Franz Joseph Haydn

Born: Rohrau, lower Austria, (baptized April 1), 1732

Died: Vienna, May 31, 1809

Born second of twelve children to a poor but music-loving family, at the age of eight Franz
Joseph was accepted in the choir of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. In 1749, after enduring
nine years at the cathedral, he was turned out when his voice broke. Without money, a job, or a
home, the young man somehow survived by singing, playing the harpsichord where he could,
and teaching, all the time practicing and continuing to study music. He also began composing
and making connections, and was given his first professional position leading the orchestra of a
Count Morzin of Bohemia. His first symphony led to his being engaged in 1761 as orchestra
conductor to the Hungarian Prince Paul Anton Esterházy. Haydn spent thirty years in the
employ of the Esterházys, virtually as a servant, but nevertheless composing some 90
symphonies, two dozen operas, a number of masses, and vast amounts of chamber music. His
fame spread across Europe due to the publication of his music and, almost unknown to him, the
immense popularity of his music set the standard of the musical tastes and techniques of the
next half century. He met the young Mozart in 1781 and the two became close friends and
admirers of the other's music.

When Prince Nicolaus Esterházy died in 1790 (he had succeeded Prince Paul in 1762 and had
retained Haydn's services), Haydn was dismissed by his successor. With a generous pension and
income from publications and pupils, Haydn moved to Vienna. He was invited to London by
impressario J. P. Salomon for a series of concerts. During this visit and a second trip to England,
Haydn composed his last twelve "London" symphonies, his crowning achievements in the genre.
He was also asked to compose an oratorio in the style of Handel. He composed two, and his
music transforms the majesty of the Baroque into that of the early nineteenth century with such
choruses as "The Heavens are Telling" from The Creation, premiered in 1798.

Known today as the "The father of the Symphony and the String quartet", Haydn actually
invented neither, but did develop them into the forms that eventually swept throughout Europe.
Joseph Haydn was evidently an unassuming man who seemingly without effort turned out
literally hundreds of sonatas, quartets, symphonies, operas and concertos during his career. His
music is always extremely well-crafted and seemingly simple and charming, but there are
always flights of fancy and pure jokes amidst the classical veneer. The most famous example is
the "surprise" in the second movement of his Symphony no. 94 in G major, but his humor
can also be heard in the finale of the Symphony no. 82 , nicknamed "the Bear" as the bass
drone and chortling bassoons in the finale conjured images of a dancing bear in the minds of the
symphony's first audiences. Haydn's modernization of the Rococo string quartet turned it into
the intimate form we know, in which all four instruments are treated with equal importance. The
late String Quartet, op. 76 no.3 gives an idea of the melodic elegance found in the 83 quartets
composed by this master of the genre.

By 1802, Haydn, now an old man, felt himself played out. He spent his last years enjoying the
adulation that came his way from all over Europe. When in the spring of 1809, the French under
Napoleon began their destruction of Vienna, Haydn suffered a quick decline and died on May 31.

Franz Schubert
Born: Himmelpfortgrund (Vienna), January 31, 1797

Died: Vienna, November 19, 1828

Schubert's music neatly bridges the Classical and Romantic periods through its use of lovely
melodies, inventive scoring, and nature imagery, wedded to the traditional classical forms while
at the same time expanding them. In his tragically short life, Schubert composed operas,
symphonies, sonatas, masses, chamber music, piano music, and over 600 songs. But regardless
of the genre, his gift for creating beautiful melodies remains almost unsurpassed in music
history.

Schubert's music is also passionate, sometimes even dark, with an emphasis on major/minor
key shifts and adventurous harmonic writing. Outstanding examples of his gift for melody can
be found in the popular Piano Quintet in A major , which includes a set of variations on the tune
of one of his popular songs, and from which it gets its nickname, "The Trout". Although left
unfinished for unknown reasons, Schubert's stirring and beautiful Symphony no. 8 in B minor
remains one of his most often heard and best-loved works.

But it is his songs, or German Lieder, for which Schubert is best known. Through his choice of
beautiful poetry by some of the best writers of the day, his inspired melodies, and his
sometimes elaborate treatment of the piano part, many of Schubert's songs are miniature
masterpieces of poetic and dramatic beauty. His two song cycles (groups of poems by a single
or various authors selected because of thematic content, and usually published together), yield
some of the finest examples of Schubert's Lieder. "Wohin?" from the song cycle, Die schöne
Müllerin (The Fair Maid of the Mill) is an outstanding example of the almost limitless artistry of
this composer. Schubert's Lieder would come to influence the song-writing of many later
composers, including Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Hugo Wolf (1860-1903).