Joseph Haydn

A rags to riches story, Joseph Haydn became the most celebrated composer of his generation. Over the course of his decades-long career he codified many of the traditions of the Classical era. Though he excelled in many genres, his innovations and elevation of instrumental music earned him the nicknames “father of the symphony” and “father of the string quartet.” Along with his mentee Mozart and young pupil Beethoven, his position in the Viennese Trinity remains unchallenged.

Early years

A precocious gift

Franz Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, an Austrian village between Vienna and Bratislava, in 1732. His father, an artisan, sang and played harp; in addition to teaching his three sons music, he organized community concerts in the village. Both of Joseph’s younger siblings grew to become professional musicians; his brother Michael was also a talented composer. Though not a prodigy to the same degree as his future colleague Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Haydn displayed an early aptitude for singing, violin, and the harpsichord. His skill was such that a family member offered to take him away from Rohrau to receive formal musical training.

Choir boy

At the age of seven, Haydn was recruited to sing in a choir in Vienna; he was soon accepted into the school of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. There he learned solfège, harpsichord, and rudimentary music theory while also teaching younger students. He remained at the school for about a decade until he was dismissed when his voice broke (the Empress Maria Theresa allegedly compared his singing to a crow).

The struggling freelancer

Haydn spent the first few years following his dismissal as a struggling freelance musician. He worked numerous jobs to make ends meet: music tutor, street performer, and ensemble musician, among others. In his free time he diligently continued to study composition, working his way through Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum and the works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. 

He became acquainted with the famed writer Metastasio, one of the central writers of opera seria libretti (Mozart adapted one of these for his penultimate opera, La clemenza di Tito). Metastasio introduced him to the Italian composer and teacher Nicola Porpora, who took Haydn into his employ and taught him composition and Italian. Through his aristocratic connections, Haydn eventually secured his first regular appointment, as director of music for the Bohemian Count Morzin. Under Morzin’s patronage he composed his first fifteen or so symphonies. His tenure lasted from around 1757 until the beginning of 1761.

The Esterházy Court (1761–1790)

The first works

In 1761, Haydn began his longest and most prestigious appointment, a nearly three-decade tenure as music director of the Esterházy court. The Esterházy family was among the richest and most influential of the Hungarian nobility and one of Europe’s greatest musical patrons. Throughout his employment with the family, Haydn composed in almost every genre. During his first several years at the court, he primarily composed instrumental music including symphonies, chamber music, and concertos such as the Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major. Haydn’s works from these years illustrate not only the high level of virtuosity among the court musicians, but also the composer’s desire to show his own prowess. The early Esterházy symphonies include the programmatic triptych “Le matin” (Morning), “Le midi” (Noon), and “Le soir” (Evening).

A prince’s demands

Haydn’s primary role as music director was to provide compositions at the request of his employer, Prince Nikolaus I. As a result, by the mid-1760s he began writing numerous large-scale vocal works. This included both sacred genres such as masses and oratorios as well as the prince’s great love: opera. Nikolaus was so enamored with the art form that he ordered the construction of a small opera house at his estate. Even when the opera house was lost in a fire, the prince insisted the company give a performance three days later. 

Haydn continued composing instrumental works during this period, including a return to the string quartet. Many of these works show the influence of the proto-Romantic Sturm und Drang movement, characterized by dark, minor keys; drastic changes of dynamics and tempo; syncopation; and harmonic dissonance. He also continued to teach singing and composition lessons; one of his more famous students from these years was the composer and pianomaker Ignaz Pleyel, the namesake of the famed Salle Pleyel in Paris.

Increasing independence

In 1779 after nearly two decades spent serving the Esterházy court, Haydn renegotiated his contract to include an important stipulation: the freedom to publish his compositions independently of the prince. Almost immediately, he began publishing his chamber works in Vienna; he soon expanded abroad to France and England, where his symphonies were immediately popular. The six “Paris” symphonies, commissioned by a Parisian masonic organization, furthered his reputation there (Marie Antoinette was a fan).

Though already a well-regarded composer, his masterful (and sometimes underhanded) marketing tactics made him an international celebrity. His direct relationships with publishers marked an important break from the patronage system on which composers had long relied. Future generations of musicians, including Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and Frédéric Chopin, would later adapt this freelance model.

It was during these years that Haydn established his friendship with Mozart. Theirs was a relationship of mutual admiration and support: Haydn organized performances of Mozart’s quartets, and Mozart in turn dedicated a set of six string quartets to the elder musical statesmen. This was an unusual act in a time when most works were dedicated to the nobility. Their friendship continued until Mozart’s early death in 1791.

Life After Esterházy

The London journeys

The death of Prince Nikolaus and his wife in 1790 threw the Esterházy estate into disarray. His successor wound down the court’s many musical enterprises and dismissed most of the musical staff. Haydn, left largely to his own devices, agreed to travel to London to compose and teach. There he and his works were received with overwhelming enthusiasm, including his twelve “London” Symphonies, his final works in that genre. During his visit he heard oratorios by the late Baroque composer George Frideric Handel, directly influencing his own oratorio The Creation. Between his two trips to London he returned to Vienna, where he soon made the acquaintance of a fiery young composer and pianist.

A difficult pupil

Haydn’s most famous pupil, Ludwig van Beethoven studied with him for about a year before the old master embarked upon his second voyage to London. Headstrong and at times overly sensitive to criticism, Beethoven wasn’t always a grateful pupil. When Haydn expressed misgivings about one of his early piano trios, Beethoven was convinced of his teacher’s jealousy. He dedicated three early piano sonatas to Haydn but privately declared that he had never learned anything useful from him. Despite his bruised, youthful ego, Beethoven later came to regard Haydn with reverence and affection.

Final years

Haydn devoted most of his remaining compositional energies to new string quartets, oratorios, and masses. He was especially fond of his 1797 anthem “Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser.” Written for Emperor Francis II, it has since been adopted as the alma mater of schools including Columbia University in New York City as well as the national anthem of several nation-states including present-day Germany. 

His final years were spent in protracted decline. He composed less and less, eventually ceasing altogether. When he died in the spring of 1809, Vienna was under occupation by the French Army. Napoleon, long an admirer of Haydn’s music, stationed an honor guard outside his home. 

Haydn’s works

A key figure of the Classical era, Haydn bridged the stylistic gap between the preceding Baroque and galant eras and the ensuing Romantic era. At first glance, the master’s catalog teems with jokes and joie de vivre, yet his output also illustrates great depth of musical feeling in works such as the stormy “Lamentatione” Symphony.

Haydn’s devotion to his students and his mentorship of other musicians earned him the affectionate nickname “Papa.” This sobriquet, with its fecund connotations, extends to Haydn’s compositional output. With more than one hundred symphonies and sixty-eight quartets to his name (nearly triple the amount of quartets composed by either Mozart or Beethoven), the titles “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet” are well earned.

The symphonies

Over the course of four decades, Haydn completed at least 106 symphonies. The evolution of these works reveals not only their composer’s growing skill but also the stylistic currents of the age. As Haydn matured and gained access to larger ensembles the size, scale, and required talent of his works grew accordingly. Many of these remain in the core orchestral repertoire, particularly the later symphonies. 

Haydn strove for innovation and originality, imbuing his instrumental works with unique calling cards; the nicknames given to many of Haydn’s works reflect these musical quirks. The “Surprise” Symphony (one of the “London” symphonies), for example, takes its name from the unexpected fortissimo chord in the second movement. Another of the London works, the “Drumroll,” opens with an extended timpani roll.

Chamber music

Of the many chamber genres Haydn cultivated, he remains unparalleled in his string quartets. Earlier composers had written divertimentos for two violins, viola, and cello, but it was Haydn who advanced the potential of this combination of voices. His string quartets expanded the expressive possibilities of the genre, giving them a greater air of sophistication and seriousness.

Haydn composed quartets from his late teens into his late sixties. Op. 76, his last complete set of quartets, are some of his most ambitious. The “Sunrise” Quartet gets its nickname from the opening theme. This ascending melody, played over sustained chords in the lower strings, anticipates a far more bombastic musical sunrise, the opening fanfare of Richard Strauss’s tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra. Another Op. 76 quartet, the “Emperor,” includes variations on Haydn’s anthem “Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser.”

Vocal music

The quantity and quality of Haydn’s instrumental works overshadow his myriad compositions for voice (Haydn himself lamented his focus on chamber music instead of opera). Trained by Italian opera composer Nicola Porpora, Haydn idealized “fluent melody” as a prerequisite for good  music. He composed many masses and operas for Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, though few of them are performed today. Of Haydn’s large-scale vocal works, only his oratorio The Creation continues to be performed regularly. Its large orchestral requirements and vivid text painting caused a sensation; early musicologist Charles Burney, who attended the London premiere, raved, “It struck me as the most sublime Idea in Haydn’s work, his describing the birth of order by dissonance and broken phrases.”

Haydn’s influence on classical music 

Pianist and conductor Sir András Schiff rightly calls Haydn “one of history’s most innovative composers.” To this day, he is considered one of the key players in the development of the Classical style of many musical forms, from the symphony to the sonata and the quartet. He helped cement the four-movement structure of the symphony and the quartet, the three-movement structure of the sonata, and the tripartite sonata-allegro form. His string quartets in particular—true musical dialogues among equals—represent the genre’s apotheosis. If Beethoven can be considered a revolutionary, then it is Haydn who played a crucial role in codifying the Classical style against which he and future generations rebelled.

Joseph Haydn: timeline of key dates

• 1732: Franz Joseph Haydn is born in Rohrau, Austria.
• 1741: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations are published. Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi dies.
• 1749: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the most influential writer in the German language, is born.
• 1750: Bach dies due to complications following eye surgery in Leipzig at the age of sixty-five.
• 1756: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg, Austria. 
• 1757: Count Morzin appoints Haydn to serve as Kapellmeister. During his tenure, Haydn composes his first symphonies.
• 1759: George Frideric Handel dies.
• 1761: Haydn begins serving at the court of the Esterházy family, the richest and most influential Hungarian noble family.
• 1770: Ludwig van Beethoven, a future student of Haydn’s, is born in Bonn, Germany.
• 1774: The first authorized publication of Haydn’s music takes place in Vienna.
• 1775: The American Revolutionary War begins.
• 1779: Haydn renegotiates his contract with the Esterházy family, allowing him to compose outside the duties of the court and sell his work to publishers.
• 1785: Mozart publishes his six “Haydn” string quartets.
• 1790: Anton, Prince Esterházy, dismisses most of the court musicians, allowing Haydn freedom to travel. Later that year, he begins his first journey to London.
• 1791: Mozart dies and is buried in a pauper’s grave.
• 1792: Haydn begins giving composition lessons to Ludwig van Beethoven.
• 1799: Haydn publishes his final complete set of string quartets, Op. 76, which includes the “Sunrise” and “Largo” quartets. His oratorio The Creation receives its public premiere in Vienna.
• 1804: Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself emperor at Notre-Dame-de-Paris.
• 1809: Haydn dies in Vienna.