How music grew, from prehistoric times to the present dayPeyser, Ethel R. (Ethel Rose)
History
How music grew, from prehistoric times to the present day
Peyser, Ethel R. (Ethel Rose)
Music -- History and criticism; Musicians
One time at a festival the drummer failed to appear and there was no one
who could play for the choristers who were to march through the town.
His teacher, Frankh, called Joseph and showed him how to make the drum
stroke and told him to practice it. When he was left by himself he found
a meal tub, over which he stretched a cloth, put it on a stool and
drummed with such vigor that the whole thing toppled over and he and his
drum were covered with meal! But he learned to drum! And the people
laughed when in this solemn church festival, the little six year old
Joseph was seen drumming the big drum carried by a hunchback in front of
him. The drums on which he played are still at Hainburg. But, we forget,
we have not brought him from Rohrau!
Not long before J. M. Frankh, a relative, came to visit the Haydns, and
it was decided that he should take Joseph to Hainburg to teach him. The
excitement, of course, was great and little Joseph felt very important
with all the hustle and bustle preparing for his departure. Little did
Saperle (his nickname) realize what a hard master he was getting in
Frankh, who only cared for the pay he received from Joseph’s father.
Nevertheless he learned much and showed great talent while at Hainburg
and one day a great thing happened. Reutter, the organist of St.
Stephen’s in Vienna, visited Frankh and as they talked of music the
conversation turned to the choir school which Reutter directed. Frankh
sent for Joseph, a slight, dark haired, dark eyed little boy, and
Reutter asked him to read a piece of music at sight. Joseph looked at it
and said: “How can I, when my teacher couldn’t?” Yet, Joseph did sing it
sweetly and he entered the choir school. Here his life was a misery, for
Reutter was harsh and unsympathetic, but soon Joseph’s hard life in the
choir school was over, for one very cold winter night, he felt a little
frisky, as many a healthy lad does, and pulled off the wig of a man in
the choir. Reutter, who had wanted an excuse to rid himself of Joseph,
because his voice had begun to break, threw him out into the cold. Poor
Saperle had no other place to go and wandered about all night, until he
met his acquaintance Spangler, a tenor who was very poor and so had
sympathy with Haydn. He took him home to live with him and his wife and
child in his attic,—one small room with no comfort and no privacy. All
this time young Haydn was forced to earn his daily bread by teaching as
much as he could, playing for weddings, baptisms, funerals, festivals,
dances and street serenadings. This street serenading was a sweet and
pretty custom of the time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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