The Great German ComposersFerris, George T. (George Titus)
History
The Great German Composers
Ferris, George T. (George Titus)
Musicians -- Germany
Amid the tumult of the enraptured audience the old composer was seen
striving to raise himself. Once on his feet, he mustered up all his
strength, and, in reply to the applause of the audience, he cried out
as loud as he was able: "No, no! not from me, but," pointing to heaven,
"from thence--from heaven above--comes all!" saying which, he fell back
in his chair, faint and exhausted, and had to be carried out of the
room.
One year after this Vienna was bombarded by the French, and a shot fell
in Haydn's garden. He requested to be led to his piano, and played the
"Hymn to the Emperor" three times over with passionate eloquence and
pathos. This was his last performance. He died five days afterward, aged
seventy-seven, and lies buried in the cemetery of Gumpfenzdorf, in his
own beloved Vienna.
VI.
The serene, genial face of Haydn, as seen in his portraits, measures
accurately the character of his music. In both we see health fulness,
good-humor, vivacity, devotional feeling, and warm affections; a mind
contented, but yet attaching high importance to only one thing in life,
the composing of music. Haydn pursued this with a calm, insatiable
industry, without haste, without rest. His works number eight hundred,
comprising cantatas, symphonies, oratorios, masses, concertos, trios,
sonatas, quartets, minuets, etc., and also twenty-two operas, eight
German and fourteen Italian.
As a creative mind in music, Haydn was the father of the quartet and
symphony. Adopting the sonata form as scientifically illustrated by
Emanuel Bach, he introduced it into compositions for the orchestra
and the chamber. He developed these into a completeness and full-orbed
symmetry, which have never been improved. Mozart is richer, Beethoven
more sublime, Schubert more luxuriant, Mendelssohn more orchestral and
passionate; but Haydn has never been surpassed in his keen perception
of the capacities of instruments, his subtile distribution of parts, his
variety in treating his themes, and his charmingly legitimate effects.
He fills a large space in musical history, not merely from the number,
originality, and beauty of his compositions, but as one who represents
an era in art-development.
In Haydn genius and industry were happily united. With a marvelously
rich flow of musical ideas, he clearly knew what he meant to do, and
never neglected the just elaboration of each one. He would labor on a
theme till it had shaped itself into perfect beauty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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