Books › Twelve Scotch popular songs for one voice with the accompaniment of pianoforte, violin and violoncello, 1921 › scan 7
Scan 7
Twelve Scotch popular songs for one voice with the accompaniment of pianoforte, violin and violoncello, 1921
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Preface
3In his excellent book of reference "Mozart and Haydn in London" C. F. Pohl speaks of Haydn's first stay in London in 1791 and 1792 and tells about his comprehensive and arduous work in all domains of musical composition, about the completion and performance of new and great works, about their effect on the master's new surroundings, and remarks among other matters:
5"Some new, smaller works matured besides, which he wrote more for his own recreation, but the longer he occupied himself with them the more he grew to like them. For the moment they served to perform an act of charity. An English music-dealer, William Napier, living at 49 Great Queen Street, Lincoln-Inn-Fields, who had a numerous family, was in the worst circumstances possible and nearly confined in the debtor's prison. For him Haydn arranged a number of Scottish songs in modern harmonic style with accompaniment of piano, violin and violoncello. The songs were sold so rapidly that Napier's fortune was made. He subsequently paid Haydn 50 guineas for the first collection, and was even able to double this amount for the second collection. This had a title copper-engraving by Bartolozzi (after a drawing by Hamilton) and was announced by Napier for the subscription price of one guinea already in November, 1791. On January 31st, 1792, 'Morning Chronicle' writes about it: 'Haydn. Nothing perhaps is a more speaking proof of this great master's exalted genius than the ease with which he has interpreted these curious, yet natural and moving Scottish Songs now prepared for print, and the right understanding with which he entered into their spirit, the simplicity with which he invested them with harmony as if, so to say, melody and harmony had been born together. This work is a striking and permanent example of how small a thing it was for Haydn's art to get over musical difficulties.'"
7The title of this oldest edition of Scottish songs arranged by Haydn is: "A Selection of Original Scots Songs in Three Parts. The Harmony by Haydn. London, Printed for Will'm Napier, Music Seller to their Majesties". The above mentioned artistically decorated second volume is "Dedicated by Permission to Her Royal Highness the Duchess of York" and contains no less than 100 songs. Besides the handsome copper-engraving and an introduction by the publisher, it has a supplement with an alphabetic list of the songs and a glossary to explain the Scotch dialect which is particularly prominent in some of the songs. The third volume, "Dedicated by Permission to Her Majesty", contains 50 songs and is a direct sequel of the second one, but has no supplements of any kind. The fifth piece of our small collection is taken from this volume, while all the others are selected from the more comprehensive second volume of the original edition.
9Corresponding to the custom of his time, Haydn wrote a violin accompaniment and a figured bass to the melodies of the songs. It was a matter of course that the chords indicated by the figured bass were to be played on the piano, and that the soft tones of the instruments of that time should be rendered fuller by the violoncello. The formation of the chords was left to the player who had a knowledge of harmony, as the delivery was left to the singer. Directions for the tempo were only general ones. It was the task of this our musical arrangement to proceed in all of these matters with the precision and distinctness necessary at the present day.
11The translation of the texts into German required special care. The original edition makes desirable many improvements respecting the words of the songs; it reveals too distinctly the fact that the music was considered as more important. It was necessary to reconstruct the literal translation in order to preserve the character of these little and peculiarly artistic songs in their new wording. Our edition gives the vocal parts in both languages separately, not only for the sake of comparison, but also for practical reasons. To make the survey easier only the first stanza in both languages is contained in the score, but the number of verses is stated here as well as in the instrumental voices.
13Hugo Engelbert Schwarz Eusebius Mandyczewski
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