Transcript Franz Joseph Haydn

Franz
Joseph
Haydn
Born: 1732
in Austria
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
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.
Still a boy, he got accepted to sing in the choir at St.
Stephen’s 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.
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.
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)
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.
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 Paul
Prince Nicholas
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 Prince’s 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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s hard enough putting 2 concerts a year together, and that’s without writing the music, recruiting performers
and singers, and fixing all the instruments! Putting on musical events almost everyday must have been rough.
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
The Esterhaza Estate still stands today. Here is a recent
photo of a part of the Esterhaza castle. It is a tourist
attraction.
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.
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)
There are nicknames for many of Haydn’s 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.
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 we’ll study from the Classical period that was actually likable. As
we’ll see, Mozart and Beethoven rubbed people the wrong way and made many people angry.
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 Mozart’s father that Mozart was the best composer he’d ever
met. He became good friends with Mozart and was very upset at Mozart’s 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.”
Prince Anton
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.
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.
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
Young Beethoven
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.
To celebrate his 76th birthday, a
performance of Haydn’s 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.
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
Pieces to listen to:
a) Surprise
Symphony
The End