HAYDN'S SKULL AND HAYDN'S COFFIN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1679, 5 October 1887, Page 3

HAYDN'S SKULL AND HAYDN'S COFFIN

The production of a cast of Haydn's Bkuil at a recent tcieutifio meeting at Berlin recalls the weird story of the abstraction of the composer's head from the coffia tJter burial, which most muaioal readers are familiar with. Hayon died on May 31, 1809, during the French ocoupatlou of Vienna. In 1820 his remaiu3 were exhumed m order to be transported to the family vault of tho Esterhazy at Eisenßtadt, and tho body m the ooffia was found to be headless. A searoh wns made In Vienna among col- { leotors devoted to craniology — a skull,; supposed to be Haydn's, was found tmd! buried with tho body m the Estorhazy vault. An interesting contribution to the strange story is now made by Herr Frank), a Viennese journalist, who publishes a document purporting to have been written on June 21, 1832. by Joharin Peter, governor of the Imperial and Royal Prison and narrating all the facts about the abstrro:ion. According to this story, Peter wfls a phrenologist, and stole the head of Haydo m order to corroborate the theories of Dr Gall. Together with a eeoretary of Count EBterhazy named Rosen* baum, Jungermann, the director of a VeanaLjceam,andUlltnan, aoivll service functionary, he went to the cemetery a week after Haydn had been buried and despoiled the grave. Then he gooa on : " The coffin was opened, the head severed from the trunk, and taken to a garden I had m the L^opoldstsdt. There I had the osseous box macerated and bleached with theutmoat careand when tho moment oame for studying it I fruad tha bumpj denotiog the faculty of muse perfectly developed according to tho indications of Dr Gtll. I also noted on the mail bones the traces of the polypearian tumours from which Haydn suffered so much during his lifetime. Af.er which I had a casket made of varni&hed wood m the form of a sarcophagus, ornamented ivith a git lyre, I deposited thiß pTecious skull. Tha box was lined with velv.t anl the Bkuil lay on a silken cushion. ' When the search was made In 1820 Peter was suspected, and bei~g promised immunity ftoji punishment, he applied toßosenbmm, lo whom he had given the rehc. Rosen baum handed him a Bknll with the assurance that it was Haydn's, and it was given to the polico and buried On his death-bed Rosenbaom sent t> Peter, and told him that the true sku 1 had not been given ap. He handed it over to Peter with the suggestion that on his death he bequeathed it to the Conservatory of Music Tolb disposition was made of it, bnt by o later codicil it was given to Dr Haller, who presented it to the Anatomical Museum m Vienna, its present oattodia.