Music History Test 2

• - Born in Rohrau , Austria (now in Hungary )
• - Humble family
• - Father = wheelright, amateur harpist
• - Mother = cook & market inspector
• - FJH studied violin with cousin
• - 1740, scholarship at St. Stephen’s School, Vienna
• - boy soprano in Imperial Choir until voice changed, then earned meager living as accompanist
• - lived in an attic
• - met METASTASIO (Europe’s most popular librettist of the century), mentor to FJH
• - FJH began composing for keyboard & voice

• - 1758: Kapellmeister for his first patron, count Ferdinand Morzin (Vienna & Bohemia)
• - Kapellmeister – in charge of all music in a court
• - FJH’s 1st symphonies written for Morzin

1761, PRINCE PAUL ANTON ESTERHAZY hears FJH’s music, hires FJH away from Morzin

- Esterhazy aristocrats become lifelong patrons for FJH

FJH hired as vice Kapellmeister, but really in charge (head K. was elderly and almost to retirement age

• - CONTRACT PROVISIONS specify duties
• - FJH essentially = servant

- 1762, Paul Anton dies, his successor NICHOLAS, “The Magnificent,” builds Esterhaza


Huge palatial estate, modeled on Versailles with military barracks, chapel, 2 theaters (opera, marionettes), music rooms (=recital halls)

• - Esterhaza was isolated, intended for prince’s hunting
• - But under FJH’s direction, it became a cultural center rivaling Vienna

FJH claimed he “had no choice but to become original” because he was isolated

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (WAM)
• (1756-1791)

• -b. Salzburg, then Bavaria = Germany
• WAM's, Leopold, was a violinist and composer; his patron was an archbishop; pub. treatise on
• violin playing, 1756
• -Leopold taught WAM's sister Maria Anna ("Nannerl"), 4 years older than WAM
• -both were greatest prodigies

• Mozart's Career as a Prodigy
• -Age 4, photographic memory
• -Age 5, composes for clavier; Leopold sacrifices career to promote his children
• -Age 6, plays violin and organ for Bavarian elector, then Austrian Emperor (Munich)
• -Age 7, begins 3 1/2 year tour of Europe's capitals, played for Marie Antoinette, J.C. Bach,
• and King George
• -12 thru 14, composes in serious genre (back in Salzburg)
• -Age 14, WAM tours Italy
• WAM 'steals' Allegri's Miserere from Pope, tested by Padre Martini
• conducts own opera in Milan
• -Goal of all tours (obtain prestigious court appointment) unattained
• -Age 17, FJH's music motivates WAM to work harder
• -Age 22, visits Paris, mother dies there, but WAM still composes many works

• Arguably Western music’s most influential composer, during and after lifetime
• Life and music customarily divided into 3 periods

• Early (1770-1802)
• Middle (1802-1815)
• Late (1815-1827)

• born in Bonn, Germany
• Dutch descent; name = Louis of the Beet Garden
• Grandfather and father were choral musicians at court of Elector Franz Maximilian (early patron)
• LvB 1st studied with father
• then studied with Christian Gottlieb Neefe, university professor, who introduced LvB to music of JS Bach, encouraged improvising
• Prodigy at age 8
• first public performance was at age 8 (father lied and told people he was 6)
• age 12: published first composition (variations), became a court employee
• age 17: plays for WAM in Vienna
• age 20: FJH invites LvB to Vienna
• 1792: LvB moves to Vienna to “receive Mozart’s spirit through Haydn’s hands” (Count Waldstein)
• FJH probably preocuupied
• LvB studied ‘secretly” with others until 1795
• LvB, unlike WAM, had letters of introduction to Viennese aristocrats, who supported him with $$, essential services

Lvb’s early-period music divides into two parts

• 1: Bonn and 1st Vienna comps. = WoO (Werke ohne Opuszahl [Works withough Opus no.])
• 2: Works LvB thought worthy of Op. nos

• birthplace of Beethoven
• one of two cities where Beethoven composed works not worthy of opus numbers

- 1802: following doctor’s advice, LvB spent time in Heiligenstadt, a small, quiet town north of Vienna

• HEILIGENSTADT TESTAMENT (p. 455)
• LvB’s will in form of letter to his brothers
• Acknoledged severe deafness
• Had considered sucicide
• But “his art” held him back

Johann Peter Solomon

• German violinist and impresario (agent)
• living in London since 1781
• promises FJH money and fame if he will visit London
• FJH makes 2 trips (1791 and 1794)

FJH writes 12 London Symphonies, 6 per trip, nos. 93-104

• large orchestra, 80+, brasses, timpani, and clarinets
• FJH and JPS share conducting duties

1974, while FJH in London, Prince Anton dies, Successor, Nicholas II

• persuades FJH to return to service
• but FJH now dictates terms

FJH agrees to write 1 mass per year for Princess Maria’s name day

• FJH’s interests in sacred choral music awakened in London, after he heard Handel’s oratorios
• Oratorio = genre for chorus, orchestra, vocal soloists, (organ if available)

biblical story, operatic techniques



FJH completed 2 oratorios in last decade of his life

birthplace of Haydn

• birthplace of Mozart
• here he composed in serious genre ages 12-14

• Haydn earned a scholarship there at age 8 (1740)
• in Vienna