Haydn is a very concise and interesting biography. The great Austrian composer Joseph Haydn is the oldest of the Viennese classics

Composer Franz Joseph Haydn is called the founder of the modern orchestra, the “father of the symphony,” and the founder of the classical instrumental genre.

Composer Franz Joseph Haydn called the founder of the modern orchestra, the “father of the symphony,” the founder of the classical instrumental genre.

Haydn was born in 1732. His father was a carriage maker, his mother served as a cook. House in the town Rorau on the river bank Leiths, where little Joseph spent his childhood, has survived to this day.

Craftsman's Children Matthias Haydn loved music very much. Franz Joseph was a gifted child - from birth he was given a ringing melodic voice and absolute pitch; he had a great sense of rhythm. The boy sang in the local church choir and tried to learn to play the violin and clavichord. As always happens with teenagers, young Haydn lost his voice during adolescence. He was immediately fired from the choir.

For eight years the young man earned money by giving private music lessons and constantly improved with the help of independent studies and tried to compose works.

Life brought Joseph together with a Viennese comedian and popular actor - Johann Joseph Kurtz. It was luck. Kurtz ordered music from Haydn for his own libretto for the opera The Crooked Demon. The comic work was successful - it ran for two years. theater stage. However, critics were quick to blame young composer in frivolity and buffoonery. (This stamp was later repeatedly transferred by retrogrades to other works of the composer.)

Meet the composer Nicola Antonio Porporoi gave Haydn a lot in terms of creative mastery. He served the famous maestro, was an accompanist in his lessons, and gradually studied himself. Under the roof of a house, in a cold attic, Joseph Haydn tried to compose music on an old clavichord. In his works the influence of the works of famous composers and folk music: Hungarian, Czech, Tyrolean motifs.

In 1750, Franz Joseph Haydn composed the Mass in F major, and in 1755 he wrote the first string quartet. From that time on, there was a turning point in the composer’s fate. Joseph received unexpected financial support from the landowner Carl Furnberg. The patron recommended the young composer to a count from the Czech Republic - Josef Franz Morzin- Viennese aristocrat. Until 1760, Haydn served as Morzin's bandmaster, had a table, shelter and salary, and could seriously study music.

Since 1759, Haydn has created four symphonies. At this time, the young composer got married - it happened impromptu, unexpectedly for him. However, marriage to a 32-year-old Anna Aloysia Keller was concluded. Haydn was only 28, he never loved Anna.

Haydn died at his home in 1809. First, the maestro was buried in the Hundsturmer cemetery. Since 1820, his remains were transferred to the temple of the city of Eisenstadt.

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All complex world classical music, which cannot be covered at one glance, is conventionally divided into eras or styles (this applies to everything classical art, but today we are talking about music). One of the central stages in the development of music is the era of musical classicism. This era gave world music three names, which, probably, any person who has heard at least a little about classical music, can name: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Since the lives of these three composers were in one way or another connected with Vienna in the 18th century, the style of their music, as well as the brilliant constellation of their names itself, received the name Viennese classicism. These composers themselves are called Viennese classics.

"Papa Haydn" - whose papa?

The oldest of the three composers, and therefore the founder of the style of their music, is Franz Joseph Haydn, whose biography you will read in this article (1732-1809) - “father Haydn” (they say that the great Mozart himself called Joseph that way, who, by the way, , was several decades younger than Haydn).

Anyone would put on airs! And Father Haydn? Not at all. He gets up at first light and works, writes his music. And he's dressed like he's not famous composer, but an inconspicuous musician. He is simple both in food and in conversation. He called all the boys from the street and allowed them to eat wonderful apples in his garden. It is immediately clear that his father was a poor man and that there were many children in the family - seventeen! If not for chance, maybe Haydn, like his father, would have become a master of carriage making.

Early childhood

The small village of Rohrau, lost in Lower Austria, is a huge family, headed by an ordinary worker, a carriage maker, whose responsibility is not the mastery of sound, but carts and wheels. But Joseph’s father also had a good command of sound. Villagers often gathered in the poor but hospitable Haydn house. They sang and danced. Austria is generally very musical, but perhaps the main subject of their interest was the owner of the house himself. Not knowing how to read music, he nevertheless sang well and accompanied himself on the harp, choosing the accompaniment by ear.

First successes

Little Joseph was more clearly affected by his father's musical abilities than all the other children. Already at the age of five, he stood out among his peers with his beautiful, ringing voice and excellent sense of rhythm. With such musical abilities, it was simply destined for him not to grow up in his own family.

At that time, church choirs were in dire need of high voices - women's voices: soprano, altach. Women, according to the structure of patriarchal society, did not sing in the choir, so their voices, so necessary for a full and harmonious sound, were replaced by the voices of very young boys. Before the onset of mutation (that is, the restructuring of the voice, which is part of the changes in the body during adolescence), boys with good musical abilities could well replace women in the choir.

So very little Joseph was taken into the choir of the church of Hainburg, a small town on the banks of the Danube. For his parents, this must have been a huge relief - in such a early age(Joseph was about seven) no one in their family had yet become self-sufficient.

The town of Hainburg generally played an important role in Joseph’s fate - here he began to study music professionally. And soon Georg Reuther, a prominent musician from Vienna, visited the Hainburg church. He traveled around the country with the same goal - to find capable, vocal boys to sing in the choir of the Cathedral of St. Stefan. This name hardly tells us anything, but for Haydn it was a great honor. St. Stephen's Cathedral! Symbol of Austria, symbol of Vienna! A huge specimen with echoing arches gothic architecture. But Haydn had to pay more than that for singing in such a place. Long solemn services and court festivities, which also required a choir, took up a huge part of his free time. But you still had to study at the school at the cathedral! This had to be done in fits and starts. The director of the choir, the same Georg Reuther, had little interest in what was going on in the minds and hearts of his charges, and did not notice that one of them was taking his first, perhaps clumsy, but independent steps in the world of composing music. The work of Joseph Haydn then still bore the stamp of amateurism and the very first attempts. For Haydn, the conservatory was replaced by a choir. I often had to learn brilliant samples choral music previous eras, and Joseph along the way drew conclusions for himself about the techniques used by composers, extracted from music text the knowledge and skills he needs.

The boy had to do work that was completely unrelated to music, for example, serving at the court table and serving dishes. But this also turned out to be beneficial for the development of the future composer! The fact is that the nobles at court ate only at high symphonic music. And the little footman, whom the important nobles did not even notice, while serving the dishes, made to himself the necessary conclusions about the structure musical form or the most colorful harmonies. Of course, to interesting facts The very fact of his musical self-education stems from the life of Joseph Haydn.

The situation at school was harsh: boys were punished petty and severely. No further prospects were foreseen: as soon as the voice began to break and was no longer as high and sonorous as before, its owner was mercilessly thrown out into the street.

Minor start to independent life

Haydn suffered the same fate. He was already 18 years old. After wandering the streets of Vienna for several days, he met an old school friend, and he helped him find an apartment, or rather, a small room right under the attic. It is not for nothing that Vienna is called the music capital of the world. Even then, not yet glorified by names Viennese classics, She was the most musical city Europe: melodies of songs and dances floated through the streets, and in the little room under the very roof in which Haydn settled, there was a real treasure - an old, broken clavichord ( musical instrument, one of the forerunners of the piano). However, I didn't have to play it much. Most of my time was spent looking for work. In Vienna it is possible to obtain only a few private lessons, the income from which barely allows one to meet the necessary needs. Desperate to find work in Vienna, Haydn begins to wander around nearby cities and villages.

Niccolo Porpora

This time - Haydn's youth - was overshadowed by acute need and constant search for work. Until 1761, he managed to find work only temporarily. Describing this period of his life, it should be noted that he worked as an accompanist for Italian composer, as well as vocalist and teacher Niccolo Porpora. Haydn got a job with him specifically to learn music theory. It was possible to learn while performing the duties of a footman: Haydn had to not only accompany.

Count Morcin

From 1759, for two years, Haydn lived and worked in the Czech Republic, on the estate of Count Morcin, who had an orchestral chapel. Haydn is the conductor, that is, the manager of this chapel. Here he writes a lot of music, music, of course, very good, but exactly the kind that the count demands from him. It is worth noting that the majority musical works Haydn was written precisely in the performance of official duties.

Under the leadership of Prince Esterhazy

In 1761, Haydn began serving in the chapel of the Hungarian Prince Esterhazy. Remember this surname: the elder Esterhazy will die, the estate will pass to the department of his son, and Haydn will still serve. He would serve as Esterhazy's bandmaster for thirty years.

At that time, Austria was a huge feudal state. It included both Hungary and the Czech Republic. Feudal lords - nobles, princes, counts - considered in good form to have an orchestral and choir chapel at the court. You've probably heard something about serf orchestras in Russia, but maybe you don't know that this was also not the case in Europe. in the best possible way. A musician - even the most talented one, even the leader of a choir - was in the position of a servant. At the time when Haydn was just beginning to serve with Esterhazy, in another Austrian city, Salzburg, he was growing up little Mozart, who still has to, being in the service of the count, dine in the people's room, sitting above the footmen, but below the cooks.

Haydn had to fulfill many large and small responsibilities - from writing music for holidays and celebrations and learning it with the choir and orchestra of the chapel, to discipline in the chapel, the peculiarities of the costume and the preservation of notes and musical instruments.

The Esterhazy estate was located in the Hungarian town of Eisenstadt. After the death of the elder Esterhazy, his son took over the estate. Prone to luxury and celebration, he built country residence- Eszterhas. Guests were often invited to the palace, which consisted of one hundred and twenty-six rooms, and, of course, music had to be played for the guests. Prince Esterhazy went to the country palace for all the summer months and took all his musicians there.

Musician or servant?

A long period of service at the Esterhazy estate became the time of birth of many new works by Haydn. By order of his master, he writes large works in different genres. Operas, quartets, sonatas, and other works come from his pen. But Joseph especially loves Haydn symphony. This is a large, usually four-movement work for symphony orchestra. It was under Haydn’s pen that a classical symphony appeared, that is, an example of this genre on which other composers would later rely. For my life of Haydn wrote about one hundred and four symphonies (the exact number is unknown). And, of course, them most of was created precisely by the bandmaster of Prince Esterhazy.

Over time, Haydn’s position reached a paradox (unfortunately, the same thing would later happen to Mozart): they know him, they listen to his music, they talk about him in different European countries, and he himself cannot even go somewhere without the permission of his owner. The humiliation that Haydn experiences from such an attitude of the prince towards him sometimes slips into letters to friends: “Am I a bandmaster or a bandmaster?” (Chapel - servant).

Joseph Haydn's Farewell Symphony

It is rare for a composer to be able to escape from the circle of official duties, visit Vienna, and see friends. By the way, for some time fate brings him together with Mozart. Haydn was one of those who unconditionally recognized not only the phenomenal virtuosity of Mozart, but precisely his deep talent, which allowed Wolfgang to look into the future.

However, these absences were rare. More often than not, Haydn and the choir musicians had to linger in Eszterhaza. The prince sometimes did not want to let the chapel go to the city even at the beginning of autumn. In the biography of Joseph Haydn, interesting facts undoubtedly include the history of the creation of his 45th, so-called Farewell Symphony. The prince once again detained the musicians for a long time in the summer residence. The cold had long set in, the musicians had not seen their family members for a long time, and the swamps surrounding Eszterhaz were not conducive to good health. The musicians turned to their bandmaster with a request to ask the prince about them. A direct request would hardly help, so Haydn writes a symphony, which he performs by candlelight. The symphony consists not of four, but of five movements, and during the last one the musicians take turns standing up, putting down their instruments and leaving the hall. Thus, Haydn reminded the prince that it was time to take the chapel to the city. Tradition says that the prince took the hint, and summer rest is finally over.

Last years of life. London

The life of the composer Joseph Haydn developed like a path in the mountains. It's hard to climb, but at the end - the top! The culmination of both his creativity and his fame came at the very end of his life. Haydn's works reached their final maturity in the 1980s. XVIII century. Examples of the style of the 80s include six so-called Parisian symphonies.

The composer's difficult life was marked by a triumphant conclusion. In 1791, Prince Esterhazy dies, and his heir dissolves the chapel. Haydn, already a well-known composer throughout Europe, becomes an honorary citizen of Vienna. He receives a house in this city and a lifelong pension. Last years Haydn's life passes very radiantly. He visits London twice - as a result of these trips, twelve London symphonies appeared - his last works in this genre. In London, he gets acquainted with the work of Handel and, impressed by this acquaintance, for the first time tries himself in the oratorio genre - Handel's favorite genre. In his declining years, Haydn created two oratorios that are still known today: “The Seasons” and “The Creation of the World.” Joseph Haydn wrote music until his death.

Conclusion

We looked at the main stages of a father's life classic style in music. Optimism, the triumph of good over evil, reason over chaos and light over darkness, these are the characteristic features of the musical works of Joseph Haydn.

The entire complex world of classical music, which cannot be covered at one glance, is conventionally divided into eras or styles (this applies to all classical art, but today we are talking specifically about music). One of the central stages in the development of music is the era of musical classicism. This era gave world music three names that probably anyone who has heard at least a little about classical music can name: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Since the lives of these three composers were in one way or another connected with Vienna in the 18th century, the style of their music, as well as the brilliant constellation of their names itself, was called Viennese classicism. These composers themselves are called Viennese classics.

"Papa Haydn" - whose papa?

Anyone would put on airs! And Father Haydn? Not at all. He gets up at first light and works, writes his music. And he is dressed as if he were not a famous composer, but an inconspicuous musician. He is simple both in food and in conversation. He called all the boys from the street and allowed them to eat wonderful apples in his garden. It is immediately clear that his father was a poor man and that there were many children in the family - seventeen! If not for chance, maybe Haydn, like his father, would have become a master of carriage making.

Early childhood

The small village of Rohrau, lost in Lower Austria, is a huge family, headed by an ordinary worker, a carriage maker, whose responsibility is not the mastery of sound, but carts and wheels. But Joseph’s father also had a good command of sound. Villagers often gathered in the poor but hospitable Haydn house. They sang and danced. Austria is generally very musical, but perhaps the main subject of their interest was the owner of the house himself. Not knowing musical notation, he nevertheless sang well and accompanied himself on the harp, selecting the accompaniment by ear.

First successes

At that time, church choirs were in dire need of high voices - female voices: sopranos, altos. Women, according to the structure of patriarchal society, did not sing in the choir, so their voices, so necessary for a full and harmonious sound, were replaced by the voices of very young boys. Before the onset of mutation (that is, the restructuring of the voice, which is part of the changes in the body during adolescence), boys with good musical abilities could well replace women in the choir.

So very little Joseph was taken into the choir of the church of Hainburg, a small town on the banks of the Danube. For his parents, this must have been a huge relief - at such an early age (Josef was about seven) no one in their family had yet become self-sufficient.

Cathedral of St. Stefan

The town of Hainburg generally played an important role in Joseph’s fate - here he began to study music professionally. And soon Georg Reuther, a prominent musician from Vienna, visited the Hainburg church. He traveled around the country with the same goal - to find capable, vocal boys to sing in the choir of the Cathedral of St. Stefan. This name hardly tells us anything, but for Haydn it was a great honor. St. Stephen's Cathedral! Symbol of Austria, symbol of Vienna! A huge example of Gothic architecture with echoing vaults. But Haydn had to pay more than that for singing in such a place. Long solemn services and court festivities, which also required a choir, took up a huge part of his free time. But you still had to study at the school at the cathedral! This had to be done in fits and starts. The director of the choir, the same Georg Reuther, had little interest in what was going on in the minds and hearts of his charges, and did not notice that one of them was taking his first, perhaps clumsy, but independent steps in the world of composing music. The work of Joseph Haydn then still bore the stamp of amateurism and the very first attempts. For Haydn, the conservatory was replaced by a choir. Often he had to learn brilliant examples of choral music from previous eras, and Joseph along the way drew conclusions for himself about the techniques used by composers and extracted the knowledge and skills he needed from the musical text.

The boy had to do work that was completely unrelated to music, for example, serving at the court table and serving dishes. But this also turned out to be beneficial for the development of the future composer! The fact is that the nobles at court ate only to high symphonic music. And the little footman, who was not even noticed by the important nobles, while serving the dishes, made to himself the conclusions he needed about the structure of the musical form or the most colorful harmonies. Of course, interesting facts from the life of Joseph Haydn include the very fact of his musical self-education.

Minor start to independent life

Haydn suffered the same fate. He was already 18 years old. After wandering the streets of Vienna for several days, he met an old school friend, and he helped him find an apartment, or rather, a small room right under the attic. It is not for nothing that Vienna is called the music capital of the world. Even then, not yet glorified by the names of the Viennese classics, it was the most musical city in Europe: the melodies of songs and dances floated through the streets, and in the little room under the very roof in which Haydn settled, there was a real treasure - an old, broken clavichord (a musical instrument, one of forerunners of the piano). However, I didn't have to play it much. Most of my time was spent looking for work. In Vienna it is possible to obtain only a few private lessons, the income from which barely allows one to meet the necessary needs. Desperate to find work in Vienna, Haydn begins to wander around nearby cities and villages.

Niccolo Porpora

This time - Haydn's youth - was overshadowed by acute need and constant search for work. Until 1761, he managed to find work only temporarily. Describing this period of his life, it should be noted that he worked as an accompanist for the Italian composer, as well as vocalist and teacher Niccolo Porpora. Haydn got a job with him specifically to learn music theory. It was possible to learn while performing the duties of a footman: Haydn had to not only accompany.

Count Morcin

From 1759, for two years, Haydn lived and worked in the Czech Republic, on the estate of Count Morcin, who had an orchestral chapel. Haydn is the conductor, that is, the manager of this chapel. Here he writes a lot of music, music, of course, very good, but exactly the kind that the count demands from him. It is worth noting that most of Haydn’s musical works were written while performing official duties.

Under the leadership of Prince Esterhazy

At that time, Austria was a huge feudal state. It included both Hungary and the Czech Republic. Feudal lords - nobles, princes, counts - considered it good form to have an orchestral and choir chapel at court. You've probably heard something about serf orchestras in Russia, but maybe you don't know that things weren't going well in Europe either. A musician - even the most talented one, even the leader of a choir - was in the position of a servant. At the time when Haydn was just beginning to serve with Esterházy, in another Austrian city, Salzburg, little Mozart was growing up, who, while in the service of the count, would have to dine in the people's room, sitting above the footmen, but below the cooks.

The Esterhazy estate was located in the Hungarian town of Eisenstadt. After the death of the elder Esterhazy, his son took over the estate. Prone to luxury and celebrations, he built a country residence - Eszterhaz. Guests were often invited to the palace, which consisted of one hundred and twenty-six rooms, and, of course, music had to be played for the guests. Prince Esterhazy went to the country palace for all the summer months and took all his musicians there.

Musician or servant?

A long period of service at the Esterhazy estate became the time of birth of many new works by Haydn. At the request of his master, he writes major works in various genres. Operas, quartets, sonatas, and other works come from his pen. But Joseph Haydn especially loves the symphony. This is a large, usually four-movement work for symphony orchestra. It was under Haydn’s pen that a classical symphony appeared, that is, an example of this genre on which other composers would later rely. During his life, Haydn wrote about one hundred and four symphonies (the exact number is unknown). And, of course, most of them were created by the bandmaster of Prince Esterhazy.

Over time, Haydn's position reached a paradox (unfortunately, the same thing would later happen to Mozart): they know him, they listen to his music, they talk about him in different European countries, but he himself cannot even go somewhere without the permission of his owner. The humiliation that Haydn experiences from such an attitude of the prince towards him sometimes slips into letters to friends: “Am I a bandmaster or a bandmaster?” (Chapel - servant).

Joseph Haydn's Farewell Symphony

However, these absences were rare. More often than not, Haydn and the choir musicians had to linger in Eszterhaza. The prince sometimes did not want to let the chapel go to the city even at the beginning of autumn. In the biography of Joseph Haydn, interesting facts undoubtedly include the history of the creation of his 45th, so-called Farewell Symphony. The prince once again detained the musicians for a long time in the summer residence. The cold had long set in, the musicians had not seen their family members for a long time, and the swamps surrounding Eszterhaz were not conducive to good health. The musicians turned to their bandmaster with a request to ask the prince about them. A direct request would hardly help, so Haydn writes a symphony, which he performs by candlelight. The symphony consists not of four, but of five movements, and during the last one the musicians take turns standing up, putting down their instruments and leaving the hall. Thus, Haydn reminded the prince that it was time to take the chapel to the city. The legend says that the prince took the hint, and the summer holiday was finally over.

Last years of life. London

The composer's difficult life was marked by a triumphant conclusion. In 1791, Prince Esterhazy dies, and his heir dissolves the chapel. Haydn, already a well-known composer throughout Europe, becomes an honorary citizen of Vienna. He receives a house in this city and a lifelong pension. The last years of Haydn's life are very radiant. He visits London twice - as a result of these trips, twelve London symphonies appeared - his last works in this genre. In London, he gets acquainted with the work of Handel and, impressed by this acquaintance, for the first time tries himself in the oratorio genre - Handel's favorite genre. In his declining years, Haydn created two oratorios that are still known today: “The Seasons” and “The Creation of the World.” Joseph Haydn wrote music until his death.

Conclusion

We examined the main stages of the life of the father of the classical style in music. Optimism, the triumph of good over evil, reason over chaos and light over darkness, these are the characteristic features of the musical works of Joseph Haydn.

We will conclude our story about the Viennese troika with a biography of Haydn. All of them - Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn - are connected in one way or another. Beethoven was younger than all of them, inspired by creativity and studied with Haydn. But we have already talked about it in other articles.

Now we have a slightly different task - to succinctly talk about the Vienna Troika. Later we will tell you more about it, but for now... let's return to our topic.

Representative of the Vienna classical school Franz Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn - the great Austrian composer, founder of the classical instrumental music and the founder of the modern orchestra. Haydn is considered by many to be the father of the symphony and quartet.

Joseph Haydn was born on March 31, 1732 in the small town of Rohrau, Lower Austria, into the family of a wheelwright. The composer's mother was a cook. The love of music was instilled in little Joseph by his father, who was seriously interested in vocals. The boy had excellent hearing and a sense of rhythm, and thanks to these musical abilities was accepted into church choir in the small town of Gainburg. Later he would move to Vienna, where he would sing in the choir at cathedral St. Stefan.

Haydn had a wayward character, and at the age of 16 he was expelled from the choir - at a time when his voice began to break. He is left without a livelihood. In such a hopeless situation, the young man takes on various jobs. He even has to be a servant to the Italian singing teacher Nikolai Porpora. But even working as a servant, Haydn did not give up music, but took lessons from the composer.

Seeing the young man's love for music, Porpora offers him the position of valet companion. He held this position for about ten years. Haydn receives lessons as payment for his work music theory, from which he learns a lot about music and composition. Gradually, the young man’s financial situation improves, and his musical works are crowned with success. Haydn is looking for a rich patron, which is the imperial prince Pal Antal Esterhazy. Already in 1759 young genius composes his first symphonies.

Haydn married quite late, at the age of 28, to Anna Maria Cller, and, as it turned out, unsuccessfully. Anna Maria often showed disrespectful attitude to her husband's profession. There were no children, which also played an important role, introducing additional discord into the family. But despite all this, Haydn was faithful to his wife for 20 years. But after so many years, he suddenly fell in love with 19-year-old Luigia Polzelli, an Italian opera singer, and even promised to marry her, but soon this passionate affection passed.

In 1761, Haydn became the second bandmaster at the court of the Esterhazy princes, one of the most influential families in Austria. During his rather long career at the Esterházy court, he composed great amount operas, quartets and symphonies (104 in total). His music evokes the admiration of many listeners, and his skill reaches perfection. He becomes famous not only in his homeland, but also in England, France, and Russia. In 1781, Haydn met, who became his close friend. In 1792 he met the young man and took him on as a student.

Joseph Haydn (31 March 1732 – 31 May 1809)

Upon arrival in Vienna, Haydn wrote his two famous oratorios: “The Creation of the World” and “The Seasons.” Composing the oratorio “The Seasons” was not easy, he was tormented by headaches and insomnia. After writing his oratorios, he writes almost nothing.

Life has been too stressful, and the composer’s strength is gradually leaving him. Haydn spent his last years in Vienna, in a small secluded house.

The great composer died on May 31, 1809. Later, the remains were transferred to Eisenstadt, where many years of his life passed.

104 symphonies, 83 quartets, 52 piano sonatas, 2 oratorios, 14 masses and 24 operas.

Vocal works:

Operas

"The Lame Demon", 1751
"Orpheus and Eurydice, or the soul of a philosopher", 1791
"Pharmacist"
"The Lunar World", 1777

Oratorios

"World creation"
"Seasons"

Symphonic music

« Farewell Symphony»
"Oxford Symphony"
"Funeral Symphony"

The content of the article

HAYDN, (FRANZ) JOSEPH(Haydn, Franz Joseph) (1732–1809), Austrian composer, one of greatest classics musical art. Born March 31 or April 1, 1732 (date of birth is inconsistent) in peasant family in Rohrau (Burgenland region in eastern Lower Austria). His father, Matthias Haydn, was a carriage maker, his mother, Maria Koller, served as a cook in the family of Count Harrach, owner of an estate in Rohrau. Josef was the second child of his parents and their eldest son. Previously, it was believed that Haydn’s ancestors were Croats (who in the 16th century began to move to Burgenland to escape the Turks), but thanks to the research of E. Schmidt, it turned out that the composer’s family was purely Austrian.

Early years.

Recalling his childhood, Haydn wrote in 1776: “My father... was an ardent lover of music and played the harp without knowing the notes at all. As a five year old child I could absolutely sing his simple melodies, and this prompted my father to entrust me to the care of our relative, the rector of the school in Hainburg, so that I could study the fundamental principles of music and other sciences necessary for youth... When I was seven years old, the now deceased Kapellmeister von Reuther [ G.K. von Reuther, 1708–1772], driving through Hainburg, accidentally heard my weak, but a pleasant voice. He took me with him and assigned me to the chapel [of the Cathedral of St. Stefan in Vienna], where, continuing my education, I studied singing, playing the harpsichord and violin, and from very good teachers. Until I was eighteen, I performed soprano roles with great success, not only in the cathedral, but also at court. Then my voice disappeared, and I had to eke out a miserable existence for eight whole years... I composed mostly at night, not knowing whether I had any gift for composition or not, and recorded my music diligently, but not quite correctly. This continued until I had the good fortune to study the true foundations of art from Mr. Porpora [N. Porpora, 1685–1766], who then lived in Vienna.”

In 1757, Haydn accepted the invitation of the Austrian aristocrat Count of Fürnberg to spend the summer at his Weinzierl estate, which was adjacent to the large Benedictine monastery at Melk on the Danube. The genre was born in Weinzirl string quartet(the first 12 quartets, written in the summer of 1757, comprised opuses 1 and 2). Two years later, Haydn became the bandmaster of Count Ferdinand Maximilian Morcin at his castle Lukavec in the Czech Republic. For Morcin's chapel, the composer wrote his First Symphony (in D major) and several divertimentos for winds (some of them were discovered relatively recently, in 1959, in a hitherto unexplored Prague archive). On November 26, 1760, Haydn married Anna Maria Keller, the daughter of the count's hairdresser. This union turned out to be childless and generally unsuccessful: Haydn himself usually called his wife “a fiend of hell.”

Soon, Count Morcin dissolved the chapel to cut costs. Then Haydn accepted the position of vice-kapellmeister offered to him by Prince Paul Anton Esterházy. The composer arrived at the princely estate of Eisenstadt in May 1761 and remained in the service of the Esterházy family for 45 years.

In 1762, Prince Paul Anton died; his brother Miklos “The Magnificent” became his successor - at this time the Esterhazy family became famous throughout Europe for its patronage of the arts and artists. In 1766, Miklos rebuilt the family hunting house into a luxurious palace, one of the richest in Europe. Eszterhaza, the prince's new residence, was called the “Hungarian Versailles”; among other things, there was a real Opera theatre with 500 seats and a marionette theater (for which Haydn composed operas). In the presence of the owner, concerts and theatrical performances were given every evening.

Haydn and all the musicians of the chapel had no right to leave Eszterhaza while the prince himself was there, and none of them, with the exception of Haydn and the orchestra conductor, violinist L. Tomasini, were allowed to bring their families to the palace. It so happened that in 1772 the prince stayed in Eszterhaza longer than usual, and the musicians asked Haydn to write a piece that would remind His Highness that it was high time for him to return to Vienna. This is how the famous Farewell Symphony, where in the final movement the orchestra members finish their parts one by one and leave, leaving only two solo violins on stage (these parts were played by Haydn and Tomasini). The prince looked with surprise as his bandmaster and conductor put out the candles and headed for the exit, but he understood the hint, and the next morning everything was ready to leave for the capital.

Years of glory.

Gradually, Haydn's fame began to spread throughout Europe, which was facilitated by the activities of Viennese companies that were engaged in copying notes and selling their products throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austrian monasteries also did a lot to spread Haydn’s music; copies of various of his works are kept in a number of monastic libraries in Austria and the Czech Republic. Parisian publishers published Haydn's works without the author's consent. The composer himself, in most cases, was not at all aware of these pirated publications and, of course, did not receive any profit from them.

In the 1770s, opera performances in Eszterháza gradually developed into permanent opera seasons; their repertoire, which consisted mainly of operas Italian authors, learned and performed under the direction of Haydn. From time to time he composed his own operas: one of them, Lunar world based on the play by C. Goldoni ( Il mondo della luna, 1777), was resumed with great success in 1959.

Haydn spent the winter months in Vienna, where he met and became friends with Mozart; they admired each other, and neither of them allowed anyone to speak ill of their friend. In 1785, Mozart dedicated six magnificent string quartets to Haydn, and once at a quartet meeting held in Mozart’s apartment, Haydn told Wolfgang’s father, Leopold Mozart, that his son was “the greatest of composers” whom he, Haydn, knew from reviews or personally. Mozart and Haydn enriched each other creatively in many ways, and their friendship is one of the most fruitful unions in the history of music.

In 1790, Prince Miklos died, and for some time Haydn received freedom of movement. Subsequently, Prince Anton Esterházy, Miklós's heir and new owner Haydn, not having any particular love for music, disbanded the orchestra altogether. Having learned about the death of Miklos, I.P. Zalomon, a German by birth, who worked in England and achieved success there great success in organizing concerts, he hastened to arrive in Vienna and conclude a contract with Haydn.

English publishers and impresarios had long tried to invite the composer to the English capital, but Haydn’s duties as Esterházy’s court conductor did not allow long absences from Austria. Now the composer willingly accepted Zalomon’s offer, especially since he had two lucrative contracts in reserve: to compose an Italian opera for Royal Theater and to compose 12 instrumental compositions for concerts. In fact, Haydn did not begin to compose all 12 plays anew: several nocturnes, previously unknown in England, had been written earlier by order of the Neapolitan king, and the composer also had several new quartets in his portfolio. Thus, for the English concerts of the 1792 season, he wrote only two new symphonies (Nos. 95 and 96) and included several more symphonies in the program that had not yet been performed in London (Nos. 90–92), but were previously composed by order Count d'Ogny from Paris (so-called Paris symphonies).

Haydn and Zalomon arrived in Dover on New Year's Day 1791. In England, Haydn was received with honor everywhere, and the Prince of Wales (the future King George IV) showed him many signs of attention. Zalomon's cycle of Haydn concertos had great success; during the premiere of Symphony No. 96 in March, the slow movement had to be repeated - “a rare case,” as the author noted in a letter home. The composer decided to stay in London for the next season. Haydn composed four new symphonies for him. Among them was the famous symphony Surprise (№ 104, Symphony with timpani strike: in its slow movement, the gentle music is suddenly interrupted by a deafening timpani beat; Haydn allegedly said that he wanted to “make the ladies jump in their chairs”). The composer also composed a wonderful chorus for England Storm (The Storm) on English text And Symphony Concertante (Sinfonia concertante).

On his way home in the summer of 1792, Haydn, passing through Bonn, met L. van Beethoven and took him on as a student; the aging master immediately recognized the scale of the young man’s talent and in 1793 predicted that “he will someday be recognized as one of best musicians Europe, and I will be proud to call myself his teacher." Until January 1794, Haydn lived in Vienna, then went to England and remained there until the summer of 1795: this trip turned out to be no less triumphant than the previous ones. During this time, the composer created his last - and best - six symphonies (Nos. 99–104) and six magnificent quartets (Ops. 71 and 74).

Last years.

After returning from England in 1795, Haydn took his former place at the Esterházy court, where Prince Miklós II now became the ruler. The composer's main responsibility was to compose and learn a new mass every year for the birthday of Princess Maria, Miklos's wife. Thus, the last six Haydn masses were born, including Nelsonovskaya, always and everywhere enjoying special sympathy from the public.

TO last period Haydn's work also includes two large oratorios - world creation (Die Schöpfung) And Seasons (Die Jahreszeiten). During his stay in England, Haydn became acquainted with the work of G.F. Handel, and, apparently, Messiah And Israel in Egypt inspired Haydn to create his own epics choral works. Oratorio world creation was first performed in Vienna in April 1798; Seasons- three years later. Work on the second oratorio seems to have exhausted the master’s strength. Haydn spent his last years in peace and quiet in his cozy home on the outskirts of Vienna, in Gumpendorf (now within the capital). In 1809 Vienna was besieged by Napoleonic troops, and in May they entered the city. Haydn was already very weak; he got out of bed only to play the Austrian national anthem on the clavier, which he himself had composed several years earlier. Haydn died on May 31, 1809.

Formation of style.

Haydn's style is organically connected with the soil on which he grew up - with Vienna, the great Austrian capital, which was for the Old World the same "melting pot" as New York was for the New World: Italian, South German and other traditions were fused here, in uniform style. Viennese composer mid 18th century had several different styles: one – “strict”, intended for masses and other church music: still in it the main role belonged to polyphonic writing; the second is operatic: in it the Italian style prevailed until the time of Mozart; the third is for " street music", represented by the cassation genre, often for two horns and strings or for wind ensemble. Having found himself in this motley world, Haydn quickly created his own style, moreover, the same for all genres, be it a mass or a cantata, a street serenade or keyboard sonata, quartet or symphony. According to stories, Haydn claimed that his greatest influence was C. P. E. Bach, the son of Johann Sebastian: indeed, Haydn’s early sonatas very closely follow the models of the “Hamburg Bach.”

As for Haydn's symphonies, they are firmly connected with the Austrian tradition: their prototypes were the works of G. K. Wagenzeil, F. L. Gassmann, d'Ordognier and, to a lesser extent, M. Monne.

Creation.

Among the most famous works Haydn – world creation And Seasons, epic oratorios in the manner of the late Handel. These works made the author famous in Austria and Germany in to a greater extent, rather than his instrumental opuses.

On the contrary, in England and America (as well as in France) the foundation of Haydn's repertoire is orchestral music, and some of the symphonies are at least the same Symphony with timpani strike- enjoy, deservedly or not, special preference. Others remain popular in England and America London symphonies ; the last of them, No. 12 in D major ( London), is rightfully considered the pinnacle of Haydn's symphonism.

Unfortunately, works of chamber genres are not so well known and loved in our time - perhaps because the practice of home, amateur quartet and ensemble music-making in general is gradually fading away. Professional quartets performing before the “public” are not an environment in which music is performed only for the sake of music itself, but Haydn’s string quartets and piano trios, containing deeply personal, intimate statements of the musician, his deepest thoughts, are intended primarily for performances in an intimate chamber setting among close people, but not at all for virtuosos in ceremonial, cold concert halls.

The twentieth century brought to life Haydn's masses for soloists, choir and orchestra - monumental masterpieces choral genre with complex accompaniment. Although these works have always been fundamental to the church musical repertoire of Vienna, they have never previously spread beyond Austria. Nowadays, however, sound recording has brought these wonderful works, mainly from the late period of the composer's work (1796–1802), to the general public. Among the 14 masses, the most perfect and dramatic is Missa in Angustiis (Mass in times of fear, or Nelson's Mass, composed during the days of the historic victory of the English fleet over the French in the battle of Abukir, 1798).

As for keyboard music, we should especially highlight the late sonatas (Nos. 50–52, dedicated to Theresa Jensen in London), the late keyboard trios (almost all created during the composer’s stay in London) and the exceptionally expressive Andante con variazione in F minor (in the autograph kept in the New York Public Library, this work is called a “sonata”), which appeared in 1793, between Haydn’s two trips to England.

In the genre of the instrumental concerto, Haydn did not become an innovator, and in general he did not feel particularly drawn to it; The most interesting example of a concerto in the composer's work is undoubtedly the trumpet concerto in E-flat major (1796), written for an instrument with valves, a distant predecessor of the modern valve trumpet. Besides late composition, should be called the Cello Concerto in D major (1784) and a series of elegant concertos written for the Neapolitan king Ferdinand IV: they feature two hurdy-gurdies with organ pipes (lira organizzata) - rare instruments that sound like a barrel organ.

The meaning of Haydn's work.

In the 20th century It turned out that Haydn cannot be considered, as previously believed, the father of the symphony. Complete symphonic cycles, including a minuet, were created already in the 1740s; that even earlier, between 1725 and 1730, four symphonies by Albinoni appeared, also with minuets (their manuscripts were found in the German city of Darmstadt). I. Stamitz, who died in 1757, i.e. at the time when Haydn began working in orchestral genres, he was the author of 60 symphonies. Thus, Haydn's historical merit is not in creating the symphony genre, but in summing up and improving what was done by his predecessors. But Haydn can be called the father of the string quartet. Apparently, before Haydn there was no genre that had the following typical features: 1) composition - two violins, viola and cello; 2) four-part (allegro in sonata form, slow part, minuet and finale or allegro, minuet, slow part and finale) or five-part (allegro, minuet, slow part, minuet and finale - options that do not essentially change the form). This model grew out of the divertissement genre as it was cultivated in Vienna in the mid-18th century. There are many five-part divertissements written by different authors around 1750 for different compositions, i.e. for a wind ensemble or for winds and strings (a composition of two horns and strings was especially popular), but so far it has not been possible to discover a cycle for two violins, viola and cello.

Now we know that among the many technical innovations previously attributed to Haydn, most, strictly speaking, are not his discoveries; Haydn's greatness lies rather in the fact that he was able to comprehend, elevate and bring to perfection pre-existing simple forms. I would like to note one technical discovery, mainly due to Haydn personally: this is the form of the rondo sonata, in which the principles of the sonata (exposition, development, reprise) merge with the principles of the rondo (A-B-C-A or A-B-A-C –A–B–A). Most finals in late instrumental compositions Haydn (for example, the finale of Symphony No. 97 in C major) are excellent examples of rondo sonatas. In this way, a clear formal difference was achieved between the two fast movements of the sonata cycle - the first and the final.

Haydn's orchestral writing reveals a gradual weakening of the connection with old technology basso continuo, in which keyboard instrument or the organ filled the sound space with chords and formed a “skeleton” on which other lines of the modest orchestra of those times were superimposed. In Haydn's mature works, basso continuo practically disappears, except, of course, for recitatives in vocal works, where keyboard or organ accompaniment is still necessary. In his treatment of woodwinds and brass, Haydn reveals from the very first steps an innate sense of color; Even in very modest scores, the composer demonstrates an unmistakable flair for choosing orchestral timbres. Written with very limited means, Haydn's symphonies are, as Rimsky-Korsakov put it, orchestrated as well as any other music in Western Europe.

A great master, Haydn tirelessly renewed his language; Together with Mozart and Beethoven, Haydn formed and brought to a rare degree of perfection the style of the so-called. Viennese classicism. The beginnings of this style lie in the Baroque era, and its late period leads directly to the era of Romanticism. Fifty years creative life Haydn filled the deepest stylistic gap - between Bach and Beethoven. In the 19th century all attention was focused on Bach and Beethoven, and at the same time they forgot the giant who managed to build a bridge between these two worlds.