Adventures with Beethoven

Scene Two

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Franz Joseph Haydn was the oldest of this group of four composers who lived in Vienna around the same time. He was born in 1732 in Rohrau, Austria which was near the Hungarian border. His father was a wheelwright and served as the village mayor. Although he couldn’t read music, Haydn’s father was an amateur musician and taught himself to play the harp. Although neither parent had any formal musical training, the Haydn household was filled with music as the family sang and played together. At an early age, Haydn showed musical talent and his parents realized that he could not receive the training he needed in their small village. At age six, Haydn moved in with a relative who was a school and choir master in another town, Hainburg, to start his musical training. Haydn never lived with his parents again.

Haydn began learning the harpsichord and the violin and sang in the local choir. He apparently had an excellent singing voice. When Georg von Reutter, the music director for St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna was in Hainburg, Haydn auditioned to become a chorister at the cathedral and was accepted. A few months later, Haydn, only eight years old at the time, moved to Vienna to join the cathedral choir. Haydn lived with Reutter and his family and four other choirboys in a house next to the cathedral. Haydn’s younger brother, Michael, became a chorister and moved into the home in 1745. Haydn’s education was somewhat well-rounded; he learned Latin and other traditional school subjects, as well as instruction in voice, violin, and harpsichord. Surprisingly, Reutter only taught Haydn two lessons in music theory and composition during his nine years in the cathedral choir. Although he did not receive many formal lessons, Haydn learned a great deal about theory and composition simply by being a part of the choir. By 1749 Haydn’s voice had changed and he was unable to sing the higher parts. Although this might not have been enough for him to be dismissed from the choir, his mischief sealed the deal. Haydn snipped off the pigtail of a fellow chorister. Reutter subsequently caned Haydn, then dismissed him from the choir, which also meant Haydn lost his home. A friend stepped in to give Haydn a place to stay while he tried to find a job as a freelance musician.

Haydn had a hard time finding steady employment, instead working a variety of jobs including music teacher, street musician, and accompanist. During this time he also taught himself the music theory he hadn’t learned before, working through a book of counterpoint and studying the music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Haydn began writing his own music and was recognized for his comic opera, Der krumme Teufel, “The Limping Devil.” Although the opera was initially successful, the government censors found some “offensive remarks” in the work and shut down the production. He had compositions published, although some were copies of works he gave away, preventing him from earning any money. Haydn occasionally worked at the Imperial Court on holidays when extra musicians were needed for balls or for church services. Eventually Haydn’s name became more recognizable and he secured his first patron.

In Vienna, at the time, many musicians made their living through patronage, a system where a person of high status and monetary means would pay the composer for their talents. Usually the composer would have to write works to be performed at their patron’s home, often by the composer themselves. Sometimes the composer would also be required to teach lessons in singing or on an instrument. Haydn’s first patron was Countess Thun for whom he taught singing and keyboard. As Haydn became more well-known he eventually moved up the social ladder until in 1757 he was hired by Count Morzin to be his Kapellmeister, or music director. In his new position, Haydn conducted the orchestra at the count’s home and wrote new music, including his first symphonies, for the group to perform.

The Esterházy family had been part of the Hungarian nobility since the Middle Ages and by the 17th century were one of the largest landowners in the Hungarian portion of the Habsburg empire. Due to their loyalty to the Habsburg dynasty, the patriarch of the Esterházy family was given the inheritable title of count in 1626 and later prince in 1712. The family owned several residences including Esterháza and Eisenstadt. The court employed a number of servants and staff as well as Haydn and other musicians that often travelled with the family between residences.

Haydn began his employment with the Esterházy family in 1761 and became the Kapellmeister in 1766, following the death of his predecessor. Haydn was part of the household staff for the family, wearing a uniform and traveling with the family from estate to estate. Haydn had numerous responsibilities including writing new pieces, rehearsing the orchestra, playing in a chamber ensemble, and staging all the musical performances for the household, including full operas. Although Haydn had a tremendous amount of work, he also had access to his own orchestra and patrons who were supportive and appreciative of Haydn’s work. Although Haydn was often given a large amount of freedom in his musical choices, he did have to make certain concessions for his employer. Prince Nikolaus bought a baryton, a low string instrument which could be bowed but also had a second set of strings that could be plucked, in 1765. As the prince learned to play his new instrument, he commanded Haydn to write new music for the instrument. Over the course of a decade, Haydn wrote almost 200 works for the baryton, mostly trios, for the prince to perform. In 1775 Prince Nikolaus abandoned the baryton and became interested in opera. Previously, the occasional opera performance had taken place at Esterháza; however, now Prince Nikolaus wanted to host a season of operas with productions of several different works each year. Haydn became the music director for this undertaking; he hired and trained singers, rehearsed the orchestra, and led the performances. Some of the operas were by other composers, although Haydn did rewrite arias in some of these works. Haydn wrote new operas for performance as well.

After twenty-eight years with the Esterházy family, Haydn was able to renegotiate his contract in 1799. Under the previous terms, all of Haydn’s compositions were the property of the Esterházy family. However, under this new contract, Haydn retained the right to compose works for other patrons and to sell his compositions to publishers. Soon after Haydn began to write less opera and more symphonies and string quartets, which he was able to sell more readily. Haydn began relationships with several publishers in Austria and other countries and his music was soon widely disseminated throughout Europe. As his compositions spread, commissions began to come in as well, including the Paris symphonies and The Seven Last Words of Christ. Soon he was the best-known composer in Europe, but he was still bound to his contract to serve the Esterházy family.

Haydn was often lonely. Esterháza, where the family was staying most of the time, was twenty-six miles from Vienna. Although that doesn’t sound too far to us today, a carriage or stagecoach could only travel between 20-30 miles a day, perhaps more depending on road conditions, weather, and other factors. Although he couldn’t travel there as often as he would have liked, Haydn corresponded with several close friends there including Maria Anna von Genzinger, the wife of Prince Nikolaus’s physician, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom Haydn had met in 1784. The two composers sometimes played in string quartets together when they were both in Vienna and admired each other greatly. Haydn told many people about Mozart’s talent and Mozart dedicated a set of six string quartets to Haydn. Eventually, Haydn joined the Masonic lodge where Mozart was a member.

Prince Nikolaus died in 1790 and was succeeded by his son, Prince Anton. In order to save money, Anton dismantled most of his father’s musical establishment. Haydn was kept on the family payroll at a reduced salary, 400 florins per year, which was bolstered by a 1,000 florin pension from Prince Nikolaus (approximately $56,000 and $140,000, respectively in equivalent dollars today). Since his duties for the Esterházy family were greatly diminished, Haydn was able to travel. His first trip was to London to conduct a series of concerts that were arranged by the German impresario Johann Peter Salomon. Haydn’s music was extremely popular in England and was published by several different firms there. After saying goodbye to his friends in Vienna, including Mozart, Haydn left for England in December 1790 arriving in England on New Year’s Day 1791. Haydn stayed at Salomon’s home and had a studio available at the Broadwood piano company.

Haydn spent 1791-92 in England and returned in 1794-95. Both trips were a huge financial success, he earned more for one year’s worth of concerts than he had in the previous twenty working for the Esterházy family. Haydn’s concerts were sold out and well-reviewed. He also wrote new pieces, including the Surprise, Military, Drumroll, and London symphonies. There were setbacks during the trip as well. Haydn began an opera, but the theater director could not obtain the necessary license to perform the work. A rival impresario tried to create controversy by setting his own concert series featuring a famous Austrian composer, Haydn’s former student, Ignaz Pleyel. However, the two composers thwarted this effort, spending time together and programing each other’s music on their concerts.

On his way to London in December 1790, Haydn stopped over in Bonn, where he met the young Ludwig van Beethoven on Christmas Day. When Haydn returned to Vienna in 1792, he stopped in Bonn again, seeing Beethoven once more. Shortly after, Beethoven moved to Vienna to study with Haydn. Their lessons together focused on counterpoint. Haydn also critiqued Beethoven’s new compositions. Beethoven learned a lot from Haydn; however Beethoven was not always a good student, he did not do well with authority and didn’t like being told what to do. Even with these challenges, their complicated relationship did not ever suffer a complete breakdown. Haydn and Beethoven admired each other too much, and Beethoven knew it would be bad for his career to publicly feud with the most important living composer.

Haydn thought enough of Beethoven and his talent to take Beethoven to Eisenstadt, one of the Esterházy estates, to introduce Beethoven to Prince Nikolaus. In 1793 Haydn wrote a letter to the Elector in Bonn about Beethoven’s progress, Haydn wrote “in time Beethoven will fill the position of one of the greatest musicians in Europe.” Haydn also expressed the desire to have Beethoven stay in Vienna to continue his studies, and requested more money for Beethoven for him to be able to stay. Haydn also included some of Beethoven’s recent compositions. The Elector responded to Haydn’s letter with disappointment because most of the music had been written while Beethoven was still in Bonn, not in Vienna and reported that Beethoven was receiving more money than he had reported to Haydn. Haydn was probably disappointed in Beethoven’s duplicity, not only had he passed off old compositions as new ones, but he had asked Haydn for a loan, while lying about his financial situation. There are no letters or any other evidence to show what happened between the two composers after this incident. Beethoven remained in Vienna and soon became a popular composer in his own right. Haydn was finishing several new symphonies in preparation for his second trip to London.

Haydn’s second trip to London was as successful as the first. Between 1794-95, his last six symphonies were premiered. One of Haydn’s early biographers, Georg August von Griesinger wrote that Haydn “considered the days spent in England the happiest of his life. He was everywhere appreciated there.” Haydn returned to Vienna in 1795. Prince Anton had died recently and his successor, Prince Nikolaus II wanted to revive the Esterházy musical establishment and asked Haydn to be the Kapellmeister again. Haydn agreed to take the position on a part-time basis, spending the summers at Eisenstadt and completing six musical settings of the mass for the Esterházy family. Haydn spent most of his time in Vienna in the home he had bought with proceeds from his London concerts. He spent his time writing large scale works to be performed in Vienna, including two oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons, both of which were loved by the public. Haydn conducted these works several times to benefit local charities. Haydn also completed instrumental works including the Trumpet Concerto and a series of string quartets, including the Emperor. The theme for the second movement, which Haydn called the “Emperor’s Hymn”, became the national anthem of Austria until World War I and now serves as the national anthem of Germany.

Haydn worked steadily until 1802, when he completed his last major work, his sixth mass for the Esterházy family. Haydn’s health had been failing and by 1803 he was unable to compose due to his physical condition, which included weakness, swollen legs, and dizziness. Haydn was often frustrated because he still had new musical ideas, but he did not have the physical stamina to work on new compositions. Haydn’s health slowly and steadily declined. The Esterházy family employed Haydn as their Kapellmeister until the end of his life, although they did hire a Vice-Kapellmeister, Johann Michael Fuchs, and Konzertmeister (concertmaster), Johann Nepomuk Hummel, to do the actual work. Haydn spent the summer of 1803 in Eisenstadt and conducted his final concert in December of that year, a charity performance of his The Seven Last Words. He still tried to compose new works, completing two movements of his final string quartet in 1805. Haydn still spent hours at his piano, often playing some of his own works.

Haydn’s final public appearance was on March 27, 1808 at a performance of The Creation in his honor, which was attended by Beethoven, Antonio Salieri, other composers, musicians, and members of the nobility. Unfortunately Haydn was exhausted by the emotional performance and had to leave at intermission. Haydn’s last days coincided with Napoleon’s attack on Vienna in May 1809. The fighting was close to his home with bombs rattling his windows. Vienna fell to Napoleon’s forces on May 17th. Haydn was known to the French army and did not come to any harm. One officer came to offer his respects to Haydn and sang an aria from The Creation for Haydn. On May 26th Haydn played the “Emperor’s Hymn” three times. Later that evening he collapsed and took to his bed where he died on May 31st. A memorial service was held June 15 which featured Mozart’s Requiem. He was buried in a local cemetery before being reinterred at Eisenstadt by Prince Nikolaus II in 1820. His skull, however, was stolen by phrenologists, students of a pseudoscience who thought you could learn about a person by the bumps on one’s skull. The skull was finally reunited with the rest of Haydn’s remains in 1954.

Haydn was truly the most influential and famous composer in the early classical period. His form of the symphony and string quartet were adopted as the standard form. He had good relationships with Mozart and Beethoven and influenced their music. The respect was mutual. Haydn apparently referred to Beethoven as der große Mogul, or the big shot, and admired how quickly Beethoven achieved success. Beethoven’s admiration for Haydn grew as he matured as a composer. Beethoven put Haydn on par with Johann Sebastian Bach and Mozart and at the concert in 1809, Beethoven publicly knelt before Haydn and kissed his hand as a sign of respect for the master who had influenced so many.