Beethoven and His Forerunners

by Daniel Gregory Mason

“The said Joseph Hayden shall be considered and treated as a member of the household. Therefore his Serene Highness is graciously pleased to place confidence in his conducting himself as becomes an honourable official of a princely house. He must be temperate, not showing himself overbearing towards his musicians, but mild and lenient, straightforward and composed. It is especially to be observed that when the orchestra shall be summoned to perform before company, the said Joseph Hayden shall take care that he and all members of his orchestra do follow the instructions given, and appear in white stockings, white linen, powdered, and either with a pig-tail or a tie-wig.

“Seeing that the other musicians are referred for directions to the said Vice-Kapellmeister, therefore he should take the more care to conduct himself in an exemplary manner, abstaining from undue familiarity, and from vulgarity in eating, drinking and conversation, not dispensing with the respect due to him, but acting uprightly and influencing his subordinates to preserve such harmony as is becoming in them, remembering how displeasing the consequences of any discord or dispute would be to his Serene Highness.

“The said Vice-Kapellmeister shall be under an obligation to compose such music as his Serene Highness may command, and to retain it for the absolute use of his Highness, and not to compose anything for any other person without the knowledge and permission of his Highness.

“The said Vice-Kapellmeister shall take careful charge of all music and musical instruments, and shall be responsible for any injury that may occur to them from carelessness or neglect.”

The demands made upon “the said Joseph Hayden” were obviously severe; but he had in return many advantages. He was secure from want, a great consideration to one who had starved in garrets and sung in the streets and the cafés for his supper. He came in contact with many interesting people, both among the social and the professional guests of Esterhaz. Above all, he had a good orchestra at his command, and he was not only privileged, but obliged, to compose for it incessantly. Thus he was incited to constant study and experiment; so that before many years had elapsed he had become a thorough master of his medium, with the requisite technical skill to express any idea that his genius might suggest. It was largely during these years that he poured out his endless series of masterpieces of chamber and orchestral music.

One result of all the work thus accomplished was that when, late in 1790, Prince Anton Esterhazy dismissed his entire corps of musicians, Haydn’s reputation was so widespread that he was immediately solicited by one Salomon, a violinist and conductor, to make a trip to London. Hard as it must have been for him, at his age of nearly sixty, to exchange his studious habits for the fatigues and excitement of travel, the opportunity was too good to be lost; and late in 1790 he set out with Salomon, reaching London early in the next year.

In reading of this visit to England, as well as of the second one which Haydn made three years later, one hardly knows whether to be more impressed by the fame and prosperity which came to him from all sides, or by the homely simplicity with which he received them. This quiet, precise, pious old kapellmeister was the object of the most flattering attentions from everyone in London; he was half worshipped by the ladies, he was fêted by noble families, he was the guest of the Prince of Wales. His works were awaited with impatience and received with enthusiasm; he was honored with the Degree of Doctor of Music by Oxford University; his pockets were filled with enough English gold to buy him German soup for the rest of his life. Yet he was almost as much overwhelmed as delighted with all this unwonted excitement. With a characteristic mixture of homeliness and piety he wrote to his friend Frau von Genzinger: “Oh! how often do I long to be beside you at the piano, even for a quarter of an hour, and then to have some good German soup. But we cannot have everything in this world. May God only vouchsafe to grant me the health that I have hitherto enjoyed, and may I preserve it by good conduct and out of gratitude to the Almighty!”

His English note-book reveals the same childlike attitude, mingled with an interest in details and statistics curiously characteristic of his matter-of-fact mind. Here are a few typical entries:

“The national debt of England is estimated to be over two hundred millions. Once it was calculated that if it were desired to pay the debt in silver, the wagons that would bring it, close together, would reach from London to York (two hundred miles), each wagon carrying £6,000.”