I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son (W A Mozart)is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition.

50 No. Haydn took up the position though only on a part-time basis. According to Haydn's later reminiscences his childhood family was extremely musical and frequently sang together and with their neighbours.

Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life he was as he put it "forced to become original". Franz Joseph Haydn (pron.