Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/714

702 esteemed. Leopold Mozart, a man who disliked his manners, wrote to his son 'Herr Haydn is a man whose merit you will be forced to acknowledge.' This refers to his sacred works, several of which Wolfgang scored for practice; he also sent for them to Vienna, and endeavoured to make them better known, especially introducing them to Van Swieten. In 1783, when Michael was laid aside by illness, Mozart composed two string duets for him. Franz Schubert visited Michael's grave in 1825, and thus records his impressions: 'The good Haydn! It almost seemed as if his clear calm spirit were hovering over me. I may be neither calm nor clear, but no man living reverences him more than I do. My eyes filled with tears as we came away.' Ferdinand Schubert composed a striking chorus to words in praise of Michael Haydn. Among his numerous pupils we may mention C. M. von Weber, Neukomm, Wölfl, and Reicha. There exists 'Biographische Skizze,' a very warm-hearted pamphlet written by Schinn and Otter (Salzburg, 1808).

Of his compositions comparatively few have been printed. His modesty was excessive, and prevented his ever availing himself of the offers of Breitkopf & Härtel. The following list of his works is complete.

Instrumental—50 short organ pieces for beginners, consisting of preludes, etc. in all the 8 Church tones (published at Linz); 30 symphonies, and Partiten, 1 sextet, 3 quintets, serenades, marches, 12 minuets for full orchestra (Augsburg, Gombart), 1 violin concerto, etc.

Vocal—about 360 compositions for the Church, including 2 requiems, 24 masses, 4 German masses, 114 graduales, 67 offertoires, 8 litanies, 11 vespers, 5 Salve Regina, 8 Responsorien, 3 Tenebræ, Regina Cœli, etc. etc.; and several German sacred songs. A great many oratorios, cantatas, operas (including 'Andromeda e Perseus,' 1776), mythological operettas, a pastoral 'Die Hochzeit auf der Alm,' 2 collections of 4-part songs (Vienna, Eder, 1799; Salzburg, Hacker, 1800); several single ones, 'Karl der Held, Erzherzogvon Oesterreich,' etc,; 6 canons in 4 and 5 parts (Salzburg, Meyer, 1800).

Theoretical—'Partitur-Fundament,' edited by Martin Bischofsreiter. In the Imperial Library is an Antiphonarium romanum with figured bass, finished in 1792. [ C. F. P. ]

HAYDN,, or, according to the baptismal register, , the father of the symphony and the quartet, was born in the night between March 31 and April 1, 1732, at Rohrau, a small Austrian village on the Leitha, which there divides Lower Austria and Hungary. He was the second child of Mathias Haydn, a master wheelwright, by his marriage (Nov. 24, 1728) with Maria Koller, daughter of the 'Marktrichter' and cook in Count Harrach's household. Haydn's ancestors came originally from Hainburg, a town close to the Danube, about 4 leagues from Rohrau. His great-grandfather Kaspar was a servant in the hill-castle there, one of the few who escaped massacre when it was stormed by the Turks on July 11, 1683. Kaspar's son Thomas, a master wheelwright and member of the town council, had 7 sons, of whom Mathias, the father of our Haydn, born Jan. 31, 1699, was youngest but one. Thomas's widow married a journeyman wheelwright, Mathias Seefranz (died May 2, 1762, aged 89), who thus became Haydn's step-grandfather; and one of their children, Julie Rosine, married a schoolmaster named Frankh, afterwards Haydn's first teacher. The sons nearly all learnt the wheelwright's trade, and then set out on their travels; after which Mathias settled in Rohrau, and built himself the little house at the end of the market-place, where Haydn was born, and which though twice rebuilt is still standing in its original form. Maria Haydn (born Nov. 10, 1707) bore her husband 12 children, of whom the sixth was Johann Michael, the church composer; and the eleventh Johann Evangelist, an unimportant tenor singer, who was admitted to the chapel of Prince Esterhazy on his brother Joseph's recommendation. After Maria's death (Feb. 23, 1754) Mathias married again, and had five more children, who died young. He himself departed Sept. 12, 1763.

Haydn's parents were honest, industrious people, who instilled into their children a love for work, method, cleanliness, and, above all, religion. In his old age Haydn gratefully acknowledged his obligations to their care. Both were fond of music, and both sang. The father had a fair tenor voice, and accompanied himself on the harp, though without knowing a note. The child soon began to sing their simple songs, astonishing them by the correctness of his ear and the beauty of his voice. But he did not stop there. Having seen the schoolmaster play the violin, he would sit on the stove-bench and accompany his parents as they sang, precisely imitating the schoolmaster's handling of the bow, and keeping strict time, with two pieces of wood as his instrument. He was one day surprised, when thus engaged, by his relation Frankh, from Hainburg. Thinking that he saw in him the making of a musician, Frankh persuaded the parents to commit their little boy to his care. The mother would have preferred his entering the priesthood, or becoming a schoolmaster, and it required all the father's authority to make her consent; but he felt that he had himself been capable of better things, and looked forward to seeing his son a Chor-regent or Capellmeister, as a compensation for his own lot. At the age of six, then, the little Joseph—in the Austrian dialect 'Sepperl'—was taken by his father to school at Hainburg.

Johann Mathias Frankh, Haydn's distant relative (he called him simply 'cousin'), was an excellent teacher, very strict, and eminently practical. Haydn not only became a first-rate singer, but also learned something of the instruments most in use, and spent nearly all his time in church or in school. Learning came easily to