Franz Joseph Haydn was born on March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria. He was the second oldest child of his parents: Mathias and Maria Haydn. Haydn had four siblings: Franziska, Anna Maria, Johann Evangelist, a tenor singer, and Michael, a Classical composer (“...Haydn,” Encyclopedia). Haydn’s father, Mathias, was a wheelwright and his mother, Maria, was a chef at the palace of Count Harrach. Neither of them was musically inclined, although Mathias was found of the harp and taught himself how to play it. Haydn displayed musical skill at a very young age and knew that Rohrau would not allow him to excel, so they sent him to live with Johann Matthias Franck, a relative before he was six years old.
Franck was a schoolmaster and choirmaster in Hainburg
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Haydn became the head Kapellmeister five years later when his boss, Gregor Werner, died. Haydn worked for them for almost thirty years. They were extremely supportive of his goals and enjoyed his pieces. Haydn traveled with them to their three main locations: Eisenstadt, Vienna, and Eszterháza (in Hungary). As Kapellmeister, Haydn was in charge of creating compositions string quartets, symphonies, leading the orchestra, playing chamber music and organizing operas (“...Haydn,” New World). Haydn often traveled with the Esterházy’s and on one of their trips Haydn had the honor of meeting Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They immediately hit it off because they were apart of the same Masonic lodge and developed a close relationship which influenced each other’s future pieces (“Who is Joseph…”). Mozart claimed he learned how to write quartets and dedicated six of them to Haydn (“...Haydn,” …show more content…
His son Anton succeeded the throne. Anton had no interest in music. He halted all musical events and fired all people working musical positions. The only exception was Haydn. He kept him even though he had no work for him to do. This gave time for Haydn to explore other musical avenues (“Who is Joseph…”). Haydn was offered a temporary position by Johann Peter Salomon, a German impresario, to create symphonies for a large orchestra in England. Haydn was there from 1791-1792 (and again in 1794-1795) and had immense success. He produced some of his best works there: the Rider quartet, Gypsy Rondo, Symphony No. 94 (Surprise), Symphony No. 100 (Military), Symphony No. 103 (Drumroll), and Symphony No. 104 (London) (“...Haydn,” New