Sigmund Haffner the Elder was a wealthy Salzburg merchant and Mayor whose family gave its name to two of Mozart's major works. The Haffner Serenade (K. 250) was written for his daughter's wedding in 1776. His son Sigmund the Younger later inspired the Haffner Symphony. The name has been in Salzburg ever since.
The Story
Sigmund Haffner the Elder was born in Jenbach in Tyrol in 1699 and built a prosperous merchant career in Salzburg, rising to serve as its Mayor. The Haffner family occupied a prominent position in Salzburg's civic and commercial life, and Leopold Mozart, as a court musician navigating the social hierarchy of a small city, cultivated that kind of connection carefully.
In 1776, Haffner's daughter Marie Elisabeth was married, and Mozart was commissioned to compose music for the celebration. The result was the Haffner Serenade (K. 250), a substantial outdoor serenade in eight movements that is one of the most fully realised works from Mozart's Salzburg years. The commission was a significant one, reflecting the family's status.
Haffner died in 1772, four years before the Serenade, so he did not himself commission it; the commission came from the family. But his name, attached to the Serenade and later to the Symphony that his son Sigmund the Younger inspired, has outlasted everything else about him. The Haffner family's former premises near Universitatsplatz are now a historic restaurant, and the name remains visible in the city he once helped to govern.
