Clifford Dean
Dr. Jean Johnson
MUS 101-06011
March 11, 2015
Franz Joseph Haydn Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Franz Joseph Haydn was among the creators of the fundamental genres of classical music, and his influence upon later composers is immense. Haydn’s most celebrated pupil was Ludwig van Beethoven, and his musical form casts a huge shadow over the music of subsequent composers such as Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms. When Haydn was eight years old, he was recruited to sing in the choir at St. Stephens Cathedral in Vienna. There he learned to play the violin and keyboard. He stayed in the school for nine years. When his voice changed he was expelled. Once he left the choir, he supported himself by teaching and playing the violin while studying counterpoint and harmony. Haydn soon became an assistant to composer Nicola Porpora in exchange for lessons, and in 1761 he was named Kapellmeister, or "court musician." In 1766 Haydn became musical director at the Esterházy court. He raised the quality and increased the size of the prince’s musical ensembles by appointing many choice instrumentalists and singers. In addition to composing operas for the court, Haydn composed symphonies, string quartets, and other chamber music. During the 1760s Haydn’s fame began to spread throughout Europe. The Austrian and Czech monasteries did much to disseminate his church music as well as his symphonies, divertimenti, sonatas, and concertos. The period from 1768 to about 1774 marks Haydn’s maturity as a composer. The music written then, from the Stabat Mater (1767) to the large-scale Missa Sancti Nicolai (1772), would be sufficient to place him among the chief composers of the era. Among his other important works from this period are the string quartets of Opus 20, the Piano Sonata in C Minor, and the symphonies in minor keys, especially the so-called Trauersymphonie in E Minor, No. 44 “Mourning Symphony,” so named because its slow movement, which was a particular favorite of the composer. Haydn was an