HAYDN, JOSEPH. – Musician, born at Rohrau (Lower Austria) on 31 March 1732, died in Vienna on 31 May 1809. Having entered in 1745 as a choirboy in the choir of St. Stephen’s in Vienna, he was obliged to leave it in ’49 when his voice changed; years of poverty followed, during which the young H. managed to continue his studies, while earning his living by playing in orchestras and for nighttime serenades.
Introduced by Metastasio to Niccolò Porpora, he received from the latter some advice on composition; he subsequently entered the service of the cavalier von Fürnberg, and then of Count Morzin. His circumstances improved when, in 1766, he was engaged by Prince Esterházy as deputy director and, after some years, as sole director of the musical chapel; he remained in this office for twenty-five years. In 1790–92 he was in England for a series of concerts that met with great success, as is also attested by the conferral of the degree of Doctor of Music by the University of Oxford; after a second stay in England (1794), his financial independence was secured, enabling him to spend in tranquillity the final years of his industrious existence.
H.’s renown rests chiefly on his instrumental music, which, in its various forms, was soon recognized as a model of classical balance. In addition to numerous compositions for various instruments, his most original work is to be found in the symphonies and quartets, in which thematic development emerges as the most characteristic element of the new instrumental style. While his theatrical output, composed occasionally for festivities at the Esterházy household, may be considered secondary, his religious production is instead highly significant; twelve Masses have survived (the six final and more important ones, written from 1796 to 1802), two Te Deums, a Stabat Mater, and a Requiem, as well as numerous cantatas. In 1775 he composed the oratorio Il ritorno di Tobia, and in 1785 Le sette parole di Cristo sulla Croce (an instrumental composition subsequently reworked with the addition of vocal parts in 1801); but the two final oratorios, La creazione (1798) and Le stagioni (1801), in their broad symphonic-choral conception, sum up the finest qualities of the maestro’s spiritual expression.