A Complete History of Music: for Schools, Clubs, and Private ReadingBaltzell, W. J. (Winton James)
History
A Complete History of Music: for Schools, Clubs, and Private Reading
Baltzell, W. J. (Winton James)
Music -- History and criticism
Tell about other early composers.
Tell about Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.
Tell about Johann Christoph Bach.
Tell about Carl Philip Emanuel Bach.
Tell about Carl Philip Emanuel Bach’s contribution to the development
of the sonata.
What other works did C. P. E. Bach write?
A comparison of the dates from Kuhnau’s published work in Sonatas to
that of C. P. E. Bach, the immediate predecessor and model for Haydn,
shows that the form took definite shape in the course of about fifty
years.
[Illustration: FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN.]
LESSON XXX.
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN.
=The Three Great Sonata Writers=.—In the year of C. P. E. Bach’s death,
1788, three men had already entered the arena as champions of that
Sonata Form to which he contributed so much. Haydn was then fifty-six,
Mozart thirty-two and Beethoven eighteen years of age. All three added
to the glory of Vienna by making it their dwelling-place in their later
years; and the three formed a triumvirate which not only gave to the
Sonata a permanent and complete form, but also brought this form into
absolute subservience to the expression of every variety of emotional
thought.
=Haydn’s Childhood=.—Franz Joseph Haydn, a native of Rohrau, in lower
Austria, was born on March 31, 1732, the second of a family of twelve
children. His father, an humble wheelwright, was accustomed to bring
his family together in the evenings and holidays, as was the German
custom, to unite in song; and the true ear and feeling for rhythm of
little “Sepperl,” as Joseph was called, was quickly noticeable. So a
cousin of his father, who was a schoolmaster at Hainburg, was allowed
to take the boy home with him, placing him in the school choir, and
directing his studies, which included singing, and the playing of the
violin and other instruments.
=St. Stephen’s Choir, Vienna=.—George Reutter, precentor of St.
Stephen’s Cathedral, at Vienna, paid a visit to the school and was
attracted by the child’s “sweet, weak voice,” as he expressed it, and
offered him a position in his choir. As this was considered a rare
opportunity, he was allowed to go, and at the age of eight we find him
installed in the choir school at Vienna, attending the daily service
and choir practice, besides the regular school studies. But Reutter
seems to have lost his personal interest in the lad, neglecting him
in various ways, doing nothing with his work in musical theory, and
finally dropping all his tuition. Haydn was fond of mischief; and when
his voice began to break and his brother Michael became soloist in his
place, his cruel master took the pretext of some trifling prank to turn
him adrift, penniless, into the street.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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