Franz Joseph Haydn

**Joseph Haydn** (also known as **Franz Joseph Haydn**) was an Austrian composer. He was born on March 31 or April 1, 1732, and died on May 31, 1809. He was one of the most famous composers in the Classical music period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony." He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, a tutor of Beethoven, and the older brother of composer Michael Haydn.

Haydn's father made wheels for a living, and had the skills of a blacksmith, stonemason, and carpenter. He used that skill in his spare time to make musical instruments for his family to play. The Haydn family would give informal weekend concerts. One of Joseph's relatives thought that Joseph had a great singing voice and should go with him to a boarding school where he would start studying to become a priest.

He longed to visit Vienna because of his friendships there. Of these, a friend in Vienna was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom Haydn had met sometime around 1784. According to later testimony by Michael Kelly and others, the two composers occasionally played in string quartets together. Haydn was hugely impressed with Mozart's work and praised it unstintingly to others. Mozart evidently returned the esteem, as seen in his dedication of a set of six quartets, now called the "Haydn" quartets, to his friend.

## The London journeys

In 1790, Prince Nikolaus died and was succeeded as prince by his son Anton. Following a trend of the time, Haydn retained a nominal appointment with Anton. Since Anton had little need of Haydn's services, Haydn visits England to conduct new symphonies with a large orchestra.

The choice was a sensible one because Haydn was already a very popular composer there. Since the death of Johann Christian Bach in 1782, Haydn's music had dominated the concert scene in London; "hardly a concert did not feature a work by him". Haydn's work was widely distributed by publishers in London. While traveling to London in 1790, Haydn had met the young Ludwig van Beethoven in his native city of Bonn. On Haydn's return, Beethoven came to Vienna and was Haydn's pupil up until the second London journey. Musically, Haydn's visits to England generated some of his best-known work, including the *Surprise*, *Military*, *Drumroll* and *London* symphonies.

## Years of celebrity in Vienna

Haydn returned to Vienna in 1795. In collaboration with his librettist and mentor Gottfried van Swieten, he composed the popular *Trumpet Concerto*, even though Beethoven wanted to become famous as a pianist and composer. During the later years of this successful period, Haydn faced incipient old age and fluctuating health, and he had to struggle to complete his final work.

By the end of 1803, Haydn's condition had declined to the point that he became physically unable to compose. He suffered from weakness, dizziness, inability to concentrate and painfully swollen legs. Since diagnosis was uncertain in Haydn's time, he lived on for 14 more months. His final days were hardly serene, as in May 1809. On 26 May in the same evening, Haydn collapsed and was taken to what proved to be to his deathbed. He died peacefully in his own home at 12:40 a.m. on 31 May 1809, aged 77. On 15 June, a memorial service was held in the Schottenkirche at which Beethoven's Third Symphony was performed. His head took a different journey.