Part 2

When Haydn was in the depths of poverty that attended his early days of adversity he made the acquaintance of one Keller, a wig-maker. This person had two daughters to whom Haydn gave music lessons. He fell desperately in love with the younger, but she entered a convent and took the veil. Her father, however, urgently entreated Haydn to marry the other, and in an evil hour he consented, though she was three years his elder. When prosperity dawned on him, with equal honesty and ill luck he kept his promise, and on the 26th of November, 1760, the girl became his wife. It was not long before he discovered his irreparable mistake. The partner he had taken for life was a vixen, foul-mouthed, quarrelsome, a bigot in religion, reckless in extravagance, utterly unappreciative of her husband's genius, and, as he complained, "did not care whether he was an artist or a cobbler," as long as he could supply her with money. She bickered with him constantly, insulted him for his inability to clothe her expensively, refused to know his friends, and acted like the virago that she was on the slightest provocation. Naturally genial and affectionate, and peculiarly fitted for a happy domestic life by his peaceful and amiable temperament, it is not surprising that he soon wearied of the woman who made existence a torture to him. No children came to soften the asperities of this ill-assorted union, and if Haydn turned from it to find the happiness and the comfort that were resolutely denied him at his own fireside, and at last became addicted to gallantry, excuse if not pardon may be accorded him. They lived apart during the greater portion of their married life, but were not formally separated until thirty-two years later. She passed the last years of her life at Baden, near Vienna, preceding her husband to the grave by nine years.

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.

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_.

Haydn's life at Eisenstadt, as it was at Esterhaz, to which Prince Nicolaus and his household removed in 1766, was one of almost complete seclusion from the outer world and of unflagging work. The quantity of music he wrote was enormous and the rapidity with which he poured it forth was astonishing. At Esterhaz he was obliged to provide for two operatic performances and for one or two formal concerts each week, in addition to the daily music. It was here that Haydn wrote nearly all his operas, the greater number of his arias and songs, and the bulk of his orchestral and chamber music. The vast quantity of music he wrote and the rapidity with which he produced it has given rise to the belief that he composed quickly; but such was not the case. His work was always carefully thought out, and whenever an idea occurred to him that he thought of musical value and worth elaborating, he pondered long over it and only began to write it out finally after he was, as he said, "fully convinced that it was as it should be." He was now in receipt of a salary of one thousand florins, or about five hundred dollars, and it is stated that he nearly doubled this by the sale of his compositions. His operas, of which he was specially fond, brought him the least profit. The extravagance of his wife, however, kept him constantly embarrassed in his money affairs, and an attachment he formed for one of the singers in the chapel, Luigia Polzelli, did not mend matters.

For the rest, the story of Haydn's life is little else than a catalogue of his works. From 1766, the year in which he became, by the death of Werner, the head of the Esterhazy Capelle, to 1790, the year of his first visit to London, nearly a quarter of a century, was the most fruitful period of his musical career. His greatest works, however, were yet to be written. Though he was already famous, he was not permitted to hold his position unassailed, and many and violent were the attacks upon him for his innovations and his disdain for pedagogic rules, by the critics of the older and more conservative school. Honors, nevertheless, began to pour in on him. The Philharmonic Society of Modena elected him a member in 1780. In 1784, Prince Henry of Prussia sent him a gold medal and his portrait in return for six quartets dedicated to him. In 1787, King Frederick William II. gave him a diamond ring as a recognition of his merit as a composer. In the meanwhile, in 1785, he received a commission to compose the "Seven Last Words of Christ" for the Cathedral of Cadiz, a fact which evidences how far his reputation had travelled from the solitude of Esterhaz. In the period named, he had written eight masses including the famous "Mariazell" mass in C, and the great "Cecilia" mass, the largest and most difficult of all his works in this kind, and now only performed in a condensed form. Within the same period he wrote sixty-three symphonies, most of which are in his earlier style, though a steady progress is shown toward the master symphonies he wrote for the London concerts.

During his residence at Esterhaz he wrote over forty quartets, and these were, up to the time of his departure for London, his greatest achievements. It was in these that he became the originator of modern chamber music and led the way to both Mozart and Beethoven. His clavier music still was under the influence of Emanuel Bach, though the twenty-eight sonatas that belong to this period, in freedom, melody and clearness are far in advance of anything that had been previously achieved. Seventeen clavier trios are also the product of this period and are still full of charm. He did not begin to write songs until he was nearly fifty years old, and the twenty-four he composed at Esterhaz were by no means of marked value. His part-songs were of a better order, but his canons were best of all, and may be still heard with pleasure.

It was during his stay at Esterhaz that his friendship for Mozart developed; and never was one great genius more cordially or sincerely admired by another than was Mozart by Haydn; and so frank was his recognition of the younger composer's worth, that he was fond of declaring that he never heard one of Mozart's compositions without learning something from it. He pronounced Mozart "the greatest composer in the world," and affirmed that if he had written nothing but his violin quartets and the "Requiem" he would have done enough to insure his immortality. The personal friendship between the two masters was a tender one and like that of father and son. On the eve of Haydn's departure for London Mozart was deeply moved and lamented their separation. With tears in his eyes he said to Haydn, "We shall never see each other again on earth," a prophecy that was only too literally fulfilled. When Haydn, then in London, heard of Mozart's death he grieved over it bitterly and with tears, and he wrote to a friend that his joy of returning home would be gloomy because he should not be greeted by the great Mozart.

It was in 1787 that Haydn received an urgent invitation from Cramer, the violinist, to visit London, but without any favorable results. Salomon took more practical measures, and in 1789 sent Bland, the music publisher, to try what personal persuasion could effect. It achieved nothing at this time, and Bland was obliged to return and to inform Salomon of the failure of the scheme. Haydn would not leave his "well-beloved Prince," but "wished to live and die with him." In a favorable hour for musical art, Prince Nicolaus died after a brief illness, in 1790. Haydn was in despair and mourned him devotedly. The Prince testified to his appreciation of the faithful services of his devoted Capellmeister by leaving him an annual pension of one thousand florins, on the condition that he consented to retain the title of Capellmeister to the Esterhazys. The Prince must have known that the Capelle would be dismissed by Prince Anton, his successor, whose taste for music was very slight. He discharged all the musicians except the wind band, which was retained to perform at banquets and other ceremonials. Prince Anton nevertheless was not unkind to those he dismissed, for he gave them gratuities and added four hundred florins to the pension of Haydn.

From this moment, Haydn was for the first time his own master, free to go whither he would. His fame, which was world-wide, assured him a warm welcome, no heed in what capital he might take up his residence, and his pensions and his savings secured him from all fear for the comfort of his declining years. He was now fifty-eight years of age. He took up his abode in Vienna and soon received an invitation to become Capellmeister to Count Grassalcovics. This he declined; but one day shortly after, he received a visit from a stranger who announced himself as Salomon of London, and was determined to take Haydn there will he nil he. Haydn resisted for a time, but at last all was arranged favorably to Salomon, who, by the way, was a famous violinist and conductor who was the projector of some prominent London subscription concerts. The terms which were agreed upon were as follows: Haydn was to have for one season: £300 for an opera for Gallini, the owner and manager of the King's Theatre in Drury Lane; £300 for six symphonies and £200 additional for the copyright of them; £200 for twenty new compositions to be produced by Haydn at a like number of concerts, and £200 guaranteed as the proceeds of a benefit concert for him, £1,200 in all, or 12,000 florins. His travelling expenses were paid by himself with the assistance of a loan of 450 florins from the Prince. He left Vienna with Salomon on the 15th of December, 1790, and arrived on English soil on the 1st of January, 1791. His reception in London was enthusiastic. Noblemen and ambassadors called on him; he was overwhelmed with invitations from the highest society and distinguished artists hastened to pay him homage. The musical societies fought for his presence at their performances, his symphonies and quartets were played, his cantata "Ariadne à Naxos" was sung by the celebrated Pachierotto and the newspapers vied with each other in honoring him.

The first of his six symphonies composed for Salomon was played March 11, 1791, at the Hanover Square Rooms, the composer conducting it at the pianoforte. The orchestra, led by Salomon, consisted of nearly forty performers. The work was received with a storm of applause and the Adagio was encored,--a rare event in that day. The other symphonies were no less successful, and were the finest works in their kind that Haydn had written up to that time. His benefit, which took place in May, was guaranteed to net him £200 but it produced for him £350. He was fêted constantly and enthusiasm attended him wherever he went. Oxford conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Music during the Oxford Commemoration, an important feature of which was three concerts. At the second of these, Haydn's "Oxford" symphony was performed, Haydn giving the tempi at the organ. At the third concert he appeared in his Doctor's gown amid the wildest plaudits. He was the guest of the Prince of Wales for three days, and at a concert given all the music was of Haydn's composition, and the Prince of Wales played the 'cello. In the meantime Salomon made a new contract with him which prevented him from complying with a recall from Prince Esterhazy, to give his services in a grand fête for the Emperor. He gave many lessons at his own price. Among his pupils was the widow of the Queen's music master, Mrs. Schroeder. Haydn's susceptibilities were again touched, and though his pupil was over sixty, he said afterward: "Had I been free I certainly should have married her." To her he dedicated three clavier trios. He quitted London in June, 1792, and when he reached Bonn, Beethoven called on him for his opinion of a cantata. At Frankfort Haydn met Prince Anton at the coronation of the Emperor Francis II. At last he reached Vienna, where he was welcomed with wild enthusiasm and there was the greatest eagerness to hear his great London symphonies. Did Haydn at this triumphant moment recall the homeless young man who wandered through the streets of the city on a November evening forty-three years ago, penniless and despairing, and hopeless regarding his future prospects?

At the end of this year Beethoven went to Haydn for instruction, and the lessons continued until Haydn's second departure for London. The connection between these two geniuses was not a happy one. There can be no doubt that Haydn neglected his pupil. In fact, in the midst of his social triumphs and at the height of his fame, giving lessons in counterpoint could not have had much attraction for him; moreover the twenty cents an hour that Beethoven paid for instruction was scarcely as tempting to the Haydn of that day as it would have been to the Haydn of fifty years before. The breach between the old and the young composer widened. The latter went to Schenk, a reputable musician, for additional lessons, and then refused to call himself Haydn's pupil. Haydn at one time intended to take Beethoven to England with him, but the latter, whenever occasion offered, made unflattering and contemptuous remarks about the old man, and these irritating him and wounding his self-esteem caused him to abandon his intention. Later, Beethoven's resentment softened, and when on his deathbed he was shown a view of Haydn's humble birth-place, he said: "To think that so great a man should have been born in a common peasant's hovel."

While in Vienna Haydn paid a visit to his native village Rohrau, the occasion being the inauguration of a monument erected in his honor by Count Harrach, in whose household Haydn's mother had been a cook. The emotions of the composer may be imagined. The little boy who fifty-four years earlier quitted home to study with the pedagogue Frankh, returned in the glory of a fame that was world-wide, and one of the greatest of composers, honored of monarchs, and courted of all. Good fortune had followed him from the first; and though he suffered much in those sad, early days, every change in his position was for the better. Far different was the fate of a still greater master, the luckless Mozart.