Franz Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Franz Joseph Haydn was born on March 31, 1732, in the tiny town of Rohrau in Austria. His father was a carpenter who made huge wooden carts and wagon wheels and his mother was a cook. Franz began to study music at the age of 5 and throughout his life he played the harpsichord, piano, organ, and violin. When he was 8, he went to Vienna to sing in the choir at St. Stephen's Cathedral, and to attend the choir school. His younger brother Michael joined him a short time later. Franz could never resist playing a practical joke, which got him in trouble at school. Since his brother Michael was much better behaved, everyone thought he would be the more successful musician. They were wrong!

Haydn became the most famous composer of his time. He helped develop musical forms like the string quartet and the symphony. He’s actually known as the “Father of the String Quartet” and “Father of the Symphony” because of how he developed these genres in the music he wrote. In total, he composed more than 100 symphonies, and more than 80 string quartets. He also wrote many other compositions including operas, masses, songs, and over 150 musical pieces for the piano.

When Haydn first began his career as a musician, he struggled to earn a living as a composer. He eventually got a job with a rich, powerful family named Esterhazy. It was Haydn's job to write music for the Esterhazy princes, and to conduct their orchestra. Haydn composed symphonies, operas, string quartets, and all kinds of other music for performance at the Esterhazy court. Haydn spent over thirty years working as music director for the Esterhazy family and wrote an enormous amount of music while working in that role.

Haydn was also a good businessman and by the end of his life, he was both rich and famous. Music publishing made him and his music famous all over Europe and, after he retired from working for the Esterhazy family, Haydn made two very successful trips to England, where audiences at his concerts treated him like a superstar. Haydn was also a close friend and mentor of Mozart and he was a teacher of Beethoven.

On May 31, 1809, Haydn died peacefully in his sleep, but his memory lives on in his music that is still performed by people all over the world today. The house in which Haydn lived for the last 12 years of his life, in Vienna Austria, has even been persevered as a museum that many people from all over the world come to visit.