Categories
Classical Austrian

HAYDN, Joseph

Born in Rohrau, Lower Austria, March 31, 1732
Died in Vienna, May 31, 1809

What’s Haydn’s Name?

  • He was baptized Franciscus Josephus (Franz Joseph) Haydn, named after two saints whose feast days fell close to his birthday.
  • It was common in Austria at the time to give children two names and primarily use the second. Haydn rarely used the name Franz.1
  • Fun fact: His childhood nickname was Sepperl (“Sepp” from baby attempts to pronounce Joseph, “-erl” being an Austrian diminutive, cf. Mozart’s sister’s nickname Nannerl)2

Biography

Sources

  1. David Wyn Jones, The Life of Haydn (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 3.
  2. Karl Geiringer, Joseph Haydn: A Creative Life in Music (Berkely: University of California Press, 1983), 10.