inal signature The work is in the usual four
movements. The symphonies of this date included also those known in
England as "Le Matin" and "Le Soir," the one beginning--

[Figure: a musical score excerpt] and the other--

[figure: a musical score excerpt]

Of the string quartets and other instrumental compositions of the period
nothing need be said. In all these the composer was simply feeling
his way towards a more perfect expression, and as few of them are now
performed, their interest for us is almost entirely antiquarian.

CHAPTER IV. ESTERHAZ--1766-1790

Haydn's Fame extending--Haydn and Mozart compared--Esterhaz--Its Puppet
Theatre--A Busy Life--Opera at Esterhaz--First Oratorio--Opponents and
Intriguers--"L'Isola Disabitata"--A Love Episode--Correspondence with
Artaria and Forster--Royal Dedicatees--The "Seven Words"--The "Toy" and
"Farewell" Symphonies.

To crowd the details of a professional career covering close upon a
quarter of a century into a single chapter would, in the case of most of
the great composers, be an altogether impossible task. In Haydn's case
the difficulty is to find the material for even so slight a record. His
life went on smoothly, almost sleepily, as we should now think, in the
service of his prince, without personal incident and with next to no
disturbance from the outside world. If he had not been a genius of the
first rank the outside world would, in all probability, never have heard
of his existence.

Haydn's Fame extending

As it was, his fame was now manifestly spreading. Thus the Wiener Diarum
for 1766 includes him among the most distinguished musicians of
Vienna, and describes him as "the darling of our nation." His amiable
disposition, says the panegyrist, "speaks through every one of his
works. His music has beauty, purity, and a delicate and noble simplicity
which commends it to every hearer. His cassations, quartets and trios
may be compared to a pure, clear stream of water, the surface now
rippled by a gentle breeze from the south, and anon breaking into
agitated billows, but without ever leaving its proper channel and
appointed course. His symphonies are full of force and delicate
sympathy. In his cantatas he shows himself at once captivating and
caressing, and in his minuets he is delightful and full of humour. In
short, Haydn is in music what Gellert is in poetry." This comparison
with Gellert, who died three years later, was at that date, as Dr Pohl
remarks