The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-05-30
PLACE IN MUSIC
AN ESTIMATE or HIS ARTS
TIC WORK.

TIC WORK.
Not q Creator Of Passionate Poems, but
Maker Of Music for q Peeple-The
Popularity or His Instrumental works
e In His Day-Hesrd. In America
John Runciman in his sold Scores and
Now Readings' has something to say On
the subjecttof Haydn's position in the
realm Of musical art. Mr.. Runciman
finds In the ~seclusion and quiet regularity
of tho composers life in the service OF
Prince Esterhazy an explanation OF the
simplicity OF his music. 1t was a COM
parativeiy unrutied life, into which the
storm and stress Of existence did not
enter. Haydn married a troublesome
woman, but he put aside that burden
according to Mr.. Runciman. in much the
same manner as others had done. He
once had the misfortune to offend the
Prince and he recovered from that mishap
with equal ease. He had a side street
tmbroglio with a musical society and
emerged therefrom with unbruised con-
science. Every morning he rose with or
before the lark, dressed himself with q
degree OF neatuess that astonished even
that neat dressing age and sat down to
pompose music
It IL noteworthy that writer's about
musical artists pay altogether too little
attention to the psychological conneo-
ton between clothes and music. 1t has
been said often Of Mendelseohn that he
composed like q man in evening dress
and wearing white gloves. Here also we
have q note that Haydn elaborated his
toilet with anxious care. Wagner. be II
recorded, as 1t has been ere now, was
wont to garb himself in rose silk or luxuri-
ous gowns OF other sort quite as tropical
in style as his passionate music. Bee
thoven dressed like King Lear on the
cliffs Of Dover. g.
This matter should DO further investi-
gated. Does dress make the music, or
u It merely an outward and visible sign
Of an inward and spiritual grace? These
are solemn matters. At any rate we per-
ceive that Mr.. Runciman lays much weight
upon the methodical character Of Haydn's
Esterhasy period; but all this was
changed. In the inevitable march Of
events the Prince went to join his fathers
and Hsydn's ~sequestered occupation was
zone. Then he carried himself across
the waters into England and forthwith
became q great man. MIR. Runciman
declares 1T was then as it is now. an ar
fist was only accepted on the Continent
after b hAdsbeen stamped with the hall
mark Of uurAlisieal Epgland.' Yes. We all
remember fbwsthis happened 10 Handel
and Msn4eaSsShh AAd eyen to DR.. Brahms
and Dr.. Stradss. . Mozart and Bach and
Chuck and Verdi all had to wait for London
to find then out. They waited with COM
mendable patience.
Mr.. Runciman reverently asserts that
Haydn leaped from second rate to first
after he had lived in London and en-
Lrred his mental vision. He holds that
II he had made this historical leap twenty
years o he might have been the equal
Of Mozart, Bach and Handel; all OF
which is i~ndisputably true. MIR. Runci-
man cautiously employs the word -possi-
be-" Yes. if this leap had been possible
twenty years sooner; but there Is some
reason to suspect, that even il Haydn
had gone K London twenty years earlier
than he did the leap would have become
q long and deliberate walk.
The later music OF Haydn could not
bave been written in London had not the
essential preparation for 1t been made
In Austria. Haydn's place in mus ical
art can never be correctly estimated IL we
fail to take into consideration the work
he accomplished in defining and develop
ing the forms in which he cast his inspira-
tons. The first Of these three papers
on this composer was devoted to a brief
study Of the formal elements Of Haydn
art. 1t vas shown that he was the
master who out of experimental uncer-
tainty led the art Of sonata composition
to directness and clarity. That he did
this chiefly in the composition Of orchestral
music was the natural result OF his daily
labors as Prince Esterhazy's bandmaster.
Nor was the fact that be had at his disposal
o small concert orchestra without its
special, significance. The very limita-
lions Of the. body OF musicians helped to
force the composer to concentrate his
study upon the elements Of formal con-
~struction, and thus he avoided such pit
falls "a might have awaited him il he had
possessed an instrument either cumber-
some or Of q nature to tempt him to ex-
periments in tone coloring. That he did
> 0l8COt0E 6OIu0 VI tuc bcCE6eS VI Iuc tubLu u
mental palette is proved by his success
in descriptive writing 10 The Creation
For years Haydn's artistic develop.
msnt ~es precisely the same in q small
way as that Of musical art itself in a larger
manner A glance at the history Of poly.
phonic a cappella music shows us that
it's earliest years were occupied with
painful struggles to discover it's funda.
mental laws. Composers busted them.
selves with learning how the ~contrapunta'
puzzles might be solved and practised
with riddle canons. canons in augmenta-
ton, inversion and other varieties to &C
quire q mastery Of their materials.
When the second period was reached
the pupils OF the first masters found a
mass OF technical rules ready to their
hands. What they therefore essaysd
to do was to compose music in which
the working Of these laws should produce
pure beauty. The greatest genius Of
this period was Josquin Depres. whose
music is still sweet upon the ear. Then
came a period when composers observed
the world roundabout them and strove
to depict some Of its externals. Com
baert wrote his bird Cantata.' jaime
quin composed his Cries OF Paris" FL
nally. with fundamental law. grace and
beauty OF and certain idioms oil
expression already developed the great
masters Of the last period-Palestrina.