Michael Haydn
Encyclopedia
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
of the classical period
Classical period (music)
The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...
, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
.
Life
Johann Michael Haydn was born in 1737 in the Austrian village of Rohrau, Austria near the Hungarian border. His father was Mathias HaydnMathias Haydn
Matthias Haydn was the father of two famous composers, Joseph and Michael Haydn...
, a wheelwright who also served as "Marktrichter", an office akin to village mayor. Haydn's mother Maria, née Koller, had previously worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach
Count Friedrich August von Harrach-Rohrau
Count Friedrich August von Harrach-Rohrau, , was plenipotentiary minister of the Austrian Netherlands and became Governor-General ad interim from ....
, the presiding aristocrat of Rohrau. Mathias was an enthusiastic folk musician, who during the journeyman period of his career had taught himself to play the harp, and he also made sure that his children learned to sing; for details see Mathias Haydn
Mathias Haydn
Matthias Haydn was the father of two famous composers, Joseph and Michael Haydn...
.
Michael's early professional career path was paved by his older brother Joseph, whose skillful singing had landed him a position as a boy soprano
Boy soprano
A boy soprano is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range. Although a treble, or choirboy, may also be considered to be a boy soprano, the more colloquial term boy soprano is generally only used for boys who sing, perform, or record as soloists, and who may not necessarily...
in the St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna where he worked as a chorister, under the direction of Georg Reutter. Other singers in that choir included Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger was an Austrian musician who was born at Klosterneuburg, near Vienna.He originally studied music at Melk Abbey and philosophy at a Benedictine seminary in Vienna and became one of the most learned and skillful contrapuntists of his age...
and Franz Joseph Aumann
Franz Joseph Aumann
Franz Joseph Aumann was an Austrian composer. Before his voice broke, he sang in the same Viennese choir as Michael Haydn and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, composers with whom he later in life traded manuscripts...
, both composers with whom Haydn later traded manuscripts. The early 19th century author Albert Christoph Dies
Albert Christoph Dies
-As painter:He was born at Hanover , and began his studies there. For one year he studied in the academy of Düsseldorf, and then he started at the age of twenty with thirty ducats in his pocket for Rome, studying briefly on the way in Mannheim and Basel. In Rome he lived a frugal life till 1796;...
, reporting from Joseph's late-life reminiscences, says the following:
- "Reutter was so captivated by [Joseph]'s talents that he declared to the father that even if he had twelve sons, he would take care of them all. The father saw himself freed of a great burden by this offer, consented to it, and some five years after dedicated Joseph's brother Michael and still later JohannJohann Evangelist HaydnJohann Evangelist Haydn was a tenor singer of the classical era; the younger brother of the composers Joseph Haydn and Michael Haydn. He was often called "Hansl", a diminutive form of "Johann"....
to the musical muse. Both were taken on as choirboys, and, to Joseph's unending joy, both brothers were turned over to him to be trained."
The same source indicates that Michael was a brighter student than Joseph, and that (particularly when Joseph had grown enough to have trouble keeping his soprano voice), it was Michael's singing that was the more admired.
Shortly after he left the choir-school, Michael was appointed Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
at Nagyvárad (Großwardein, Oradea
Oradea
Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...
) and later, in 1762, at Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
. The latter office he held for forty-three years, during which time he wrote over 360 compositions for the church and much instrumental music.
On 17 August 1768 Haydn married the singer Maria Magdalena Lipp (1745–1827); they had a daughter, Aloisia Josefa in January 1770, but she died only a few days before her first birthday. Lipp was disliked by the women in Mozart's family. Still, Lipp had created the role of Barmherzigkeit (Divine Mercy) in Mozart's first musical play Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots (1767), and later the role of Tamiri in Il re pastore
Il re pastore
Il re pastore is an opera, K. 208, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Metastasio, edited by Gianbattista Varesco. It is an opera seria...
(1775). Leopold Mozart
Leopold Mozart
Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
criticized Haydn's alcoholism.
He was acquainted with Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, who had a high opinion of his work, and was the teacher of both Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
and Anton Diabelli
Anton Diabelli
Anton Diabelli was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer of Italian descent. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his set of thirty-three Diabelli Variations.-Early life:Diabelli was born in...
.
Michael remained close to Joseph all of his life. Joseph highly regarded his brother and felt that Michael's religious works were superior to his own. In 1802, when Michael was "offered lucrative and honourable positions" by "both Esterházy and the Grand Duke of Tuscany
Louis of Etruria
Louis was the first of only two Kings of Etruria.Louis was the son of Ferdinand, Duke of Parma and Maria Amalia of Austria, the second surviving daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor....
," he wrote to Joseph in Vienna asking for advice, though in the end he chose to stay in Salzburg. It has been hypothesized that Michael and Maria Magdalena named their daughter Josefa in honor of Michael's brother.
Michael Haydn died in Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
at the age of 68.
Works
Michael Haydn never compiled a thematic catalog of his works, nor did he ever supervise the making of one. The earliest catalog was compiled in 1808 by Nikolaus Lang for 'Biographische Skizze'. In 1907 Lothar Perger compiled a catalogue of his orchestral works, the Perger-VerzeichnisPerger-Verzeichnis
The Perger-Verzeichnis is a thematic-chronological catalogue of instrumental compositions by Michael Haydn, compiled by Lothar Perger in 1907...
, for 'Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich', which is somewhat more reliable than Lang's catalog. Thus, some of Haydn's instrumental works are referred to by Perger numbers. And in 1915 Anton Maria Klafsky undertook a similar work regarding the sacred vocal music. In 1982, Charles H. Sherman, who has edited scores of many Haydn symphonies for Doblinger, published a chronological catalog of Haydn's symphonies, which some recording companies have adopted. Later, in 1991, Sherman joined forces with T. Donley Thomas to publish a chronological catalog of all Haydn's music, which used a single continuous range of numbers, as does Köchel's
Ludwig Ritter von Köchel
Ludwig Alois Ferdinand Ritter von Köchel was a musicologist, writer, composer, botanist and publisher. He is best known for cataloguing the works of Mozart and originating the 'K-numbers' by which they are known ....
catalog of Mozart's music. Further important amendments to the Sherman/Thomas catalogue have been made by Dwight Blazin.
The task of cataloguing Haydn's music is simplified by the fact that he almost always put the date of completion on his manuscripts. Guesswork is necessary when the autograph manuscript of a given work did not survive to posterity.
Requiem (Mozart)
The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...
by Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Missa Hispanica
Missa Hispanica
Michael Haydn's Missa Hispanica or Missa a due cori, Kletzler I:17, MH 422, was presumably written for Spain, but there is no evidence of its ever having been performed there during Haydn's lifetime...
(which he exchanged for his diploma at Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
), a Mass
Mass (music)
The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
in D minor, a Lauda Sion, and a set of graduals, forty-two of which are reprinted in Anton Diabelli
Anton Diabelli
Anton Diabelli was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer of Italian descent. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his set of thirty-three Diabelli Variations.-Early life:Diabelli was born in...
's Ecclesiasticon. He was also a prolific composer of secular music, including forty symphonies
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
and partitas, a number of concerti
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
and chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
including a string quintet
String quintet
A string quintet is a musical composition for a standard string quartet supplemented by a fifth string instrument, usually a second viola or a second cello , but occasionally a double bass. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who favoured addition of a viola, is considered a pioneer of the form...
in C major which was once thought to have been by his brother Joseph.
There was another case of posthumous mistaken identity involving Michael Haydn: for many years, the piece which is now known as Michael Haydn's Symphony No. 25
Symphony No. 25 (Michael Haydn)
The Symphony No. 25 in G major, Perger 16, Sherman 25, MH 334 is a classical symphony that was composed by Michael Haydn in 1783, with a completion date of May 23. It is scored for flute , 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and strings....
was thought to be Mozart's Symphony No. 37
Symphony No. 37 (Mozart)
The so-called Symphony No. 37 in G major, K. 444/425a, is an introduction by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a symphony in G by Michael Haydn.- History :...
and assigned K. 444. The confusion arose because an autograph was discovered which had the opening movement of the symphony in Mozart's hand, and the rest in somebody else's. It is now thought that Mozart had composed a new slow introduction for reasons unknown, but the rest of the work is known to be by Michael Haydn. The piece, which had been quite widely performed as a Mozart symphony, has been performed considerably less often since this discovery in 1907.
Indeed, several of Michael Haydn's works influenced Mozart. To give just two examples: the Te Deum "which Wolfgang was later to follow very closely in K. 141" and the finale of the Symphony No. 23
Symphony No. 23 (Michael Haydn)
Michael Haydn's Symphony No. 23 in D major, Perger 43, Sherman 22, Sherman-adjusted 23, MH 287, is believed to have been written in Salzburg around 1779. It was attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Ludwig von Köchel's original catalog as K. 291....
which influenced the finale of the G major Quartet
String Quartet No. 14 (Mozart)
The String Quartet No. 14 in G major, K. 387, nicknamed the "Spring" quartet, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1782 while in Vienna. In the composer's inscription on the title page of the autograph score is stated: "li 31 di decembre 1782 in vienna". The work was perhaps edited in 1783...
, K. 387.
Instrumental music
- 1.1 Symphonies (43 symphonies + single movements of symphonies)
- 1.2 Concertos (12 concertos + 1 single movement)
- 1.3 Serenades (21 serenades, cassations, notturni and divertimenti)
- 1.4 Incidental music (1)
- 1.5 Ballets (3)
- 1.6 Dances (15 collections of Menuetti, 3 of Menuettini, 1 English Dances, 1 German Dances)
- 1.7 Marches (15 marches and fragments of marches)
- 1.8 Quintets (6)
- 1.9 Quartets (19)
- 1.10 Trio Sonatas (10)
- 1.11 Duo Sonatas (4)
- 1.12 Solo Sonatas (2)
- 1.13 Keyboard (19 compositions)
- 1.14 Unknown instrumentation (1)
Sacred vocal music
- 2.1 Antiphons (47)
- 2.2 Cantatas (5)
- 2.3 Canticles (65)
- 2.4 Graduals (130)
- 2.5 Hymns (16)
- 2.6 Masses (47)
- 2.7 Motets (7)
- 2.8 Offertories (65)
- 2.9 Oratorios (7)
- 2.10 Psalm settings (19)
- 2.11 Requiem (2, 1 completed only to the Kyrie, completed in 1839 by Paul Gunther Kronecker OSBOrder of Saint BenedictThe Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...
(1803–1847) ) - 2.12 Other (42)
Secular vocal music
- 3.1 Arias (8)
- 3.2 Canons (65)
- 3.3 Cantatas (14)
- 3.4 Part-songs (97)
- 3.5 Operas (1)
- 3.6 Serenatas (1)
- 3.7 Singspiele (11)
- 3.8 Songs (46)
External links
- The Michael Haydn Project — Biography, works, literature, etc. for Michael Haydn and his contemporaries
- Michael Haydn — MIDI filesMusical Instrument Digital InterfaceMIDI is an industry-standard protocol, first defined in 1982 by Gordon Hall, that enables electronic musical instruments , computers and other electronic equipment to communicate and synchronize with each other...
at Classical ArchivesClassical ArchivesClassical Archives is an online digital music store focused exclusively on classical music. Originally opening as the Classical MIDI Archives in 1994 primarily as a repository for free MIDI sequences of classical music works, in August, 2000 the site incorporated as Classical Archives, LLC, and... - "Jubilaeumsmesse" in MP3-Format (creative commons licence)