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Johann Michael Haydn (September 14, 1737 –
August 10, 1806) was an Austrian composer, the
younger brother of Joseph Haydn.

Michael Haydn was born in Rohrau, and like his
brother, he was a chorister at St Stephen's in
Vienna. Shortly after leaving the choir-school, he
was appointed Kapellmeister at Oradea|Großwardein
and later, in 1762, at Salzburg. The latter office
he held for forty-three years, during which time
he wrote over 360 compositions for the church and
much instrumental music. He was an intimate friend
of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart, who had a high
opinion of his work, and the teacher of Carl Maria
von Weber.

Haydn's sacred choral works are generally regarded
as being his most important, including the Missa
Hispanica (which he exchanged for his diploma at
Stockholm), a mass (music)|Mass in D minor, a
Lauda Sion, and a set of graduals, forty-two of
which are reprinted in Anton Diabelli's
Ecciesiaslicon. He was also a prolific composer of
secular music, including forty
symphony|symphonies, a number of concerto|concerti
and chamber music including a string quintet in C
major which was once thought to have been by his
brother Joseph.

Michael Haydn was the victim of another case of
posthumous mistaken identity: for many years, the
piece which is now known as Michael Haydn's
Symphony No. 26 was thought to be Mozart's
Symphony No. 37. The confusion arose because an
autograph was discovered which had the opening
movement of the symphony in Mozart's hand, and the
rest in somebody else's. It is now thought that
Mozart had composed a new slow opening movement
for reasons unknown, but the rest of the work is
known to be by Michael Haydn. The piece, which had
been quite widely performed as a Mozart symphony,
has been performed considerably less often since
this discovery in 1907.