|
The marriage was solemnized at St Stephen's on November 26, 1760,
when the bridegroom was twenty-nine and the bride thirty-two.
There does not seem to have been much affection on either side to
start with; but Haydn declared that he had really begun to "like"
his wife, and would have come to entertain a stronger feeling for
her if she had behaved in a reasonable way. It was, however, not
in Anna Maria's nature to behave in a reasonable way. The
diverting Marville says that the majority of women married to men
of genius are so vain of the abilities of their husbands that
they are frequently insufferable. Frau Haydn was not a woman of
that kind. As Haydn himself sadly remarked, it did not matter to
her whether he were a cobbler or an artist. She used his
manuscript scores for curling papers and underlays for the
pastry, and wrote to him when he was in England for money to buy
a "widow's home." He was even driven to pitifully undignified
expedients to protect his hard-earned cash from her extravagant
hands.
There are not many details of Anna Maria's behaviour, for Haydn
was discreetly reticent about his domestic affairs; and only two
references can be found in all his published correspondence to
the woman who had rendered his life miserable. But these
anecdotes tell us enough. For a long time he tried making the
best of it; but making the best of it is a poor affair when it
comes to a man and woman living together, and the day arrived
when the composer realized that to live entirely apart was the
only way of ending a union that had proved anything but a
foretaste of heaven. Frau Haydn looked to spend her last years in
a "widow's home" provided for her by the generosity of her
husband, but she predeceased him by nine years, dying at Baden,
near Vienna, on the 20th of March 1800. With this simple
statement of facts we may finally dismiss a matter that is best
left to silence--to where "beyond these voices there is peace."
Whether Count Morzin would have retained the services of Haydn in
spite of his marriage is uncertain. The question was not put to
the test, for the count fell into financial embarrassments and
had to discharge his musical establishment. A short time before
this, Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy had heard some of Haydn's
compositions when on a visit to Morzin, and, being favourably
impressed thereby, he resolved to engage Haydn should an
opportunity ever present itself. The opportunity had come, and
Haydn entered the service of a family who were practically his
life-long patrons, and with whom his name must always be
intimately associated.
|
|
