ant piece of good
fortune befell him. At the time of which we are writing the Court
Capellmeister at Vienna was George Reutter, an inexhaustible composer
of church music, whose works, now completely forgotten, once had a great
vogue in all the choirs of the Imperial States. Even in 1823 Beethoven,
who was to write a mass for the Emperor Francis, was recommended to
adopt the style of this frilled and periwigged pedant! Reutter's father
had been for many years Capellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna,
and on his death, in 1738, the son succeeded to the post. He had not
been long established in the office when he started on a tour of search
for choristers. Arriving at Hainburg, he heard from the local pastor of
Haydn's "weak but pleasing voice," and immediately had the young singer
before him.

A Musical Examination

The story of the examination is rather amusing. Reutter gave the little
fellow a canon to sing at first sight. The boy went though the thing
triumphantly, and the delighted Reutter cried "Bravo!" as he flung a
handful of cherries into Haydn's cap. But there was one point on which
Reutter was not quite satisfied. "How is it, my little man," he said,
"that you cannot shake?" "How can you expect me to shake," replied the
enfant terrible, "when Herr Frankh himself cannot shake?" The great
man was immensely tickled by the ready retort, and, drawing the child
towards him, he taught him how to make the vibrations in his throat
required to produce the ornament. The boy picked up the trick at once.
It was the final decision of his fate. Reutter saw that here was a
recruit worth having, and he lost no time in getting the parents'
sanction to carry him off to Vienna. In the father's case this was
easily managed, but the mother only yielded when it was pointed out that
her son's singing in the cathedral choir did not necessarily mean the
frustration of her hopes of seeing him made a priest.

Goes to Vienna

Thus, some time in the year 1740, Reutter marched away from Hainburg
with the little Joseph, and Hainburg knew the little Joseph no more.
Vienna was now to be his home for ten long years of dreary pupilage
and genteel starvation. In those days, and for long after, St Stephen's
Cathedral was described as "the first church in the empire," and it is
still, with its magnificent spire, the most important edifice in Vienna.
Erected in 1258 and 1276 on the site of a church dating from 1144,
it was not finally comp