Johann Evangelist Haydn

Who was Johann Evangelist Haydn?

Johann Evangelist Haydn was a tenor singer of the classical era; the younger brother of the composers Joseph Haydn and Michael Haydn. He was often called "Hansl", a diminutive form of "Johann".

Johann was the eleventh child of Mathias Haydn and Anna Maria Koller Haydn. His career training may have been mixed. According to Albert Christoph Dies, an early biographer of Joseph Haydn, Johann followed his older brothers in serving as a choirboy in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. However, Rosemary Hughes indicates that Johann was also trained in the profession of his father Mathias, namely that of wheelwright.

Hughes describes Johann as "delicate and quite incapable of carrying on his father's business." In 1763, Johann's father died, leaving a will that specified an early financial distribution to Johann, prior to the formal division of the estate; as Jones suggests, this indicates that he was not yet able to support himself. In 1765, after his stepmother had remarried, Johann left home and joined his brother Joseph, who by this time was employed in Eisenstadt as Kapellmeister to the Esterházy family. Joseph took his younger brother into his home and found him a position as a tenor in the Esterházys' church choir. Johann worked without pay, supported by his brother, for six years, after which he drew a small salary, which Joseph supplemented.