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He even took part in street serenades by playing the violin. This
last was not a very dignified occupation; but it is important to
remember that serenading in Vienna was not the lover's business
of Italy and Spain, where the singer is accompanied by guitar or
mandoline. It was a much more serious entertainment. It dated
from the seventeenth century, if we are to trust Praetorius, and
consisted of solos and concerted vocal music in various forms,
accompanied sometimes by full orchestra and sometimes by wind
instruments alone. Great composers occasionally honoured their
patrons and friends with the serenade; and composers who hoped to
be great found it advantageous as a means of gaining a hearing
for their works. It proved of some real service to Haydn later
on, but in the meantime it does not appear to have swelled his
lean purse. With all his industry he fell into the direst straits
now and again, and was more than once driven into wild projects
by sheer stress of hunger.
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