furloughed for the summer and fall near the end: the musical realization of About the Music months. Although Haydn sanctioned the the desire for a state of grace.” addition of wind parts for publication As the so-called Father of the Symphony, and later performance, the raw sound Haydn intended his music to project a of the original version remains extremely “communal voice,” and to express musi- The late Masses of Joseph Haydn Like its predecessor, the 1796 Mass in Time effective. As the Haydn scholar H.C. cal ideas that were, in his own words, (1732–1809) count as one of the of War, the Lord Nelson Mass bears the Robbins Landon observes, “the total “writ large.” In his role as Father of the supreme achievements in Western music. stamp of the great European conflict that absence of wind parts, the solemn key of String Quartet, he mastered the art of In the 1790s, the decade after Mozart’s erupted from the French Revolution and D minor, and the acid, biting texture of conversation among instruments, and by death, Haydn was hailed across Europe as the rise of Napoleon. The summer of the trumpets, all lend a special kind of extension, among voices. Hailed by his the undisputed master of the symphony 1798, when Haydn composed the Mass, asperity to the music.” The choral and contemporaries as a musical Shakespeare, and the string quartet. Freed from service saw the Hapsburg empire in a tense solo writing is highly dramatic, and he understood profoundly the techniques —which he often experienced as servitude cease-fire with the French Republic. But demands great energy and vocal agility. —to his princely patron, he enjoyed two the drums of war were never far off. of narrative, character development, lengthy residencies in London that left Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt provoked Structurally, the Lord Nelson Mass is in action and pacing that give great theater— him a wealthy and famous man, and left swift action from Great Britain, and from the “symphonic mass” style perfected and indeed much of his music—its com- us twelve brilliant and inventive sym- August 1–3, 1798, a surprise attack led by by Haydn in his later years. Individual municative power. (A biographer phonies. Upon his return to Vienna, in Admiral Horatio Nelson smashed the sections of the Mass Ordinary are recounts Haydn’s statement that he 1795, Haydn embarked on the final phase French fleet lying at anchor in Aboukir organized into “movements” within a “often portrayed moral characters in his of his musical career, one that was to be Bay, near Alexandria. Legend has it that coherent dramatic arc: The Kyrie—dark symphonies.”) A master of musical occupied by large scale choral-orchestral Nelson’s great victory at the Battle of the and portentous—anchors the Mass and rhetoric, he manipulated surprise, irony works of a kind never experienced before, Nile gave this mass its popular title. In expresses its signature musical themes, and humor to help make his points. and rarely equaled since. reality, news of the battle would not have rhythmical devices and instrumental In the late Masses, of which the Lord Nelson reached Austria until some weeks after, character. (Listen for the trumpet Mass is the most theatrical, and in the The Mass No. 11 in D minor (1798), by which time Haydn had finished the fanfares throughout the rest of the work!) oratorios, Haydn synthesized all of his commonly called the Lord Nelson Mass work. The Nelson sobriquet more likely The Gloria imbeds the pathos of the gifts as a composer. Taken together, (in German, Nelsonmesse), is one of six came from the Mass having been played “Qui tollis” section within a larger hymn these fruits of Haydn’s last active decade settings of the Mass Ordinary that Haydn for the Admiral and his mistress, Lady of praise. In the Credo, Haydn skillfully embody the life force of a man who composed for the name-day of Princess Hamilton, on their visit to the Esterházy lays out the principal statement of wrote, “when I think of God I must Maria Hermenegild, wife of Prince family seat at Eisenstadt in 1800. Haydn Christian belief, with intense dramatic simply be happy.” Nikolaus II Esterházy. The Esterházy himself called it the Missa in angustiis, focus on the events of Jesus’ life on earth. family owned swaths of modern-day —John Maclay roughly speaking, in “troubled times” The Sanctus conveys a sense of mystery Hungary and maintained palaces that or “straitened circumstances.” becoming to the most ancient text used rivaled those of the Emperor. For all in the Mass. The Benedictus—famous their wealth and power, they are now The spare instrumentation of the for the trumpet interjections—has, like known almost exclusively for their affilia- Lord Nelson Mass, a function of wartime Haydn’s other settings of this section, tion with Haydn. On succeeding to the economizing at the Esterházy court, some of the most inventive music in the Esterházy interests in 1794, Nikolaus set distinguishes the work from Haydn’s entire work. In the Agnus Dei–Dona about restoring the musical splendor of more resplendent late compositions. nobis pacem sequence that concludes the his grandfather’s court. Recruiting, in It was scored only for strings, trumpets, work, anxiety meets resolution. On the Haydn, one of its leading lights was surely timpani, and organ (played by the whole, it is a work “organized around the a major coup for the young prince. composer at the first performance), the conceptual image of salvation, at once available woodwind players having been personal and communal, achieved at or