The name of the composer Joseph Haydn had many forms, following customs of naming prevalent in his time.
The name of the composer Joseph Haydn had many forms, following customs of naming prevalent in his time.
Haydn was baptized shortly after his birth, on 1 April 1732. The baptismal record indicates that he was given the names Franciscus Josephus; these are Latinized versions of the German names Franz Joseph, often used today to refer to Haydn. [1]
Both Franz and Joseph are names of saints whose saint's days fell close to Haydn's birth date. The choice of such saint's names followed the common practice of Roman Catholicism (the parents' religion) in Haydn's time. Franz designates the saint Francis of Paola, whose saint's day is 2 April, and Joseph designates Joseph the husband of Mary, whose saint's day is 19 March. [1]
In later life, Haydn "hardly ever" used the name Franz. Jones explains the situation thus: "As was frequently the practice in Austria, Haydn's parents gave their children two Christian names, the second of which was routinely used." [1]
Although Haydn normally called himself Joseph Haydn, he also used two foreign-language versions of his name. On legal documents and letters, he often used the Latinized version Josephus; an example is his Autobiographical sketch. In musical contexts—such as the signature on manuscripts of his music—Haydn referred to himself with the Italian version of his name, which is Giuseppe. [1] Haydn was himself a fluent speaker of Italian (since in his employment he worked constantly with musicians from Italy) and evidently felt that Italian as the "language of music" was the appropriate choice for rendering his name in musical contexts. [2]
As a child Haydn was addressed with a diminutive form of his name, Sepperl. [3] This form employs the Austrian diminutive suffix -erl, seen elsewhere, for instance, in the childhood name of Mozart's sister Nannerl. The base form Sepp likely originates in an infantile pronunciation of the second syllable of Joseph.
Contemporary practice by English-language writers concerning Haydn's name varies, particularly in the (ahistorical) use of his first name. Some commercial sources, for example on recordings and published scores, employ Franz Joseph Haydn. Other publishers, [4] and most scholarly researchers, follow Haydn's own practice and omit the "Franz". [5] Haydn scholar James Webster, in the opening of his article on Haydn in the New Grove, goes so far as to encourage his readers to drop the "Franz": "Neither [Haydn] nor his contemporaries used the name Franz, and there is no reason to do so today." [5]
The patterns of English usage can be observed in the reports of the Google Ngram Viewer, which analyzes a large corpus of books, matches particular sequences of characters and gives the results on a year-by-year basis. According to the Ngram Viewer counts, "Franz Joseph Haydn" was not used in English-language books at all before about 1860, but since then it has undergone a gentle ascent and is to this day a solid minority choice, though still falling well behind the most frequent usage, "Joseph Haydn". [6]
English-language authors also occasionally use "Josef Haydn" (with or without "Franz"). The spelling of "Joseph" with an f was not found in Haydn's day but is an adaptation of "Joseph" to what is now the normal spelling for this name in German. The change within German to "Josef" can be seen in the Ngram Viewer data for German-language books, where "Josef Haydn" starts to appear only around 1860, long after Haydn's lifetime (indeed, according to the same source, the spelling "Josef" as applied to any person is largely a post-1860 development). [7] [8]
Even in German-language works, "Josef" is still a minority choice in referring to the composer, as authors tend to favor the historical spelling. For German books "Josef" peaked around the end of World War II and plunged to a low but steady level shortly thereafter.
Franz Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led him to be called "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String quartet".
Kapellmeister, from German Kapelle (chapel) and Meister (master), literally "master of the chapel choir", designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term has evolved considerably in its meaning and is today used for denoting the leader of a musical ensemble, often smaller ones used for TV, radio, and theatres.
Johann Michael Haydn was an Austrian composer of the Classical period, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn.
An urtext edition, of a work of classical music is a printed version intended to reproduce the original intention of the composer as exactly as possible, without any added or changed material. Other kinds of editions distinct from urtext are facsimile and interpretive editions, discussed below.
Howard Chandler Robbins Landon was an American musicologist, journalist, historian and broadcaster, best known for his work in rediscovering the huge body of neglected music by Haydn and in correcting misunderstandings about Mozart.
"Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser", also called the "Kaiserhymne", was a personal anthem to Francis II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and later of the Austrian Empire, with lyrics by Lorenz Leopold Haschka (1749–1827) and music by Joseph Haydn.
The composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart went by many different names in his lifetime. This resulted partly from the church traditions of the day, and partly from Mozart being multilingual and freely adapting his name to other languages.
Rohrau is a village in the state of Lower Austria. The name comes from two German words: Rohr (reed) and Au. South of the village is a riparian forest and a swamp covered with reed.
The String Quartet No. 20 in D major, K. 499, was written in 1786 in Vienna by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was published by – if not indeed written for – his friend Franz Anton Hoffmeister. Because of this, the quartet has acquired the nickname Hoffmeister. Hoffmeister had started issuing a series of chamber-music publications in 1785, including Mozart's K. 499 as well as Joseph Haydn's String Quartet No. 35, Op. 42.
Johann Adam Joseph Karl Georg Reutter, during his life known as Georg Reutter the Younger was an Austrian composer. According to David Wyn Jones, in his prime he was "the single most influential musician in Vienna".
Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy was a Hungarian prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family. His building of palaces, extravagant clothing, and taste for opera and other grand musical productions led to his being given the title "the Magnificent". He is remembered as the principal employer of the composer Joseph Haydn.
The Vienna Boys' Choir is a choir of boy sopranos and altos based in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the best known boys' choirs in the world. The boys are selected mainly from Austria, but also from many other countries.
G. Henle Verlag is a German music publishing house specialising in Urtext editions of classical music. The catalogue includes works by composers from different epochs periods, in particular composers from the Baroque to the early twentieth century whose works are no longer subject to copyright. In addition to sheet music, G. Henle Publishers also produces scholarly complete editions, books, reference works, and journals. Since 1995, Henle the range also includes pocket scores. In 2016 Henle began offering the Urtext editions in digital format in an app for iOS and Android tablets.
Mathias Haydn was the father of two famous composers, Joseph and Michael Haydn. He worked as a wheelwright in the Austrian village of Rohrau, where he also served as Marktrichter, an office akin to village mayor.
The skull of composer Joseph Haydn was stolen shortly after his death in 1809. The perpetrators were identified, but went unpunished. The skull was kept separate from the rest of Haydn's remains for a period of about 145 years.
The Symphony No. 37 in C major, Hob. I/37, is a symphony by Franz Joseph Haydn. The numbering is completely misleading, as it is clearly one of Haydn's earliest symphonies. A copy of the score found at Český Krumlov, Czech Republic, is dated 1758. It can be presumed it was written for the orchestra of Count Morzin, in which Haydn was employed until February 1761.
Georg Reutter was an Austrian organist, theorbo player, and composer.
The six string quartets Op. 20 by Joseph Haydn are among the works that earned Haydn the sobriquet "the father of the string quartet". The quartets are considered a milestone in the history of composition; in them, Haydn develops compositional techniques that were to define the medium for the next 200 years.
The Missa brevis in F major, Hob. XXII:1, is a mass by Joseph Haydn originally completed around 1750. According to Dack it is Haydn's "earliest authenticated work." It also represents some of the last of his compositional activity, as in his old age he spent some time attempting to revise it.
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