Part 12 (2/2)

As a song-writer Haydn was only moderately successful, perhaps because, having himself but a slight acquaintance with literature, he left the selection of the words to others, with, in many cases, unfortunate results. The form does not seem to have been a favourite with him, for his first songs were not produced until so late as 1780. Some of the later compositions have, however, survived; and one or two of the canzonets, such as ”My mother bids me bind my hair” and ”She never told her love,” are admirable. The three-part and the four-part songs, as well as the canons, of which he thought very highly himself, are also excellent, and still charm after the lapse of so many years.

Operas

On the subject of his operas little need be added to what has already been said. Strictly speaking, he never had a chance of showing what he could do with opera on a grand scale. He had to write for a small stage and a small audience, and in so far he was probably successful. Pohl thinks that if his project of visiting Italy had been fulfilled and his faculties been stimulated in this direction by fresh scenes and a larger horizon, we might have gained ”some fine operas.” It is doubtful; Haydn lacked the true dramatic instinct. His placid, easy-going, contented nature could never have allowed him to rise to great heights of dramatic force. He was not built on a heroic mould; the meaning of tragedy was unknown to him.

Orchestration

Regarding his orchestration a small treatise might be written. The terms which best describe it are, perhaps, refinement and brilliancy. Much of his success in this department must, of course, be attributed to his long and intimate a.s.sociation with the Esterhazy band. In 1766, six years after his appointment, this band numbered seventeen instruments--six violins and viola, one violoncello, one double ba.s.s, one flute, two oboes, two ba.s.soons and four horns. It was subsequently enlarged to twenty-two and twenty-four, including trumpets and kettledrums on special occasions. From 1776 to 1778 there were also clarinets. This gradual extension of resources may be taken as roughly symbolizing Haydn's own advances in the matter of orchestral development. When he wrote his first symphony in 1759 he employed first and second violins, violas, ba.s.ses, two oboes and two horns; in his last symphony, written in 1795, he had at his command ”the whole symphonic orchestra as it had stood when Beethoven took up the work of orchestral development.” Between these two points Mozart had lived and died, leaving Haydn his actual debtor so far as regards the increased importance of the orchestra. It has been said that he learnt from Mozart the use of the clarinet, and this is probably true, notwithstanding the fact that he had employed a couple of clarinets in his first ma.s.s, written in 1751 or 1752. Both composers used clarinets rarely, but Haydn certainly did not reveal the real capacity of the instrument or establish its position in the orchestra as Mozart did.

From his first works onwards, he proceeded along the true symphonic path, and an orchestra of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two ba.s.soons, two horns, two trumpets, drums, and the usual strings fairly represents the result of his contributions to its development up to the first successful experiments of Mozart. The names of Mozart and Haydn ought in reality to be coupled together as the progenitors of the modern orchestral colouring. But the superiority must be allowed to attach to Haydn, inasmuch as his colouring is the more expansive and decided. Some of his works, even of the later period, show great reticence in scoring, but, on the other hand, as in ”The Creation,” he knew when to draw upon the full resources of the orchestra. It has been pointed out as worthy of remark that he was not sufficiently trustful of his instrumental army to leave it without the weak support of the harpsichord, at which instrument he frequently sat during the performance of his symphonies, and played with the orchestra, with extremely bad effect. [Compare The Orchestra and Orchestral Music, by W. J. Henderson: London, 1901.] In this, however, he merely followed the custom of his day.

General Style

Of Haydn's general style as a composer it is hardly necessary to speak.

To say that a composition is ”Haydnish” is to express in one word what is well understood by all intelligent amateurs. Haydn's music is like his character--clear, straightforward, fresh and winning, without the slightest trace of affectation or morbidity. Its perfect transparency, its firmness of design, its fluency of instrumental language, the beauty and inexhaustible invention of its melody, its studied moderation, its child-like cheerfulness--these are some of the qualities which mark the style of this most genial of all the great composers.

That he was not deep, that he does not speak a message of the inner life to the latter-day individual, who, in the Ossianic phrase, likes to indulge in ”the luxury of grief,” must, of course, be admitted. The definite embodiment of feeling which we find in Beethoven is not to be found in him. It was not in his nature. ”My music,” says Schubert, ”is the production of my genius and my misery.” Haydn, like Mendelssohn, was never more than temporarily miserable. But in music the gospel of despair seldom wants its preachers. To-day it is Tschaikowsky; to-morrow it will be another. Haydn meant to make the world happy, not to tear it with agony. ”I know,” he said, ”that G.o.d has bestowed a talent upon me, and I thank Him for it. I think I have done my duty, and been of use in my generation by my works. Let others do the same.”

APPENDIX A: HAYDN'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

The following draft of Haydn's will is copied from Lady Wallace's Letters of Distinguished Musicians (London, 1867), where it was published in full for the first time. The much-corrected original is in the Court Library at Vienna. Dies says: ”Six weeks before his death, in April 1809, he read over his will to his servants in the presence of witnesses, and asked them whether they were satisfied with his provisions or not. The good people were quite taken by surprise at the kindness of their master's heart, seeing themselves thus provided for in time to come, and they thanked him with tears in their eyes.” The extracts given by Dies vary in some particulars from the following, because Haydn's final testamentary dispositions were made at a later date. But, as Lady Wallace says, it is not the legal but the moral aspect of the affair that interests us. Here we see epitomized all the goodness and beauty of Haydn's character. The doc.u.ment runs as follows:

FLORINS.

1. For holy ma.s.ses,........................................12

2. To the Norman School,....................................5

3. To the Poorhouse,........................................5

4. To the executor of my will.............................200 And also the small portrait of Gra.s.si.

5. To the pastor,..........................................10

6. Expenses of my funeral, first-cla.s.s,...................200

7. To my dear brother Michael, in Salzburg,..............4000

8. To my brother Johann, in Eisenstadt,..................4000

9. To my sister in Rohrau (erased, and written underneath): ”G.o.d have mercy on her soul! To the three children of my sister,”.........................2000

10. To the workwoman in Esterhazy, Anna Maria Moser, nee Frohlichin,........................................500

11. To the workwoman in Rohrau, Elisabeth, nee Bohme,......500

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