Haydn, (Franz) Joseph 1732-1809
Austrian composer

Haydn was born in Rohrau, Lower Austria, the son of a farmer and wheelwright. He was educated at the Cathedral Choir School of St Stephen's, Vienna, earning his living to begin with by playing in street orchestras and teaching. When his voice broke, he gained valuable experience from acting as accompanist and part-time valet to the famous Italian opera composer and singing teacher, Niccola Porpora, and as musical director (1759-60) for Count von Morzin, who kept a small company of court musicians for whom he wrote his earliest symphonies.

His marriage in 1760 to the sharp-tempered Maria Anna Keller was unhappy. He entered the service of Prince P�l Antal Esterh�zy (d.1762) in 1761, and remained in his service and that of his successor, Prince Mikl�s Joseph, until 1790. As musical director of a princely establishment, his duties included the performance and composition of chamber and orchestral music, sacred music and opera for domestic consumption.

These favourable conditions led to a vast output, notable, technically, for his near-standardization and development of the four-movement string quartet and the 'classical' symphony, with sonata or 'first movement' form as a basic structural ingredient. This was to influence the whole course of European music. Although he rarely travelled during his Esterh�zy period, his compositions gained an international reputation and were in demand in France, Germany, England, Spain and Italy. Retiring in fact though not in name from Esterh�za in 1790, he later paid two visits to London, sponsored by the violinist and impresario J P Salomon (1745-1815), during which he directed performances of the specially commissioned 'Salomon' or 'London' Symphonies (Nos 93-104). He was made a Doctor of Music of Oxford in 1791.

During the closing years of his life in Vienna, his main works were The Creation (1798), The Seasons (1801) and his final string quartets. He was the most famous composer of his day, but was quick to recognize the genius of the young Mozart, although slower to appreciate the turbulent, questing spirit of Beethoven, who was his pupil in 1792. His spontaneity, melodiousness, faultless craftsmanship and a gift for the expression of both high spirits and gravity were strongly tinged in the 1770s by the prevailing Sturm und Drang ('storm and stress') atmosphere as well as by personal problems. His output includes 104 symphonies, about 50 concertos, 84 string quartets, 24 stage works, 12 masses, orchestral divertimenti, keyboard sonatas, and various chamber, choral, instrumental, and vocal pieces.

Bibliography: H C Robbins Landon, Haydn: Chronicle and Works (5 vols, 1976-81); Neil Butterworth, Haydn (1978); Rosemary Hughes, Haydn (1950, rev edn 1978).