LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Joseph Haydn: Music
built 646 days ago
Of humble origins, Haydn was born in the village of Rohrau, near Vienna, on March 31, 1732. When eight years old he was accepted into the choir school of Saint Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where he received his only formal education. Dismissed from the choir at the age of 17, he spent the next several years as a struggling freelance musician. He studied on his own the standard textbooks on counterpoint and took occasional lessons from the noted Italian singing master and composer Nicola Porpora. In 1755 Haydn was engaged briefly by Baron Karl Josef von Fürnberg, for whom he apparently composed his first string quartets. A more substantial position followed in 1759, when he was hired as music director by Count Ferdinand Maximilian von Morzin.
Source:
Haydn returned to Vienna in July 1792 only to set out for England again in January 1794. The second visit was, if possible, even more successful than the first, and King George III asked Haydn to move to London permanently. This Haydn felt unable to do, and he returned to Austria in August 1795. In the meantime Prince Anton had died. A new Prince Nikolaus pressed Haydn back into limited service to provide an annual Mass for the Esterházy chapel. As it happened, Haydn's own thoughts had centered on choral music ever since he had attended the Handel commemoration at Westminster Abbey.
Source:
Haydn was one of three boys born to Mathias Haydn and Anna Maria Koller. His father was a master wheelwright who loved music. He played the harp, while Haydn’s mother sang the melodies. Anna Maria was a cook for Count Karl Anton Harrach before she married Mathias. Haydn’s brother, Michael... composed music and became relatively famous. His youngest brother, Johann Evangelist, sang tenor in the church choir of the Esterhazy Court.
Source:
In this respect Haydn's career epitomized the transition from aristocratic patronage to public performance that had begun to characterize the social history of music during his day. The legend of "Papa Haydn," the good-natured and self-effacing figure known for his generous encouragement of Mozart and Beethoven, can obscure the attention Haydn devoted to promoting the public reception of his own music. Commercially savvy, Haydn was keenly attuned to the tastes of his public. He often incorporated folk themes into his music, and the playful and mischievous qualities that came to be a hallmark of many of Haydn's compositions doubtless contributed to his broad appeal. As his "Surprise" Symphony (no. 94) or "Joke" Quartet (op.
Source:
Surprisingly enough, Joseph Haydn composed only very little original music for wind band. There are a few military partitas (“Feldparthien”) from an early stage in his career and a few marches, written when in London in the 90s of the 18th Century.
Source:
During his years at Eisenstadt and Esterháza, Haydn did not neglect dramatic music. By the time of the move to Esterháza he had written for Prince Nikolaus five one-act operas and a two-act intermezzo. At Esterháza a 400-seat theater and a smaller marionette theater were built. Haydn wrote for both, including, for the opening of the former in 1768, his first full-length opera, Lo speziale. During the same period he ... composed a series of liturgical works for the prince's chapel. That Haydn set great store by his vocal music was only natural: vocal genres had always carried more prestige than instrumental ones.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Music