Haydn was born in March 1732 into a Europe still
dominated by powerful dynasties — the Hanovers in England,
Bourbons in France, and Hapsburgs in Austria. The family lived on
the borders between Austria and Hungary. Influenced from an early
age by his father's love of folk music, Haydn was spotted by the
choirmaster of Vienna's St Stephen's Cathedral at the age of
eight. He was taken to Vienna and sang in the choir until his
voice broke.
With borrowed money, Haydn bought a second-hand
clavier; he then started to teach as well as to refine his playing
and composition techniques. Along the way, he also met useful
contacts, such as the fashionable poet Pietro Metastasio and the
singing teacher Nicola Porpora, who taught Haydn composition.
In 1759 an aristocratic patron, Count Morzin,
employed Haydn to supervise his private orchestra and Haydn wrote
his first symphony. This attracted the attention of Prince Paul
Esterhazy, who in 1761 appointed him vice-Kapellmeister. Haydn
moved to the Eisenstadt court of this powerful and wealthy
Hungarian family. The Prince, who himself played the violin and
cello, wanted to enhance the court's image by encouraging
orchestral and operatic music; this duly became the vice-Kapellmeister's
duties.
The Prince died within a year and was replaced
by his brother, who had even more expansive ideas, calling for a
continuous stream of compositions, both operatic and instrumental,
from Haydn. This Prince, Nikolaus the Magnificent, played the
baryton (a six-stringed, bowed instrument). Haydn discreetly
mastered it himself and over the years composed over 150 pieces
for the Prince to play.
In 1764 Prince Nikolaus visited the Palace of
Versailles, an experience that prompted him to build the glorious
Esterhaza palace. With its 126 guest rooms and expansive gardens,
built on what had been an inhospitable area of marshland by Lake
Neusiedler, the palace became Haydn's home. The Esterhazys'
increased status required yet more music — 14 stage works in as
many years, quite apart from daily needs and special occasions. In
1768 the Prince built a 400-seat theatre in which he expected some
kind of performance even day.
(Five years later he
added a separate puppet theatre which also performed Haydn's
operas. By then Haydn was in sole charge, the Kapellmeister having
died in 1766, and in one year alone there were 125 performances of
17 operas.)
Those in service could not escape the sense of
isolation on the stretch of damp
marshland, estranged
from their families. From 1766 to 1772 Haydn responded to this
environment with a series of dark compositions, provoked also by
the stirrings of the German literary movement later called
Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress). The intense string
quartets that form Haydn's Opus 20 were composed at this time:
with these pieces Haydn's reputation as founder of the classical
string quartet was established. His next pieces m this form (Opus
33) so impressed Mozart that the younger composer dedicated six of
his own quartets to Haydn.
Haydn was invited in 1784 to compose six
symphonies by the Parisian Masonic Lodge. These became known as
the Paris symphonies (Nos. 82—87) and were later followed
by three more (Nos. 90-92). His fame spread to Spain and he was
invited by Cadiz Cathedral to write for Good Friday the seven
haunting movements of the oratorio Seven last words of our
Saviour on the cross — for which he was apparently paid with a
large chocolate cake stuffed with gold coins. He returned to this
piece later, arranging it for string quartet and as a cantata with
soloists.
In 1790 Prince Nikolaus died at the age of 77.
In the wake of the French Revolution his son Anton curbed main' of
the court's excesses and dismissed the orchestra but offered a
substantial pension to Haydn in recognition of his long and
distinguished service. Haydn went to London in January 1791. where
he was immediately treated as a celebrity. Oxford University
conferred an honorary degree on him. and Haydn repaid the
compliment by composing Ins Oxford symphony (No. 92).
During the two seasons of 1791—2 and 1794—5 he composed the 12
symphonies now known as the London symphonies. Various of
these bear nicknames intended to attract audiences: The
surprise (No. 94) includes a sudden loud chord at the start of
the slow movement, and The dock (No. 101) has a "tick-cock"
running throughout the slow movement.
After his acclaimed second season, various
attempts were made to persuade him to remain in England. But after
Prince Anton Esterhazy's death, the new Prince, Nikolaus II,
wanted Haydn as his Kapellmeister. At the age of 59 Haydn returned
to Eisenstadt and began shaping the musical life of the new court.
In 1796 he wrote a Trumpet concerto for his friend Anton
Weidinger, a trumpeter in the Vienna Court Orchestra. Three years
previously, Weidinger had invented a type of trumpet with keys,
and Haydn's concerto explored the possibilities of the new
instrument.
The new Prince, however, was not fond of
instrumental music, so Haydn began to write a series of Masses.
These incorporated all his knowledge of opera and symphonies. Each
had a theme and a name: the Missa in tempore belli (Mass in
time of war, 1796); Heiligmesse (Holy Mass, 1796); Missa
in angustiis (Nelson Mass. 1798); Theresienmesse (Theresia
Mass. 1799); Schopfungsmesse (Creation Mass, 1801); and
Hannoniemesse (Wind-band Mass, 1802).
Haydn's great oratorio The Creation was
performed in 1798. Like the Masses. The Creation was an
outlet for Haydn's devout religious feelings. Starting with a
slow, mysterious depiction of chaos, the work falls into three
parts — Creation of the earth; Creation of the living creatures;
Creation of Adam and Eve - and is a loving portrait of nature,
using music to mimic the flight of birds and the motion of the
sea; even employing a contrabassoon -a rare instrument at the time
— to represent the equally rare hippopotamus. The (Creation
was followed by The Seasons, a secular oratorio based on a
poem by James Thomson, first performed in Vienna's Schwarzenberg
Palace in 1801.
Haydn was released from the Esterhazy family in
1804 after 40 years' service. He attended a gala performance of
The Creation to honour his seventy-sixth birthday and was so
moved by his reception that he had to be taken home before the
end. Never again would he make a public appearance. As Napoleon's
invading troops bombarded Vienna, the 77-year-old Haydn lay dying
in his home on the outskirts of the city, and as a final mark of
respect Napoleon placed a guard ot honour outside his Gumpendorf
house.
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