al pains with it, perhaps because it reminded him of his early
struggling days as a chorister in Vienna. It was the eighth mass Haydn
had written, one being the long and difficult "Cecilia" Mass in C
major, now heard only in a curtailed form. No other work of the kind was
composed until 1796, between which year and 1802 the best of his masses
were produced. To the year 1783 belongs the opera "Armida," performed in
1784 and again in 1797 at Schickaneder's Theatre in Vienna. Haydn writes
to Artaria in March 1784 to say that "Armida" had been given at Esterhaz
with "universal applause," adding that "it is thought the best work I
have yet written." The autograph score was sent to London to make up, in
a manner, for the non-performance of his "Orfeo" there in 1791.

The "Seven Words"

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 wa