Haydn, J.Joseph Haydn (1732～1809)
Austrian composer. Born on March 31, 1732 in Rolau, a village in Lower Austria on the Austrian-Hungarian border, and died in Vienna on May 31, 1809. His father was a wheelwright who had been passed down from generation to generation, and his mother was a kitchen worker in a noble house. The family was poor, and 6 of the 12 children died in infancy. Haydn was the second of the 12 children.
Life: Haydn was influenced by folk music and church music since his childhood by his music-loving parents, and he showed outstanding talent since childhood. He had a beautiful high-pitched voice and could not only imitate and sing every song he heard, but he could also play these melodies on his homemade violin. Haydn's relative J.M. Frank, the choir director of Haynburg Church, took a fancy to him. From then on, the 6-year-old Haydn left his parents forever. He sang masses in the choir of Haynburg Church on the Danube River and learned music theory and common musical instruments. Hapsicord Violin. Schooling was tough, with "more whippings than meals," as he later recalled. Two years later, G. Reuter, the music director of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, went to Hayenburg to look for singers, and Haydn was selected into the choir.
At the age of 17, Haydn was fired for changing his voice, and began a life of poverty and bitterness. To make ends meet, he taught music to several children. A friend found him an attic in Vienna, where he consoled himself with an old Harpsichord. In his later years, he told G.A. Griesinger (the first Haydn biographer) about that period of life: "Whenever I sit next to the old, insect-eaten Hapsicod, I have no envy for the happiest king." Here, he diligently taught himself, practiced keyboard instruments, violin, and studied theory. In 1754, he met N. Porpola, a well-known Italian composer and vocal teacher at the time. Haydn learned composition, Italian and vocal music from him, and at the same time played accompaniment for his vocal lessons and served as a servant.
In 1755, Haydn was invited by Count Fienberg to participate in a quartet evening held at his residence and served as the violinist in the quartet. The following year, Haydn's first "String Quartet in B flat major" came out. After being introduced by Count Fienberg, Haydn applied in 1759 to serve as orchestra conductor and chamber music composer at Count Morzin's mansion in the Czech Republic. During this year, Haydn composed the First Symphony. The following year, Haydn married Anna, the daughter of the Viennese wig merchant J.P. Koehler. After the marriage, the couple did not get along, were estranged for a long time, and ended up without any heirs.
The year 1761 was an important turning point in Haydn's life. Since Count Morzin dismissed the orchestra, Haydn went to Eisenstadt to serve as deputy court music director of Prince P.A. Estaire. , and soon became music director. From 1761 until the disbandment of the band in 1790, Haydn spent the most precious 30 years of his life at the court of Eszterhazy. As a music director in a noble court, he is first of all a slave attached to his master and has to do things according to the prince's will: he creates, manages and conducts the orchestra, trains the singers, and even keeps the instruments and copies the scores. The artistic taste and complicated administrative affairs of the palace limited his rich imagination and creativity; but on the other hand, the palace orchestra, chorus, opera house, puppet theater, etc. provided a variety of writing for his artistic development. Opportunities, and the ability to directly test one's own works, thereby adding, deleting, and revising them for perfection. Most of Haydn's masterpieces were written in the Eszterhazy court, including about 60 symphonies, 40 string quartets, about 30 piano sonatas, 5 masses and 11 operas.
Haydn's reputation gradually grew. In 1764, his works were published in Paris. In 1765, his name appeared for the first time in a British newspaper. When he met W.A. Mozart in 1781, he was already famous in Europe. Haydn, who was nearly fifty years old, established a sincere friendship with Mozart, who was just beginning to show his talent. Mozart considered himself a student of Haydn and claimed that he first learned how to write string quartets from Haydn; he wrote 6 string quartets and dedicated them to Haydn. Haydn also admired and valued Mozart's genius very much. He sincerely recognized Mozart's advantages in opera creation. In Haydn's later works, the influence of Mozart's soft tone and delicate emotional style is also revealed. In the 1980s, Merton reached a period of creative maturity. In 1784, he accepted an invitation from the Paris Religious Concert to write a symphony; in 1785, he wrote the orchestral piece "The Last Seven Words of Christ on the Cross" for the Cathedral of Cadiz in Spain. "Words"; in 1786 he wrote six symphonies for the Paris Olympic Concert. In the same year he wrote some nocturnes and concertos for King Ferdinand IV of Naples.
In 1790, Haydn's life underwent a decisive change. Prince N. Eszterhazy died, and the new prince disbanded the orchestra, but retained Haydn's title of musician and salary. Haydn, who had long been dependent on the aristocracy in work and life, truly began to roam freely in the world of art. He immediately arrived in Vienna. Within a month, he accepted the invitation of violinist J.P. Zalomon, the concert manager in London, England. He arrived in London on the New Year of 1791 and did not return to Vienna until July 1792. From January 1794 to August 1795, he visited London for the second time.
The trip to London formed a strong contrast with the life confined to the aristocratic court in the past.
In London, a metropolis with capitalist social characteristics, the vast number of music listeners demand to hear more profound, novel and rich works. Haydn was busy day and night giving concerts, attending numerous social gatherings and writing new works. Haydn, who is over sixty years old, not only meets the audience's huge demand for his works in terms of quantity, but also surpasses his previous works in terms of quality. Haydn wrote 12 famous "London Symphonies" for Zalomon's concert, forming the peak of his life's creation. These outstanding works aroused the passionate emotions of the London audience, and music lovers all over the UK admired this legendary music master. The upper class of British society paid tribute to him. King George III asked him to stay in the UK. The University of Oxford awarded him a doctorate in music. Haydn was immersed in honor and friendship. The G.F. Handel Memorial Festival was held in Westminster Abbey in May and June of 1791, where Haydn heard "Messiah" and many other masterpieces of Handel for the first time, which deeply moved him.
When he visited London for the first time, he passed by Bonn, where he discovered that the young L. van Beethoven was a genius and expressed his willingness to accept Beethoven as a student. In 1792, Beethoven went to Vienna to become Haydn's teacher. Because the two had very different personalities, the teacher-student relationship did not last long. But Haydn still believed: "...Beethoven will sooner or later enter the list of the greatest European composers, and I will be proud to call myself his teacher..." In August 1795, 63-year-old Haydn returned to Vienna from London for the second time and continued to create. Among the works in his later years, the two oratorios "Genesis" (1796-1798) and "The Four Seasons" (1799-1801) were the most successful.
Haydn, who was famous throughout Europe, was in his twilight years. After 1802, his creative inspiration dried up. However, many cultural societies and societies are proud of Haydn's participation. Haydn was invited to join the Paris Apollo Society, and then became an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Music Lovers Association. Haydn made his last public appearance on March 27, 1808, when Genesis was performed again in Vienna.
On April 9, 1809, Austria declared war on France, and French troops quickly occupied Vienna. On May 31, Haydn died in the war. The remains were buried in Hondesturm Cemetery and in 1820 they were reburied in Eisenstadt's Bergkirche. In 1932, Haydn's mausoleum was built there. The title of his masterpiece is engraved around the skylight of the mausoleum's dome.
Creation The era when Haydn was born coincided with the decline of the Habsburg dynasty and the late Baroque period in cultural history. On the road of life, he experienced the "enlightened despotism" pioneered by Maria Theresa, and when he died, the entire Europe was facing the impact of the French Revolution. This background of the times made Haydn ideologically inclined towards the Enlightenment and the emerging civil class at that time, but he did not understand the revolution.
Haydn likes the familiar themes of daily life and is good at expressing human beings' simple and clear feelings and optimistic beliefs, but he does not like to express people's complex inner conflicts. He attracts people not with drama but with beauty and humor. Joy and hope constitute the temperament of Haydn's art.
Haydn was ostensibly a devout Catholic. He always wrote "In the name of God" at the beginning of each of his manuscripts and always signed "Glory to God" at the end. But his devout belief in God was just following customs, and religion did not play an important role in his thoughts and emotions. In one of his earliest vocal works, the "Minor Mass in F major", the musical theme of the "Lord have mercy" movement is joyful and joyful, and the famous "Mother's Hymn" is full of human touch; and "Christ on the Cross" "The Last Seven Words" is an orchestral piece of 7 movements (solo and chorus were later added). The deepest impression left on people is the scene of simulating an earthquake in the last movement. All these show that Haydn's works are reality-oriented and life-oriented, even in his religious music. He likes fields, forests, fishing and hunting, and his love for nature is no less than that of Mozart and Beethoven.
Symphony Haydn occupies an important position in the history of music, first of all because he is a symphony composer. He is not the originator of the symphony genre. As early as the time of Bach and Handel, there were already people preparing for this field and opening up the way. But Haydn inherited the achievements of his predecessors and established the norms of symphony, so some people call him the "Father of the Symphony".
Haydn composed no fewer than 104 symphonies in his lifetime (some estimates suggest as many as 150). Most of his early symphonies were about life and entertainment, and their form was close to chamber music. Only in the 1870s did it absorb more of the achievements of the North German School of Music, with more profound content and classical style, often both serious and humorous. For example, Symphony No. 45 ("Farewell", 1772) is said to have been composed to prompt the Duke to send the musicians home on leave. Haydn unusually added the slow 5th movement after the presto of the 4th movement. Halfway through the performance, the orchestra members blew out the candles on their music stands one by one and left, leaving only two violins to complete the symphony. Bringing it to a deeply touching conclusion. The "Paris Symphony" created in the 1980s (some say they were written for religious concerts, others said they were 6 written for Olympic concerts, there is no conclusion yet), have richer lyrical tunes, Lively, funny, and the orchestration techniques are more mature.
Among them, the sound of the subtitle in the first movement of "Symphony No. 83" (1785) is like the clucking of a hen, which is called the "Hen" Symphony. The theme of the last movement of "Symphony No. 83" (1786) sounds like a heavy and clumsy bagpipe dance, so it is called "The Bear" Symphony. "Symphony No. 85" (1785) was named "Queen" Symphony because it was loved by the Queen of France. Most of the 12 "London Symphonies" composed by Haydn in his later period have warm and free theme melodies, energetic rhythms, lively and lively country dance materials and simple and exquisite polyphonic processing. Four of them have received nicknames: "Symphony No. 94" ("Astonishment", 1791), "Symphony No. 100" ("Army", 1793-1794), "Symphony No. 101" ("The Clock") , 1793～1794) "Symphony No. 103" ("Drumbeat", 1795). These 12 "London Symphonies" mark the highest achievement of Haydn's symphonies.
Haydn created a new main-key music style of the symphony and developed polyphonic techniques based on functional harmony. He abandoned the restrained and mysterious nature of ancient polyphony and replaced it with a frank and vivid musical language; Haydn perfected the four-movement sonata symphony suite form, making the four movements of the work reflect a unified artistic conception. , expressing all aspects of life, Haydn developed the structure of sonata allegro, and often used introductions that formed a strong contrast with the theme in terms of speed, tonality, etc. The development part has developed significantly, and established the development principle of using short motives to develop. Directly inspired Beethoven.
Haydn established the double-pipe arrangement of the orchestra and the principles of modern orchestration, laying the foundation for the modern symphony orchestra.
Haydn's symphonies have distinctive images that can remind people of many phenomena in daily life. People give his symphonies other names accordingly. Except for a few early works such as "Morning", "Noon" and "Night", Haydn never wrote a title symphony. The above-mentioned titles such as "Hen", "Bear" and "Astonishment", They are all nicknames added by others.
The importance of Haydn's string quartets is second only to his symphonies. He wrote more than 80 string quartets (the last one was unfinished), most of which express joy and enthusiasm. . The more than 10 string quartets written in the 1950s clearly show the influence of classical dance suites in their arrangement of five movements. Starting from "String Quartet 17" (1771), the four-movement format was established, and subsequent works have few exceptions. In some of his string quartet works, he swapped the middle two movements. In 1781, he wrote six pieces of "Russian Quartet" (1781) including "Little Bird" and "Hello" for the Russian Crown Prince Paul, using scherzo instead of minuet as the second movement. Among the six "Sun Quartets" written in 1772, polyphonic elements increased, and three of them ended with complex fugues. Haydn's string quartets began to form the "principle of dialogue", that is, the narrative of the theme is divided into various parts, like a conversation between four people, with polyphony based on the main harmony, which changed the early emphasis on the first The violin part is played, while the other parts are treated into a mechanical state with thin accompaniment. The eight string quartets composed in the 1990s, including "Emperor" (1797) and "Sunrise" (1797), were endowed with more vivid rhythmic vitality, richer harmonic brilliance, and themes with romantic character and strong folk characteristics. , comparable to the "London Symphony".
Sonatas and Concertos Haydn's 52 piano sonatas were mainly written for teaching and personal performance, and most of them are simple and slightly mediocre. Haydn's earliest piano sonatas usually do not use the sonata allegro form and use a minuet in the final movement. Afterwards, Haydn began to imitate the sonatas of C.P.E. Bach, the master of the North German music school. In 1771, Haydn was influenced by the "turbulence movement" and wrote the bold and slightly sad "Sonata in C minor". The final movement did not end with the usual joy, but a violent climax. In the 1980s, Haydn was influenced by Mozart in terms of melody style and structure, and he attached great importance to the achievements of Mozart's piano sonatas. The "Sonata in E flat major" composed between 1789 and 1790 and the last "Sonata in E flat major" of the late period are unrestrained, exciting, with a larger range of emotions, closer to Beethoven's style.
Haydn wrote more than 20 concertos, but this was not Haydn's main area of ??creation. Although "Piano Concerto in D Major" (1784) and "Cello Concerto in D Major" (1783) are still often performed today . Haydn's piano trios, string trios, piano variations, piano fantasies, etc. cannot be compared with his symphonies and string quartets.
Other works Haydn did not write any famous dramatic music. Most of his 18 operas were small comic operas, including "The World in the Moon" (1777), "Eternal Day" (1780), and "Desolate Island" (1779), "Orlando Palladino" (1782), "Almida" (1783), etc. These operas have long been forgotten, and in some cases even the scores cannot be found. They are already being excavated and studied.
Haydn wrote many vocal works, including 8 oratorios and 12 masses, of which the oratorios "Genesis" and "The Four Seasons" created in his later period are the most famous.
The poem "Genesis" is taken from the British poet J. Milton's "Paradise Lost", the 1st and 2nd movements describe God's creation of all things up to human beings, and the 3rd movement describes Adam and Eve living a happy life in paradise on earth. Haydn transformed various phenomena and ecology of nature into musical scenes, including the cooing of doves and the roar of lions, while Adam and Eve sang a harmonious and simple duet. His last masterpiece "Four Seasons" is a purely secular oratorio. The script is adapted from the poem of the same name by the British poet J. Thomson. The four movements symbolizing spring, summer, autumn and winter show the labor and joy of farmers and express their innocence. Simple emotions.
The reason why Haydn's music has immortal value is that it is oriented to reality and life, fresh, energetic and inspiring; and also because it laid the foundation for the symphony of the European classical period in terms of composition technology. The standards of music and chamber music formed the long-lasting fine tradition of German and Austrian music.
Note: The reason why I say Haydn is similar to Beethoven is that they are both people from the 18th century. People in the same century should be similar...