Today it is believed that composer Franz Joseph Haydn set the standard for symphonic works. Symphony is the main genre in his work. Throughout his life, he composed more than one hundred symphonies (among them "Funeral", "Oxford", "Farewell" and so on). Haydn was also the first to introduce German into his secular oratorios.
Childhood and career start
F.J. Haydn was born in the Austrian village of Rorau in 1732. His parents did not have a musical education, but they loved music. They quickly realized that his son had good hearing and vocals. Therefore, Joseph was given to the choir at the local church.
Once, the composer von Reiter arrived in Rorau to find new singers for his chapel. Von Reiter felt great potential in Joseph and invited an eight-year-old boy to the choir of Vienna's largest cathedral. There he comprehended the mastery of singing, the nuances of the compositional structure of certain works, composed songs.
In 1749, when Franz Josef turned sixteen, difficult times came for him. Because of his stubbornness, he lost his job in the choir and he had to earn lessons, playing in different teams on different instruments and so on. Despite material problems, the young man continued his self-education: in his free hours, he studied books useful to himself, invented his own music.
Haydn's composer career went uphill in 1751 - then he staged his opera with the capacious title "Lame Demon". In 1755, Haydn created a piece for string quartet, and then the first symphony.
Kapellmeister service and major achievements in music
The year 1761 became especially important in the composer's biography: he entered into an employment contract with Prince Esterhazy and for three decades served as his bandmaster.
In 1790, the prince dissolved the chapel. Haydn lost his job, but received a significant pension. This allowed him to devote himself entirely to creativity. During this prolific period, Haydn created his best music. In the same 1790 he was invited to London: for seven hundred pounds he performed there as a conductor - he presented his new six symphonies. The success was incredible - at Oxford he was even awarded the title of Doctor of Music.
In the last ten years of his life, Haydn (influenced by another composer - Handel) became interested in choral music - he created several masses and an oratorio. Haydn died at the end of May 1809 in Vienna, which Napoleon’s army then entered. The emperor of France, learning about the death of an outstanding Austrian, ordered to send a special guard to the house where he lived.
