Famous composers and their works, Vol. 2

by Unknown

Of the quartet Haydn may be justly called the inventor, and it is in this phase of his art that he may be most profitably studied. The quartet was, as Otto Jahn truly says, "Haydn's natural mode of expressing his feelings," and it is in the quartet that Haydn's growth and progress in his art are most strikingly illustrated. Their influence on music has been greater than that exerted by his symphonies. Here he is seen in his full and his best strength, and it is here too that his extraordinary creative powers are most brilliantly emphasized. When these works first appeared they were sneered at by the pedagogues of the day, but by-and-by more respect was shown to them even by their earlier antagonists, for it was seen that the quartet was not only susceptible of depth of sentiment and seriousness of treatment, but that musical learning also had in them a field for its finest development. These quartets, from the opportunities they afforded for performance in the family circle, exercised great influence in raising the standard of taste, and in their educational aspects they were thus of the highest service. They crystallized form and in essence may be looked on as the parent of all the serious and so-called classical music that has been composed since. The progeny may only distantly resemble the parents, but the form establishes beyond all cavil the family resemblance.

Haydn's first quartet is the merest shadow. The first half of the opening movement consists of no more than twenty-four bars. The subject comprises eight bars; then comes eight bars of an episode modulating into the dominant, and then the second subject, also eight bars in length; but brief and pale as it is, it is unmistakably the germ that was elaborated by Beethoven into such prodigious masterpieces. It is in the quartet that Haydn found the fullest outlet for his wealth of musical thought, and it is in the quartet that his genius is illustrated in its most marked individuality. Quartets were written before his day, and also by his contemporaries, J. C. Bach, Stamitz, Jomelli, Boccherini, and others, but Haydn's marvellous invention, his originality in the mastery of form, his fine feeling for the characteristic speech of each instrument enabled him to obtain a mastery that left him without a rival. His early quartets are exceedingly thin, and are in such glaring contrast with what came after the composer had wholly developed the capacity of the quartet as a means of profound expression of musical thought, that he is said to have wished to ignore all his works in this class that preceded the nineteenth quartet; but they are necessary to the student who would follow the growth of musical form. It is an immense stride from the first of these compositions to the ever-beautiful "Kaiser quartet," with its exquisite variations, or "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser." The advance from simple harmonies to polyphonic treatment of the different parts, is a peculiarly interesting subject for study. Haydn stamped a character on the quartet that has never been departed from; and what is known as the "quartet style" was established by him so thoroughly that in all the mutations in musical taste, it still remains a distinction that admits of no change.

Haydn also left the impress of his genius on the sonata, though to Emanuel Bach is due the honor of having broken with the past as represented by Domenico Scarlatti and Kuhnau. The same copiousness of invention and perfection of form that characterize his quartets and symphonies are to be found in his sonatas, too much neglected at present, for in several of his later compositions of this class he appears to have gone further than Mozart and to have overlapped into the era of Beethoven. His trios for clavier and strings are full of interest, but with two or three exceptions they are not of special value except as models. The strings are often held subordinate to the piano, and the outer voices are too persistently doubled. Of his other purely instrumental works, including concertos and divertimenti, nothing survives except the fine concerto for clavier in D with "principal violin."

His songs, of which he wrote many, have passed for the most part into deserved oblivion. Some of his canzonets are marked by grace and delicacy, but the sign of age is unmistakably on them. His masses display that eternal freshness and that cheerfulness of spirit that are peculiarly Haydn's, and the more important of them must rank forever among the masterpieces of their class, notably the "Mariazell" Mass in C-major, and the "Cecilia" Mass, in the same key.

"The Seasons" and "The Creation" are remarkable not only in themselves, but as productions of his old age. It is true that his fame does not rest on them, and it is equally true that if he had written nothing else these works would not have brought the composer's name down to our day with the glory that now surrounds it. Some portions of "The Creation" however, are noble music, and these will always be listened to with delight. Never was the human voice treated in a more masterly manner than it has been by Haydn in these "oratorios," and the study of their scores is still valuable to all who would learn how to support the voice by flowing and brilliant orchestration without giving undue prominence to the instruments.

The dramatic interest of "The Creation" is not strong. There is nothing in the shape of declamation, and the singers are confined to mere description. The result is a lack of passion and a consequent monotony of sentiment. The tone-picture of Chaos, with which the work opens, stands out as one of the noblest bits of instrumentation that Haydn ever wrote. The air "With Verdure Clad" is exquisite, in melody and orchestration, but its many repetitions mar it and make it tiresome. "On mighty pens" is another lovely air, but here too the composer has not been fortunate in respect to discreet brevity. The choruses reach a high point of beauty in regard to themes, development and voice treatment, and "The Heavens are telling" still remains one of the noblest oratorio choruses outside of Bach and Handel. But the breadth and dignity of all the choruses are impaired by the elaborateness of the orchestration. Haydn was essentially an instrumental composer, and it was but natural that he should have yielded to the temptation to produce effects of which he was practically the inventor and at which the musical world still marvelled. It is, with all its faults, an amazing work for a man not far from three-score and ten years of age; and it may still be listened to with pleasure, when the last part is omitted; for the wooings and cooings of Adam and Eve have become incurably old-fashioned; and the grace, melodiousness and tenderness of the music do not atone for its monotonous effect and its lack of dramatic color.

"The Seasons," by its well sustained pastoral tone, its fresh and cheerful melodies, the fidelity with which the composer has adhered to the spirit of his poem, and the simple grace of style that marks the work throughout, make it still delightful in the hearing when it is produced with care and in harmony with the chaste sentiment that pervades it. When it is remembered that the composer compassed this work at the age of 69, and consequently near the end of a busy life whose active pursuit might well have exhausted his capacity to invent, its wealth of melody is astonishing. And yet, he said to Michael Kelly, "It is the tune which is the charm of music, and it is that which is most difficult to produce." In our day it would seem that tune is exhausted or that it is more difficult to produce than it was. In this connection another saying of Haydn's may be reproduced for the felicity with which it applies to the present time: "Where so many young composers fail is, that they string together a number of fragments and break off almost as soon as they have begun; so that at the end the hearer carries away no clear impression." By omitting the word "young," the words will not be any the less true now.

Of Haydn's lighter vocal works there is no need to speak, for they have passed away forever. His operas have been wholly forgotten, and not unkindly. It is, however, as an instrumental composer that Haydn is entitled to the most earnest consideration. In this field of his industry he has left an imperishable name. He was, to all intents and purposes, the creator of orchestral music. His place in musical history is among the greatest in his art. He broke with pedantry at the outset of his career, enlarged the scope and dignified the aim of music, and made the world the happier for his presence and in the rich legacy he left it. Music has changed greatly since his day, and in its progress it has departed widely and is still departing, even more widely, from the conditions in which he left it; but in all its changes it has left his position unassailed. His best achievements in his art are yet listened to with delight, despite the richer orchestration and the larger design that characterize the music of our time. He has outlived every mutation thus far, and it is perhaps not overbold to prophesy that his fame will endure long after the vague, restless and labored music that is peculiar to the present era, is forgotten. The moral of his life is devotion to art for art's sake. He was loyal to it through poverty, suffering and disappointment, never doubting his mission on earth. His early career was through tears, but as Heine says: "The artist is the child in the fable, every one of whose tears was a pearl. Ah! the world, that cruel step-mother, beats the poor child the harder, to make him shed more tears."