Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 –1809) was an Austrian
composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental
in the development of chamber music such as the piano
trio. He spent much of his career as a court musician
for the wealthy Esterházy family at their Eszterháza
Castle. Until the later part of his life, this isolated
him from other composers and trends in music so that he
was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Yet his
music circulated widely, and for much of his career he
was the mo...(+)
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 –1809) was an Austrian
composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental
in the development of chamber music such as the piano
trio. He spent much of his career as a court musician
for the wealthy Esterházy family at their Eszterháza
Castle. Until the later part of his life, this isolated
him from other composers and trends in music so that he
was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Yet his
music circulated widely, and for much of his career he
was the most celebrated composer in Europe.
He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, a tutor of
Beethoven, and the older brother of composer Michael
Haydn. Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a
village that at that time stood on the border with
Hungary. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright
who also served as "Marktrichter", an office akin to
village mayor. Haydn's mother Maria, née 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 neighbours.
Haydn's parents had noticed that their son was
musically gifted and knew that in Rohrau he would have
no chance to obtain serious musical training. It was
for this reason that, around the time Haydn turned six,
they accepted a proposal from their relative Johann
Matthias Frankh, the schoolmaster and choirmaster in
Hainburg, that Haydn be apprenticed to Frankh in his
home to train as a musician. Haydn therefore went off
with Frankh to Hainburg and he never again lived with
his parents.
Life in the Frankh household was not easy for Haydn,
who later remembered being frequently hungry and
humiliated by the filthy state of his clothing. He
began his musical training there, and could soon play
both harpsichord and violin. The people of Hainburg
heard him sing treble parts in the church choir.
James Webster summarizes Haydn's role in the history of
classical music as follows: "He excelled in every
musical genre. ... He is familiarly known as the
'father of the symphony' and could with greater justice
be thus regarded for the string quartet; no other
composer approaches his combination of productivity,
quality and historical importance in these genres." A
central characteristic of Haydn's music is the
development of larger structures out of very short,
simple musical motifs, often derived from standard
accompanying figures. The music is often quite formally
concentrated, and the important musical events of a
movement can unfold rather quickly.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Haydn).
Although originally composed for Bassoon & Piano, I
created this Interpretation of the Presto in G Major
for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
