Editing Joseph Haydn (section)

=== Struggles as a freelancer ===
By 1749, Haydn had matured physically to the point that he was no longer able to sing high choral parts. Empress [[Maria Theresa]] herself complained to Reutter about his singing, calling it "crowing".<ref name=Dies1810_89>{{harvnb|Dies|1810|loc=(in the English translation from {{harvnb|Gotwals|1963|p=89}}).}}</ref> One day, Haydn carried out a prank, snipping off the pigtail of a fellow chorister.{{r|Dies1810_89}} This was enough for Reutter: Haydn was first [[Caning|caned]], then summarily dismissed and sent into the streets.{{sfn|Geiringer|1982|p=27}} He had the good fortune to be taken in by a friend, Johann Michael Spangler,<ref>Or "Spängler" (1722–1794) {{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.musiklexikon.ac.at/ml/musik_S/Spangler_Familie.xml|title=Spangler (eig. Spängler), Familie|trans-title=Spangler (really Spängler), family|author1=Barbara Boisits|author1-link=:de:Barbara Boisits|author2=Christian Fastl|language=de|encyclopedia=[[Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon]]|date=13 September 2018|access-date=13 August 2023}}</ref> who shared his family's crowded garret room with Haydn for a few months. Haydn immediately began his pursuit of a career as a freelance musician.

[[File:Dolní Lukavice castle 01.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Morzin Palace, Dolní Lukavice]], Czech Republic]]
Haydn struggled at first, working at many different jobs: as a music teacher, as a street serenader, and eventually, in 1752, as valet-accompanist for the Italian composer [[Nicola Porpora]], from whom he later said he learned "the true fundamentals of composition".{{sfn|Larsen|1980|p=8}} He was also briefly in [[Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz]]'s employ, playing the organ in the Bohemian Chancellery chapel at the [[Judenplatz]].<ref>[[Rita Steblin]], "Haydns Orgeldienste 'in der damaligen Gräfl. Haugwitzischen Kapelle{{'"}}, in: ''Wiener Geschichtsblätter'' 65/2000, pp. 124–134.</ref>

While a chorister, Haydn had not received any systematic training in music theory and composition. As a remedy, he worked his way through the [[counterpoint]] exercises in the text ''[[Gradus ad Parnassum]]'' by [[Johann Joseph Fux]] and carefully studied the work of [[Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach]], whom he later acknowledged as an important influence.<ref name="Geiringer30">{{Harvnb|Geiringer|1982|p=30}}</ref> He said of CPE Bach's first six keyboard sonatas, "I did not leave my clavier till I played them through, and whoever knows me thoroughly must discover that I owe a great deal to Emanuel Bach, that I understood him and have studied him with diligence." According to [[Georg August Griesinger|Griesinger]] and Dies, in the 1750s Haydn studied an encyclopedic treatise by [[Johann Mattheson]], a German composer.<ref name="Dodds-2015">{{Cite book|last=Dodds|first=Glen Lyndon|title=Haydn: The Life & Work of a Musical Genius|publisher=Albion Press|year=2015|isbn=|location=|pages=}}{{page needed|date=January 2021}}{{ISBN missing|date=January 2021}}</ref>

As his skills increased, Haydn began to acquire a public reputation, first as the composer of an opera, ''[[Der krumme Teufel]]'', "The Limping Devil", written for the comic actor Joseph Felix von Kurz, whose stage name was "Bernardon". The work was premiered successfully in 1753, but was soon closed down by the censors due to "offensive remarks".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Tom Beghin|author2=Sander M. Goldberg|title=Haydn and the Performance of Rhetoric|date=2007|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-04129-2|page=94|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TFBILY-jSUsC&pg=PA94|access-date=14 January 2015}}</ref> Haydn also noticed, apparently without annoyance, that works he had simply given away were being published and sold in local music shops.{{sfn|Griesinger|1963|p=15}} Between 1754 and 1756 Haydn also worked freelance for the court in Vienna. He was among several musicians who were paid for services as supplementary musicians at balls given for the imperial children during carnival season, and as supplementary singers in the imperial chapel (the ''[[Wiener Hofmusikkapelle|Hofkapelle]]'') in Lent and Holy Week.<ref>[[Dexter Edge]], "New Sources for Haydn's Early Biography", unpublished paper given at the AMS Montréal, 7 November 1993 (see {{harvnb|Webster|Feder|2001|loc=vol. 11, p. 265}}.</ref>

With the increase in his reputation, Haydn eventually obtained aristocratic patronage, crucial for the career of a composer in his day. Countess Thun,{{efn|Various individuals bore the title "Countess Thun" over time. Candidates for the countess who engaged Haydn are (a) "the elder Countess Maria Christine Thun", {{Harv|Webster|2002}}; (b) [[Maria Wilhelmine Thun]] (later a famous salon hostess and patroness of Mozart), ([[Volkmar Braunbehrens]], 1990, ''Mozart in Vienna'').}} having seen one of Haydn's compositions, summoned him and engaged him as her singing and keyboard teacher.{{efn|{{Harvnb|Webster|2002|p=8}}. Webster expresses doubts since the source is the early biography of [[Nicolas-Étienne Framery]], judged {{Harv|Webster|2002|p=1}} the least reliable of Haydn's early biographers.}} In 1756, Baron Carl Josef Fürnberg employed Haydn at his country estate, [[Weinzierl_Castle|Weinzierl]], where the composer wrote his first string quartets. Their enthusiastic reception encouraged Haydn to write more. Fürnberg later recommended Haydn to [[Count Morzin]], who, in 1757,{{efn|This date is uncertain, since the early biography of {{Harvtxt|Griesinger|1963}} gives 1759. For the evidence supporting the earlier date see {{Harvtxt|Landon|Jones|1988|p=34}} and {{Harvtxt|Webster|2002|p=10}}.}} became his first full-time employer.{{sfn|Geiringer|1982|pp=34–35}}