Top 10 facts about Joseph Haydn

By Thomas Hardy – wikimedia

Top 10 facts about Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn was one of the leading classical era composers.  He is credited to numerous symphonies and chamber works that are still performed these days.

He was born in a musical family where his father, Mathias Haydn, played the harp and mother Maria Koller sang melodies. His brother Michael composed music and was relatively famous while his youngest brother Johann sang in church choir of the Esterhazy Court.

At a very young age, Joseph caught the eye of Johann Franc, a school principal and choir director in a church in Hainburg. After much convincing on his special talent and musical potential, his parents allowed Franc to take Joseph to study music.

Joseph not only studied music but also studied Latin, writing, mathematics, and religion. He spent most of his childhood singing in church choirs.

Here are some top 10 facts about Joseph Haydn

1. Haydn joined the Choir at age 5

Joseph Haydn’s voice was quite angelic that he was recruited to the choir at a very young age of 5. He joined the choir school of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.

He also trained his younger brother, Michael, when he joined the choir three years later. This was required of the older boys to train the younger ones.

Joseph left the choir after he turned 18. His beautiful voice had long been overtaken by puberty. In his place, his brother Michael received the attention given to Joseph.

2. Joseph Haydn the freelance Musician

After he left the choir and school, Joseph Haydn took up freelancing in music, teaching and composing. When he turned 21, Joseph met an Italian composer called Nicola Porpora in Vienna.

Porpora hired him as his assistant and trained him as well as introduced him to the aristocratic circles. Joseph proved to be a hard worker and passionate that he soon became a composer.

He got hired in 1757 as a music director for Count Morzin. He wrote 15 symphonies, concertos, piano sonatas and his first two string quartets.

3. Joseph Haydn’s Married life

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Joseph the successful music composer and honest worker, was not quite as successful when it came to his romantic life.

Joseph’s first romantic affair was with Theresa Keller who was his pupil. This relationship did not last long as Theresa left and joined the convent.

He later met and married Maria Anna, Theresa’s older sister. This relationship failed as Maria never showed interest nor supported her husbands’ career. The two lived separately for the most part of their 40-year marriage. They did not have any children.

4. Joseph Haydn’s Talent took him to the Court of the Greats

It is quite obvious that Haydn’s musical career and talent caught many people’s attention from a very young age.

Haydn spent most of his life serving the royal Esterhazy family; he worked for four princes’ among them; Prince Paul II in 1761 and his brother Nicholaus. It was here that his music peaked and spread throughout Europe.

He conducted his own compositions as well as pieces by his contemporaries both at court and in Vienna. His trip to London led to his composition of the imperial anthem for the Austrian Empire whose theme featured in the Quartet in C major op. 76 no. 3.

This piece was inspired by the English version of God save the King.

5. Joseph Haydn was quite Devoted to God

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Haydn composed 14 masses and many operas. He left a permanent mark on the oratorio genre. These were lyrical works that were either secular or sacred and had a dramatic impact.

He attributed his talent and mastery of his work to God. During his failing health, Haydn is quoted to have said: “Not a day passed when I did not fall to my knees and pray to God that he might grant me the strength to finish this work”.

6. Naughty Joseph Haydn Expelled

When Haydn was 13, the boys’ Choir performed for the Empress Maria Theresia outside her Schonbrunn palace. After the performance, Haydn and some of his mates decided to climb the scaffolding. The noise of excited boys caught the empress who ordered them down

Haydn went back on the scaffolding the next day, he was caught and the empress ordered Reutter to punish him severely. Before leaving the choir after puberty, Hayden got mischievous and his actions led him to be expelled from the school. He pulled a prank on one of the choir boys’ by cutting his pigtail. He was publicly punished for the act and sent away.

7. Joseph Haydn was also known as “Papa”

Joseph was nicknamed “Papa” by many people who were fond of him. The nickname came from his care for his often mischievous orchestra musicians who frequently needed saving from trouble while in the court of Prince Esterhazy.

He was very close with Mozart who referred to him as “papa” Haydn. The nickname also came from his status as the “father of the String Quartet”. He was quite respected for his mastery of the symphony and the quartet.

8. The tale behind Haydn’s Farewell Symphony

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Haydn’s mischief did not end in his teenage years. On one occasion during an unexpected extension of the summer concerts while on a tour, Haydn wrote the farewell symphony on behalf of his fellow musicians.

The final adagio movement called for each musician at some point to stop playing, blow a candle and leave the performance.  Two players were left playing, that is Haydn and his concertmaster.

The joke reached Prince Esterhazy who asked them to leave.

9. Joseph Haydn went Back to study Music

After serving the Esterhazy family for almost 29 years, Haydn left for London to study music from English composers. He was fascinated by their large orchestras.

Haydn did not speak a word of English and this did not stop him from learning, he once said that his language (music) is universal. He was 58 at the time and was excited by the new move and the loud chaotic City of London.

He also gave piano lessons to wealthy people such as Rebecca Schroeter, with whom he had a passionate affair. Haydn wrote 12 symphonies and many more other compositions while in England.

10. Joseph Haydn death and Burial

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The news of Haydn’s death saddened many of his friends and fans. The public grieved the loss of the greatest composers. His burial was hurried done quickly in a cemetery in the outskirts of Vienna due to war in Vienna.

Hayden was buried without his head. Curious phrenologists took his head for study, maybe to make try to understand the genius behind Joseph Haydn.

His head was later returned to the Esterhazy estate where the rest of his body laid peacefully.