Famous composers and their works, Vol. 2

by Unknown

It was not long after this marriage that the good Count Morzin found himself unable to maintain his orchestra longer, and therefore he was compelled to dismiss it and its conductor. Haydn was thus thrown on his own resources again, but not for long. By this time he had made a name for himself, and fortunately Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy had been a frequent visitor at Count Morzin's and heard much of Haydn's music there. It had impressed him greatly by its originality and its spirit. On the breaking up of the orchestra the Prince at once engaged Haydn as his second Capellmeister, and in May, 1761, when he was twenty-nine years old, he went to Eisenstadt in Hungary, where was the country seat of the richest and most liberal of the Austrian nobles. There Haydn's wandering ended, for in service of this family he was fated to remain for the rest of his life.

The Esterhazy family was distinguished for its love of music, and the first Prince Paul, who died nearly fifty years before Haydn entered on his long connection with this house, founded a private chapel, the performers in which were increased in number from time to time. There were a chorus, solo singers, and an orchestra, and they participated not only in the church services, but in concerts and eventually in operas. When Haydn joined the orchestra it consisted of only sixteen musicians, but they were all excellent artists, and the precision and finish of their playing surpassed anything of the kind that Haydn had previously heard. He was now free to exercise his musical invention in any direction that he saw fit to choose. The orchestra was at his call on any day and at any hour, and he was thus enabled to experiment with it, and as he himself said, "to observe what was good and what was weak in effect, and was consequently in a position to better, to change, to amplify, to curtail" his music according as a hearing of it suggested. He was now free from all care, cut off from the outer world, and able to give full play to the art aspirations that were in him.

With all this independence on one side, on the other he was in a position not much higher than that of an upper servant. The agreement between Haydn and the Prince is still in existence, and some of its stipulations are so curiously humiliating that they are worth reproducing here. It is impressed on Haydn that he must be temperate; must abstain from vulgarity in eating and drinking and conversation; must take care of all the music and the musical instruments, and be answerable for any injury they may suffer from carelessness or neglect; that as he is an expert on various instruments, he shall take care to practice on all that he is acquainted with; that when summoned to perform before company he shall take care that he and all members of his orchestra do follow the instructions given and appear in white stockings, white linen, powder, and with either a pig-tail or a tie-wig. For pay, a salary of four hundred florins, to be received quarterly "is hereby bestowed upon the said Vice-Capellmeister by his Serene Highness." In addition, Haydn is permitted to have board at the officers' table, or half a gulden a day in lieu thereof. The whole tone of the contract places the composer in the light of a menial. It is by no means likely that it was made intentionally offensive, and, in fact, it is doubtful if Haydn found it so. In Germany at that time, the musician was not highly considered socially, and the composer was far less esteemed than were the virtuoso of eminence and the vocalist of superior abilities. We read of musicians, in the establishments of some of these princely patrons, who, when they were not needed to play to entertain the guests, were expected to wait on table or to assist in the kitchen.

MONUMENT TO HAYDN IN VIENNA.

From a photograph.

The chief Capellmeister, and nominally the head of the orchestra, was Gregorius Josephus Werner, an industrious musician, of whose compositions nothing has come down to us, and of which nothing deserved to come down. He was now old, and was to all intents and purposes replaced by Haydn, whose revolutionary ideas and innovations generally must have greatly disturbed the calm of his prim, formal, and pedagogic chief, who, in fact, rarely spoke of him except as "a mere fop" and "a song scribbler." Haydn, on the contrary, always expressed a warm respect for the old musician, who lived for five years under the new order of things and then ceased to repine, in death. But Prince Paul Anton died four years earlier, in fact before Haydn had been in his service for quite a year, and was succeeded by his brother Prince Nicolaus, the "great Esterhazy," famous for the lavishness with which he displayed his wealth and for the enthusiasm of his love for and patronage of the fine arts.

Under Prince Nicolaus a new order of things began, and his generosity was at once illustrated. The salaries of all the musicians were increased, Haydn's four hundred florins being increased to six hundred and shortly after to seven hundred and eighty-two, or about three hundred and ninety dollars of our money. The force of the Capelle was enlarged to seven singers and fourteen instrumentalists, and rehearsals took place every day. By this time, a knowledge of Haydn's music existed outside his own country, and his works were beginning to be known in London, Paris, and Amsterdam, and five years after he had been at Eisenstadt, the official journal of Vienna, the Wiener Diarium, alludes to him as "der Liebling unserer Nation." His industry was unrelaxing, for he had already composed, under the Esterhazys, some thirty symphonies and cassations, several divertimenti in five parts, six string trios, a concerto for French horn, twelve minuets for orchestra, besides concertos, trios, sonatas and variations for the clavier. His vocal compositions were a Salve Regina for soprano and alto, two violins and organ; a Te Deum; four Italian operettas; a pastoral, "Acis and Galatea," written for the marriage of Count Anton, eldest son of Prince Nicolaus; and a cantata in honor of the Prince's return from the coronation of Archduke Joseph as king of the Romans. In none of these works did Haydn rise to any high power. The greater Haydn was yet to develop.

To go through, in detail, his life at Eisenstadt would be only to repeat what has been already said, and to give a catalogue of his compositions in the order in which they were written. We shall therefore pass in rapid view the events of his career and leave a consideration of his works until we reach the point when it becomes necessary to estimate the musician rather than the man. It may, perhaps, be interesting to describe Haydn as he appeared personally to his contemporaries. He wore a uniform of light blue and silver, knee breeches, white stockings, lace ruffles and white neckcloth. His biographer, Dies, states: "Haydn was below the middle height, and his legs were somewhat too short for his body, a defect which was made more noticeable because of the style of attire he affected and which he obstinately declined to change as the fashions changed. His features were regular, his expression was spirited and at the same time temperate, amiable and winning. His face was stern when in repose, but smiling and cheerful when he conversed. I never heard him laugh. In build he was firm; he was lacking in muscle." He had a prominent aquiline nose disfigured by a polypus which he refused to have removed, and he was heavily pitted by small pox. His complexion was dark, so dark, in fact, that he was playfully called "The Moor." His jaw was heavy and his under-lip was large and hanging. Lavater described the eyes and nose of Haydn as something out of the common; his brow noble and good, but his mouth and chin "Philistine." Haydn's own opinion was that he was ugly, and he took pleasure in reflecting that it surely was not for his personal beauty that so many women were attracted to him. That he tried to make himself attractive to the opposite sex by extreme neatness of attire, suavity of manner, and flattery, in which he was an adept, is certain; and that he never lacked for warm admiration and even devoted love from women is no less well-established. He was very fond of fun, even that which was not wholly refined, and a predilection for rough practical joking abided with him to the last. He was sincere and unaffected in his piety and looked upon his talent as a gift from God, to be used dutifully in His service. It was seldom that he began to pen a composition without writing at its head, In Nomine Domini, and at its end, Laus Deo. Now and then he merely used the initials L.D., or S.D.G. (Soli Deo Gloria) and sometimes he wrote B.V.M. (Beatæ Virgini Mariæ). This custom was retained not only in his works for the church, but in those for the orchestra and even for the stage; and the most elaborate dedication of all is that to his opera "L'Infidelità Delusa," which he closes with Laus omnipotenti Deo et Beatissimæ Virgini Mariæ.