Ludwig Nohl

“ Indeed, they explain the irresistible and immeasurable influence of music. It is the image of Infinity itself, while the other arts are only the images of its phenomena. Its influence is so much more powerful and impressive than that of the other arts, because, as the philosopher would say, they represent only the shadow of things, while music represents their actual existence. A people so pre-eminently metaphysical and serious in character as the English, must have taken this simple, but deeply thoughtful Haydn and his symphonies into their very hearts. ”

“ 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 portrait appears to us reversed in his music? ”

“ 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 sublime 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 Handel’s majestic sublimity. ”

“ It is a treasure which Austria has given to the whole German people 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 throughout, for it comes from the heart of a man who regards life and the creation as something transcendently beautiful and good, and therefore cleaves to his Creator with child-like purity and thankful soul. ”

“ 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 stronger, 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. ”

“ Posterity will not find such 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 sonatas, quartets and symphonies were more closely developed and patterned upon the works which Haydn had then written than upon Mozart’s, the marvelous beauty of whose music was more like an inspiration from above, which could scarcely be appropriated or imitated by his followers. ”

“ One may see that his heart was in his work. “Accept this oratorio with reverence and devotion,” wrote his brother Michael, himself no ordinary church-composer. The most remarkable characteristic of the work is not, that his choruses rise to the Infinite, as his brother expresses it. Handel has accomplished this, and Bach also, with inexpressibly greater majesty and spiritual power. The heartfelt nature of his music, its incomparable naturalness, its blissful joyousness, its innocence of purpose, like laughter in childhood’s eyes—these are the new and beautiful features of it. ”

“ Above all, the first as well as the last sonata of Haydn’s shows a plastic touch, which clearly reveals this master’s natural 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Thus, from every point of view, Joseph Haydn stands before us an original, well defined personality, passing, as his life-long bearing [76] shows us, from an artificial and unnatural time in every way, to a period of the renewed 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. ”

“ 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 responsive portion of the second part—the climax 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 accomplished in music with such simple material. ”

“ He, himself, with his artistic sense, could sketch the ideal types of nature, inspire them with the breath of life, [170] give them the sparkle of the eye, and the inward 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. ”

“ 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 instrumental music, the extreme limit of which is the representation of the world’s vital will.
Melody, in other words, the vital will illuminated 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 modern instrumental music. ”

“ Would that I could impress upon every friend of music, and especially upon great men, the same deep sympathy and appreciation for Mozart’s inimitable works that I feel and enjoy; then, the nations would vie with each other in the possession of such a treasure. ”

“ Industry, O noble Industry, from thee comes all Happiness,” he remarked 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 torments, and during which his fancies were incessantly occupied with music. ”

“ On the 12th of May, 1794, the Military Symphony, another favorite among all Haydn’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 orchestra 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 opportunity of fully developing his talent as a composer. ”

“ 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 announced 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 revelations of the deepest feeling and individual spiritual certitude that speak to us in Haydn’s [131] music, and they have, so to speak, the most powerful grasp upon our individual existence. ”

“ As we think of the “Great Mogul,” and the scene with Goethe at Carlsbad, 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 value [177] of our nature, and brought it, as he did pure instrumental music, to a higher standard of merit. Swieten had already personally experienced Haydn’s anger. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Dies heard him say very expressively. This all-powerful force in [169] human existence is the source of the lovely fancies which float about us in the melodies of the “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 all of Haydn’s music, particularly of the “Creation.” ”

“ 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, notwithstanding 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 funeral 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 [87] contrapuntal means, and in the Larghetto of No. 20, surely all the nightingales of life are deliciously warbling. ”

“ Both socially 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 center of attraction. His simple and cordial manner 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, even the most [116] prejudiced, circulated his fame. ”

“ 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 accomplished little or nothing if I had not zealously worked at night upon my compositions.” Urgent as his necessity 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. ”

“ 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 persecutions of envy. Haydn appreciated his good intentions, but he still felt strong, and preferred 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He had also preserved his own devotion to his Fatherland [162] through many a sharp test. His long continued 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 original utterance of the people, and he, who had already learned the Lied in the childhood of the people itself, had been the first to introduce it in a becoming and all-joyous manner in the art of music. ”

“ 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 cherished” 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. ”