Haydn’s later symphonies have been very cleverly compared with those of Beethoven by the statement that the latter wrote tragedies and great dramas, whereas Haydn wrote comedies and charming farces.  As a matter of fact, Haydn is the bridge between the idealized dance and independent music.  Although Beethoven still retained the form of the dance, he wrote great poems, whereas the music of Haydn always preserves a tinge of the actual dance.  With Haydn, music was still an art consisting of the weaving together of pretty sounds, and although design, that is to say, the development of the emotional character of a musical thought, was by no means unknown to him, that development was never permitted to transcend the limits of a certain graceful euphony which was a marked characteristic of his style.  His use of orchestral instruments represents a marked advance on that of C.P.E.  Bach, and certainly very materially helped Mozart.

Of Mozart we probably all know something.  Born at Salzburg, in 1756, his was a short life, for he died in 1791.  We know of his great precocity; his first compositions were published when he was six years old, at which age he was already playing in concerts with his eleven-year old sister, and was made much of by the titled people before whom he played.  The rest of his life is one continual chronicle of concerts given all over Europe, interrupted at intervals by scarlet fever, smallpox, and other illnesses, until the last one, typhoid fever, caused his death.  During his stay in Italy he wrote many operas in the flowery Italian style which, luckily, have never been revived to tarnish his name.

His first works worthy of mention are the clavier concertos and several symphonies and quartets, which date from about 1777.  His first important opera is “Idomeneo, King of Crete,” written for the Munich opera.  In this he adopts the principles of Gluck, thus breaking away from the wretched style of the Italian opera of the period, although the work itself was written in Italian.  His next opera was in German, “Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail,” and was given with great success at Vienna, in 1782.  It was followed by “The Marriage of Figaro,” “Don Juan,” and the “Magic Flute.”

The story of his death is well known.  A stranger, who turned out to be the steward of Count Walsegg, came to him and ordered a requiem, which was played in 1793 as Walsegg’s own composition.  Mozart thought the man a messenger from the other world.  He died before he completed the work.  So great was his poverty that it was difficult to get a priest to attend him, and a physician who was summoned would come only after the play he was attending was ended.  He had a “third class” funeral, and as a fierce storm was raging, no one accompanied the body to the grave.  His widow gave a concert, and with the help of the Emperor money enough was raised to pay the outstanding debts.