The Autobiographical sketch (1776) of Joseph Haydn is the only autobiographical document that was ever prepared by this composer. Haydn wrote the sketch, which is about two pages long, when he was 44 at the request, relayed to him by a chain of two mutual acquaintances, of Ignaz de Luca, who was preparing a volume of brief biographies of Austrian luminaries, Das gelehrte Oesterreich ("Learned Austria"). The sketch was published in 1778, in Volume 1, Part 3 of that work. [1]
The sketch begins with a brief account of the first 29 years of Haydn's life. He mentions his early home life in Rohrau, his early education in Hainburg, his subsequent career as a choirboy in Vienna, his struggles during eight years of freelance work and his appointments as Kapellmeister, first with Count Morzin and then with the hugely wealthy Esterházy family.
Having related his rise to career success, Haydn says nothing at all of the years 1761 to 1776 that spent working in the Esterházy court, but he concludes his narrative with a declaration of loyalty to his employer:
Haydn held to his word: despite considerable tedium and loneliness when his employer required him to live in isolated Esterháza, [3] he remained in official service to Prince Esterházy and his heirs until his death, in 1809. [4]
The sketch goes on to list what Haydn regarded as his most important works up to that time: the operas Le pescatrici , L'incontro improvviso , and L'infedelta delusa ; his oratorio Il Ritorno di Tobia (1775) and his Stabat Mater (1767). All of them are vocal music; Haydn omits the pre-1776 instrumental works that arguably have received greater critical acclaim in modern times, such as the "Farewell" Symphony [5] or the string quartets, Opus 20. Musicologist David Schroeder notes that "in the eighteenth century vocal music was considered pre-eminent. With opinion such as this as the common currency, it should not surprise us that Haydn... listed only vocal works among those he considered his finest." [6]
Haydn also offers an assessment of his then-current reputation as a composer, expressing appreciation for the praise and support of Johann Adolph Hasse, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and Gottfried van Swieten as well as considerable resentment directed at various (unnamed) critics in Berlin:
The sketch concludes thus:
The musicologist Elaine Sisman has offered a novel interpretation of the sketch as having been written, whether consciously or not, according to principles of rhetoric laid down in the Middle Ages. She notes that Haydn studied Latin as a schoolboy and that traditional Latin instruction would likely have included the principles of rhetoric. Sisman annotates the sections of Haydn's original letter as follows:
The sketch is a classic rhetorically organized composition, drawing particularly on the medieval ars dictaminis, the art of letter-writing: first an introduction (exordium), incorporating the so-called "securing of good-will" (benevolentiae captatio, in this case by self-deprecation); [7] then the narration of facts (narratio, his biography); the supporting evidence (corraboratio, the list of pieces); the refutation of his enemies' arguments (confutatio, the Berlin critics); and the conclusion, revealing again his good qualities as well as those whom he admires and respects (peroratio). [8]
Franz Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led him to be called "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet".
Symphony No. 22 in E♭ major, Hoboken I/22, is a symphony written by Joseph Haydn in 1764, under the auspices of the benign Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. Its nickname is "The Philosopher".
Howard Chandler Robbins Landon was an American musicologist, journalist, historian and broadcaster, best known for his work in rediscovering the huge body of neglected music by Haydn and in correcting misunderstandings about Mozart.
Johann Peter Salomon was a German violinist, composer, conductor and musical impresario. Although he was an accomplished violinist, he is best known for bringing Joseph Haydn to London and for conducting the symphonies that Haydn wrote during his stay in England. He also knew and worked with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Gottfried Freiherr van Swieten was a Dutch-born Austrian diplomat, librarian, and government official who served the Holy Roman Empire during the 18th century. He was an enthusiastic amateur musician and is best remembered today as the patron of several great composers of the Classical era, including Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Ludwig van Beethoven composed the Mass in C major, Op. 86, to a commission from Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II in 1807. The mass, scored for four vocal soloists, choir and orchestra, was premiered that year by the Prince's musical forces in Eisenstadt. Beethoven performed parts of it in his 1808 concert featuring the premieres of four major works including his Fifth Symphony. The mass was published in 1812 by Breitkopf & Härtel.
Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy was a Hungarian prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family. His building of palaces, extravagant clothing, and taste for opera and other grand musical productions led to his being given the title "the Magnificent". He is remembered as the principal employer of the composer Joseph Haydn.
Symphony No. 88 in G major was written by Joseph Haydn, for the orchestra of Esterháza under the benevolent Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy. It is notably the first of his symphonies written after the completion of the six Paris symphonies in 1786.
Eszterháza is a palace in Fertőd, Hungary, built by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. Sometimes called the "Hungarian Versailles", it is Hungary's grandest Rococo edifice. It was the home of Joseph Haydn and his orchestra from 1766 to 1790.
The Symphony No. 26 in D minor, Hoboken 1/26, is one of the early Sturm und Drang Symphonies written by Joseph Haydn. It is popularly known as the Lamentatione. It was written under the auspices of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, and is from the late 1760s, when Haydn began to experiment with minor key symphonic writing. It is also one of his first minor key symphonies.
Symphony No. 65 in A major, Hoboken I/65, is a symphony by Joseph Haydn which was composed by 1778.
Maria Anna Sabina (von) Genzinger, called Marianne, was a Viennese amateur musician, the mother of six children, and a friend of the composer Joseph Haydn. Her correspondence with Haydn preserves a personal view of the composer not available from any other biographical source. Her daughter Josepa was a singer who gave the first performance of Haydn's Ariadne auf Naxos.
Luigia Polzelli was an Italian mezzo-soprano, who sang at the Esterházy court in Hungary during the late 18th century. She was for a number of years the lover of the composer Joseph Haydn.
Gregor Joseph Werner was an Austrian composer of the Baroque period, best known as the predecessor of Joseph Haydn as the Kapellmeister of the Hungarian Esterházy family. Few of Werner's works survive to the present day, and he is mostly remembered for his troubled relationship with Haydn.
Count Karl Joseph of Morzin (1717–1783) was a Bohemian aristocrat from the Morzin family, remembered today as the first person to employ the composer Joseph Haydn as his Kapellmeister, or music director. The first few of Haydn's many symphonies were written for the Count.
Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 31 in D major, Hob. I/31, was composed in 1765 for Haydn's patron Nikolaus Esterházy. It is nicknamed the "Hornsignal Symphony", because it gives a prominent role to an unusually large horn section of four players. Probably because of its prominent obbligato writing for the horns, in Paris, the publisher Sieber published this symphony as a "symphonie concertante" around 1785.
The Symphony No. 34 in D minor was written by Joseph Haydn. According to traditional chronology it was written in 1765, shortly before Haydn's Sturm und Drang period began in 1766, during his social withdrawal at Esterháza. However, more recent chronologies place it two years earlier, in 1763, which if correct would suggest that it is the first minor-key symphony Haydn ever wrote, though there is some uncertainty around chronology, with Symphony No. 26 being the traditional candidate, and Symphony No. 39 another candidate.
The Symphony No. 18 in G major, Hoboken I/18, is a symphony by Joseph Haydn. The composition date is conspicuously uncertain. The Breitkopf catalogue entry assures that it was composed no later than March 1766, the date of the Esterhazy orchestra moving to Esterhaza, but most scholars believe it was composed at least a few years before then. Dates between 1757 and 1764 have been also suggested but not proven.
This article discusses the influence of folk music on the work of the composer Joseph Haydn (1732–1809).
Joseph Haydn wrote as many as 123 trios for the unusual combination of baryton, viola and cello, and three further trios for baryton, cello and violin are considered part of the series. As Sisman notes, they are the “most intensively cultivated genre” of Haydn’s early career.
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