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But the most interesting work of this period was the "Seven Words
of our Saviour on the Cross," written in 1785. The circumstances
attending its composition are best told in Haydn's own words. In
Breitkopf & Hartel's edition of 1801, he writes:
About fifteen years ago I was requested by a Canon of Cadiz to
compose instrumental music on the Seven Words of Jesus on the
Cross. It was the custom of the Cathedral of Cadiz to produce an
oratorio every year during Lent, the effect of the performance
being not a little enhanced by the following circumstances. The
walls, windows and pillars of the Church were hung with black
cloth, and only one large lamp, hanging from the centre of the
roof, broke the solemn obscurity. At mid-day the doors were
closed and the ceremony began. After a short service the bishop
ascended the pulpit, pronounced one of the Seven Words (or
sentences) and delivered a discourse thereon. This ended, he
left the pulpit and knelt prostrate before the altar. The
pause was filled by the music. The bishop then in like manner
pronounced the second word, then the third, and so on, the
orchestra falling in at the conclusion of each discourse. My
composition was to be subject to these conditions, and it was
no easy matter to compose seven adagios to last ten minutes
each, and follow one after the other without fatiguing the
listeners; indeed I found it quite impossible to confine
myself within the appointed limits.
This commission may be taken as a further evidence of the growing
extent of Haydn's fame. He appears to have been already well
known in Spain. Boccherini carried on a friendly correspondence
with him from Madrid, and he was actually made the hero of a poem
called "The Art of Music," published there in 1779. The "Seven
Words" created a profound impression when performed under the
circumstances just detailed, but the work was not allowed to
remain in its original form, though it was printed in that form
by Artaria and by Forster. Haydn divided it into two parts, and
added choruses and solos, in which form it was given for the
first time at Eisenstadt in October, 1797, and published in 1801.
The "Seven Words" was a special favourite of the composer
himself, who indeed is declared by some to have preferred it
to all his other compositions.
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