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Franz Joseph Haydn(German Franz Joseph Haydn, March 31, 1732 - May 31, 1809) - Austrian composer, representative of the Viennese classical school, one of the founders of such musical genres as symphony and string quartet. The creator of the melody, which later formed the basis of the anthems of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Son of a carriage maker.

Joseph Haydn was born on the estate of the Counts of Harrach - the Lower Austrian village of Rohrau, near the border with Hungary, in the family of carriage maker Matthias Haydn (1699-1763). His parents, who were seriously interested in vocals and amateur music-making, discovered musical abilities in the boy, and in 1737 Joseph was taken by his uncle and taken to the city of Hainburg an der Donau, where Joseph began to study choral singing and music. In 1740 he was noticed by Georg von Reutter, director of the Viennese St. Stephen's Chapel. Reutter took the talented boy to the chapel, and he sang in the choir for nine years (from 1740 to 1749) (including several years with his younger brothers) St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where he also studied playing instruments.

The subsequent ten-year period was very difficult for him. Josef took on various jobs, including being a servant to the Viennese composer and singing teacher Nikola Porpora. Haydn really wanted to be Nicolas Porpora's student, but his lessons cost a lot of money. Therefore, Haydn agreed with him that during lessons he would sit behind a curtain and listen without disturbing anyone. Haydn tried to fill the gaps in his musical education by diligently studying the works of Emmanuel Bach and the theory of composition. Studying musical works predecessors and theoretical works of J. Fuchs, J. Matteson and others, Joseph Haydn compensated for the lack of systematic music education. The harpsichord sonatas he wrote at this time were published and attracted attention. His first major works were two brevis masses, F-dur and G-dur, written by Haydn in 1749 before he left the chapel of St. Stephen's Cathedral. In the 50s of the 18th century, Joseph wrote whole line works that marked the beginning of his fame as a composer: the singspiel “The Lame Demon” (staged in 1752 in Vienna and other cities of Austria, has not survived to this day), divertissements and serenades, string quartets for the musical circle of Baron Furnberg, about a dozen quartets ( 1755), first symphony (1759).

In the period from 1754 to 1756, Haydn worked at the Viennese court as a free artist. In 1759, he received the position of bandmaster at the court of Count Karl von Morzin, where he had a small orchestra under his command - for which the composer composed his first symphonies. However, von Mortzin soon began to experience financial difficulties and stopped his musical project.

In 1760, Haydn married Maria Anna Keller. They did not have children, which the composer greatly regretted. His wife treated him coldly professional activity, used his scores for curlers and stands for pate. The marriage was unhappy, but the laws of that time did not allow them to separate.

Service at the court of the princes of Esterhazy

After the disbandment of the musical project of the financially failed Count von Morzin in 1761, Joseph Haydn was offered a similar job with Prince Paul Anton Esterházy, the head of the extremely wealthy Hungarian Esterházy family. Haydn initially held the position of vice-kapellmeister, but he was immediately allowed to lead most of Esterházy's musical institutions, along with the old Kapellmeister Gregor Werner, who retained absolute authority only for church music. In 1766, a fateful event occurred in Haydn's life - after the death of Gregor Werner, he was elevated to the position of bandmaster at the court of the new Prince Esterhazy - Miklos Joseph Esterhazy, a representative of one of the most influential and powerful aristocratic families in Hungary and Austria. The duties of the bandmaster included composing music, leading the orchestra, playing chamber music for the patron and staging operas.

The year 1779 becomes a turning point in the career of Joseph Haydn - his contract was revised: while previously all his compositions were the property of the Esterhazy family, he was now allowed to write for others and sell his works to publishers. Soon, taking this circumstance into account, Haydn shifted the emphasis in his compositional activity: he wrote fewer operas and created more quartets and symphonies. In addition, he is in negotiations with several publishers, both Austrian and foreign. On Haydn's conclusion of a new employment contract Jones writes: "This document acted as a catalyst towards the next stage of Haydn's career - the achievement of international popularity. By 1790 Haydn was in a paradoxical, if not to say strange situation: being a leading composer in Europe, but bound by a previously signed contract, spent his time as conductor in a remote palace in the Hungarian countryside."

During his almost thirty-year career at the Esterházy court, the composer composed a large number of works, and his fame is growing. In 1781, while staying in Vienna, Haydn met and became friends with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He gave music lessons to Sigismund von Neukom, who later became his close friend and Franz Lessel.

On February 11, 1785, Haydn was initiated into the Masonic lodge “Toward True Harmony” (“Zur wahren Eintracht”). Mozart was unable to attend the dedication because he was attending a concert with his father Leopold.

Throughout the 18th century, in a number of countries (Italy, Germany, Austria, France and others), processes of formation of new genres and forms of instrumental music took place, which finally took shape and reached their peak in the so-called “Viennese classical school” - in the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven . Instead of polyphonic texture great importance acquired a homophonic-harmonic texture, but at the same time, large instrumental works often included polyphonic episodes that dynamized the musical fabric.

Thus, the years of service (1761-1790) with the Hungarian princes Esterházy contributed to the flourishing creative activity Haydn, which peaked in the 80s - 90s of the 18th century, when mature quartets (starting with opus 33), 6 Paris (1785-86) symphonies, oratorios, masses and other works were created. The whims of the patron of the arts often forced Joseph to give up his creative freedom. At the same time, working with the orchestra and choir he led had a beneficial effect on his development as a composer. Most of the composer's symphonies (including the widely known Farewell, 1772) and operas were written for Esterházy's chapel and home theater. Haydn's trips to Vienna allowed him to communicate with the most prominent of his contemporaries, in particular with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Free musician again

In 1790, after the death of Miklós Esterházy, his son and successor, Prince Antal Esterházy, not being a music lover, disbanded the orchestra. In 1791, Haydn received a contract to work in England. Subsequently he worked extensively in Austria and Great Britain. Two trips to London (1791-1792 and 1794-1795) at the invitation of the organizer of the “Subscription Concerts”, violinist I. P. Zalomon, where he wrote his best symphonies for Zalomon’s concerts, broadened his horizons, further strengthened his fame and contributed to the growth of Haydn’s popularity. In London, Haydn attracted huge audiences: people gathered for Haydn’s concerts great amount listeners, which increased his fame, contributed to the collection of large profits and, ultimately, allowed him to become financially secure. In 1791, Joseph Haydn was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.

While passing through Bonn in 1792, he met the young Beethoven and took him on as a student.

Last years

Haydn returned and settled in Vienna in 1795. By that time, Prince Antal had died and his successor Miklós II proposed to revive the musical institutions of Esterházy under the leadership of Haydn, again acting as conductor. Haydn accepted the offer and took the offered position, albeit on a part-time basis. He spent his summer with Esterhazy in the city of Eisenstadt, and over the course of several years wrote six masses. But by this time Haydn becomes public figure in Vienna and spends most of his time in his own large house in Gumpendorf (German: Gumpendorf), where he wrote several works for public performance. Among other things, in Vienna Haydn wrote two of his famous oratorios: “The Creation of the World” (1798) and “The Seasons” (1801), in which the composer developed the traditions of the lyrical-epic oratorios of G. F. Handel. Joseph Haydn's oratorios are marked by a rich, everyday character that is new to this genre, a colorful embodiment of natural phenomena, and they reveal the composer's skill as a colorist.

Haydn tried his hand at all types of musical composition, but his creativity did not manifest itself with equal force in all genres. In the field of instrumental music, he is rightly considered one of the greatest composers of the second half of the XVIII And early XIX centuries. The greatness of Joseph Haydn as a composer was maximally manifested in his two final works: the great oratorios “The Creation of the World” (1798) and “The Seasons” (1801). The oratorio “The Seasons” can serve as an exemplary standard of musical classicism. Towards the end of his life, Haydn enjoyed enormous popularity. In subsequent years, this successful period for Haydn’s work is faced with the onset of old age and failing health - now the composer must fight to complete his begun works. Work on oratorios undermined the composer's strength. His last works were “Harmoniemesse” (1802) and the unfinished string quartet opus 103 (1802). By about 1802, his condition had deteriorated to the point that he became physically unable to compose. The last sketches date back to 1806; after this date, Haydn did not write anything else.

The composer died in Vienna. He died at the age of 77 on May 31, 1809, shortly after the attack on Vienna French army under the leadership of Napoleon. Among him last words there was an attempt to calm his servants when a cannonball fell in the vicinity of the house: “Do not be afraid, my children, for where Haydn is, no harm can happen.” Two weeks later, on June 15, 1809, a funeral service was held in the Scottish Monastery Church (German: Shottenkirche), at which Mozart's Requiem was performed.

Creative heritage

This is how composer Joseph Haydn signed his scores: di me Giuseppe Haydn, he writes on Italian: “by me, Joseph Haydn.”

The composer created 24 operas, wrote 104 symphonies, 83 string quartets, 52 piano (clavier) sonatas, 126 trios for baritone, overtures, marches, dances, divertiments for orchestra and various instruments, concertos for clavier and other instruments, oratorios, various pieces for clavier, songs, canons, arrangements of Scottish, Irish, Welsh songs for voice with piano (violin or cello if desired). Among the works are 3 oratorios (“Creation of the World”, “Seasons” and “Seven Words of the Savior on the Cross”), 14 masses and other spiritual works.

Chamber music

  • 12 sonatas for violin and piano
  • 83 string quartets for two violins, viola and cello
  • 7 duets for violin and viola
  • 40 trios for piano, violin (or flute) and cello
  • 21 trios for 2 violins and cello
  • 126 trio for baritone, viola (violin) and cello
  • 11 trios for mixed winds and strings

Concerts

36 concertos for one or more instruments with orchestra, including:

  • 4 concertos for violin and orchestra (one lost)
  • 3 concertos for cello and orchestra
  • 3 concertos for clarinet and orchestra (Haydn’s affiliation has not been definitively proven)
  • 4 concertos for horn and orchestra (two lost)
  • concert for 2 horns and orchestra (lost)
  • Concerto for oboe and orchestra (Haydn’s affiliation has not been conclusively proven)
  • 11 concertos for piano and orchestra
  • 6 organ concerts
  • 5 concertos for two hurdy-gurdies
  • 4 concertos for baritone and orchestra
  • concerto for double bass and orchestra (lost)
  • concerto for flute and orchestra (lost)
  • concerto for trumpet and orchestra
  • 13 divertimentos with clavier

Vocal works

Operas

There are 24 operas in total, including:

  • “The Lame Demon” (Der krumme Teufel), 1751 (lost)
  • "True Constancy"
  • "Orpheus and Eurydice, or the Soul of a Philosopher", 1791
  • "Asmodeus, or the New Lame Demon"
  • "Pharmacist"
  • "Acis and Galatea", 1762
  • "The Desert Island" (L'lsola disabitata)
  • "Armida", 1783
  • “Fisherwomen” (Le Pescatrici), 1769
  • "Deceived Infidelity" (L'Infedeltà delusa)
  • “An Unforeseen Meeting” (L’Incontro improviso), 1775
  • "The Lunar World" (II Mondo della luna), 1777
  • "True Constancy" (La Vera costanza), 1776
  • "Loyalty Rewarded" (La Fedeltà premiata)
  • “Roland the Paladin” (Orlando Paladino), a heroic-comic opera based on the plot of Ariosto’s poem “ Furious Roland» ^z^

Oratorios

14 oratorios, including:

  • "World creation"
  • "Seasons"
  • "Seven Words of the Savior on the Cross"
  • "The Return of Tobias"
  • Allegorical cantata-oratorio “Applause”
  • oratorio hymn Stabat Mater

Masses

14 masses, including:

  • small mass (Missa brevis, F-dur, around 1750)
  • large organ mass Es-dur (1766)
  • Mass in honor of St. Nicholas (Missa in honorem Sancti Nicolai, G-dur, 1772)
  • Mass of St. Caeciliae (Missa Sanctae Caeciliae, c-moll, between 1769 and 1773)
  • small organ mass (B major, 1778)
  • Mariazellermesse, C-dur, 1782
  • Mass with timpani, or Mass during the war (Paukenmesse, C-dur, 1796)
  • Mass Heiligmesse (B major, 1796)
  • Nelson-Messe, d-moll, 1798
  • Mass Theresa (Theresienmesse, B-dur, 1799)
  • mass with theme from the oratorio “The Creation of the World” (Schopfungsmesse, B-dur, 1801)
  • Mass with wind instruments (Harmoniemesse, B-dur, 1802)

Symphonic music

See List of Haydn's symphonies

104 symphonies, including:

  • "Farewell Symphony"
  • "Oxford Symphony"
  • "Funeral Symphony"
  • 6 Paris Symphonies (1785-1786)
  • 12 London Symphonies (1791-1792, 1794-1795), including Symphony No. 103 “With tremolo timpani”
  • 66 divertissements and cassations

Works for piano

  • fantasies, variations
  • 52 piano sonatas

Memory

  • A house-museum has been created in Vienna, in which the composer spent last years life.
  • A crater on the planet Mercury is named after Haydn.

In fiction

  • George Sand "Consuelo"
  • Stendhal published the lives of Haydn, Mozart, Rossini and Metastasio in letters.

In numismatics and philately

Coin and postage stamp

20 schillings 1982 - Austrian commemorative coin dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Haydn

USSR postage stamp,
1959

Franz Joseph Haydn. Born March 31, 1732 - died May 31, 1809. Austrian composer, representative of the Viennese classical school, one of the founders of such musical genres as symphony and string quartet. The creator of the melody, which later formed the basis of the anthems of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Joseph Haydn was born on March 31, 1732 on the estate of the Counts of Harrach - the Lower Austrian village of Rohrau, near the border with Hungary, in the family of carriage maker Matthias Haydn (1699-1763).

His parents, who were seriously interested in vocals and amateur music-making, discovered musical abilities in the boy and in 1737 sent him to relatives in the city of Hainburg an der Donau, where Joseph began to study choral singing and music. In 1740, Joseph was noticed by Georg von Reutter, director of the chapel of Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral. Reutter took the talented boy to the chapel, and for nine years (from 1740 to 1749) he sang in the choir (including several years with his younger brothers) of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where he also learned to play instruments.

The chapel was the only school for little Haydn. As his abilities developed, he was assigned difficult solo parts. Together with the choir, Haydn often performed at city festivals, weddings, funerals, and took part in court celebrations. One such event was the funeral service for Antonio Vivaldi in 1741.

In 1749, Joseph's voice began to break and he was kicked out of the choir. The subsequent ten-year period was very difficult for him. Josef took on various jobs, including being a servant and for a time being an accompanist for the Italian composer and singing teacher Nicola Porpora, from whom he also took composition lessons. Haydn tried to fill the gaps in his musical education by diligently studying the works of Emmanuel Bach and the theory of composition. The study of the musical works of his predecessors and the theoretical works of J. Fuchs, J. Matteson and others compensated for Joseph Haydn's lack of systematic musical education. The harpsichord sonatas he wrote at this time were published and attracted attention. His first major works were two brevis masses, F-dur and G-dur, written by Haydn in 1749 before he left the chapel of St. Stephen's Cathedral.

In the 50s of the 18th century, Joseph wrote a number of works that marked the beginning of his fame as a composer: the Singspiel (opera) “The New Lame Demon” (staged in 1752, Vienna and other cities of Austria - has not survived to this day), divertissements and serenades , string quartets for the musical circle of Baron Furnberg, about a dozen quartets (1755), first symphony (1759).

In the period from 1754 to 1756, Haydn worked at the Viennese court as a free artist. In 1759, the composer received the position of bandmaster ( music director) at the court of Count Karl von Morzin, where Haydn found himself under the leadership of a small orchestra, for which the composer composed his first symphonies. However, von Mortzin soon began to experience financial difficulties and stopped his musical project.

In 1760, Haydn married Maria Anna Keller. They did not have children, which the composer greatly regretted. His wife treated his professional activities very coldly and used his scores for curlers and stands for pate. It was an extremely unhappy marriage, and the laws of the time did not allow them to separate. Both took lovers.

After the disbandment of the musical project of the financially failed Count von Morzin (1761), Joseph Haydn was offered a similar job by Prince Pavel Anton Esterházy, the head of the extremely rich family Esterhazy. Haydn initially held the position of vice-kapellmeister, but he was immediately allowed to lead most of Esterházy's musical institutions, along with the old Kapellmeister Gregor Werner, who retained absolute authority only for church music.

In 1766, a fateful event occurred in Haydn’s life - after the death of Gregor Werner, he was elevated to the rank of bandmaster at the court of the Esterhazy princes, one of the most influential and powerful aristocratic families in Austria. The duties of the bandmaster included composing music, leading the orchestra, playing chamber music for the patron and staging operas.

The year 1779 becomes a turning point in the career of Joseph Haydn - his contract was revised: while previously all his compositions were the property of the Esterhazy family, he was now allowed to write for others and sell his works to publishers.

Soon, taking this circumstance into account, Haydn shifted the emphasis in his compositional activity: he wrote fewer operas and created more quartets and symphonies. In addition, he is in negotiations with several publishers, both Austrian and foreign. Of Haydn's new employment contract, Jones writes: “This document acted as a catalyst towards the next stage of Haydn's career - the achievement of international popularity. By 1790, Haydn found himself in a paradoxical, if not strange, position: as Europe's leading composer, but bound by a previously signed contract, he was spending his time as conductor in a remote palace in the Hungarian countryside.

During his almost thirty-year career at the Esterházy court, the composer composed a large number of works, and his fame is growing. In 1781, while staying in Vienna, Haydn met and became friends with. He gave music lessons to Sigismund von Neukom, who later became his close friend.

On February 11, 1785, Haydn was initiated into the Masonic lodge “Toward True Harmony” (“Zur wahren Eintracht”). Mozart was unable to attend the dedication because he was attending a concert with his father Leopold.

Throughout the 18th century, in a number of countries (Italy, Germany, Austria, France and others), processes of formation of new genres and forms of instrumental music took place, which finally took shape and reached their peak in the so-called “Viennese classical school” - in the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven . Instead of polyphonic texture, homophonic-harmonic texture acquired great importance, but at the same time, polyphonic episodes were often included in large instrumental works, dynamizing the musical fabric.

Thus, the years of service (1761-1790) with the Hungarian princes Esterházy contributed to the flourishing of Haydn’s creative activity, the peak of which was in the 80s - 90s of the 18th century, when mature quartets were created (starting with opus 33), 6 Paris (1785- 86) symphonies, oratorios, masses and other works. The whims of the patron of the arts often forced Joseph to give up his creative freedom. At the same time, working with the orchestra and choir he led had a beneficial effect on his development as a composer. Most of the composer's symphonies (including the widely known Farewell (1772)) and operas were written for the Esterházy Chapel and home theater. Haydn's trips to Vienna allowed him to communicate with the most prominent of his contemporaries, in particular with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

In 1790, Prince Nikolai Esterhazy died, and his son and successor, Prince Anton Esterhazy, not being a music lover, disbanded the orchestra. In 1791, Haydn received a contract to work in England. Subsequently he worked extensively in Austria and Great Britain. Two trips to London (1791-1792 and 1794-1795) at the invitation of the organizer of the “Subscription Concerts”, violinist I. P. Zalomon, where he wrote his best symphonies for Zalomon’s concerts (12 London (1791-1792, 1794-1795) symphonies) , broadened their horizons, further strengthened their fame and contributed to the growth of Haydn’s popularity. In London, Haydn attracted huge audiences: Haydn's concerts attracted huge numbers of listeners, which increased his fame, contributed to the collection of large profits and, ultimately, allowed him to become financially secure. In 1791, Joseph Haydn was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.

While passing through Bonn in 1792, he met the young Beethoven and took him on as a student.

Haydn returned and settled in Vienna in 1795. By that time, Prince Anton had died and his successor Nicholas II proposed to revive the musical institutions of Esterházy under the leadership of Haydn, again acting as conductor. Haydn accepted the offer and took the offered position, albeit on a part-time basis. He spent his summer with Esterhazy in the city of Eisenstadt, and over the course of several years wrote six masses. But by this time Haydn had become a public figure in Vienna and spent most of his time in his own large house in Gumpendorf, where he wrote several works for public performance. Among other things, in Vienna Haydn wrote two of his famous oratorios: “The Creation of the World” (1798) and “The Seasons” (1801), in which the composer developed the traditions of the lyrical-epic oratorios of G. F. Handel. Joseph Haydn's oratorios are marked by a rich, everyday character that is new to this genre, a colorful embodiment of natural phenomena, and they reveal the composer's skill as a colorist.

Haydn tried his hand at all types of musical composition, but his creativity did not manifest itself with equal force in all genres. In the field of instrumental music, he is rightly considered one of the greatest composers of the second half of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The greatness of Joseph Haydn as a composer was maximally manifested in his two final works: the great oratorios “The Creation of the World” (1798) and “The Seasons” (1801). The oratorio “The Seasons” can serve as an exemplary standard of musical classicism. Towards the end of his life, Haydn enjoyed enormous popularity. In subsequent years, this successful period for Haydn’s work is faced with the onset of old age and failing health - now the composer must fight to complete his begun works. Work on oratorios undermined the composer's strength. His last works were “Harmoniemesse” (1802) and the unfinished string quartet opus 103 (1802). By about 1802, his condition had deteriorated to the point that he became physically unable to compose. The last sketches date back to 1806; after this date, Haydn did not write anything else.

The composer died in Vienna. He died at the age of 77 on May 31, 1809, shortly after the attack on Vienna by the French army led by Napoleon. Among his last words was an attempt to calm his servants when a cannonball fell in the vicinity of the house: “Do not be afraid, my children, for where Haydn is, no harm can happen.” Two weeks later, on June 15, 1809, a funeral service was held in the Scottish Monastery Church (German: Shottenkirche), at which Mozart's Requiem was performed.

The composer created 24 operas, wrote 104 symphonies, 83 string quartets, 52 piano (clavier) sonatas, 126 trios for baritone, overtures, marches, dances, divertiments for orchestra and various instruments, concertos for clavier and other instruments, oratorios, various pieces for clavier, songs, canons, arrangements of Scottish, Irish, Welsh songs for voice with piano (violin or cello if desired). Among the works are 3 oratorios (“Creation of the World”, “Seasons” and “Seven Words of the Savior on the Cross”), 14 masses and other spiritual works.

Haydn's most famous operas:

“The Lame Demon” (Der krumme Teufel), 1751
"True Constancy"
"Orpheus and Eurydice, or the Soul of a Philosopher", 1791
"Asmodeus, or the New Lame Demon"
"Pharmacist"
"Acis and Galatea", 1762
"The Desert Island" (L'lsola disabitata)
"Armida", 1783
“Fisherwomen” (Le Pescatrici), 1769
"Deceived Infidelity" (L'Infedeltà delusa)
“An Unforeseen Meeting” (L’Incontro improviso), 1775
"The Lunar World" (II Mondo della luna), 1777
"True Constancy" (La Vera costanza), 1776
"Loyalty Rewarded" (La Fedeltà premiata)
“Roland the Paladin” (Orlando Рaladino), a heroic-comic opera based on the plot of Ariosto’s poem “Roland the Furious.”

Haydn's most famous masses:

small mass (Missa brevis, F-dur, around 1750)
great organ mass Es-dur (1766)
Mass in honor of St. Nicholas (Missa in honorem Sancti Nicolai, G-dur, 1772)
Mass of St. Caeciliae (Missa Sanctae Caeciliae, c-moll, between 1769 and 1773)
small organ mass (B major, 1778)
Mariazellermesse, C-dur, 1782
Mass with timpani, or Mass during the war (Paukenmesse, C-dur, 1796)
Mass Heiligmesse (B major, 1796)
Nelson-Messe, d-moll, 1798
Mass Theresa (Theresienmesse, B-dur, 1799)
Mass with theme from the oratorio “The Creation of the World” (Schopfungsmesse, B-dur, 1801)
mass with wind instruments (Harmoniemesse, B-dur, 1802).

All complex world classical music, which cannot be covered at one glance, is conventionally divided into eras or styles (this applies to all classical art, but today we are talking specifically about music). One of the central stages in the development of music is the era of musical classicism. This era gave world music three names that probably anyone who has heard at least a little about classical music can name: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Since the lives of these three composers were in one way or another connected with Vienna in the 18th century, the style of their music, as well as the brilliant constellation of their names itself, was called Viennese classicism. These composers themselves are called Viennese classics.

"Papa Haydn" - whose papa?

The oldest of the three composers, and therefore the founder of the style of their music, is Franz Joseph Haydn, whose biography you will read in this article (1732-1809) - “Papa Haydn” (they say that the great Mozart himself called Joseph that way, who, by the way, , was several decades younger than Haydn).

Anyone would put on airs! And Father Haydn? Not at all. He gets up at first light and works, writes his music. And he is dressed as if he were not a famous composer, but an inconspicuous musician. He is simple both in food and in conversation. He called all the boys from the street and allowed them to eat wonderful apples in his garden. It is immediately clear that his father was a poor man and that there were many children in the family - seventeen! If not for chance, maybe Haydn, like his father, would have become a master of carriage making.

Early childhood

The small village of Rohrau, lost in Lower Austria, is a huge family, headed by an ordinary worker, a carriage maker, whose responsibility is not the mastery of sound, but carts and wheels. But Joseph’s father also had a good command of sound. Villagers often gathered in the poor but hospitable Haydn house. They sang and danced. Austria is generally very musical, but perhaps the main subject of their interest was the owner of the house himself. Not knowing how to read music, he nevertheless sang well and accompanied himself on the harp, choosing the accompaniment by ear.

First successes

Little Joseph was more clearly affected by his father's musical abilities than all the other children. Already at the age of five, he stood out among his peers with his beautiful, ringing voice and excellent sense of rhythm. With such musical abilities, it was simply destined for him not to grow up in his own family.

At that time, church choirs were in dire need of high voices - women's voices: soprano, altach. Women, according to the structure of patriarchal society, did not sing in the choir, so their voices, so necessary for a full and harmonious sound, were replaced by the voices of very young boys. Before the onset of mutation (that is, the restructuring of the voice, which is part of the changes in the body during adolescence), boys with good musical abilities could well replace women in the choir.

So very little Joseph was taken into the choir of the church of Hainburg, a small town on the banks of the Danube. For his parents, this must have been a huge relief - in such a early age(Joseph was about seven) no one in their family had yet become self-sufficient.

The town of Hainburg generally played an important role in Joseph’s fate - here he began to study music professionally. And soon Georg Reuther, a prominent musician from Vienna, visited the Hainburg church. He traveled around the country with the same goal - to find capable, vocal boys to sing in the choir of the Cathedral of St. Stefan. This name hardly tells us anything, but for Haydn it was a great honor. St. Stephen's Cathedral! Symbol of Austria, symbol of Vienna! A huge example of Gothic architecture with echoing vaults. But Haydn had to pay more than that for singing in such a place. Long solemn services and court festivities, which also required a choir, took up a huge part of his free time. But you still had to study at the school at the cathedral! This had to be done in fits and starts. The director of the choir, the same Georg Reuther, had little interest in what was going on in the minds and hearts of his charges, and did not notice that one of them was taking his first, perhaps clumsy, but independent steps in the world of composing music. The work of Joseph Haydn then still bore the stamp of amateurism and the very first attempts. For Haydn, the conservatory was replaced by a choir. Often he had to learn brilliant examples of choral music from previous eras, and Joseph along the way drew conclusions for himself about the techniques used by composers and extracted the knowledge and skills he needed from the musical text.

The boy had to do work that was completely unrelated to music, for example, serving at the court table and serving dishes. But this also turned out to be beneficial for the development of the future composer! The fact is that the nobles at court ate only to high symphonic music. And the little footman, who was not even noticed by the important nobles, while serving the dishes, made to himself the conclusions he needed about the structure of the musical form or the most colorful harmonies. Of course, to interesting facts The very fact of his musical self-education stems from the life of Joseph Haydn.

The situation at school was harsh: boys were punished petty and severely. Future prospects was not expected: as soon as the voice began to break and was no longer as high and sonorous as before, its owner was mercilessly thrown out into the street.

Minor start to independent life

Haydn suffered the same fate. He was already 18 years old. After wandering the streets of Vienna for several days, he met an old school friend, and he helped him find an apartment, or rather, a small room right under the attic. It is not for nothing that Vienna is called the music capital of the world. Even then, not yet glorified by the names of the Viennese classics, it was the most musical city in Europe: the melodies of songs and dances floated through the streets, and in the little room under the very roof in which Haydn settled, there was a real treasure - an old, broken clavichord (a musical instrument, one of forerunners of the piano). However, I didn't have to play it much. Most of my time was spent looking for work. In Vienna it is possible to obtain only a few private lessons, the income from which barely allows one to meet the necessary needs. Desperate to find work in Vienna, Haydn begins to wander around nearby cities and villages.

Niccolo Porpora

This time - Haydn's youth - was overshadowed by acute need and constant search for work. Until 1761, he managed to find work only temporarily. Describing this period of his life, it should be noted that he worked as an accompanist for the Italian composer, as well as vocalist and teacher Niccolo Porpora. Haydn got a job with him specifically to learn music theory. It was possible to learn while performing the duties of a footman: Haydn had to not only accompany.

Count Morcin

From 1759, for two years, Haydn lived and worked in the Czech Republic, on the estate of Count Morcin, who had an orchestral chapel. Haydn is the conductor, that is, the manager of this chapel. Here he is in large quantities writes music, music, of course, very good, but exactly the kind that the count demands from him. It is worth noting that most of Haydn’s musical works were written while performing official duties.

Under the leadership of Prince Esterhazy

In 1761, Haydn began serving in the chapel of the Hungarian Prince Esterhazy. Remember this surname: the elder Esterhazy will die, the estate will pass to the department of his son, and Haydn will still serve. He would serve as Esterhazy's bandmaster for thirty years.

At that time Austria was a huge feudal state. It included both Hungary and the Czech Republic. Feudal lords - nobles, princes, counts - considered it good form to have an orchestral and choir chapel at court. You've probably heard something about serf orchestras in Russia, but maybe you don't know that this was also not the case in Europe. in the best possible way. A musician - even the most talented one, even the leader of a choir - was in the position of a servant. At the time when Haydn was just beginning to serve with Esterházy, in another Austrian city, Salzburg, little Mozart was growing up, who, while in the service of the count, would have to dine in the people's room, sitting above the footmen, but below the cooks.

Haydn had to fulfill many large and small responsibilities - from writing music for holidays and celebrations and learning it with the choir and orchestra of the chapel, to discipline in the chapel, the peculiarities of the costume and the preservation of notes and musical instruments.

The Esterhazy estate was located in the Hungarian town of Eisenstadt. After the death of the elder Esterhazy, his son took over the estate. Prone to luxury and celebrations, he built a country residence - Eszterhaz. Guests were often invited to the palace, which consisted of one hundred and twenty-six rooms, and, of course, music had to be played for the guests. Prince Esterhazy went to the country palace for all the summer months and took all his musicians there.

Musician or servant?

A long period of service at the Esterhazy estate became the time of birth of many new works by Haydn. By order of his master, he writes large works in different genres. Operas, quartets, sonatas, and other works come from his pen. But Joseph Haydn especially loves the symphony. This is a large, usually four-movement work for symphony orchestra. It was under Haydn’s pen that a classical symphony appeared, that is, an example of this genre on which other composers would later rely. During his life, Haydn wrote about one hundred and four symphonies ( exact figure unknown). And, of course, most of them were created by the bandmaster of Prince Esterhazy.

Over time, Haydn's position reached a paradox (unfortunately, the same thing would later happen to Mozart): they know him, they listen to his music, they talk about him in different European countries, and he himself cannot even go somewhere without the permission of his owner. The humiliation that Haydn experiences from such an attitude of the prince towards him sometimes slips into letters to friends: “Am I a bandmaster or a bandmaster?” (Chapel - servant).

Joseph Haydn's Farewell Symphony

It is rare for a composer to be able to escape from the circle of official duties, visit Vienna, and see friends. By the way, for some time fate brings him together with Mozart. Haydn was one of those who unconditionally recognized not only the phenomenal virtuosity of Mozart, but precisely his deep talent, which allowed Wolfgang to look into the future.

However, these absences were rare. More often than not, Haydn and the choir musicians had to linger in Eszterhaza. The prince sometimes did not want to let the chapel go to the city even at the beginning of autumn. In the biography of Joseph Haydn, interesting facts undoubtedly include the history of the creation of his 45th, so-called Farewell Symphony. The prince once again detained the musicians for a long time in the summer residence. The cold had long set in, the musicians had not seen their family members for a long time, and the swamps surrounding Eszterhaz were not conducive to good health. The musicians turned to their bandmaster with a request to ask the prince about them. A direct request would hardly help, so Haydn writes a symphony, which he performs by candlelight. The symphony consists not of four, but of five movements, and during the last one the musicians take turns standing up, putting down their instruments and leaving the hall. Thus, Haydn reminded the prince that it was time to take the chapel to the city. Tradition says that the prince took the hint, and summer rest is finally over.

Last years of life. London

The life of the composer Joseph Haydn developed like a path in the mountains. It's hard to climb, but at the end - the top! The culmination of both his creativity and his fame came at the very end of his life. Haydn's works reached their final maturity in the 1980s. XVIII century. Examples of the style of the 80s include six so-called Parisian symphonies.

The composer's difficult life was marked by a triumphant conclusion. In 1791, Prince Esterhazy dies, and his heir dissolves the chapel. Haydn, already a well-known composer throughout Europe, becomes an honorary citizen of Vienna. He receives a house in this city and a lifelong pension. Last years Haydn's life passes very radiantly. He visits London twice - as a result of these trips, twelve London symphonies appeared - his last works in this genre. In London, he gets acquainted with the work of Handel and, impressed by this acquaintance, for the first time tries himself in the oratorio genre - Handel's favorite genre. In his declining years, Haydn created two oratorios that are still known today: “The Seasons” and “The Creation of the World.” Joseph Haydn wrote music until his death.

Conclusion

We examined the main stages of the life of the father of the classical style in music. Optimism, the triumph of good over evil, reason - over chaos and light - over darkness, here character traits musical works of Joseph Haydn.

This year marks the 280th anniversary of the birth of J. Haydn. I was interested in learning some facts from the life of this composer.

1. Although the composer’s birth certificate says “first of April” in the “date of birth” column, he himself claimed that he was born on the night of March 31, 1732. A small biographical study published in 1778 attributes the following words to Haydn: “My brother Michael stated that I was born on March 31. He did not want people to say that I came into this world as an “April Fool.”

2. Albert Christophe Dies, biographer of Haydn, who wrote about early years his life, tells how at the age of six he also learned to play the drum and took part in the procession during Holy Week, where he replaced the drummer who suddenly died. The drum was tied to the hunchback's back so that a little boy was able to play on it. This instrument is still kept in the church of Hainburg.

3. Haydn began writing music without any knowledge of musical theory. One day, the bandmaster found Haydn writing a twelve-voice choir in honor of the Virgin Mary, but did not even bother to offer advice or help to the novice composer. According to Haydn, during his entire stay at the cathedral, his mentor taught him only two theory lessons. The boy learned how music “works” in practice, studying everything he had to sing at services.
He later told Johann Friedrich Rochlitz: “I never had a real teacher. I began my training from the practical side - first singing, then playing the musical instruments, and only then - composition. I listened more than I studied. I listened carefully and tried to use what impressed me the most. This is how I acquired knowledge and skills."

4. In 1754, Haydn received news that his mother had died at the age of forty-seven. Fifty-five-year-old Matthias Haydn soon after married his maid, who was only nineteen. So Haydn got a stepmother, who was three years younger than him.

5. Haydn’s beloved girl, for unknown reasons, chose a monastery for her wedding. It is not known why, but Haydn married her older sister, who turned out to be grumpy and completely indifferent to music. According to the testimony of the musicians with whom Haydn worked, in an effort to annoy her husband, she used manuscripts of his works instead of baking paper. On top of everything else, the couple never managed to experience parental feelings - the couple did not have children.

6. Tired of a long separation from their families, the orchestra musicians turned to Haydn with a request to convey to the prince their desire to see their relatives and the master, as always, came up with a cunning way to tell about their anxiety - this time with the help of a musical joke. In Symphony No. 45, the final movement ends in the key of C sharp major instead of the expected F sharp major (this creates instability and tension that needs to be resolved). At this point, Haydn inserts an Adagio to convey to his patron the mood of the musicians. The orchestration is original: the instruments fall silent one after another, and each musician, having finished the part, extinguishes the candle at his music stand, collects the notes and quietly leaves, and in the end only two violins are left to play in the silence of the hall. Fortunately, without getting angry at all, the prince understood the hint: the musicians wanted to go on vacation. The next day, he ordered everyone to prepare for immediate departure to Vienna, where the families of most of his servants remained. And Symphony No. 45 has since been called “Farewell”.


7. John Bland, a London publisher, came to Eszterhaza, where Haydn lived, in 1789 to obtain his new works. There is a story connected with this visit that explains why the String Quartet in F minor, Op. 55 No. 2, called "Razor". While shaving with difficulty with a dull razor, Haydn, according to legend, exclaimed: “I would give my best quartet for a good razor.” Hearing this, Bland immediately handed him his set of English steel razors. True to his word, Haydn presented the manuscript to the publisher.

8. Haydn and Mozart first met in Vienna in 1781. A very close friendship arose between the two composers, without a shadow of envy or a hint of rivalry. The enormous respect with which each of them treated the other's work contributed to mutual understanding. Mozart showed his older friend his new works and unconditionally accepted any criticism. He was not a student of Haydn, but he valued his opinion above that of any other musician, even his father. They were very different in age and temperament, but despite their differences in character, the friends never quarreled.


9. Before meeting Mozart's operas, Haydn wrote more or less regularly for the stage. He was proud of his operas, but, feeling Mozart's superiority in this musical genre and at the same time not at all jealous of his friend, he lost interest in them. In the fall of 1787, Haydn received an order from Prague for a new opera. The answer was the following letter, from which the strength of the composer’s attachment to Mozart is visible and how alien Haydn was to the desire for personal gain: “You are asking me to write an opera buffa for you. If you are going to stage it in Prague, I am forced to reject your offer, so how all my operas are so closely tied to Eszterháza that they cannot be performed properly outside of her. Everything would be different if I could write a completely new work especially for the Prague Theater. But even in this case it would be difficult for me to compete with a man like Mozart."

10. There is a story that explains why Symphony No. 102 in B-flat major is called “The Miracle.” At the premiere of this symphony, as soon as its last sounds fell silent, all the spectators rushed to the front of the hall to express their admiration for the composer. At that moment, a huge chandelier fell from the ceiling and fell exactly on the place where the audience had recently been sitting. It was a miracle that no one was hurt.

Thomas Hardy, 1791-1792

11. The Prince of Wales (later King George IV) commissioned John Hoppner to paint a portrait of Haydn. When the composer sat down on a chair to pose for the artist, his face, always cheerful and cheerful, became serious, contrary to usual. Wanting to return Haydn’s characteristic smile, the artist specially hired a German maid to entertain the distinguished guest with conversation while the portrait was being painted. As a result, in the painting (now kept in the collection of Buckingham Palace) Haydn does not have such a tense expression on his face.

John Hoppner, 1791

12. Haydn never considered himself handsome; on the contrary, he thought that nature deprived him of his appearance, but at the same time the composer was never deprived of the attention of ladies. His cheerful nature and subtle flattery won him their favor. He was very good relations with many of them, but with one, Mrs. Rebecca Schröter, the widow of the musician Johann Samuel Schröter, he was especially close. Haydn even admitted to Albert Christophe Dies that if he had been single at that time, he would have married her. Rebecca Schröter more than once sent fiery love messages to the composer, which he carefully copied into his diary. At the same time, he maintained correspondence with two other women for whom he also had strong feelings: with Luigia Polzelli, a singer from Eszterhazy, who was living in Italy at that time, and Marianne von Genzinger.


13. One day, the composer’s friend, the famous surgeon John Hoenther, suggested that Haydn remove nasal polyps from which the musician was suffering. most own life. When the patient arrived at the operating room and saw four burly orderlies who were supposed to hold him during the operation, he became frightened and began to scream and struggle in horror, so that all attempts to operate on him had to be abandoned.

14. By the beginning of 1809, Haydn was already almost disabled. The last days of his life were turbulent: Napoleon's troops captured Vienna in early May. During the French bombardment, a shell core fell near Haydn's house, the entire building shook, and panic arose among the servants. The patient must have suffered greatly from the roar of the cannonade, which did not stop for more than a day. But nevertheless, he still had enough strength to reassure his servants: “Don’t worry, as long as Papa Haydn is here, nothing will happen to you.” When Vienna capitulated, Napoleon ordered a sentry to be posted near Haydn's house to ensure that the dying man was no longer disturbed. It is said that almost every day, despite his weakness, Haydn played the Austrian national anthem on the piano as an act of protest against the invaders.

15. In the early morning of May 31, Haydn fell into a coma and quietly left this world. In a city dominated by enemy soldiers, many days passed before people learned of Haydn's death, so his funeral went almost unnoticed. On June 15, a funeral service was held in honor of the composer, at which Mozart’s “Requiem” was performed. Many people attended the service senior officials French officers. Haydn was initially buried in a cemetery in Vienna, but in 1820 his remains were transported to Eisenstadt. When the grave was opened, it was discovered that the composer's skull was missing. It turns out that two of Haydn's friends bribed the gravedigger at the funeral to take the composer's head. From 1895 to 1954, the skull was in the Museum of the Society of Music Lovers in Vienna. Then in 1954 he was finally buried along with the rest of the remains in the garden of the Bergkirche, Eisenstadt's city church.

Composer Franz Joseph Haydn is called the founder of the modern orchestra, the “father of the symphony,” and the founder of the classical instrumental genre.

Composer Franz Joseph Haydn called the founder of the modern orchestra, the “father of the symphony,” the founder of the classical instrumental genre.

Haydn was born in 1732. His father was a carriage maker, his mother served as a cook. House in the town Rorau on the river bank Leiths, where little Joseph spent his childhood, has survived to this day.

Craftsman's Children Matthias Haydn loved music very much. Franz Joseph was gifted child– from birth he was given a ringing melodic voice and absolute pitch; he had a great sense of rhythm. The boy sang in the local church choir and tried to learn to play the violin and clavichord. As always happens with teenagers - with young Haydn in adolescence the voice disappeared. He was immediately fired from the choir.

For eight years the young man earned money by giving private music lessons and constantly improved with the help of independent studies and tried to compose works.

Life brought Joseph together with a Viennese comedian and popular actor - Johann Joseph Kurtz. It was luck. Kurtz ordered music from Haydn for his own libretto for the opera The Crooked Demon. The comic work was successful - it ran on the theater stage for two years. However, critics were quick to accuse the young composer of frivolity and “buffoonery.” (This stamp was later repeatedly transferred by retrogrades to other works of the composer.)

Meet the composer Nicola Antonio Porporoi gave Haydn a lot in terms of creative mastery. He served the famous maestro, was an accompanist in his lessons, and gradually studied himself. Under the roof of a house, in a cold attic, Joseph Haydn tried to compose music on an old clavichord. In his works, the influence of the work of famous composers and folk music was noticeable: Hungarian, Czech, Tyrolean motifs.

In 1750, Franz Joseph Haydn composed the Mass in F major, and in 1755 he wrote the first string quartet. From that time on, there was a turning point in the composer’s fate. Joseph received unexpected financial support from the landowner Carl Furnberg. The patron recommended the young composer to a count from the Czech Republic - Josef Franz Morzin- Viennese aristocrat. Until 1760, Haydn served as Morzin's bandmaster, had a table, shelter and salary, and could seriously study music.

Since 1759, Haydn has created four symphonies. At this time, the young composer got married - it happened impromptu, unexpectedly for him. However, marriage to a 32-year-old Anna Aloysia Keller was concluded. Haydn was only 28, he never loved Anna.

Haydn died at his home in 1809. First, the maestro was buried in the Hundsturmer cemetery. Since 1820, his remains were transferred to the temple of the city of Eisenstadt.

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