Haydn and Mozart

The composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn were friends. Their relationship is not very well documented, but the evidence that they enjoyed each other's company and greatly respected each other's work is strong.

Background

Haydn was already a famous composer when Mozart was a child. His six string quartets of Opus 20 (1772), called the "Sun" Quartets, were widely circulated and are conjectured (for instance, by Charles Rosen [In "The Classical Style", p. 264.] ) to have been the inspiration for the six string quartets K. 168-173 that the 17-year-old Mozart wrote during a 1773 visit to Vienna. [See Brown 1992 for dates and K. numbers. Brown discusses the history of the conjecture that K. 168-173 were influenced by Haydn, and argues against it at length.]

The two composers probably would not have had an opportunity to meet until after Mozart moved permanently to Vienna in 1781. Haydn was required to reside most of the time at the remote palace of Eszterháza in Hungary, where his employer and patron Prince Nikolaus Esterházy preferred to live. During the winter months, the Prince moved to the ancestral palace of his family in Eisenstadt, bringing Haydn with him. In these periods it was often feasible for Haydn to make brief visits to Vienna, about 40 km away. [For a listing of occasions when Haydn visited Vienna around this time, see Larsen 1980, pp. 53-55.]

Meeting

It is thought [Webster and Feder 2001, section 3.4] that Haydn and Mozart most probably met around 1783-1784, perhaps at a performance (March 28 and 30, 1784) [Larsen, 53] of Haydn's oratorio "Il ritorno di Tobia". By this time, Haydn was the most celebrated composer in Europe. Mozart's own reputation was definitely on the rise. His opera "The Abduction from the Seraglio" had been premiered with great success in Vienna and was in the course of being produced in many other cities. [Deutch 1966, various locations] Haydn would have been about 52 years old at the time, Mozart about 28.

tring quartet playing

Jens Peter Larsen suggests that "quartet playing was central to the contact between Haydn and Mozart", [Larsen 54] though the documentation of the occasions in which the two composers played or heard quartets together is slim. The best report of such an occasion come from the "Reminiscences" (1826) of the tenor Michael Kelly.

:"Storace gave a quartet party to his friends. The players were tolerable; not one of them excelled on the instrument he played, but there was a little science [Kelly uses the archaic meaning of "science", i.e. "knowledge, learning".] among them, which I dare say will be acknowledged when I name them:

The First Violin:.........................Haydn. " Second Violin:............Baron Dittersdorf. " Violoncello..........................Vanhal. " Viola................................Mozart.

:"...I was there, and a greater treat, or a more remarkable one, cannot be imagined." [Quote from Webster 1977, p. 393]

Both Dittersdorf and Vanhal, though now rather obscure, were well-known composers of the time.

Haydn's view of Mozart

Haydn freely praised Mozart, without jealousy, to his friends. For instance, he wrote to Franz Rott, [Webster and Feder 2001, section 3.iv]

:"If only I could impress Mozart's inimitable works on the soul of every friend of music, and the souls of high personages in particular, as deeply, with the same musical understanding and with the same deep feeling, as I understand and feel them, the nations would vie with each other to possess such a jewel."

To the musicologist Charles Burney, he said "I have often been flattered by my friends with having some genius, but he was much my superior." [Webster and Feder 2001, section iii.4] In another letter to his friend Marianne von Genzinger, Haydn confessed to dreaming about Mozart's work, listening happily to a performance of Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro. [The letter is printed in Harvnb|Geiringer|1982|pp=90-92]

Mozart's view of Haydn

Mozart's early biographer Franz Niemetschek, who interviewed Mozart's wife Constanze, describes Mozart's esteem for Haydn. In one passage from his biography he says:

:"High esteem for true merit, and regard for the individual, influenced his judgment of works of art. He was always very touched when he spoke of the two Haydns or other great masters." [Niemetschek 1798, 68]

By the plural Niemetschek refers also to Joseph's brother Michael, who was Mozart's friend and colleague during his years in Salzburg.

An often-retold anecdote from Niemetschek is the following:

:"At a private party a new work of Joseph Haydn was being performed. Besides Mozart there were a number of other musicians present, among them a certain man who was never known to praise anyone but himself. He was standing next to Mozart and found fault with one thing after another. For a while Mozart listened patiently: when he could bear it no longer and the fault-finder once more conceitedly declared: 'I would not have done that', Mozart retorted: 'Neither would I but do you know why? Because neither of us could have thought of anything so appropriate." [Niemetschek 1798, 69]

Niemetschek adds, "By this remark he made for himself yet another irreconcilable enemy."

The "Haydn" quartets

Mozart's "Haydn" quartets (K387, K421, K428, K458, K464 and K465) were written during the early years of their friendship and published in 1785. These works are thought to be stylistically influenced by Haydn's Opus 33 series, which had appeared in 1781. The dedication by Mozart of his six quartets to Haydn was rather unusual, at a time when dedicatees were usually aristocrats:

:"A father who had decided to send his sons out into the great world thought it his duty to entrust them to the protection and guidance of a man who was very celebrated at the time, and who happened moreover to be his best friend. In the same way I send my six sons to you [...] Please then, receive them kindly and be to them a father, guide, and friend! [...] I entreat you, however, to be indulgent to those faults which may have escaped a father's partial eye, and in spite of them, to continue your generous friendship towards one who so highly appreciates it." [ Bernard Jacobson (1995) in CD#13 of the Best of the Complete Mozart Edition [Germany: Philips] ]

Haydn in turn was very impressed with Mozart's new work. He heard the new quartets for the first time at a social occasion on January 15, 1785, at which Mozart performed the quartets with "my dear friend Haydn and other good friends". [Webster and Feder 2001, section 3.4. Deutsch 1965, 234 suggests that on this evening only the first three of the quartets were played.] At a second occasion, on February 12, the last three of the quartets were performed. [Deutsch (1965, 236) identifies the four players as having probably been the composer, his father Leopold, and two Barons: Anton and Bartholomäus Tinti, who were Masonic brothers of Mozart.] Mozart's father Leopold was present, having come from Salzburg to visit. It was then that Haydn made a remark to Leopold that is now widely quoted:

:"Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name: He has taste, and, furthermore, the most profound knowledge of composition." [Letter from Leopold Mozart to his daughter Maria Anna from February 16, 1785. In the original: "Ich sage ihnen vor gott, als ein ehrlicher Mann, ihr Sohn ist der größte Componist, den ich von Person und den Nahmen nach kenne: er hat geschmack, und über das die größte Compositionswissenschaft."]

It is likely that Mozart would have appreciated the remark, in light of his father's frequently-expressed doubts about his career path.

Freemasonry

It may have been Mozart who attempted to bring Haydn into Freemasonry. Mozart joined the lodge called "Zur Wohltätigkeit" ("Beneficence") on 14 December 1784, and Haydn applied to the lodge "Zur wahren Eintracht" ("True Concord") on 29 December 1784. Lodge records show that Mozart frequently attended "Zur wahren Eintracht" as a visitor. [Deutsch 1965, multiple listings] Haydn's admission ceremony took place on 11 February 1785; Mozart could not attend due to a concert that night. [Larsen 54]

Although Mozart remained an enthusiastic Mason (see Mozart and Freemasonry), Haydn did not; in fact, there is no evidence that he ever attended a meeting after the one at which he was admitted, [Larsen 54] and he was dropped from the rolls of the lodge in 1787.

Haydn's departure for London

Haydn last saw Mozart in the days before he departed for London in December 1790. The oft-retold tale of their last interactions comes primarily from the biography of Albert Christoph Dies, who interviewed the elderly Haydn 15 years after the event [Dies (1810, 119-120)] :

: [Haydn's patron] Prince Anton Esterházy granted permission for the journey at once, but it was not right as far as Haydn's friends were concerned ... they reminded him of his age (sixty years), [Haydn was actually 58.] of the discomforts of a long journey, and of many other things to shake his resolve. But in vain! Mozart especially took pains to say, "Papa!" as he usually called him, "you have had no training for the great world, and you speak too few languages."

:"Oh," replied Haydn, "my language is understood all over the world!"...

:When Haydn had settled ... his household affairs, he fixed his departure and left on December 15, [1790] , [The original reads 1791, an error.] in company with Salomon. Mozart on this day never left his friend Haydn. He dined with him, and said at the moment of parting, "We are probably saying our last farewell in this life." Tears welled from the eyes of both. Haydn was deeply moved, for he applied Mozart's words to himself, and the possibility never occurred to him that the thread of Mozart's life could be cut off by the inexorable Parcae within the following year."

Haydn's other principal contemporary biographer, Georg August Griesinger, gives different details of the same occasion [Griesinger 1810, 22-23] :

:Mozart said to Haydn, at a happy meal with Salomon, "You will not bear it very long and will probably soon come back again, because you are no longer young." "But I am still vigorous and in good health," answered Haydn. He was at that time almost fifty-nine years old, but he did not find it necessary to conceal the fact. Had Mozart not hastened to an early death on December 5, 1791, he would have taken Haydn's place in Salomon's concerts in 1794.

Mozart's death

Haydn, still in London a year later when the news of Mozart's death reached him, was distraught; he wrote to their mutual friend Michael Puchberg, "for some time I was quite beside myself over his death, and could not believe that Providence should so quickly have called away an irreplaceable man into the next world." [Hughes (1970, 78). For Haydn's friendship with Puchberg see Webster and Feder 2001, section iii.4] Haydn wrote to Constanze Mozart offering musical instruction to her son when he reached the appropriate age, and later followed through on his offer. [Hughes, 78]

Notes

References

*Brown, Peter (1992) "Haydn and Mozart's 1773 Stay in Vienna: Weeding a Musicological Garden," "The Journal of Musicology" 192-230.
*Dies, Albert Christoph (1810) "Biographical Accounts of Joseph Haydn", Vienna. English translation by Vernon Gotwals, in "Haydn: Two Contemporary Portraits", Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin Press.
*cite book|last= Deutsch |first= Otto Erich |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= Mozart: A Documentary Biography |publisher= Stanford University Press |origyear= 1965 |location= |pages= |url= |doi= |id= |isbn= |ref= CITEREFDeutsch1965
*cite book|last= Geiringer |first= Karl |authorlink= |coauthors= Irene Geiringer |title= Haydn: A Creative Life in Music |publisher= University of California Press |edition= 3rd ed. |year= 1982 |location= |pages= xii, 403 |url= |doi= |id= |isbn= 0520043162 |ref= CITEREFGeiringer1982
*Griesinger, Georg August (1810) "Biographical Notes Concerning Joseph Haydn". Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel. English translation by Vernon Gotwals, in "Haydn: Two Contemporary Portraits", Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin Press.
*Kelly, Michael (1826) "Reminiscences of Michael Kelly". Cited in E. Kerr Borthwick (1990), "The Latin Quotations in Haydn's London Notebooks," "Music & Letters".
*Hughes, Rosemary (1970) "Haydn" (New York: Farrar Strauss and Giroux)
*Larsen, Jens Peter (1980) "Joseph Haydn," article in the 1980 edition of the New Grove. Republished 1982 as a separate volume, "The New Grove: Haydn", by W. W. Norton. Page numbers refer to the separate volume version.
*Niemetschek, Frank (1798) "Leben des K. K. Kapellmeisters Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart", English translation by Helen Mautner. London: Leonard Hyman.
*Robbins Landon, H.C. (1976-1980) "Haydn: Chronicle and Works", Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. An extensive compilation of original sources.
*Schmid, Ernst Fritz and Ernest Sanders (1956) "Mozart and Haydn," "The Musical Quarterly" 42: pp. 145-161. Available from JSTOR.
*Webster, James (1977) "The Bass Part in Haydn's Early String Quartets," "The Musical Quarterly". Available on JSTOR.
*Webster, James, and Georg Feder (2001), "Joseph Haydn", article in "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians" (New York: Grove, 2001). Published separately as a book: "The New Grove Haydn" (New York: Macmillan 2002, ISBN 0-19-516904-2).