One can hardly find a known aspect of Haydn's life at this time which wasn't driven by music. It is what you would expect from a professional musician, even today, except for the variety of it all, which is stunning in its way. In the two year period from 1763 we see nearly a dozen symphonies, several sorts of chamber music, church music, an opera, three large cantatas and several concertos (pity that they didn't all survive). This year we will add the first works for Baryton, of which there will be many. And even the return of the keyboard sonata. One is hard pressed to find a matching period from any other composer, although perhaps G.P. Telemann could relate. In any case, the resulting bonanza for the music lover is unmatched.
The year began with the Prince making an out of town appearance in Frankfurt-on-Main attending the coronation of Joseph II as the new King of the Holy Roman Empire. According to the diary of young Goethe, Nicholas was the hit of the affair for both his finery and throwing a party. Nicholas may have been just a nice guy, but he certainly had his vanity which needed stroking from time to time. We will see in later times that Haydn got concessions from Nicholas by mentioning that it would add to the Prince's prestige by having his famous Kapellmeister appear at this or that occasion. It seems Haydn had the measure of his man there, for he often got his way. Meanwhile, Haydn took advantage of the Prince's absence by going to Rohrau to take care of the business involved with his father's death the previous September. He returned to Eisenstadt in time to compose a 'welcome home' cantata for the Prince, Al Tuo arrivo, felice (Happiness at your return) (Hob 24a:3).
Despite the nearly complete lack of documentary evidence to tell us what Haydn's life was like in those early years, we can infer there was no lack of anything in the way of corporal luxuries. Rumor has it that the Missus was a spendthrift, and of all the peccadilloes which might slip past Haydn's easygoing nature, that was certainly not one of them. It can have been nothing but a source of friction between them, and possibly the basis for the long-term dysfunction of their marriage. On the other hand, the Prince was a big help by bestowing various kindnesses, such as absorbing the medical costs when Haydn became quite ill late in the year. The document begins "Not to establish a precedent…" so he covered his bases, but he also took care of one of his more precious assets.
Two things which happened in this year seem to have provided the impetus for much more exploration of new avenues down the road. Both musical, of course. When we get to discussing the music for the year, you will see, for the first time, works for the Baryton. Not the trios many of us are familiar with already, but duos for two barytons. Which harks back to the observation I made in 1763 that the presence of Carl Frantz the hornist/barytonist/violinist in the orchestra might have been the spur to push Nicholas into an interest he had for playing the instrument. The fact the first works were duos for two of the instruments is even more compelling in leading to this conclusion. Four extant works will be explored this year. I found them quite interesting and probably a better platform to let you hear what these works sound like than the trios will be.
The second thing which I found interesting is the Prince's newly blooming interest in Haydn's abilities on the cembalo (harpsichord). Up until now, it has been the forgotten instrument in his repertoire. But the cantata which Haydn wrote for the Prince's nameday, Qual dubbio ormai (With humility, my friend) (Hob 24a:4), has a very large da capo aria second movement, and it contains a virtuosic cembalo solo winding through the vocal part. To give an indication of how unused the cembalo had become, a repairman had to be summoned from Vienna to re-quill and restring it for the event. But the point here is from this point onwards Haydn was frequently called upon to compose and perform on the instrument.
It can hardly be said that Princely disinterest was the only thing keeping Haydn away from the cembalo. As we have seen, Carl Frantz was also a violinist, but he was able to keep playing his horn with regularity because the force of fiddlers was steadily being built up to the point where players of other instruments weren't required to spend all of their time in the fiddle section. This applied to Haydn every bit as much as to Frantz and others. It is a nice thing, in my opinion, that Haydn finally got back to writing keyboard works. Despite the fact of his being abused over the centuries because he wasn't a keyboard specialist. His works may not fall so easily under the fingers, but they fall wonderfully on the ears. Finally though, even while the orchestra was being built up in one area, it was losing in others. The bloom of four hornists which so inspired Haydn in 1763 came to a sudden end in 1764 when two of the hornists died. I have no documentation at all for what happened to them, but it would be the following year before we would be able to delight once again in the likes of the 'Symphony with the Horn Signal' and others of its kind.
Next time we will take a look at the Baryton, a most unusual instrument indeed, and source of some of Haydn's more interesting but virtually unknown repertoire.
Thanks for reading!