EDITORIAL Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mq/article/XLV/4/515/1073999 by guest on 27 September 2021

Of all the great "Classics," Joseph , Mus. Doc. (Oxon.), Membre de l'lnstitut, honorary citizen of Vienna, etc., etc., was the most celebrated and admired in his lifetime, yet posterity has honored him with parochial condescension. From Bach to Berlioz and beyond the collected works of most great musicians known to the public have been published, a number of them having been the object of two or even three Oenvres Computes or Gesamtausgaben. But the great Breitkopf & Hartel edition of Haydn's works, begun in 1907, remained unfinished, ceasing publication in 1933. After the late war an American enterprise got started, bravely but rather naively attempting to remedy this situation. Unfortunately, after publishing four volumes, the over- extended Boston-Vienna Haydn Society collapsed, and the friends of the patient old master once more had to be satisfied with often faulty scores of the principal works while reams of the other compositions remained totally unknown. Even such important late masterpieces as the Masses were available only in Mr. Vincent Novcllo's unattractive arrangements. Finally, realizing that this is really their responsibility, for Haydn is one of the glories of German musical history, the Germans bestirred themselves and went to work in earnest The Institute was founded in Cologne under the presidency of Friedrich Blume, an experienced organizer and executive besides being a dis- tinguished scholar; and Jens Peter Larsen, the leading Haydn expert, was entrusted with the scholarly direction of the project The Institute has a fine home of its own, and what is most important, has secured the assistance of an extraordinary publisher, Giinter Henle. After considerable and thoroughgoing preparation, the first volumes in the familiar Hcnle-blue cover, beautifully printed and copiously edited and annotated, have appeared, accompanied by separate Revisionsberichte

515 516 The Musical Quarterly in a smaller, book-like format Some of the latter are not yet available but are on the way.1 As can be seen from the titles, the Haydn Institute very commendably did not begin its publications with the London Symphony or , but with works that are far less known, and in some instances entirely unknown to all but specialists who have examined the manu- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mq/article/XLV/4/515/1073999 by guest on 27 September 2021 scripts. The trios are among these, and they are certainly welcome, though we must confess that to wade through forty-seven of them is somewhat arduous. At that, we must brace ourselves for many more to come: Haydn's 1805 catalogue lists 125! Not that this Is bad music, far from it, but as a whole the species lacks the wonderful variety of the quartets. The reasons for this must be sought in the facts that the trios were turned out rapidly within a couple of years (Nos. 49-72 between 1767 and 1769, Nos. 73-96 within the next two years); that they are written for an unusual and somewhat limited ensemble; and that they were destined for the baryton-fancier Prince Nicholas Esterhazy. To this we must add that the baryton's vogue was quite restricted, and that the instrument's equipment, such as the number of strings (up to fifteen sympathetic strings of metal and six or seven gut strings), changed from builder to builder. Under these circumstances Haydn's achievement is remarkable enough.

Though called "trios," these compositions are little divertimentos. Almost all of them have three short movements, usually following the adagio-allegro-menuetto pattern. The close similarity in substance and form attests their "serial" composition. In general one might say that the workmanship is neat, in many instances of true chamber-music quality, as for example in No. 53 or 59, where the texture is that of a finely worked string trio, but most of them amount to no more than pleasant Gebrauchsmusik of a rather specialized sort Everything is on a miniature scale — for instance a variation move- ment will consist of two or three variants, and the sonata movements are minuscule. The latter tend to be stereotyped, with, frequent em- ployment of a quite predictable fausse reprise, yet the great master of the sonata is often present if only for a few measures. The adagios, 1 Jostph Haydn, W*rki. Herausgegeben vom Joseph Haydn-Institut, K61n, unter der Leitung von Jens Peter Lanen. G. Henle Verlag, Munchen-Duisburg. Series XIV, Vol. 3, Baryton Trios Nos. 49-72; Vol. 4, Baryton Trios Nos. 73-96, ed. Hubert Unverricht; Series XXXI, Canons, ed. Otto Erich Deutsch; Series XXX, Part-Songs, ed. Paul Mies; Series XXIII, Vol. 2, Masses Nos. 5-8, ed. H. C. Robbins Landon in collaboration with Karl Heinz Ffissl and Christa Landon. Editorial 517 some of them stately and serious, still show elements inherited from the old trio sonata, with a chaconne turning up here and there, but the counterpoint does not even faintly compare with the impressive variety found in the quartets Op. 20. There is indeed an occasional fugue, as in No. 67, but the composer does not take it too seriously. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mq/article/XLV/4/515/1073999 by guest on 27 September 2021 At times the score looks a little bare, but the graphic image is deceptive because the sympathetic strings can be plucked all the while the bow is engaged on the regular strings. The edition faithfully repro- duces Haydn's notation, indicating by numbers the metal strings to be plucked. However, since these numbers constitute a tablature, under- stood by the player only, and since there is a very remote chance that anyone other than the specialists bred and maintained by the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft will ever play, or even see, the instrument, we cannot see the merit of this procedure. Would it not have been far more useful to add another, smaller, staff, rendering the plucked notes in the manner of a realized figured bass? If parts are to be issued for these trios—they would make excellent material for home and school use—we recommend that the part played by the sympathetic strings be assigned to a harpsichord, large lute, or guitar. The result would be pleasant without doing violence to the original. This is the more desirable because in many instances these trios are in reality for baryton solo with the accompaniment of viola and 'cello, written to satisfy the prince's vanity. Nicholas Esterhazy must have been an accom- plished player on the awkward instrument, because considerable ability is demanded by the runs, double stops, and the simultaneous bowing and plucking.

According to Carpani, Haydn derived much benefit from the com- position of these trios, and Pohl is also of the opinion that this large amount of intimate chamber music was, so to speak, a proving ground for the maturing composer. It is perhaps not without significance that, aside from some arrangements, none of these trios was published in Haydn's lifetime, and it is doubtful that with the exception of a few single movements these arrangements were made public with his ap- proval. Yet this modern edition is not only praiseworthy but necessary. I can do no better than quote from Oliver Strunk's exhaustive and most informative article on these works.1

1 Haydn's Divertimenti for Baryton, Viola, and Bass, in The Musical Quarterly, XVIII (1932), 216. 518 The Musical Quarterly Since these divertimenti fill in for us what would otherwise be a break in the chain of development [in Haydn's style], it is almost imperative that they be given careful consideration. If they are the conscientious handiwork of an honest crafts- man rather than the spontaneous creations of an inspired artist, the craftsman keeps pace with the artist — and sometimes anticipates him.

Hubert Unverricht, the editor, has acquitted himself with distinction, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mq/article/XLV/4/515/1073999 by guest on 27 September 2021 for this must have been a long, time-consuming, and at times a bit tedious labor. * * *

The next two volumes also present chamber music, but of the vocal variety. With them we leave behind the amiable piecework of the court composer, dutifully providing his employer with amusement, and meet the sovereign master. Now a free-lance artist, Haydn is aging, yet he is fresher than all his confreres. The counterpoint we behold in these finely spun works is of the most subtle, pliable, and unforced sort, the result of enormous technical experience and of poetic inspiration. The canons are fantastically shrewd, witty, bantering—and serious. Ten of them are called "religious"—they set to music a slightly modified version of the Ten Commandments—while forty-six additional ones come under the heading of "secular" canons. We cannot see much difference between the two species, both of which have a wide range. Some are just tiny epigrams, others have subjects that are veritable aria incipits. Some are lofty, others whimsical or of a folkish nature, but Haydn's wonderful sense of humor remains irrepressible even in the "religious" numbers. While the injunction against killing begins with an earnest and dramatic theme (Ex. 1), the Sixth Commandment apparently did not seem

Ex. i i I * " > r r I" U " i Thou ihatt not mur - d*r

Ex. 2 ji P p ff P Elf f Ifi g P g J >U'T Thou ahatt not yidd flw. to kwd-nes*, Ihbushitt not yield (hcefo kwi-a Editorial 519 hand, was an altogether serious offense to the honest musician (Ex. 3), Ex.3 ^ i'J M r > r r i" ir r r r I Thou ih»H not pil - - fsr.not pil - fer, thou ihalt not,

r r

r T in Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mq/article/XLV/4/515/1073999 by guest on 27 September 2021 thou xhatt not; thou ihalt not pil - fer, not piUer not oiUfer but when we get to the Ninth Commandment once again the theme would make a straight-laced clergyman a bit suspicious (Ex. 4). As

Thou slwlt not go lu»-fmg for thy neigh-bouife wife can be seen, these canon subjects are planned with infinite care and imagination, and some of them are of astonishing length and expressive- ness (Ex. 5). This is magnificent music that truly delights both Kenner Ex.5 Die Mutter an ihr Kind in der Wtqt

Ho-re Mid-oSen,. mei-nc Blt-tel Hell'- ge Tu - gend

* * I* fr Ift K B rc ff ^ • Id - te_ dich, IcMe dtkics La-bcn* Sdirif-te, IcMc dd-nes La - ben*

Sdirit-t., o lia - bet- MSd-oHen,, ho - re_ mkh. and Liebhaber. Otto Erich Deutsch's editing is as conscientious as his remarks are free of any stuffiness. The thirteen part-songs also originated in the 'nineties, though their exact date of composition is not known beyond the fact that the first one was begun in 1796 and the last of the thirteen was reported in 1801. Haydn himself was very proud and fond of them, insisting on a neat little special edition besides the one in the Oeuvres Complettes (1803). Their madrigalesque character supports Geiringer's opinion that "the master probably received the impulse to create these works in England, where madrigal singing had always been popular."1 But these "madrigals" are not retrospective imitations any more than Haydn's oratorios follow the Handelian mold; they are the works of a serene master with endless resources, who adopted the old genre for his very own purposes. Wisdom and nobility, gentle humor and irony, and eternal youth speak from them. The expressive gamut is

»Karl Geiringer, Haydn, New York, 1946, p. 297. 520 The Musical Quarterly wide, from the truly madrigal-like (Ex. 6) it reaches to the neighborhood of Schubert's serious songs (Ex. 7). Ex. 6 Die Wamung Andante i rr EfEfe und da, wei und da, met dunkd 1st Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mq/article/XLV/4/515/1073999 by guest on 27 September 2021 If £ undda, wo ca dunkd tef, m und da. •o tf dunkd id; undda, wo adunkd tit ::E=ft: r? undda, wo «• dunkd id; undda,

7 Betrachtung desTodes TlhJ' J J Kd-nti} kd-ncrnimmfden \rr-

f T P T P 'T Kei-ne; kd-rnr, kd-mrniminldtn In*- *turr n wahr r. rir a r Paul Mies has prepared an excellent edition, and for the first time we possess the original piano part, which in all other editions is by another hand. His preface is informative, well written, and though carefully documented, conspicuously lacking in the musicologese that usually makes such prefaces unpalatable. Particularly noteworthy is his gallant defense of Haydn's literary taste, usually the object of good- natured pity. There is only one point with which we are tempted to disagree. Mies questions Geiringer's above-mentioned statement con- cerning Haydn's models, seeing rather a kinship with Michael Haydn's part-songs composed in 1795, that is, one year before Haydn's first song of the set. While this is plausible, it seems to us that Geiringer is closer to the truth. Unlike his brother, Haydn had few connections with the old German Gesellschaftslied, whereas in London he was constantly exposed to the madrigal. When reading the accounts of his London visits one is struck by the frequent requests, whether at court or in the houses of his many hosts, for Haydn to sing. Also, the extent and quality of English vocal musical practice, choral, solo, or solo-ensemble, was not nearly matched on the Continent. The dates of his intimate vocal compositions are significant. Aside from the two sets of lieder (twelve each in 1781 and 1784), Haydn composed nothing in the Editorial 521 medium until 1794, when his first English canzonets appeared. These were followed by a second set of canzonets in 1795, after which there was a steady stream of songs, duets, trios, and what he so aptly .called Singquartette. Choral and madrigal groups all over the world should acquire this volume; they will reap endless pleasure from it Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mq/article/XLV/4/515/1073999 by guest on 27 September 2021

Masses Nos. 5-8 happily complement the excellent volume published by the defunct American Haydn Society, which contained the four earliest of these works. Of the Masses in the present volume the first, Missa brews Sti Johannis de Deo, also known as Kleine Orgelmesse, is from about 1775, and though pleasant, is largely a routine short Mass. As a matter of fact, it is a missa brevissima:.the Kyrie has twenty-five measures, the Gloria (Allegro di molto!) thirty-one, the Sanctus, another allegro, thirty. Why, the celebrant priest can never sit down. Since the Gloria and Credo have a text too long to be dealt with in so few measures, Haydn, one of the victims of the loose liturgic customs created by the Josephinian "reforms," crammed it all simultaneously into one heap. Thus in the Gloria while the bass sings Et in terra pax, the tenor Doming Deus, Agnus Dei, and the alto Domine fili unigenite, the soprano strikes up Gratias agimus tibi. This is like one of those medieval pictures where superimposed layers take the place of per- spective. Michael Haydn, able and experienced church musician, took a hand in this situation, recasting the Gloria, as he said, un poco piu prolongato. We are indebted to the editors for their excellent sense in printing this "prolonged" version in the appendix. Michael did a good job by eliminating the Babelian confusion and bringing the movement to the respectable proportions of 118 measures. In contradistinction, the Benedictus is a fair-sized soprano aria with an elaborately ornamented obbligato organ part from which the Mass derives its popular name. It is rather innocuous, and the organ fioriture naive. However, in the Credo and the Agnus Dei there are some arresting and well-declaimed, though simple choral passages. With the MariazeUermesse (1782) we enter an altogether different world. Though this Mass does not belong in the group formed by the famous six of his old age, it is very nearly as great and definitely of the same brand. The MariazeUermesse is sometimes called the con- 522 The Musical Quarterly nccting link between the earlier Masses and "the six," the first of which Haydn began to compose fourteen years later; but while chronologically a fact, this is palpably a comfortable cliche". The MariazeUermesse has little in common with the conventional Masses, alluded to as "im alten Stil," but which are in reality watered-down pseudo-Baroque with a half-hearted bow towards polyphony. The reason for this, of course, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mq/article/XLV/4/515/1073999 by guest on 27 September 2021 is the appearance of a new and compelling stylistic ideal: the spirit of the symphony. It was inevitable that the symphonic ideal should even- tually conquer every musical genre, and in the MariazeUermesse it is here, in full force and splendor, manipulated with the skill of a seasoned master. The distance between this Mass and the previous one is im- measurable, but to the one following it is less than a stone's throw. The new combination of the symphonic with elements of the "old style" is a most successful one, largely because in the meantime Haydn had shed his Rococo counterpoint and acquired a true and very remarkable polyphonic technique which made possible the blending of elaborate vocal part-writing with an energetic, propulsive, and articulated sym- phonic "accompaniment" This blend, which the composers of the High Classic era found most attractive, is indeed fascinating to pro- fessional and layman alike. Their sincere faith and genuinely fervent devotion attest the suitability for divine service of these Masses. This is, sadly, now denied by uninformed church authorities to all Catholics outside of Austria.

There is very little we can attempt to say about this fine work, and the following Paukenmesse and Heiligmesse, the first of the six great ones; the commentaries would require a whole issue of this journal. Suffice it to state that they are now available in a superb edition and should become as popular as such wondrous masterpieces deserve to be. The editor, H. C. Robbins Landon, and his associates, Karl Heinz Fiissl and Christa Landon, have done an exceptionally thorough job; every possible source was consulted and collated, notably the parts used in Haydn's time, which yielded important information. The resultant musical text is as close to the original as painstaking scholarship can make possible.

As commentators the editors are not so completely successful. The short preface has a didactic tone, and there is even a little sermon, which we might entitle Vber die Pflichten des stilbewussten Dirigenten. Preaching is reserved for clergymen—and, as this review abundantly shows, critics. Instead of the admonition to the conductors, who seldom Editorial 523 read prefaces, let alone Revisionsberichte, we would have welcomed some enlightenment about Haydn's choral style and technique. Ac- cording to most writers, including Lang as well as Landon, Haydn was not supposed to write with such consummate skill for the chorus until he had heard the famous Handelian commemorative concerts in London. But that took place many years later. In 1782 Haydn was Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mq/article/XLV/4/515/1073999 by guest on 27 September 2021 a provincial Kapellmeister, oblivious of the Protestant Baroque in general, and Handel and English music in particular; therefore the MariazeUermesse must be an anachronism. And yet the document before us eloquently demonstrates undeniable mastery of the grand choral style. Whence did this come? We greet the new Haydn Gesamtausgabe with genuine pleasure. May the enterprise flourish, and perhaps we are not unduly rash in expressing a wish to see most of these volumes while we are still on this earth. Therefore, if the Haydn Institute promises to supply the publisher with material so rasch als moglich, we add with Schumann: noch schneUer. P. H. L.