child scholar, flung a handful of cherries into Haydn's cap and,
of course did not return along to Vienna; he took the young shaker, then about
eight years old, along with him. Vienna was now to be Haydn's home for ten
years.
Many interesting details have been printed regarding the
Choir School of St. Stephen and its routine in Haydn's time. The "cantorei"
or choir school was of very ancient foundation - as early as 1441. The school
consisted of a cantor (later Capellmeister), a sub-cantor, two ushers and six
scholars. They all resided together and had meals in common. But, although ample
allowance had originally been made for the board, lodging and clothing of the
scholars, the increased cost of living resulted in the boys of Haydn's time
being poorly fed and scantily clad.
At thirteen haydn tried to compose a mass, but was
ridiculed by Reutter, and being full of good sense at that early period the boy
was aware, therefore, of the necessity of learning harmony and counterpoint.
None of the masters of Vienna, however, would give lessons gratis to a boy of
the choir who had no patronage. On the other hand, "sweet are the uses of
adversity," since a master would have prevented him from committing some
faults, but would probably have suffocated his originality.
Like Rousseau he bought, at a second hand shop some
theoretical books, among others Gradus parnassum of Lux and Mattheson's Volkommener
Capellmeister, dry treatises which Haydn made his constant companions.
Without either money or fire, shivering with cold in his garret, oppressed with
sleep as he pursued his studies to a late hour of the night by the side of a
harpsichord out of repair and falling to pieces in all parts, he was still
happy. The days and years flew on rapid wings, and he has often said that he
never enjoyed such felicity at any other period of his life. Although it may
sound paradoxical, these hardships and obstacles were instrumental in
fecundating and fructifying his genius, and to this self teaching Haydn owes,
most likely, the gigantic steps he made in art.
At the age of nineteen he was expelled from the class of
choristers in consequence of a mischief he perpetrated, cutting off the pig tail
of one of his comrades. Obliged to seek a shelter, chance threw in his way a wig
maker named Keller, who, when at the cathedral, had often admired the beauty of
the boy's voice, and who offered him an asylum. Keller received him as a son,
sharing with him his humble fare and charging his wife with the care of his
clothing Haydn was, consequently, able to pursue his studies. His residence here
had, however, a fatal influence on his future life. Keller had two daughters.
His wife and he soon planned to marry one of them to the young musician, and
spoke to him on the subject. Haydn, absorbed in his own meditations, made no
objection. It is easy to understand that such an union was anything rather than
happy. As Haydn himself remarked, it did not matter to her whether he were a
cobbler or an artist. She used his manuscript scores as curling papers and
under-lays for the pastry, and wrote to him later, when he was in England, for
money to buy "a widow home," in the belief that Haydn would die before
he returned.
In 1759 Prince Esterhazy, a Hungarian nobleman of enormous
wealth and passionately devoted to music, appointed Haydn as vice-cappellmeister
in his service. It was certainly a providential event for Haydn, for it freed
him from anxiety about his daily bread; but the conditions of the agreement
would be considered today as utterly humiliating for an artist. Here are some of
them:
"When the orchestra shall be summoned to perform
before company, the vice-capellmeister and all the musicians shall appear in
uniform, and the said Joseph Haydn shall take care that he and the members o the
orchestra shall appear in white stockings, white linen, and either with a
pigtail or a tiewig."
"He shall abstain from undue familiarity and from
vulgarity in eating, drinking and conversation."
These and other similar conditions have afforded matter
for a good deal of astonishment and indignation at the thought of a great
composer placed in the position of a servant! However, these things should be
judged in relation to the customs of the age. There was no idea in Haydn's
native country of the dignity of art, at any rate so far as musicians were
concerned. Mozart, also had to live with the archbishop's household and dine at
the servant's table!
Haydn had been about a year in the service, when Prince
Anton died (1762). He was succeeded by his brother, Nicolaus, who rejoiced in
the soubriquet of "The Magnificent." Nicolaus loved ostentation and
glitter above all things, wearing a uniform bedecked with diamonds. He loved
music, was a performer himself and played the "baryton," a stringed
instrument similar to the viola da gamba, something between a viola and
violoncello, in general use up to the end of the eighteenth century. Haydn was
continually pestered to provide new works for the noble player and thought it
would flatter him if he himself learned to handle the baryton. This was a
mistake, for when Haydn made his debut with the instrument the prince gave him
to understand that he disapproved of such rivalry. Haydn wrote a surprising
amount of music for the baryton, no fewer than one hundred and seventy-five
compositions. They have gone to oblivion together with the instrument which
called them into life.
At this time he wrote also several quarters and
symphonies. His fame wasnow manifestly spreading. thus the Viener Diarium
for 1766 includes him among the most distinguished musicians of Vienna, and
describes him as "the darling of our nation." "His amiable
disposition," says the panegyrist, "speaks through every one of his
works. His music had beauty, purity and a delicate and noble simplicity which
commends it to every hearer."
In regard to his personal appearance, his biographers say
that Haydn was below the middle height and his legs were somewhat too short for
his body. His expression was animated, yet at the same time temperate and
gentle. His face wore a stern look when is repose, but in conversation it was
smiling and cheerful. His nose was aquiline and disfigured by a polypus, which
he always refused to have removed, and his face was deeply pitted with the
smallpox. This latter disease was probably the cause of the dark complexion
which earned him the byname of "the Moor." His under-lip was large and
hanging, his jaw massive.
Haydn considered himself an ugly man and felicitated
himself on the fact that it must be for something deeper than beauty that so
many women fell in love with him! In fact, Haydn took considerable pains to
attract the fairer sex, and he was never at a loss for the suave turning of a
compliment. To the day of his death he would never receive visitors unless he
was fully dressed; and the arrangement of his room was so exact and methodical
that the least disorder caused him much annoyance. The plan which he had laid
down for himself in his eighteenth year he continued, with very little
alteration, to the end of his life. It was one of incessant industry, and it
might serve to prove the exception to the rule which characterized all genius as
whimsical and irregular. Haydn spoke in the broad Austrian dialect, and his
conversation was sprinkled with the humorous turns of expression common to the
Austrian people. He spoke Italian fluently and a little French.
Haydn's Income
The salary he received was not large as we would now
consider it - about $390 yearly, in addition to which he had certain allowances
in kind - but it was sufficient to free him from financial worry, had it not
been for the extravagance and bad management of his wife. His compositions also
brought him some profits. He may have saved £200 before 1796, the year he
started for London. The fact is that when he set out for the English capital he
had not only to draw upon the generosity of the prince for the cost of the
journey, but had to sell his home to provide for his wife until his return.
At Esterhaz, the home of the prince, he wrote nearly all
his operas, most of his arias and songs, the music for the "marionette
theater" (of which he was particularly fond) and the great part of his
orchestral and chamber works. the operatic works were essentially pieces d'
occasion and most of them have perished.
Haydn, like all geniuses, had a host of opponents. In 1778
he applied for membership to the Tonkunstler Societat, for whom he had
written his oratorio Il ritorno di Tobia. Once would have expected such a
body to receive him with open arms. Instead of that they asked a sum of 300
florins for the admission and the promise to compose for them whenever they
chose to ask him. These exorbitant conditions, probably dictated by jealousy,
were not accepted by Haydn, and he withdrew his application. As often happens
with similar musical organizations, they delay the recognition of a fellow
musician until he has become famous, and then, when he does not need their
support any more, they run after him and are eager to honor him. In fact, later,
after his second visit to London, when the entire world hailed him as a musical
hero, the Tonkunstler Societat welcomed Hadyn, at a special meeting and
with one voice appointed him "assessor senior" for life. In return for
this distinction Haydn was generous (or weak?) enough to forget the previous
affront and to present the society with his immortal oratorios, The Creation
and The Seasons.
If Haydn was thus less appreciated at home than he
deserved to be, there were others who knew the full value of his work. The king
of Spain, to whom Haydn sent the score of his opera, L'isola Disabitata,
showed his sense of the honor by the gift of a gold snuff-box set in brilliants.
Other marks of royal attention were bestowed upon him by Prince Henry of
Prussia, who sent him a gold medal and his portrait in return for the dedication
of six new quartets; and Kind Wilhelm, who gave him the famous gold ring which
Haydn used to regard as a talisman, which he always wore when composing.
Haydn no doubt catered to the favor of royalty. The
miraculous power he attributed to that ring is a proof that, according to
his views, "inferior beings" owe a real worship to the might of the
earth. In return for this devotion powerful monarchs rewarded him with their
high patronage. In our democratic times we would surely not recommend such
servility as worthy of imitation, although we must take notice of the fact that
this was one of the principal causes of the artistic and pecuniary success of
Haydn. Bad enough that other great musicians who - like Mozart and Beethoven -
disdained to "stoop to conquer" had to suffer in consequence of their
noble pride.
We have seen that Haydn's marital life was far from happy.
It is therefore no wonder that Haydn sought compensation in some other
affection. Among the musicians who had been engaged for the Esterhazy service
were a couple named Polzelli; the husband a violinist, the wife a second rate
vocalist. Luigia was a lively Italian girl of nineteen. Also her marriage seems
not to have been made in Heaven, and Haydn first pitied her and ultimately fell
passionately in love with her. Signora Polzelli was clearly an unscrupulous
woman.
Unlike Mozart, Haydn took into consideration that one
cannot live on glory alone. He entered into business relations with Artaria, the
Vienna music publisher, and William Foster of London. The latter published
eighty-two symphonies, twenty-four quartets and the Seven Words of Our
Saviour on the Cross. This oratorio he composed for Cadiz. Haydn tells us
about this solemn ceremony. The bishop ascended the pulpit, pronounced one of
the "Seven Words" and delivered a discourse thereon. Then came the
music. The bishop then proceeded in like manner with the second work, and so on,
the orchestra falling in at the conclusion of each discourse. This work created
a profound impression. It was published afterwards with choruses and solos, and
the composer seems to have preferred it to all his other compositions.
The Visit to London
With the death of the Prince in 1790 the Esterhazy chapter
of Haydn's artistic career came to a close, and Haydn embraced the opportunity
to carry out the long meditated project of paying his first visit to London. The
violinist Salomon was going to organize in London a series of concerts on a
large scale and he went to Vienna to engage Haydn. It was no easy decision to
embark on such an extensive journey. First of all he was near sixty. One of his
reasons for his hesitation was the deep attachment to Mozart. "I only
wish," he said, "I could impress upon every great man the same deep
sympathy and profound appreciation I myself feel for Mozart's iminitable music;
then all nations would vie with each other to possess such a genius within their
frontiers. It enrages me to think that the unparalleled Mozart is not yet
engaged at any Imperial Court. I love that man so dearly!" Mozart heartily
reciprocated this affection.
This noble trait alone would stamp Haydn as a lofty figure
in art. It sounds almost like fiction that a musician - unfortunately musicians
are inclined to jealousy and envy - should feel so deep a veneration for a
younger rival and - what is more - give him the benefit of such an enthusiastic
testimonial which would alone suffice to establish his fame. We should all take
this wonderful example of altruism as our guiding star. "Oh, papa!"
Mozart said to Haydn, in loving anxiety over his departure for England,
"you have had no education for the wide, wide, world, and you speak so few
languages." Haydn answered: "My language is understood all over the
world."
At length Salomon won the point and everything was
arranged for the London visit. Haydn was to have:
One thousand dollars for a benefit concert.
The composer paid his traveling expenses, being assisted
in that matter by an advance of four hundred and fifty florins for the prince,
which he refunded later.
The hospitality with which he was received in London
gratified Haydn extremely. He wrote to Frau von Genzinger, an amiable and highly
cultivated woman, for whom he entertained a pure and elevating friendship, that
his presence in London having been announced in all newspapers within three days
of his arrival and he had received the most flattering attentions from the
nobility. Haydn soon gauged the musical taste of the English public. He doubted
as to which of two evils he should choose; whether to insist on his stipulated
composition being placed in the first part of the concert program, when its
effect would have been marred by the continual noisy entrance of late comers, or
in the second, when the considerable portion of the audience would be asleep
before it began! Haydn chose the latter as the preferable alternative and the
loud chord (Paukenschlag) of the Andante in his Surprise Symphony is said
to have been a very comical device he hit upon for rousing the slumberers.
On this occasion Haydn witnessed a "Handel
Festival." He had never before heard a performance in which the orchestra
and the chorus together numbered a thousand persons. The solo singers and
instrumentalists were the best of the day. A guinea was the price of admission
and an advertisement in the Gazetteer announced that "ladies will not be
admitted in hats and are particularly requested to come without feathers and
with very small hoops if any." When at the Hallelujah Chorus the whole
assemble, including the King, rose to their feet, Haydn wept like a child,
exclaiming in overpowering emotion, "Handel is the master of us all!"
Haydn received at Oxford the degree of Doctor of Music and
his Oxford Symphony, composed for the occasion, was performed with great
applause. His Doctor's degree had some influence in causing him to be unusually
feted. River parties, picnics and banquets were given in his honor, he was very
often the guest of the nobility and was in every way lionized.
Upon Haydn's return to Vienna the young Beethoven arranged
to have lessons from him. It is generally known that these lessons were
practically a failure, for Haydn after his great London success had grown above
giving lessons even to a promising genius. In Vienna he was the idol of society
and his whole time was occupied by engagements of many kinds and it cannot be
denied that he neglected his pupil.
His second visit to London was still more successful.
Haydn remarked in his diary: "It is only in England that one can earn 4,000
Gulden in one evening." He was often invited to Carlton House by the Prince
of Wales, who was himself a distinguished amateur; only he sometimes forgot to
pay the soloists. Haydn, after waiting several months, at last sent from Vienna
a bill for 100 guineas for twenty-six attendances at Carlton House, a very
moderate demand which was discharged at once.
One of Haydn's most original souvenirs followed him to
Vienna from a Leicester manufacturer who sent him a complimentary letter
accompanied by six pairs of stockings into which were woven airs from Haydn's
compositions. Another curious gift was that of a talking parrot which was sold
for 1,400 florins after Haydn's death.
Two Famous Oratorios
It is peculiar that the Creation and the Seasons,
the two most important works of Haydn, were children of old age. The first of
the two met with some hostility from his contemporaries. Schiller called it
"a meaningless hodge-podge" and Beethoven made merry over its
imitation of beasts and birds. The best parts of it however not those imitating
natural sounds, but those which suggest the glorious phenomena of the creation,
the sun, the moon, the ocean, etc.
The Seasons bears signs of mental effort. Perhaps
the subject was not congenial to the author. The Emperor Francis Joseph once
asked Haydn which of the two oratorios he himself preferred. "The
Creation," he answered, "because in this work angels speak, and
their talk is of God. In the Seasons no one higher speaks than the farmer
Simon." Both oratorios, however, added considerable to Haydn's fame and
fortune. The effort was too much for him. An illness followed, which left him a
broken man. To Dies he exclaimed: "The Seasons brought on my
weakness. I ought never to have undertaken that work." He composed very
little after that.
After several years of seclusion Haydn appeared in public
for the last time (1808) when the Creation was performed in Vienna.
Salieri conducted. Haydn's entrance into the Hall of the university where the
concert was given was announced by a burst of trumpets and drums and by loud
cheers of the audience. Haydn was so much excited over the enthusiasm that it
was thought well to take him home at the conclusion of the first part. As he was
carried out Beethoven stooped to kiss his hands and forehead.
Haydn died May 31, 1809, at the age of 77 years, as Vienna
was being bombarded by the French. On the 15th of June Mozart's Requiem
was performed at the SchottenKirche. Many French officers were among the
mourners and the guard of honor was chiefly composed of French soldiers.
Haydn had a kind of fear of his own narrow individuality,
which he considered often an obstacle to the free display of fantasy and
invention. He frequently put down on paper a certain number of notes taken at
random, marked the time, and obliged himself to make something out of them.
Bland, a London publisher, had been sent over to Vienna by
Salomon (7\1787) to coax Haydn into an engagement. When he was admitted he found
the composer in the act of shaving, and complaining of the bluntness of the
razor. "I would give by best quartet for a good razor!" Bland
immediately ran back to his lodging and returning with his own razors of good
English steel, presented them to Haydn, who gave him in exchange his latest
quartet still familiarly known as the Rasirmesser Quartett (Razor
quartet).
Elements of Haydn's Success
The reduced circumstances of his youth which prevented him
from taking lessons, which would probably have moulded his genius into narrow,
restraining rules and, as often happens, dimmed his originality.
The hardships he had to suffer during the time of his
artistic development which, compelling him to seek his own way without and
guidance, instead of harming his career resulted in fecundating and fructifying
his musical gifts.
His obsequiousness toward those who stood highest upon the
social ladder, which won him their patronage, honors and wealth. Haydn was
evidently satisfied that it was the duty of an artist to pay homage to the
mighty of the earth.
The practical trend of his nature which, in spite of his
loft ideals, did not allow him to lose sight of the fact that "the jingling
of the guinea helps the hurt that honor feels."
The unselfish recognition and ungrudging praise he
bestowed upon his fellow artists, which found the noblest expression in his
behavior toward the transcending Mozart.
Josef
Haydn