(Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809); AUT

In many ways Franz Joseph Haydn, the quintessential composer of the period of eighteenth century Enlightenment, is the father of modern music. The forms that he brought to their first perfection are at the center of all ensuing musical thought: the symphony, string quartet, and piano sonata. Haydn was warmly known as "Papa" by his orchestra at the Esterhazy Court where he worked for a good deal of his life, but he has become known as Papa Haydn to us all.

Haydn was born in the town of Rohrau on the Austrian-Hungarian border in 1732, the son of a wagon maker. He was raised essentially as a peasant (a heritage reflected in the later character of his minuets particularly), but with the hope that he might become a clergyman. His studies at nearby Hainburg included lessons on wind and string instruments and his musical gifts were quickly evident. In an autobiographical sketch, Haydn remembered his childhood as "more floggings than food" and without proper teaching. But he listened to everything around him and "thus little by little my knowledge and ability were developed." Haydn was not a prodigy like Mozart, Schubert or Mendelssohn, but he had an even, balanced, and highly industrious temperament that served him well and fit comfortably with the era in which he was born.

At the age of eight, Haydn was recruited into the choir of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna where he excelled until 1749 when his boy soprano voice broke and he was expelled. Until 1758, he lived an impoverished freelance life, meanwhile studying the music of C.P.E. Bach and taking a few composition lessons. By his own admission, for eight years Haydn who was "a wizard on no instrument...eked out a wretched existence." Slowly, though, his reputation grew, and in 1758 he became the music director and composer for Count von Morzin. Two years later he married Maria Anna Keller, the daughter of a hairdresser. This was a mistake. She did not like music, was a spendthrift, ill tempered and basically a shrew. Haydn later rationalized his extramarital affairs telling his first biographer, "My wife was unable to bear children, and for this reason I was less indifferent toward the attraction of other women."

In 1761, Haydn entered the service of the Esterhazy family as vice-Kapellmeister. It was an event that would have ramifications for the history of music. Prince Paul Esterhazy was succeeded by Prince Nicholas, the Magnificent, who in turn built a new palace second only to Versailles. Nicholas was an ardent music lover and the new palace had a 400 seat theater for opera. When Kapellmeister Gregorious Werner died, Haydn succeeded him, now fully presiding over a good-sized orchestra of between twenty and twenty-three players while conducting from the keyboard or violin. It became one of the best ensembles in Europe and was the workshop in which Haydn would continually experiment. The majority of his 104 symphonies (Symphony No.94 "Surprise:" Finale) were composed during this period.

Duties at the court included the business management of the court's musical life as well as supplying music for the 2 to 4 pm weekly Tuesday and Thursday afternoon concerts. Prince Esterhazy played the baryton, a now obsolete cello-like hurdy gurdy, and Haydn wrote for him approximately 200 trios with viola and cello as well numerous Baryton duos. In addition, Haydn authority H.C. Robbins Landon estimates that Haydn conducted 1026 performances of Italian operas alone between 1780 and 1790. Needless to say, his musical life was a full one, but he also had good salary, a secretary, a maid, a coachman and time for hunting and fishing. Regardless of his elevated position, Haydn preferred the company of his own class to intimacies with the aristocracy and was quite content with essentially being a well paid and appreciated servant.

Haydn was confidently aware of his increasing stature in the greater world. Indeed, he was in no way threatened but rather deeply impressed by his only true competition, Mozart, who he considered "the greatest composer the world possesses now." They met in 1781 when Mozart was twenty-five, and the respect and influence was mutual with Mozart dedicating his important set of string quartets (nos.14-19) to Haydn.

In 1790, Nicholas died and his successor, Anton, while retaining Haydn, greatly diminished the court's musical activities. Haydn was free to move to Vienna and later in the year he accepted an offer from violinist and impresario Johann Saloman to go to England. London was Europe's most active musical center at this time and Haydn stayed for eighteen months while enjoying great public acclaim. Here he began his last set of twelve symphonies, received an honorary degree from Oxford, and had a liaison with the widow of a well-known pianist.

The trip being so successful, Haydn returned to London in 1794 staying through August 1795. The now completed group of symphonies became known collectively as the London symphonies, the last, No.104 being called individually the "London Symphony." By this time the Estarhazy orchestra had been restored by Nicholas II to mainly accompany church services and Haydn resumed his leadership and composing his series of great masses. This was also the time when he felt Austria should have an equivalent anthem to "God Save the King" and "God Save Emperor Franz" was the result. This famous melody can also be heard as the theme of the variations in the "Emperor Quartet" (Op.76, No.3).

In 1802, Haydn retired from his official duties. His wife had died in 1800, and he spent his last years without complaint, although suffering from rheumatism and various illnesses. As the respected elder of music, he apparently enjoyed receiving visitors and at his death on May 31, 1809, his last words were, "Children be comforted. I am well." The Mozart requiem was played at his funeral.

Franz Joseph Haydn was tremendously inventive and prolific. In addition to the Creation Mass, The Seasons and 104 symphonies, there are 83 string quartets, 52 piano sonatas (No.3 in Eb, No.8 in D), and numerous other concertos and chamber pieces (Guitar Quartet in D: Allegro). Haydn may or may not have invented the string quartet itself, but he consolidated the nascent tendencies of Rococco music into the modern sonata principle, and this became the vehicle for the most ambitious elevated musical thoughts well into the next century and even into our own. With Haydn, as well as with Mozart and Beethoven, the sonata is, as Sir Donald Francis Tovey stated, a process, not a form. It changes dynamically and organically with the material and like snowflakes, no two truly classical sonatas are alike.

Haydn was unburdened by the nineteenth century idea of the artist and his historic legacy. He is one of the least neurotic of the great composers. Haydn treated composing more as an exalted craft in which he delighted in endlessly experimenting. A close look at his music reveals many daring gambits of harmony and form. His endless humor and wit are palpable as is the warmth of his humanity. As Haydn once wrote, "Since God has given me a cheerful heart, He will forgive me for serving him cheerfully."

Biography by Allen Krantz. Copyright © Classical Archives, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Haydn, Franz Joseph (b Rohrau, 1732; d Vienna, 1809). Austrian-born composer of pure Ger. stock. The son of a farmer-wheelwright, Haydn showed immediate mus. precocity and at the age of 5 was given into the care of a Hainburg schoolmaster called Franck, who taught him the rudiments of mus. At 8 went to Vienna as choirboy at St Stephen's. When his v. broke at 17, he lived in poverty as a teacher and became accompanist and servant to the It. composer and teacher Porpora. He worked for two aristocratic patrons in 1750s, and in 1761 was engaged as vice-Kapellmeister at Eisenstadt, Hungary, by Prince Paul Esterházy. Haydn remained with the Esterházy household for 30 years, for both Prince Paul and his successor Prince Nikolaus, who reigned from 1762 to 1790, were passionate mus.-lovers. In 1766 Nikolaus built the palace of Eszterháza (modelled on Versailles) on the south side of the Neusiedlersee, spending the greater part of each year in this isolated home. Haydn's art benefited from this seclusion. ‘There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to become original’, he said. His duties were numerous; besides administrative work and caring for the court musicians, he cond. the orchestra, arr. and dir. operatic perfs., played in chamber mus., and produced a stream of works in many genres, incl. incidental mus. for plays, to please his patron. Haydn's fame spread from Eszterháza throughout Austria, Ger., and It. as his syms. were pubd. Fr. edns. of his works began to appear in the 1760s and later in London. In 1785 he was commissioned by Cadiz to compose an oratorio without words on the Saviour's 7 Last Words, and by the Parisian soc. Concert de la Loge Olympique to compose 6 syms. By this time he had become friends with Mozart, for whom he had the highest admiration. Their works from this date (1781) betray mutual influence. Haydn's life at Eszterháza ended in 1790 when Prince Nikolaus died and his successor dismissed the musicians, though leaving Haydn his salary and title. Haydn left the castle for Vienna where he accepted an invitation from the impresario J. P. Salomon to visit London. He stayed in England from 1 Jan. 1791 to the middle of 1792, being fêted, lionized, and entertained by royalty. He comp. syms. 93-98 on this visit, when he was deeply impressed by the 1791 Handel Fest. in Westminster Abbey. In July 1791 the hon. degree of D.Mus. was conferred on him by Oxford Univ. On his return to Vienna he bought a house there and accepted Beethoven as a pupil, an uneasy relationship for both great men. In 1794 he visited Eng. again, having been commissioned by Salomon to write 6 new syms. This 2nd visit lasted from Feb. 1794 to Aug. 1795 and was even more successful artistically and, especially, financially than the first. The Esterházy family had now reconstituted their mus. est., but Haydn comp. only for special occasions and was allowed to concentrate on his work as a composer. Between 1796 and 1802 he wrote 6 magnificent settings of the Mass. In 1797 he comp. his Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, which was adopted as Austria's nat. anthem. But his chief pre-occupation at this time was his oratorio Die Schöpfung (The Creation), f.p. privately in Vienna, 1798. This was followed by Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons), f.p. 1801. From then on, Haydn's health began to fail and, though he made several more public appearances, he died during the Fr. occupation of Vienna.

If Haydn's life was comparatively uneventful, his vast output of mus. is notable for the number of delights and surprises contained in almost every work. Yet though the number and magnitude of Haydn masterpieces are constantly amazing, his mus. for long failed to exert as powerful a sway over the public as that of Mozart and Beethoven. He is regarded as the ‘father’ of the sym. (which he was not) and of the str. qt., but some treasurable Haydn lies in his vocal mus., in his oratorios, masses, and in his operas (which are still in process of re-discovery). In all his mus. his inventive flair seems inexhaustible. He delighted in exploiting the capabilities of solo instr. and virtuoso performers, and every genre in which he worked he enlarged, extended, and re-shaped. The syms. are a remarkable example of his development of a particular form, hallmarked by deep feeling, drama, elegance, wit, and, in the final 12, a Mozartian perfection of all these qualities combined. But much the same can be said of the qts. and masses; nor should the kbd. sonatas be overlooked.

The cataloguing of Haydn's works has been the object of considerable scholarship. It was begun in 1766 by Haydn himself, aided by the Esterházy court copyist Joseph Elssler, whose son Johann (1769-1843) later became Haydn's copyist and faithful servant. Haydn worked on this list until about 1805. Pohl prepared a MS catalogue, and for the Breitkopf and Härtel complete edn. Mandyczewski assembled his list of 104 syms. (omitting 3 now acknowledged as such). Modern scholarship, led by H. C. Robbins Landon, has amended this list, and a thematic catalogue has been ed. by Hoboken in which works are given Hob. nos. in the manner of Köchel's Mozart catalogue.

Haydn's works are too numerous to be listed in full detail. The following is a concise list of the prin. comps.:

OPERAS: 20 were comp., some of the first being lost. The extant 15 incl. La Canterina (1766); Lo Speziale (1768); Le Pescatrici (1769); L'infedeltà delusa (1773); L'incontro improvviso (1775); Il mondo della luna (1777); La vera costanza (1777-8, rev. 1785); L'isola disabitata (1779, rev. 1802); La fedeltà premiata (1780, rev. 1782); Orlando Paladino (1782); Armida (1783); Orfeo ed Euridice (1791); also 5 puppet operas incl. Philemon und Baucis (1773) and Dido (1776).

MASSES: No.1 in F (Missa brevis) (1750); No.2 in Eb (Grosse Orgelmesse) (1766); No.3 in C (St Cecilia) (1776); No.4 in G (1772); No.5 in Bb (Kleine Orgelmesse) (c.1775); No.6 in C (Mariazellermesse) (1782); No.7 in C (In tempore belli—Paukenmesse) (1796); No.8 in Bb (Heiligmesse) (1796); No.9 in D minor (Nelson) (1798); No.10 in Bb (Theresien-messe) (1799); No.11 in Bb (Schöpfungsmesse) (1801); No.12 in Bb (Harmoniemesse) (1802). Also Mass in G (c.1750).

CANTATAS & ORATORIOS: Stabat Mater (1767); Applausus (1768); Il Ritorno di Tobia (1774-5); Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuz (The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross, 1st version (str. qt.) 1785, choral version 1795-6); Die Schöpfung (The Creation) (1796-8); Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) (1799-1801).

SYMPHONIES: Nos. 1-5 (1757); No.6 in D (Le Matin), No.7 in C (Le Midi), No.8 in G (Le Soir) (c.1761); No.9 in C (c.1762); No.10 in D (c.1761); No.11 in Eb (c.1760); No.12 in E, No.13 in D (1763); No.14 in A, No.15 in D (1764); No.16 in Bb, No.17 in F, No.18 in G, No.19 in D, No.20 in C (all before 1766, prob. 1761-2); No.21 in A, No.22 in Eb (The Philosopher), No. 23 in G, No.24 in D (1764); No.25 in C (c.1761-3); No.26 in D minor (Lamentatione) (c.1770); No.27 in G (c.1760); No.28 in A, No.29 in E, No.30 in C (Alleluia), No.31 in D (Horn Signal) (1765); No.32 in C, No.33 in C (c.1760); No.34 in D minor (c.1766); No.35 in Bb (1767); No.36 in Eb (c.1761-5); No.37 in C (c.1757); No.38 in C (Echo) (c.1766-8); No.39 in G minor (c.1768); No.40 in F (1763); No.41 in C (c.1769); No.42 in D (1771); No.43 in Eb (Merkur), No.44 in E minor (Trauer) (c.1771); No.45 in F# minor (Abschied), No.46 in B, No.47 in G (1772); No.48 in C (Maria Theresia) (c.1768-9); No.49 in F minor (La Passione) (1768); No.50 in C (1773); No.51 in Bb, No.52 in C minor (c. 1771-3); No.53 in D (L'Impériale) (c.1780); No. 54 in G, No.55 in Eb (Der Schulmeister), No.56 in C (1774); No.57 in D (1774); No.58 in F, No.59 in A (Feuersymphonie) (c.1776-8); No.60 in C (Il Distratto) (1774); No.61 in D (1776); No.62 in D, No.63 in C (La Roxolane) (c.1780); No.64 in A (c.1775); No.65 in A (c.1771-3); No.66 in Bb, No.67 in F, No.68 in Bb, No.69 in C (Laudon) (c.1778); No.70 in D (1779); No.71 in Bb (c.1779-80); No.72 in D (c.1763-5); No.73 in D (La Chasse) (1780-1); No.74 in Eb (1780); No.75 in D (1779); No.76 in Eb, No.77 in Bb, No.78 in C minor (1782); No.79 in F, No.80 in D minor, No.81 in G (1783-4); No. 82 in C (Bear) (1786); No.83 in G minor (La Poule) (1785); No.84 in Eb (1786); No.85 in Bb (La Reine) (1785); No.86 in D (1786); No.87 in A (1785); No.88 in G, No.89 in F (c.1787); No.90 in C, No.91 in Eb (1788); No.92 in G (Oxford) (1789); No.93 in D, No.94 in G (Surprise), No.95 in C minor, No.96 in D (Miracle) (1791, London); No.97 in C (1792, London); No.98 in Bb (c.1792, London); No.99 in Eb (1793, Austria); No.100 in G (Military), No.101 in D (Clock), No.102 in Bb (1794, London); No.103 in Eb (Paukenwirbel, Drum Roll), No.104 in D (London) (1795, London).

CONCERTOS: vc. in C (c.1765), in D (1783); Klavier in D (c.1784), Klavier and str. in G; hn. No.1 in D (1762), No.2 in D (c.1764); 2 hn. and str. in Eb; for lira organizzata No.1 in C, No.2 in G, No.3 in G, No.4 in F, No.5 in F (c.1786); org. conc. (1756); for tpt. in Eb (1796); for vn. No.1 in A, No.2 in C, No.3 in G (c.1765); for vn., pf., and str. in F (1766); Sinfonia Concertante in Bb for ob., bn., vn., vc. (1792).

STRING QUARTETS: Op.1 (6 qts., 1760); Op.2, Nos. 7-12 (Nos. 9 and 11, with 2 hn. added) (1755-60); Op.9 (6 qts., 1771); Op.17, Nos. 25-30 (1771); Op.20, Nos. 31-6 (1772); Op.33, Nos. 37-42 (1781); Op.42, No.43 (1758); Op.50, Nos. 44-9 (c.1787); Op.51, Nos. 50-6 (1785, Seven Last Words from the Cross); Op.54, Nos. 57-9 (c.1788); Op.55, Nos. 60-2 (c.1788); Op.64, Nos. 63-8 (c.1790); Op.71, Nos. 69-71 (1793); Op.74, Nos. 72-4 (1793); Op.76, Nos. 75-80 (c.1797); Op.77, Nos. 81-2 (c.1799); Op. 103, No.83 (1802-3).

KEYBOARD: 62 sonatas (c. 1761-94), Variations in F minor (1793).

CHAMBER MUSIC: 32 pf. trios; 6 sonatas for klavier and vn.; fl. qts; lute qt.; divertimentos for str. trio; str. trios; 126 baryton trios; 32 pieces for mechanical clocks; and Notturnos for lira organizzata.

SOLO CANTATAS: Arianna a Naxos for sop./mez. (1790); Berenice che fai (1795).

VOCAL: qts. and trios (1796 and 1799); Alfred—Chorus of the Danes (1796); 12 canzonettas to Eng. words for solo v. and pf. (1794-5) incl. My mother bids me bind my hair, Spirit's Song, Piercing Eyes, She never told her love; 450 arrs. of Brit. folk-songs (1791-1805).

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