The Golden Age Of Chamber Music - 1300 Words

Franz Joseph Haydn Down the history of music, the classical era was known as the golden age of chamber music. This chamber style of music was largely established by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Joseph Haydn was one of the most prolific composers amongst the first Viennese schools (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven), in the classical era. Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, a little Austrian village not far from Hainburg in the year 1732 on March 31st. His parents were of a poor background but loved music and hard work, maybe it is to say Haydn got his working ethics from the teachings of his parents. Haydn had always been exposed to†¦show more content†¦At the cathedral, he was taught to sing and play the violin and the piano. He was also taught other school studies like Religion, Latin, Writing and Arithmetic. Unfortunately, he was dismissed from the choir with reason being that his voice sounded terrible along with the coming years. Nevertheless, He was still hardworking and industrious and sought to seek help from people like Metastasio, (a poet) and Nicholas Porpora, (his singing master) who taught him how to compose music. Haydn was becoming famous and later got to meet Gluck, (the opera composer), Wolfgang Mozart and his father Leopold Mozart. Later on, Haydn attracted the attention of the music loving aristocracy of Vienna. At the age of 29, he was invited to become the music director (or vice-capellmeister as it was called) to the family known as the Esterhazys of a great man, Prince Paul Nicolaus Esterhazy. They were a wealthy Hungarian family known for their patronage of the arts. This was otherwise known as the patronage system which was famous during the classical period whereby kings, popes and the wealthy provided support and privileges to musicians or artists; in return, they create more music or art for their sponsors (patrons). Haydn had in possession an orchestra, an opera company, a