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Like all the really great composers, Haydn was no pedant in the
matter of theoretical formulae, though he admitted that the rigid
rules of harmony should rarely be violated, and "never without
the compensation of some inspired effect." When he was asked
according to what rule he had introduced a certain progression,
he replied "The rules are all my very obedient humble servants."
With the quint-hunters and other faddists who would place their
shackles on the wrists of genius, he had as little patience as
Beethoven, who, when told that all the authorities forbade the
consecutive fifths in his C Minor Quartet, thundered out: "Well,
I allow them." Somebody once questioned him about an apparently
unwarranted passage in the introduction to Mozart's Quartet in C
Major. "If Mozart has written it, be sure he had good reasons for
doing so," was the conclusive reply. That fine old smoke-dried
pedant, Albrechtsberger, declared against consecutive fourths in
strict composition, and said so to Haydn. "What is the good of
such rules?" demanded Haydn. "Art is free and must not be
fettered by mechanical regulations. The cultivated ear must
decide, and I believe myself as capable as anyone of making laws
in this respect. Such trifling is absurd; I wish instead that
someone would try to compose a really new minuet." To Dies he
remarked further: "Supposing an idea struck me as good and
thoroughly satisfactory both to the ear and the heart, I would
far rather pass over some slight grammatical error than sacrifice
what seemed to me beautiful to any mere pedantic trifling." These
were sensible views. Practice must always precede theory. When we
find a great composer infringing some rule of the old text-books,
there is, to say the least, a strong presumption, not that the
composer is wrong, but that the rule needs modifying. The great
composer goes first and invents new effects: it is the business
of the theorist not to cavil at every novelty, but to follow
modestly behind and make his rules conform to the practice of the
master. [Compare Professor Prout's Treatise on Harmony.]
Thus much about Haydn the man. Let us now turn to Haydn the
composer and his position in the history of music.
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