Harper's Young People, September 26, 1882 / An Illustrated Weekly

YOUNG HAYDN SINGING BEFORE THE TWO GREAT MUSICIANS.

One day nearly a hundred and fifty years ago two elderly gentlemen were dining together in an old house in Hamburg, Germany. They were music-masters of great note in those days. Herr Franck was the host; the guest was Herr Reuter, Capellmeister at Vienna. Their conversation very naturally was on music, and the new and old musicians, singers, and conductors. Suddenly Franck declared he had in his house a prodigy, a boy of nine, whom he had brought from the country. Reuter was delighted. The boy was summoned from the kitchen, where he was dining with the cook, and no doubt enjoying his Sunday pudding with great relish, for he worked hard and did not fare too well.
I like to think of that picture: the old wainscoted dining-room, the grave musicians looking up from their dinner as the door opened on a small dark-haired, brown-skinned boy, a dainty, delicately modelled child, who came in shyly, and stood at a distance from the table, with his hands behind him, and his head bent down, until his teacher, Herr Franck, bade him sing. And then the boy's voice broke all the bonds of restraint. He threw back his little head and sang. It was an irrepressible burst of melody, and Reuter, the old master, sprang up, exclaiming, He shall come to my choir; he is just what I want.
It was a wonderful step onward for the child; but Reuter little knew the future of the boy whom he took that day, and never dreamed that his name, Francis Joseph Haydn, would be famous in every civilized country of the world.
Reuter carried young Haydn off to Vienna, where he was placed in the cathedral choir, and where his sweet young voice, a marvellous soprano, filled all the town with delight. His parents gave him freely in charge to old Reuter; but the master was selfish and exacting. The boy longed to compose, but Reuter refused to allow him to take lessons in composition, and made him give his whole time to choir practice. Haydn had very little money, but he hoarded every penny for a long time, and when he was thirteen years old he purchased two treatises on music, and having studied them diligently, actually composed a mass.