Haydn

When?

March 31 1732

May 31 1809, age 77

Where?

Rohrau, Austria

Haydn was a

Classical

composer.

Haydn loved putting jokes in his music. In his Symphony No. 94, he didn’t want the audience to fall asleep, so he added a sudden, really loud chord to keep the audience awake!

Like Mozart, Haydn lived and worked during the Classical period, a time when music focused on clear melodies, balance, and order.

Haydn was a kind of musical inventor. He helped create a new musical form called sonata form to organize musical ideas in a piece. This was a new idea in how to put music together!

Haydn was called “Papa Haydn” because he was like a father to many other musicians, He was an amazingly productive composer and wrote more than 100 symphonies!

Haydn was a kind of musical inventor. He helped create a new musical form called sonata form. In this form, you hear musical themes, they get changed and developed, then the themes return in their original form. Sonata form is still used in music today.

He also helped create the string quartet, which is like a mini orchestra. Instead of twenty or more musicians, it uses just four string players.

Haydn spent many years working for a wealthy prince, which meant he always had musicians to write for. Because he lived far from big cities, Haydn had lots of time to experiment and come up with new musical ideas.

Haydn's name is pronounced HIGH-den, as in, "hide 'n seek!"

Fun Facts

Both Maestros

Papa, Can You Hear Me?

Other musicians used to call Haydn “Papa Haydn” because he was like a supportive father to them. He was an amazingly productive composer and wrote more than 100 symphonies!

Both Maestros

Star Pupil

Haydn was one of Beethoven’s teachers. Haydn once told his most famous student, “You will make a great noise in the world.”

Both Maestros

I Wanna Go Home!

One summer, Haydn and the other musicians were staying at his boss’s palace in Hungary, but they were homesick, so Haydn wrote a joke into his “Farewell” Symphony. At one point, the musicians left the stage one by one. This was Haydn’s way of telling the prince they wanted to go home. The very next day, they went home!