How music grew, from prehistoric times to the present dayPeyser, Ethel R. (Ethel Rose)
History
How music grew, from prehistoric times to the present day
Peyser, Ethel R. (Ethel Rose)
Music -- History and criticism; Musicians
7. Among his larger vocal works with orchestra are: _Alcide_ (1762),
_Philemon and Baucis_, _entre acte_ music for King Lear and many others.
His symphonies are so numerous and so many in the same key that in order
to tell them apart some have been given such names as _Surprise
Symphony_, _The Farewell Symphony_, the _Military Symphony_, _Queen of
France_, _The Oxford_, the fascinating _Kinder Symphonie_ (children’s
symphony) and on and on!
MOZART AND HAYDN
Mozart was years younger than Haydn and died while still very young, but
they were the closest friends. Haydn was his teacher, but lived to think
of Mozart as his superior and didn’t hesitate to say so. This again
shows the great spirit of Haydn.
Although Haydn was an innovator and a master of form his rules were
never cast into molds he could not break through inspiration. A critic
once asked him about the introduction to the Mozart Quartet in C major
which had been much discussed on account of its complex harmonies,—a
work which today we look upon as one of the greatest examples of his
genius. Haydn replied in a decided tone, “If Mozart has written it, be
sure he had good reason for so doing.” Albrechtsberger, a strict
technician, questioned him about the use of consecutive fourths which
was breaking a good old-fashioned law of harmony. Haydn replied, “Art is
free and must not be fettered by handicraft rule. The cultivated ear
must decide, and I believe myself as capable as any one of making laws
in this respect.” Thus spoke the great musician and not just the teacher
and follower.
He loved his art so well that he welcomed the young Mozart to Vienna
generously, because of his genius. Haydn, when asked by a manager to
have one of his operas follow the night after one of Mozart’s refused,
saying: “It would be too much to venture, for next to the great Mozart
it would be difficult for anyone to stand. Could I force home to every
lover of music the grandeur and inimitableness of Mozart’s operas, ...
and display of genius, and were I able to impress all others with the
same feelings which excite me, the nations would contend for the
possession of so rare a gem. Let Prague strive to hold fast the
priceless man. But reward him adequately, for without this the history
of great men is truly sad and offers to posterity little inducement to
exertion, as indeed many a hopeful mind lies fallow for want of
encouragement. It angers me _only_ that Mozart has not yet been engaged
at some Imperial court. Pardon this digression but I love the man
dearly.” When he left Mozart he wrote to his friend Frau von Gennzinger,
“I am inconsolable at parting,” and then he tells with the simplicity of
a child “a happy dream” he had listening to a performance of Mozart’s
_Marriage of Figaro_. (Adapted from Naumann.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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