Franz Josef Haydn was born on 31 March 1732, in Rohrau, a village in Austria near the border of Hungary. He came from peasant folk. His father, Mathias Haydn, was a wagoner and parish sexton; his mother, Elizabeth, was a woman of simple tastes and humble origin.
Music was an instinct with these people. During the evening Mathias would play the harp, and Elizabeth would sing, as the children sat at their feet and listened. Of these younger Haydns, Franz Josef was most keenly affected by the music he heard, and most clearly showed aptitude for the art. When his father discovered him one day, sitting outside the schoolhouse and simulating playing the violin by scraping two sticks of wood against each other, he determined to give the boy as competent a musical training as he could. For this purpose, he enlisted the cooperation of his kinsman, Johann Mathias Frankh, a choir-master, who was the teach the boy of six the violin and harpsichord. Haydn later commented that he received "more blows than victuals" from his teacher, but Frankh was a competent teacher, and in two years the boy was able to enter the choir school of St. Stephen`s church in Vienna.
At St. Stephen`s, Haydn was under the tutelage of Reutter, the chapel-master, who failed to discern any particular talent in the boy. Reutter not only neglected Haydn but frequently maltreated him. Josef Haydn, however, found musical guidance elsewhere. With a few gulden, which he had succeeded in saving, he bought several treatises on counterpoint and thorough bass, which he eventually learned by rote. Thus he acquired training in musical theory.
When Haydn was seventeen years old, his voice broke. Being of very little use to the church, he was summarily dismissed from the choir—the pretext being one of Haydn`s practical jokes on a fellow pupil. There followed bitter days for young Haydn. He was without a home, friends, or money. The first night away from the church he was forced to sleep in the streets. An acquaintance from St. Stephen`s pitied him and gave him temporary lodging. Before long, Haydn succeeded in finding a few pupils and a few engagements as violinist. Thus he was able to subsist. His free moments still belonged to music study: each evening was spent in the study of the sonatas of Philipp Emanuel Bach.
In a short while, Haydn`s fortunes improved. He had composed a mass which had attracted some notice, bringing the composer several commissions. There followed a lucrative post as music teacher in the home of an influential family in Vienna. Then, Haydn became acquainted with Michael Porpora—a singer of great reputation—who at the time was in the employ of the Venetian ambassador to Vienna. Porpora engaged Haydn as his accompanist, and through this engagement Haydn was given an oppurtunity to meet some of the outstanding musicians in Vienna at the time, including Gluck and von Dittersdorf.
Haydn composed his first string quartet in 1755 on the encouragement of a musical amateur, von Fürnberg, who conducted chamber music performances at his home. This form of composition, which he inherited from the hands of Boccherini, so intrigued Haydn that for the next few months he created one string-quartet after another, establishing this form of composition as one of the major vehicles for musical expression. These quartets delighted von Fürnberg with their spontaneity and charm; in partial gratitude, he enthusiastically recommended the composer to Count Morzin as worthy of filling the position of chapel master on the Count`s private estate in Bohemia. Haydn eagerly accepted the position, which included salary and board. Here, Haydn found the peace, quiet and leisure necessary for composition. His pen became increasingly fertile; and it was here that he composed his first symphony.
At this time, Haydn married Maria Anna Keller, daughter of a wig-maker. This was an ill-fated marriage. Surly, supremely selfish, extravagant, Maria Anna was hardly a suitable wife for Haydn. She was little interested in her husband's art, frequently using his manuscripts as curling papers. There were endless squabbles. The couple lived together several unhappy years, then seperated permanently. Haydn supplied her with a generous income until the end of his life.
Haydn`s position at the private home of Count Morzin was soon succeeded by an even more important post, that of second chapel master to Prince Esterhazy of Eisenstadt. Five years later, he rose to the rank of First Kapellmeister. For twenty-five years he held this post. Here Haydn was in charge of the daily concerts. The magnificent festivals which regularly took place at the palace proved to be colourful backgrounds for Haydn`s music-making. Dressed in a costume which consisted of a bright blue coat decorated with silver braid and buttons, white collar and cuffs as well as his powdered wig and shining pumps, Haydn personally directed the concerts. His pen likewise contributed a mountain of instrumental music for orchestra and chamber groups for these festivities.
At this time, Haydn became acquainted with Wolfgang Mozart. Much to his credit, Haydn recognized Mozart`s genius as being far superior to his own; in fact, to anyone. Until the end of Mozart`s life, Haydn fought vigourously to bring the genius to recognition. In 1785, Mozart composed a series of six quartets which he affectionately dedicated to Haydn. When Haydn heard these quartets, he told Mozart's father: "I must tell you before God, and as an honest man, that your son is the greatest composer known to me, either in person or by name."
The death of Prince Esterhazy in 1790 enabled Haydn to accept an offer which had been extended to him by Johann Peter Salomon, concert-manager and violinist—namely, to come to London, direct a few concerts, and supply six new symphonies. In 1791, Haydn visited London for the first time. From March until May he directed orchestral concerts featuring his new works. His success was brilliant. Haydn`s music became the conversation of the hour, and he himself was the recipient of much honour. Oxford bestowed upon him the degree of doctorate of music; the Prince of Wales invited him as a guest to his home.
Haydn remained in London a year and a half before returning to Vienna. En route homewards, he stopped off at Bonn where he became acquainted for the first time with Ludwig van Beethoven (then still in his adolescence) who showed him a cantata he had recently composed. This work Haydn "greatly praised, warmly encouraging the composer to proceed with his studies." Later on, in Vienna, Beethoven became a pupil of Haydn, but their relationship was never successful: Beethoven was far too much the iconoclast, Haydn too much the classicist, for these two temperaments to harmonize.
In 1794, Haydn was once again a visitor to London, six new symphonies in his bag. Once again he was the recipient of great honour. At this time, he became a friend of Mrs. Schroeter, to whom he became very closely attached. "She was a very handsome woman, though over sixty," Haydn commented, "and, had I been free, I should certainly have married her." Three piano trios were dedicated by the composer to Mrs. Schroeter.
Haydn was likewise greeted with honour in his own country. Upon his return to Vienna from London, he found himself recognised as the greatest Austrian composer of his time. Concerts of his music were planned in his honour in Wein; a bust of him was erected in his native city. In 1797, on occasion of the birthday of Emperor Franz II, Haydn`s national anthem (which was originally the second movement of his famous Kaiser Quartett) was performed and sung in every principle theatre in Austria. One year later saw the first performance of one of Haydn`s greatest works, The Creation , modelled after Milton`s Paradise Lost. The success of The Creation was instantaneous. Choral societies were founded in Austria expressly to give it performance. The Creation was followed by Haydn`s last great work, also for chorus, The Seasons.
Haydn`s old age was quiet and dignified, although touched with a gentle melancholy brought on by illness. In 1805, on Haydn`s birthday, Mozart`s fourteen-year-old son came to the home of the master to bring him a cantata he had composed especially for his father`s close friend. In March of 1808, Haydn heard a performance of his work for the last time, The Creation, directed by Salieri. From that time on he was confined to his home through weakness and ill-health.
Josef Haydn died in Vienna on 31 May 1809. In his will he forgot no one—old friends, acquaintances, people who had done him favours in his youth and those who had been kind to him in his old age. "I commend my soul to my all- merciful Creator," he concluded his will reverently. Haydn was buried in an obscure churchyard near his home in Wein. Eleven years later, however—at the request of one of the Esterhazys—his body was brought to the parish church of Eisenstadt, where it rests today.
Haydn was of middle height, with very short legs. His complexion was dark, marked by smallpox, his nose aquiline, the expression of his eyes soft and generous. He always wore a wig, with side-curls and qeue. He considered himself a very ugly man, and was consistently bewildered that so many striking women should have been attracted to him.
His generosity, warm heart and simplicity have frequently been subject for comment. "Anybody can see by the look of me," he once said of himself—in an accurate stroke of self-appraisal, "that I am a good-natured sort of a fellow." He was fervently religious. Habitually, he began and ended his manuscripts with the words: "In nomine Domini" and "Laus Deo"; and when he was composing The Creation he fell on his knees each day and prayed to God to give him strength to bring the work to successful completion. By nature he was thrifty, hard-working, extremely methodical. He possessed a sunny sense of humour, and a lovable disposition. He was not a particularly educated man; he read very little, and was only superficially acquainted with any subject out of the realm of music.
When he composed, he preferred to wear his best clothing, his diamond ring and his most ornate pendants. He worked insustriously and systematically. He sketched his works on the piano, then, a few hours afterwards, developed them on paper. He worked regularly each day, never waiting for inspiration or inclination. He was well aware of his importance and greatness. "I know," he once said, "that God has bestowed a talent upon me, and I thank him for it. I think I have done my duty and have been of use in my generation and by my works. Let others do the same."
Haydn`s importance in the history of music has been so great that it is difficult to summarize his many achievements in a few paragraphs. He inherited the sonata form from Bach (and was acquainted with the elder composer`s Hamburg Symphonies and other works) and not only solidified it but infused into it succh vital genius that it became one of the most pliant forms of musical expression. He definitely established the form of the symphony, preparing the way for Mozart and Beethoven. He was the father of the string quartet; Mozart frequently confessed that it was from Haydn that he learned how to compose for four stringed instruments. He enriched the harmonic language of his day, increased the resources of orchestration. He was one of the pioneers in the creation of program music. It is, therefore, with considerable justification that he is frequently termed the "father of instrumental music."
His most successful medium for artistic expression was in the symphony and the string quartet. "It is not often," wrote Otto Jahn, "that a composer hits so exactly upon the form suited to his conceptions; the quartet was Haydn`s natural mode of expressing his feelings." And, in commenting upon Haydn`s symphonies, C. Hubert Parry wrote: "His predecessors had always written rather carelessly and hastily for the band, and hardly ever tried to get refined and original effects from the use of their instruments, but he naturally applied his mind more earnestly to the matter in hand and found out new ways of contrasting and combining the tones of different members of his orchestra, and getting a fuller and richer effect out of the mass of them when they were playing. In the actual style of music, too, he made great advances; in his hands, symphonies became by degrees more vigourous and, at the same time, more really musical."
J. Cuthbert Hadden neatly summed up Haydn`s style of composition when he wrote: "To say that a composition is 'Haydnish' is to express in one word what is well understood by all intelligent amateurs. Haydn`s music is like his character —clear, straightforward, fresh and winning, without the slightest trace of affectation or morbidity. Its perfect transparency, its firmness of design, its fluency of instrumental language, the beauty and inexhaustible wealth of its melody, its studied moderation, its child-like cheerfulness —these are some of the qualities which mark the style of this most genial of all composers."
A distinguishing trait of Haydn`s works was his frequent use of Croatian folk music for his melodic material. Wrote W. H. Hadow: "The Croatian melodies are bright, sensitive, piquant, but they seldom rise to any high level of dignity or earnestness. They belong to a temper which is marked rather by feeling and imagination than by any sustained breadth of thought, and hence, while they enrich their own field of art with great beauty, there are certain frontiers which they rarely cross, and from which, if crossed, they soon return." Even many of Haydn`s original melodies are characterized by typical rhythmic and melodic qualities to be found in the Croatian folk songs. However, as Franze Bellinger has added, "Haydn`s speech, like that of every genius, was not only that of his race, but of the world." To these Croatian characteristics, Haydn added his high inspiration and sensitivity, and produced a type of melody which, for the most part, is unmistakably his.