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Haydn by J. Cuthbert (James Cuthbert) Hadden
page 30 of 240 (12%)
reasonable objection be raised against his filling the post of,
accompanist to the ambassador's mistress. But what shall be said
of his being transported to the ambassador's summer quarters at
Mannersdorf, and doing duty there for six ducats a month and his
board--at the servants' table? The reverend author of Music and
Morals answers by reminding us that in those days musicians were
not the confidential advisers of kings like Wagner, rich banker's
sons like Meyerbeer, private gentlemen like Mendelssohn, and
members of the Imperial Parliament like Verdi. They were "poor
devils" like Haydn. Porpora was a great man, no doubt, in his own
metier. But it is surely odd to hear of Haydn acting the part of
very humble servant to the singing-master; blackening his boots
and trimming his wig, and brushing his coat, and running his
errands, and playing his accompaniments! Let us, however,
remember Haydn's position and circumstances. He was a poor man.
He had never received any regular tuition such as Handel received
from Zachau, Mozart from his father, and Mendelssohn from Zelter.
He had to pick up his instruction as he went along; and if he
felt constrained to play the lackey to Porpora, it was only with
the object of receiving in return something which would help to
fit him for his profession. As he naively said, "I improved
greatly in singing, composition, and Italian." [The relations of
Haydn and Porpora are sketched in George Sand's "Consuelo."]

Emanuel Bach

In the meantime he was carrying on his private studies with the
greatest assiduity. His Fux and his Mattheson had served their
turn, and he had now supplemented them by the first six Clavier
Sonatas of Philipp Emanuel Bach, the third son of the great
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