HAYDN, MOZART & BEETHOVEN - KINGPINS OF THE CLASSICAL ERA: PART I

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Irene Hundleby

HAYDN, MOZART & BEETHOVEN

KINGPINS OF THE CLASSICAL PERIOD!

FRANZ JOSEF HAYDN (1732 - 1809)

The past few weeks, we have focused on the history, times and music of the CLASSICAL period. In particular we have looked at the compositions and musical careers of Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven.

In the 21st century, we often take for granted that musicians commonly create music for themselves and are involved in advertising and promoting themselves as well as recording and performance organisation. However this was not always the case. The fact that in past centuries musicians commonly survived by working for the Church or aristocracy - is a concept many do not think about. For example, Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809) had a variety of different musician roles throughout his life, however his longest position was working under the patronage of the Esterhazy family for about 50 years!!!! Written into his work contract (yes Haydn had a contract!) were the following duties:

Perform for the Esterhazy court and compose musical works on a daily basis.
Manage all the musicians of the Esterhazy court (and be a role model to them).
Continue to develop his own musical skills in all instruments he plays and keep skills up to par.
Management of all instruments used by musicians: maintain and keep instruments in working order.

Essentially Haydn was a servant of the Esterhazy family, and his freedom as a musician was restricted for the majority of his career as a servant of this family. Until his contract was amended later in his career, Haydn was not allowed to

Compose for anyone else but the Esterhazy family
His compositions were considered the property of the Esterhazy family, no copies were to be made and certainly no commissions or public performances were allowed without the express wishes of Esterhazy family.

By the end of Haydn's career, he was allowed greater freedom and able to accept commissions, sell publications and perform elsewhere, and during this period he was commissioned to write the London Symphonies.

The main work studied for this paper was Haydn's String Quartet No. 62, Op. 76, No. 3 (movement I-IV)

This is movement II of the 'Emperor's String Quartet' and today is most likely familiar to you as Germany's national anthem.

(Please see part II for a little info on Mozart & part III for info on Beethoven).

We have a number of Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven collections available in-store... if you cannot find what you are looking for, please just ask and we will happily find it for you!

Here are a few performances of Haydn compositions that are currently available at RELICS:

HAYDN STRING QUARTETS CD Opus 33