1795-1809
During his stay in London, Haydn's good wife had asked him to buy her
that house in the suburbs of Vienna which would come in so conveniently
when he left her a widow. The request was not entirely wasted--that is,
he bought the house, made some additions, and from 1797 lived in it
himself. Here he composed _The Creation, The Seasons,_ and the bulk of
his church music; and here he died.
It is said that the notion of composing the Austrian National Hymn was
suggested to Haydn by the Prussian National Hymn which George I. had
brought to England with him from his beloved Hanover; but however that
may be, and whether the abominable melody known then and now as "God
Save the King" inspired him or not, he determined to write a tune for
his countrymen, and he did. On the Emperor's birthday in 1799 the new
tune was played in every theatre in the Empire. Next to the
_Marseillaise_, it is certainly the finest thing of the sort in
existence.
Salomon had wanted Haydn to write an oratorio in London, and handed him
a copy of a libretto of _The Creation_, which one Lidley had compiled
from the Bible and Milton's "Paradise Lost" for Handel. The proposal
came to nothing then, but when Haydn got comfortably settled down in
Vienna van Swieten repeated the suggestion. This van Swieten had been a
parasitic patron of Mozart. He was an enthusiast for the older-fashioned
forms of music, and he had concerts of oratorio in an institution of
which he was librarian. Haydn passed on Lidley's book to him, van
Swieten had it translated and doctored to suit his own taste, and Haydn
set to work. He faced the task with a degree of seriousness and
solemnity which the music would never suggest. In April of 1798 it was
given for the first time, privately, at the Schwartzenburg Palace; in
March of the following year it was given publicly at the National
Theatre. From the beginning it was an electrical success, and was
immediately performed everywhere. Haydn had been guaranteed 500 ducats
for it, but gained very much more. In the end, in the way I have
previously mentioned, it became the property of the Tonkünstler Societät
of Vienna. In England it was for over half a century the "Messiah's" one
great rival. Lately it has dropped out of the repertories of London and
provincial choral societies. Fashions in sacred music, like fashions in
popular preachers, have a trick of changing.
No sooner was _The Creation_ fairly launched on a fairly long career
than van Swieten wanted another oratorio. Somehow--or perhaps
naturally--he associated oratorio with England, and as he could not get
the music from us, he did as badly as he could--he came here for the
poetry. The words of nearly all the oratorios are ridiculous. Those of
_The Creation_ are no worse than the words of many by Handel. Van
Swieten, however, did his honest best to provide Haydn with a downright
silly book for his last work, and it must be admitted that by going to
James Thomson's _Seasons_ he succeeded. Like _The Creation,_ it rapidly
became popular in Germany, Austria, and England. It went out sooner than
_The Creation_, and went out, I suspect, also like _The Creation_, never
to return. It was given in April, 1802, at the Schwartzenburg Palace.
During the period after his return from England--or, more exactly, from
1796 till 1802--Haydn wrote most of his bigger church works. They may be
sufficiently discussed here in a few lines; for, though they are still
much sung in churches where the Pope's edicts are regarded merely as
things to be laughed at, musically they are by no means of the same
importance as his symphonies. Like all the Viennese school of church
composers, Haydn thought nothing of the canons, and, indeed--also like
the others--he seemed generally to think very little of the meaning of
the words. He was serious and sincere enough, no doubt, but the man was
a peasant, and in many respects his mind was a peasant's. He had quite a
plausible excuse or reason to give for the note of jollity which
prevails in his Masses. When he thought of God, he said, his heart was
filled with joy, and that joy found a voice in his music. He spoke in
perfect good faith, but with a little more brains he would have had
other feelings than joy in his heart at the more solemn moments of the
Mass. However, he had not, so he missed giving us music to compare with
the finest parts of his symphonies and quartets. What he did write would
serve well for the Empire Music Hall to-day were it not so entirely
monopolized by churches like the Italian in Hatton Garden, and in its
day it was highly thought of. The fact that the Princes of Esterhazy did
not like to be made to feel uncomfortable in church had perhaps
something to do with Haydn always feeling elated when he was going to
write a mass--use is second nature. Not that there are no fine things in
his sacred music; only they are rare, and the spirit of the whole is
utterly undevotional. After all, being the man he was, having the
mission he had in life to carry out, it may be questioned whether he
could have done anything nobler, in which case it is a pity he touched
church music. However, it is easily forgotten, and will be some day.
Haydn wrote _The Seasons_, as it were, under protest, and he always
declared that it gave him the finishing touch. He composed little more,
but arranged accompaniments for Scotch songs for one Mr. Whyte, of
Edinburgh. His powers failed fast. The last time he conducted in public,
_The Seven Words_--now with the words--was the piece. This was in 1807.
He was now without a rival in Vienna. Gluck had been dead twenty years,
and Mozart had died in 1791; Beethoven was regarded as a great eccentric
genius who would not rightly apply his undoubted talents. The last time
Haydn was seen in public at all was on November 27, 1808. He was far too
weak to dream of conducting. He was carried to the hall, and great
ladies disputed as to who should be allowed to throw their wraps over
him to protect him against the cold. He was taken away after the first
part. He still lingered on a while. Next year--1809--Vienna was
bombarded by the French, who had done the same thing in 1805, and when
the victorious army came in a French officer visited him and sang "In
Native Worth." On May 26 Haydn called in his servants and played the
National Hymn three times; he was then carried to his bed, and on May
29, he died.
He was buried at Hundsthurm Churchyard with military honours, the French
invaders helping, on June 15. Mozart's _Requiem_ was sung later, _in
memoriam_. In 1820 Prince Esterhazy had the remains, or such of them as
had not been stolen, transferred to Eisenstadt.