Tadten (Hungarian: Tétény) where Haydn's great-grandfather lived
before he moved to Hainburg, was in the seventeenth century pre-
dominantly Hungarian. In 1659 the Bishop of Raab wrote about
Tadten: "All the members of the parish are Hungarian Lutherans
with the exception of a few German houses." ⁴ There has even been
an attempt by the Slav philologist Dedaelus to claim a gypsy origin
for Haydn. This induced Ernst Fritz Schmid to make elaborate genea-
logical researches, tracing the family names in German districts back
to the Middle Ages and studying the lists of inhabitants in the respec-
tive villages. His final conclusions confirm what had been maintained
before by French and German authors: ⁵ that there can be no doubt
that the Haydn and Koller families were of German origin.

But blood and race alone do not determine one's nationality. By
race Haydn was a German, by nationality an Austrian. He lived in
a melting pot of races, a country in which cultural elements from both
central and eastern Europe were fused together. It was quite natural
that he should be familiar with the way of life of the Croats and the
Hungarians. He heard their music from his childhood and attended
their festivities; he admired their artistic craftsmanship and the color
of their holiday garb. With the instinct of genius he absorbed all these
impressions and brought them to life in his music. The inner enrich-
ment that he owed to his acquaintance with the different cultures of
Austria and Hungary was more than a minor factor in making him
the great artist he was.

Great composers usually have someone of artistic or intellectual
leanings among their ancestors. Joseph Haydn, one of the most in-
dependent spirits of musical history, was exceptional also in this
respect. Going back to his great-grandfathers on both sides, we fail
to find among them a single musician or even one man who pursued
any kind of intellectual occupation. They all toiled with their hands,
as vinegrowers, farmers, wheelwrights, or millers. They were hard-
working, honest men whose infinite diligence, patience, and perti-
nacity succeeded in raising them from extreme poverty to well-
ordered circumstances and esteemed positions in the community.
This they achieved under the most difficult conditions, for war raged
almost continuously in that part of central Europe during the seven-

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