Haydn's time was principally occupied in musical com position ; he generally dwelt with the prince of Esterhazy, at Eisenstadt in Hungary, and accompanied him during two or three months of the year, which were spent at Vienna. Here he became acquainted with the Chevalier Christopher Gluck, an eminent composer for the opera, Mozart, and others. The former advised him to travel in France and Italy, from which he predicted the greatest advantage in dramatic compositions; hut the moderate finances of Haydn seem to have deterred him from following his counsel. His fame, however, had extended far beyond the sphere of his residence ; and he was employed to compose an instrumen tal oratorio on the seven last sentences of our Saviour, for some religious ceremony, in a cathedral at Cadiz, which was hung with black, while a single lamp glimmered over the audience. Twelve years later, Haydn, without chang ing any of the instrumental parts, had words adapted to it. Many of his compositions are quite unknown in Britain, particularly a multitude of pieces for the bariton, a kind of small violoncello, with five strings above the bridge, and others behind the hand, to be touched by the thumb, played on by the Prince of Esterhazy, and to which the inhabitants of this country are strangers.
By the advice of Baron Van Swietcn, Haydn visited Lon don ; and his residence there may be regarded as one of the most fortunate periods of his life. His great and steady patron the prince of Esterhazy had died in the same year, 1790; and while he left him his usual salary, he also dis pensed with his discharging the duties of the situation. He seems indeed to have held him in great estimation ; for when Haydn's house at Eisenstadt was burned down during his absence at Vienna, the prince directed another to be built, having exactly the same size, appearance, and accom modation.
In London Haydn experienced the most gratifying re ception ; he remained there eighteen months, and retui ned to the continent in the year 1794. He now began to be treat ed with those honourable distinctions due to his transcen dant genius. He was created Doctor of music by the Uni versity of Oxford, and other literary and musical associa tions soon followed the example. At this time a concert on a liberal and expensive plan was established by Salomon, the late leader of the opera, where all the first performers were engaged ; and each performance was announced to commence with an overture, expressly composed for it by Haydn. Twelve symphonies, which stand unrivalled, were thus produced ; and, as is well known, these were after wards ingeniously reduced to quintetts by Salomon. Some of them, or the whole, have since been adapted as trios for the piano-forte, violin, and violoncello. Haydn also com
posed and published several other works while in London; several of which are dedicated to the amateurs of this island: and a still more essential result was, the universal diffusion of a taste for his music.
During his absence from Germany, a tablet, or obelisk, had been erected in honour of him at Rohrau, the place of his nativity, by Count IIarrach ; and on returning to the continent, he composed the oratorio of the Creation, in 1795, which is esteemed among the finest and most ela borate of his works. But his other compositions of the same kind, the Seasons, Stabat Mater, The Last Words of Christ, and The Return of Tobit, have not been all equally successful ; partly, it is supposed, from the want of coinci dence between the music and the words. The last, how ever, which was written in 1775, is performed annually at Berlin, for the benefit of the widows of musicians.
While Haydn approached that period of life when the faculties usually decline, he was loaded with honours, and his vigorous invention continued to be unimpaired. He re ceived honorary degrees from the academies of Stockholm and Amsterdam in 1798 and 1801 ; and in the following year, on a vacancy occurring in the National Institute of France, he was elected a member, at which time our coun tryman Mr Sheridan was one of the candidates. He was also chosen a member of the Phil-Harmonic Societies of Layback and St Petersburgh, and of the Children of Apollo at Paris, in 1805, 1807, 1808. Nay, the last struck a me dal, bearing his portrait, and invited him to the capital, with an offer of a sufficient sum to defray his expences. But this was not all ; for prince Kurakin, the Austrian ambas sador at Vienna, presented him with a letter from the Phil Harmonic Society of Petersburgh, full of gratitude and ad miration of his works, and accompanied by a large gold medal, weighing above half a pound, struck in honour of him, and bearing his portrait, with the most flattering le gend. He is also said to be the hero of a Spanish Poem on music.
But Haydn was now little more than sensible of the dis tinctions he received. He bent under the weight of years, and ceased entirely to compose about 1803. It was not without regret, however, that he witnessed his own decay. He feelingly deplores it in a vocal quartett, beginning, " My strength is enfeebled, death awaits at my gate." In deed he was so much weakened, that it became necessary to construct a piano for him, remarkably light and easy in the touch. We have even heard those who knew him well de clare, that he relapsed into a second childhood.