The composer Joseph Haydn is sometimes given the nickname "Papa" Haydn. The practice began in the composer's lifetime, and has continued to some extent to the present day.
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After 1766 at the Eszterházy court, Haydn was the Kapellmeister, or boss, for a reasonably large group of musicians. Haydn's authority was evidently rather benevolent, as he often interceded with Prince Eszterházy on behalf of musicians who had gotten in trouble.[1] The tale of the Farewell Symphony attests to Haydn's willingness to act on behalf of his subordinates. The practice of calling Haydn "Papa" became increasingly plausible as Haydn's 30-plus years of service in the Eszterházy court went by; with each year, he would have become increasingly older than the average musician serving under him.
In his old age, Haydn remarked to Georg August Griesinger regarding his late, younger friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that Mozart had called him "Papa".[2]
Another sense of the term "Papa Haydn" comes from his role in the history of classical music, notably in the development of the symphony and string quartet. While Haydn did not invent either genre, his work is considered important enough in establishing these genres that the labels "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" are often attached to him. Even in his own lifetime, this perspective was prevalent. In 1797, the Tonkünstler-Societät of Vienna passed the resolution to make him a life member, "by virtue of his extraordinary merit as the father and reformer of the noble art of music."[3]
With the rise of acclaim for Haydn's music during the 20th century, scholars and critics became rather leery of the term, and saw it as a distortion of the composer's work. For example, Jens Peter Larsen wrote (1980) in the New Grove encyclopedia:
For years the nickname 'Papa Haydn' has characterized the composer. Used by his own musicians and others as a tribute of affection and respect, the expression increasingly took on misleading connotations, and came to signify a benevolent but bewigged and old-fashioned classic. The recent revival of interest in Haydn's music has made plain that the traditional picture had become a caricature, and that it gave a false impression of richness and diversity of his development as a composer.
Because music education materials still tend to reflect 19th century sources, the term is well known to musicians.
The following rhyme goes with the first bars of the Surprise Symphony, based on a tune commonly known today as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star[4][5]: