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HAYDN, FRANZ JOSEPH (1732–1809)
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See also:HAYDN, See also:FRANZ See also:JOSEPH (1732–1809) , See also:Austrian composer, was See also:born on the 31st of See also: The turning-point of his career came in 1755, when he accepted an invitation to the See also:country-house of Freiherr von Fiirnberg, an accomplished See also:amateur who was in the See also:habit of See also:collecting parties of. musicians for the performance of chamber-See also:works. Here Haydn wrote, in rapid See also:succession, eighteen divertimenti which include his first See also:symphony and his first quartet; the two earliest examples of the forms with which his name is most closely associated. Thenceforward his prospects improved. On his return to Vienna in 1756 he became famous as teacher and composer, in 1759 he was appointed conductor to the private See also:band of See also:Count Morzin, for whom he wrote several orchestral works (including a symphony in D major erroneously called his first), and in 176o he was promoted to the sub-directorship of See also:Prince See also:Paul Esterhazy's Kapelle, at that time the best in Austria. During the See also:tenure of his See also:appointment with Count Morzin he married the daughter of a Viennese hairdresser named See also:Keller, who had befriended him in his See also:clays of poverty, but the
See also:marriage turned out See also:ill and he was shortly afterwards separated from his wife, though he continued to support her until her See also:death in 18co. From 1760 to 1790 he remained with the Esterhazys, principally at their country-seats of Esterhaz and Eisenstadt, with occasional visits to Vienna in the See also:winter. In 1762 Prince Paul Esterhazy died and was succeeded by his See also:brother See also:Nicholas, surnamed the Magnificent, who increased Haydn's See also:salary, showed him every See also:mark of favour, and, on the death of See also:Werner in 1766, appointed him Oberkapellmeister. With the encouragement of a discriminating See also:patron, a small but excellent See also:orchestra and a See also:free See also:hand, Haydn made the most of his opportunity and produced a continuous stream of compositions in every known musical See also:form. To this See also:period belong five Masses, a dozen operas, over See also:thirty clavier-sonatas, over See also:forty quartets, over a See also:hundred orchestral symphonies and overtures, a Stabat Mater, a set of interludes for the service of the Seven Words, an See also:Oratorio Tobias written for the Tonkiinstler-Societdt of Vienna, and a vast number of concertos, divertimenti and smaller pieces, among which were no less than 195 for Prince Nicholas' favourite See also:instrument, the baryton.
Meanwhile his reputation was spreading throughout See also:Europe. A Viennese See also:notice of his appointment as Oberkapellmeister spoke of him as " the See also:darling of our nation," his works were reprinted or performed in every See also:capital from See also:Madrid to St See also:Petersburg. He received commissions from the cathedral of See also:Cadiz, from the See also:grand See also:duke Paul, from the See also: But the most important fact of See also:biography during these thirty years was his friendship with See also:Mozart, whose acquaintance he made at Vienna in the winter of 1781-1782. There can have been little See also:personal intercourse between them, for Haydn was rarely in the capital, and Mozart seems never to have visited Eisenstadt; but the cordiality of their relations and the mutual See also:influence which they exercised upon one another are of the highest moment in the See also:history of 18th-See also:century music. " It was from Haydn that I first learned to write a quartet," said Mozart; it was from Mozart that Haydn learned the richer See also:style and the See also:fuller mastery of orchestral effect by which his later symphonies are distinguished. In 1790 Prince Nicholas Esterhazy died and the Kapelle was disbanded. Haydn, thus released from his See also:official duties, forth-with accepted a See also:commission from Salomon, the See also:London concert-director, to write and conduct six symphonies for the concerts in the See also:Hanover Square Rooms. He arrived in See also:England at the beginning of 1791 and was welcomed with the greatest See also:enthusiasm, receiving among other honours the degree of D See also:Mus. from the university of See also:Oxford. In See also:June 1792 he returned See also:home, and, breaking his See also:journey at See also:Bonn, was presented with a See also:Cantata by See also:Beethoven, then aged two-and-twenty, whom he invited to come to Vienna as his See also:pupil. The lessons, which were not very successful, lasted for about a See also:year, and were then interrupted by Haydn's second visit to England (See also:January 1794 to See also:July 1795), where he produced the last six of his " Salomon " symphonies. From 1795 onward he resided in the Mariahilf suburb of Vienna, and there wrote his last eight Masses, the last and finest of his chamber works, the Austrian See also:national See also:anthem (1797), the Creation (1799) and the Seasons (18o1). His last choral See also:composition which can be dated with any certainty was the Mass in C See also:minor, written in 1802 for the name-day of Princess Esterhazy. Thence-forward his See also:health declined, and his closing years, surrounded by the love of friends and the esteem of all musicians, were spent almost wholly in retirement. On the 27th of March 18o8 he was able to attend a performance of the Creation, given in his See also:honour, but it was his last effort, and on the 31st of May 1809 he died, aged seventy-seven. Among the mourners who followed him to the See also:grave were many See also:French See also:officers from See also:Napoleon's See also:army, which was then occupying Vienna. Haydn's place in musical history is best determined by his instrumental compositions. His operas, for all their daintiness and See also:melody, no longer hold the See also:stage; the Masses in which he" praised See also:God with a cheerful See also:heart " have been condemned by the severer decorum of our own day; of his oratorios the Creation alone survives. In all these his work belongs mainly to the style and See also:idiom of a bygone See also:generation: they are monuments, not landmarks, and their beauty and invention seem rather to See also:close an See also:epoch than to inaugurate its successor. Even the naYf pictorial See also:suggestion, of which free use is made in the Creation and in the Seasons, is closer to the manner of See also:Handel than to that of the 19th century: it is less the precursor of See also:romance than the descendant of an earlier See also:realism. But as the first See also:great See also:master of the quartet and the symphony his claim is incontestable. He began, See also:half-consciously, by applying through the fuller See also:medium the lessons of See also:design which he had learned from C. P. E. Bach's sonatas; then the medium itself began to suggest wider horizons and new possibilities of treatment; his position at Eisenstadt enabled him to experiment without reserve; his See also:genius, essentially symphonic in character, found its true outlet in the opportunities of pure musical structure. The quartets in particular exhibit a wider range and variety of structural invention than those of any other composer except Beethoven. Again it is here that we can most readily trace the important changes- which he wrought in melodic idiom. Before his time instrumental music was chiefly written for the Paradiesensaal, and its melody often sacrificed vitality of See also:idea to a ceremonial courtliness of phrase. Haydn broke through this See also:convention by frankly introducing his native folk-music, and by See also:writing many of his own tunes in the same See also:direct, vigorous and See also:simple style. The innovation was at first received with some disfavour; critics accustomed to polite formalism censured it as extravagant and undignified; but the freshness and beauty of its melody soon silenced all opposition, and did more than anything else throughout the 18th century to establish the principle of nationalism in musical See also:art. The actual employment of Croatian folk-tunes may be illustrated from the See also:string quartets Op. 17, No. 1; Op. 33. No. 3; Op. 50, No. 1; Op. 77, No. 1, and the Salomon Symphonies in D and Eh', while there is hardly an instrumental composition of Haydn's in which his own melodies do not show some traces of the same influence. His natural idiom in See also:short was that of a heightened and ennobled folk-See also:song, and one of the most remarkable evidences of his genius was the See also:power with which he adapted all his perfection and symmetry of style to the requirements of popular speech. His music is in this way singularly expressive; its See also:humour and pathos are not only absolutely sincere, but so outspoken that we cannot fail to catch their significance.
In the development of instrumental polyphony Haydn's work was almost as important as that of Mozart. Having at his disposal a band of picked virtuosi he could produce effects as different from the tentative experiments of C. P. E. Bach as these were from the orchestral platitudes of Reutter or See also:Hasse. His symphony Le Midi (written in 1761) already shows a remark-able freedom and See also:independence in the handling of orchestral forces, and further stages of advance were reached in the oratorio of Tobias, in the Paris and Salomon symphonies, and above all in the Creation, which turns to See also:good See also:account some of the See also:debt which he owed to his younger contemporary. The importance of this lies not only in a greater richness of musical See also:colour, but in the effect which it produced on the actual substance and texture of composition. The polyphony of Beethoven was unquestionably influenced by it and, even in his latest sonatas and quartets, may be regarded as its logical outcome.
The compositions of Haydn include 104 symphonies, 16 overtures, 76 quartets, 68 trios, 54 sonatas, 31 concertos and a large number Sf divertimentos, cassations and other instrumental pieces ; 24 operas and dramatic pieces, 16 Masses, a Stabat Mater, interludes for the " Seven Words," 3 oratorios, 2 Te Deums and many smaller pieces for the See also: His younger brother, JOHANN See also:MICHAEL HAYDN (1737-1806), was also a chorister at St Stephen's, and shortly after leaving the choir-school was appointed Kapellmeister at Grosswardein (1755) and at See also:Salzburg (1762). The latter See also:office he held for forty-three years, during which time he wrote over 36o compositions for the church and much instrumental music, which, though unequal, deserves more See also:consideration than it has received. He was the intimate friend of Mozart, who had a high See also:opinion of his genius, and the teacher of C. M. von See also:Weber. His most important works were the Missa hispanica, which he exchanged for his diploma at See also:Stockholm, a Mass in D minor, a Lauda See also:Sion, a set of graduals, forty-two of which are reprinted in Diabelli's Ecclesiasticon, three symphonies (1785), and a string quintet in C major which has been erroneously attributed to Joseph Haydn. Another brother, JOHANN EVANGELIST HAYDN (1743-1805), gained some reputation as a See also:tenor vocalist, and was for many years a member of Prince Esterhazy's Kapelle. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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