Haydn,Joseph (1732-1809), Austrian composer, born at the Lower Austrian village of Rohrau, son of a poor wheelwright. At the age of 8 he was sent as a chorister to St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. He was dismissed in 1749, played in street bands and in 1752 wrote music for a comedy, The Crooked Devil. In 1754 he became a servant-pupil of Porpora and the following year was appointed to a country gentleman at Weinzierl, and in 1759, after a precarious period of teaching in Vienna, to another at lukavec.

In 1760 he married a shrewish woman named Keller, from whom he managed to live apart most of the time owing to his appointment to the Esterhazy princes: first at Eisenstadt and afterwards at the palace of Esterhaza. At the latter he formed his own orchestra and wrote symphonies, operas (some for puppets) and some chamber music. He remained musical director there until 1790 and spent most of his life in the country, settling permanently in Vienna only after that date.

He paid 2 visits to London, in 1790-2 and 1794-5, receiving the D.Mus. degree at Oxford in 1791, 104 of his symphonies and over 80 string quartets are preserved, besides vast quantities of other instrumental music, 24 stage works, incidental music for plays, 12 masses, the oratorios The Creation and The Seasons and various other vocal works. The classical forms of the symphony and the string quartet were consolidated mainly by Haydn.

Last Updated on 9th March 2003/I>
By Reg