Haydn Year 2009
Who is Joseph Haydn? His contemporaries would have found that an easy question to answer: At the time he was the greatest, most famous, and most eminent composer of his era. Today, he has been overshadowed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to whom he was a fatherly friend, and Ludwig van Beethoven, one of his pupils.
But his grandiose lifework, more than 1,200 compositions, definitely makes him a “Master of the Vienna Classic”… Also, many know Haydn as the composer of today’s German national anthem.
Haydn lived toward the end of the Baroque era, at the dawn of a new age; even though he started out in a small Austrian village, he managed to make quite a career for himself, even becoming an Honorary Doctor at Oxford. In Europe, all hell had broken loose: the French were in the middle of a revolution and had beheaded Marie-Antoinette. The English had to look on while their colonies in America broke free and founded the United States. Austria became more modern. Prussia grew. And Napoleon wanted to turn all of Europe upside down.
Joseph Haydn was a very beloved person, esteemed by his contemporaries, diligent, humorous, affable, and a straight shooter who was not spoiled by his steep climb from humble conditions into the highest social circles. He was such a kind mentor that his artist colleagues at Esterházy Palace called him “Papa Haydn.” He was a devout Catholic and, apart from music, was interested in fishing and hunting.
But his grandiose lifework, more than 1,200 compositions, definitely makes him a “Master of the Vienna Classic”… Also, many know Haydn as the composer of today’s German national anthem.
Haydn lived toward the end of the Baroque era, at the dawn of a new age; even though he started out in a small Austrian village, he managed to make quite a career for himself, even becoming an Honorary Doctor at Oxford. In Europe, all hell had broken loose: the French were in the middle of a revolution and had beheaded Marie-Antoinette. The English had to look on while their colonies in America broke free and founded the United States. Austria became more modern. Prussia grew. And Napoleon wanted to turn all of Europe upside down.
Joseph Haydn was a very beloved person, esteemed by his contemporaries, diligent, humorous, affable, and a straight shooter who was not spoiled by his steep climb from humble conditions into the highest social circles. He was such a kind mentor that his artist colleagues at Esterházy Palace called him “Papa Haydn.” He was a devout Catholic and, apart from music, was interested in fishing and hunting.
