Joseph Haydn's Life And Accomplishments

Born March 31, 1732 in Rohrau, Austria, a composer by the name of Joseph Haydn would be known as the father of instrumental music by the end of his career. His compositions and style would be one of the few to be recognized within the classical period. Through his music he expressed his thrill of life and beauty, developing the form of strong quartet. This form would be the most vital form within classical chamber music. Besides his development of the string quartet, his collective works would be made up of 17 operas, 68 string quartets, 62 sonatas and 107 symphonies.

Haydn came to know his talents as a musician at the age of six where he was offered to study at the Church of St. Philip and St. James in Hainburg. Thanks to his parents noticing his talents, knowing he would not have a chance to acquire any crucial musical training where they lived, they obtained a proposal. This apprentice proposal came from their relative Johann Matthias, who worked as a school master and choir master in Hainburg. From there Haydn went to live with Franck where he would start his musical training at. Two years later, after grabbing the attention of Georg von Reutter and passing the audition, he received an acceptance into Saint Stephen’s Cathedral

On his own he worked many different jobs, studied counterpoint through the standard textbooks and at times took composition lessons from noted Italian composer, Nicola Porpora. Not only was he a valet-accompanist to him but with Porpora, he would learn what Haydn called, “the true fundamentals of composition.” Briefly within the ten years, he absorbed some knowledge from Baron Karl Josef von Furnberg. Eventually he made progress in learning chamber music, to writing his first string quartets. His reason for writing string quartets is because during the summer of 1757, only three other musicians were on hand when asked to participate in chamber music performances at