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Haydn was no Handel, either as man or artist. Handel declined the
Doctor of Music degree with the characteristic remark: "What the
devil I throw my money away for that the blockhead wish?" Haydn
did not decline it, though probably enough he rated the
distinction no higher than Handel did. In the month of July he
went down to the Oxford Commemoration, and was then invested with
the degree. Handel's latest biographer, Mr W. S. Rockstro, says
that the Oxford fees would have cost Handel 100 pounds. Haydn's
note of the expense is not so alarming: "I had to pay one and a
half guineas for the bell peals at Oxforth [sic] when I received
the doctor's degree, and half a guinea for the robe." He seems to
have found the ceremonies a little trying, and not unlikely he
imagined himself cutting rather a ridiculous figure in his
gorgeous robe of cherry and cream-coloured silk. At the concert
following the investiture he seized the gown, and, raising it in
the air, exclaimed in English, "I thank you." "I had to walk
about for three days in this guise," he afterwards wrote, "and
only wish my Vienna friends could have seen me." Haydn's
"exercise" for the degree was the following "Canon cancrizans, a
tre," set to the words, "Thy voice, O harmony, is divine."
This was subsequently used for the first of the Ten Commandments,
the whole of which he set to canons during his stay in London.
Three grand concerts formed a feature of the Oxford
Commemoration.
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