h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When I submitted my entry about Joseph Haydn to peer review, I happened to mention in a conversation that Haydn's head had gone missing from his crypt shortly after his burial, not to be relocated and put with the rest of his remains until the 1950s.

Several researchers have commented on how interesting this story is, and urged me write this entry, and have encouraged me once they got a chance to write it.

One stumbling block has been that it's hard to imagine how prince Esterhazy could have been so sure that, when the chief architect of the theft offered a skull that he claimed was Haydn's, the Prince was sure it was not the right skull. But a second skull, which was later revealed to be equally bogus, was accepted.

The Prince in this case was Nikolaus II, who ruled from 1794 through 1833. He was at some level a musician -- a painting of him shows him with a clarinet. His father Anton had cut the Esterhazy musical establishment way back, sending Haydn into the role of a free agent, which accounted for Haydn's availability for Salomon's program of comncerts in England in the early 1790s.

Nikolaus wanted Haydn back in Eisenstadt, though on a part-time basis. The Prince's wife Maria sang the solos in at least of the six annual masses that Haydn composed for Eisenstadt. Initially, he treated haydn as a servant, which can't have been pleasant for Haydn. Gradually, though, Maria worked on her husband to make him more respectful toward the composer.

From 1803 on, Haydn grew increasingly infirm. The prince became very supportive, increasing his pension and paying for his medical expenses. His zeal in trying to locate Haydn's skull was a testament to his commitment to the composer. He erected a monument to Haydn at Eisenstadt.

Nikolaus had a bad relationship with Beethoven, whose Mass in C the Prince detested: "He wrote to Countess Zielinska, "Beethoven's music is unbearably ridiculous and detestable; I am not convinced it can ever be performed properly. I am angry and ashamed." Well, I personally think the Piece is second-rate. It gets performed nowadays because it is by Beethoven. Johann Nepomuk Hummel was one of Haydn's successors as Kappellmeister at Eisenstadt.

Karl Geiringer, a biographer of Haydn, wrote " "He was as complete an autocrat as his grandfather had been, but lacked the latter's charm, kindliness, and genuine understanding of music . . . contemporaries described the prince's nature as 'worthy of an Asiatic despot'"



Haydn did well to keep his temper when dealing with the four princes he served under....

Or, to put it another way, Haydn kept his head, at least until his death.