Franz Joseph Haydn : The Story of the Choir Boy who became a Great Composer — John Shaqi
Franz Joseph Haydn : The Story of the Choir Boy who became a Great ComposerTapper, Thomas
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Franz Joseph Haydn : The Story of the Choir Boy who became a Great Composer
Tapper, Thomas
Haydn, Joseph, 1732-1809 -- Juvenile literature
[Illustration: WASHINGTON LEAVING HOME]
Little Joseph Haydn's father and mother were poor, but they loved
cleanliness and system.
They feared God, worked hard, and loved music. Joseph's father used to
sing in a clear tenor voice, accompanying himself on the harp. At home
little Joseph was called Sepperl.
When the child was old enough, he, too, began to sing. He quite
surprised everyone by his sweet voice.
In the neighboring town of Hainburg there lived a schoolmaster named
Frankh, who used to visit the Haydns and play the violin. Sepperl used
to watch him very closely, and one day he, too, began to play the violin
while his father and mother were singing. But he had no real violin, of
course, so he had to play on a make-believe one of two sticks. But he
sang in tune and kept time with his wooden bow.
[Illustration: SEPPERL PLAYING ON TWO STICKS]
One day the schoolmaster chanced to come up the street while the little
boy was playing his make-believe music. Watching him closely, he saw
that he was really fond of music.
Then Cousin Frankh, as they called him, had a long talk with Sepperl's
father and mother. After a while it was agreed that the little boy
should go to Hainburg (the place you found on the map), and there become
a pupil of the schoolmaster.
They worked hard at the school in those days. Once, when Haydn was an
old man, he said: "I shall be grateful to that man (the schoolmaster) as
long as I live, for keeping me so hard at work. But I used to get more
floggings than food."
When he was six years old, Sepperl could "stand up like a man" and sing
masses in the church choir, besides playing a little on the piano and
the violin.
It once happened that a drummer was needed in a procession in Hainburg.
Frankh called Sepperl, and showed him how to make the stroke. But the
boy was so small that someone had to carry the drum for him, Sepperl
following up and beating it as he had been taught. Haydn was very fond
of playing the drums, and even as a boy tried to learn how to play
right.
[Illustration: HAYDN DRUMMING]
But Joseph Haydn was to do other things.
One day a man from Vienna visited the pastor of the Hainburg Church. He
heard the little boy sing and liked his voice so much that he invited
him to become a chorister in the huge Church of St. Stephen. He was
eight years old when he arrived in the great city of Vienna, still a
little farther away from home than he was at Hainburg.
There was much else to do in the great church beside singing in the
choir. There were music studies, of course, in singing, violin and piano
playing. But there were also school studies to be learned every day.
These were Religion, Latin, Writing and Arithmetic.
[Illustration: ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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