| Joseph Haydn |
Article Index for Joseph |
Website Links For Joseph Haydn |
Information AboutJoseph Haydn |
|
Franz Joseph HaydnAlthough he is still often called "Franz Joseph Haydn", the name "Franz" was not used in the composer's lifetime. Scholars, along with an increasing number of music publishers and recording companies, now use the historically more accurate form of his name, rendered in English as "Joseph Haydn". (Webster, James: "Haydn, Joseph", ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed 18 January 2007), http://www.grovemusic.com) ( March 31 1732 – May 31 1809 ) was one of the most prominent Composer s of the Classical period, and is called by some the "Father of the Symphony " and "Father of the String Quartet ". A life-long resident of Austria , Haydn spent most of his career as a Court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it, "forced to become original".Griesinger 1810, 24-25 Joseph Haydn was the brother of Michael Haydn , himself a highly regarded composer, and Johann Evangelist Haydn , a Tenor . LIFE Childhood ]] Joseph Haydn was born in the Austrian village of Rohrau , near the Hungarian border. His father was Mathias Haydn , a Wheelwright who also served as "Marktrichter", an office akin to village mayor. Haydn's mother, the former Maria Koller, had previously worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach, the presiding aristocrat of Rohrau. Neither parent could read music. However, Mathias was an enthusiastic Folk Musician , who during the journeyman period of his career had taught himself to play the Harp . According to Haydn's later reminiscences, his childhood family was extremely musical, and frequently sang together and with their neighbors.Dies 1810, 80-81 Haydn's parents noticed that their son was musically talented and knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain any serious musical training. It was for this reason that they accepted a proposal from their relative Johann Matthias Franck, the schoolmaster and choirmaster in Hainburg , that Haydn be apprenticed to Franck in his home to train as a musician. Haydn therefore went off with Franck to Hainburg (seven miles away) and never again lived with his parents. He was six years old. Life in the Franck household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently hungryGriesinger 1810, 9 as well as constantly humiliated by the filthy state of his clothing.Dies 1810, 82 However, he did begin his musical training there, and soon was able to play both Harpsichord and Violin . The people of Hainburg were soon hearing him sing Treble parts in the church Choir . ]] There is reason to think that Haydn's singing impressed those who heard him, because two years later (in 1740) he was brought to the attention of Georg Von Reutter , the director of music in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna , who was touring the provinces looking for talented Choirboys . Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and soon moved off to Vienna, where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister, the last four in the company of his younger brother Michael . Like Franck before him, Reutter did not always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed. The young Haydn greatly looked forward to performances before aristocratic audiences, where the singers sometimes had the opportunity to satisfy their hunger by devouring the refreshments.Dies 1801, 87 Reutter also did little to further his choristers' musical education. However, St. Stephen's was at the time one of the leading musical centers in Europe, with many performances of new music by leading composers. Haydn was able to learn a great deal by observation, simply by serving as a professional musician there.Robbins Landon and Jones 1988, 27 Struggles as a freelancer By 1749, Haydn had finally matured physically to the point that he was no longer able to sing high choral parts. On a weak pretext, he was summarily dismissed from his job. He was sent into the streets with no home to go toGeiringer, 27 but had the good fortune to be taken in by a friend, Johann Michael Spangler, who for a few months shared with Haydn his family's crowded garret room. Haydn was able to begin immediately his pursuit of a career as a freelance musician. During this arduous time, Haydn worked at many different jobs: as a music teacher, as a street serenader, and eventually as valet–accompanist for the Italian composer Nicola Porpora , from whom he later said he learned "the true fundamentals of composition".Larsen 1980, 8 When he was a chorister, Haydn had not received serious training in music theory and composition, which he perceived as a serious gap. To fill it, he worked his way through the Counterpoint exercises in the text ''Gradus ad Parnassum'' by Johann Joseph Fux , and carefully studied the work of Carl Philip Emanuel Bach , whom he later acknowledgedGeiringer, 30 as an important influence. As his skills increased, Haydn began to acquire a public reputation, first as the composer of an opera, Der Krumme Teufel "The Limping Devil", written for the comic actor Johann Joseph Felix Kurz , whose stage name was "Bernardon". The work was premiered successfully in 1753, but was soon closed down by the censors.Geiringer 30-2 Haydn also noticed, apparently without annoyance, that works he had simply given away were being published and sold in local music shops.Griesinger 1810, 15 With the increase in his reputation, Haydn eventually was able to obtain aristocratic patronage, crucial for the career of a composer in his day. A Countess Thun, having seen one of Haydn's compositions, summoned him and engaged him as her singing and keyboard teacher. The Countess in turn recommended Haydn to Baron Carl Josef Fürnberg , for whom the composer wrote his first string quartets, premiered at the baron's country estate; and it was Fürnberg who recommended Haydn to Count Morzin , who in 1757This date is uncertain, since the early biography of Griesinger 1810 gives 1759. For the evidence supporting the earlier date see Robbins Landon and Jones (1988, 34) and Webster (2002, 10)). became his first full time employer.Source for this paragraph: Geiringer, 34-5 The years as Kapellmeister Haydn's job title under Count Morzin was Kapellmeister , that is, music director. He led the count's small orchestra and wrote his first symphonies for this ensemble. In 1760, with the security of a Kapellmeister position, Haydn married. His wife was the former Maria Anna Aloysia Apollonia Keller (1729-1800), the sister of Therese (b. 1733), with whom Haydn had previously been in love. Haydn and his wife had a completely unhappy marriage,See, e.g., Geiringer 1982, 36-40 from which the laws of the time permitted them no escape; and they produced no children. Both took lovers.Mrs. Haydn's paramour (1770) was Ludwig Guttenbrunn, an artist who produced the portrait of Haydn seen above (Robbins Landon and Jones, 1988, 109). Joseph Haydn had a long relationship, starting in 1779, with the singer Luigia Polzelli , and was probably the father of her son Antonio (Robbins Landon and Jones 1988, 116). Count Morzin soon suffered financial reverses that forced him to dismiss his musical establishment, but Haydn was quickly offered a similar job (1761) as Vice Kapellmeister to the Esterházy Family , one of the wealthiest and most important in the Austrian Empire. When the old Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner , died in 1766, Haydn was elevated to full Kapellmeister. As a "house officer" in the Esterházy establishment, Haydn wore Livery and followed the family as they moved among their various palaces, most importantly the family's ancestral seat Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt and later on Eszterháza , a grand new palace built in rural Hungary in the 1760s. Haydn had a huge range of responsibilities, including composition, running the orchestra, playing Chamber Music for and with his patrons, and eventually the mounting of operatic productions. Despite this workload, the job was in artistic terms a superb opportunity for Haydn.This view is given, for instanc, by Webster (2002, 13) and Robbins Landon and Jones (1988, 37). The Esterházy princes (first Paul Anton, then most importantly Nikolaus I ) were musical connoisseurs who appreciated his work and gave him daily access to his own small orchestra. |
|
|