A Croatian Composer by W. H. Hadow

Name: A Croatian Composer
Author: W. H. Hadow

W. H. Hadow's "A Croatian Composer" (1897) argues, against the unanimous verdict of Haydn's biographers, that Joseph Haydn was ethnically Croatian rather than German, drawing almost entirely on the research of Dr. František Š. Kuhač, whose South Slavonic folksong collection and pamphlet on Haydn supply nearly all of the essay's evidence. Hadow opens by establishing a general principle: national character pervades all art, including music, despite music's seemingly abstract vocabulary of scales and forms. Composers are misclassified by nationality more often than is realized—Mozart's Italian debts, Chopin's and Liszt's absorption into "German" music history—because records are imperfect and ethnological care is lacking. Haydn, he contends, is the most striking case of such misattribution: his sentiment, humour, rhythmic irregularity, and metrical variety have no real parallel among German composers, but align closely with Slavonic, specifically Croatian, folk idiom. The essay then builds its case in stages. First, it defends Croatian culture against the era's stereotype of the Croats as mere mercenaries, describing a genuinely musical peasant nation whose artistic life was suppressed for two centuries under Austrian rule as a militarized "barrack-state," then revived from the 1830s by Ljudevit Gaj and later Bishop Strossmayer. Second, it traces a large Croatian migration into Lower Austria and western Hungary from the 15th–16th centuries, showing that the district around Rohrau, Hainburg, and Eisenstadt—Haydn's home region—was heavily Croatian in population, and that numerous composers of the area (Hummel, Liszt, Joachim, and others) came from this same Slavonic colony, many having Germanized or Italianized their original names. Turning to biography, Hadow examines Haydn's family name (Haiden/Hayden, a common Croatian surname) and its geographic distribution, his mother's maiden name (Koller, plausibly a Germanization of the Croatian "Kolar"), and physical and temperamental traits—humour, piety, love of sport—that he claims mark Haydn as a Slavonic peasant type rather than a German one. The bulk of the essay is musical demonstration. Hadow, via Kuhač, presents numerous side-by-side melodic comparisons between Haydn compositions (symphonies, quartets, concertos) and specific Croatian, Dalmatian, and Servian folk tunes and dance forms (notably the Kolo), arguing that Haydn borrowed openings or whole phrases while characteristically improving their weaker cadences and endings. A key case study is a lost German-texted "Mass" allegedly written for Prince Esterházy's benefit at Maria Zell, reconstructed from seven melodies recorded by Alois Russwurm, each traced to a specific Croatian source tune. The essay's climactic argument concerns the Austrian national anthem: Hadow reproduces Haydn's autograph sketches to show the anthem's melody evolving directly out of a Croatian folk tune ("Stal se jesem"), with Haydn extending, correcting, and reharmonizing its cadences—offered as proof that even Haydn's most solemn, official composition was built on Slavonic material. Hadow closes by rejecting any charge of plagiarism, insisting Haydn's originality lies in transformation, not theft, and situates the argument within a broader plea for musical nationalism: he surveys the contemporary rise of Slavonic composers (Glinka, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Smetana, Dvořák) and uses Croatia's artistic reawakening under Habsburg-era Germanization pressures as a spur to English readers, urging them to cultivate their own native musical idiom rather than deferring to foreign models. The essay ends with appendices (not detailed here) supporting the historical and onomastic claims.

By W. H. Hadow · First published 1897 · Genre: Music History, Musicology, Biography · 13,155 words

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_A small return for much assistance and encouragement_

PREFACE.

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A Croatian Composer is listed on Textopian as an article by W. H. Hadow, dated 1897 CE.

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Work type: Article
Author: W. H. Hadow
Date: 1897 CE
Language: English
Genres: Music History, Musicology, Biography, Cultural History, Scholarly Essay
Length: 13,155 words
Structure: 1 section, 175 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)

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Genres

Music History — The essay's primary subject is the historical relationship between Haydn's compositional methods and Croatian folk music traditions, tracing influences and establishing Haydn's place within music history through detailed musical analysis.
Musicology — The work employs systematic musicological analysis, comparing specific melodic themes in Haydn's symphonies and quartets with documented Croatian folksongs to establish scholarly proof of cultural influence.
Biography — Substantial biographical material details Haydn's birth, family lineage, parents' names, his early musical education, employment at Eisenstadt, and personal characteristics, arguing that his origins and life circumstances shaped his artistic identity.
Cultural History — The essay extensively documents the history of the Croatian people, their migration patterns, settlement in Austria, cultural suppression under Austrian rule, and their musical traditions as a national people.

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