He was serious and sincere enough, no doubt, but the man was
a peasant, and in many respects his mind was a peasant's. He had quite a
plausible excuse or reason to give for the note of jollity which
prevails in his Masses. When he thought of God, he said, his heart was
filled with joy, and that joy found a voice in his music. He spoke in
perfect good faith, but with a little more brains he would have had
other feelings than joy in his heart at the more solemn moments of the
Mass. However, he had not, so he missed giving us music to compare with
the finest parts of his symphonies and quartets. What he did write would
serve well for the Empire Music Hall to-day were it not so entirely
monopolized by churches like the Italian in Hatton Garden, and in its
day it was highly thought of. The fact that the Princes of Esterhazy did
not like to be made to feel uncomfortable in church had perhaps
something to do with Haydn always feeling elated when he was going to
write a mass--use is second nature. Not that there are no fine things in
his sacred music; only they are rare, and the spirit of the whole is
utterly undevotional. After all, being the man he was, having the
mission he had in life to carry out, it may be questioned whether he
could have done anything nobler, in which case it is a pity he touched
church music.
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