Composers of the Classical Period Flashcards
Full name was Franz Joseph Haydn.
Born in Rohrau, Austria on March 31, 1732.
His father was a wheelwright, while his mother worked as a cook for the lords of the village before her marriage.
Joseph Haydn
He displayed unusual musical talent from a young age.
His parents accepted the offer as a chorister at the cathedral and Haydn moved to Vienna in 1740.
He stayed there for nine years until his voice changed
He was expelled from both the choir school and the cathedral choir.
Joseph Haydn
Haydn attempted to support himself with odd musical jobs.
He tried to teach himself music theory through the works of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach.
In 1758, he began working as musical director and composer for count Ferdinand Maximilian von Morzin and most likely wrote his first symphonies for the orchestra there.
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This success in his career found no echoes in his personal life.
He was in an unhappy marriage with a wig maker’s daughter, Maria Anna Keller, whom he married in 1760.
Keller did not understand music and had only disdain for her husband’s work, sometimes even using his sheet music as pastry pan linings.
They had no children.
In 1795, he was invited to return to Vienna as court music director for Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy, where he stayed for the rest of his days, until his peaceful death on May 31, 1809.
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Baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart.
He was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period.
Born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg.
Born to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria Pertl, Mozart is one of only two children who survived into adulthood; the other is his sister, Maria Anna, also known as Nannerl.
Mozart was a true prodigy.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
By age five, was composing musical pieces.
Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood.
At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position.
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It was in London that Mozart met Johann Christian Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach’s youngest son.
Bach deeply influenced the young Mozart and inspired him to write his first symphonies.
The extensive touring had a profound effect on Mozart.
He composed at a staggering pace, churning out thirty-four symphonies, sixteen quartets, five operas, and over a hundred other works, all before he had turned eighteen.
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Mozart moved to Vienna where he lived with his friends, the Webers.
Mozart wrote one of his German operas, Die Entführung Aus Dem Serail, which was met with success.
in 1782, he married Constanze Weber, much to his father’s displeasure.
The two had a happy marriage and had six children, only two of whom survived into adulthood.
Mozart ran into financial trouble, though mostly due to the Mozart family’s mounting expenses than to a lack of salary.
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In 1783, he began looking for Libretti for Italian operas he would like to write, which brought him to a partnership with Lorenzo Da Ponte, a talented poet and librettist.
His collaboration with Da Ponte yielded three of his most enduring Italian operas: Le Nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790).
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1790 was a difficult year for Mozart, and aside from Così fan tutte, he wrote very little.
Though 1791 seemed a promising year for Mozart, with several writing engagements which included Die Zauberflöte and La Clemenza di Tito, he fell ill during his visits to Prague that year, and never quite recovered.
By late November, Mozart was bedridden, and by December 5, had passed away. He was buried in multiple graves, as was the custom in Vienna at the time; his funeral, attended by a small group of friends.
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Beethoven remained in Bonn for the next five years, where he met and impressed Franz Joseph Haydn.
When Haydn saw Beethoven’s score, he was impressed deeply enough to offer to be Beethoven’s teacher.
Beethoven took Haydn up on his offer in 1792 and left Bonn for Vienna, where he was to stay for good.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven made his first appearance in Vienna as a pianist, playing his works, as well as those of Mozart.
He toured Berlin and Prague and held concerts which helped spread his fame throughout the continent.
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Beethoven began to grow deaf.
He continued to live life normally, performing piano music at concerts both public and private, until 1802.
He could no longer deny that his condition was worsening and irreversible.
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His deafness became complete and total, and he only conversed with friends though sketchbooks where they would write down what they wanted to say to him, to which he would reply orally.
His deafness did not hinder him.
Many agree that his best works were composed after he went completely deaf. These included his last five piano sonatas, as well as the Ninth Symphony.
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In 1827, Beethoven contracted pneumonia and never recovered.
He became bedridden, and on March 26, 1827, died of liver cirrhosis in Vienna.
His funeral lasted three days and was attended by over 20,000 people.
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