song.]
[Footnote 108: For a comprehensive account of this whole sub-
ject consult theOxford History of Music, Vol. V, Chapter VIII,
and Mason’sBeethoven and His Forerunners, essay on Haydn.]
[Footnote 109: Witness for example, the attitude taken by Wal-
lace in hisThreshold of Music, pp. 148-153.]
(3) The skillful and eloquent manner in which Haydn adapted
his ideas to his favorite media of expression: the orchestra and
the string-quartet. Although he wrote a number of pianoforte
sonatas, these works, on the whole, do not represent his best
thought. For they were composed in the transitional period be-
tween the waning influence of the harpsichord and the advent of
the pianoforte, not yet come to its own. But as for the orches-
tra, Haydn established[110] the grouping of the three so-called
choirs of strings, wood-wind and brass; to which were gradually
added the instruments of percussion. In his works we begin to
enjoy orchestral effect for its own sake: the dashing vivacity of
the strings, the mellowness of the wood-wind, the sonority and
grandeur of the brass. Instrumental works had formerly been
composed in black and white, but now we have the interplay of
orchestral colors. No less paramount was Haydn’s influence in
the handling of the four solo instruments known as the String
Quartet. In his Quartets the voices are so highly individualized
that it seems as if four intelligent and witty persons were hold-
ing a musical conversation. Such melodic and rhythmic freedom
were hitherto unknown and his style became the point of de-
parture for modern practice.[111] Both Mozart and Beethoven,
those great masters of the String-Quartet, acknowledged their
debt of gratitude to Haydn. His success in establishing the for-
mation of the orchestra and the string-quartet was chiefly due
to the inestimable advantage he enjoyed of being, for so many
years, chapel-master to those celebrated patrons of music the
Princes Paul and Nicholas Esterhazy, at whose country-seat of
Esterhaz he had at his disposal, for free experimentation, a fine
body of players.[112] Here Haydn worked from 1762 until 1790;
and, to quote his own words, “could, as conductor of an orches-
tra, make experiments, observe what produced an effect and be
as bold as I pleased. I was cut off from the world, there was
no one to confuse or torment me and I was forced to become
original."[113]