A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Hasse, Johann
HASSE, Johann Adolph, who for a third part of the 18th century was the most popular dramatic composer in Europe, was born on March 25, 1699, at [1]Bergedorf, Hamburg, where his father was organist and schoolmaster. At 18 years of age he went to Hamburg, where his musical talent and fine tenor voice attracted the notice of Ulrich König, a German poet attached to the Polish court, through whose recommendation he was engaged as tenor singer by Keiser, director of the Hamburg Opera, and the most famous dramatic composer of the day. At the end of four years König procured for Hasse a like engagement at the Brunswick theatre, where, a year later, was produced his first opera, 'Antigonus.' This (the only opera he ever composed to a German libretto) was very well received, but as, while evincing great natural facility in composition, it also betrayed a profound ignorance of the grammar of his art, it was decided that he must go to Italy, then the musical centre of Europe, for the purpose of serious study. Accordingly, in 1724, he repaired to Naples, and became the pupil of Porpora, for whom, however, he had neither liking nor sympathy, and whom he soon deserted for the veteran Alessandro Scarlatti. In 1725 he received the commission to compose a serenade for two voices. In this work, which had the advantage of being performed by two great singers, Farinelli and Signora Tesi, Hasse acquitted himself so well that he was entrusted with the composition of the new opera for the next year. This was 'Sesostrato,' performed at Naples in 1726, and which extended its composer's fame over the whole of Italy. In 1727 he went to Venice, where he was appointed professor at the Scuola degl' Incurabili, for which he wrote a 'Miserere' for two soprani and two contralti, with accompaniment of stringed instruments, a piece which long enjoyed a great celebrity. He was now the most popular composer of the day. His fine person and agreeable manners, his beautiful voice and great proficiency on the clavecin caused him to be much sought after in society, and he was known throughout Italy by the name of Il caro Sassone. In 1728 he produced, at Naples, another opera, 'Attalo, re di Bitinia,' as successful as its predecessor. In 1729 he returned to Venice, where he met with the famous cantatrice, Faustina Bordoni (see next article), then at the zenith of her powers and her charms, who shortly afterwards became his wife. For her he composed the operas 'Dalisa' and 'Artaserse' (No. 1), the latter of which is one of his best works.
In 1731 this celebrated couple were summoned to Dresden, where August II. reigned over a brilliant court. Hasse was appointed Capellmeister and Director of the Opera. His first opera produced in Dresden, 'Alessandro nell' Indie,' had an unprecedented success, owing not only to its own merits, but to the splendid performance by Faustina of the principal part. Hasse's position, however, as the husband of the most fascinating prima donna of the day, was, at this time, far from being an easy one. His life was embittered also by his enmity to his old master, Porpora, whom he found established in Dresden, and patronised by some members of the royal family, and by jealousy of Porpora's pupil, Regina Mingotti. This excellent singer was a dangerous rival to Faustina, and Hasse neglected no opportunity of manifesting his spite against her. In 'Demofoonte' he introduced into her part an air written entirely in what he thought a defective part of her voice, while the accompaniment was artfully contrived to destroy all effect while giving no support. Mingotti was obliged to sing it, but like the great artist that she was, she acquitted herself in such a manner as to disappoint Hasse, and this very air became one of her most successful show-pieces. This combination of causes seems to have made Hasse's footing in Dresden uncertain, and up to 1740 he absented himself as much as possible, while Faustina remained behind. He revisited Venice, Milan, and Naples, and also went to London, where he was pressed to undertake the direction of the opera established in opposition to Handel. His 'Artaserse' met with a brilliant reception, but he had no wish to support the rivalry with Handel; besides which he disliked England, and soon quitted the country. He returned, in 1739, to Dresden, where he was no longer vexed by the presence of Porpora, and where August III. had succeeded his father. Here, with the exception of a short sojourn in Venice in 1740, he and Faustina remained till 1763. In 1745, on the very evening of Frederick the Great's entry into Dresden after the battle of Kesselsdorf, Hasse's opera 'Arminio' was performed by command of the conqueror, who graciously commended the work and its performance, especially the part of Faustina. During Frederick's nine days' stay in the Saxon capital Hasse had to attend at court every evening and superintend the musical performances, and was rewarded by the present of a magnificent diamond ring and 1000 thalers for distribution among the musicians of the orchestra. In 1760 occurred the siege of Dresden, in which Hasse lost most of his property, and during which his collected MSS., prepared for a complete edition of his works, to be published at the expense of the King of Poland, were nearly all destroyed. At the end of the war the king was obliged, from motives of economy, to suppress both opera and chamber music. The Capellmeister and his wife were pensioned, and retired to Vienna, where Hasse, in conjunction with the poet Metastasio, was soon engaged in active opposition to a more formidable rival than Porpora, viz. Christoph Gluck. Although he was 64 [App. p.669 "74"] years old, he now composed several new operas. His last dramatic work, 'Ruggiero,' was produced at Milan in 1774 [App. p.669 "1771"] for the marriage of the Archduke Ferdinand. On this same occasion was performed a dramatic serenade, 'Ascanio in Alba,' the work of Wolfgang Mozart, then 13 years of age. After hearing it, old Hasse is said to have exclaimed, 'This boy will throw us all into the shade,' a prediction which was verified within a few years of its utterance. The remainder of Hasse's life was passed at Venice, where he died at the age of 85 [App. p.669 "in his 85th year"], on Dec. 16, 1783.
Owing to the destruction of Hasse's works at Dresden, his autograph scores are exceedingly rare; scarcely a MS. or even a letter of his being found in any collection, public or private; though contemporary copies are common enough. The following compositions of Hasse's are the chief of those which are published, and accessible at the present day:–
1. 'Miserere' for a Soprani and 2 Alti (Berlin, Trautwein).
2. '113th Psalm'; for Bass solo and Chorus, with orchestra (Elberfeld, Arnold).
3. 'Alcide al Bivio,' opera, P. F. score (Leipzig, Breitkopf).
4. Te Deum in D for Soli and Chorus, with Orchestra and Organ (Leipzig, Peters).
5. 'Die Pilgrimme auf Golgatha' ('Pellegrini al Sepolcro,' German translation), Oratorio, P.F. score (Leipzig, Schwickert).
6. Quintet, from the above, 2 Sopr., 2 Altos, and Bass (Berlin, Damköhler; Breslau, Leuckard).
7. Air for Alto, from Oratorio 'Die Bekehrung des heiligen Augustins' (Berlin, Damköhler, & Schlesinger).
8. Portions of a Te Deum and a Miserere, and two other pieces in Rochlitz's Sammlung, vol. iv.
9. A vocal fugue, 'Christe,' No. 19 in the 'Auswahl vorzügl. Musikwerke' (Trautwein).
10. A Sonata in D, in Pauer's Alte Claviermusick (Part 44).
There is a fine portrait of Hasse, oval, in folio, engraved by L. Zucchi at Dresden from a picture by C. P. Rotavi [App. p.669 "Rotari"], representing him as a middle aged man, with pleasing features and expression.
Hasse's facility in composition was astonishing. He wrote more than a hundred operas, besides oratorios, masses, cantatas, psalms, symphonies, sonatas, concertos, and a host of smaller compositions. He set to music the whole of Metastasio's dramatic works, several of them three or four times over. His career was one long success: few composers have enjoyed during their lifetime such world-wide celebrity as he; of those few none are more completely forgotten now. Great as was his personal popularity, it is insufficient to account for the universal acceptance of his music. The secret probably lay in the receptivity of his nature, which, joined to the gift of facile expression, caused some of the most genial, though not the deepest, influences of his time to find in him a faithful echo. First among these was the spreading fascination of modern Italian melody. It is as an Italian, not a German composer that Hasse must take rank, although, innocent as he was of contrapuntal science, he has nothing in common with the majesty, profound in its simplicity, of the early Italian writers. He began life as a singer, in an age of great singers, and must be classed among the first representatives of that modern Italian school which was called into existence by the worship of vocal art for its own sake. His harmonies, though always agreeable, sound poor to ears accustomed to the richer combinations of the German composers who were his contemporaries and immediate successors. Yet even as a harmonist he is linked to modern times by his fond and frequent use of the diminished seventh and its inversion, as an interval both of melody and of harmony; while his smooth and somewhat cloying successions of thirds and sixths may have afforded delight to hearers inured [App. p.669 "unused"] to the stern severities of counterpoint. He had an inexhaustible flow of pleasing melody, which, if it is never grand or sublime, is never crabbed or ugly. Many of his best airs are charming even now, and, if in some respects they appear trite, it should be remembered that we have become familiar with the type of which they are examples through the medium of compositions which, in virtue of other qualities than his, are longer-lived than Hasse's, though written at a later date. A few have been republished in our own day, among which we may quote 'Ritornerai fra poco,' from a Cantata (to be found in the series called 'Gemme d'Antichità,' published by Lonsdale), which has real beauty. As a fair specimen of his style, exhibiting all the qualities which made him popular, we will mention the opening symphony and the first air in the oratorio 'I Pellegrini al Sepolcro,' written for the Electoral Chapel at Dresden. To appreciate the deficiencies which have caused him to be forgotten, we have only to proceed a little further in this or any other of his works. They are inexpressibly monotonous. In the matter of form he attempted nothing new. All his airs are in two parts, with the inevitable Da Capo, or repetition of the first strain. All his operas consist of such airs, varied by occasional duets, more rarely a trio, or a simple chorus, all cast in the same mould. His orchestra consists merely of the string quartet, sometimes of a string trio only; if now and then he adds hautboys, flutes, bassoons, or horns, there is nothing distinctive in his writing for these wind instruments, and their part might equally well be played by the violins. Nor is there anything distinctive in his writing of Church music, which presents in all respects the same characteristics as his operas. His Symphonies are for three, or at the most four, instruments. The harmonic basis of his airs is of the very slightest, his modulations the most simple and obvious, and these are repeated with little variety in all his songs. The charm of these songs consists in the elegance of the melodic superstructure and its sympathetic adaptation to the requirements of the voice. Singers found in them the most congenial exercise for their powers, and the most perfect vehicle for expression and display. For ten years Farinelli charmed away the melancholy of Philip V. of Spain by singing to him every evening the same two airs of Hasse (from a second opera, 'Artaserse'), 'Pallido è il sole' and 'Per questo dolce amplesso.'
The source of Hasse's inspiration lay, not in intuition, but in his susceptibility to external impressions. In Art, the universally pleasing is the already familiar; so long as nothing is recognised, nothing is understood. Recognition may come as revelation; but, for a great original work to find acceptance, the truth of which it is the first expression must be latent in the minds of those who have to receive it. Hasse was no prophet, but in his works his contemporaries found fluent utterance given to their own feelings. Such men please all, while they offend none; but when the spirit and the time of which they are at once the embodiment and the reflection passes away, so, with it, must they and their work pass away and be forgotten. [App. p.669 "The last sentence of the article should run as follows:—Such men please all, while they offend none; but when the spirit and the time, of which they are at once the embodiment and the reflection, pass away, they and their work must also pass away and be forgotten."]
- ↑ Now the residence of Dr. Chrysander.