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FOUR CANONS HAYDN, JOSEPH. Autograph Musical Manuscript, unsigned, 4 complete canons for two or 4 voices, notated on 19 machine-ruled staves with holograph lyrics and tempo directives, and one with holograph title ("Der Menschenfreund"), in German and Italian. The canons, "Die Mutter an ihr Kind in der Wiege" (Hob. XXVIIb:6); "Der Freigeist" (Hob. XXVIIb:25); on verso: "Der Menschenfreund" (Hob. XXVIIb:7); and "Gottes Macht und Vorsehung" (Hob. XXVIIb:8). Title of "Der Freigeist" in unknown hand. 2 pages, oblong folio, written on recto and verso of a single sheet; remnants of mounting at lower and left edges of verso, faint scattered foxing, vertical fold. Np, 1790s
The text of these canons, drawn from the works of Christian Fürchtegott Gellert or from his own imagination, were first published posthumously in 42 Canons: für drey und mehrere Singstimmen in 1810 by Breitkopf & Härtel. Some liberties were taken with Haydn's text in the Breitkopf edition, possibly the interventions of Johann Elßler, who was Haydn's copyist and personal assistant. In "Menschenfreund," for instance, the text of the present manuscript begins "O wolte doch der Mensch des Menschen Schutz-gott seyn," which is rendered in the Breitkopf edition as "O wollte doch der Mensch, des Menschen Feind nicht seyn." Haydn's text was true to Gellert's version, published by Wendler in 1748 in Fabeln und Erzählungen.
