director) at the Esterházy family’s
rural estate in Hungary, producing
music for twice-weekly concerts.
Isolated from the wider musical
world, Haydn developed his own
particular style. He had a staff of
talented musicians (who referred
to him as “Papa Haydn”) and was
able to both hone his skills and
refine musical forms, such as the
symphony, string quartet, sonata,
and solo concerto. Despite the
remoteness of the Esterházy estate,
news of his music spread to Vienna
and beyond, once it was published.
As Haydn was starting his
career as a court musician, a young
musical prodigy from Salzburg was
being paraded around the courts
and concert halls by his ambitious
father. A precocious genius,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart learned
the elements of the new Classicalstyle as he toured Europe. Realizing
he was not suited to life as a court
musician, he decided to try to earn a
living as a freelance composer—one
of the first to do so—in Vienna. Here
he met Haydn on one of his trips to
the capital from Esterházy, and the
two became friends. Mozart was
inspired to develop his symphonies
and string quartets along the same
lines as Haydn had, but he also
made a living—and a reputation—
as a composer and performer of
piano music. He later became
known as the foremost opera
composer of the period.Enter Beethoven
While Haydn and Mozart were
at the height of their fame in the
1770s, another ambitious father
had aspirations for his gifted son.
Although Ludwig van Beethovendid not make it as a child prodigy,
at the age of 13 he got a job as a
court musician in Bonn and then
became a freelance composer,
performer, and teacher in Vienna.
He settled there in 1792, too late
to meet his hero, Mozart, who had
died the year before, but he took
lessons in composition from Haydn.
Beethoven’s early compositions,
symphonies, piano sonatas,
and chamber music were in the
style established by Haydn and
Mozart but showed signs of a
more passionate temperament
that differed from the Classicism
of his elders. In 1803, Beethoven’s
Third Symphony, the “Eroica,”
extended the form of the symphony,
developing and expanding
expressive musical language and
heralding the beginning of a new
period of musical history. ■1788
1788
1790
1791
1793
1803
Muzio Clementi
publishes his Piano
Sonata in F-Sharp
minor, Op. 25, No. 5,
introducing innovations
to the sonata form.Singspiel reaches
its zenith with
the highly successful
premiere of Mozart’s
The Magic Flute
in Vienna.In London, the Czech
piano virtuoso and
composer Jan Ladislav
Dussek publishes an
influential treatise on
piano playing.Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart composes
Symphony No. 40 in
G minor, the high point
of the symphony in the
Classical period.Inventor of the string
quartet, Joseph Haydn
composes his Opus 54,
three string quartets
whose originality
transforms chamber music.Beethoven releases his
“Eroica” Symphony to
widespread acclaim,
paving the way for
the music of the
Romantic period.CL ASSICAL 1750 –1820 115
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