HAYDN.


I.

"Papa Haydn!" Thus did Mozart ever speak of his foster-father in music,
and the title, transmitted to posterity, admirably expressed the sweet,
placid, gentle nature, whose possessor was personally beloved no less
than he was admired. His life flowed, broad and unruffled, like some
great river, unvexed for the most part by the rivalries, jealousies, and
sufferings, oftentimes self-inflicted, which have harassed the careers
of other great musicians. He remained to the last the favorite of the
imperial court of Vienna, and princes followed his remains to their last
resting-place.

Joseph Haydn was the eldest of the twenty children of Matthias Haydn, a
wheelwright at Rohrau, Lower Austria, where he was born in 1732. At
the age of twelve years he was engaged to sing in Vienna. He became a
chorister in St. Stephen's Church, but offended the choir-master by the
revolt on the part of himself and parents from submitting to the usual
means then taken to perpetuate a fine soprano in boys. So Haydn, who had
surreptitiously picked up a good deal of musical knowledge apart from
the art of singing, was at the age of sixteen turned out on the world.
A compassionate barber, however, took him in, and Haydn dressed and
powdered wigs down-stairs, while he worked away at a little worm-eaten
harpsichord at night in his room. Unfortunate boy! he managed to get
himself engaged to the barber's daughter, Anne Keller, who was for a
good while the Xantippe of his gentle life, and he paid dearly for his