Joseph Haydn

“ Joseph Haydn was never lazy. His father and mother had taught him to love work. He was industrious, happy-hearted, and made friends easily. People loved him and he began to meet those who could help him. One of these was the great poet, Metastasio. Another was the singing master, Nicholas Porpora, who taught him music composition in return for which the boy brushed the master's clothes, polished his boots, did anything and everything, even to running errands. And all because he was so anxious to be taught how to compose music. ”

“ It is Joseph Haydn, and there is sprightly malice in his music. The glorious periwigged giant of London conducts a chorus of a million. The hailstones of Handel pelt the pate of the Sphinx. “A man!” I cried, as the very heavens stormed out their cadenced hallelujahs. A divine youth approaches. His mien is excellent, and his voice of rare sweetness. His band discourses ravishing music. The primeval tone is there, but feminized, graceful; troupes of painted stage players in fallals and furbelows present pictures of rakes, rustic maidens, and fantastics. An orchestra minces as Mozart disappears. ”

“ Little Joseph Haydn's father and mother were poor, but they loved cleanliness and system.
They feared God, worked hard, and loved music. Joseph's father used to sing in a clear tenor voice, accompanying himself on the harp. At home little Joseph was called Sepperl. ”

“ Yet Haydn at the time of which we speak was still some distance from the master who created the greater symphonies and chamber music, the finest clavier sonatas and certain other memorable keyboard works, let alone the six most inspired masses and the two oratorios (“The Creation” and “The Seasons”) , the ripest fruits of his old age. If physically Haydn developed late, the same is true of his creative genius. Musically and otherwise it appeared for some time as if his brother, Michael, would surpass him ”

“ The impression it produced was extraordinary; the whole audience was deeply moved, and Haydn confessed that he could not describe his sensations. 'One moment,' he said, 'I was as cold as ice, the next I seemed on fire. More than once I was afraid I should have a stroke.' The next performance was given by the Tonkünstler Societät, Haydn conducting. Once only he conducted it outside Vienna—March 9, 1800, at a grand performance in the palace at Ofen before the Archduke Palatine Joseph of Hungary. No sooner was the score engraved (1800) , than the 'Creation' was performed everywhere. ”

“ At the age of six, then, the little Joseph—in the Austrian dialect 'Sepperl'—was taken by his father to school at Hainburg.
Johann Mathias Frankh, Haydn's distant relative (he called him simply 'cousin') , was an excellent teacher, very strict, and eminently practical. Haydn not only became a first-rate singer, but also learned something of the instruments most in use, and spent nearly all his time in church or in school. Learning came easily to him, and if he had any difficulty, his master's severity soon overcame it. ”

“ Between the lines it is possible to read that for all his honors and distinctions Haydn was not growing happier at Eszterháza as the years elapsed. By 1790 we find him writing: “I am doomed to stay at home. It is indeed sad always to be a slave.” He was growing restive amid all this Eszterházy luxury. He had his orchestra, his palatial little theatre, the unending festivities at Eszterháza; he had Luigia Polzelli and he had little occasion to 37 bother about the “Infernal Beast”, who, though she still walked the earth, scarcely existed for him. ”

“ The wheelwright was poor, industrious, and God-fearing. He lived in a cottage which seemed almost too small for the large family of children. But they were so happy together that they did not mind a little crowding.
The second of the Haydn children was a boy, whom the good old village priest had christened Francis Joseph. He lived a merry life, romping with his brothers and sisters. They liked to play about the door of the shop where their father was making wheels and carriages.
FRANCIS JOSEPH HAYDN
Better than this, they liked the Sundays, when the good father was at home all day. ”

“ Performances of “The Creation” multiplied everywhere. Honors poured in upon him from all quarters. He was warmly invited to come to Paris and his old pupil, Pleyel, was dispatched to fetch him. Fortunately, Haydn spared himself the exertions of such a trip. Still, France struck a medal in his honor, which gave the master no end of pleasure; and he received the warmest expressions of affection from the inhabitants of the little Baltic island of Rügen, where a performance of “The Creation” was given. He even strove to be his own publisher and sought subscriptions for the score of the oratorio. ”

“ When he asked leave to copy the canons which hung in Joseph's bedroom at Vienna, Joseph replied: "Get away with your copies; you can compose much better for yourself." Michael's statement has often been quoted: "Give me good librettos and the same patronage as my brother, and I should not be behind him." This could scarcely have been the case, since, as Pohl points out, Michael Haydn failed in the very qualities which ensured his brother's success. As it was, he wrote a very large number of works, most of which remained in manuscript. ”

“ The lessons, which were not very successful, lasted for about a year, and were then interrupted by Haydn’s second visit to England (January 1794 to July 1795) , where he produced the last six of his “Salomon” symphonies. From 1795 onward he resided in the Mariahilf suburb of Vienna, and there wrote his last eight Masses, the last and finest of his chamber works, the Austrian national anthem (1797) , the Creation (1799) and the Seasons (1801) . His last choral composition which can be dated with any certainty was the Mass in C minor, written in 1802 for the name-day of Princess Esterhazy. ”

“ Among the mourners who followed him to the grave were many French officers from Napoleon’s army, which was then occupying Vienna.
Haydn’s place in musical history is best determined by his instrumental compositions. His operas, for all their daintiness and melody, no longer hold the stage; the Masses in which he “praised God with a cheerful heart” have been condemned by the severer decorum of our own day; of his oratorios the Creation alone survives. ”

“ The cellist, Kraft, was once given a particularly easy part in a baryton duet to perform with the prince, who cut short any possible argument with the words: “It is no credit to you to play better than I do; it is your duty.”
The normal schedule of the artists was, of course, far heavier and more complicated, when distinguished visitors arrived for longer or shorter sojourns. Under the circumstances, neither Haydn nor anyone else, had a chance to be bored at Eszterháza. Now and then, however, these birds in a golden cage longed for a little freedom. ”

“ Elssler copied a large amount of Haydn's music, partly in score, partly in separate parts, much of which is now treasured as the autograph of Haydn, though the handwriting of the two are essentially different. He survived his master 34 years and died at Vienna June 12, 1843, in the enjoyment of 6000 florins which Haydn bequeathed to him as a 'true and honest servant.' His elder brother Joseph, oboe at Esterhaz, died at Vienna, also in 1843. Johann married Therese Prinster, whose brothers Anton and Michael were horn-players, and the pride of the Esterhazy orchestra. ”

“ Michael’s Church, at the south end of the Kohlmarkt. Both house and church are still standing, looking to all intents as they did in 1750. Haydn had plenty of neighbors in his attic. Among them were a cook, a journeyman, a printer, a footman, and a man who tended the fires in the house of some rich man. Haydn had six hard flights to climb, besides which there was no window, no stove, no conveniences of any sort. ”

“ At any rate, in 1728, she married the wagon-maker, Mathias Haydn, and brought her husband a dowry of 120 florins and an “honest outfit.” The couple was by no means what could be called “poor” (in spite of Beethoven’s pathetic exclamation and Liszt’s tears!) , but Maria Haydn saw to it that ends met, as they had to, considering there were twelve children (of whom half died in infancy) . Moreover she was a model housewife and had inherited a deeply religious strain. It was her fondest wish to see her great son become a Catholic priest rather than prefer “the irresponsible life of a musician.” ”

“ The actual employment of Croatian folk-tunes may be illustrated from the string quartets Op. 17, No. 1; Op. 33, No. 3; Op. 50, No. 1; Op. 77, No. 1, and the Salomon Symphonies in D and E♭, while there is hardly an instrumental composition of Haydn’s in which his own melodies do not show some traces of the same influence. His natural idiom in short was that of a heightened and ennobled folk-song, and one of the most remarkable evidences of his genius was the power with which he adapted all his perfection and symmetry of style to the requirements of popular speech. ”

“ The consciousness of being no longer a servant sweetens all my toil.”
At a concert given in York House, where Haydn played, Salomon led an orchestra and the King and Queen were present, the composer was formally presented by the Prince of Wales to George III. The monarch talked for some time to the former “servant” of the Eszterházys and said, among other things, “Dr. Haydn, you have written a good deal.” Whereupon Haydn answered: “Yes, Sire, a great deal more than is good.” The King had the last word, however, and replied: “Oh, no; the world contradicts you.” ”

“ HAYDN, Joseph, or, according to the baptismal register, Franz Joseph, the father of the symphony and the quartet, was born in the night between March 31 and April 1, 1732, at Rohrau, a small Austrian village on the Leitha, which there divides Lower Austria and Hungary. He was the second child of Mathias Haydn, a master wheelwright, by his marriage (Nov. 24, 1728) with Maria Koller, daughter of the 'Marktrichter' and cook in Count Harrach's household. Haydn's ancestors came originally from Hainburg, a town close to the Danube, about 4 leagues from Rohrau. ”

“ Friends and admirers in ever increasing numbers sought him out to pay their respects. There came Cherubini, the Abbé Vogler, the violinist Baillot, Pleyel, members of the Weber family, Mme. Bigot—a friend of Beethoven and afterwards one of the piano teachers of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn; Hummel, the widow of Mozart, the Princess Eszterházy, the actor, Iffland.
In 1805 a rumor gained currency that Haydn had died. The world was shocked. Cherubini even composed a cantata on Haydn’s passing ”

“ Such facts, taken in connection with the well-known piety of Haydn, are a sufficient warrant, as I think, for my supposing that “priests and nuns” who so annoyed him had had something to do with drawing into a convent that member of the family whom he had loved the most. In the poem I have endeavored to bring the personality of the musician before the mind of the reader by using the name Haydn, rather than his baptismal name, Joseph.
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I.
Hark, sister! ”

“ When he was Capellmeister to Prince Esterhazy, 'the fair-haired blockhead' had an opportunity, at Esterház, of thanking the Empress for this mark of imperial favour.
In the autumn of 1745 Haydn had the pleasure of welcoming his brother Michael as a fellow-chorister at the Cantorei, and of helping him in his work. Michael made rapid progress, but a cloud came over poor Joseph's prospects. ”

“ Dies relates other characteristic anecdotes of his youthful time. Notwithstanding his advancement had been neglected, Joseph was contented with his position, and for this reason only, that Reutter was so delighted with his talent that he told his father if he had twelve sons he would take care of all of them. Two of his brothers indeed came to the chapel, one of them Michael Haydn, afterward Capellmeister at Salzburg, with whom Mozart’s biography has made us acquainted, and Joseph had the “infinite pleasure” of being compelled to instruct them. ”

“ At Maria Anna’s invitation the house was overrun with numberless priests, who were liberally entertained at the Haydn residence and given orders for innumerable masses, which were straightway charged to the composer’s account. She could never forget that her husband had originally preferred her younger sister and she was violently jealous of the attraction he never failed to exercise on fascinating women. In his fluent Italian Haydn once remarked to the French violinist, Baillot, as he pointed out his wife’s picture: “E la mia moglie ”

“ 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. ”

“ But the wheelwright managed to send the boy six florins, and that sum was immediately expended on Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum and Mattheson's Volkommener Capellmeister—heavy, dry treatises both, which have long since gone to the musical antiquary's top shelf among the dust and the cobwebs. These "dull and verbose dampers to enthusiasm" Haydn made his constant companions, in default of a living instructor, and, like Longfellow's "great men," toiled upwards in the night, while less industrious mortals snored. ”