Francis Joseph, a celebrated musical composer, was born at Rohrau, a small town fifteen leagues distant from Vienna, in the year 1732. His father was a cartwright, and his mother, before her marriage, had been cook in the family of Count Harrach, the lord of the village. Haydn's father had a fine tenor voice, and played a little on the harp. On holidays, after church, he used to accompany his wife whilst she sang; and, when only five years old, Haydn was wont to stand by his parents, and join the concert in his own way, with two pieces of wood, one of which served for a violin, and the other for a bow. When loaded with years and honours, the great symphonist would often recall the music of this domestic performance; so deep an impression had its simple strains made on his soul. A cousin of the cart-wright, whose name was Frank, a schoolmaster at Haimburg, came to Rohrau one Sunday, and assisted at the trio. He remarked that the child, then scarcely six years old, beat the time with astonishing exactness and precision. This Frank was well acquainted with music, and proposed to his relations to take little Joseph to his house, and teach him. They accepted the offer with joy, hoping to succeed more easily in getting Joseph into holy orders, if he should understand music. Chance brought to Frank's house Reuter, maestro di capella of St Stephen's, the cathedral church of Vienna. He was in quest of children to recruit his choir. The schoolmaster soon proposed his little relation to him; and when he came Reuter gave him a canon to sing at sight. The precision, purity of time, and spirit with which the child executed it, surprised him; but he was more especially charmed with his voice, which was naturally sonorous and delicate. He only remarked that he did not shake, and asked him the reason with a smile. The boy smartly replied, "How should you expect me to shake, when my cousin does not know how to do it himself?" "Come here," said Reuter, "and I will teach you." He then took him between his knees, showed him how he should rapidly bring together two notes, hold his breath, and agitate the palate. The child immediately made a good shake. Reuter, enchanted with the success of his scholar, took a plate of fine cherries, which Frank had ordered for his illustrious brother professor, and emptied them all into the child's pocket. The delight of the young musician may be readily conceived. Haydn often mentioned this anecdote, adding with a smile, that he fancied he had these beautiful cherries in his mouth whenever he happened to shake.

Young Haydn was now placed in the hands of Reuter, and accompanied him to Vienna. Haydn, in afterwards speaking of his studies under this master, said he did not remember to have passed a single day without practising sixteen or eighteen hours daily, and this he did of his own accord, for the children of the choir were not compelled to practise more than two hours. It was by this unwearyed assiduity, aided by the inspirations of his genius, that Haydn, almost in the dawn of life, laid the foundation of his future eminence.

Mozart at twelve years of age composed a successful opera; but, less fortunate, Haydn, at thirteen, produced a mass, which his worthy master ridiculed. Convinced, after comparing his work with the compositions of others, that Reuter was right, and that nature without art was like an eagle unfledged, Haydn resolved to apply himself to the study of counterpoint. But Reuter did not teach composition; and none of the masters in Vienna were so generous as to instruct an unknown and unpatronised boy. But to this misfortune Haydn perhaps is indebted for his originality. Under a master he might have avoided some of the errors he has fallen into when he subsequently wrote for the church and for the theatre; but, upon the whole, he would certainly have been less original. He purchased the theoretical works of Mattheson, Fux, Emanuel Bach, and Kirberg, which he studied most assiduously, labouring alone, and exercising every scientific intricacy; and so great was the pleasure he experienced in his pursuits, that, poor as he was, shivering with cold, and oppressed with sleep, seated by the side of an old worn out harpsichord, he declared himself never to have been happier at any period of his life.

At eighteen Haydn's voice broke, and he left the class of sopranis at St Stephen's. Obliged to seek for a lodging, chance threw him in the way of a poor periuke-maker named Keller, who received him as a son. Haydn, in the quiet obscurity of his new dwelling, was enabled to pursue his studies without interruption. His residence here had, however, a fatal influence on his future fortune. Keller had two daughters, and his wife and he arranged that one of them should marry Haydn, who, absorbed in his studies, and thinking little about love, made no objection to the proposal. He adhered to his engagement honourably in after life, but the union was an unhappy one.

Haydn now began to compose short sonatas for the piano-forte, which he sold at low prices to his few female pupils. He also wrote minuetts, allemands, and waltzes for the Ridotto. By performing in concert with two of his friends a serenade in the streets, he attracted the attention of Curtz, the director of the theatre of Carinthia, who employed him to write music, which was performed with the happiest success. But Haydn's talent was not for the stage, and he chose his own proper ground when in his twentieth year, and produced six trios, which, from their striking originality, at once brought him into notice. Shortly after this he published his first quartett, which every musical amateur soon had by heart. Leaving the house of Keller, Haydn went to lodge with Martinez, and became acquainted with Metastasio the poet, who taught him Italian, and instructed him in the fine arts.

Haydn struggled long against want, but at last his genius brought him into notice, and he received employment from Prince Antony Esterhazy, and his successor Nicholas, for whom Haydn composed a number of pieces for the baryton, an instrument now scarcely ever used. Haydn did not forget his promise to his benefactor Keller; and being now in better circumstances, he married his daughter Ann, from whom he afterwards separated, on account of her bad temper and conduct.

Placed now at the head of a full and excellent orchestra, and attached to the service of a rich patron, Haydn found himself in that happy union of circumstances which gives opportunity to genius to display all its powers. From this moment his life was uniform and fully employed. He rose early in the morning, dressed himself very neatly, and placed himself at a small table by the side of his piano-forte, where the hour of dinner usually found him still seated. In the evening he went to rehearsals, or to the opera which was performed in the prince's palace four times every week. Sometimes, but not often, he devoted a morning to hunting. The little time he had to spare on common days was divided between his friends and Mademoiselle Boselli, a singer of eminence. Such was the course of his life, for more than thirty years; and this can alone account for the prodigious number of his productions in instrumental music, church music, and operas. In fifty years he produced no less than five hundred and twenty-seven instrumental compositions, and in the whole of these pieces he has never copied or imitated himself, but when it was his intention to do so.

Haydn wrote his best music with some labour, not from any want of ideas, but from the extreme delicacy of his taste, which he could with difficulty satisfy. A symphony would sometimes cost him a month, and a mass perhaps two. His manuscripts of one piece sometimes contain passages enough for three or four pieces. But although it seemed labour, it was not so; for he was wont to say that he never felt so happy as when at work. Nothing troubled him till the death of his patron Prince Nicholas, in the year 1789, and the subsequent demise of his favourite Bosseli; circumstances which induced him to come to England, upon the solicitations of Salomon. This musician was about to give concerts in London, and offered Haydn fifty pounds for each performance, which terms he accepted. Haydn was then ninety-nine years old, and he resided in England upwards of a year, and brought out there some of his finest instrumental pieces.

From England Haydn went to Germany, but he returned for a short time in 1794. He was honoured with the diploma of doctor of music by Oxford. He afterwards went to Austria, and did not return again to England. He was in his sixtieth year when he commenced his Creation, to which he devoted two years. When urged to hasten its completion, he calmly said, he had been a long time about it, because he intended it to last a long time. It was finished in 1798, and performed in Vienna with enthusiastic approbation. All Germany rang with its praises; in a few weeks it was printed, and spread over Europe with a rapidity before unheard of. Two years after, he composed his oratorio of the Four Seasons, of which Haydn used to say, "It is not another Creation, and the reason is this: in that oratorio the actors are angels, in the Four Seasons they are peasants." This work terminated his musical career; the labour of it exhausted him, and he complained that he was forced to seek ideas which used to come to him formerly unsought. He wrote, however, subsequently a few quartetts, and arranged nearly three hundred Scotch songs, which produced him about six hundred guineas. At last he grew so weak, that a vertigo seized him the moment he sat down to the piano. He now seldom quitted his house and garden at Grumpendorff, and he became feeble in mind and body. On the morning of the 31st of May 1809 he died, aged seventy-eight years and two months. He was privately interred at Grumpendorff; for Vienna was at that time in the occupation of the French. Haydn's heir was a blacksmith, to whom he left the bulk of his fortune. His manuscripts were purchased by Prince Esterhazy. He left no posterity. Cherubini, Pleyel, Newkomm, and Weigl, may be considered as his disciples.

his symphonies, stands first in the list of the greatest instrumental authors. In sacred music he opened a new path, by which he placed himself on a level with the most celebrated composers for the church. In theatrical music he was least successful. In that department he was only an imitator. His instrumental music consists of chamber symphonies for a greater or less number of instruments, and of symphonies for a full orchestra. The first of these divisions comprehends duets, trios, quartetts, sextetts, octetts, and divertimentos; sonatas, the fantasie, variations, and capricci. In the second are contained the symphonies for the grand orchestra, concertos for different instruments, serenades, and marches.

The allegros of his symphonies are in general full of life and spirit. They generally begin with a short, easy, and intelligible theme. Gradually, and by a procedure full of genius, this theme, repeated by the different instruments, acquires a character of mingled heroism and gaiety. There is more variety in the slow movements; in these the lofty style is majestically displayed. The phrases or musical ideas in his andantes and adagios are finely and nobly developed. Sometimes the composer is carried away by his copiousness and power; but this excess of vigour does not exclude passion and sentiment. His minuets are admirable, being rich in harmony and accumulated beauties. The general character of Haydn's instrumental music is that of romantic imagination. "Haydn," says Carpani, "è l'Ariosto della musica. Passeggia il suo genio per tutte le regioni dell' arte. La sua immaginazione apre i tesori d'ogni bellezza, e ne dispone a sua voglia." As a composer of symphonies and quartetts, he may be considered as the first who moulded them into that form which Mozart, Beethoven, and others, have adopted. The famous seven instrumental pieces, called Die Sieben worte des Heylandes am Kreuze, were esteemed by the composer as his best works.

The oratorio of the Creation is replete with grandeur, sublimity, and beauty. The Seasons, with less sentiment and learning than the Creation, is equally admirable as an expressive and delightful composition. The ideal part of Haydn's masses is brilliant and dignified; the style is noble and full of fire. His Agnus Dei is full of tenderness; the Amen and Hallelujahs breathe all the reality of joy; the fugues display all the exultation of an enraptured mind. (Le Haydine de Carpani.)