Baron Gottfried van Swieten (1733 -1803)

Gary Smith

INTRODUCTION

                          Every work that includes major material on Baron van Swieten references the below article, originally published in the Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 89th Session, 1962-63, pp. 63-74. I have long had a copy in my files, adding in notes and copies of other items concerning the Baron that I have acquired over time. This posting was originally conceived to be a Contemporaries piece, to be done in that format, but the original article is excelent on its own and I found that to cut it down or merely reference parts of it would dilute the material more than I would like.

So instead, I have reproduced it here virtually as it appeared in the Proceedings, keeping the original footnotes in place as well (which, due to the format we have here on the Forum, are now endnotes). I have inserted into the body of the text additional material that I hope explains and/or amplifies what Edward Olleson was stating. These insertions appear [within brackets such as these] with their own set of endnotes, following the original footnotes (which are now endnotes themselves).

Finally, I have added three short appendices that further add material to illuminate portions of the Baron's career.

I've tried to keep this as clutter-free as possible, but with endnotes, a lot of italics and some good-sized lumps of material added, it's not as clean as I could wish. Any and all blame concerning that and the inserted material itself are my responsibility.

I do hope though, that this paper helps show that the Baron was more than merely a patron of Mozart's; he was a vital part of the music scene in Vienna for over 20 years and a true friend of the Arts. Just not a very good composer himself.

23 APRIL 1963

Gottfried van Swieten:
Patron of Haydn and Mozart

EDWARD OLLESON Chairman

PROFESSOR SIR J. A. WESTRUP (President)

The picture of Gottfried van Swieten which is found in musical literature can scarcely be described as wholly favourable. It has long been recognized that his tastes in music influenced Mozart profoundly, but his close-fistedness has been blamed for contributing to the composer's poverty, and finally for giving Mozart only the cheapest possible funeral. In his dealings with Haydn, Swieten is acknowledged as the leader of that group of the nobility which sponsored the Creation and the Seasons, but this credit is more than balanced by criticism of his libretti to the two oratorios. At the best, it would seem, van Swieten's presence in Vienna was a mixed blessing.

Van Swieten had taken an interest in Mozart as early as 1768, at the time of La Finta Semplice 1 , but their closer collaboration begins in 1782. On April l0th of that year Mozart wrote to his father:

...I go every Sunday at twelve o'clock to Baron van Swieten, where nothing is played but Handel and Bach. I am collecting at the moment the fugues of Bach-not only of Sebastian, but also of Emanuel and Friedemann. 2

and ten days later, to his sister:

...Baron van Swieten, to whom I go every Sunday, gave me all the works of Handel and Sebastian Bach to take home with me (after I had played them to him) .3

These meetings were informal occasions, with only a few musicians present--there is no question of performances before an audience. The activities of the group were not confined to keyboard music; Joseph Weigl recorded his vivid recollection of singing Handel oratorios round the piano, with Mozart simultaneously playing from the full score, taking one of the vocal parts, and correcting the mistakes of the others.4 [Of note, the singers mentioned by Weigl were: Salieri, Starzer, Teiber and the Baron himself. a] Similarly, the fugues, mostly from Bach's Wohltemperiertes Klavier, which Mozart arranged for string trio and string quartet,5 were clearly designed for these Sunday meetings. [The Baron’s apartment was situated in the Hofburg, where the National Library (with the Baron as its Prefect) was located. Count Zinzendorf, in a diary entry dated 14 June 1782 (scarcely 60 days after Mozart’s letters noted above), records that after dining at Prince Galitzin’s, he and other members of the dinner party walked to the National Library. Zinzendorf records that the apartment was delightful: it included a pretty room for the Baron’s servant, an attractive dining room with blue and white damask without gold ornaments, the Baron’s bedroom was in yellow damask, his study (with a green background featuring yellow arabesques on the walls) and contained several attractive consoles and a handsome desk. From this apartment, there was direct access to the famous gallery of the Court Library. b]

Van Swieten was at this time a man of almost 50, with a distinguished career already behind him, and holder of an influential position under Joseph II. Born in Holland in 1733, he had moved to Vienna at the age of 11, when his father, Gerhard van Swieten, was summoned as personal physician to the Empress Maria Theresa. His choice of a career in the diplomatic service had sent him travelling widely in Europe; besides a ministerial post which he held for a few months in 1763-4, he had spent long periods in Brussels and Paris, and had visited England in 1769. At the end of 1770 he took up his most important diplomatic post, that of Ambassador to the Court of Frederick the Great in Berlin, where he remained until his recall in 1777. In the 1780's, when Mozart knew him, he was Prefect of the Court Library and President of the Court Commission on Education and Censorship.

How and when van Swieten developed his enthusiasm for Handel and Bach, which was to be decisive for Mozart, remains largely conjectural, in the absence of documentary, accounts. He had taken a keen interest in music from his early years; Count Cobenzl, under whom van Swieten served in Brussels, reported in 1756 that the only fault he found in his pupil was that 'music takes up the best part of his time'. (Brussels, Archives générales, Secrétairerie d'Etat et de Guerre no. 1133, f. 224v.) In Paris he sided with the partisans of the Italian opera, but this did not prevent him from staging there at least one opera comique of his own composition.6 [One wonders how “comic” the Baron might have made this opera. Haydn is quoted as saying that van Swieten’s symphonies “…were as stiff as the Baron himself.”c] In Vienna too, between 1764 and 1768, much of his time was spent on music, and again his letters mention an opera which he had written himself. He may have come into contact with some older music at this time, or even earlier, in Vienna. Although the popular interest in Bach, and particularly Handel, followed van Swieten's own efforts at propagation from the 1780's onwards, there were already isolated examples of enthusiasm at an earlier date. It is known, for instance, that Wagenseil used music by Bach and Handel in his teaching.7

It is possible that van Swieten's visit to England in 1769 brought him in touch with Handel's oratorios; but this stay of a few months, much of it spent travelling in the provinces, cannot have given him many opportunities for music. He was in England during the summer and autumn, when public concerts would be few, and I have found no record of a Handel oratorio performance which he could have heard. It is noteworthy that he did not subscribe to Randall's edition of Jephtha, which was repeatedly advertised during the time he was in London.8

Undoubtedly the most important years for the development ; of Swieten's taste were those he spent in Berlin, though it would be wrong to suppose that he found there his ideal musical environment-his letters speak of nothing but dissatisfaction with the city. The political climate was bleak, with the social opportunities for a foreign ambassador very limited; nor had van Swieten a good word to say for the music in Berlin. The opera he compares unfavourably with that of Vienna, and particularly with Gluck- 'they dare to compare this spectacle with Alceste' (letter to Prince Kaunitz of 30 December 1771, Vienna, Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Staatskanzlei, Preussen, Fas. 47, Berichte ii, f. 187v.); he complains that it is impossible to obtain good instrumentalists, and not even the music at Court pleases him.

The standard of music in Berlin was not as high as it had been some years before, particularly since Emanuel Bach, one of its greatest assets, had left for Hamburg in 1768. Nevertheless, Berlin was the home of a group of disciples of J. S. Bach, of which notable leaders were Kirnberger and Agricola (both former pupils of Bach in Leipzig), Marpurg and the King's sister, Princess Anna Amalia. Handel too had his following, and oratorios were performed in the concerts of the Liebhaber society.

However much van Swieten bemoaned the state of music in Berlin, he found there a wealth of new experience. It is unlikely that he was a member of Princess Amalia's close circle, but he clearly became acquainted with the Bach and Handel cult, and it is possible that he had tuition from Kirnberger.9 Although Emanuel Bach was no longer in Berlin, van Swieten came to know his music, commissioned the set of six symphonies for strings, and was from this time a generous subscriber to Bach's printed works. Another member of the Bach family who made a deep impression on van Swieten was Wilhelm Friedemann, who lived in Berlin from 1774.

After his return to Vienna van Swieten's musical interests were not restricted to Bach and Handel, but it was certainly these two composers who made the greatest impact on Mozart. Nor are Mozart's references to his new musical experiences confined to his letters; much of his music of 1782-3 shows unmistakably the effect which Bach and Handel had made on him. There are a number of works of this period, many of them unfinished, which have the character of studies in contrapuntal technique. This preoccupation with counterpoint could, on occasion, bring about a loss of Mozart's idiomatic personality, and perhaps a dryness which is absent from most of his music. For example, even the fine fugue of the unfinished C major Suite (K. 399) has a curiously anonymous character.

(Here was played a recording of part of Mozart’s Suite in C major, K.399.)

The two movements which follow retain the links with the past, but show Mozart in his most intimate vein. Particularly striking is the resemblance between the Allemande and that of Bach's G minor English Suite. The C major Fantasia and Fugue (K. 394) also comes to mind, with its cross-grained fugue, exploiting the possibilities of contrapuntally conceived dissonance, while at the same time incorporating some of Mozart's personal turns of phrase and chromaticism. The culmination of this intense interest in the music of Bach and Handel was the C minor Mass (K. 427), which is not so much a mixture as a coalescence of many different stylistic features.

From about 1784 the extreme examples of Mozart's cultivation of counterpoint for its own sake disappear almost completely, but the lasting effect on his music may be seen, for instance, in the F minor Fantasia for mechanical organ (K. 608), or, indeed, in the chorale of the two men in armour from the Magic Flute.

Music was far from being van Swieten's only occupation at this time. He had returned from Berlin to become Prefect of the Royal Library in Vienna, a position for which he was well suited by his catholic literary interests. [It might be noted that this post paid 7,000 gulden per year, with an additional 1,000 gulden provided as lodging money. This works out to roughly $360,000US per year. d] If this post was distinguished rather than influential, his appointment in 1781 as President of the Court Commission on Education, to which later was added censorship, made him one of the most important men in Austrian internal affairs.

The ten years of Joseph II's reign are characterized by the Emperor's drastic attempts at reform, which aimed at the creation of a new social structure in the Empire. The projected reforms of the educational system, even if they now seem less spectacular than Joseph's battles with the Catholic Church, were the most fundamental of all. Joseph's goal of building up a middle class with a political responsibility towards the State depended on great advances in elementary education, and on the universities. Van Swieten's liberal views fitted him to the task of implementing the Emperor's plans. [He apparently was not – despite many references to the contrary – a member of any Masonic Lodge in Vienna, but he had probably earlier joined a Berlin Lodge. Certainly his ideas and principles were of a kind generally supported and propagated by the Masons of the time, i.e., Enlightened and reformist. e] This is not the place to undertake an examination of the Austrian educational system, but it is relevant to consider the importance of van Swieten's task, and how much of his time it demanded. The supervision of the censorship added yet more responsibility, especially since the greater freedom granted to the Press, as part of Joseph's liberal policies, had unloosed a flood of pamphlets for which the censors were not adequate.

Industry and devotion to his educational work are characteristics which are almost always mentioned in contemporary reports concerning Swieten. The most direct, if necessarily the most biased, accounts are two letters which van Swieten wrote to the Emperor in 1784 and 1786, offering his resignation-- masterly documents which put himself in the best possible light without ever running the risk that his resignation might be accepted. But even in a context of self-righteous justification, a passage such as the following cannot be ignored:

...my office has become my only occupation have woven my entire existence round it: since I have held office, and this is now the fifth year, I have enjoyed no relaxation, because I held it to be impossible; all distractions I have renounced, even my favourite pastime of conversation, for which Nature sharpened my wits; finally it has gone so far that I hardly leave my study. ... 10

Matters may have become rather easier after this, but towards the end of van Swieten's period in office new difficulties arose. The death of Joseph II, in January 1790, strengthened the hand of those who opposed the educational reforms, and a bitter struggle developed, lasting almost two years, in which the methods employed do no credit to either side.11 Finally van Swieten was relieved of his post on 5 December 1791, the day of Mozart's death. [A Monday, it should be noted, the start of the work week. In any event, the Baron, a man of taste and intellectual standing, at one with Joseph II for bringing an enlightened approach to government, no doubt would have been glad to leave a post that he had become more and more disenchanted with as Leopold II and his appointees retreated from those previous liberal trends. Certainly Archbishop Christoph Migazzi of Vienna and Count Johann Anton Pergen, (in charge of the police) were ranged against him. f]

Amid all this political activity, how much time was van Swieten able to give up to music? The quoted passage of self-righteousness may exaggerate his devotion to duty, but Swieten could not have risked presenting a grossly distorted picture of his work without weakening his case. It is just as exaggerated to regard him as being, at this time, principally engaged in distributing musical largesse.

Some details are known of the part van Swieten played in Viennese musical life up to Mozart's death. The informal meetings which took place every Sunday in his rooms in the Royal Library continued at least into 1783. In 1782 he had taken an active interest in a series of concerts in the Augarten, where a symphony of his own was performed.12 [Philipp Jakob Martin received a decree from the Emperor, allowing 12 summer concerts in the Augarten. Mozart became a participant and in his letters he writes: “The subscription price for the whole summer is 2 ducats. Now you can easily imagine that we shall find enough subscribers – the more so since I am now associated with the project and will busy myself with it…Baron van Suiten [sic] and Countess Thun are being very helpful.”g] He supported Mozart's subscription concerts, even after the composer's general popularity had died down -- Mozart comments in 1789 that a subscription list which he has sent round has, after a fortnight, only Swieten's name on it.13 Most important of all is the part he played in organizing oratorio performances, for which he commissioned Mozart's arrangements of Handel's Acis and Galatea, Messiah, the Ode for St. Cecilia's Day and Alexander's Feast.

Van Swieten must have spent more time on music than he cared admit to the Emperor, but his political duties may explain why there seems to have been little contact between him and Mozart from 1783, until the time of the oratorio arrangements, beginning in 1788. Furthermore, the timing of Swieten's dismissal suggests that he was preoccupied, rather than callous, at the time of Mozart's death. [See Appendix 2 for an example of what this preoccupation could have been.]

[As noted in the first paragraph of this paper, Swieten’s supposed “close-fistedness” was held against him for the perceived cheapness of Mozart’s funeral arrangements. While he was a liberal thinker politically, it is most likely that he adopted a more traditional line in the matters of a burial, following the edicts that Joseph II had set forth some years earlier. He probably went to some length to minimize Constanze’s grief and at least ensure that Mozart was buried in a coffin, not in a sack. The manner in which the entry for payment of the hearse was recorded suggests that a coffin had been provided for by the Baron. There are no other details of funeral arrangements in the death registers or in Mozart’s file in the Vienna City Archives. It is stated in the mandated inventory of Mozart’s assets that 60 florins cash was present, out of which the burial and other expenses were defrayed. However, it certainly was common to “cheat” on these inventories in order for the surviving family members to pay as little tax as possible on the estate. Van Swieten is likely to have paid such costs as there were from his own pocket, leaving use of all the funds for the family. h]

The small group of the aristocracy calling itself the Gesellschaft der Associierten was gathered together under Swieten's leadership for the purpose of sponsoring performances of oratorios, which usually took place in the town palaces of the members. Since these were essentially private concerts, there is hardly a mention of them in the contemporary Press, and information about them is scarce, but it is clear that Handel provided the staple diet-the works which Mozart arranged, together with Judas Maccabeus,14 and, later, Athalia. The significance of this club of sponsors lies not only in the fact that it promoted performances of music, which otherwise would not have been heard in Vienna, but also that it provided the stage and the financial backing for Haydn's oratorios.

[Another composer who received a performance under the auspices of the Gesellschaft der Associierten was C.P.E. Bach, whose Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Christi [or Jesu] was also arranged by Mozart. A contemporary report of the performances given on 26 February and 4 March 1788 mentions an orchestra of 86 persons, with Mozart giving the time and reading from the score. It was noted that the performance was excellent due to two full rehearsals being given. Aloysia Lange and Johann Valentin Adamberger were among the singers, of which there is mentioned a chorus of 30 people. Mozart probably performed Piano Concerto #26 K.537 at the 26 February concert (it was completed on the 24th), and Aloysia probably sang K.538 which was listed as completed on March 4th, the same day as that concert was held. i]

[It should as well be noted that Mozart, in April of 1790, wrote his friend Michael Puchberg asking for a loan, using as collateral of sorts an enclosed note from van Swieten which by implication has come to mean that the Baron was attempting to persuade the new Emperor to appoint Mozart as a full Kapellmeister (probably more realistically as second Kapellmeister). In the end, this was not to be, though Mozart’s current position was indeed reconfirmed. j]

Far from coming to a halt after Mozart's death, the Associierte concerts continued throughout the 1790's, and it was in this setting that the vocal version of the Seven Last Words, the Creation and the Seasons were first performed. In each case the performance took place in the palace of Prince Schwarzenberg,15 and van Swieten himself was responsible for the libretto.

Haydn had known van Swieten for many years. In the autobiographical sketch he prepared for Das gelehrte Oesterreich in 1776 he refers to Swieten, who was apparently a champion of his music in Berlin.16 He had set out on the second London journey in a carriage provided by Swieten, and had probably taken part in some of the Handel oratorio concerts. Moreover, van Swieten had previously tried to encourage Haydn to write an oratorio, Die Vergötterung Hercules, a cantata by Johann Baptist von Alxinger, which appeared in the Osterreichische Monatsschrift in 1793, bore the following explanatory footnote:

...Baron van Swieten wished to submit something to the excellent Haydn, which he should set to music in the spirit and manner of Handel. This is the occasion for the present Cantata, in which the number, and even the order of the arias, duets and choruses was prescribed to me .17

It was eventually Handel's oratorios which gave Haydn the stimulus to write a large-scale choral work of his own. He seems to have been little inspired by the activities of Swieten and the Associierte, but his enthusiasm was aroused when he came in contact with the lively Handel tradition in England. When Haydn returned from London, bringing with him an oratorio libretto which was said to have been written for Handel, he could be sure of Swieten's help and encouragement. This English libretto formed the basis of Swieten's text to the Creation.

In the three libretti which van Swieten wrote for Haydn he became increasingly independent. The text of the Seven Last Words can scarcely be said to be by Swieten at all; he arranged to Haydn's taste the words of the vocal version which Josef Friebert had prepared in Passau, and the alterations were relatively small.18 The Creation gave Swieten more scope, but again he had a model which had been written specifically as an oratorio text, namely the anonymous libretto that Haydn had brought back from London. Van Swieten's text is probably a free adaptation of the English, rather than just a translation, but he clearly held quite closely to the general plan of his model. Finally, in the Seasons, the whole conception is his own; the individual scenes are mostly to be found in Thomson's poem, but their organization into a libretto is the work of Swieten.

Many critics would say that this progressive originality was disastrous. Even at the time when the oratorios were first performed and acclaimed, the words, particularly those of the Seasons, were severely criticized, and they have been condemned innumerable times since. But to concentrate on the weaknesses of the libretti is to underestimate van Swieten's role in the Haydn oratorios -- he did more than provide a mere peg on to which Haydn could hang some of his finest music.

[Concerning the origin of The Creation, the Baron wrote an article for the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung in 1799 which in part said:

My part in the work, which was originally in English, is perhaps rather more than that of a mere translator: but not by any means so extensive that I could call the text my own…It was written by an unknown person (Griesinger, Haydn’s first biographer, calls this person a Mr. Lidley or Lindley), who had compiled it largely from Milton’s Paradise Lost, and had intended it for Handel. It is not known why this great composer never made any use of the work; but when Haydn was in London, the text was brought forth and it was suggested that he set it to music. At first glance, Haydn found the material of the text well chosen, but he did not accept the proposal immediately…and said he would give his answer when he returned to Vienna. He then showed it to me here and I agreed with his judgement of the piece. Moreover, I saw immediately that this work would provided Haydn with the ideal opportunity to display the full powers of his inexhaustible genius; and as I had longed hoped for this very possibility, I was encouraged to take the libretto and to give the English poem a German setting. While on the whole I followed the general outlines of the original piece, I changed details whenever it seemed prudent to do so for the sake of the musical line and expression .k]

[At the time of composition, Haydn was not a difficult genius to work with, and he accepted many of the “hints” van Swieten provided. In fact, Haydn moved to an apartment in the inner town for that winter to facilitate the collaboration between himself and van Swieten. As the Baron expanded over time upon his remarks and statements concerning his involvement (or rather, credit due him), Haydn did indeed grow very annoyed. l]

Haydn received generous financial support for the Creation and the Seasons, for which van Swieten, as leader of the sponsors, must be given credit. At the first performance of the Creation, for instance, the Associierte not only guaranteed Haydn an honorarium of 500 Ducats -- five times as much as Mozart had received for the composition of Don Giovanni19 -- but paid all the expenses of the performance and presented him with the takings.20 The fact that the Seasons was ever completed is probably due to Swieten's persistent encouragement (or harrying) of Haydn, at a time when the composer was disillusioned with the words he had to set, and generally weary of his task.

Furthermore, van Swieten was partly responsible for the character of Haydn's music in the two oratorios. In the margins of the libretti, he noted many suggestions as to how the words might effectively be set.21 [In one example, he wrote “The words, ‘Let there be Light’, must come but once” m] Presumptuous though it may seem for a man of Swieten's talents to offer suggestions to the most famous composer of his day, it must be admitted that his notes usually show a sound grasp of musical effect, and sometimes real imagination. At the beginning of the final chorus of Spring van Swieten observed:

'...I think that a note in striking contrast to the key of the preceding Song of Joy would produce a good effect...' (Friedlander, op. cit., pp. 51-2).

Haydn responded by following the D major cadence with a unison Bb fortissimo. In fact, he observed closely most of Swieten's remarks. Van Swieten's influence is most apparent in the descriptive passages, where he often prevailed upon Haydn to write picturesque music against his better judgment. The passage in the Seasons which imitates the croaking of frogs was later disowned by Haydn, with the remark: 'I was forced to write the Frenchified trash'.22

[Part of Haydn’s displeasure here is due to the fact that the Seasons was not a religiously inspired work. The text here is more down-to-earth, very much in the manner as that of a singspiel with a perhaps unfortunate element of bourgeois morality; something no doubt elaborated and expanded on by van Swieten from the original. Haydn appears to have not enjoyed as much composing to such a text. In any event, the subject matter of the two oratorios is very different: to paraphrase Haydn’s comments, the peasant folk of the Seasons do not match up well against the three archangels of The Creation. He complained in later years that composing this work had been a strain and had overtaxed him, despite the freshness of the music and its originality. n]

(Here was played a recording of part of the final Trio and Chorus from ‘Summer’.)

The picturesque element in Haydn's oratorios was criticized by some of his contemporaries, who complained that pictorial representation was the province of the painter; today we accept the same feature as an essential characteristic of the oratorios, with its own peculiar charm. For better or worse van Swieten's liking for descriptive music, possibly a legacy from his own attempts in the field of opera comique, left its mark on the Creation and the Seasons.

The part which van Swieten played in the composition of the Haydn oratorios gives some idea of his personality, and the sort of relationship he must have had with the musicians whom he favoured with his patronage. His support was undoubtedly valued, for his opinions carried great weight in the musical world. [This carried over to Mozart’s family after the composer’s death, for example, as van Swieten had arranged a charity concert for them in Vienna in 1793, at which the Requiem was premiered. o] Beethoven too was taken into Swieten's circle, in his early years in Vienna. Although he never worked as closely with him as did Haydn or Mozart, he thought sufficiently highly of Swieten to dedicate his first symphony to him. But van Swieten's dealings with musicians must have been formal, even patronising, rather than friendly. [As Otto Jahn put it: “In his intercourse with artists, however highly he might estimate them and their works, his demeanor was always that of a grand seigneur, and he enforced his own views with an air of somewhat overbearing superiority. This was again Haydn’s experience, and Mozart can scarcely have escaped some measure of annoyance from the same source.”p]

Aloofness seems to have been a prominent trait in Swieten's character -- the lively and gregarious young man of his Paris and Brussels days became in later life the egotistical pedant, too conscious of his own rank and learning, living more or less in a self-chosen solitude. Perhaps his dismissal from his high position was partly to blame. Though the Viennese salon may seem, on the surface, to be a purely social institution, it was largely frequented by members of the high nobility, together with those of lower standing whose position in Court or State affairs gave them special pre-eminence. Van Swieten, who belonged to the lower ranks of the aristocracy, withdrew more and more from social life after 1791. Four years later he talks of his contentment with 'the complete retirement in which I live'.23

Even in the musical life of Viennese society, van Swieten seems to have played only a limited part, and his activity was on a formal, rather than a personal level. As the leader of the Associierte he did invaluable work, but he is rarely found in the more intimate atmosphere of the musical soiree, which was such a prominent feature of social life in Vienna. His position is that of the much revered 'great connoisseur', and virtually the High Priest of musical taste -- a position which became impregnable after the success of the Creation and the Seasons.

The soundness of Swieten's musical judgment need not be questioned. It has been suggested that his liking for music of the past was merely a by-product of his own pedantry,24 but this seems unreasonable when we consider which composers he especially favoured. One could scarcely quarrel with his choice: of composers of the past, Sebastian Bach and Handel; and of those of his own time, Gluck, Emanuel Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

In his own time van Swieten won little affection, but almost universal respect. [As Otto Jahn notes in his book The Life of Mozart concerning van Swieten: “He exerted all his influence in the cause of music, even so subordinate an end as to enforce silence and attention during musical performances. Whenever a whispered conversation arose among the audience, his excellency would rise up from his seat in the first row, draw himself up to his full majestic height, measure the offenders with a long, serious look, and then very slowly resume his seat. The proceeding never failed of its effect.”q] If his autocratic manner now prevents him from wholly gaining our sympathy, we cannot fail to recognise his place in musical history. His judgment was uncompromising but sure. His apparent arrogance stems from that complete confidence in his own sensibility which was his greatest strength. His faith in himself finds its full justification in the music of Mozart and Haydn. [See Appendix 3] Alongside Neukomm's assessment, that van Swieten was 'not so much a friend as a very self-opinionated patron of Haydn and Mozart',25 we should admit the equal validity of the obituary notice from the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung in 1803:

...In him music loses a significant Maecenas, and the world an upright and loyal man…Swieten was an adherent of no school or sect, every true talent he welcomed; nevertheless, his favourites were Handel, Sebastian Bach, Mozart and Haydn, with whom he occupied himself almost daily. Would that a man of high station may soon come forward, who will so actively espouse the cause of all music as did Swieten! 26

(As an appendix to this paper was played a recording of the Symphony in D major (‘Ouvertura dell Opera Carrara’) by Gottfried van Swieten. 27





Appendix 1

Some years ago, Else Radant discovered an unpublished Austrian diary, in which Swieten plays a major role in 1791, the last year of Mozart's life. The story is that of Franz (later Ritter von) Heintl, son of a poor mountain farmer from the border country of Moravia; not least thanks to Swieten, this young man became a prominent and wealthy lawyer. His story puts Swieten into perspective as being a decent and generous man of the Enlightenment.

[pg. 55] On 24 August 1789 I arrived in Vienna...My entire capital consisted of 12 gulden. My first quarters were in the rooms of a master tailor…for which I had to pay 2F in advance monthly. My shoes and boots had to be put in good order and that cost 6F 30x, thus I had only 3F 30x for the rest of life's necessities…[pg. 56] I never had any breakfast, for lunch I went with several other students to a Traiteu…where the portions were small- a small bowl of soup, a tiny piece of beef with vegetables and a loaf of bread costing 1 Groschen. That cost 6x daily…My evening meal was dry bread. In those days a loaf of bread at 6x weighed 1 H, 17 Loth. A third of that was my evening meal.

He finds children to tutor, two hours daily, providing an income of 4F 30X in the month. But since Latin is not his forte, he loses the job, but finds other pupils. They live so far apart that he has to run between jobs in order to arrive on time; he now teaches nine hours daily and that gives him a monthly income of 24F. With this he supports his two brothers in college in Olmütz, while he studies at night. In 1791 he is very ill, hopes for a scholarship but is not awarded one. He turns to Baron Gottfried van Swieten, for help. The account continues:

[pg. 75ff.] Feeling scared, I went to Hr. Baron van Swieten's quarters, which were in the I.R. Castle on the Josephsplatz [2 April 1791, 4 p.m.]. At this unusual hour of the day, I was let into the antechamber, announced and at once admitted to His Excellency's study. He was holding my petition in his hand and had written my name on the outside in red ink; he addressed me in the following words, which I shall never forget: 'I have read your petition. I have found it good and I was touched by it. Take this as the first sign of my sympathy towards you' (and he handed me a banknote for 5 FL); 'there is not very much that I can do to help, but come and pick up the money every month.' That was quite beyond my wildest hopes. ...I bent down to kiss the benefactor's green silk dressing gown adorned with the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of St Stephen, in which he had received me. ...[pg. 77] After the first month had passed, I found it difficult to go to him to get the 5 FL, I was afraid he wouldn't remember me, and since I was no longer in an emergency, I found it hard to remind him of his promise. On the other hand, it would be unseemly, indeed ungrateful, not to accept such a philanthropic invitation. And the noble Swieten had not forgotten me: he recognized me as soon as I entered, asked me how I fared, and pressed the 5 FL into my hand; he had them ready without [my] having to mention them specifically…

Van Swieten continued to help Heintl and, when the young man became a doctor of law, visited him in his quarters in the Stoss in Himmel and even entrusted the affairs of his niece, Countess Rosetti, to him.

(From H. C. Robbins Landon, Mozart: The Golden Years, New York, 1989, pg. 110-111.

Appendix 2

On 14 October 1791, Emperor Leopold II, in the Hofburg in Vienna, received an unsigned letter from a confidant (Leopold would, of course, have recognized the handwriting):

“With a feeling of horror I beg to inform your Majesty…of a most curious report which was conveyed to me yesterday evening...by a man not unknown to Your Majesty, Ehrenberg, who wishes to repeat the matter in person and to inform you of various other dubious circumstances as soon as Your Majesty is graciously pleased to grant him a private audience…

On the very first day after the arrival of His Royal Highness the Archduke Francis [from the Prague Coronation, Cabinet Secretary Johann Baptist von] Schloissnigg entered the Cabinet office of Ehrenberg and delivered the following sermon, which I am in the position of being able to repeat, partly verbatim and partly based on its most significant content.

'Thank God the Archduke has finally arrived. He could in fact have stayed away longer, because he has ruined my pheasant hunt. But I already feared he had been subjected to some influences because he is taken everywhere, and his father [Leopold II] doesn't want to let him out of his sight, so that he will.not see or experience certain things. But all has been arranged and I have to say, everything is still all right, as it was before.

'You know that marvellous story, too, about the 16,000 military being called up in Vienna. They want to stave off the coming Revolution. But that won't help them at all. A revolution is necessary, because ...a ruler who simply enjoys life does not deserve to occupy the throne [here the handwriting becomes shaky and the underlining uneven].

A shock passes through my veins as I write this, but Ehrenberg has offered to swear before Your Majesty that he heard these words from Schloissnigg's lips.

This person, this Cromwell, this perpetrator of high treason is the private tutor and daily confidant of the Crown Prince of Austria; he is at the head of the Illuminati; he was placed in this position by Baron Swieten; he permits himself such speeches in front of third parties in whom he otherwise shows no particular trust, speaks thus in an Imperial building and in the chancellery of the Crown Prince!!! What might he say in other circumstances, and what designs and plans might be maturing in this man’s mind!”

This letter obviously started an investigation in Schloissnigg’s activities, but as well it claims that van Swieten placed him in position to do potential harm. As a Mason, he would have been marked for certain; as an Illuminati, (a subset of Freemasonry considered to be actively formenting French Revolutionary ideas) the potential for danger as perceived by the Court would have been dangerously high. Stating that the Baron did so knowingly appoint Schloissnigg to official positions would mark van Swieten as a potential enemy as well.

Further, around 2 January 1792 (though it could date from earlier), a list of “known” famous Illuminati was supplied to Leopold II and his court. This Verzeichnis einiger berühmten Illuminaten has 65 names on it: #14 is that of “Baron Switen, (sic) formerly President of the Studies Commission in Vienna.” For that matter, others of the nobility friendly to Mozart were on this list as well.

From these two points, it can be readily seen that Baron van Swieten would have heard in some manner that the Imperial Court was more than simply dissatisfied with his opinions and patronizing ways; it was in fact investigating him in areas that could lead to treason charges, if prosecutors felt so inclined. He may have not known the specifics, but whispers were no doubt active. Distracting, to say the least.

(From H. C. Robbins Landon, Mozart: The Golden Years, New York, 1989, pg. 227-228, 258)


Appendix 3

In Berlin also Van Swieten became better acquainted with Haydn than was possible in Vienna, and like Mozart and the youthful Beethoven, he loved and reverenced him next to Handel and Bach.

"As far as music is concerned," he writes (December, 1798), "I have gone back to the times when it was thought necessary before practicing an art to study it thoroughly and systematically. In such study I find nourishment for my mind and heart, and support when any fresh proof of the degeneracy of the art threatens to cast me down. My chief comforters are Handel and the Bachs, and with them the few masters of our own day who tread firmly in the footsteps of the truly great and good, and either give promise of reaching the same goal, or have already attained to it. In this there can be no doubt that Mozart, had he been spared to us, would have succeeded; Joseph Haydn stands actually at the goal."

Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung I., p. 252. (as quoted by Otto Jahn, The Life of Mozart Vol. III pg. 384)


Appendix 4

Baron van Swieten As Composer

What works we know of that Baron van Swieten composed do not number very many. Those that have survived number somewhat less.

Opera comiques: (3) Les talents à la mode and Colas, toujours Colas survive; La chercheuse d’ espirt is known to have been performed, but no copies have surfaced.

Symphonies: (10) At least ten symphonies are known to have been composed, but only seven have survived, and three of those were for many years attributed to Haydn. One of the Baron’s symphonies was performed as late as 1782 in a Vienna Augarten concert that as well featured Mozart.

Pastiche: The Baron, together with Monsigny and Philidor contributed to the pasticcio operatic work La rosière de Salency.

As the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd Edition puts it: “The unpretentious little operas have a certain naïve charm and colour, but the chief characteristics of the conservative, three-movement symphonies are tautology and paucity of invention.” Tautology is defines as the needless repetition of an idea.

From the article on van Swieten in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd Edition, edited by Stanley Sadie, New York, 2001.

__________________________________________________ ____________

1 See O. E. Deutsch, Mozart, die Dokumente seines Lebens, Kassel, 1961, p. 75-6
2 The Letters of Mozart and his Family, tr. & ed. E. Anderson, London, 1938, p. 1192
3 ibid., p. 1194
4 Joseph Weigl, Autobiographie, Vienna Nationalbibliothek, MS. S. m. 3347.
5 K.404a & 405.
6 See E. F. Schmid, ‘Gottfried van Swieten als Komponist’, Mozart Jahrbuch, 1953, 15ff
7 Johann Baptist Schnek, ‘Autobiographische Skizze’ Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, xi (1924), 77f
8 The Public Advertiser, June 14th, 1769, &c.
9 Autobiographie des Vice Hof-Kapellmeisters Joseph Weigl, Vienna Nationalbibliothek, MS. S.m. 8952, f 1v.
10 Letter of 6 June 1786; Vienna Nationalbibliothek, Codex 9718, f. 89-90.
11 See S. Adler, Die Unterrichtsverfassung Kaiser Leopolds II, Vienna & Leipzig, 1917.
12 Anderson, op. cit., p. 1200-2
13 ibid., p. 1384
14 See A. Holschneider, ‘Die “Judas-Macchabäus”-Bearbeitung der österreichischen Nationalbibliothek’, Mozart Jahrbuch, 1960, pp. 173-182.
15 See C. F. Pohl, Joseph Haydn, iii (completed by H. Botstiber), Leipzig, 1927, pp. 126ff and 177f; and E. Olleson, ‘Haydn in the diaries of Count Karl von Zinzendorf’, Haydn Yearbook, ii (1963)
16 H. C. Robbins Landon, The Collected Correspondence of Joseph Haydn, London, 1959, p. 20.
17 Österreichische Monatsschrift, Prague & Vienna, iii. 64ff.
18 See A. Sandberger, “Zur Entstehungsgeschichte von Haydns “Sieben Worten des Erlösers am Kreuze”’, Jahrbuch der Musikbibliothek Peters, 1903, pp. 45-59
19 H. Abert, W. A. Mozart, Leipzig, 1919-21, ii. 413.
20 A. Mörath, ‘Die Pflege der Tonkunst durch das Fürstenhaus Schwarzenberg’, Das Vaterland, xlii (Vienna, 1901) No. 68, pp. 1-4.
21 Van Swieten’s suggestions are printed in Pohl, op. cit., iii. 358-9, and M. Friedländer, ‘Van Swieten und das Textbuch zu Haydns “Jahreszeiten”’, Jahrbuch der Musikbibliothek Peters, 1909, pp. 47-56.
22 H. C. Robbins Landon, The Collected Correspondence of Joseph Haydn, London, 1959, p. 197.
23 Letter to Bernhard von Pelser of 7 November 1795; Vienna Stadtbibliothek, MS. I.N. 8715.
24 Abert, op. cit., ii. 90-91.
25 H. Seeger, ‘Zur musikhistorischen Bedeutung der Haydn-Biographie von Albert Dies (1810)’ Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, 1959/iii, 31.
26 Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, v. col. 476
27 Excerpts from the first movement of this symphony are printed in R. Bernhardt, ‘Aus der Umwelt der Wiener Klassiker, Freiherr Gottfried van Swieten’, Der Bär, Jahrbuch von Breitkopf & Härtel, 1929/30, pp. 164ff.


Additional Citings:

a. B. Cormican, Mozart’s Death, Mozart’s Requiem, Belfast, 1991, p.81.
b. H. C. Robbins Landon, Mozart, The Golden Years, New York, 1989, pp. 241ff.
c. H. C. Robbins Landon, liner notes to ‘Haydn’s ”Creation”’, Archive Produktion 449-217-2, p. 6.
d. H. C. Robbins Landon, Mozart, The Golden Years, New York, 1989, p. 108.
e. Ibid, p. 110.
f. Cormican, op. cit., p. 144.
g. H. C. Robbins Landon, Mozart, The Golden Years, New York, 1989, p. 79.
h. Cormican, op. cit., p. 251.
i. H. C. Robbins Landon, Mozart, The Golden Years, New York, 1989, p. 192.
j. H. C. Robbins Landon, ibid. pp. 112-113.
k. H. C. Robbins Landon, liner notes to ‘Haydn’s ”Creation”’, Archive Produktion 449-217-2, p. 6.
l. Jens Peter Larsen, The New Grove Haydn, New York, 1983, p. 73.
m. H. C. Robbins Landon, liner notes to ‘Haydn’s ”Creation”’, Archive Produktion 449-217-2, p. 6.
n. Jens Peter Larsen, The New Grove Haydn, New York, 1983, pp. 72-73.
o. Cormican, op. cit., p. 276.
p. Otto Jahn, The Life of Mozart, London, 1891, Vol. II., p. 385.
q. Ibid. pp. 384-385.

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