ABSTRACT
Georg Griesinger, the legation officer, Albert Christoph Dies, the painter, and Carpani, the man of letters, all lived in Vienna during the last ten or twelve years of Joseph Haydn's life. All were acquainted with Haydn, and made notes of their conversations with the famous old man in order to publish some account of his life. Georg August Griesinger, having come to Vienna as Royal Councilor to the Saxon Legation, was sent to Haydn in 1799 by Gottfried Hartel. Dies was introduced to Haydn by Anton Grassi, the Viennese sculptor, expressly to collect the materials for a biography. Haydn's reaction was typical: his biography could interest nobody. Griesinger described Haydn's jottings as rhapsodic and culled only those items with special bearing on music as likely to interest his readers. Haydn's wit was a great success, and the offending players quickly changed their ways and regarded him as the god of Music.
