[1] Werner wrote a cappella masses in a strict contrapuntal style,[1] as well as church music with instrumental accompaniment and symphonies.
[5] Jones discerns a bifurcated style, with most of the work taking the form of severe, "weighty" contrapuntal pieces, but a minority (written for lighter occasions such as Advent and the Nativity) that "employ a distinctly homespun idiom, invoking elements of Austrian and indeed Eastern European folk music".
[8] Autograph scores and parts by Gregor Joseph Werner have found their way into the collection of the Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Budapest,[9] as well as the public archives in Győr, Hungary.
[citation needed] Werner's period of semi-retirement began in 1761 when the Esterházy family hired the 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.
His own work emphasized the contrapuntal textures of the Baroque era, whereas by 1761 the new forms of the Classical period, often with a single melody set over an accompaniment figure, had come to the fore.
The letter begins: I am forced to draw attention to the gross negligence in the local castle chapel, the unnecessarily large princely expenditures, and the lazy idleness of the musicians, the principal responsibility for which must be laid at the door of the present director, who lets them all get away with everything, so as to receive the name of a good Heyden [sic]: for as God is my witness, things are much more disorderly than if seven children were around.
However, it also provided a helpful clarification of Haydn's responsibilities and designated a subordinate (Joseph Dietzl) to take on the task of keeping track of the music and instruments in Eisenstadt.
[16] In response to a particular detail of the reprimand, Haydn began writing a great number of works in the Prince's favorite genre at the time, the baryton trio.