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Needless to say, he was composing a great deal. Much of his
manuscript was, of course, torn up or consigned to the flames,
but one piece of work survived. This was his first Mass in F (No.
11 in Novello's edition), erroneously dated by some writers 1742.
It shows signs of immaturity and inexperience, but when Haydn in
his old age came upon the long-forgotten score he was so far from
being displeased with it that he rearranged the music, inserting
additional wind parts. One biographer sees in this procedure "a
striking testimony to the genius of the lad of eighteen." We need
not read it in that way. It rather shows a natural human
tenderness for his first work, a weakness, some might call it,
but even so, more pardonable than the weakness--well illustrated
by some later instances--of hunting out early productions and
publishing them without a touch of revision.
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