Franz Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn, (March 31, 1732 May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of
the Classical period, called the 'Father of the Symphony' and 'Father of the String Quartet'.
He used his second name, spelled in German 'Josef'. He was the brother of Michael Haydn,
himself a highly regarded composer, and Johann Evangelist Haydn, a tenor singer.
A life-long resident of Austria, Haydn spent most of his career as a court musician for the
wealthy Eszterhzy family, though very often the non-Hungarian spelling Esterhazy is used,
on their remote estate. Being isolated from other composers and trends in music, he was, as
he put it, 'forced to become original'.

Life

Childhood

Haydn was born in 1732 in the Austrian village of Rohrau near the border
with Hungary. His father was Matthias Haydn, a wheelwright who also served as
'Marktrichter', an office somewhat akin to village mayor. Haydn's mother, the former
Maria Koller, had previously worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach, the
presiding aristocrat of Rohrau. Haydn himself was nicknamed Sepperl as a child.
Neither parent could read music. However, Matthias was an enthusiastic folk
musician, who during the journeyman period of his career had taught himself to play
the harp. According to Haydn's later reminiscences, his childhood family was
extremely musical, and frequently sang together and with their neighbors.

Haydn's parents were perceptive enough to notice that their little son had musical
talent, and they also knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain any
serious musical training. It was for this reason that they accepted a proposal from
their relative Johann Matthias Franck, the schoolmaster and choirmaster in Hainburg,
that Haydn be apprenticed to Franck in his home to train as a musician. Haydn thus went
off with Franck to Hainburg (ten miles away) and never again lived with his parents. At the
time he was not quite six.

Life in the Franck household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently
hungry as well as constantly humiliated by the filthy state of his clothing. However, he did
begin his musical training there, and soon was able to play both harpsichord and violin. The
people of Hainburg were soon hearing him sing soprano parts in the church choir.

There is reason to think that Haydn's singing impressed those who heard him, because two
years later (1740), he was brought to the attention of Georg von Reutter, the director of
music in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, who was touring the provinces looking for
talented choirboys. Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and soon moved off to Vienna,
where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister, the last four in the company of his
younger brother Michael.

Like Franck before him, Reutter didn't always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed.
The young Haydn greatly looked forward to performances before aristocratic audiences,
where the singers sometimes had the opportunity to satisfy their hunger by devouring the
refreshments. Reutter also did little to further his choristers' musical education. However, St.
Stephen's was at the time one of the leading musical centers in Europe, where new music by
leading composers was constantly being performed. Haydn was able to learn a great deal by
osmosis simply by serving as a professional musician there.

Struggles as a freelancer

In 1749, Haydn had matured physically to the point that he was no longer able to sing high
choral parts. On a weak pretext, he was summarily dismissed from his job. He evidently
spent one night homeless on a park bench, but was taken in by friends and began to pursue
a career as a freelance musician. During this arduous period, which lasted ten years, Haydn
worked many different jobs, including valetaccompanist for the Italian composer Nicola
Porpora, from whom he later said he learned 'the true fundamentals of composition'. He
labored to fill the gaps in his training, and eventually wrote his first string quartets and his
first opera. During this time Haydn's professional reputation gradually increased.
The years as Kapellmeister
Portrait by Ludwig Guttenbrunn, ca. 1770

In 1759, or 1757 according to the New Grove Encyclopedia, Haydn received his first
important position, that of Kapellmeister (music director) for Count Karl von Morzin. In
this capacity, he directed the count's small orchestra, and for this ensemble wrote his
first symphonies. Count Morzin soon suffered financial reverses that forced him to
dismiss his musical establishment, but Haydn was quickly offered a similar job (1761)
as assistant Kapellmeister to the Eszterhzy family, one of the wealthiest and most
important in the Austrian Empire. When the old Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner, finally
died in 1766, Haydn was elevated to full Kapellmeister.
As a liveried servant of the Eszterhzys, Haydn followed them as they moved among
their three main residences: the family seat in Eisenstadt, their winter palace in
Vienna, and Eszterhza, a grand new palace built in rural Hungary in the 1760s.
Haydn had a huge range of responsibilities, including composition, running the
orchestra, playing chamber music for and with his patrons, and eventually the
mounting of operatic productions. Despite the backbreaking workload, Haydn
considered himself fortunate to have his job. The Eszterhzy princes (first Paul Anton,
then most importantly Nikolaus I) were musical connoisseurs who appreciated his
work and gave him the conditions needed for his artistic development, including daily
access to his own small orchestra.
In 1760, with the security of a Kapellmeister position, Haydn married. He and his wife,
the former Maria Anna Keller, did not get along, and they produced no children.
Haydn may have had one or more children with Luigia Polzelli, a singer in the
Eszterhzy establishment with whom he carried on a long-term love affair, and often
wrote to on his travels.
During the nearly thirty years that Haydn worked in the Eszterhzy household, he
produced a flood of compositions, and his musical style became ever more
developed. His popularity in the outside world also increased. Gradually, Haydn came
to write as much for publication as for his employer, and several important works of
this period, such as the Paris symphonies (17856) and the original orchestral version
of The Seven Last Words of Christ (1786), were commissions from abroad.
Around 1781 Haydn established a close friendship with Mozart, whose work he had
already been influencing by example for many years. The two composers enjoyed
playing in string quartets together. Haydn was hugely impressed with Mozart's work;
it has been noted by Mozart scholars that after this time Haydn largely ceased to
compose operas and concertos &ndash: two of the genres where Mozart was at his
strongest. Mozart spent the better part of three years from 1782 to 1785 to produce a
set of six string quartets that he would dedicate to the older man.
The London journeys

In 1790, Prince Nikolaus died and was succeeded by a thoroughly unmusical prince
who dismissed the entire musical establishment and put Haydn on a pension. Thus
freed of his obligations, Haydn was able to accept a lucrative offer from Johann Peter
Salomon, a German impresario, to visit England and conduct new symphonies with a
large orchestra.

The visit (1791-2), along with a repeat visit (1794-5), was a huge success. Audiences
flocked to Haydn's concerts, and he quickly achieved wealth and fame: one review
called him 'incomparable', and many were filled with gushing language which
reflected the acclaim his work received in London. Musically, the visits to England
generated some of Haydn's best-known work, including the 'Surprise', 'Military',
'Drumroll', and 'London' symphonies, the 'Rider' quartet, and the 'Gypsy Rondo' piano
trio.

The only misstep in the venture was an opera which Haydn was contracted to
compose, and paid a substantial sum of money for. Only one aria was sung at the
time, and 11 numbers were published, the entire opera was not performed until 1950.
Final years in Vienna

Haydn actually considered becoming an English citizen and settling permanently, but
eventually took a different course. He returned to Vienna, had a large house built for
himself, and turned to the composition of large religious works for chorus and
orchestra. These include his two great oratorios The Creation and The Seasons and
six masses for the Eszterhzy family, which by this time was once again headed by a
musically-inclined prince. Haydn also composed the last nine in his long series of
string quartets, including the 'Emperor', 'Sunrise', and 'Fifths' quartets. Despite his
increasing age, Haydn looked to the future, exclaiming once in a letter, 'how much
remains to be done in this glorious art!'

In 1802, Haydn found that an illness from which he had been suffering for some time
had increased greatly in severity, to the point that he became physically unable to
compose. This was doubtless very difficult for him, because, as he acknowledged, the
flow of fresh musical ideas waiting to be worked out as compositions did not cease.
Haydn was well cared for by his servants, and he received many visitors and public
honors during his last years, but they cannot have been very happy years for him.
During his illness, Haydn often found solace by sitting at the piano and playing Gott
erhalte Franz den Kaiser, which he had composed himself as a patriotic gesture in
1797. This melody later became used for the Austrian and German national anthems.

Character and appearance

Haydn died in 1809, following an attack on Vienna by the French army under Napoleon.
Among his last words was his attempt to calm and reassure his servants as cannon shots fell
on the neighborhood.

Haydn was known among his contemporaries for his kindly, optimistic, and congenial
personality. He had a robust sense of humor, evident in his love of practical jokes and often
apparent in his music. He was particularly respected by the Eszterhzy court musicians
whom he supervised, as he maintained a cordial working atmosphere and effectively
represented the musicians' interests with their employer.
Haydn was a devout Catholic, who often turned to his rosary when he got stuck in
composing, a practice that he usually found to be effective. When he finished a composition,
he would write 'Laus deo' ('praise be to God') or some similar expression at the end of the
manuscript. His favorite hobbies were hunting and fishing.
Haydn was short in stature, perhaps as a result of having been underfed throughout most of
his youth. Like many in his day, he was a survivor of smallpox, and his face was pitted with
the scars of this disease. He was not handsome, and was quite surprised when women
flocked to him during his London visits. The various portraitists who drew or painted Haydn
during his lifetime each took a different path in attempting to portray the attractive
personality instead of the ugly face; hence no two surviving portraits of Haydn are alike.

Works

Haydn is credited as the 'father' of the classical symphony and string quartet, and
also wrote many piano sonatas, piano trios, divertmenti and masses, which became
the foundation for the Classical style in these compositional types. He also wrote
other types of chamber music, as well as operas and concerti, although such
compositions are now less known. Although other composers were prominent in the
earlier Classical period, notably C.P.E. Bach in the field of the
keyboard sonata (the harpsichord and clavichord were equally popular with the piano
in this era) and J.C. Bach and Leopold Mozart in the symphony, Haydn was
undoubtedly the strongest overall influence on musical style in this era.

The development of sonata form into a subtle and flexible mode of musical
expression, which became the dominant force in Classical musical thought, was based
foremost on Haydn and those who followed his ideas. His sense of formal
inventiveness also lead him to integrate the fugue into the classical style, and to
enrich the rondo form with more cohesive tonal logic, (see sonata rondo form).
Another example of Haydn's inventiveness was his creation of the double variation
form, that is variations on two alternating themes.

Structure and character of the music

A central characteristic of Haydn's music is the development of larger structures out

of very short, simple musical motifs, usually devised from standard accompanying
figures. The music is often quite formally concentrated, and the important musical
events of a movement can unfold rather quickly. Haydn's musical practice formed the
basis of much of what was to follow in the development of tonality and musical form.
He took genres such as the symphony, which were, at that time, shorter and
subsidiary to more important vocal music, and slowly expanded their length, weight
and complexity.

Haydn's compositional practice was rooted in a study of the

modal counterpoint of Fux, and the tonal homophonic styles which had become more
and more popular, particularly the work of Gluck and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, of
the later Haydn wrote 'without him, we know nothing'. He believed that the search for
an appropriate melody was essential to the creation of good music, and carefully
constructed his around countrapunctal devices, so that it could be overlayed with
itself in a variety of ways, and the fragments could be worked with individually, and
still retain some degree of unique character.

Haydn's work became central to what was later described as the sonata form, and his
work was central to taking the binary schematic of what was then called a 'melodie'.
It was a form divided into sections, joined by important moments in the harmony
which signalled the change. One of Haydn's important innovations, one which was
adopted by Mozart and Beethoven, was to make the moment of transition the focus of
tremendous creativity, instead of using stock devices to make the transition, Haydn
would often find inventive ways to make the move between two expected keys.
Later musical theorists would codify the formal organization in the following way:

Introduction: If present in an extended form, a slower section in the dominant,

often with material not directly related to the main themes, which would then
rapidly transition to the

Exposition: Presentation of thematic material, including a progression

of tonality away from the home key. Unlike Mozart and Beethoven, Haydn often
wrote expositions where the music that establishes the new key is similar or
identical to the opening theme: this is called monothematic sonata form.

Development: The thematic material is led through a rapidly-shifting sequence

of keys, transformed, fragmented, or combined with new material. If not
present, the work is termed a 'sonatina'. Haydn's developments tend to be
longer and more elaborate than those of Mozart, for example.

Recapitulation: Return to the home key, where the material of the exposition is
re-presented. Haydn, unlike Mozart and Beethoven, often rearranges the order
of themes compared to the exposition: he also frequently omits passages that
appeared in the exposition (particularly in the monothematic case) and
adds codas.

Coda: After the close of the recapitulation on the tonic, there may be an
additional section which works through more of the possibilities of the thematic
material.

During this period the written music was structured by tonality, and the sections of a
work of the Classical era were marked by tonal cadences. The most important
transitions between sections were from the exposition to the development, and from
the development to the recapitulation. Haydn focused on creating witty and often
dramatic ways to make these transitions, by delaying them, or by having the occur so
subtly that it takes some time before it is established that the transition has, in fact
happened. Perhaps paradoxically one of the ways in which Haydn did this was by
reducing the number of different devices for harmonic transitions between, so that he
could explore and develop the possibilities he found in the ones he regarded as most
interesting. This is perhaps why more than any other composer, Haydn is known for
the jokes that he put into his music. The most famous example is the sudden loud
chord in his 'Surprise symphony|Surprise' symphony, No. 94, but others are perhaps
funnier: the fake endings in the quartets Op. 33 No. 2 and Op. 50 No. 3, or the
remarkable rhythmic illusion placed in the trio section of Op. 50 No. 1.

Haydn's compositional practice influenced both Mozart and Beethoven. Beethoven

began his career writing rather discursive, loosely organized sonata expositions; but
with the onset of his 'Middle period', he revived and intensified Haydn's practice,
joining the musical structure to tight small motifs, often by gradually reshaping both
the work and the motifs so that they fit quite carefully.

The emotional content of Haydn's music cannot accurately be summarized in words,

but one may attempt an approximate description. Much of the music was written to
please and delight a prince, and its emotional tone is correspondingly upbeat; this
tone also reflects, perhaps, Haydn's fundamentally healthy and well-balanced
personality. Occasional minor-key works, often deadly serious in character, form
striking exceptions to the general rule. Haydn's fast movements tend to be
rhythmically propulsive, and often impart a great sense of energy, especially so in the
finales. Some characteristic examples of Haydn's 'rollicking' finale type are found in
the 'London' symphony No. 104, the string quartet Op. 50 No. 1, and the piano trio
Hob XV: 27. Haydn's slow movements, early in his career, are usually not too slow in
tempo, relaxed, and reflective. Later on, the emotional range of the slow movements
increases, notably in the deeply felt slow movements of the quartets Op. 76 Nos. 3
and 5, the Symphony No. 102, and the piano trio Hob XV: 23. The minuets tend to
have a strong downbeat (and upbeat!) and a clearly popular character. Late in his
career, perhaps inspired by the young Beethoven (who was briefly his student),
Haydn began to write scherzi instead of minuets, with a much faster tempo, felt as
one beat to the measure.
Evolution of Haydn's Style

Haydn's early work dates from a period in which the compositional style of the
High Baroque (seen in Bach and Handel) had gone out of fashion. This was a period of
exploration and uncertainty, and Haydn, born 18 years before the death of Bach, was himself
one of the musical explorers of this time. An older contemporary whose work Haydn
acknowledged as an important influence was Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the third son of
Johann Sebastian.

Tracing Haydn's work over the five decades in which it was produced (roughly, 1749 to
1802), one finds a gradual but ever increasing complexity and musical sophistication, which
developed as Haydn learned from his own experience and that of his colleagues. Several
important landmarks have been observed in the evolution of Haydn's musical style.

In the late 1760s and early 1770s Haydn entered a stylistic period known as 'Sturm und
Drang' (storm and stress). This term is taken from a literary movement of about the same
time, though some scholars believe that Haydn was unaware of this literary development
and that the change in his compositional style was entirely of his own making. The musical
language of this period is similar to what went before, but it is deployed in work that is more
intensely expressive, especially in the works written in minor keys. Some of the most famous
compositions of this period are the 'Farewell' Symphony No. 45, the Piano Sonata No. 20 in C
minor, and the six string quartets of Op. 20 (the 'Sun' quartets), all dating from 1772. It was
also around this time that Haydn became interested in writing fugues in the Baroque style,
and three of the Op. 20 quartets end with such fugues.

Following the climax of the 'Sturm und Drang', Haydn returned to a lighter, more overtly
entertaining style. There are no quartets from this period, and the symphonies take on new
features: the first movements now sometimes contain slow introductions, and the scoring
often includes trumpets and timpani. These changes are often related to a major shift in
Haydn's professional duties, which moved him away from 'pure' music and toward the
production of comic operas. Several of the operas, such as Il Mondo della luna (The World of
the Moon), were Haydn's own work; these are seldom performed today. Haydn sometimes
recycled their overtures as symphony movements, which helped him continue his career as a
symphonist during this hectic decade.
In 1779, an important change in Haydn's contract permitted him to publish his compositions
without prior authorization from his employer. This may have encouraged Haydn to rekindle
his career as a composer of 'pure' music. The change made itself felt most dramatically in
1781, when Haydn published the six string quartets of Opus 33, announcing (in a letter to
potential purchasers) that they were written in 'a completely new and special way'. Charles
Rosen has argued that this assertion on Haydn's part was not just sales talk, but meant quite
seriously; and he points out a number of important advances in Haydn's compositional
technique that appear in these quartets, advances that mark the advent of
the Classical style in full flower. (See above, for their influence on Mozart.) These include a
fluid form of phrasing, in which each motif emerges from the previous one without
interruption, the practice of letting accompanying material evolve into melodic material, and
a kind of 'Classical counterpoint' in which each instrumental part maintains its own integrity.
These traits continue in the many quartets that Haydn wrote after Opus 33.

In the 1790s, stimulated by his England journeys, Haydn developed what Rosen calls his
'popular style', a way of composition that, with unprecedented success, created music
having great popular appeal but retaining a learned and rigorous musical structure. An
important element of the popular style was the frequent use of folk or folk-like material, as
discussed in the article Haydn and folk music. Haydn took care to deploy this material in
appropriate locations, such as the endings of sonata expositions or the opening themes of
finales. In such locations, the folk material serves as an element of stability, helping to
anchor the larger structure. Haydn's popular style can be heard in virtually all of his later
work, including the twelve London symphonies, the late quartets and piano trios, and the two
late oratorios.

The return to Vienna in 1795 marked the last turning-point in Haydn's career. Although his
musical style evolved little, his intentions as a composer changed. While he had been a
servant, and later a busy entrepreneur, Haydn wrote his works quickly and in profusion, with
frequent deadlines. As a rich man, Haydn now felt he had the privilege of taking his time and
writing for posterity. This is reflected in the subject matter of The Creation (1798) and The
Seasons (1801), which address such weighty topics as the meaning of life and the purpose of
humankind, and represent an attempt to render the sublime in music. Haydn's new
intentions also meant that he was willing to spend much time on a single work: both
oratorios took him over a year to complete. Haydn once remarked that he had worked
on The Creation so long because he wanted it to last.

The change in Haydn's approach was important in the history of music, as other composers
soon were following his lead. Notably, Beethoven adopted the practice of taking his time and
aiming high. As composers were gradually liberated from dependence on the aristocracy,
Haydn's late mode of work became the norm in Classical composition.