Life of Haydn: Biographies of Musicians
9781465670915
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
The abridged Life of Haydn, by Dr. Nohl, prepared originally as a contribution to a series of biographies, which is issued in popular form in Germany, is so simple in its narrative, that it would hardly need an introduction, were its subject-matter confined to the record of Haydn’s life, with its many musical triumphs, or to the portraiture of this genial, child-like and lovable master. The trials and troubles of his youth, their intensification in his married life, his marvelous musical progress, his seclusion at Eisenstadt, his visits to London and his introduction to its gay world in his old age, followed by such wonderful musical triumphs, make a story of extraordinary personal interest, which the author has heightened with numerous anecdotes, illustrating his rare sweetness and geniality. There are many discursions, however, in the work, in which Dr. Nohl analyzes the component parts of Haydn’s musical creations, and traces the effect of his predecessors as well as of his cotemporaries upon his development as an artist. To understand these, it must be remembered that the author deals with music from a philosophical standpoint, choosingSchopenhauer for his authority, the philosopher whom Wagner admires so much, and who makes the Will the basis of all phenomena. Applied in a musical sense therefore, music is not a matter of sweet sounds, whether melody or harmony, nor is its principal office the creation of pleasure by these sounds, but it is the chief agent of the Will in giving expression to its impulses. What this theory is, has been stated by Richard Wagner himself in his “Essay on Beethoven,” in the following words: “The mere element of music, as an idea of the world, is not beheld by us, but felt instead, in the depths of consciousness, and we understand that idea to be an immediate revelation of the unity of the Will, which, proceeding from the unity of human nature, incontrovertibly exhibits itself to our consciousness, as unity with universal nature also, which indeed we likewise perceive through sound.” The definition will afford a clue to some of the author’s statements, and may help to make clearer some of his musical analyses. The rest of the work may safely be left to the reader. It is the record of the life not only of a great musician, but of a lovable man, who is known to this day among his own people, though almost a century has elapsed since his death, by the endearing appellation of “Papa.”
