A true tale of what happened to Haydn's head - Part the first

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@myklj999 posted about giving away one record and later being given a whole heap of classical recordings. You can catch up here: It brought to mind a story about Joseph Haydn who was born Franz Joseph Haydn (pronounced hidin’) in Rohrau Austria, on 31 March 1732. Because of his beautiful high, clear voice as a chorister he nearly joined the ranks of the ‘castrati’. Thankfully his father intervened. He was affectionately known as ‘Papa’ Haydn by his many pupils and protégées as he had no real enemies – although he hated his wife, a feeling reciprocated by her! She would use his half-written scores as papers to curl her hair. After leaving the choir, Haydn obtained a very satisfactory post with the ruling Esterhazy family. He was highly respected by his employers and was able to insist that the marble floor of the concert room be ripped up and replaced with a acoustically superior wooden floor. Haydn died on 31 May 1809 as Vienna came under intense bombardment from Napoleon’s troops. Napoleon ordered an honour guard be placed outside Haydn’s home where he lay on his death bed. On June 15, Haydn was buried in Hundsthrum churchyard. And this is where the story gets interesting... Johann Nepomuk Peters, governor of the provincial prison, was an amateur phrenologist with a keen interest in the idea that a person’s mental capacities could be determined by aspects of their cranial anatomy ie the bumps on their head. Peters bribed city officials to turn a blind eye and hired two grave robbers to dig up Haydn’s body and remove the head. The head was boiled and carefully scraped clean, after which Peter satisfied himself that the ‘bumps of music’ were very much in evidence. But what to do with the skull now? While removing the head had been difficult enough, it was almost impossible to return it to its body. So Peters put it in a box and when the war ended he gave it to Prince Esterhazy’s secretary. Rosenbaum thought it best to keep his new acquisition under wraps, as it were, however his wife was very pleased with their new ‘ornament’ and proudly exhibited it in a purpose-built display cabinet. A great conversation piece for her musical soirees! Although there was no particular secrecy about the skull, Prince Esterhazy remained unaware of the theft until 1820, when he decided to move Haydn’s remains to his private chapel at Eisenstadt. When the coffin was opened, lo and behold – no head!! I’ll put the rest in a new discussion as there is a limit to how much some topics can be abbreviated. The photo is of Haydn.