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while Bach was a reference point for almost every composer after him, he represents an end of an era

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Haydn

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chronologically, Haydn marks a new beginning

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father of the forms that came to dominate the classical era

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we see the place of the composer in society undergo an evolution

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Haydn was born in 1732, 18 years old at the time of Bach's death

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from 1761, employed as Kapellmeister by the Esterhazys, one of the wealthiest families in Austro-Hungary (Slovakia)

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later positions with this name run the musical life of the court

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for 18 years Haydn did as told by the Esterhazy family

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wrote what he was told to write, performed what he was told to perform, and played music with the members of the aristocracy

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1779 given permission by the Esterhazys to create his own music

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this was a dramatic shift in the history of music

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no one to this point had considered creative fulfillment to be a significant reason for writing music by people such as Haydn or Bach

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lead up to the French revolution

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relations between the classes was evolving rapidly

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could have been the principal cause with a combination of the respect he had earned

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from the moment he is given freedom to create, his expressive palette broadens extensively

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Mozart

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we are at 1779 now and this is where Mozart's story becomes interesting

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was only 23, fully mature as a musical composer

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had already written the Jeunehomme Concerto K271, @@HXIZUz5mD18

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some state that Mozart never surpassed this work

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Mozart is not just promising but, alongside Haydn, the greatest active composer in the world

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they knew and liked each other, they were 23 years apart

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Haydn praised Mozart highly

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1785, published a series of six quartets which he dedicated to Haydn

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began career as court composer but began to chafe against the system

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While Haydn accepted his lot of being a musical servant throughout most of his career, Mozart was instantly unhappy under similar circumstances.

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from age 16, employed by Archbishop Colloredo in Salzburg who not only dictated what music he could and couldn't write but what engagements outside of the court he was allowed to accept, and thus in 1777, Mozart resigned from his position without the security of another one.

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The more I read about Beethoven, the more I understand the relationship between the man and the music. But even as I find ever deeply in love with Mozart's music, the man himself remains opaque.

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never reveals himself as Beethoven does in letters, Mozart as a person remains opaque

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wandered around (to Paris) and came back to try to establish more freedom within his position, then resigned again and simultaneously got thrown out

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this "kick in the arse" was a watershed moment in the history of music, classical music's great civil rights moment. It's the first time on record that a composer of note refused to be treated as a servant, the first time a musician left permanent employment without first achieving financial security.

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first years of a free lancer, between 1781-1787, wrote Don Giovanni and more well-received, and established his wish, which Colloredo ignored, to write opera

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he would have been financially secure if he and his wife had not drastically overspent

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the last four years of Mozart's life, from 1788 to 1792, was a mess, he fell out of fashion in Vienna where money was getting scarcer anyway, Mozart's last years were a mix of part-time employment, poverty, ill-health, and general humiliation. Was this a result of his own bad choices or was the world just not ready for a self-sufficient, self-made composer

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Haydn

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1780s working at Esterhazy enjoying his increased freedom

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permitted to publish his music wherever he liked, he became inordinately popular and fantastically productive in the 1780s, e.g. 30 string quartets

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left Esterhazy after 30 years, nearly the entire duration of Mozart's life

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London

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met Beethoven when he was 19 when passing through Bonn

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London was a triumph for Hadyn

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when he came back to 1795 to Europe to stay, he was wealthy

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part-time work for Esterhazy's

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in his old age, he would be carried into performances playing his own music, and at home he had servants

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Haydn's his world very different from Bach's a generation before him

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court system

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many have suggested that the 18th century court system which supported musicians economically, yet confined them creatively, was good for music, but the cases of Haydn and Mozart suggest otherwise, the court system certainly worked for Bach, but Bach was a man beyond comparison: his genius, his mastery, his professionalism, his work ethic were positively freakish. Haydn, on the other hand, wrote fantastic music throughout his career, but the more freedom he enjoyed at Esterhazy, the more inventive his music became: The Creation and his last ten string quartets are all from those years. And Mozart's years of freedom although decidedly mixed both financially and personally, were those in which he produced the vast majority of his greatest music, literally hundreds of works, and particularly in his last four miserable years: three symphonies, the last piano concerto, the clarinet concerto, the clarinet quintet, the last two string quintets, Così fan tutte, and the Requiem. So Haydn and Mozart are examples of composers who were able to produce their greatest and most timeless works once only after freed from the economic support and shackles of court system. Whether or not the court system was good for composers or not, the fact is that by the time Beethoven reaches maturity, it was disappearing as the model for great composers

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quotes:

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"Ironically, Mozart's facility for expressing human emotion in music makes him impossible to know."