(Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)*

Papa Haydn's dead and gone

but his memory lingers on.

When his heart was filled with bliss

he wrote merry tunes like this.

For many of us, music is a passion that begins in childhood.  But can you imagine yourself as a child, having to choose between music and the family you love?  Or having that choice made for you?

            That is what happened to Joseph Haydn at the tender age of six. 

            Haydn’s earliest memories were filled with the sound of singing.  Although his parents had little or no formal musical training, his father Mathias, a wheelwright, played the folk harp and singing was a frequent form of entertainment in the household.  Their three boys sang, too, from a very early age. 

  One day one of Mathias’s cousins, Johann Franck, the choirmaster and schoolteacher in a nearby town, came to visit and noticed the boy playing with a stick, busily bowing an imaginary violin in perfect time to the singing.  He begged permission to take over the boy’s education, arguing that musical training would be a sure-fire way to open the door for Joseph to become a clergyman.  His parents agreed, and six-year-old Joseph went to live with Franck in Hainburg, seven miles away. 

Seven miles was as good as seven hundred in those days.  Joseph Haydn never lived with his family again.  However, there are several documented accounts of Haydn’s father traveling to Vienna to visit him.

Yes, Vienna!  Young Joseph had an incredible boy soprano voice, and by the time he was eight he’d caught the attention of George Reutter, the choir director of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, who offered him a spot in St. Stephen’s choir.  Vienna at the time was the great European capital of music.  This was a great honor and an unequalled opportunity, and the boy was allowed to go.

Haydn spent the next nine years as a member of the choir, where he received some education if not enough to eat.  He was a good-natured and unselfish fellow, but had a mischievous streak, and was fond of playing tricks and practical jokes.  Sometimes this got him into trouble.  Finally he took it too far and cut off a classmate’s pigtail.  Reutter, looking for an excuse to get rid of the boy since his voice had changed, turned him out for good.

Penniless and homeless, Haydn did whatever he could to scrape out a living, including occasional stints as a busker playing the violin with street bands.  Gradually, though, he began to be recognized for his talent.  Eventually he landed a job as vice-Kapellmeister (assistant Director of Music) for the Esterhazy estate.  (The Esterhazys were one of the most powerful and wealthiest families in Austria.)  He was 29 years old.  Five years later he became the principal Kapellmeister, a position he held for the next 30 years.

Back then, the arts were considered skilled trades, much like carpentry or metalworking.  (The concept of the artist as an exalted, creative “free spirit” did not emerge in full until the Romantic period, shortly after Haydn’s death.)  As a court musician, Haydn was kept busy with performances and rehearsals, as well as being required to produce compositions at the whim of his employer.

Fortunately, the Esterhazy princes loved music and appreciated their servant’s talent and abilities.  He was given free rein in his compositions.  As he himself wrote, "My Prince was always satisfied with my works. I not only had the encouragement of constant approval but as conductor of an orchestra I could make experiments, observe what produced an effect and what weakened it, and...improve, alter, make additions, or omissions, and be as bold as I pleased."  

Another notable thing about Haydn’s position was his isolation.  The Esterhazy family spent much of their time on their estate, far from the busy society of Venice.  Haydn, with his friendly, gregarious nature, suffered from the loneliness and isolation.  He missed the company of his musician friends, including the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with whom he shared both mutual admiration and a deep friendship.  However, as was typical of his character, he refused to complain.  Instead, he chose to see it as a blessing:  “I was cut off from the world. There was no one to confuse or torment me, and I was forced to become original.”

No doubt this freedom of expression combined with isolation contributed greatly to Haydn’s genius.  He was an extremely influential composer and helped to develop the Classical style of music.  Haydn defined and developed the sonata form and has come to be known as the “Father of the Symphony” (he wrote 107 of them – one every few months for over thirty years) and the “Father of the String Quartet.”  He was also extraordinarily prolific and composed an astounding variety of works.

Next time you have the chance, take a listen to some of Haydn’s music.  Most likely it will give you a feel for the kind of person he was – positive and good-natured.  It’s no wonder he came to be known as “Papa” Haydn as he got older.  Although he had an unhappy marriage and had no children of his own, he was looked up to almost as a father by many of the musicians who knew him – and he would sometimes intercede for them when they got into trouble!

He never lost his sense of humor, and many of his pieces contain humor and musical jokes.  Probably the most famous of these is his Symphony #94, the “Surprise” Symphony.  Tired of society ladies drifting off to sleep during his performances, he crafted a soft peaceful passage in the second movement, suddenly punctuated by a very loud chord.  “That will make the ladies scream,” he quipped. 

The great composer died at the age of 77 shortly after a Napoleonic invasion of Vienna.  Typically, his concern was for those around him – some of his last words were an attempt to comfort his servants at the sound of cannon fire:  "My children, have no fear, for where Haydn is, no harm can fall."

*Haydn never actually used the name “Franz.”  Increasingly, music historians, publishers and others refer to him simply as “Joseph Haydn.”