d.

CHAPTER III. EISENSTADT--1761-1766

The Esterhazy Family--Haydn's Agreement--An "Upper Servant"?--Dependence
in the Order of Nature--Material and Artistic Advantages of the
Esterhazy Appointment--Some Disadvantages--Capellmeister Werner--A
Posthumous Tribute--Esterhazy "The Magnificent"--Compositions for
Baryton--A Reproval--Operettas and other Occasional Works--First
Symphonies.

The Esterhazy Family

As Haydn served the Esterhazys uninterruptedly for the long period of
thirty years, a word or two about this distinguished family will not
be out of place. At the present time the Esterhazy estates include
twenty-nine lordships, with twenty-one castles, sixty market towns, and
414 villages in Hungary, besides lordships in Lower Austria and a county
in Bavaria. This alone will give some idea of the power and importance
of the house to which Haydn was attached. The family was divided into
three main branches, but it is with the Frakno or Forchtenstein line
that we are more immediately concerned. Count Paul Esterhazy of Frakno
(1635-1713) served in the Austrian army with such distinction as to gain
a field-marshal's baton at the age of thirty. He was the first prince
of the name, having been ennobled in 1687 for his successes against the
Turks and his support of the House of Hapsburg. He was a musical amateur
and a performer of some ability, and it was to him that the family owed
the existence of the Esterhazy private chapel, with its solo singers,
its chorus, and its orchestra. Indeed, it was this prince who, in 1683,
built the splendid Palace of Eisenstadt, at the foot of the Leitha
mountains, in Hungary, where Haydn was to spend so many and such
momentous years.

When Prince Paul died in 1713, he was succeeded by his son, Joseph
Anton, who acquired "enormous wealth," and raised the Esterhazy family
to "the height of its glory." This nobleman's son, Paul Anton, was the
reigning prince when Haydn was called to Eisenstadt in 1761. He was a
man of fifty, and had already a brilliant career behind him. Twice
in the course of the Seven Years' War he had "equipped and maintained
during a whole campaign a complete regiment of hussars for the service
of his royal mistress," and, like his distinguished ancestor, he had
been elevated to the dignity of field-marshal. He was passionately
devoted to the fine arts, more particularly to music, and played the
violin with eminent skill. Under his reign the musical establishmen