any a young composer of to-day would rejoice at such an
opportunity, as indeed Haydn himself rejoiced at it. "I not only had the
encouragement of constant approval," he says, speaking of this period of
his career, "but as conductor of an orchestra I could make experiments,
observe what produced an effect and what weakened it, and was thus in a
position to improve, alter, make additions and omissions, and be as bold
as I pleased."

Some Disadvantages

No doubt there were some disadvantages in counterpoise. After the gay
life of Vienna, Eisenstadt must have been dull enough, and there is
plenty of evidence to show that the young artist occasionally fell into
the dumps. In one letter he complains that he "never can obtain leave,
even for four-and-twenty hours, to go to Vienna." In another he writes:
"I am doomed to stay at home. What I lose by so doing you can well
imagine. It is indeed sad always to be a slave, but Providence wills it
so. I am a poor creature, plagued perpetually by hard work, and with few
hours for recreation." Haydn clearly recognized the necessities of
the artist. A quiet life is all very well, but no man ever yet greatly
touched the hearts of men if he kept himself too strictly segregated
from his kind. Music, like every other art, would perish in a hot-house.
Reckon up to-day the composers who are really a force in the emotional
life of the people, and ask which of them was reared in the serene, cold
air of the academies. A composer to be great must live with his fellows,
and open his soul to human affluences. "I was cut off from the world,"
says Haydn. "There was no one to confuse or torment me, and I was forced
to become original." But his originality was that of an active
mind working upon material already stored, and the store had to be
replenished in occasional excursions, all too few, from the palace.

The Eisenstadt appointment, then, provided for Haydn's material wants,
and gave him opportunities for the peaceful pursuit of his studies, for
experiment and self-criticism. He was treated with great consideration
by the Esterhazys, and, menial or not, he lived on their bounty and in
the friendliest relations with them.

Capellmeister Werner

From his agreement with Prince Esterhazy it will have been gathered
that, though virtually entrusted with the direction of the Eisenstadt
musical establishment, Haydn was really under the control of an old
official. Such arrangements seldom work well. T