Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn was one of the first composers to write for a mass audience and almost single-handedly established the formats on which classical music would be based for more than a century. Although known as the "Father of the Symphony" and the "Father of the String Quartet", his influence was equally important on the concerto, the piano sonata and the piano trio. A wheelwright's son and a natural self-improver, Haydn made every effort to learn and perfect his musical craftsmanship, while also acquiring the social skills to be welcome in any company. After finding employment with the Esterházy family in 1761, Haydn's entered his period of Sturm und Drang ("storm and stress") – an apt description for his first years of composing for the family, during which his music was highly dramatic, musically adventurous, and emotionally unrestrained. It was soon replaced by a more characteristic steadiness and civility. Haydn's genius, however, is best illustrated in his symphonies, of which he wrote 104. Haydn wasn't the first symphonist, but he was the one who established the genre's definitive four-movement design. He also gave sonata form the proportions that saw it become the musical foundation of both the Classical and Romantic eras. The features of Haydn's symphonies are mirrored in most of the other genres in which he wrote and yet they are not short of innovation. Touches of folk music are often present and his third-movement minuets frequently mix the courtliness of the formal dance with more rustic tones. His finales are notable for their playfulness. By the mid−1770s, his fame was spreading, partly because of the newly developing infrastructure of music publishing. Commissions began to come from outside the Esterházy court, and Haydn's employers allowed him to take them on. His chamber music sold well and the 1781 publication of the Six String Quartets Op. 33 marked a significant new phase, both in Haydn's career and in the establishment of the genre. Until recently, Haydn's concertos, piano trios, and piano sonatas were neglected, but recordings have revealed their considerable worth and his oratorios remain perennially popular. Die Schöpfung ("The Creation") and Die Jahreszeiten ("The Seasons") date from Haydn's return to Vienna after two triumphant visits to London, where he had been inspired by Handel's oratorios. Eventually releasing him from court duties, the Esterházys allowed Haydn two visits to England, where he conducted new symphonies in subscription concerts organised by the entrepreneur Johann Peter Salomon. By then he was composing on a grand scale, giving starring roles to wind and brass and allowing slow introductions to his first movements. The wheelwright's son who had charmed court circles had mastered the art of writing for a large and diverse public. He was adored in London and fêted in Vienna when he returned for his final few years. Such was his international reputation that Napoleon, whose forces were attacking the Austrian capital as Haydn lay dying, placed an armed guard around the composer's house.