Part 3

In 1794, Haydn departed on his second journey to London under contract to Salomon to compose six new symphonies. Prince Anton parted unwillingly with him and died three days after. The success of the previous visit was repeated, and his reception was even still more fervent and enthusiastic. Toward the end of this stay he was much distinguished by the Court. At a concert at York House, the King and Queen, the Princesses, the Prince of Wales, and the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester were present, and the Prince of Wales presented Haydn to the King. Both the King and Queen urged him to remain in England and pass the summer at Windsor; but Haydn replied that he could not abandon Prince Esterhazy, and beside, the Prince had already written that he wished to reorganize his chapel with Haydn as conductor. He returned to his native land, his powers still further developed, his fame increased and his fortune enlarged. By concerts, lessons and symphonies he made twelve thousand florins ($6000) enough, added to what he already possessed, to give him no further anxiety for the future.

Again was his welcome home marked by the most demonstrative cordiality. From this time out there is but little to relate except to repeat the story of his industry and his musical fecundity, until the culmination of his artistic career was reached in the works of his old age, "The Creation" and "The Seasons." The success of both was enormous, and he composed very little after the latter work. His health began to fail, and he laid it at the door of "The Seasons." He said, "I should never have undertaken it. It gave me the finishing stroke." He lived in comparative seclusion, and only once more appeared in public, the occasion being a performance of "The Creation." He was then seventy-six years of age. As he entered the concert room he was saluted by a fanfare of trumpets and the cheers of the audience. His excitement was so great that it was thought advisable to take him home at the end of the first part. As he was borne out friends and pupils surrounded him to take leave. Beethoven was present, and bent down to kiss the old man's hands and forehead. All animosities were soothed in that last hour of triumph; the crowning moment and the close of a great master's career. When Haydn reached the door he urged his bearers to pause and turn him face toward the orchestra. Then he raised his hands as if in benediction, and in a long, lingering glance bade farewell to the art to which he had been devoted since the time when, as a boy, he hoarded his florins to purchase the precious volume of Fux, which he placed under his pillow when he slept, down to this pathetic culminating moment.

Haydn's life passed peacefully until in 1809 Vienna was bombarded by the French, and a shell fell near his dwelling. His servants were alarmed, but he cried in a loud voice, "Fear not, children. No harm can happen to you while Haydn is here." The city was occupied by the enemy, and the last visitor Haydn ever received was a French officer, who sang to him, "In native worth." Haydn was deeply affected and embraced his guest warmly at parting. A few days afterward, he called his servants about him for the last time, and bidding them carry him to the piano he played the Emperor's Hymn, three times. Five days later, May 31, 1809, that busy life ended peacefully. He was buried in the Hundsthurm Churchyard, close to the suburb in which he had lived; but eleven years later the remains were exhumed by order of Prince Esterhazy and reinterred in the parish church at Eisenstadt. When the coffin was opened for identification before removal, the skull was missing. A skull was sent to the Prince from an unknown source and was buried with the other remains; but there are good grounds for the belief that the real skull is in the possession of the family of an eminent physician of Vienna.

Fifteen days after his death Mozart's Requiem was performed in honor of his memory at the Schotterkirche. Numerous French officers were among the mourners, and the guard of honor about the bier was chiefly composed of French soldiers No sooner did Haydn's death become known, than funeral services were held in all the principal cities of Europe.

The list of Haydn's compositions is enormous. It includes 125 symphonies; 30 trios for strings, and strings and wind; 77 quartets for strings; 20 concertos for clavier; 31 concertos for various other instruments; 38 trios for piano and strings; 53 sonatas and divertissements for clavier; 4 sonatas for clavier and violin; 14 masses; 1 Stabat Mater; 8 oratorios and cantatas; 19 operas; 42 canons for voice in two and more parts; 175 pieces for the baritone; and a vast collection of other works, among which are a collection of over 300 original Scotch songs in three parts with violin and bass accompaniments and symphonies.

In estimating Haydn's life-work as a composer, the principal stress must be laid on him as a reformer in his art. Contrapuntally, music had reached its highest development, but in many other important directions it was at a low ebb. Concerted music had not yet achieved any prominence as a distinct branch of the art. Vocal music was in the ascendant and the church and the opera-house offered the principal if not the only means for composers to achieve distinction. In Vienna, the Emperor, Joseph II., was a liberal patron of music, and the nobles, after the fashion of nobles generally, followed the example of the court, and entered into rivalry with each other in founding and supporting costly musical establishments of their own. The Viennese, however, had no very marked sympathy with art at its highest. One hundred and twenty-five years ago, Leopold Mozart wrote: "The Viennese public love nothing that is serious or reasonable; they have not the sense to understand it, and their theatres prove sufficiently that nothing but rubbish such as dances, burlesque, harlequinades, ghost magic and devil's tricks will satisfy them. A fine gentleman, even with an order on his breast, may be seen laughing till the tears run down his cheeks, applauding as heartily as he can, some bit of foolish buffoonery; while in a highly pathetic scene he will chatter so noisily with a lady that his wiser and better-mannered neighbors can scarcely hear a word of the piece." From which it will be seen that fashion changes but little as time passes.

Instrumental music was, for the most part, confined to dance tunes, and minuets, allemands, waltzes and ländler were the rage. Presently these rose to importance and musicians began to take greater care in composing them, until at length came the suite, which was formed of a series of dances all written in the same key but varying in accent and character. Then followed a second part to the minuet, in the fifth of the key, and a return to the first part, which proved to be the stepping-stone to form; and the minuet survived the suite, of which it was originally a part, and continued an indispensable element of the symphony down to the time that Beethoven enlarged it into the scherzo.

In considering the influence that Haydn exercised on instrumental music it may perhaps be interesting to take a passing glance at the condition of orchestration when he began to compose. The string band, then, as now, was the foundation of the whole, and the wind instruments were used to add solidity to the score. The orchestra generally consisted of the string quintet, two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, two trumpets, two horns and tympani. The first oboe did little else than duplicate the first violins, while the second oboe only appeared now and then with a holding note, or doubled the first oboe. The first bassoon either played in unison with the bass or sustained the fundamental harmony, while the second bassoon, from time to time, doubled the first. The violas rarely had an independent part and as a rule duplicated the bass. It is true that Haydn had before him the example of Stamitz, who gave an independent part to the viola in some of his symphonies, but the innovation does not seem to have influenced Haydn. Trumpets, horns and drums had but little to do except to produce noise when contrast in effect was deemed necessary. Unquestionably, Emanuel Bach departed somewhat from this conventional and circumscribed treatment of the orchestra and gave to his wind instruments independent parts. In his symphony in E-flat is to be found, amid the customary unison and octave passages for the strings, some charming and even piquant free writing for the wind, together with a marked feeling for contrasts between the wind and the strings. The horns, especially, are used with a genuine appreciation of their peculiar quality of tone and the effect of their timbre. Occasionally the strings remain silent and the wood wind are heard alone. More than this, for there is an attempt to employ all the instruments in a manner calculated to let their characteristic individualities produce their due effect in regard to tone-color; but, strangely enough, Haydn does not appear to have been in any way swayed by the innovations of his great predecessor, whose clavier works he had studied so assiduously. Still, a near and an inevitable change in the methods of writing for the orchestra was in the air, and the ground was not wholly unprepared for Haydn.

[Music: Fac-simile of original sketch made by Haydn for the Austrian Hymn, in which the melody and harmony differ somewhat from the published version.]

The orchestration of John Sebastian Bach was thin despite its elaboration. The strings formed the foundation, according to the prevailing rule, and were written in so many real parts, and when wind instruments appeared, they were also used with an independent polyphony. His contrasts were, for the most part, produced by giving a melody to a simple solo instrument, accompanied only by a bass, while a figured bass indicated the chords to be filled in by the organ or the clavier. It can hardly be said that the greatest of the Bachs advanced the art and science of orchestration. Handel's scoring was in quite another vein, and may be viewed as revolutionary for its era. In his overtures, especially, his strings are used with the evident object of producing solidity in effect. The oboes often strengthen the violins in unison and the bassoons perform the same service for the basses, but he also used these instruments independently and to embroider the broad and simple themes of the strings. In addition, he made use of the latter and of the wind separately, each body full in itself and responding each to the other. Now and then he used three trumpets, and in his "Rinaldo" he resorts to four, giving the bass to the drums. In "Saul" he uses three trombones. Clarinets were unknown to him, and the bass tuba was unborn in his day; but otherwise he was acquainted with all the instruments of the modern orchestra and made use of them. One cannot recall an instance in which he used them all in combination, and hence, the four trumpets of "Rinaldo" and the three trombones of "Saul" are not heard together in any of his scores. Notwithstanding the fame of Handel, his daring innovations in orchestration do not seem to have been studied by Haydn, or if they were, they exercised no early influence over him.

Gluck's scores must be considered epoch-making in the art of orchestration. His "Orpheus" was produced in 1762 when Haydn was thirty years of age; his "Iphigénie en Aulide" was produced in 1774, and the other "Iphigénie" was given in 1779. In these works instrumentation was advanced to an extent that broke almost wholly with the past. When Gluck died Haydn was in his fifty-fifth year, and yet the older composer, the report of whose world-wide fame must have reached Haydn's ears, even in the seclusion of Eisenstadt, does not appear to have suggested anything to Haydn. The twelve great Salomon symphonies, Haydn's, till then, highest achievements in orchestral writing, were not produced until some seven years after Gluck's death, and in them the influence is unmistakably that of Mozart, who had undoubtedly studied Gluck thoroughly.

The word "symphony" had various meanings before it became fixed as a name for the highest form of instrumental music. It was, however, generally understood to signify an overture, and its closest connection was with the opera. Originally it was merely a notification to the audience that the opera was about to begin; an appeal for silence and to concentrate attention on the coming entrance of the singers. The French "symphony," as exemplified by Lully, opened with a slow movement followed by an allegro, frequently in fugue form, and passed again into an adagio which ended the overture. The Italian symphony consisted of three movements, the first of which was a moderate allegro, the second an adagio, and the last a livelier and lighter allegro; and the Italian overture, as will be seen, became the foundation of the modern symphony as far as the positions of the movements are concerned. Before Haydn, Stamitz, Abel, J. C. Bach and Wagenseil, as well as Emanuel Bach, had written symphonies, and a symphony by Stamitz, in D, is peculiarly interesting, inasmuch as its form is completely in accordance with that which was established permanently by Haydn. The opening movement is an Allegro, with the familiar double bar with the repeats and the binary form. The second movement is an Andante in the dominant; the third is a Minuet that has even the Trio, and the finale is a Presto. The clavier sonatas of Ph. Emanuel Bach congealed this form and had a permanent influence on it, in the impression they made upon Haydn, who, by his mastery of his art, his amazing fecundity in invention and his unflagging productive powers, was enabled to increase the scope and aim of this form so greatly as to entitle him to be recognized as the creator of the symphony. Haydn's first symphony was written in 1759, for Count Morzin. We are unaware of any printed copy of it in this country. Pohl describes it as a slight work in three movements for two violins, viola, bass, two oboes and two horns. It appears to be modelled on the symphonies of Stamitz, Abel and John Christian Bach. The symphonies that followed differed but little in character from this one and afford little if any insight into Haydn's influence on the symphonic form. He appears to have followed in the footsteps of his predecessors, curiously enough, ignoring the symphonies of Emanuel Bach. The orchestration is meagre and conventional, the violins are almost constantly playing, and the wind is only used to duplicate them. It is not until we come to the first symphony composed by him at Eisenstadt that we see him as an innovator. This work is in C-major, and is generally known as "Le Matin." It is in four movements and begins with a few bars of adagio. The opening allegro is remarkable for its variety of subjects and their treatment, and for the careful manner in which it worked out. Between this movement and the adagio is a long dramatic recitative for the violin, very impressive, but having no discoverable connection with what precedes or what follows it. In breadth, dignity, and expressiveness it surpasses anything that the composer had hitherto produced. From this time forth the symphony steadily grew under Haydn's hands; the form was enlarged, the orchestration was varied, the timbres of the different instruments were studied and instrumental effects gradually assumed an importance that increased with each succeeding symphony. But his greatest symphonies were not written until the period of the Salomon concerts. In the meanwhile Mozart had appeared upon the scene. Haydn's first symphony was produced when Mozart was three years old, and the latter died in the very year in which Haydn's connection with the Salomon concerts began. That Haydn influenced Mozart's early works is beyond question; that Mozart in turn, influenced Haydn later, is equally indisputable.

In "Le Matin," before alluded to, the second violins play with the first, and the viola with the basses almost through the whole of the first movement. The slow movement has no wind instruments whatever. In the minuet, though, there is a long passage for wind instruments only, and in the trio is an extensive and florid solo for bassoon. Haydn treated the strings in this same confined manner, and the wind after this solo fashion for some twenty years. Then came an effort to make the strings more independent and to pay attention to the peculiar qualities of the viola and violoncello. In the symphony in E-minor (Letter I) the wind is given long holding notes while strings sustain the subject. This was the first step toward greater freedom of orchestration in Haydn's symphonies; but it was not until his "Oxford" symphony that he broke wholly with the past. It was written in 1788, the same year in which Mozart produced his three greatest symphonies. This work is in his mature style, and the orchestration is delightfully clear, flexible and fresh. If he had written no more symphonies after this, however, he would not have attained to the rank he has won as a symphony composer. His fame in this walk of his art was assured by the twelve symphonies he wrote for Salomon after 1790. In these he reached his highest point. His mastery of form was perfected, his technical skill was unlimited, and he ventured into bold harmonic progressions that were little short of daring, for his time. His orchestra had been enlarged to two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets and drums, and in his three last symphonies, the two in D-minor and the one in E-flat, two clarinets appear. It is in these twelve symphonies that the influence of Mozart is clearly manifested. The bass has attained to independence; the violas no longer duplicate it except for certain effects; the second violins have a free motion of their own; the wind instruments express musical ideas proper to them and appropriate to their special qualities of utterance. The form and character of the symphony were established permanently.

Simplicity, clearness of style, grace and playfulness are the leading features of Haydn's symphonies. There are few of the more notable of them in which his command over the science of his art is not delightfully manifested. Haydn is invariably lucid, always finished to the highest point, always logical and always free from display for the mere sake of display. It is a prevailing fault to dwell too persistently on the cheerful simplicity of Haydn's music and to forget how serious and profound he could be when occasion demanded. These latter qualities are nobly manifested in his more important symphonies in those portions of them devoted to the "working out." Such symphonies as appeared before Haydn fixed the form and showed the capacity of that species of composition have wholly disappeared. It would perhaps be over dogmatic to assert that had it not been for Haydn the symphonies of Mozart and of Beethoven would not have been what they are; but it is certain that Haydn gave the impulse to both in as far as their symphony writing is concerned.

Of the quartet Haydn may be justly called the inventor, and it is in this phase of his art that he may be most profitably studied. The quartet was, as Otto Jahn truly says, "Haydn's natural mode of expressing his feelings," and it is in the quartet that Haydn's growth and progress in his art are most strikingly illustrated. Their influence on music has been greater than that exerted by his symphonies. Here he is seen in his full and his best strength, and it is here too that his extraordinary creative powers are most brilliantly emphasized. When these works first appeared they were sneered at by the pedagogues of the day, but by-and-by more respect was shown to them even by their earlier antagonists, for it was seen that the quartet was not only susceptible of depth of sentiment and seriousness of treatment, but that musical learning also had in them a field for its finest development. These quartets, from the opportunities they afforded for performance in the family circle, exercised great influence in raising the standard of taste, and in their educational aspects they were thus of the highest service. They crystallized form and in essence may be looked on as the parent of all the serious and so-called classical music that has been composed since. The progeny may only distantly resemble the parents, but the form establishes beyond all cavil the family resemblance.

Haydn's first quartet is the merest shadow. The first half of the opening movement consists of no more than twenty-four bars. The subject comprises eight bars; then comes eight bars of an episode modulating into the dominant, and then the second subject, also eight bars in length; but brief and pale as it is, it is unmistakably the germ that was elaborated by Beethoven into such prodigious masterpieces. It is in the quartet that Haydn found the fullest outlet for his wealth of musical thought, and it is in the quartet that his genius is illustrated in its most marked individuality. Quartets were written before his day, and also by his contemporaries, J. C. Bach, Stamitz, Jomelli, Boccherini, and others, but Haydn's marvellous invention, his originality in the mastery of form, his fine feeling for the characteristic speech of each instrument enabled him to obtain a mastery that left him without a rival. His early quartets are exceedingly thin, and are in such glaring contrast with what came after the composer had wholly developed the capacity of the quartet as a means of profound expression of musical thought, that he is said to have wished to ignore all his works in this class that preceded the nineteenth quartet; but they are necessary to the student who would follow the growth of musical form. It is an immense stride from the first of these compositions to the ever-beautiful "Kaiser quartet," with its exquisite variations, or "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser." The advance from simple harmonies to polyphonic treatment of the different parts, is a peculiarly interesting subject for study. Haydn stamped a character on the quartet that has never been departed from; and what is known as the "quartet style" was established by him so thoroughly that in all the mutations in musical taste, it still remains a distinction that admits of no change.

Haydn also left the impress of his genius on the sonata, though to Emanuel Bach is due the honor of having broken with the past as represented by Domenico Scarlatti and Kuhnau. The same copiousness of invention and perfection of form that characterize his quartets and symphonies are to be found in his sonatas, too much neglected at present, for in several of his later compositions of this class he appears to have gone further than Mozart and to have overlapped into the era of Beethoven. His trios for clavier and strings are full of interest, but with two or three exceptions they are not of special value except as models. The strings are often held subordinate to the piano, and the outer voices are too persistently doubled. Of his other purely instrumental works, including concertos and divertimenti, nothing survives except the fine concerto for clavier in D with "principal violin."