J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

detail.
As far as the tastes of Prince Nicholas are concerned, he seems, like many of
the Viennese nobility, to have enjoyed fugues—in moderation (one is reminded of
Count Moritz Dietrichstein’s devastating comment about Francis II: ‘His Majesty
loves fugues, properly worked out, but not too long.’) 28 Judging by the works Haydn
dedicated to him, his taste was for galant music of a slightly old-fashioned cast; if he
was not an enthusiast for ‘early music’ in the way that van Swieten was, he did have
time for a little counterpoint, in its place.
And what do the baryton fugues reveal about Haydn’s own development? It is
tempting to seek correlations with the op.20 fugues. Perhaps they were a sort of ‘dry
run’, in his workshop as it were, before he went public with the string quartets. This
may well be true, and the chronology fits; although, as we shall see, there are
important differences between the two groups of fugues. A simpler explanation may
exist, however. There is little doubt that, for much of his time at Esterháza, he was
appallingly overworked. The autograph score of a horn concerto, written in 1762,
bears the remark ‘written in my sleep’; according to Carpani, ‘he could not remember
a day passing when he did not work sixteen hours, and sometimes eighteen.’ 29
Although the standard of craftsmanship remains very high throughout the baryton
trios, the level of creative commitment is not perhaps so unquestionable. This
economy of effort can be seen chiefly in the textures used. In no other group of
Haydn’s works do we see so many easy textural solutions as here: parts doubling each
other; parallel thirds and sixths; Trommelbass, melody over repeated chords or Alberti
figuration. Was Fuxian counterpoint just another convenient textural resource, a quick
means of fabricating a movement when time was short? If this is so, then fugal writing
28 Kirkendale, Fugue and fugato, p.4. This is in strong contrast to Frederick II, who detested
everything in music that ‘smelled of the church’. Frederick seems to have enjoyed the visit of J. S.
Bach nevertheless; perhaps (as Burney observed when comparing his attitude toward Hasse and
Graun) he was more tolerant of musicians who were not in his own service.
29 Landon, Chronicle and works, I, p.48, 49.
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