My music
was to be adapted to these ceremonies.
The problem of writing seven _adagios_ to be performed
consecutively, each one to last ten minutes, without wearying the
audience, was not an easy one to solve, and I soon recognized the
impossibility of making my music conform to the prescribed limits.
The work was written and printed without words. Later the
opportunity of adding them was offered, so the oratorio which
Breitkopf and Haertel publish to-day is a complete work and, so far
as the vocal part is concerned, entirely new.
The kind reception which it has received among amateurs makes me
hope that the entire public will welcome it with the same kindness.
Haydn feared to weary his hearers. Our modern bards have no such vain
scruple.
Michel Haydn, Joseph's brother and the author of some highly esteemed
religious compositions, has been generally credited with the addition of
the vocal parts to the _Seven Words_. Joseph Haydn did not say that this
was the case, but it would seem that if he did the work himself he would
have said so in his preface.
This vocal part, however, adds nothing to the value of the work. And it
is of no great consequence who the author of the arrangement for the
quartet was.
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