On March 31,
1732, the classical composer, conductor, musician and musicologist Franz Joseph
Haydn was born in the village of Rohrau, near Hungary, in the Holy Roman
Empire . He was the son of
Matthias Haydn and Maria Koller. He was an important author of Western
classical music. He was part of the so-called Viennese Classical Trinity,
alongside two other great composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van
Beethoven. Haydn's career spanned from the end of the Baroque to the
beginning of Romanticism. He was the most important
composer of string quartets in Classicism. He established the formal
format of this genre for future generations. He defined a new balance of
forces between the four instruments that make up the string quartet: two
violins, viola and cello. His
participation in this period was fundamental for the musical development of
that time in Europe. Michael Haydn, Franz's brother, was a composer and
was Mozart's colleague in Salzburg. The other brother was the tenor Johann
Evangelist Haydn.
Franz
Haydn lived mainly in Austria and his career was almost entirely as a court
musician for the powerful Eszterházy family. Haydn said he was “forced to
be original.” His genius was recognized during his lifetime. He came
from a family of few means. There was no strong musical tradition in his
family, although his father was a supporter of traditional music and knew how
to play the harp by ear. But there was a musical atmosphere in Haydn's
childhood, with evenings of singing taking place with neighbors, as can be seen
from the composer's notes. His parents realized that their son had a
talent for music and, because of this, so that Haydn would have better
opportunities, at the age of six he went to live in Hainburg with his relative,
Johann Matthias Franck, chapel master. There were music sessions with
him. Although his period with Franck was difficult, having suffered hunger
and humiliation, Haydn learned to play the harpsichord and violin. He was
a child with a beautiful voice and went on to sing as a soprano in the local
church choir. The director of music at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Georg von
Reutter, had a great impression of Haydn's musical talent. He sent Haydn
to Vienna and there he was a singer for nine years. During that time, for
the last four years, his brother, Michael, kept him company.
At
the age of 18, in 1749, Haydn no longer had a beautiful singing voice and
became unemployed, in need. He ended up in Vienna's bohemia, being a
traveling musician for ten years. But Haydn at this time entered an
intellectual milieu. Thus, from 1753 he became secretary to Nicola
Porpora, an outstanding Italian composer. It was he who taught Haydn the
fundamentals of composition. But Haydn had the merit of having achieved a
musical education through his efforts, studying on his own the counterpoint
treatise Gradus ad Parnassum , authored by Fux, a court
composer. Also the second son of Johann Sebastian Bach, named Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach, significantly influenced Haydn. From 1750 Haydn began to
write masses and his first opera: Der Krumme Teufel . Shortly
afterwards Haydn composed the first divertimentos and other pieces for strings,
leaving him with a good image as a composer and being successful in a new type
of musical formation: the string quartet.
Between 157-1759, Haydn
became chapel master to Count Karl von Morzin. At that time, the composer
directed the count's chamber orchestra and composed his first symphonies for
this type of formation, which had 16 musicians. Also during this time he
began teaching music and fell in love with Theresa Keller, asking her to marry
him. But as she was going to the convent, Haydn married Maria Anna Keller,
her older sister, in 1760, having no children. It was an unhappy
marriage. He had several affairs and she may also have had an affair with
a painter.
After Count Morzin's financial
difficulties, his orchestra was disbanded and Haydn became assistant chapel
master for the wealthy Hungarian family of the princes of Eszterházi. By
contract, the conditions for a musician at this court were not very dignified,
wearing a servant's uniform and not having exclusivity over his
creation. But Haydn was respected. Prince Paul II Ezsterházy valued
Haydn's genius. With the death of this prince, Haydn received greater
support from Nikolaus I Ezsterházy, Paul's brother and great patron of
artists. In 1766 Haydn replaced the previous chapel master who had
died. It was a period of more than 30 years that Haydn worked for this
powerful family. He had several responsibilities, such as composition,
conducting the orchestra, performing chamber music, developing productions of
Italian opera, heroic dramas or comic dramas. Haydn composed and performed
more than 100 symphonies. He thus became one of the most recognized
composers in Europe. He also obtained authorization to travel and in 1770
he conducted his works in Vienna, then went to Paris at the invitation of Queen
Marie Antoinette. The successful Paris Symphonies and the orchestral
version of the Seven Last Words of Christ date from this time.
Haydn and Mozart, from approximately
1781, became good friends. Haydn was 24 years older. They influenced
each other. Haydn considered Mozart a genius. Haydn said to his
friend's father: "I say it before God and as an honest man, that your son
is the greatest composer I know in person or in name, because he has the
greatest taste and knowledge of composition." Mozart considered Haydn
to be a master and a model, having dedicated six quartets to him. He
called Haydn: “Papa”, “Guide” and “best friend”. Mozart took Haydn to join
the Freemasons in 1785. When they said goodbye before Haydn's trip to London in
1790, who had accepted a great job offer, it would be the last time they would
see each other. Mozart died in 1791. Due to the success of his music,
Haydn returned and stayed in London in 1794/1795. During these years he
composed his last twelve symphonies (nos. 93-104), the so-called “Londrina
Symphonies”. He was highly praised and received an invitation to stay in
London. But he decided to return to Austria.
In Vienna, after
his return from England, Haydn dedicated himself to composing great religious
works for choir and orchestra such as the last nine quartets, the
oratorios The Creation , The Seasons ,
the Te deum and six more masses that he dedicated
to the Eszterházy family. It was the culmination of Haydn's
work. Prince Nikolaus II of this family was an arts enthusiast and gave
assignments to Haydn. One job he was given was the composition of an
annual mass to celebrate the name birthday of the prince's wife, Princess Maria
Hermenegild,
In 1802 he was
already showing signs of physical weakness, unable to compose, which made him
sad, as he still had ideas in the field of music. At that time he was
visited a lot and received tributes. However, his inactive situation shook
him.
Haydn's death was in Vienna, at the
age of 77, on May 31, 1809. At the time, there was a strong bombardment by
Napoleon's artillery, before the capture of Vienna. The French emperor
ordered a guard to stay at the door of the composer's house while he was close
to dying, so that he could have peace of mind in his last moments of life.
There were interesting anecdotes from
the life of Haydn, known for being calm and generally optimistic, with a
refined sense of humor. In his symphony The Farewell ,
he reinforced the issue of respect that should be given to musicians, which was
noticed by the prince, who began to value them more. There were also cases
where the work had a sudden strong note, which was to prevent spectators from
falling asleep while the work was performed. He was well respected by the
musicians he supervised and was very Catholic. When he finished a
composition he wrote: “Laudate Deo” (“Glory to God”) or an expression to that
effect. He is considered the father of the classical
symphony and the string quartet. He created the sonata
form, the double variation form, and was a pioneer in integrating the fugue and
other counterpoint models into the classical form. There are fourteen
Haydn operas that have survived to this day. At the time they were created,
the most popular was “drammaeroicomico” Orlando Paladino ,
inspired by Ariosto's Orlando Furioso .
Haydn was the classical composer who
composed most in the trio style for piano, violin and cello. He created
45, Mozart six and Beethoven seven. Haydn was the author of 14 masses, the
main ones being the six that premiered between 1796 and 1802 to honor Maria
Hermenegild. The young Beethoven had some lessons with Haydn, who noticed
the boy's talent, but could not pay him much attention because he was very
busy. There were 104 Haydn symphonies, 83 string quartets, 45 trios for
piano and strings, 62 piano sonatas and other works.
According to José Carlos Fernandes:
“Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) came of age
the year Bach died, was a friend of Mozart, Beethoven's teacher and died the
year Mendelssohn was born. He is known to the general public mainly for
his symphonies, but he devoted himself to all the genres current in his time –
having a copious production in some of them – and even found time to compose
pieces for unusual instruments, such as the “baryton”, a type of viola da gamba
bass with additional metal strings, which was his “boss” Nikolaus Esterházy’s
favorite instrument and for which he wrote 120 trios.
Haydn was born into a modest family
in Rohrau, Austria, he was a choir boy at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna,
and in his youth he took on various humble tasks to earn a living - the most
fruitful was that of assistant/ created by the Italian composer Nicola Porpora,
from whom he said he learned a lot – and worked his way up the “food chain”
until, in 1761, at the age of 31, he assumed the position of deputy chapel
master of the powerful Esterházy family, in the service of the which he would
spend three decades, part of them in semi-isolation conditions, in the
magnificent palace that Prince Nikolaus I Esterházy had built in
Esterháza. Nikolaus moved there with his court in 1766 and remained there
until his death in 1790. Although Haydn, promoted to chapel master in 1766, had
no hand in ensuring the court's intense musical life, from 1780 onwards His
fame spread throughout Europe and commissions for works came to him from all
over.”
According to maestro Roberto Minczuk:
“Joyful, calm and, at the same time, serious, Haydn was respected by
everyone. He was a master not only of his art, but also of his attitudes
toward colleagues. He had so much respect that he dared to take some
risks. To show Prince Nicolaus Esterházy the importance of musicians, he
composed Symphony No. 45, From Goodbye , in which the
instrumentalists leave the stage one after the other, until only two of them
are left to end the piece. It is important to say that, after this
performance, the prince started to treat the musicians who worked for him
better (...)” (Great Composers of Classical Music. Haydn. Abril Coleções.
2009.)
“Mozart and Haydn, two exponents of
Classicism, were profoundly different. The first, emotionally
unstable; the other, almost always calm and good-natured. Mozart had
little sense of order and paid no attention to money; Haydn gradually
built an excellent heritage. Furthermore, there was a large age difference
between them. However, they bonded through solid friendship and influenced
each other.” (Masters of Music. Haydn. April Cultural. 1982)
Haydn's phrases :
“Young people can learn from my
example that something can come from nothing. What I have become is the
result of my difficult efforts.”
“I have never been so devout as when
I composed Creation . I knelt down each day to pray to
God to give me strength for my work... When I was working on Creation I felt
so permeated with divine certainty, that before I sat down at the piano, I
would I calmly and confidently prayed to God to grant me the talent that was
necessary to praise Him worthily.”
“It is the melody that is the charm
of the song and it is what is most difficult to produce. The invention of
a fine melody is a work of genius.”
“If you want to know whether you have
written anything worth preserving, sing to yourself without any accompaniment.”
“Mozart is the incarnation of music.”
“I tell you before God and as an
honest Man, your son (WA Mozart) is the greatest composer known to me. He
is the one with the greatest composition skills.”
“Many times –
fighting against obstacles of all kinds, or feeling my strength fail and
finding it difficult to persevere on the chosen path – a secret feeling
murmured within me: there are few contented and happy people here on Earth:
perhaps your work could, one day, be the source where may the weak, the
dejected and the burdened find a few moments of rest and well-being.”
Suggestion for
watching :
Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 104 in D major London - 3rd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8gDYXU6540
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Márcio José Matos
Rodrigues-History Teacher
