Part 4 (1/2)

In 1764 Prince Nicolaus made a journey to Frankfort for the coronation of the Archduke Joseph as King of the Ro function were over he extended his journey to Paris, where he created soant displays of wealth and circu the Prince's absence Haydn busied himself on a couple of co One was a Te Deum, the other a cantata The latter work is the more worthy of remark, not because of its music, but because of the fulsoraces and virtues of Nicolaus the Magnificent The cantata is made up of choruses and duets, a recitative and two arias Parts of it were afterwards employed in church services The Te Deum is in C major, and is for four voices with orchestra It is interesting as an early work, especially if we coreater Te Deum in the same key composed in the year 1800

First Symphonies

At this point a summary may perhaps bethese five years a Eisenstadt The list, as given by Pohl, comprises, in addition to the works already na trios, a few divertimenti in five parts, a piece for four violins and two 'celli, entitled ”Echo,” twelve minuets for orchestra, concertos, trios, sonatas and variations for clavier, and, in vocal ina” for soprano and alto, two violins and organ It would serve no useful purpose to deal with these works in detail The symphonies are, of course, the most ienerally when treating of Haydn as the father of instrumental music The first Symphony in C Major, usually called ”Le Midi,” is of special interest

[Figure: a raph score, dated 1761, and preserved at Eisenstadt, is superscribed, ”In Nomine Domini,” and closes with Haydn's custonature The work is in the usual four movements The syland as ”Le Matin” and ”Le Soir,” the one beginning--

[Figure: a ure: aquartets and other instru need be said In all these the co his way towards a more perfect expression, and as few of them are now performed, their interest for us is almost entirely antiquarian

CHAPTER IV ESTERHAZ--1766-1790

Haydn's Fa--Haydn and Mozart compared--Esterhaz--Its Puppet Theatre--A Busy Life--Opera at Esterhaz--First Oratorio--Opponents and Intriguers--”L'Isola Disabitata”--A Love Episode--Correspondence with Artaria and Forster--Royal Dedicatees--The ”Seven Words”--The ”Toy” and ”Farewell” Symphonies

To crowd the details of a professional career covering close upon a quarter of a century into a single chapter would, in the case of ether impossible task In Haydn's case the difficulty is to find the ht a record His life went on smoothly, almost sleepily, as we should now think, in the service of his prince, without personal incident and with next to no disturbance froenius of the first rank the outside world would, in all probability, never have heard of his existence

Haydn's Fa

As it was, his fa Thus the Wiener Diaruuishedof our nation” His ah every one of his works His music has beauty, purity, and a delicate and noble simplicity which commends it to every hearer His cassations, quartets and trios may be compared to a pure, clear streaentle breeze froitated billows, but without ever leaving its proper channel and appointed course His symphonies are full of force and delicate sy and caressing, and in his htful and full of humour In short, Haydn is in music what Gellert is in poetry” This comparison with Gellert, who died three years later, was at that date, as Dr Pohl re that could well be made The simplicity and naturalness of Gellert's style were the very antithesis of the pedantries and frigid formalities of the older school; and just as he pioneered the way for the resuscitation of German poetry under Goethe and Schiller, so Haydn may be said to have prepared the path for Beethoven and the modern school

Haydn and Mozart coazine writer that suggested Dittersdorf's remark to Joseph II in 1786, when the ey between Haydn's and Mozart's cha the emperor in his turn to draw a parallel between Gellert and Klopstock; whereupon Joseph reat poets, but that Klopstock's works required attentive study, while Gellert's beauties were open to the first glance

The analogy, Dittersdorf tells us, ”pleased the emperor very much” Its point is, however, not very clear--that is to say, it is not very clear whether the emperor meant to compare Klopstock with Haydn and Gellert with Mozart or vice versa, and whether, again, he regarded it as more of a merit that the poet and the colance” Joseph was certainly friendly towards Mozart, but by all accounts he had no great love for Haydn, to whose ”tricks and nonsense” hereference

The first noteworthy event of 1766 was the death of Werner, which took place on March 5 It made no real difference to Haydn, who, as we have seen, had been from the first, in effect, if not in name, chief of the musical establishment; but it at least freed him from sundry petty annoyances, and left him absolutely master of the musical situation

Shortly after Werner's death, the entire musical establishment at Eisenstadt was removed to the prince's new palace of Esterhaz, hich Haydn was now to be connected for practically the whole of his rereat deal has been written about Esterhaz, but it is not necessary that we should occupy much space with a description of the castle and its surroundings The palace probably owed its inception to the prince's visit to Paris in 1764 At any rate, it is in the French Renaissance style, and there is sonificance in the fact that a French traveller who saw it about 1782 described it as having no place but Versailles to conificence The situation--about three and a halfbut suitable for an erection of the kind, being in an unhealthy marsh and ”quite out of the world” But Prince Nicolaus had set his heart upon the scheme, as Scott set his heart upon Abbotsford; and just as ”Clarty Hole” carandly,” so Esterhaz, after soed a veritable Versailles, with groves and grottoes, heres and temples, suardens

There were two theatres in the grounds: one for operas and draenerally; the other ”brilliantly ornae artistic marionettes, excellent scenery and appliances”

A Puppet Theatre

It is upon the entertainments connected with the latter house that the French traveller just mentioned chiefly dwells ”The prince,” he says, ”has a puppet theatre which is certainly unique in character Here the grandest operas are produced One knows not whether to be a 'Alceste,' 'Alcides,' etc, put on the stage with all due solemnity, and played by puppets His orchestra is one of the best I ever heard, and the great Haydn is his court and theatre coular theatre, whose hue, and in parodying the gravest effects, are often exceedingly happy He often engages a troupe of wandering players for a month at a time, and he himself and his retinue fore uncombed, drunk, their parts not half learned, and half-dressed The prince is not for the serious and tragic, and he enjoys it when the players, like Sancho Panza, give loose reins to their humour”

Prince Nicolaus became so much attached to this superb creation of his own, that he seldom cared to leave it A small portion of the Capelle remained at Eisenstadt to carry on the church service there, but the prince seldom went to Eisenstadt, and randees liked nothing better than to display their wealth in the I the winter season; but to Haydn's employer there was literally ”no place like hoo to Vienna, he would often cut short his visits in the reat confusion of his musicians and other dependants

These eccentricitieshis love of quiet and seclusion, often longed for the change and variety of city life It is said that he was specially anxious to make a tour in Italy about this time, but that ambition had, of necessity, to be abandoned

A Busy Life

There was certainly plenty for him to do at Esterhaz--more than he had ever been required to do at Eisenstadt Royalties, nobles and aristocrats were constantly at the palace; and music was one of the chief diversions provided for them The prince was very proud of his musical establishment, and desired to have it considered the best of its kind in Europe The orchestra of the opera was forers were Italian for the ed for one, two, or more years, and the books of the words were printed Nued for shorter ter virtuosi often played with the members of the band Special days and hours were fixed for chamber ers, musicians and actors met at the cafe, and forenius was obviously required to direct the anization, an eye for detail, tact in the ers--these qualities were all indispensable for the performance of duties such as Haydn had undertaken That he possessed them we may fairly assume from more than one circumstance In the first place, his employer was satisfied with hiestions, and did everything that he could to retain his services In the second place, his band and singers were sincerely attached to him They saw that he had their interests, personal and professional, at heart, and they ”loved him like a father”

The prince paid them well, and several of them were sufficiently capable to receive appointives a list of the names about this time, but, with one or two exceptions, they are quite unfaed from 1773 to 1776, and Andreas Lidl, who played in London soon after leaving the band, was in the service of the prince from 1769 to 1774

The sue as we should now consider it, but it was sufficient to free hiance and bad ave him about 78 pounds, in addition to which he had certain allowances in kind, and, as we have already said, free quarters for hiht fit to stay with hi substantial by his coer declares that he had saved about 200 pounds before 1790, the year when he started for London If that be true, he must have been very econo constant calls upon hi demands of various poor relations His correspondence certainly does not tend to show that he was saving, and we know that when he set out for London he had not only to draw upon the generosity of his prince for the costs of the journey, but had to sell his house to provide for his wife until his return

Opera at Esterhaz