Finally, I have endeavoured to tell the story of his career
simply and directly, to give a clear picture of the man, and to
discuss the composer without trenching on the ground of the
formalist.

J.C.H.

EDINBURGH, September 1902.



HAYDN

CHAPTER I

BIRTH--ANCESTRY--EARLY YEARS

Introductory--Rohrau--A Poor Home--Genealogy--Haydn's Parents--
His Birth--His Precocity--Informal Music-making--His First
Teacher--Hainburg--"A Regular Little Urchin"--Attacks the Drum--
A Piece of Good Luck--A Musical Examination--Goes to Vienna--Choir
School of St Stephen's--A House of Suffering--Lessons at the
Cathedral--A Sixteen-Part Mass--Juvenile Escapades--"Sang like a
Crow"--Dismissed from the Choir.

Haydn's position, alike in music and in musical biography, is
almost unique. With the doubtful exception of Sebastian Bach, no
composer of the first rank ever enjoyed a more tranquil career.
Bach was not once outside his native Germany; Haydn left Austria
only to make those visits to England which had so important an