1789 – The Music part 3 - The timing was just right!

Hob.#	Genre	Instrument(s)	Notes
19:01 - 16	Piece(s) Flötenuhrstücke	Flötenuhr (Clockwork pipe organ)	Only #16 is dated
24b:14	Aria	Tenor, 2 Oboes, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, Strings	Se tu mi sprezzi for the character 'Il Cavaliere' in I finti eredi by Sarti

 

During our long journey so far, we have been introduced to a good variety of instruments, new and old, which Haydn has composed for during his career. Instruments are always interesting for us, because many of the earlier versions of familiar instruments, like the cembalo con martelli, as well as the ones which have faded from memory, like the Baryton and lira organizzate, are fascinating in their own right. In my opinion, however, none of those instruments holds a candle to Haydn's next challenge, writing for the Flötenuhr, the mechanical clockwork pipe organ!

Knowing, as we do, of Nicholas' passion for music, it is easy to overlook the fact that he had an equally fervid desire for many other sorts of art. Eszterháza abounded with the fruits of his collecting passion. Books, paintings, sculpture, antiquities from around the world, exotic stone and woods, a huge collection of clocks… Clocks? Why yes, 400 of them by some accounts. And as we recall, this was still the 18^th century; clocks were still a relatively new field, which was being fully exploited as art only relatively recently. The great quantities of books and manuscripts, with all of the cataloging issues which are entailed, required there to be employees to take care of all of these items. The main one, until his death in 1779, was Royal Librarian Phillip Georg Bader, who, like many of the Prince's employees, was talented in more than one area. He was the author of the libretto for our marionette opera, Philemon und Baucis, for example, and probably also for its introductory work, Der Götterath, as well as the lost marionette opera Dido. So, a valuable man who would need an equally valuable replacement.

I can imagine a bit of surprise on Haydn's part when, in 1780, he made his daily way to the rehearsal hall and saw, sitting next to Kraft in the cello section, a man in the habit of the Barmherzige Brüder (Brothers of Mercy). The new Librarian / Chaplain / Cellist / Clockmaker, Father Joseph Primitivus Niemecz (1750-1806), reporting for duty! Quite a list of duties, but apparently Haydn wasn't the only genius in the employ of the Prince. Niemecz, a Bohemian from near Prague, was obviously talented in many fields: Priest and monk, librarian, of course, and also author of the well-known 1784 book which introduced the finally-completed Eszterháza estate to Europe, Beschreibung des Schloss Esterház. He was also a highly skilled player on the keyboard, harp, cello, violin, viola da gamba and baryton. But apparently these were merely diversions, for his real genius lay in mechanics. Especially clocks and mechanical musical instruments.

Music roll; pins played short notes, staples played longer ones

Mechanical musical instruments have an amazingly long history, particularly mechanical organs. When we hear today about 'clockwork instruments', it is probable that most people think of music boxes or cuckoo clocks, or at best, player pianos and the like. But the reality is far different. The original organs go back to at least the 17^th century BCE. There was never a time when interest in this instrument was lost, and through the highs and lows of mechanical advancement, the organ went along for the ride. By the 18^th century, there was a thriving industry in Southern Bavaria, centered on the Augsburg area, making mechanical organs as the musical component of a variety of arts and crafts objects. Between the years 1776-78, a Benedictine monk, Dom Bedos de Celles, published a four volume history of organ making, one volume of which recapped the state-of-the-art in mechanical organ making. This book is so fine that it is still coveted today, not as a collector's item but as a handbook, by mechanical instrument makers!

Let's talk for a moment about Flötenuhren. When we hear the term 'clockwork' we tend to think immediately of those old-fashioned, analog clocks and watches. This is true to a point, since they, too ran on a system of meshed wheels, gears, pinions and levers, the aim being to regulate the power between a source and something driven. The difference arises in the idea that it is just the hands of a clock which matter to the effect. In fact, a clock is called such because it is driven by a clockwork, but the inverse doesn't necessarily hold true; a clockwork can also drive any number of other things. In this case, it drives a little bellows to provide air to the organ pipes, and a motor which turns the wheel the music is on. Whether there is any actual timepiece involved is strictly optional.

View of the underside, showing the organ pipes.
The bellows and air chamber are right atop them

So this brings us up to Haydn and Niemecz. It would have taken extraordinary circumstances for these two not to become fast friends, and in the event, they did. Niemecz played the continuo cello parts at all the opera performances and there are numerous mentions of him, sitting right next to Haydn, who also played the continuo, now on his new Walter fortepiano. Haydn eventually began giving him lessons in composition and harmony. This situation continued throughout the 1780's, both attending to their respective duties, with Niemecz all the while working on his mechanical clockwork machines. In 1786, Matthias Korabinsky, in his encyclopedia published in Pressburg, tells in his "Eszterháza and Eisenstadt" articles about Niemecz' burgeoning output of musical items including a spinning-wheel, chair, pocket watch, chessboard and several others, not least of which is a clockwork tableau with the naked figures of Adam and Eve combined with fountains and other waterworks in a large room of the palace in Eisenstadt!

Haydn always had displayed an interest in the more unusual aspects of performance art. Witness his marionette theater, which he had got before Nicholas got one, and which he once loaned to Maria Theresia for a performance in Schönbrunn in 1777. And not to mention yet again, the marvelous works for lira organizzate which was, itself, a semi-automated instrument which shared many features with the Flötenuhr. So, since Haydn was already predisposed towards mechanical instruments, and had a close relationship with Niemecz, it should come as no surprise to discover him composing some music specifically for the instrument. It is believed that the collaboration extended further than simply writing music, though, problems such as length of each piece and work within the compass of the instrument were precisely the thing Haydn would have enjoyed. 

Let's look at the instruments themselves for a moment. There are three specifically Haydn/Niemecz collaborations still extant, although no doubt there were more. Of these, the one of interest now is N^o. 1, long thought to have been built in 1772, but which has clearly been proved to be from c. 1789. The other two are from 1792 and 1793 respectively, and are signed and dated, while N^o. 1 has neither signature nor date. We won't discuss the other two until later on, except to say that between the three of them, there are 40 tunes, all by Haydn, and that ten of them are duplicated between the three, leaving a total of thirty different tunes. There are extant manuscripts for two others, preserved by Artaria and now in the Geselschaft der Musikfreunde collection in Vienna, but the machines themselves appear to no longer exist. N^o. 1 has twenty-five pipes in a range of c¹ to d³ and the roll is pinned to play sixteen tunes. N^o. 2 & 3 play only twelve tunes each, for reasons we shall discuss in 1792.

For reasons I don't quite understand, there is some controversy about these pieces in scholarly circles. Landon accepts them without reserve, but Feder, in The New Grove Haydn, calls a few of them 'dubious', and seems loathe to accept arrangements of other Haydn works, even in his own handwriting, as genuine Flötenuhrstücke. I have no such reservations, and neither should you! In his tour-de-force book, Joseph Haydn and the Mechanical Organ, Arthur W.J.G. Ord-Hume* gives a full accounting of the origins of each piece and the locations and provenance of the autograph sheets. While the actual date of composition may be still in question, I think it is fair to divide these works into two groups; the first sixteen which are on the 1789 clock, one of which, #16, has a dated autograph of 1789. The second group and more information about clocks 2 & 3 will come up in 1792.

If you are wanting to hear these pieces today, I won't say you will not do so on a real Flötenuhr. They have been recorded from the originals, but not released as a commercial recording. I am not positive, but my inference is they are in a museum or two, along with at least one of the clocks (#3). Clock #1 is in private hands, and Clock #2 was purchased after WW II by an anonymous buyer and has not been seen again. Fortunately, all the information about it, including the music and workings, and photographs, were collected in the 1920's and '30's by Alfred Schnerich and Ernst Franz Schmid, who published all their findings in a rather obscure, German-language book which is a treasure for Haydnists. Ord-Hume's book, published in 1982, the year of Haydn's 250^th birthday, is a far more ambitious effort though, and has yet to be surpassed in the scholarly field. I highly recommend it for those who are interested in the more arcane side of your favorite composer!

And if you aren't going to hear them on a Flötenuhr, what then? Perhaps every bit as rare as a recording of an original is this CD which was given me as a gift a few years ago by a friend in Liechtenstein who found it in a second-hand shop in Vaduz and recognized a treasure looking for an owner! It is not an original Flötenuhr, but a very close relative, called today a 'barrel organ', this one originating in Altdorf, Switzerland. It also demonstrates the many uses for a mechanical organ other than as timepiece. It is a splendid garden ornament. One of the things you will hear in these samples is the speed which the pieces are played. The timings are exactly the same as the originals. Try THAT on an organ! 

Hob 19_02 Piece for Laufwerk #2

Hob 19_08 Piece for Laufwerk #8

Hob 19_16 Piece for Laufwerk #16

Hob 19_16 Stücke für eine Flötenuhr

The last is on an organ, from the disk pictured.

Speaking of which, an organ is the other medium on which you can hear these works. There are several nice recordings, a few of them have all the works, mostly there are a few, here and there with other organ music. This one is particularly nice.

I invite anyone who has more information, or pictures or recordings, to please let me know about them. The more I read about these neat little items, the more attractive they become!

Next time, we will look at 1790; one of the most eventful years in Haydn's entire life!

Thanks for reading!

*1982 - University College Cardiff Press
ISBN - 0 906449 37 5

All B&W photos in this essay are taken from this book, Copyright 1982 Arthur W.J.G Ord-Hume