Count Morzin
Encyclopedia
Count Morzin was an aristocrat of the Austrian Empire
during the 18th century. He is remembered today as the first person to employ the composer Joseph Haydn
as his Kapellmeister
, or music director. The first few of Haydn's approximately 106 symphonies were written for the Count.
) 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 Landon
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 Griesinger
(1810), who interviewed the composer in his old age, wrote:
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 Lukavec
, now in the Czech Republic
. Robbins Landon, writing in 1988, adds "the castle, which still stands, is now used as a mental hospital." Jones (2009) says of the castle that is "still survives, though now empty and in a state of decay."
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 (violone
). There was also a wind-band
sextet (oboes, bassoon
s, and horn
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 Carpani
(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 Rohrau
:
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
(1810):
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.
, following earlier research and his own efforts, produced the following list: 1
, 2
, 4
, 5
, 10
, 11
, 18
, 27
, 32
, 37
, 107A
, which was used in determining the contents of the opening "Morzin" volume for Christopher Hogwood
'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 Landon
, specifically numbers 1, 37, 18, 19, 2, B, 16, 17, 15, 4, 10, 32, 5, 11, 33, 27, A, 3, and 20.
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
during the 18th century. He is remembered today as the first person to employ the composer Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most 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 forms...
as his Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
, 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 (musicologist)
James 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 Landon
H. C. Robbins Landon
Howard Chandler Robbins Landon was an American 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...
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 Griesinger
Georg August Griesinger
Georg August von 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 ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
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 PilsenPlzen RegionPlzeň 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 Lukavec
Lukavec
Lukavec can refer to:* Lukavec, Croatia* Lukavec , Czech Republic* Lukavec , Czech Republic* Dolní Lukavice, Czech Republic, a village usually referred to as Lukavec in historical writing about Joseph Haydn...
, now in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. Robbins Landon, writing in 1988, adds "the castle, which still stands, is now used as a mental hospital." Jones (2009) says of the castle that is "still survives, though now empty and in a state of decay."
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 (violone
Violone
The term violone can refer to several distinct large, bowed musical instruments which 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-band
Harmonie
Harmonie 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, bassoon
Bassoon
The 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 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
s, and horn
Horn (instrument)
The 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 Carpani
Giuseppe Carpani
Giuseppe 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 Rohrau
Rohrau (Austria)
Rohrau is a village in Lower Austria, Austria. The name Rohrau comes from two single German words, "Rohr" which means reed and "Au" which means a riparian forest - the name of the village tells its location - south of the village there is a riparian forest and a swamp covered with reed. Rohrau is...
:
- Count Harrach ... was the first to bring the music of SammartiniSammartiniSammartini 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 SchönbornSchönborn- 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
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 EisenstadtSchloss Esterházy----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 (musicologist)
James 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: 1
Symphony No. 1 (Haydn)
Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 1 in D major, Hoboken I/1, was written in 1759 in Dolní Lukavice, while in the service of Count Morzin. Though identified by Haydn himself as his first symphony, scholars are not sure if it is indeed the very first symphony Haydn wrote, or if it's even the earliest he...
, 2
Symphony No. 2 (Haydn)
Joseph 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...
, 4
Symphony No. 4 (Haydn)
Joseph 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, 6/8...
, 5
Symphony No. 5 (Haydn)
The 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...
, 10
Symphony No. 10 (Haydn)
The Symphony No. 10 in D major, Hoboken I/10, 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:...
, 11
Symphony No. 11 (Haydn)
Joseph 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...
, 18
Symphony No. 18 (Haydn)
The 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...
, 27
Symphony No. 27 (Haydn)
Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 27 in G major was likely written before 1760. Its chronological position was assigned by Eusebius Mandyczewski in 1907...
, 32
Symphony No. 32 (Haydn)
The 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...
, 37
Symphony No. 37 (Haydn)
The Symphony No. 37 in C major, Hob. I/37, is a symphony by Joseph Haydn. The numbering is misleading, as it is one of Haydn's earliest symphonies. A copy of the score at Český Krumlov is dated 1758.-Movements:...
, 107A
Symphony A (Haydn)
Joseph Haydn's Symphony '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 Hogwood
Christopher Hogwood
Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood CBE, MA , HonMusD , born 10 September 1941, Nottingham, is an English conductor, harpsichordist, writer and musicologist, well known as the founder of the Academy of Ancient 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 Landon
H. C. Robbins Landon
Howard Chandler Robbins Landon was an American 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...
, specifically numbers 1, 37, 18, 19, 2, B, 16, 17, 15, 4, 10, 32, 5, 11, 33, 27, A, 3, and 20.
External links
- Website of the village of Dolni-Lukavice, including a picture of the Count's palace.