Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn by Thomas Hardy (1792).

Franz Joseph Haydn
[n 1]
(/dozf hadn/; German: [jozf hadn] ( listen); 31
March
[1]
1732 31 May 1809), known as Joseph Haydn,
[n 1]
was a prominent and
prolificcomposer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development
of chamber musicsuch as the piano trio
[2]
and his contributions to musical form have
earned him the epithets "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet".
[3]

A lifelong resident of Austria,
[4]
Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for
the wealthy Esterhzy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this
isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it,
"forced to become original".
[5]
At the time of his death, aged 77, he was one of the most
celebrated composers in Europe.
Joseph Haydn was the brother of Michael Haydn himself a highly regarded
composer and Johann Evangelist Haydn, a tenor. He was also a friend of Mozart and
a teacher ofBeethoven.