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Thomson addressed his first letter to Haydn in October 1799.
There is no copy of it, but there is a copy of a letter to Mr
Straton, a friend of Thomson's, who was at this time Secretary to
the Legation at Vienna. Straton was to deliver the letter to
Haydn, and negotiate with him on Thomson's behalf. He was
authorized to "say whatever you conceive is likely to produce
compliance," and if necessary to "offer a few more ducats for
each air." The only stipulation was that Haydn "must not speak of
what he gets." Thomson does not expect that he will do the
accompaniments better than Kozeluch--"that is scarcely
possible"(!); but in the symphonies he will be "great and
original." Thomson, as we now learn from Straton, had offered 2
ducats for each air (say 20s.); Haydn "seemed desirous of having
rather more than 2 ducats, but did not precisely insist upon the
point." Apparently he did not insist, for the next intimation of
the correspondence is to the effect that thirty-two airs which he
had just finished had been forwarded to Thomson on June 19, 1800.
They would have been done sooner, says Straton, but "poor Haydn
laboured under so severe an illness during the course of this
spring that we were not altogether devoid of alarm in regard to
his recovery." Thomson, thus encouraged, sent sixteen more airs;
and Straton writes (April 30, 1801) that Haydn at first refused
to touch them because the price paid was too low. But in the
course of conversation Straton learnt that Haydn was writing to
Thomson to ask him to procure a dozen India handkerchiefs, and it
struck him that "your making him a present of them might mollify
the veteran into compliance respecting the sixteen airs." Straton
therefore took upon himself to promise in Thomson's name that the
handkerchiefs would be forthcoming, and "this had the desired
effect to such a degree that Haydn immediately put the sixteen
airs in his pocket, and is to compose the accompaniments as soon
as possible on the same terms as the former."
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