to practical rather than to artistic
reasons. Like Beethoven, with the two-movement sonata in C minor,
Haydn may not have had time for a third! In several of the sonatas the
part-writing strikes one as being somewhat poor and meagre; in others
there is, to the modern ear, a surfeiting indulgence in those turns,
arpeggios and other ornaments which were inseparable from the nature of
the harpsichord, with its thin tones and want of sustaining power. If
Haydn had lived to write for the richer and more sustained sounds of
the modern pianoforte, his genius would no doubt have responded to
the increased demands made upon it, though we may doubt whether it was
multiplex enough or intellectual enough to satisfy the deeper needs
of our time. As it is, the changes which have been made in sonata form
since his day are merely changes of detail. To him is due the fixity of
the form. [See "The Pianoforte Sonata," by J. S. Shedlock: London, 1895.
Mr Shedlock, by selecting for analysis some of the most characteristic
sonatas, shows Haydn in his three stages of apprenticeship, mastery and
maturity.]

Church Music

Of his masses and Church music generally it is difficult to speak
critically without seeming unfair. We have seen how he explained what
must be called the almost secular style of these works. But while it is
true that Haydn's masses have kept their place in the Catholic churches
of Germany and elsewhere, it is impossible, to Englishmen, at any rate,
not to feel a certain incongruity, a lack of that dignity and solemnity,
that religious "sense," which makes our own Church music so impressive.
We must not blame him for this. He escaped the influences which
made Bach and Handel great in religious music--the influences of
Protestantism, not to say Puritanism. The Church to which he belonged
was no longer guided in its music by the principles of Palestrina. On
the contrary; it was tainted by secular and operatic influences; and
although Haydn felt himself to be thoroughly in earnest it was rather
the ornamental and decorate side of religion that he expressed in his
lively music. He might, perhaps, have written in a more serious, lofty
strain had he been brought under the noble traditions which glorified
the sacred choral works of the earlier masters just named. In any case,
his Church music has nothing of the historical value of his instrumental
music. It is marked by many sterling and admirable qualities, but the
progress of th