Gregor Werner

Gregor Joseph Werner (1693-1766) was an Austrian composer. He served from 1728 to his death as Kapellmeister at the Esterházy court in Eisenstadt. He wrote "a cappella masses in a strict contrapuntal style" (New Grove), as well as church music with instrumental accompaniment, oratorios, and symphonies.

Werner entered a period of semi-retirement in 1761 when the Esterházy family hired the popular 29-year old composer Joseph Haydn as their Vice-Kapellmeister. The contract by which Haydn was hired shows the family's loyalty to their elderly musical servant by retaining him, at least on a titular basis, in the top post of Kapellmeister. However, after this time Werner's musical duties were limited to church music, and Haydn had the primary duties, with full control over the secular musical events of the household, including the orchestra.

Werner was evidently bitter about Haydn, and a few months before his death (October 1765) he wrote a letter to Prince Esterházy denouncing Haydn for his (putative) slackness and laziness in running the Esterházy musical establishment. Werner succeeded completely in getting Haydn into trouble; there were unpleasant exchanges with the Prince's administrator Rahier, and the affair culminated in an official written reprimand.

The episode was responsible for at least two changes in Haydn's practice: he began to keep a draft catalog all his works (the "Entwurf-Katalog"), and (in response to a particular detail of the reprimand) he began writing a great number of works in the Prince's favorite genre at the time, the baryton trio.

That Haydn evidently did not harbor long-term bitter feelings about Werner is suggested by the fact that in his own old age (1804) he published "six introductions and fugues for string quartet, taken from Werner’s oratorios" (New Grove).

Werner died March 6, 1766, in Eisenstadt.

References

*This article is based on the careful and thorough coverage provided in the online edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which contains further information about Werner, a catalog of works, and a bibliography.