PROGRAM
NOTES
for
the June 10, 2007 Concert of
The
North Shore Choral Society
by
Donald Draganski
The
North Shore Choral Society continues its eight-year traversal of
the Masses of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) with today’s performance
of his Missa Cellensis in honorem BVM [Blessed Virgin Mary], number
XXII:5 in the Hoboken catalog of Haydn’s works.
Haydn’s
association with the Church goes back to his childhood when, at the
age of eight, his parents sent him to Vienna to join the Cathedral
choir. There, in addition to singing lessons, he also received training
in all aspects of practical music making, both vocal and instrumental. By
contrast, little or no music theory was offered; similarly, the schooling
he received in Latin, arithmetic, writing and other non-musical subjects
is described by his first biographer, Georg Greisinger, as “scanty.” As
with so many other composers of his generation, Haydn was largely
an autodidact. As he himself remarked, he learned far more
from hearing music than from studying it.
The
young Haydn’s excellent singing voice attracted the attention
of the director of the Choir School who thought he could make the
youth’s fortune by turning him into a permanent soprano. Greisinger
recounts the incident:
‘At
that time many castrati were employed at Court, and the director
actually wrote to Haydn’s father for permission to operate
on the boy. The father, who totally disapproved of the proposal,
set forth at once for Vienna and, thinking that the operation might
already have been performed, entered the room where his son was and
asked, “Sepperl, does anything hurt you? Can you still
walk?” Delighted to find his son unharmed, he protested
against any further proposal of this kind, and observing a castrato
who happened to be present strengthened him all the more in his resolve’
When
the young Haydn’s voice broke, he was peremptorily cashiered
from the School and sent back to his parents. With only “three
mean shirts and a worn coat,” he stepped into the world to
make his way as a professional musician. His parents were upset over
this turn of events and tried to persuade the young boy to study
for the priesthood. (This was the real reason for his father’s
putting a stop to the castration, for such an operation would have
disqualified Haydn from receiving Holy Orders.) Haydn, firm in his
resolve to pursue a secular musical career, opposed his parents’ wishes
and spent the next few years in a state of poverty that at times
came perilously close to starvation. Public recognition of
his talents finally brought him to the attention of the wealthy Esterhazy
family who, in May 1761, signed him on as Vice-Kapellmeister. For
the rest of his life Haydn remained associated with the Esterhazys,
although in later years, when he had achieved financial independence,
his position with this noble family had become largely nominal.
The Missa
Cellensis in honorem BVM seems to have been composed
in two stages. The Kyrie and Christe date from 1769, with
the remaining movements written around 1773. (A word of caution: Haydn
wrote another mass I782 which he also called “Cellensis,” a
much shorter setting that has no connection with the earlier Mass.)
“Missa
Cellensis” means literally “Mass for Zell,” referring
to the town of Mariazell in the Styrian hills, about 30 miles south
of the Danube. It is the site of a Benedictine monastery, founded
in 1157 and famous for its woodcarvings. As early as the 14th
century it had become a favored site for pilgrimages, and, during
Haydn’s lifetime, the town was attracting over 100,000 pilgrims
a year. The Esterhazy family, as benefactors of the monastery,
would no doubt have prevailed on Haydn to name a Mass in its honor.
The
Mass shows considerable contrapuntal complexity, evidence that Haydn
had been heavily influenced by the Italian models of his day. It
was also the longest Mass setting he had composed up to that point,
thus laying the ground for the large-scale masses and oratorios that
were yet to come during the last fifteen years of his life. The scale
of this Mass suggests that, despite its name, it had probably never
been performed at Mariazell, its priory being quite ill equipped
to do justice to a setting of this scope. It was most likely
presented in Vienna during one of its Cecilian Congregation celebrations – hence
its alternate title, “Cäcilienmesse.”
Griesinger
recounts how, many years earlier, the then- eighteen-year-old composer
had made a pilgrimage by foot from Vienna to Mariazell, a trip that
took five days. Upon arriving, Haydn expressed a wish
to sing in the choir at the church, but the music director refused
permission. “Undaunted, Haydn sneaked into the choir
during a service, waited for a solo section, deftly snatched the
music from a chorister, and proceeded to sing the solo to everybody’s
delight and surprise.”
As
we consider the sizeable output of sacred music that Haydn produced,
we might wonder what his own personal religious feelings were. We
know that he remained a devout Catholic throughout his life. It
was his practice to inscribe the beginning of each new manuscript
with the words “In nomine Domine” (In the name of the
Lord) and end it with “Laus Deo” (Praise be to
God). He was punctilious in observing the customary rubrics
and ceremonies that were the mark of a good practicing Catholic of
the time. He was, however, sufficiently open-eyed about his faith
that he once took his wife to task for entertaining too many priests
at the dinner table, as she responded to their mendicancy far beyond
what their modest family household budget could allow.
To
what extent Haydn’s faith entered into his art is impossible
to determine, but we do know the effect his music had on Goethe who
wrote the following:
“For
nearly fifty years, practicing and listening to Haydn’s work
has always given me a feeling of fulfillment. At every contact
with it I have had an involuntary desire to do what seems to me to
be good, and what ought to please God.” (Kunst und Altertum, vol.
V)
Copyright © 2007
by Donald Draganski
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