Books: Haydn

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Attempts at Programme Music

It seems to have been about this time--the date, in fact, was
l75l--that Haydn, still pursuing his serenading practices,
directed a performance of a quintet of his own composition under
the windows of Felix Kurz, a well-known Viennese comedian and
theatrical manager. According to an old writer, Kurz amused the
public by his puns, and drew crowds to his theatre by his
originality and by good operabuffas. He had, moreover, a handsome
wife, and "this was an additional reason for our nocturnal
adventurers to go and perform their serenades under the
harlequin's windows." The comedian was naturally flattered by
Haydn's attention. He heard the music, and, liking it, called the
composer into the house to show his skill on the clavier. Kurz
appears to have been an admirer of what we would call "programme"
music. At all events he demanded that Haydn should give him a
musical representation of a storm at sea. Unfortunately, Haydn
had never set eyes on the "mighty monster," and was hard put to
it to describe what he knew nothing about. He made several
attempts to satisfy Kurz, but without success. At last, out of
all patience, he extended his hands to the two ends of the
harpsichord, and, bringing them rapidly together, exclaimed, as
he rose from the instrument, "The devil take the tempest."
"That's it! That's it!" cried the harlequin, springing upon his
neck and almost suffocating him. Haydn used to say that when he
crossed the Straits of Dover in bad weather, many years
afterwards, he often smiled to himself as he thought of the
juvenile trick which so delighted the Viennese comedian.

But the comedian wanted more from Haydn than a tempest on the
keyboard. He had written the libretto of an opera, "Der Neue
Krumme Teufel," and desired that Haydn should set it to music.

His First Opera

The chance was too good to be thrown away, and Haydn proceeded to
execute the commission with alacrity, not a little stimulated,
doubtless, by the promise of 24 ducats for the work. There is a
playfulness and buoyancy about much of Haydn's music which seems
to suggest that he might have succeeded admirably in comic opera,
and it is really to be regretted that while the words of "Der
Neue Krumme Teufel" have been preserved, the music has been lost.
It would have been interesting to see what the young composer had
made of a subject which=-from Le Sage's "Le Diable Boiteux"
onwards--has engaged the attention of so many playwrights and
musicians. The opera was produced at the Stadt Theatre in the
spring of 1752, and was frequently repeated not only in Vienna,
but in Berlin, Prague, Saxony and the Breisgau.

An Aristocratic Appointment

An event of this kind must have done something for Haydn's
reputation, which was now rapidly extending. Porpora seems also
to have been of no small service to him in the way of introducing
him to aristocratic acquaintances. At any rate, in 1755, a
wealthy musical amateur, the Baron von Furnberg, who frequently
gave concerts at his country house at Weinzierl, near Vienna,
invited him to take the direction of these performances and
compose for their programmes. It was for this nobleman that he
wrote his first string quartet, the one in B flat beginning--

[figure: a musical score excerpt]

This composition was rapidly followed by seventeen other works of
the same class, all written between 1755 and 1756.

Haydn's connection with Furnberg and the success of his
compositions for that nobleman at once gave him a distinction
among the musicians and dilettanti of Vienna. He now felt
justified in increasing his fees, and charged from 2 to 5 florins
for a month's lessons.

Taken for an Impostor

Remembering the legend of his unboylike fastidiousness, and the
undoubted nattiness of his later years, it is curious to come
upon an incident of directly opposite tendency. A certain
Countess von Thun, whose name is associated with Beethoven,
Mozart and Gluck, met with one of his clavier sonatas in
manuscript, and expressed a desire to see him. When Haydn
presented himself, the countess was so struck by his shabby
appearance and uncouth manners that it occurred to her he must be
an impostor! But Haydn soon removed her doubts by the pathetic
and realistic account which he gave of his lowly origin and his
struggles with poverty, and the countess ended by becoming his
pupil and one of his warmest friends.

A Count's Capellmeister

Haydn is said to have held for a time the post of organist to the
Count Haugwitz; but his first authenticated fixed engagement
dates from 1759, when, through the influence of Baron Furnberg,
he was appointed Capellmeister to the Bohemian Count Morzin. This
nobleman, whose country house was at Lukavec, near Pilsen, was a
great lover of music, and maintained a small, well-chosen
orchestra of some sixteen or eighteen performers. It was for him
that Haydn wrote his first Symphony in D--

[Figure: a musical score excerpt]

Falls in Love

We now approach an interesting event in Haydn's career. In the
course of some banter at the house of Rogers, Campbell the poet
once remarked that marriage in nine cases out of ten looks like
madness. Haydn's case was not the tenth. His salary from Count
Morzin was only 20 pounds with board and lodging; he was not
making anything substantial by his compositions; and his teaching
could not have brought him a large return. Yet, with the
proverbial rashness of his class, he must needs take a wife, and
that, too, in spite, of the fact that Count Morzin never kept a
married man in his service! "To my mind," said Mozart, "a
bachelor lives only half a life." It is true enough; but Mozart
had little reason to bless the "better half," while Haydn had
less. The lady with whom he originally proposed to brave the
future was one of his own pupils--the younger of the two
daughters of Barber Keller, to whom he had been introduced when
he was a chorister at St Stephen's. According to Dies, Haydn had
lodged with the Kellers at one time. The statement is doubtful,
but in any case his good stars were not in the ascendant when it
was ordained that he should marry into this family.

Marries

It was, as we have said, with the younger of the two daughters
that he fell in love. Unfortunately, for some unexplained reason,
she took the veil, and said good-bye to a wicked world. Like the
hero in "Locksley Hall," Haydn may have asked himself, "What is
that which I should do?" But Keller soon solved the problem for
him. "Barbers are not the most diffident people of the world," as
one of the race remarks in "Gil Blas," and Keller was assuredly
not diffident. "Never mind," he said to Haydn, "you shall have
the other." Haydn very likely did not want the other, but,
recognizing with Dr. Holmes's fashionable lady that "getting
married is like jumping overboard anyway you look at it," he
resolved to risk it and take Anna Maria Keller for better or
worse.

His Wife

The marriage was solemnized at St Stephen's on November 26, 1760,
when the bridegroom was twenty-nine and the bride thirty-two.
There does not seem to have been much affection on either side to
start with; but Haydn declared that he had really begun to "like"
his wife, and would have come to entertain a stronger feeling for
her if she had behaved in a reasonable way. It was, however, not
in Anna Maria's nature to behave in a reasonable way. The
diverting Marville says that the majority of women married to men
of genius are so vain of the abilities of their husbands that
they are frequently insufferable. Frau Haydn was not a woman of
that kind. As Haydn himself sadly remarked, it did not matter to
her whether he were a cobbler or an artist. She used his
manuscript scores for curling papers and underlays for the
pastry, and wrote to him when he was in England for money to buy
a "widow's home." He was even driven to pitifully undignified
expedients to protect his hard-earned cash from her extravagant
hands.

There are not many details of Anna Maria's behaviour, for Haydn
was discreetly reticent about his domestic affairs; and only two
references can be found in all his published correspondence to
the woman who had rendered his life miserable. But these
anecdotes tell us enough. For a long time he tried making the
best of it; but making the best of it is a poor affair when it
comes to a man and woman living together, and the day arrived
when the composer realized that to live entirely apart was the
only way of ending a union that had proved anything but a
foretaste of heaven. Frau Haydn looked to spend her last years in
a "widow's home" provided for her by the generosity of her
husband, but she predeceased him by nine years, dying at Baden,
near Vienna, on the 20th of March 1800. With this simple
statement of facts we may finally dismiss a matter that is best
left to silence--to where "beyond these voices there is peace."

Whether Count Morzin would have retained the services of Haydn in
spite of his marriage is uncertain. The question was not put to
the test, for the count fell into financial embarrassments and
had to discharge his musical establishment. A short time before
this, Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy had heard some of Haydn's
compositions when on a visit to Morzin, and, being favourably
impressed thereby, he resolved to engage Haydn should an
opportunity ever present itself. The opportunity had come, and
Haydn entered the service of a family who were practically his
life-long patrons, and with whom his name must always be
intimately associated.

CHAPTER III

EISENSTADT--1761-1766

The Esterhazy Family--Haydn's Agreement--An "Upper Servant"?--
Dependence in the Order of Nature--Material and Artistic
Advantages of the Esterhazy Appointment--Some Disadvantages--
Capellmeister Werner--A Posthumous Tribute--Esterhazy "The
Magnificent"--Compositions for Baryton--A Reproval--Operettas and
other Occasional Works--First Symphonies.

The Esterhazy Family

As Haydn served the Esterhazys uninterruptedly for the long
period of thirty years, a word or two about this distinguished
family will not be out of place. At the present time the
Esterhazy estates include twenty-nine lordships, with twenty-one
castles, sixty market towns, and 414 villages in Hungary, besides
lordships in Lower Austria and a county in Bavaria. This alone
will give some idea of the power and importance of the house to
which Haydn was attached. The family was divided into three main
branches, but it is with the Frakno or Forchtenstein line that we
are more immediately concerned. Count Paul Esterhazy of Frakno
(1635-1713) served in the Austrian army with such distinction as
to gain a field-marshal's baton at the age of thirty. He was the
first prince of the name, having been ennobled in 1687 for his
successes against the Turks and his support of the House of
Hapsburg. He was a musical amateur and a performer of some
ability, and it was to him that the family owed the existence of
the Esterhazy private chapel, with its solo singers, its chorus,
and its orchestra. Indeed, it was this prince who, in 1683, built
the splendid Palace of Eisenstadt, at the foot of the Leitha
mountains, in Hungary, where Haydn was to spend so many and such
momentous years.

When Prince Paul died in 1713, he was succeeded by his son,
Joseph Anton, who acquired "enormous wealth," and raised the
Esterhazy family to "the height of its glory." This nobleman's
son, Paul Anton, was the reigning prince when Haydn was called to
Eisenstadt in 1761. He was a man of fifty, and had already a
brilliant career behind him. Twice in the course of the Seven
Years' War he had "equipped and maintained during a whole
campaign a complete regiment of hussars for the service of his
royal mistress," and, like his distinguished ancestor, he had
been elevated to the dignity of field-marshal. He was
passionately devoted to the fine arts, more particularly to
music, and played the violin with eminent skill. Under his reign
the musical establishment at Eisenstadt enjoyed a prosperity
unknown at any other period of its history.

Haydn's Agreement

As there will be something to say about the terms and nature of
Haydn's engagement with Prince Paul Anton, it may be well to
quote the text of the agreement which he was required to sign. It
was in these terms:

FORM OF AGREEMENT
AND
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE VICE-CAPELLMEISTER

"This day (according to the date hereto appended) Joseph Heyden
[sic] native of Rohrau, in Austria, is accepted and appointed
Vice-Capellmeister in the service of his Serene Highness, Paul
Anton, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, of Esterhazy and
Galantha, etc., etc., with the conditions here following:

"1st. Seeing that the Capellmeister at Eisenstadt, by name
Gregorius Werner, having devoted many years of true and faithful
service to the princely house, is now, on account of his great
age and infirmities, unfit to perform the duties incumbent on
him, therefore the said Gregorious Werner, in consideration of
his long services, shall retain the post of Capellmeister, and
the said Joseph Heyden as Vice-Capellmeister shall, as far as
regards the music of the choir, be subordinate to the
Capellmeister and receive his instructions. But in everything
else relating to musical performances, and in all that concerns
the orchestra, the Vice-Capellmeister shall have the sole
direction.

"2nd. The said Joseph Heyden shall be considered and treated as a
member of the household. Therefore his Serene Highness is
graciously pleased to place confidence in his conducting himself
as becomes an honourable official of a princely house. He must be
temperate, not showing himself overbearing towards his musicians,
but mild and lenient, straightforward and composed. It is
especially to be observed that when the orchestra shall be
summoned to perform before company, the Vice-Capellmeister and
all the musicians shall appear in uniform, and the said Joseph
Heyden shall take care that he and all members of his orchestra
do follow the instructions given, and appear in white stockings,
white linen, powdered, and either with a pig-tail or a tie-wig.

"3rd. Seeing that the other musicians are referred for directions
to the said Vice-Capellmeister, therefore he should take the more
care to conduct himself in an exemplary manner, abstaining from
undue familiarity, and from vulgarity in eating, drinking and
conversation, not dispensing with the respect due to him, but
acting uprightly and influencing his subordinates to preserve
such harmony as is becoming in them, remembering how displeasing
the consequences of any discord or dispute would be to his Serene
Highness.

"4th. The said Vice-Capellmeister shall be under an obligation to
compose such music as his Serene Highness may command, and
neither to communicate such compositions to any other person, nor
to allow them to be copied, but to retain them for the absolute
use of his Highness, and not to compose anything for any other
person without the knowledge and permission of his Highness.

"5th. The said Joseph Heyden shall appear in the ante-chamber
daily, before and after mid-day, and inquire whether his Highness
is pleased to order a performance of the orchestra. After receipt
of his orders be shall communicate them to the other musicians
and shall take care to be punctual at the appointed time, and to
ensure punctuality in his subordinates, making a note of those
who arrive late or absent themselves altogether.

"6th. Should any quarrel or cause of complaint arise, the Vice-
Capellmeister shall endeavour to arrange it, in order that his
Serene Highness may not be incommoded with trifling disputes; but
should any more serious difficulty occur, which the said Joseph
Heyden is unable to set right, his Serene Highness must then be
respectfully called upon to decide the matter.

"7th. The said Vice-Capellmeister shall take careful charge of
all music and musical instruments, and shall be responsible for
any injury that may occur to them from carelessness or neglect.

"8th. The said Joseph Heyden shall be obliged to instruct the
female vocalists, in order that they may not forget in the
country what they had been taught with much trouble and expense
in Vienna, and, as the said Vice-Capellmeister is proficient on
various instruments, he shall take care to practice himself on
all that he is acquainted with.

"9th. A copy of this agreement and instructions shall be given to
the said Vice-Capellmeister and to his subordinates, in order
that he may be able to hold them to their obligations therein
laid down. "10th. It is considered unnecessary to detail the
services required of the said Joseph Heyden more particularly,
since his Serene Highness is pleased to hope that he will of his
own free will strictly observe not only these regulations, but
all others that may from time to time be made by his Highness,
and that he will place the orchestra on such a footing, and in
such good order, that he may bring honour upon himself, and
deserve the further favour of the Prince, his master, who thus
confides in his zeal and discretion.

"11th. A salary of four hundred florins to be received quarterly
is hereby bestowed upon the said Vice-Capellmeister by his Serene
Highness.

"12th. In addition, the said Joseph Heyden shall have board at
the officers' table, or half a gulden a day in lieu thereof.

"13th. Finally, this agreement shall hold good for at least three
years from May 1st, 1761, with the further condition that if at
the conclusion of this term the said Joseph Heyden shall desire
to leave the service, he shall notify his intention to his
Highness half-a-year beforehand.

"14th. His Serene Highness undertakes to keep Joseph Heyden in
his service during this time, and should he be satisfied with
him, he may look forward to being appointed Capellmeister. This,
however, must not be understood to deprive his Serene Highness of
the freedom to dismiss the said Joseph Heyden at the expiration
of the term, should he see fit to do so.

"Duplicate copies of this document shall be executed and
exchanged.

"Given at Vienna this 1st day of May 1761,

"Ad mandatum Celsissimi Principis.

"JOHANN STIFFTELL, Secretary."

The situation indicated by this lengthy document has afforded
matter for a good deal of comment, and not a little foolish
writing. With some it is the old case of Porpora and the blacking
of the boots.

An "Upper Servant"?

Thus Miss Townsend remarks: "Our indignation is roused at finding
a great artist placed in the position of an upper servant, and
required to perform duties almost menial in their nature." That
is essentially a modern view. These things have to be judged in
relation to the ideas of the age. It was only a few years before
this that Johnson had contemptuously thrown away a pair of boots
which some pitying soul had placed at the door of his rooms at
Pembroke. The British mind likes to think of the sturdy
independence of the man who struck the death-blow at patronage in
literature. But Johnson himself had the meanest opinion of
fiddlers.

Dependence in the Order of Nature

There was no talk in Haydn's native country of the dignity of
art, at any rate so far as musicians were concerned. When Mozart
first arrived in Vienna in 1781, he had to live with the
archbishop's household, and dine at the servants' table. Nay, he
was known as "the villain, the low fellow." And is it altogether
certain even now, in free Britain, that the parish organist is
very clearly distinguished in the squire's mind from the
peripatetic organ-grinder? Public opinion does not seem to have
commiserated Haydn on his position of dependence; and, as for
Haydn himself, he was no doubt only too glad to have an assured
income and a comfortable home. We may be certain that he did not
find the yoke unbearably galling. He was of humble birth; of a
family which must always have looked up to their "betters" as
unspeakably and immeasurably above them. Dependence was in the
order of nature, and a man of Haydn's good sense was the last in
the world to starve and fret because his freedom to practice his
art and develop his powers was complicated with a sort of feudal
service. Some strong souls may find an empty purse the truest
source of inspiration, as Mr. Russell Lowell declares it to be;
but it is very much to be doubted whether a careful investigation
would show that a great man's best work was done with the wolf at
the door.

Material Advantages

Haydn had no self-pity: why should we pity him? He had free
quarters at the palace, with liberty to enjoy the company of his
wife when she chose to favour him--an event of rare occurrence.
His salary was raised from time to time. The old prince, his
first employer, paid him 400 florins; his successor increased the
amount first to 600 and then to 782 florins (78 pounds); and
finally he had 1400 florins, which last sum was continued to him
as a pension when he left the Esterhazy service. Although money
had a much higher purchasing value in those days, the figures
here quoted do not seem princely when we consider the extent and
nature of Haydn's duties, but to a man of Haydn's simple tastes
they would appear ample enough. At least, they would save him
from lying on straw and drinking bad whisky, which Wagner
regarded as among the things that are inimical to the creative
genius.

Artistic Advantages

These were the material advantages of the Eisenstadt appointment.
The artistic advantages were even more important, especially to a
young and inexperienced artist who, so far, had not enjoyed many
opportunities of practically testing his own work. Haydn had a
very good band always at his disposal, the members of which were
devoted to him. If he wrote part of a symphony over-night he
could try it in the morning, prune, revise, accept, reject. Many
a young composer of today would rejoice at such an opportunity,
as indeed Haydn himself rejoiced at it. "I not only had the
encouragement of constant approval," he says, speaking of this
period of his career, "but as conductor of an orchestra I could
make experiments, observe what produced an effect and what
weakened it, and was thus in a position to improve, alter, make
additions and omissions, and be as bold as I pleased."

Some Disadvantages

No doubt there were some disadvantages in counterpoise. After the
gay life of Vienna, Eisenstadt must have been dull enough, and
there is plenty of evidence to show that the young artist
occasionally fell into the dumps. In one letter he complains that
he "never can obtain leave, even for four-and-twenty hours, to go
to Vienna." In another he writes: "I am doomed to stay at home.
What I lose by so doing you can well imagine. It is indeed sad
always to be a slave, but Providence wills it so. I am a poor
creature, plagued perpetually by hard work, and with few hours
for recreation." Haydn clearly recognized the necessities of the
artist. A quiet life is all very well, but no man ever yet
greatly touched the hearts of men if he kept himself too strictly
segregated from his kind. Music, like every other art, would
perish in a hot-house. Reckon up today the composers who are
really a force in the emotional life of the people, and ask which
of them was reared in the serene, cold air of the academies. A
composer to be great must live with his fellows, and open his
soul to human affluences. "I was cut off from the world," says
Haydn. "There was no one to confuse or torment me, and I was
forced to become original." But his originality was that of an
active mind working upon material already stored, and the store
had to be replenished in occasional excursions, all too few, from
the palace.

The Eisenstadt appointment, then, provided for Haydn's material
wants, and gave him opportunities for the peaceful pursuit of his
studies, for experiment and self-criticism. He was treated with
great consideration by the Esterhazys, and, menial or not, he
lived on their bounty and in the friendliest relations with them.

Capellmeister Werner

From his agreement with Prince Esterhazy it will have been
gathered that, though virtually entrusted with the direction of
the Eisenstadt musical establishment, Haydn was really under the
control of an old official. Such arrangements seldom work well.
The retention of Joseph Werner was presumably due to the
thoughtful kindness of his noble patron, but it was bound to lead
to awkward situations. Werner had served the Esterhazys for
thirty-two years, and could not be expected to placidly accept
his supersession by a young and as yet almost unknown musician.
True, he was not a very distinguished man himself. He had
composed a large amount of music, chiefly sacred, including
thirty-nine masses and twelve "Oratorios for Good Friday,"
besides some grotesque pieces intended as burlesques of the
musical life of Vienna. Not one of his works has any real musical
value; but, as is usually the case with the talent which stops
short of genius, he thought a great deal of himself, and was
inclined to look down upon Haydn as an interloper, unskilled in
that rigid counterpoint which was the "heaven's law" of the old-
time composer. Indeed, he described his associate as "a mere fop"
and "a scribbler of songs."

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