Franz Joseph Haydn

Haydn was born on March 31, 1732 in Rohrau, Austria close to the border of Hungary. His father was a civil servant and his mother a cook, and neither could read or write music. Haydn's father, however, was an experienced folk musician and had spent time in his youth playing music after teaching himself the harp. Despite lack of formal music training in his family before him, his parents encouraged musical expression and they often sang for family members and neighbors.

 

Haydn's parents noticed his musical talent early and decided he needed to go to a different city to truly explore it. They accepted a proposal from a relative, Johann Matthias Franck, who was the schoolmaster and choir director in Hainburg, Austria. Haydn was apprenticed to Franck and trained by him to become a professional musician. He went to live there at age six, and was forever separated from his parents. Life during this time was difficult for Haydn, who was poorly cared-for despite having access to thorough musical training. Soon, the people of Hainburg took notice of his talents in public performances on harpsichord, violin and also choral singing.

 

Haydn's brother, Johann Evangelist Haydn, became a famous tenor, and according to records, Haydn's own voice was impressive. In 1740, his vocal performances caught the attention of the director of music in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, and Haydn was accepted into his choir, moving to Vienna to work for the next nine years as a singer along with his younger brother Michael. Reutter, like Franck, did not take good care of him and also did not provide him with much music education. Fortunately, Vienna was one of the greatest musical capitals in Europe during that time, and Haydn had the opportunity to learn while playing with many great musicians.

 

By 1749, Haydn's voice was no longer high enough to sing the appropriate choral parts, and he was asked to leave the job. With nowhere to go, he was taken in by friends and started a career as a freelance musician. He worked odd jobs as assistants for professional musicians for ten years, learning from them composition and some technique and during this time wrote a series of string quartets and an opera.

 

In 1757, Haydn was given his first position as the music director for Count Karl von Morzin. He directed the count's small orchestra and wrote the first of his symphonies. Morzin had financial difficulties, however, and had to get rid of his music programs. Haydn was offered a job he would maintain for most of his life in 1761 as the music director for the Eszterhazy family, an important aristocratic family of the Austrian Empire. He took on the full duties in 1766, when the pervious full music director died.

 

Haydn worked for almost thirty years for the Eszterhazy family and produced a huge number of musical works as he developed his own style. As time progressed during this job, these compositions began to get him worldwide recognition, and he soon was writing as much for publication as he was for the family. This period of his life produced the famous Paris symphonies, composed in 1785-1786, and the first orchestral work The Seven Last Words of Christ.

 

In 1781, Haydn became friends with Mozart, whose work had already influenced him for many years. The two composers sometimes played together in string quartets, and Haydn often tried to help the younger Mozart in his composing and playing. In fact, Mozart devoted a set of string quartets inspired by Haydn's Opus 33 series to him.

 

During the latter part of the 18th century, Haydn traveled to London often and used it as a source of inspiration for many of his symphonies. He actually had considered becoming an English citizen, but opted to return to Vienna instead. He had a large house built and began to write religious choral and orchestral works, including two famous oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons, and six masses for the Eszterhazy family. He also composed the last nine of his string quartets.

 

In 1802, Haydn's health began to decline, and he developed an illness that prevented him physically from composing, which was very difficult for him because he still continued to develop new musical ideas. In his final years, friends and family cared for him well and he received may visitors, often playing the piano to entertain himself with most particularly the piece Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, which he had composed as an ode to Austria in 1797, and eventually became the national anthem of the new Republic of Germany as well as the melody of the Austrian national anthem. Haydn died on May 31, 1809 during Napoleon's attack of Vienna.

 

Haydn's biggest contribution to the music world is his total reinvention of both the symphony and the string quartet. While the symphony was already a form before Haydn's career, his were the first to become standard orchestral repertoire, his most famous symphony being the "Surprise" symphony. He is credited for writing the first string quartets, simultaneously perfecting the form.