Michael Haydn

(1737-1806)

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Johann Michael Haydn was an Austrian composer, the younger brother of (Franz) Joseph Haydn. He was born in the Austrian village of Rohrau near the ungarian border. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who also served as "Marktrichter", an office akin to village mayor.

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 in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, under the direction of Carl Georg Reutter. The early 19th century author Albert Christoph Dies, reporting from Joseph's late-life reminiscences, says 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 at Großwardein and later, in 1762, at Salzburg. The latter office he held for forty-three years, during which time he wrote over 360 compositions for the church and much instrumental music. He was acquainted with Mozart, who had a high opinion of his work, and the teacher of both Carl Maria von Weber and Anton Diabelli.

He remained close to Joseph all of his life, and was highly regarded by his brother, who felt that Michael's religious works were superior to his own.

Michael Haydn died in Salzburg at the age of 68.

Haydn's sacred choral works are generally regarded as being his most important, including the Requiem pro defuncto Archiepiscopo Sigismundo (Requiem for the death of Archbishop Siegmund) in C minor, which greatly influenced the Requiem by Mozart, Missa Hispanica (which he exchanged for his diploma at Stockholm), a Mass in D minor, a Lauda Sion, and a set of graduals, forty-two of which are reprinted in Anton Diabelli's Ecclesiasticon. He was also a prolific composer of secular music, including thirty symphonies and partitas, a number of concerti and chamber music including a string quintet in C major which was once thought to have been by his brother Joseph.

Michael Haydn was the victim of another case of posthumous mistaken identity: for many years, the piece which is now known as Michael Haydn's Symphony No. 25 was thought to be Mozart's Symphony No. 37 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.