University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1911-12-28
Great Composers
Franz Joseph Haydn.

| AuStl lld-IluHSdIN On tHe nlSnt O
March 81. 1892 and descend
ed from long line of humble hand
toilers was born Franz Joseph
| Haydn, destined to make the family
name immortal. His father, Matthias
| HAYDN. was a master wheel-wright
Ii is supposed that his family is OF
| Creation stock. fact which throws
| light upon the distinctively SlavoniC
character of much of his music. The
| parents of the composer were hard
| working people who feared God, and
so thoroughly did they instill their
religious feelings into their children,
that Haydn felt the influence of this
early discipline all through his life.
OF his earliest years but little is
known except that, while yet child,
he began to manifest the musical in
stinct that was in him.
Haydn, when six years old. left his
home never to return to it as an in
mate. He was taken to the home of
his cousin. Johann Matthias Frankh,
who had become interested in the
child. Frankh instructed him in
reading and writing and the rudi-
ments of Latin. He also grounded
him in the elements of music, taught
him to sing. and to play the violin.
The boy was an apt and Jealous pu-
pill, studied with unremitting indus
try and progressed rapidly. Frankh
was very rough in his teaching but
this was not unkindly meant, as
Haydn himself realized. At the age
of eight Haydn was taken as one of
the choir boys at the Cathedral of St.
Stephens by George Reuter-. So i'm
lS40 Haydn bade farewell to Frankh.
whom he loved. and went to Vienna
AT st. Stephens an entirely new
life opened itself to him. The school
consisted of Cantor. a subcantOr,
two ushers. and six scholars. They |
dwelt under the same roof and ate
together. Reading. writing, arith-
metic, and Latin We're among the |
studies taught in addition to music.
He was thrown on his own resources
and had no money. He was a very
hard student and music had become |
his passion. The determination and i
industry of the lad were extraordi-
nary. and he very early began to il
lustrate that phase of genius which is
a capacity for hard work. One of
his first compositions was a "Salve
Regina" for twelve voices. This was
seen by Reuter- who dryly suggested
that it would perhaps be better if he
would first try to write it for two
voices. and to learn how to write
music before he began to compose
it: but he did not attempt to show
him how TO do either.
At the age of sixteen Haydn's
voice broke and he was turned out
nto the world without a penny. He
the streets of Vienna un-
i'll he chanced to meet a man. Spang-
er, whose acquaintance he had made
some time before. He dwelt with
lis benefactor. who was almost in
poverty, until the following spring.
n the meantime he made a little
money and studied necessarily.
About this time Vienna trades
nan loaned him one hundred and
fifty fiOrins with which he procured a
Dom of his own. Here he met with
IetastasiO the poet and POrpora.
hen the greatest of singing teachers.
lie was now about twenty years of
ge. At this period he had composed
lis first Mass in F. work which,
hOugh crude and faulty, is remark
BILE as the effort of a self-taught ge-
ius. BY this time also he had fin
shed his first opera, Der Neue
.rumme Teufel."
In 1853, at the age of twenty-sev-
n. the composer began what was up
D that date the most important stage
t his artistic career. Haydn was
ppointed Musikdirector and Kam-
in the orchestra of