Classical Principle Weekly
April 4, 2023
Happy Birthday Joseph Haydn 🥳—Part 2
In part 1, we traced Haydn's remarkable progress over almost 50 years, despite all hardships and opposition. Now, we look at his last quarter century, as located in the most intense musical, scientific, and social development.
In 1781, the 25 year-old Mozart moved to Vienna, and deepened his relationship with "Papa Haydn." Haydn told Mozart that with his six quartets, Op 33, he had developed an entirely new way of writing string quartets, which we heard in part 1. The next year, Mozart became steeped in the music of J.S. Bach and Handel at the salon of Baron van Swieten. Although Haydn had been inspired by Bach's son, Carl Phillip Emmanuel (1714–88), and Mozart had studied with another of Bach's sons, Johann Christian Bach (1735-82), the music of their father, J.S. Bach (1685-1750), was so suppressed, that neither Haydn nor Mozart knew much about him.
In 1782, Mozart attended the salon of Baron van Swieten, and drank deeply from the sweet music of Bach and Handel. Although Haydn followed the lead of van Swieten in composing his “Creation”, we see little evidence that he, Haydn, at the age of 50, accepted the revolutionary challenge of Bach in quite the same spirit as Mozart. He did however, continue to grow.
Mozart combined his discoveries from Bach, with Haydn's breakthroughs, in his Six String Quartets dedicated to Haydn, called “Haydn Quartets Op. 10”. He composed them over three years, and dedicated them thus:
“To my dear friend Haydn,
A father who had resolved to send his children out into the great world took it to be his duty to confide them to the protection and guidance of a very celebrated Man, especially when the latter by good fortune was at the same time his best Friend. Here they are then, O great Man and dearest Friend, these six children of mine. They are, it is true, the fruit of a long and laborious endeavor, yet the hope inspired in me by several Friends that it may be at least partly compensated encourages me, and I flatter myself that this offspring will serve to afford me solace one day. You, yourself, dearest friend, told me of your satisfaction with them during your last Visit to this Capital. It is this indulgence above all which urges me to commend them to you and encourages me to hope that they will not seem to you altogether unworthy of your favour. May it therefore please you to receive them kindly and to be their Father, Guide and Friend! From this moment I resign to you all my rights in them, begging you however to look indulgently upon the defects which the partiality of a Father's eye may have concealed from me, and in spite of them to continue in your generous Friendship for him who so greatly values it, in expectation of which I am, with all of my Heart, my dearest Friend, your most Sincere Friend,
W. A. Mozart”
You can hear how Mozart has taken Haydn's discovery of the "Motivfuhrung" much farther in this, the first movement of his String Quartet No. 18 in A major, K. 464, Op. 10, No. 5 (10 January 1785):
https://youtu.be/Kz9VhDz0dko?list=TLPQMTQwMzIwMjOGKs641lHLpQ
On hearing these quartets, Haydn told Mozart's father Leopold:
"Before God, and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste, and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition."
When the young Beethoven set out to compose his own set of string quartets, his Op. 18, he wrote out this A major quartet of Mozart by hand, just as Mozart had written out Haydn's D Major Symphony decades earlier.
Haydn went on to become the most famous composer in Europe. He led his Paris Symphonies in France, at the invitation of the mulatto composer from Guadeloupe, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de St Georges, who had risen to near the top, and deserves to be better known. When a slave revolution broke out in Haiti, Bilogne gave up his court position to go and join the fight for freedom. Here is his Symphonie Concertante in G major:
https://youtu.be/VRBUA5rgaLs?list=TLPQMTQwMzIwMjOGKs641lHLpQ
Beethoven
Too much is made of the supposed acrimony between Beethoven and Haydn. Beethoven was never going to be a servant of the court, and a tension between them did exist around that issue, but so did mutual respect.
Beethoven's sponsors had hoped to send him to Vienna to study with Mozart, but by the time it happened, Mozart was dead, so Haydn was chosen as his teacher. After meeting the 22-year-old Beethoven in 1792 in Bonn, on the way back from London, Haydn wrote to Beethoven’s patron, the elector of Cologne, Max Franz:
“Beethoven will one day be considered one of Europe’s greatest composers, and I shall be proud to be called his teacher.” However, at the time, Haydn was the most famous composer in the world, and had little time for teaching. Beethoven did not leave Haydn to study with Albrechtsberger, Haydn recommended him to him, saying that with a couple years of counterpoint he should be fine.
Haydn made two visits to England, one in 1790, where he was treated with great respect, and visited the composer and astronomer William Herschel to view his gigantic telescope. He wrote how happy he was, for the first time, not to be treated as a servant. There he lobbied for the works of Mozart to be played, but to no avail. When he heard in 1792 of Mozart's 1791 death, he wrote:
"I was for some time quite beside myself... I could not believe that Providence could have so quickly called such an irreplaceable man into the other world." Later he said, "friends often flatter me that I have some genius, but he stood far above me." Fifteen years later he broke into tears on hearing the name of Mozart, saying "Forgive me, I must ever, ever weep when I hear the name of my Mozart."
In 1794 he returned to London, and considered taking the young Beethoven with him. His final symphonies show the influence of both Mozart and Beethoven. His Symphony No. 104, employs variations on the same motif for three out of four movements, as had Mozart's 40th. Mozart learned the "Motivfuhrung" from Haydn, and Haydn, in his own way, continued to learn from Mozart, even after his death. Even though he could not bring Beethoven with him in body, he may have brought him along in spirit! See if the Minuet from Haydn's “Symphony in Bb, Op. 102” of 1794, does not remind you of the young Beethoven's sense of humor.
Beethoven wrote his first piano sonata No. 1 and dedicated them to Haydn in the same year. Here is the Scherzo from sonata No. 2.
Can you hear a shared joy in using short motifs, with abrupt interruptions?
Haydn had a great sense of humor in life and in music. He once jumped out of a carriage when he heard one of his works being played in a wealthy mansion. He burst in, protesting it as bad music. The wealthy patrons grew very angry, until one of them said: " Hey wait a minute. That's Haydn!
His creative sense of humor was matched with courage. In 1772 he headed music in the somewhat isolated palace of Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy. The musicians were long overdue for a visit home, but the Prince requested they remain for another new symphony. They complained to Haydn about it, which put him in a delicate situation. He could not simply make the request to a Prince so arrogant that he wore a diamond-studded jacket. He had to drop a hint—a big one. He finally told the story to biographers in his old age.
Haydn told them that he composed his Symphony No. 45, known as the "Farewell Symphony" in an unusual key at the time—F# minor. The first three movements are filled with the unexpected, and with surprises, but the last movement is unique in all of music. It begins as a fast Presto, which is typical. About three minutes in, it switches to an Adagio. That is rare enough, but the audience would fully expect it to return to the Presto after a while. Instead, it remains an Adagio, and incredibly, musicians keep putting their instruments in their cases, and leaving the stage, until only two violinists are left, Haydn and his concert master. The Prince got the hint, and the musicians went home.
It can perhaps only be fully appreciated through a reenactment such as this:
But perhaps his most daring sense of humor is in his canons, which he cherished, but did not publish until the end of his life, such as "To a stupid nobleman" by that great advocate of human equality, Gottfried Lessing. Follow the words with the score.
https://youtu.be/QypOLn0k65w…
Haydn and the Masses
Many are convinced that his greatest work was his 1798 "Missa in Angustiis", the so-called Nelson Mass. It actually means "Mass in a Time of Anguish." Napoleon was threatening Austria very early in his career. Four battles had taken place, and later, Vienna was eventually occupied. There is no evidence that Haydn dedicated it to the British Empire's Lord Nelson, who had dealt Napoleon a severe blow at the time.
When Beethoven composed his Mass in C for Esterhazy's grandson (a very nasty character), he wrote:
"...may I just say that I will hand the mass over to you with great trepidation, as Your Serene Highness is accustomed to having the inimitable masterworks of the great Haydn performed."
Beethoven meant it. He studied Haydn's Masses intensely in preparation for the project.
Here is the opening "Kyrie" from Haydn's “Missa in Angustiis”. His setting of the words "Lord, have mercy on us", expresses the anguish of a nation that has been invaded.
One can learn a great deal from comparing different musical settings of the Mass. Perhaps not so much in religion, but the epistomology that underlies religion. The first four lines of the Sanctus are:
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt cæli et terra gloria tua.
Hosanna in excelsis.
Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God of Sabaoth;
heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
Hosanna in the highest
This opening of the "Sanctus" is often played with a loud and triumphant tone, "Holy, Holy Holy", reflecting the sanctification (cleansing) of the soul. Take for example the magnificent Sanctus from Mozart's Requiem (whatever SĂĽssmayr's role may have been).
Even though Beethoven studied Haydn's Masses, his own works are very different. Perhaps we can see a couple of influences though. In both of his masses, Beethoven inverts the sentiment, and makes it a hushed and somewhat prayerful, even tenuous moment. He may have taken that from Haydn. Here is the Sanctus from Beethoven's “Mass in C” (he developed the concept farther in his Missa Solemnis).
Here is Haydn's Sanctus from the "Missa in Angustiis".
https://youtu.be/KPbFz5xWwqY…
Let us end with a timeline of Haydn's life, as situated in the great century, accompanied by a simple piece, the Andante from his Trumpet Concerto!
https://drive.google.com/…/1MBQ6Wpkm6HSdQvSBeFq0ZQLo2…/view…