Joseph Haydn

Abstract The little we know about Haydn ‘s early life comes, for the most part, from three biographies that appeared soon after his death: Biographische Notizen uber Joseph Haydn by Georg August Griesinger, a Saxon diplomat; Biographische Nachrichten uber Joseph Haydn by Albert Christoph Dies, a landscape painter from Hanover; and Le Haydine, ovvere Lettere sulla vita e sulle opere del celebre Maestro Giuseppe Haydn by Giuseppe Antonio Carpani, a Lombard man of letters. Griesinger, Dies, and Carpani all knew Haydn in his last years in Vienna, and in general their books agree. There is reason, however, to question the accuracy of some of the old gentleman ‘s reminiscences, and one cannot be sure that the writers, all dilettantes in music, always understood him correctly. Carpani, moreover, has been suspected of embroidery.