Haydn, Joseph
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Comment by Ron Lambright on November 13th, 2013 at 10:35 pm
Your comment that Haydn’s last words were comforting his servants right before he was killed by Napoleon’s army does not line up with other resources that I have read. For example, “Understanding Music”, by Jeremy Yudkin (Prentice Hall) states in the 5th edition on page 178, “Vienna was under siege by the French army a the time, but Napoleon posted a guard of honor outside Haydn’s house to pay homage to the greatest composer of the age.” Can you verify your information from other source material?
Comment by Jennifer Tanabe on November 14th, 2013 at 6:11 pm
Thank you, Ron, for your feedback. You are quite correct that Haydn did not die as a result of being killed by Napoleon’s army. In fact, he died a couple of weeks later. He did, however, make effort to reassure his servants during the attack and these were among his last words since he was extremely frail at the time. The text will be revised to clarify the details of the events close to his death. Thank you again for taking the time to comment, and the make NWE a valuable information resource.
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