Mathias Haydn

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Mathias Haydn (31 January 1699 – September 1763) was the father of two well-known composers, Joseph and Michael Haydn.

He served as a wheelwright in Rohrau, Austria, where he also served as Marktrichter, an office similar to village mayor.

Life

Mathias (or Matthias) was born in Hainburg, a small town not far from Rohrau. His ancestors lived in this village, which had a turbulent past; his paternal grandparents, in particular, were fatal civilian casualties in the town's Turkish occupation in 1683. Thomas Haydn, his father, was also a wheelwright. The material wealth of the family seems to have grown with each generation: the grandfather, who was also a wheelwright, began as a "burgknecht," i.e. "A day laborer with a permanent residence"; Thomas, the composer, built himself a house and was formally a "citizen" of Hainburg; Mathias himself rose to the rank of Marktrichter in Rohrau and owned farmland as well as a house; and Mathias' uncle Joseph, the composer, died of a large house in Vienna and died with a large fortune.

Mathias served an apprenticeship in Hainburg as a wheelwright in his youth, and then in 1717, he began to travel by the journeyman. He lived in Frankfurt, Main, for ten years. He returned to Hainburg (1722), a fact that is unclear because he asked for a copy of his birth certificate.

On his last return in 1727, he became a master wheelwright and joined the Hainburg guild of wheelwrights. Nevertheless, he settled in Rohrau, where he erected a house for himself. Maria Koller, 21, who had served as an "under-cook" in the palace of Count Harrach, Rohrau's aristocratic patron, married him the following year. The couple had twelve children, six of whom died in infancy. The six children who lived to adulthood were as follows (baptismal names that were not used in later life were not appropriate).

Maria Koller Haydn died on February 22, 1754, at the age of 47. Mathias remarried in the following year, to "his servant girl of nineteen," who bore Maria Anna Seeder's maiden name. Five children were born in the second marriage, none of whom lived to adulthood.

Mathias lived until 1763. Both of his composer sons made it to a successful career, and Joseph was appointed Vice-Kapellmeister (in fact, Kapellmeister in any but name) for Eisenstadt's stunningly wealthy Esterházy family. Georg August Griesinger, a Haydn biographer, wrote (1810):

Mathias' death is chronicled by the grievancesinger, who goes on to describe how Mathias died: he goes on.

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Launching his sons' careers

Mathias, along with his partner Maria, was also responsible for the birth of his sons' careers as professional musicians. Griesinger and Dies narrate the important events (in the case of Joseph) in a rather different manner.

Here is Griesinger's account:

Hainburg is eleven kilometers (seven miles) from Rohrau. Joseph came from Vienna three years later to become a trained chorister under Georg Reutter, but he would never return home with his parents.

Biographer Dies tells the same tale (presumably also on the basis of Joseph Haydn's instructions) as follows:

Joseph had reached the age of six when he was forced to leave his birthplace and fly to Hainburg, a small town not far off. He was sent to the Regent chori, who had to lead the young boy on the virtuoso's path.

As can be seen, biographers disagree whether it was an unknown local schoolmaster (Dies) or Franck herself (Griesinger) who advised Haydn's parents to send their son to Franck. They also disagreed on whether the parents wished musical education with the belief that it would help their son become a Catholic priest (Griesinger), or whether they reluctantly gave up on their hopes for a clerical career for Joseph and instead let him pursue a musical one (Dies). In those cases of conflict, Haydn biographers tend to believe Griesinger.

Haydn's career as a chorister had been halted (by puberty, i.e. Haydn's parents insisted that he train as a priest, but that Joseph triumphed.

Michael's path began more straightforwardly as Joseph's singing career paved the way for Michael's.

According to Dies:

Johann did not become a composer, like Joseph or Michael, but he served in the Esterházy household as a tenant; his contribution may have been paid by Joseph.

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