Franz Joseph Haydn was an influential Austrian composer during the Classical period. He helped develop new musical forms like the string quartet and symphony, earning him titles like "Father of the String Quartet" and "Father of the Symphony Orchestra". Haydn struggled early in his career but found success working for the wealthy Esterhazy family, composing and conducting music. He wrote over 100 symphonies with amusing nicknames and helped establish the four-movement structure commonly used today.
Franz Joseph Haydn was an influential Austrian composer during the Classical period. He helped develop new musical forms like the string quartet and symphony, earning him titles like "Father of the String Quartet" and "Father of the Symphony Orchestra". Haydn struggled early in his career but found success working for the wealthy Esterhazy family, composing and conducting music. He wrote over 100 symphonies with amusing nicknames and helped establish the four-movement structure commonly used today.
Franz Joseph Haydn was an influential Austrian composer during the Classical period. He helped develop new musical forms like the string quartet and symphony, earning him titles like "Father of the String Quartet" and "Father of the Symphony Orchestra". Haydn struggled early in his career but found success working for the wealthy Esterhazy family, composing and conducting music. He wrote over 100 symphonies with amusing nicknames and helped establish the four-movement structure commonly used today.
Franz Joseph Haydn was an influential Austrian composer during the Classical period. He helped develop new musical forms like the string quartet and symphony, earning him titles like "Father of the String Quartet" and "Father of the Symphony Orchestra". Haydn struggled early in his career but found success working for the wealthy Esterhazy family, composing and conducting music. He wrote over 100 symphonies with amusing nicknames and helped establish the four-movement structure commonly used today.
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Franz Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn, also known as Joseph Haydn, was
an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent of the Classical Period. He helped develop new musical forms, the string quartet and symphony, earning him the title “Father of the String Quartet” and “Father of the Symphony Orchestra”. Haydn's nickname as a child was “Sepperl”. Although his full name was Franz Joseph Haydn, he didn't use the name Franz. Haydn was born in the tiny Austrian town of Rohrau, where his father, Matias made huge wooden carts and wagon wheels. His mother, Maria, was a cook. When he was 8, Joseph (he didn't go by Franz) went to Vienna to sing in the choir at St. Stephen's Cathedral, and to attend the choir school. His younger brother Michael joined him a short time later. Joseph could never resist a playing a joke, which got him in trouble at school. Since Michael Haydn was much better behaved than his brother, everyone thought he would be the more successful musician. At first, Haydn struggled to earn a living as a composer. Then, he got a job with a rich, powerful family named Esterhazy. It was Haydn's job to write music for the Esterhazy princes, and to conduct their orchestra. Haydn composed symphonies, operas, string quartets, and all kinds of other music for performance at the Esterhazy court. Haydn was also a good businessman. Music Publishing made him and his music famous all over Europe. After he retired from working for the Esterhazy family, Haydn made two very successful trips to England, where audiences at concerts of his music treated him like a superstar Haydn was prolific in nearly all genres, vocal and instrumental, sacred and secular. Dramatic surprise, often turned to humorous effect, is characteristic of his style, as is a fondness for folk-like melodies. The first violin dominates most of his early quartets.
He developed the symphony from a short, simple
form of musical composition to a long form for large orchestra. His instrumental music consisted of four movements that both contrasted with and balanced one another. Haydn built his movements on phrases that consisted of three or four notes. These phrases are called motives. Haydn wrote more than 100 symphonies which he gave short, funny nicknames. They are Symphony No. 96 “The Miracle”, Symphony No. 100 “The Military”, Symphony No. 101 “The Clock”, Symphony No. 103 "The Drumroll”, Symphony No. 45 “Farewell Symphony” and the most popular of all Symphony No. 94 "Surprise Symphony”. The “Farewell” Symphony dropped a hint to Esterhazy that the musicians deserved a vacation; the “Clock” Symphony suggests a ticking clock. The “Surprise” Symphony (#94, in G Major) features a fortissimo chord in the second movement, the “surprise” written to make the ladies of the court jump in their seats. The “Oxford” Symphony was actually written for performance in Paris, but got its name when it was performed on the occasion of Haydn's honorary doctorate from Oxford University. And the Emperor's Hymn to Francis the Kaiser, which was the national anthem of Austria until 1918 and today is the national anthem of Germany.