Haydn's two skulls

Over the ages, there have been many cases in which composers have been deified by certain groups of musicians, music lovers or ideological groups. In this context, we present one of the most interesting cases in the whole history of music and the end result of this deification for one of the most famous composers of all times, Joseph Haydn.

The birth of a genius

In the year 1732, one of Europe’s most celebrated and innovative composers was born in Rohrau. At the time, the small village of Rohrau belonged to the Archduchy of Austria, part of the Holy Roman Empire. Of course, at that point no one could have imagined the success that Joseph would enjoy as an adult, nor that he would lay the foundation stone for the most important stylistic period in the entire history of music, Classicism.

From early childhood, the composer’s parents were told that he was musically inclined and a promising talent. Unfortunately, in Haydn’s small home village, there were no opportunities for him to develop in this field.

Being a precocious talent, he was hired as a child in the Vienna Cathedral choir, but at the age of 17 he was dismissed because of a change in his voice, which is typical of adolescence, especially for boys.

Following a vocation

In 1749 he became a freelancer and began to study music theory and counterpoint on his own, which led to his first professional job offers. Although at first Haydn changed employers frequently, spending four years in the service of Baron Karl Josef von Fürnberg, where he composed his first quartets, and then two years as musical director in the service of Count Ferdinand Maximilian von Morzin in Lukawitz, it was not until 1761 that he took the position we know him for today, that of Kapellmeister in the service of the Eszterházy family.

In this position, Haydn enjoyed a period of artistic freedom, which allowed him to experiment a great deal with music, outlining new genres and a new orchestral structure. Perhaps his most important achievement during this period is the birth of the Symphony, a genre that is attributed to him to this day, and he is nicknamed the ‘Father of the Symphony’.

Career development

Haydn’s career blossomed as he began to work in the great capitals of Europe, first in Vienna and then, from 1790, in London, where he composed the famous cycle of 12 London Symphonies.

Under these circumstances, it is easy to understand why Haydn was a composer who was beloved and even deified by his contemporaries, whether they were composers or simple music lovers. Mozart even called him “Papa Haydn”, in gratitude for the crystallization of his symphonies and the symmetry of his works.

The beginning of the skull story

In 1809, after a long period of illness, Haydn died in Vienna on May 31. Because Vienna was occupied at the time by Napoleon’s troops, he did not have a lavish funeral, the ceremony being very short and simple. This is quickly speculated upon by Joseph Carl Rosenbaum, a former secretary of the Eszterházy family, and Johann Nepomuk Peter, governor of the provincial prison in Lower Austria.

The two bribe the gravedigger to cut off and steal the composer’s head, which he does not manage to remove from the coffin until June 4. It is then immediately handed over to Rosenbaum, who does not have a very pleasant reaction, being deeply disgusted by its condition.

But why did they want Haydn’s head? What could a prison secretary and governor do with it? What would be the motivation behind this rash gesture?

Science and Haydn’s head

We would be tempted to think that the two did it for the money, but that was not the real reason behind the macabre gesture. Because there had to be something at stake and perhaps even an ideal that would convince the two men that it was worth it to do this ‘extraction’, it was all done in the name of science.

During this period, the physicist Franz Joseph Gall developed a new pseudo-science called phrenology. It is important not to confuse it with Phenology, a branch of biology that studies the behavior of plants and some animals as a function of weather conditions.

Phrenology is a pseudoscience that involves measuring bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. It is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind and that certain areas of the brain have localized, specific functions or modules. The brain was said to be composed of different muscles, so those that are used more often are larger, resulting in different skull shapes

This provided a rationale for the common presence of bumps on the skull in different locations. Brain “muscles” that were not used as frequently remained small and therefore were not present on the outside of the skull. Although both ideas have a basis in reality, phrenology generalizes beyond empirical knowledge in a way that departs from science. The central idea of phrenology, that measuring the outline of the skull can predict personality traits, is discredited by empirical research.

The composer’s skull was studied for an hour, during which time it was found to have a fully developed ‘music bump’. However, instead of having it reburied after analysis, Peter kept it in his collection in a specially crafted wooden box for visitors to view.

How did the composer’s head go missing from the coffin?

In 1820, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II inadvertently remembered that he had forgotten to carry out his plan to transfer Haydn’s remains from Gumpendorf to the family residence in Eisenstadt. So he started all the procedures for the relocation, and upon exhumation, they found a corpse with a wig above the cut throat. Nikolaus was furious and began to investigate the circumstances surrounding this event.

After lengthy searches of the homes of the two perpetrators, who were suspected by Nikolaus himself, Rosenbaum hands over another skull to be placed with Haydn’s remains. From this moment on, the composer’s skull begins an adventure that seems inspired more by comic literature than reality.

After Rosenbaum’s death in 1829, the skull passed from hand to hand. Rosenbaum left the skull in his will to Peter, who gave it to his physician, Karl Heller, from whom it passed to a professor, Rokitansky, who in 1895 donated it to the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna. The musicologist Karl Geiringer, who had worked at the Society before Hitler, would sometimes proudly remove the relic and show it to visitors.

In 1932, Prince Paul Esterházy built a marble tomb for Haydn in the Bergkirche in Eisenstadt, at which time he tried to unite the composer’s remains, but without success. It was only in 1954 that the skull could be transferred in a splendid ceremony from the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde to this tomb, thus completing the 145-year burial process. When the composer’s skull was finally restored with the rest of his skeleton, the replacement skull was not removed. Thus, Haydn’s tomb now contains two skulls.

It is worth noting that Haydn was not the only composer to be targeted by this practice, a similar attempt that was probably intended for the same purpose took place 18 years later in the case of Beethoven. Fortunately, he did not meet the same fate as Haydn because, in his case, the attempt failed.