Lower Austria, the exact date of his birth is unknown… Five years after his famous brother Joseph, their parents being a wheelwright and a cook. Michael Haydn left home around 1745 to attend the choir school at SST. Stephens Cathedral in Vienna, where he received instruction in singing, keyboard and violin. It was at SST. Stephens that Haydn gained a reputation for his unusually clear and beautiful voice, as well as for its extremely large range of three octaves.
He was dismissed from SST. Stephens when his voice broke. In 1757, after a precarious few years (probably in Vienna), Haydn was appointed Experimentalist to the Bishop of Groundswell In Hungary, now Reader, Romania. He served the Bishop until 1763, when he accepted the position of court musician and Concertmaster to Archbishop Sigmund Characters in Salisbury, who was renowned as a generous patron of the arts. This appointment had a profound impact on the young Mozart. It was also through this appointment that Haydn met Maria
Magdalene Lip, soon to be his wife, she was a singer In the archbishop’s court and daughter of the court organist Again Lip. The two were married in 1768. The couple’s only child, Alyssa Josephs, was born in 1770. She only lived for one year. Next, In 1777 Johann Michael Haydn took over as the organist at Drelfaltlgkeltskirche (Trinity church). When Mozart left the employ of the Archbishop Hieronymus Colored in 1781, Haydn took over at the cathedral as well. During the last years of his life, Haydn was frequently ill. He died in Salisbury on August 10, 1806.
He was burled in the cemetery at SST. Pewter’s, where, in 1821, his friends erected a memorial In his honor. Haydn was an extremely versatile composer who wrote in both the stile antics, represented by the music of Fix, and in more modern styles; his masses followed the tradition of concluding the Gloria and Credo with fugues. Although he wrote a great deal of secular music for use at court (he was one of the first composers to write unaccompanied German part-songs for male chorus), Haydn made his greatest contribution in the area of sacred music.