Count Morzin was an aristocrat of the
Austrian EmpireThe Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire founded on a remnant of the Holy Roman Empire centered on what is today's Austria that officially lasted from 1804 to 1867...
during the 18th century. He is remembered today as the first person to employ the composer
Joseph Haydn Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer. He was one of the most important, prolific and prominent composers of the classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these genres...
as his
KapellmeisterKapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . Kapelle derives from the Latin word capella. Thus, originally, the word was used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel...
, or music director. The first few of Haydn's approximately 106 symphonies were written for the Count.
Biography
Different authorities give a different interpretation to the phrase "Count Morzin" (the sole words by which early Haydn biographies identified the man); the phrase is ambiguous because the title of count was hereditary, so that there was a whole line of Counts Morzin. The prestigious New Grove (article by
James WebsterJames Webster is a musicologist, specializing in the music of Joseph Haydn and other composers of the classical era. His professional position is as the Goldwin Smith Professor of Music at Cornell University...
) asserts that the "Count Morzin" who played an important role in Haydn's life was
Karl Joseph Franz Morzin (1717-1783), whereas a biography by the leading Haydn scholar
H. C. Robbins LandonHoward Chandler Robbins Landon is a musicologist.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and studied music at Swarthmore College and Boston University. He subsequently moved to Europe where he worked as a music critic. From 1947 he undertook research in Vienna on Joseph Haydn, a composer on whom he...
asserts that it was
Ferdinand Maximilan Franz Morzin (1693-1763). The difference apparently involves the question of whether Haydn was hired by the reigning count (Ferdinand Maximilian) or his son (Karl Joseph); see External Link below.
The date of Haydn's appointment is also uncertain; it was either in 1757 or in 1759. (For discussion of the uncertainty see Robbins Landon and Jones (1988, 34) and Webster (2002, 10)). The appointment ended a period of struggle and economic insecurity for the composer, during which time he had worked as a freelance, gradually increasing his reputation and his connections with the aristocracy. Haydn's biographer
Georg August GriesingerGeorg August Griesinger was a tutor and diplomat resident in Vienna during the late 18th and 19th centuries. He is remembered for his friendships with the composers Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, and for the biography he wrote of Haydn....
(1810), who interviewed the composer in his old age, wrote:
- In the year 1759 Haydn was appointed in Vienna
Vienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
to be music director to Count Morzin with a salary of two hundred gulden, free room, and board at the staff table. Here he enjoyed at last the good fortune of a care-free existence; it suited him thoroughly. The winter was spent in Vienna and the summer in Bohemia, in the vicinity of PilsenPlzeň Region is an administrative unit in the western part of Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It is named after its capital Plzeň .- Communes :...
.
This migratory pattern was characteristic of aristocracy in Haydn's day: summers on their hereditary estates in the provinces, winters in the fashionable capital. The location of the Count's estate has been more precisely specified by Robbins Landon as ' , usually referred to as
LukavecLukavec is a village 20 km south from Zagreb, Croatia. A nearby fortification is well preserved.Lukavec is a also a village 5 km southeast from Lovosice, Czech Republic. In the 18th century, it was the location of the estate of Count Morzin, an early patron of Joseph Haydn....
, now in the
Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe that is sometimes considered to be Eastern European. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague...
. Robbins Landon adds "the castle, which still stands, is now used as a mental hospital."
Haydn wrote, approximately, his first eleven symphonies for Count Morzin. Evidence from copied parts made for Baron Fürnberg (an earlier Haydn employer) leads Robbins Landon to conjecture that the Count's orchestra consisted of "at least six, possibly eight violins ... while in the
basso section there were at least one cello, one bassoon and one double bass (
violoneThe violone is a large, bowed musical instrument that can belong to either the viol or violin family. The violone is sometimes a fretted instrument, and may have six, five, four, or even only three strings. The violone is also not always a contrabass instrument...
). There was also a
wind-bandHarmonie is a German word that, in the context of the history of music, designates a band of wind instruments employed by an aristocratic patron, particularly during the Classical era of the 18th century...
sextet (oboes,
bassoonThe bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 1800s, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature...
s, and
hornThe horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
s).". Thus, the orchestra was much smaller than orchestras for which Haydn wrote later on in his career (which ranged in size up to about 60), let alone a modern symphonic ensemble.
While in Vienna, the Morzin ensemble was evidently part of a lively musical scene, sponsored by the aristocracy. Haydn's contemporary biographer
Giuseppe CarpaniGiuseppe Carpani was an Italian poet and writer born at Vill'albese, in Brianza .His father wanted him to study law, which he did in Milan and Padua, but after practicing briefly in Milan, he instead followed artistic pursuits...
(whose testimony is not always trusted by musicologists) wrote the following concerning Count Harrach, who was the patron of Haydn's own birth village of
RohrauRohrau is a town in Lower Austria, Austria.Rohrau is located in the industrial quarter of Lower Austria. 8.66% of the land is forested, the rest used for farming:-History:...
:
- Count Harrach ... was the first to bring the music of Sammartini
Sammartini is a surname, and may refer to:*Giovanni Battista Sammartini, an Italian composer.*Giuseppe Sammartini, an Italian composer and oboist....
to Vienna, where it quickly won applause and became the vogue in that great capital so enamored of this kind of diversion. Count Pálffy, ... Count Schönborn- Places :*Schönborn, Brandenburg, in the Elbe-Elster district, Brandenburg*Bad Schönborn, in the district of Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg*Schönborn, Rhein-Hunsrück, in the Rhein-Hunsrück district, Rhineland-Palatinate...
, and Count Morzin vied with one another in procuring novelties for display in their almost daily concerts.
It was while Haydn was working for Count Morzin that he was married (17 November 1760) Anna Maria Keller, despite the fact that his contract forbade him to marry. The marriage, which lasted until Mrs. Haydn's death in 1800, was an unhappy one.
The end of Haydn's appointment with Morzin is narrated by another early biographer,
Albert Christoph Dies-As painter:He was born at Hanover , and began his studies there. For one year he studied in the academy of Düsseldorf, and then he started at the age of twenty with thirty ducats in his pocket for Rome, studying briefly on the way in Mannheim and Basel. In Rome he lived a frugal life till 1796;...
(1810):
- A year passed without Count Morzin's knowing of the marriage of his Kapellmeister, but something else came up to alter Haydn's situation. The Count found himself obliged to reduce his heretofor great expenditures. He dismissed his musicians and so Haydn lost his post as Kapellmeister.
- Meanwhile Haydn had the great recommendation of a public reputation; his amiable character was known; Count Morzin was moved to be useful on his behalf--three circumstances that combined so fortunately that Haydn soon after he ceased to be Kapellmeister to Count Morzin (1760) was taken on as Vicekapellmeister ... in the service of Prince Anton Esterházy ... at Eisenstadt
----The Schloss Esterházy is a palace in Eisenstadt, Austria, the capital of the Burgenland state. It was constructed in the late 13th century, and came under ownership of the Hungarian Esterházy family in 1622...
, with a salary of 400 florins..
In fact, since Haydn was Kapellmeister at Eisenstadt in all but name, the incumbent Kapellmeister being infirm, the move to the Esterházy family was a big career advance for him, and he continued there in the same general line of work, as composer, conductor, and administrator, but working for a far wealthier family.
The Haydn symphonies written for Count Morzin
Establishing just which of the Haydn symphonies were written for the Morzin orchestra is partly a matter of conjecture. Haydn scholar
James WebsterJames Webster is a musicologist, specializing in the music of Joseph Haydn and other composers of the classical era. His professional position is as the Goldwin Smith Professor of Music at Cornell University...
, following earlier research and his own efforts, produced the following list:
1Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 1 in D major, Hoboken I/1, was written in 1759 in Lukavec. Though identified by Haydn himself as his first symphony, scholars aren't sure if it is indeed the very first symphony Haydn wrote, or if it's even the earliest he wrote of the ones that have survived to...
,
2Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 2 in C major, Hoboken I/2, is believed to have been written between 1757 and 1761.It is scored for 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, strings and continuo...
,
4Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 4 in D major, Hoboken I/4, is believed to have been written between 1757 and 1761.It is scored for 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, strings and continuo. As usual for the period, it is in three movements:#Presto, 4/4...
,
5The Symphony No. 5 in A major, Hoboken I/5, by Joseph Haydn, is believed to have been written between 1760 and 1762.It is scored for 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, strings and continuo...
,
10The Symphony No. 10 in D major is a symphony by Joseph Haydn. The symphony may have been written as early as 1757 but no later than 1761.It is scored for 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, strings and continuo. The work is in three movements:...
,
11Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 11 in E-flat major is a symphony which may have been written as early as 1760 but no later than 1762.It is scored for 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, strings and continuo...
,
18The Symphony No. 18 in G major, Hoboken I/18, is a symphony by Joseph Haydn. The composition date is uncertain. The Breitkopf catalogue entry assures that it was composed no later than 1766, but most scholars believe it was composed at least a few years before then...
,
27Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 27 in G major was likely written before 1760. Its chronological position was assigned by Eusebius Mandyczewski in 1907...
,
32The Symphony No. 32 in C major is a festive symphony by Joseph Haydn. The exact date of composition is unknown. It has been suggested by noted Haydn scholar H.C. Robbins Landon that it could have been written as early as 1757 and as late as 1763...
,
37The Symphony No. 37 in C major, Hob. I/37, is a symphony by Joseph Haydn. The numbering of the symphony is misleading, it being actually one of Haydn's earliest works in the genre. A copy of the score at Český Krumlov is dated 1758.-Movements:...
,
107AJoseph Haydn's Symphony No. A in B-flat major, Hoboken I/107, was written between 1757 and 1760. It is not in the usual numbering scheme for Haydn symphonies because it was originally thought to be a string quartet and was catalogued as Hob. III/5....
, which was used in determining the contents of the opening "Morzin" volume for
Christopher HogwoodChristopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood CBE, MA , HonMusD is an English conductor, harpsichordist, writer and scholar of music.-Biography:...
's recording of the Haydn symphonies. A second volume of roughly equal length consists of symphonies that may have been composed for Morzin, though they equally well could have been composed for the Esterházy family, Haydn's next employers. An earlier conjecture for which symphonies were written for Count Morzin was made by
H. C. Robbins LandonHoward Chandler Robbins Landon is a musicologist.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and studied music at Swarthmore College and Boston University. He subsequently moved to Europe where he worked as a music critic. From 1947 he undertook research in Vienna on Joseph Haydn, a composer on whom he...
, specifically numbers 1, 37, 18, 19, 2, B, 16, 17, 15, 4, 10, 32, 5, 11, 33, 27, A, 3, and 20.
External links