User:Zeppelin23

Ian Gole Wind Ensemble Mr. Linder 1/26/08 Franz Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn was born in 1732 in the Austrian village of Rohrau. As Haydn grew he soon came to realize that his family was extremely musical. He and his family frequently sang together and with neighbors as well. Haydn’s parents, Mathias and Maria Haydn, noticed Haydn’s musical talent and knew that he would not get a good musical education in Rohrau. Haydn was sent away at the age of six, never to see his parents again. He was trained as a chorister at St. Stephen’s cathedral in Vienna, where he made his early living, before appointment to the small musical establishment of Count Morzin in 1759. In 1760, Haydn joined in the service of the Esterházy Princes, and succeeded to the position of Kapellmeister on the death of his superior, Gregorious Werner in 1766. Much of Haydn’s life was centered on the magnificent palace of Esterháza, where his employer Prince Nikolaus Esterházy had moved his entourage for most of the year. Haydn performed for his master many-a-times, playing and even composing a variety of pieces. From church music to vocal songs. During his life, Haydn wrote a number of pieces, of these there were a few church pieces. Between 1796 and 1802, Haydn composed seven pieces, all with popular German nicknames, "Heiligmesse", "Paukenmesse", "Coronation Mass", "Theresienmesse", "Schöpfungsmesse" and "Harmoniemesse”. Haydn wrote a large amount of orchestral pieces as well, 108 to be exact, written between 1759 and 1795. Haydn worked with the London symphony to help with his mass production of pieces. Some of these pieces were; No. 94, "The Surprise", No. 96, "The Miracle", No. 100, "The Military", No. 101, "The Clock", No. 103, "The Drumroll", and No. 104, known as "The London" or "The Salomon". But Haydn didn’t stay too distant from his master, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy; together they produced a considerable number of pieces. 	When Prince Nikolaus Esterházy died in 1790, Haydn was free to leave; he then traveled to London to conduct new symphonies with a large orchestra. During his visits to London, Haydn was the teacher of Ludwig Van Beethoven, who thought Haydn as an unsatisfactory teacher. Beethoven was not the only composer that Haydn had come into contact before their fame, in Vienna, Haydn befriended Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and they frequently played quartets together. Haydn was impressed with Mozart’s musical talent and praised it unstintingly to others. Mozart even wrote a set of quartets, “Haydn” quartets, deticated to his friend. Haydn retired to Vienna in 1795, moved into a large house in the suburb of Gumpendorf, and turned to the composition of large pieces for choruses and orchestras. These include his two great oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons, and six masses for the Eszterházy family, which by this time was once again headed by a musically-inclined prince. Haydn also composed instrumental music, the popular Trumpet Concerto and the last nine in his long series of string quartets, including the Fiths, Emperor, and Sunrise quartets. In 1802, an illness from which Haydn had been suffering grew in severity over time, crippling Haydn from composing music. This was doubtless very difficult for him because, as he acknowledged, the flow of fresh musical ideas waiting to be worked out as compositions did not cease. Haydn was well cared for by his servants, and he received many visitors and public honours during his last years, but they could not have been very happy years for him. During his illness, Haydn often found solace by sitting at the piano and playing Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, which he had composed himself as a patriotic gesture in 1797. This melody later was used for the Austrian and German Natinal Anthems. Haydn died at the end of May in 1809, shortly after an attack on Vienna by the French army under Napoleon. Among his last words was his attempt to calm and reassure his servants when cannon shot fell in the neighborhood. Two weeks later, a memorial service was held in the Schottenkirche on June 15, 1809, at which Mozart’s Requiem K.626 was performed. Franz Joseph Haydn obviously had a huge impact on the world of music, he schooled a great composer, was good friends with another composer, both of whom helped him write his music, and vice-versa. He was loved by many and his music will continue to inspire the new composers of our world.

Scources http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/bio24410.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Haydn#Final_years_in_Vienna