Franz Joseph Haydn

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Franz Joseph Haydn
Born 1732 in Austria
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Haydn had neither the flashy individuality of
Mozart or the romantic passion of Beethoven. He
was more of a middle management type.
Many of the composers from the Classical and
Romantic periods were either bizarre and
eccentric, misguided, half-insane, disliked by
most other people of the time, or had terribly
tragic lives. Haydn is the exception to that
rule. He was a hard worker who was well-liked by
others who led a somewhat normal life
3
Haydn was born very poor with 11 brothers and
sisters. 6 of his siblings died before they
reached adulthood. Joseph (as he was called)
went to live with a musical cousin who taught him
how to sing.
It was common in this time period for some of
your children to die before they had children of
their own due to the lack of knowledge about
sanitation and how to treat illnesses.
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Still a boy, he got accepted to sing in the choir
at St. Stephens Cathedral in Vienna.
He studied religion, Latin, math, writing,
violin, clavier, and voice. The school only
lacked in teaching theory and composition, so he
began to educate himself.
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His younger brothers Johann Michael and Johann
Evangelist later joined the choir and Joseph
instructed them in the musical arts that he had
only recently learned himself. His brother
Michael went on to be a very good composer.
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Franz Joseph sang at St. Stephens for 9 years,
but was eventually kicked out for two reasons

1. His voice broke

2) He cut off the pigtail of another boy during
choir rehearsal (he was always pulling pranks)
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After getting booted from the choir, Haydn fell
madly in love with a lovely, young woman named
Therese Keller. Unfortunately for Haydn though,
she became a nun. Too upset to think straight,
he married her older sister, Anna Maria Keller.
He lived to regret it she was ugly,
ill-tempered, and a bad housekeeper. Worst of
all, she had no appreciation for his life as a
musician. She would annoy him in any way she
could. She even used sheets of his musical
compositions as tablemats, cake tins, or she
would cut them into strips to curl her hair!
He would purposely work late every night to avoid
her as much as possible.
8
Haydn soon got a job as a composer to the court
of Prince Esterhazy, a Hungarian nobleman. Haydn
worked for the Esterhazy family for about 50
years. Haydn lived in a giant castle built for
the Prince, called Esterhaza. They were one of
the wealthiest families in the whole country.
Prince Nicholas
Prince Paul
This Palace is only the summer home of the
Esterhazys. The Prince that hired him, Prince
Paul, died one year after Haydn came aboard, but
the Princes brother, Nicolas, became the new
Prince and he enjoyed music even more than Prince
Paul. Haydn ended up working for Prince Nicolas
for the next 29 years, writing music for all of
the splendid parties that Nicolas held all the
time. When Nicolas died, his son, Anton, was not
interested in music, so he disbanded the
orchestra. Prince Anton kept Haydn on as choir
director, but there were very few concerts
throughout the year, so Haydn traveled around a
lot during this time. When Prince Anton died,
his son, Prince Nicolas II wanted Haydn to come
back and rebuild the orchestra as it used to be.
Haydn returned to work for Prince Nicolas II for
the remainder of his life.
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The Esterhazy family still lives in Hungary to
this day. Shown here is Countess Melinda
Esterhazy on the left and Count Eugen Esterhazy
on the right.
10
Esterhaza was a huge place. It had many
buildings including the main castle, the living
quarters for servants, a concert hall, and an
opera house.
It was like a college campus. Everything you
need is on the grounds somewhere.
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Franz was responsible for everything. He
repaired the instruments, he composed all the
music, and he recruited performers. Musical
events took place almost every day.
Its hard enough putting 2 concerts a year
together, and thats without writing the music,
recruiting performers and singers, and fixing all
the instruments! Putting on musical events
almost everyday must have been rough.
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The Esterhazy Estate attracted some of the most
important people from around Europe. There were
parties all the time and Haydn had to compose NEW
music to be played at each one. He wrote 84
string quartets, giving him the name Father of
the String Quartet.
You are listening to the Emperor String Quartet
13
The Esterhaza Estate still stands today. Here is
a recent photo of a part of the Esterhaza castle.
It is a tourist attraction.
14
Here is the Esterhaza concert hall. Haydn loved
to experiment with musical ideas in his
symphonies and then hear the results almost right
away. He wrote the most symphonies of any
composer. Extremely few composers have passed
the 9 symphonies mark. Guess how many Haydn
wrote
At least 107! Experts think some may be lost.
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Here are more pictures of the Esterhazy concert
hall taken by Mr. Tychinski when an orchestra he
belongs to played there in the summer of 2004.
(click to see more)
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There are nicknames for many of Haydns
symphonies based on the circumstances of their
performance. For example, when Prince Nicholas
had the grand Esterhaza Palace finished, he told
the musicians of the Esterhazy orchestra to move
in, but their wives had to stay at home. The
musicians had to stay longer than expected and
really missed their families.
Click to hear what Haydn did to help the
musicians (let it play before clicking again)
Because of this, the symphony became known as the
Farewell Symphony.
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Haydn was a diligent, humble, positive man with a
big nose, stubby legs, and a mischievous sense of
humor. He was well respected by all his
musicians and other composers of the time. Since
he was so well liked by everyone, and because he
was older than most of the other people in the
Esterhazy Castle, he was affectionately
nick-named Papa Haydn.
Haydn is the only composer that well study from
the Classical period that was actually likable.
As well see, Mozart and Beethoven rubbed people
the wrong way and made many people angry.
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Both Mozart and Beethoven respected Haydn. In
fact, Haydn gave music lessons to each of them
several times. Here, Haydn is seen giving a
lesson to Mozart, with whom he had a very close
friendship.
After a couple lessons, Haydn told Mozarts
father that Mozart was the best composer hed
ever met. He became good friends with Mozart and
was very upset at Mozarts death at an early
age. Haydn also thought Beethoven was a fantastic
composer, but they had difficult moments in their
relationship. He once remarked to Beethoven you
give me the impression of being a man who has
several heads, several hearts and several souls.
19
In 1790, Nicholas Esterhazy and his wife died and
his son Anton became Prince. Anton was not
interested in music and disbanded the orchestra
and choir, freeing Haydn from his obligations to
the family. Haydn then traveled to London to
present some new works to the English people.
His first large work was called Symphony No.96 in
D, The Miracle.
Prince Anton
Haydn

It was called The Miracle, because a miracle
actually occurred at the premiere of the piece.
When the final movement ended, the audience
moved forward to praise the composer onstage. At
that moment, a large chandelier crashed down in
the now empty seats, not injuring a soul.
Haydn traveled to England quite often and they
loved him there. He wrote a group of 12
symphonies for performances in London called the
London Symphonies.
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It was soon after this that news of Mozart's
death first reached London. Haydn refused to
believe the news. After all, his own death had
been rumored several times. About a month later,
Haydn learned that the news was true and the loss
of his friend who was like a son affected him
deeply.
Mozart
21
Around this time, the 22-year-old Beethoven
traveled to Vienna to accept Haydn's offer of
lessons. Beethoven and Haydn had a somewhat bumpy
relationship due to differing interests within
musical theory. Beethoven wanted to learn about
the technical aspects of music and Haydn was more
interested in the emotional impact music had on
the audience. Even so, Haydn respected
Beethoven's talent and tried to help him stay in
Vienna as long as possible.
Young Beethoven
22
To celebrate his 76th birthday, a performance of
Haydns work, The Seasons, was held at Vienna
University. Despite his poor health, Haydn
managed to attend the celebration with his doctor
in a carriage. When Haydn arrived, a crowd of
students greeted him, cheering "Long live Haydn!"
and a fanfare of trumpets
and percussion welcomed him into the concert
hall. Unfortunately, Haydn had to leave partway
through the performance as he was weakened by all
of the excitement.
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Haydn died at the ripe old age of 77 in 1809 in
Austria. He was born 24 years before Mozart and
outlived him 18 years.
How old does that make Mozart when he died? Do
the math to solve this problem in the white space
at the bottom of your sheet?
Haydn b. 1732 Mozart b. 1756 Mozart d.
1791 Haydn d. 1809
35
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Pieces to listen to
a) Surprise Symphony
The End