One day a cousin, a certain Johann Mathias Frankh, who lived in Hainburg, paid the Haydns a visit, and his attention was called to young Joseph's precocious musical talent. Frankh was a school-master and a good musician, and in Hainburg he filled the offices of Chorregent and Schulrector. Struck by the talents of the boy, he proposed to take upon himself his education, musical and otherwise. The father eagerly accepted the offer, but the mother hesitated, for it was her ambition that the youngster should become a priest. Her objections, however, were overcome, and the result was that Haydn, when six years of age, left his home never to return to it again as an inmate. Frankh took him to Hainburg, instructed him in reading and writing and in the rudiments of Latin. He also grounded him in the elements of music, taught him to sing, and to play the violin. The boy was an apt and zealous pupil, studied with unremitting industry and progressed rapidly.
Frankh was not a lenient teacher, nor was he very conscientious in his duties at the head of his school. He was addicted to gambling, and his honesty was not above suspicion, for he was discharged from his position for cheating with loaded dice, though later he was reinstated. In common with the pedagogues of his time he was firm in the faith that what could not be learned easily could be beaten into a pupil; consequently blows were not lacking when the child proved dull of understanding, and a lesson hesitatingly recited was followed by a vigorous thrashing, after which the boy was sent to bed without his dinner. This severity, however, was not unkindly meant, for the pedagogue was equally fond and proud of his young charge, and the harshness was not without its good results, as may be inferred from the fact, that many years afterwards, Haydn spoke of his hard discipline, in which, according to his own words, he was given "more beating than bread," with the warmest gratitude. Not only this, but in his will, Haydn bequeathed to Frankh's daughter and her husband, one hundred florins and a portrait of Frankh, "my first music teacher."
This rough teaching, nevertheless, soon reached a point beyond which it was useless to persevere in it, for Frankh could flog no more knowledge of music into the boy for the simple reason that he had imparted all that he possessed. Haydn was now eight years old and had been studying two years with Frankh, when, one day, George Reuter, director of music at the Cathedral of St. Stephen, in Vienna, visited Hainburg. He was on a tour having for its object the procuring of boy voices for his choir, and meeting with Frankh, that worthy grew eloquent in the praise of his precocious pupil, and eagerly solicited Reuter to hear the youngster sing. The Capellmeister consented, and was astonished at the proficiency of the boy and delighted with the sweetness of his voice. The outcome of the hearing was that Reuter offered to take Haydn as one of the boy choir at St. Stephen's and to look after his musical education; and so, in 1740, Haydn bade farewell to his hard, but well meaning master, and went to Vienna. The parting was not without tears on both sides, and Haydn was never forgetful or unappreciative of the benefit he had received from Frankh.