11 Facts About Michael Haydn

Johann Michael Haydn was an Austrian composer of the Classical period, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn.

Michael Haydn was born in 1737 in the Austrian village of Rohrau, near the Hungarian border.

In 1760 Michael Haydn was appointed Kapellmeister at Großwardein and later, in 1762, was appointed concertmaster at Salzburg, where he remained for 44 years, during which he wrote over 360 compositions comprising both church and instrumental music.

In Salzburg Michael Haydn taught young Carl Maria von Weber and Anton Diabelli.

In 1802, when Michael Haydn was "offered lucrative and honourable positions" by "both Esterhazy and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, " he wrote to Joseph in Vienna asking for advice on whether or not to accept any of them, but in the end chose to stay in Salzburg.

Related searches

Michael and Maria Magdalena Haydn named their daughter Aloisia Josepha not in honor of Michael's brother, but after Josepha Daubrawa von Daubrawaick, who substituted as godmother at the baptism for Countess de Firmian.

Musicologist Karl Geiringer has claimed that Michael Haydn has not received the recognition he deserves from posterity, taking the view that his church music, his choruses for male voices, and many of his instrumental works are on a respectable level and ought to be revived.

Michael Haydn never compiled a thematic catalog of his works, nor did he ever supervise the making of one.

Task of cataloging Michael Haydn's music is facilitated by the fact that he almost always entered the date of completion on his manuscripts.

Michael Haydn wrote several settings of the mass ordinary in German by Franz Seraph von Kohlbrenner, named Deutsches Hochamt.

Michael Haydn was a prolific composer of secular music, including 41 symphonies and wind partitas, and multiple concertos and chamber music including a string quintet in C major once thought to have been by his brother Joseph.