Joseph Hayden

By: Shelton O. YoungMarch 28, 2011

Classical Music Power Point.

Sunrise March 31, 1732 Sunset May 31, 1809

InformationFather: Matthias Haydn (wheelwright)Mother: Maria Koller (cook)Brother: Michael Haydn (composer)Brother: Johann Evangelist Haydn (tenor)Wife: Maria Anna Keller (m. 26-Nov-1760, d. 1800)Mistress: Luigia Polzelli (singer)Son: Alois Anton Nikolaus Polzelli (b. 22-Apr-1783)

Informative facts about J.H.• Austrian composer, born on the

31st of March 1732 at Rohrau (Trstnik), a village on the borders of Lower Austria and Hungary. 

•This attracted the attention of a distant relative named Johann Mathias Frankh, who was schoolmaster in the neighboring town of Hamburg, and who, in 1738, took the child and for the next two years trained him as a chorister.

•There is sufficient evidence that his family was of Croatian stock: a fact which throws light upon the distinctively Slavonic character of much of his music. He received the first rudiments of education from his father, a wheelwright with twelve children, and at an early age evinced a decided musical talent.

Needless To Stay…………

• In 1740, on the recommendation of the Dean of Hamburg, Haydn obtained a place in the cathedral choir of St. Stephens, Vienna, where he took the solo-part in the services and received, at the choir school, some further

instruction on the violin and the harpsichord.• In 1749 his voice broke, and the director, Georg von Reutter,

took the occasion of a boyish escapade to turn him into the streets. A few friends lent him money and found him pupils, and in this way he was enabled to enter upon a rigorous course of study (he is said to have worked for sixteen hours a day), partly devoted to Johann Joseph fux’s treatise on counterpoint, partly to the "Friedrich" and "Württemberg" sonatas of C. P. E. Bach, from which he gained his earliest acquaintance with the principles of musical structure.

HIS Music…………….

•  The first fruits of his work were a comic opera, Der neue krumme Teufel, and a Mass in F major (both written in 1751), the former of which was produced with success. About the same time he made the acquaintance of Metastasio, who was lodging in the same house, and who introduced him to one or two patrons; among others Señor Martinez, to whose daughter he gave lessons, and Porpora, who, in 1753, took him for the summer to Männersdorf, and there gave him instruction in singing and in the Italian language.

• The turning point of his career came in 1755, when he accepted an invitation to the country-house of Freiherr von Fürnberg, an accomplished amateur who was in the habit of collecting parties of musicians for the performance of chamber-works. Here Haydn wrote, in rapid succession, eighteen divertimenti which include his first symphony and his first quartet; the two earliest examples of the forms with which his name is most closely associated. From that point 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 band of Count Morin, for whom he wrote several orchestral works (including a symphony in D major erroneously called his first), and in 1760 he was promoted to the sub-directorship of Prince Paul Esterhazy's Kapelle, at that time the best in Austria. During the tenure of his appointment with Count Morin he married the daughter of a Viennese hairdresser named Keller, who had befriended him in his days of poverty, but the marriage turned out ill and he was shortly afterwards separated from his wife, though he continued to support her until her death in 1800.

• From 1760 to 1790 he remained with the Esterhazy's, principally at their country-seats of Esterhazy and Eisenstaedt, with occasional visits to Vienna in the winter.

• In 1762 Prince Paul Esterhazy died and was succeeded by his brother Nicholas, surnamed the Magnificent, who increased Haydn's salary, showed him every mark of favor, and, on the death of Werner in 1766, appointed him Oberkapellmeister.

• With the encouragement of a discriminating patron, a small but excellent orchestra and a free hand, Haydn made the most of his opportunity and produced a continuous stream of compositions in every known musical form.

• To this period belong five Masses, a dozen operas, over thirty clavier-sonatas, over forty quartets, over a hundred orchestral symphonies and overtures, a Stabat Mater, a set of interludes for the service of the Seven Words, an Oratorio Tobias written for the Tonkünstler-Societät of Vienna, and a vast number of concertos, divertimenti and smaller pieces, among which were no less than 175 for Prince Nicholas' favorite instrument, the baryton.

• Meanwhile his reputation was spreading throughout Europe. A Viennese notice

of his appointment asOberkapellmeister spoke of him as "the darling of our

nation", his works were reprinted or performed in every capital from Madrid to

St. Petersburg. He received commissions from the cathedral of Cadiz, from the

grand duke Paul, from the King of Prussia, from the directors of the Concert

Spiritual at Paris; beside his transactions with Breitkopf and Härtel, and with La

Chevardière, he sold to one English firm the copyright of no less than 129

compositions.

• But the most important fact of biography during these thirty years was his

friendship with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose acquaintance he made at

Vienna in the winter of 1781-82. There can have been little personal

intercourse between them, for Haydn was rarely in the capital, and Mozart

seems never to have visited Eisenstaedt; but the cordiality of their relations

and the mutual influence which they exercised upon one another are of the

highest moment in the history of 18th-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 style and the fuller mastery of orchestral effect by which his

later symphonies are distinguished.

Ending

• The compositions of Haydn include 104 symphonies, 16 overtures 76 quartets, 68 trios, 54 sonatas, 31 concertos and a large number of 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 church, over 40 songs, over 50 canons and arrangements of Scottish and Welsh national melodies.