# Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Joseph Haydn

See also Joseph Haydn on Wikipedia; Joseph, Michael, and Johann Haydn on Wikipedia; Franz Joseph Haydn in the 11th Edition; and the disclaimer.
Haydn’s visit to London was a succession of triumphs. Dr Burney welcomed him with a laudatory poem; the various musical societies of the metropolis vied for his presence; and on July 8, 1791, he was created doctor of music by the university of Oxford. At court also he was received with every distinction, and the aristocracy followed the royal example. Neither were more substantial rewards wanting. Haydn’s engagement with Salomon was to write and conduct at the concerts in the Hanover Square Rooms six symphonies, and the success of these may be judged from the fact that at Haydn’s benefit concert, for which £200 had been guaranteed to him, the receipts rose to £350. He also appeared at other concerts (one given by himself at Hanover Square Rooms, where amongst other works the Seven Words already referred to was performed), always with equal success. The same events were repeated in the following year, when the Salomon concerts began in February, and concluded with an extra concert in June. The symphonies known as the “Salomon Set,” comprising some of Haydn’s finest instrumental works, are the permanent record of the connexion of the two artists. In 1792 Haydn also went to hear the charity children at St Paul’s, whose singing produced on him as deep an impression as it did on Berlioz many years later. “I was more touched by this innocent and reverent music,” he wrote in his diary, “than by any I ever heard in my life.” Haydn left London in June 1792, but only to return in January 1794. In addition to his earlier works six new symphonies were played at the concerts of Salomon, which in the following year were given at the King’s Concert-room and terminated on June 1, 1795, when Haydn appeared for the last time in England. In addition to valuable presents from royalty and other persons, he realized £1200 by his second English visit, from which he returned to Vienna in the autumn of 1795, to resume once more his functions in the newly organized chapel of Prince Esterhazy. He was now well stricken in years, and might have rested on his laurels. But so far from this being the case, the two works on which—apart from his symphonies and sonatas—his immortality must mainly rest, belong to this last epoch of his life. These were the oratorio The Creation, and the cantata The Seasons. They were both written to German translations of English libretti, the former being compiled from Paradise Lost, the latter from Thomson’s Seasons. The Creation was first performed in public on March 19, 1799, when its success was as immediate as it has since proved permanent. The Seasons was begun soon after the completion of The Creation, and finished in very little time. No one, delighted by the charm and spontaneity of its melodies, would suspect it to be the work of a feeble old man. Such, however, Haydn had now become. He wrote little after The Seasons, and his public appearances were few and far between. His old age was surrounded by the love of his friends and the esteem of the musical world, but his failing health did not admit of much active enjoyment. He was seen in public for the last time at a performance of The Creation in 1808. But his own music made so overpowering an impression on him that he had to be carried out of the hall. He died on May 31, 1809, during the occupation of Vienna by Napoleon’s army, and many French officers followed his body to the grave.
Two of Haydn’s brothers acquired a certain amount of celebrity. John Michael Haydn, born at Rohrau, September 14, 1737, and like his brother a choir-boy at St Stephen’s cathedral, became a prolific and able composer of masses and all kinds of church music. He lived during the greater part of his life at Salzburg, and his name is frequently mentioned in the biography of Mozart. Of his numerous compositions few have been printed. A mass in D is perhaps his masterpiece. He died August 10, 1806. The youngest brother, Johann Haydn (born December 23, 1743, died May 20, 1800), had some reputation as a vocalist, and became, most probably by his brother’s intercession, a singer in Prince Esterhazy’s chapel.
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