On 31 March 1809, Joseph Haydn turned 77, passing the day unostentatiously at his home in Gumpendorf, a village near Vienna. Nine days later, Austria declared war on France, and within a month Napoleon’s cannonballs were flying over Gumpendorf, one landing in the courtyard of Haydn’s property. These were hardly the placid conditions the ailing composer needed, and they cast a shadow
