worked for the Esterházy family as Kapellmeister
was known to be kind and friendly but didn't have many friends
worked mainly on his own composing
personal life contained marital struggles
was invited to travel but the Esterhazy's didn't allow to go
went to England after Esterhazy's successor came
wrote 3 oratorios, large-scale religious vocal pieces, 12 smaller-scale religious works, 14 masses, 1 cantata, 1 madrigal, over 40 canons, 13 part songs, and a choral setting of Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze