the real cause as readily as I do, and will willingly cast aside
such stumbling blocks." It is impossible to miss the significance
of all this.

[At this point in the original book, a facsimile of a letter
regarding "The Creation" takes up the entire next page.]

Certainly it ought to be taken into account in any critical
estimate of "The Creation"; for when a man admits his own
shortcomings it is ungracious, to say the least, for an outsider
to insist upon them. It is obvious at any rate that Haydn
undertook the composition of the oratorio in no light-hearted
spirit. "Never was I so pious," he says, "as when composing 'The
Creation.' I felt myself so penetrated with religious feeling
that before I sat down to the pianoforte I prayed to God with
earnestness that He would enable me to praise Him worthily." In
the lives of the great composers there is only one parallel to
this frame of mind--the religious fervour in which Handel
composed "The Messiah."

First Performance of the Oratorio

The first performance of "The Creation" was of a purely private
nature. It took place at the Schwartzenburg Palace, Vienna, on
the 29th of April 1798, the performers being a body of
dilettanti, with Haydn presiding over the orchestra. Van Swieten
had been exerting himself to raise a guarantee fund for the
composer, and the entire proceeds of the performance, amounting
to 350 pounds, were paid over to him. Haydn was unable to describe
his sensations during the progress of the work. "One moment," he